Top 10 Challenges in Implementing RPA

Projects using robotic process automation (RPA) are difficult to complete. A recent survey found that 69% of RPA programs fail to get traction due to their complexity. Up to 50% of those who are fortunate enough to move on to execution fail. Blueprint, an enterprise automation firm, claims that 63% of business executives are dissatisfied with the speed of their RPA deployment, which only serves to confuse matters further.

Yet, businesses may benefit greatly if they approach their automation initiatives prepared and aware of the potential RPA problems. As the value of the global RPA industryFtr rises, many people are already reaping the benefits of workflow automation services. According to Grand View Research, this market would increase at a CAGR of 32.8% from 2020 to reach $13.74 billion by 2028.

Additionally, COVID-19 greatly accelerated automation despite the difficulties in deploying RPA. Mihir Shukla, co-founder, and CEO of Automation Anywhere used the following example to illustrate the pivotal impact that the pandemic played: at one point during the epidemic, a sizable bank was compelled to update six million loan records right away. Such a large endeavor would take two years to complete without RPA.

In this article, we are discussing why RPA implementations fail and how to succeed from the discouragements mentioned above. Join Softlogic for the Best RPA Training Course in Chennai with Best Practices.

• Lack of IT and Business Alignment

This is one of the main implementation-related issues, according to Deloitte. Organizations tend to divide business and IT responsibilities when beginning automation projects, delaying IT department involvement until after the proof-of-concept stage, which results in irritation and distrust.

The need for IT engagement is emphasized by David Wright, Consulting Partner at Deloitte: “IT is vitally important to the successful implementation of RPA. This was a lesson we discovered early on in the Deloitte RPA implementation. Between customers with an active and supporting IT function and those where IT is less supportive, I’ve seen there is a sizable difference in both pace and cost to deliver.

Solution : The business division might draw attention to the fact that RPA initiatives aim to relieve the workload of IT workers rather than entirely replace the system. Be ready to solve any security issues the IT department may have as well. You may create an RPA competency center with representatives from the business and IT to enable mutual understanding and open communication.

• Lacking Ownership and Inadequate Responsibility Descriptions

Another issue with RPA is that corporations seldom designate a single individual to be in charge of various aspects of an RPA project. Everyone concerned may find this to be perplexing, which will make making decisions more difficult. Employees must comprehend their duties in the new environment once the RPA technology has been introduced.

Solution : For tasks like approving the project’s design, overseeing its execution, and calculating its success rate, it is preferable to state who is in control openly.

• Choosing the Inappropriate Business Case

A company will get just a small benefit from automation if they choose an inappropriate business case.

Solution : Understanding when you need to automate and what you want to accomplish is critical when picking a case for automation. With RPA, you may go in one of two directions:

• Automate labor-intensive processes carried out by expensively skilled personnel so that they may concentrate on work that is more beneficial to the organization.
• Automate simple manual operations so that you won’t need to hire new workers to do them. Your hiring process can be automated using this.

Additionally, take into account all the influencing aspects while estimating the entire RPA expenses. This would include the cost of the automation tool itself, the cost of changing the infrastructure, and the cost of keeping track of and maintaining the processes that have been installed.

• Lack of a Well-Planned RPA Approach

According to Zeeshan Rajan, Senior Manager at PwC, defining an automation strategy is crucial to avoiding RPA errors. What he stated was as follows: “RPA is a technology that is simple to use, but things take time, and an RPA deployment does as well. For the aim of future scaling, a robust foundation must be established. To do this, a solid base with a clear strategy, communication strategies, change management, qualified RPA professionals, and a stable IT infrastructure are just a few examples.

Solution : Every organization has to develop a plan of action before using RPA. You might ponder the following inquiries as you go:

• What goals do we have for the RPA implementation? How can we gauge the outcomes?
• When does it offer a workable solution, and when should additional technologies be taken into account?
• Is RPA a long-term or short-term fix?
• What do we want to achieve in terms of scaling?

• Aiming to Automate the Whole Procedure

Occasionally, it is not possible to automate the entire procedure. Without much work, 70–80% of a process can be automated; nevertheless, the final 20% can result in a five-fold increase in automation expenses.

Solution : Decide it is important to automate the entire process to solve the particular RPA issue. If not, decide which duties are adequate. It is conceivable to integrate RPA tools with AI-based technology in situations when RPA is insufficient but you still want to relieve your human employees of a certain task.

• Not Gaining Benefit from Trustworthy Customised Products in the Market

Numerous off-the-shelf enterprise automation solutions are available. If a trustworthy tool with all the required functionality is already available for licensing, there is no need to create the wheel. The challenges posed by RPA automation can be reduced with the use of suitable ready-made solutions.

