Getting Robots Right

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Getting Robots Right How to avoid the SIX most damaging mistakes in scaling-up Robotic Process Automation Australian organisations are increasingly turning to Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to improve operational efficiency, productivity, quality and customer satisfaction. It is part of a wider move towards automation – here and around the globe – with 54 percent of Australian organisations reporting cost savings (of 15 percent or more) from automating systems and processes over the past two years.1

54%

of Australian organisations reporting cost savings

Yet RPA remains misunderstood. While most now know that software robots do not come with hydraulic arms and rubber tracks – and while many have dipped a toe with trials and tests – few have experience building large-scale, organisation-wide RPA capabilities. As a result, Australian organisations remain vulnerable to costly mistakes in striving to realise the major productivity outcomes and transformational benefits of RPA.

This article puts the spotlight on the six biggest mistakes that companies make in expanding automation programs, highlighting several practices that can help organisations get large-scale RPA right the first time.

New to RPA? Read our executive primer: RPA in 60 seconds on page 10.

1 Accenture Technology Vision 2016

2 “Moving to digital processes and leveraging automation requires running agile pilots, incorporating learning at speed and focusing on value realisation... scaling off the back of successful pilots.” Jordan Griffiths Managing Director, Accenture Operations

3 Mistake #1 “Robots are the whole solution”

RPA is not substituting one modernisation and innovation in This is why one of the most important ingredient for another. It is part of operations for the next decade and and complex areas of implementing a shift to a whole new recipe. The beyond. Focusing only on short- an automation program is solution term cost reductions will not get design: identifying the high value most transformative benefits come the full benefits of automation. areas, determining which combination from mixing the right combination of capabilities to apply to processes in of RPA tools, process engineering Few processes can be neatly and entirely order to create optimal efficiency. Strong and human talent – all within a automated using an RPA tool alone. solution design should have a broad focus Starting with end to end process thinking long-term shift towards superior from the start, and a long-term plan (and you will often need to use multiple business case) for ongoing improvements experience and greater automation. tools and techniques (including “mini and innovations. As such, software robots should be bots,” natural language processing, data introduced as part of a strategy of analytics, process reengineering, mashups incremental investment in automation, and more). Similarly, to save costs, some analytics and artificial intelligence investment often needs to be made first that will underpin transformation, (e.g. in digitisation) in order to support the right combination of tools.

Mistake #2 “I can do this without involving IT”

Often RPA is driven by core But this is a mistake. A former Head Avoiding this kind of internal wrangling is operations functions – e.g. middle of Back Office Services at a major one reason to bring IT on board as soon office, HR, finance or procurement. telecommunications firm tells how his as possible. But a more fundamental RPA pilot proved so effective it almost reason is to ensure RPA systems are With the best of intentions, there is got him fired. So many transactions were part of IT’s worldview and strategy in sometimes a lack of understanding executed in such a small amount of time terms of security, reliability, scalability, around how RPA will impact the rest it triggered an IT security alert, and he continuity and fault tolerance. This of the business. was escorted to a private room by the will enable the Operations teams to Head of Fraud and Security. drive the productivity outcomes and Robotics tools are also non-invasive transformation benefits fast. (i.e. require no integration to legacy He found the IT team had strong negative applications) and can be installed on preconceptions about RPA, assuming it any desktop. For these reasons, there was built from unsupported macros and is a tendency to think RPA does not “screen scrapers”. The team also viewed need significant involvement from the RPA as unnecessary, given the mature enterprise technology team (IT). Business Process Management System (BPMS) they had developed in-house.

