ABeam Consulting Thailand releases insights into maximizing RPA benefits through BPR
ABeam Consulting (Thailand) Ltd., a leading consulting firm recently unveiled a whitepaper on “BPR’s Role in Maximizing RPA Benefits”. Robotics Process Automation or RPA has played significant roles in time and cost reduction, as one of the most popular solutions. However, companies may not gain the full potential benefits by implementing RPA alone.
From ABeam’s survey with 55 Asian multinational Companies (AMNC), over 42% reported that their RPA implementations did not meet their expectations, which aligned with the results observed from around the world. The most common reasons came from improper process selection and implementing RPA for inefficient as-is processes. ABeam’s current solution to maximize RPA benefits is using Business Process Re-Engineering or BPR and in an integrated approach with RPA, before embarking on a full RPA implementation journey.
Ichiro Hara, Managing Director of ABeam Consulting (Thailand) Ltd., a subsidiary of ABeam Consulting Ltd., a global consulting company headquartered in Japan that specializes in digital transformation disclosed that RPA solutions are a top choice to enhance process efficiency and to broaden competitive advantage. However, adopting only RPA solutions may not be the best fit for every case. From ABeam’s experience, there are some challenges which need to be considered before opting for implementing RPA as a stand-alone.
ABeam’s research with AMNCs reported that despite several cases of successful RPA implementations, 42% of companies identified issues and challenges to promote digital organization related organizational goals, which included RPA, as benefits were not derived as initially expected. According to the 2017 Global Intelligent Automation Market Report by The Shared Services and Outsourcing Network (SSON), the top root-cause for this kind of failure came from automating inefficient processes, which accounted for 38% of all reported unsuccessful implementations.
“This root cause leads to many issues including delayed timelines, going over budget, and lower full-time equivalent (FTE) savings than expected. Another root-cause based on ABeam’s experience for RPA implementations is the challenge of selecting proper processes for automation, which means selecting processes for automation that may not result in a positive return on investment (ROI) or overspending on development by trying to automate everything,” said Mr. Hara.
ABeam’s whitepaper on “BPR’s Role in Maximizing RPA Benefits” has provided a simple self-checklist to ensure that a company’s process is suitable for automation. Those self-checklists identify low automation suitability as: No rule-based decision or no pattern, Unstructured data and not readable electronic inputs, Frequent system or Process change, Redundant or Unnecessary processes, High number of exceptional cases which require human judgment, Consisting of more than 500 keystrokes or clicks in activity steps, and use more than 5 different applications. If at least one of the check points is ticked, RPA implementation on its own may not be the right approach for the organization.
To maximize RPA benefits, Business Process Re-Engineering or BPR is recommended to be added into the process. The BPR concept originally focused on reducing costs; however, nowadays BPR has been expanded to have many objectives such as reduce complexity, reduce insignificant value tasks, streamline processes and to enhance competitiveness towards growth and expansion. Based on the expanded horizon of BPR, it can cover many aspects to increase an organization’s ability to adapt to the rapid changes in today’s business landscape, like the new normal workstyle after Covid-19 pandemic and recent digital disruption.
In order to leverage all benefits from both BPR and automation, and avoiding implementation risks, ABeam recommends organizations to use a BPR-RPA integrated approach as a step before doing a full RPA implementation. Considering a proper assessment and process selection will help mitigate the risk of selecting wrong processes for automation. It will also help companies to see if there are any other opportunities to improve their processes beyond a simple RPA implementation. Working this way, companies can avoid automating inefficient processes and help explore if there is any better solution for each individual scenario.