Solution : The automation team may assess if pre-made and customized RPA solutions are more appropriate for their situation. Consider reliable off-the-shelf RPA solutions, for instance, if you work in a highly regulated sector and the applicant selection process comprises a set of common traits. But if your process has particular needs, can’t be modified, and involves legacy systems, be prepared to hire a supplier of a custom RPA solution.

• Insufficient Infrastructure

Companies won’t get the expected outcomes if RPA deployment is not supported by a suitable infrastructure.

Solution : Consider the skills your business will want after automation and consider if the present infrastructure can handle all of this as you work to overcome this RPA problem. You are seeking two things in your infrastructure in particular :

• It must have adequate power to execute all of your programs.
• It must run continuously. This is when setting up a failover server will come in handy.

Additionally, check that your system is centrally located, cannot be readily influenced by other forces, and that any upgrades you apply won’t harm your system. We added functionality to highlight all data fields that were successfully transferred for addressing this issue. The script would remove any unflagged data after each interruption caused by Windows updates and continue the migration from the previous flagged item.

• Scaling Difficulties

According to Deloitte, just 3% of the businesses it examined were able to grow their RPA systems, making scaling one of the most significant issues facing RPA. The CTO of a logistics service provider, GlobalTranz, Russ Felker, has direct experience with an RPA scalability difficulty. For a while, GlobalTranz used automation well, but when they tried to grow, things didn’t go as planned. The amazing technology of bots, according to Felker, “has a threshold of diminishing returns from a scaling viewpoint, like any technology,” The bots were unable to keep up as data flow grew.

Solution: Implementing your processes such that they operate independently of one another will help to decrease the hassle associated with scaling. Then, you can grow more easily than by raising the capability of a single bot by increasing the number of bots. Additionally, ensure sure the architecture of your its systems is streamlined and that they are audited after implementation.

Japan is home to one of the most well-known large-scale RPA implementation cases. Together with UiPath, EY, PwC, Deloitte, IBM, and Accenture, the two largest financial institutions in the nation—Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation—rolled out an extensive RPA solution. In the end, 200 separate procedures totaling more than 400,000 hours per year have been effectively automated.

• Utilizing a Third Party

It is best to comprehend how a third-party fit in and whether their engagement with the process is uniform and consistent if the procedures you wish to automate require input from a third party.

Returning to the GlobalTranz example from earlier, the logistics firm encountered its problems while automating a process involving independent truck drivers who had to provide various sorts of papers to the RPA tool, such as delivery evidence. Drivers attempted to hand over paper-based papers rather than use the system, used alternate layouts, and didn’t bother to submit documents in a specific order.

Because of this, bots were unable to handle jobs with such variation, forcing GlobalTranz to keep an eye on their RPA software. As a consequence, bots were unable to handle jobs with this level of variation, and GlobalTranz was forced to monitor and enhance the responsiveness of its RPA software.

Solution: Examine the suggestions that your external stakeholders have made over time. Are they submitting in a consistent manner and sequence? Do they all make the same demands and contributions? Or else, you can think knowing notifying them about the improvements at your company and asking that they act more regularly. In cases when doing so is impractical, you might be able to enhance your RPA by adding more digital tools to handle this sort of volatility.

• Inadequate Maintenance

Organizations may need to modify their RPA technologies to take into account changing rules and business requirements. Monitoring automated processes will enable you to find underlying problems that the RPA team overlooked during deployment, even if there are no obvious changes. Additionally, the bots might become confused and make mistakes if there is even a small modification to the process itself.

Even when a system functions as intended and is left unaltered, it may deteriorate with time. For example, the RPA tool will develop defects, and a database may fill and experience memory overflow.

Solution : Companies must designate a person, such as a process owner, to take ownership of RPA solutions and carry out the following duties to avoid this RPA pitfall:

• Ensure the software is current and that any necessary modifications are being made.
• Maintain the system by deleting temporary files from temporary storage, clearing cache registers, etc. Ideally, all of this would be automated, and the process owner would keep an eye on things and step in as necessary.
• Test the system’s endurance to check if it can maintain a high level of performance over an extended period.

Bottom Essence

Numerous advantages will result from successfully automating the relevant processes, but there are several hurdles to overcome along the way. Here is a list to assist you in getting ready for automation:

• Make sure the IT department is working with the business department on this.
• A project owner should be appointed to manage the automation initiatives.
• Create an RPA plan for the entire organization that highlights your automation goals, assessment criteria, scalability prospects, etc.
• Choose an appropriate automation option that doesn’t rely on highly cognitive activities, is standardized, reliable, commonly used, fault-tolerant, and so on.
• Before automation, properly improve your hiring process.
• If relevant, search the market for a ready-made RPA solution that meets your demands.
• Examine your infrastructure, and if necessary, make adjustments.
• Create a maintenance strategy.
• Identify and resolve RPA security concerns

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