4 Mistake #1 Mistake #3 “Robots are the whole solution” “If I can do one robot, I can do 1,000”

Getting started in RPA is relatively But this straightforward ability to prove Scaling up from piloting then requires a easy. In fact, a great feature of the concept leads many to run before formal structure and operating model, the technology is the ease in they can walk. Implementing one robot centralised control, strong governance, is relatively easy. Implementing hundreds approved business cases and a long-term which organisations can “test and across diverse processes – and integrating road-map. It involves systematically learn” in sandbox environments, automation across the organisation – is rolling smaller projects in a wider program gaining experience without much harder. and delivering benefits in parallel. risking negative impacts. An initial piloting phase would The “go live” phase is often a nine- Completing a centralised, rigorous typically take between one and three to-sixteen month program where program of pilots, tests and reviews is months. A process of wider business implementations are delivered in waves, often critical in satisfying the demands of consultation should be established in according to the roadmap. This formal, board members, investors and regulators. this phase, where different areas can robust, holistic approach is the only But it also places an automation program come forward with ideas to be built way to build a sustainable automation on the right track by increasing the into the program, on what could be capability that reaps the considerable internal knowledge and expertise needed automated in their business areas. benefits of larger scale RPA. to industrialise RPA.

Mistake #2 Mistake #4 “I can do this without involving IT” “Let everyone do their own”

RPA tools are highly flexible, easy Robots can be targeted at the wrong to use, and applicable in several tasks, solutions overlap and a random contexts, across functions and mix of tools and techniques develop – all of which can hamper future scaling. departments. This leads larger Key risk practices can also be applied organisations to let a thousand inconsistently – or missed entirely – flowers bloom, not wanting including business continuity planning, to restrict new innovations, formal maintenance schedules, system and what seems to be, a wide- documentation, IT security protocols, robot inventories and measures to scale efficiency drive. preserve human process knowledge. But from the beginning, automation programs need centralised control and RPA at scale is best achieved within governance. Without it, a tangled mess of a common environment – using isolated projects can ensue. common security, risk and quality standards – under centralised control and governance procedures; minimising risk and maximising learning.

5 Mistake #5 “Robots are ‘set-and-forget”

Just like every other system in RPA programs should be managed an organisation, robots need continuously. New procedures need to to be managed (operationally) be tested and leaders need to be alive to new complexities that could arise. and maintained (technically). Similarly, all changes to underlying We should think of robots systems and technology need to be as true virtual workers. monitored, with changes put through to the “virtual team” accordingly. And just as for human workers, when procedures and rules are updated, a change strategy must ensure robots are tuned, processes kept up to date, systems are aligned and human workers informed.

Mistake #6 “People strategy can come later”

RPA has positive implications for teams to retrained to focus more of employees. The kinds of tasks being their time on these higher value, higher automated are mundane, repetitive, satisfaction tasks. Robot capability also evolves allowing for increasingly high-volume drudgery – parts complex tasks to be automated. These of high-turnover roles filled by new capabilities need to mapped against dissatisfied, disengaged employees revised roles, processes and systems, to who would rather be doing identify and capture further benefits. something more interesting and But this doesn’t happen by itself. Any more valuable to the organisation. RPA plan needs the technology strategy Human brains of course, are more and the people strategy on the same valuable in non-robotic tasks, including page. Failing to do this will, at best, cause creative problem solving, innovation, delays in training, redeployments and personalisation, discretionary decision- team development, and at worst, lead to making, in-depth analysis and human- unrest in employees that feel uncertain to-human communication. RPA allows about their future.

