As C-suite executives continue to look at automated solutions to make work processes easier and more efficient, robotic process automation (RPA) is quickly becoming a strategy you can’t ignore. Promising to reduce costs, streamline enterprise operations and free up workers to focus on higher value work, RPA looks to be a critical element of the future of enterprise technology.

What exactly is RPA? CIO defines it well: “RPA is an application of technology, governed by business logic and structured inputs, aimed at automating business processes. Using RPA tools, a company can configure software, or a ‘robot,’ to capture and interpret applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other digital systems.” Simply put, RPA can automate mundane or tedious tasks so that humans can focus on more challenging, higher-value tasks.

For mid- to enterprise-size companies, RPA has many uses. Before actually implementing though, it’s important to look at the big picture and decide where and when to leverage RPA. What’s the low-hanging fruit? When making the decision, it’s important to remember that RPA isn’t a panacea—it’s one tool in your toolbelt, and to get the best results, you need to apply it judiciously.

One notable risk of RPA: decisions previously made by humans are automated, so context about how decisions were made can be lost. You should plan for this risk by building robust documentation around your RPA infrastructure as it is implemented.

First, look at your workforce. With the recent transition to hybrid work models, changes in the labor force (and the associated costs) are changing in real-time. And as talent retention and recruitment challenges arise, it’s important to take inventory of your organization’s human capital and explore reskilling and upskilling.

The question many companies exploring RPA have is how to identify the best areas to apply RPA. We see the best implementations largely in network monitoring, remote troubleshooting and resolution, data entry and processing and automated dispatch, among others.

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RPA can unblock processes that bottleneck or are constrained by humans. This is important when there are regular surges of demand that need response, but that might take place in an unpredictable manner. Think about areas in your business where there may be an excessive load, driven by seasonality of the business or a media event that puts pressure on the organization’s infrastructure. RPA can help manage this—usually better than human resources can.

Trading desks, for example, have somewhat predictable trading volumes that are well known and understood. But when a black swan event occurs, and the daily volume increases by 10x or even 100x, it’s a whole new ballgame, and it’s very hard to predict when this type of event will occur. Instead of having excess human capital capacity at the ready, implementing RPA infrastructure can handle the load without high carrying costs or bench time.

The Complex World Of Building RPA Into Home-Grown Solutions

Once a company decides to implement RPA, there’s another big decision to make: do you leverage off-the-shelf tooling, or build a custom solution? Truly, it’s a case-by-case analysis of options that exist for your specific company. Different factors like, is the company’s infrastructure proprietary and custom-built in-house, or is it run on a third party platform? Or the size of the company, and how RPA will actually be used.

The implementation of RPA can be tricky, even more so for those working on a home-grown infrastructure. Most in-house solutions are going to lack any specific RPA capability, requiring it to be built from the ground up.

Custom RPA implementation should focus on a computer-to-computer interface (like APIs) instead of human-to-computer interface because it removes a layer of fragility, and can be significantly more robust. When you have software mimicking human tasks through a human interface, it slows down the potential output because computers can do more and work faster without the constraints of a user interface. One of the biggest pitfalls of an RPA implementation is having a machine using a human interface.

What Are The Next Steps For Implementing RPA In My Business?

Design a robust enterprise-wide strategy for internal APIs built to the same standard as publicly consumable APIs—and then build them. Do it in a way that enables you to extract the human interface completely so you’re relying solely on machines engaging through machine-to-machine interfaces. This layer should be built into your core infrastructure. Think about the API as a commercial service offering, not just an internal tool. You’ll create long-term value and a robust and durable solution that will power the next-generation of investment into your technology platforms.

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