Welcome to the first of our 6-part blog series…”Rebooting RPA”!
Let’s be honest, for many, the RPA market is a mess. Results have been underwhelming, to say the least. RPA vendors are losing money yet simultaneously intent on raising more and more equity to grow market share. Stories of customers success are fewer on the ground than any point in time. Folks are seriously starting to doubt if RPA is all it has been made out to be, and we don’t blame them.
That said, we truly believe in this excellent technology and we want to help. Coincidently, HFS think the same and recently held a Think Tank with 25 thought leaders to write a new RPA manifesto. Great minds and all that!
RPA can play a significant part in your organisations’ digital strategy. It can help unlock value that sets your company apart from your competitors when implemented and scaled correctly. But let’s be clear; RPA is hard to get working for a whole host of reasons and folks are feeling the pain.
Vendors need to focus on the quality of customer’s programs and not the quantity of colourful household name logos they can have on their website. Companies need to get realistic about what is achievable with RPA and not hold vendors accountable for their lack of vision or program support. RPA folk need to be realistic in their wage demands and recognise that demanding £50k or even £70k for a years RPA experience is not sustainable. We, as market professionals, have a duty to help one and other succeed. We cannot and should not Instagram the trials and tribulations that surround the roll-out of any new technology. We have a duty to talk to the hard-won lessons and failures we have all experienced. We all need to get real for the sake of this great technology.
We and a handful of other RPA, Intelligent Automation and AI experts, want to help you get the most from your investment in RPA. If you are an expert or have real-world experience, please reach out to us so we can share your knowledge with the wider community.
We intend to write 6 articles (we may write more if you need us to) to help clear up the fog of confusion and hype that surrounds this excellent technology in order to help you succeed.
Our blog series will begin with the basics. We will explain what RPA is and outline the questions you need to ask BEFORE you invest in RPA and a wider intelligent automation program. We will then talk to the team you need to build (internal and external) to allow you to complete a successful proof of concept/pilot. We will outline how to build a Centre of Expertise on a budget and then discuss how you might scale with RPA, APIs, Artificial Intelligence, OCR and analytics. We will end with a blog on the Future of Work. This body of work is intended to deliver real-world insights to help you deliver a successful RPA program for free.
We’d love to hear your thoughts. Series one ‘Tips and questions to ask when considering RPA’ will be published next week.