6 Mistake #5 “Robots are ‘set-and-forget” Case Studies

Scale across functions Increased data Higher value work A major, global technology company accuracy A global banking and financial services needed to blend RPA tools with several company recently their procurement third-party tools to automate its Automation is delivering greater efficiency teams to focus on more rewarding, higher financial reporting processes. A tool and accuracy in sales and reporting for a value work. capability assessment and solution global energy company, thanks to optical This implementation used RPA to design allowed the company to develop character recognition in concert with automate invoice processing, a strong, stable system that was automation tools. Over 100 processes non-compliance validation, vendor master rolled out across multiple functions. have been automated seamlessly, without data, catalogue creation/amendments, disrupting existing global process design. contract uploads, vendor on-boarding and Benefits global sourcing. Benefit Reduced processing time by 28 percent, increased in productivity by 40 percent, A 67 percent reduction in the time Benefit halved the number of errors and upskilled needed for journal entry and invoice A more motivated team now delivers new financial analysts to more valuable tasks. processing, increased data accuracy and value and achieves more for the business total annual savings of over AUD$3M. – meanwhile, the initiative has achieved Increased efficiency productivity savings of approximately Improved compliance 20% across the function. An international retailer has used RPA Mistake #6 to drive greater accuracy, improved For a company in the global oil field efficiency and faster invoice processing, service industry, complying with travel “The highest level of validation and query resolution. The and entertainment expense (T&EE) “People strategy can come later” implementation was woven into several policies goes beyond compliance benefits come from different applications to automate a with spending rules – it is also a previously time-consuming, error-prone way to prevent actions that could be mixing the right matching process. interpreted as corrupt practices (e.g. violation of the US Foreign Corrupt combination of RPA tools, Practices Act). Client expense report process engineering and Benefits audits were previously limited to only A 46 percent improvement in efficiency a few sections of the T&EE policy and human talent.” and a 40 percent reduction in transaction provided inadequate data for reporting. handling time. Automating the process allowed for a Vinod Muraleedharan broadening of the scope and expanded the reporting capability - providing Robotics & Automation Practice Scale across regions transparency over non-compliance and Accenture Operations Workflow and analytics automation are flexibility around process changes. bringing significant improvements to finance process at several organisations. Benefits One global technology company has successfully replaced cash allocation A 49% reduction in personal-related processes with an automation solution spending and a 21% increase in that is now being systematically scaled to compliance with T&EE policy. multiple regions. Benefits So far the initiative has generated over AUD$500,000 in cost annual savings and driven the process quality score up to 98.8 percent.

7 Critical Success Factors

Avoiding the six mistakes is about 4. Robot Risk Control getting pre-implementation Robust monitoring and security expectations and strategy correct, governance is critical to ensure all the putting in strong governance of RPA tools and related infrastructure developed across the organisation and ensuring in RPA are compliant with IT security ongoing monitoring, maintenance policies, regulatory provisions and risk and improvement. These imperatives policies across the organisation. are underpinned by six critical success factors: 5. Operating 1. The Automation Governance A comprehensive governance framework Centre of Excellence is essential to execute step-by-step RPA Organisations need a team responsible for implementation, manage organisational automation governance, idea generation, change, update processes, manage service skill development, process assessment and demand fluctuations and communicate organisation wide support. This function with stakeholders. ensures best practice is implemented, projects are not duplicated and reusable 6. Focus on Value RPA tools and resources are developed. Realisation 2. Right Tooling Implementing robotics is about driving operational efficiency, productivity, There are many automation tools on quality, customer satisfaction and more. the market, with different capabilities, Successful robotics programs have a strengths and weaknesses. Organisations relentless focus on the business value need a new kind of capability assessment returned from their robotics investment. and solution design – tailored to automation projects – that maintains updated analysis of various technologies and can optimise the selection of the right tools for the right processes. 3. Structuring the Infrastructure A strong infrastructure support network is needed, with a virtual environment, server hosting and management, product installation and service capabilities to seamlessly support large-scale rollout.

8 This advice is hopefully timely for many organisations. In Australia, FY2016/17 is likely to be a watershed year for RPA, with significant increases in the scale and breadth of implementations. This is being driven by the increasing weight of evidence from successful early adopters – such as the big four banks.

This will soon be followed by an increase in Intelligent Automation – a move up the automation continuum from RPA. Here, the potential to use of unstructured data inputs – and the power of systems that learn from experience – unlocks a wider set of tasks that can be automated. Scaling RPA the right way, will lay the perfect foundation to step up the automation continuum.

9 RPA in 60 seconds: the what, where, why and how

WHAT is RPA? WHERE can you use RPA? 2. Rules-based processing Robotic Process Automation (RPA) RPA is used to process transactions, RPA follows defined rules. Unlike more uses software to complete repetitive, manipulate data, trigger responses intelligent automation, RPA requires a structured, rules-based tasks to automate and communicate with other digital prescribed rule for every eventuality. business processes at scale. In many ways, systems. It is ideal for activities involving Ideal applications can be found in RPA is the office-based equivalent of repetitive, non-subjective, high-volume finance, HR, procurement, supply production-line robots. manual tasks. chain management, customer service/ RPA is part of an automation continuum Two conditions must be met for an RPA experience and hundreds of industry- that starts with simple, local tasks and implementation to be viable: specific business processes (e.g. insurance scales up to enterprise-wide, intelligent claims processing). automation, driven by machine learning 1. Structured inputs and artificial intelligence. The process must involve only structured, digital input (in some cases, other automation tools may be needed to prepare data for processing by software robots).

Artiﬁcial Intelligence Cognitive Robotics/ Virtual Agents

Systems that gain knowledge from data as “experience” and Robotic Process Automation generalize what is learned in upcoming situations. Sense, Automation of transaction and comprehend, act - and learn, work ﬂow activities by handling Natural language dialogue. Uniﬁed Desktops/Mashups input, processing, and output of data across systems. Multiple screens are consolidated into a single view Basic Automation - Minibots for the operator thus saving the time to toggle between screens. Applying technology to Suitable for contact center type manipulate existing application applications. software to complete a processs. Primarily based on XL, AutoHotKey, or Visual Basic.

More proven

Increased “intelligence”

Robotics Spectrum

10 WHY implement RPA? How does RPA There are seven powerful benefits of RPA: transform 1. Accuracy an organisation? RPA reduces the risk of transactional The benefits of RPA are compelling. errors (e.g. incorrect data inputs, missed In combination, they can have a steps, incomplete processes, mistakes in transformative impact on organisations rule-application) and improves overall and accelerate business outcomes without data accuracy. increasing complexity. For example: 2. Speed Customer Experience/ RPA dramatically reduces process cycle time – on average, handling times fall by Satisfaction 40 percent, which can significantly improve Turnaround times are quicker, so outcomes and customer satisfaction. customers are not kept waiting, services are more convenient as 3. Service Continuity operations are processed 24/7 and there is far-smaller risk of a processing Software robots work 24/7, providing mistake impacting a customer. predictability, dependability and continuity of service. Workforce Value 4. Cost Efficiency People are moved from repetitive, monotonous routines to higher-value RPA reduces the cost of transaction tasks that directly impact customer and processing by up to 80 percent. business outcomes. Job satisfaction increases, as staff are able to expand 5. Ease-of-use their skills through more complex and Relative to other forms of automation and challenging work, while organisations get transformation, RPA is easy to implement, more value from their employees. configure and maintain – typically via a simple, intuitive user interface. Risk/Compliance Control Compliance and risk management is 6. Agility improved through error-reduction, Adapting to demand fluctuations is a and more consistent, accurate and key advantage of RPA. Capacity can be configurable application of rules. increased or decreased – almost instantly Robots are also programmable, rather – at a fraction of the cost of traditional than habitual, so rule changes are models. This can be critical in ensuring quicker and easier to implement peak demand does not negatively affect than across a human workforce. customer experience. Analytics and Visibility 7. Scaling Leaders can gain total control and RPA effectively decouples resource visibility over end-to-end processes. costs from process volume. This greatly When processes are automated and simplifies operational scaling, allowing standardised, data capture, structuring organisations to focus resources on other and extraction becomes easier, leading to key areas of expansion, organisational more reliable and valuable analytics. change and capacity increases.

11 Contact About Accenture Vinod Muraleedharan Accenture is a leading global professional Robotics & Automation Practice services company, providing a broad Accenture Operations range of services and solutions in Mobile: +61 436 006 190 strategy, consulting, digital, technology Email: [email protected] and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across Mike Abel more than 40 industries and all business Managing Director functions—underpinned by the world’s Accenture Financial Services largest delivery network—Accenture Mobile: +61 419 997 081 works at the intersection of business Email: [email protected] and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable Jordan Griffiths value for their stakeholders. With Managing Director approximately 384,000 people serving Accenture Operations clients in more than 120 countries, M: +61 418 338 581 Accenture drives innovation to improve Email: [email protected] the way the world works and lives. Russell Ives Visit us at www.accenture.com. Managing Director Accenture Operations ANZ M: +61 40 8754 033 Email: [email protected]

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