Bringing success to a robotic process automation (RPA) program requires a keen strategy that aligns critical functions around a digital workforce. Establishing a build and delivery methodology, the creation of a Center of Excellence (CoE), establishing a post-production support model and facilitating a solid change management strategy are just a few of the activities that will drive business and IT synergies. 

So, it sounds simple right? Not always. Many organizations focus on one specific area and not the whole picture. This can unleash some unwanted experiences and challenges. Some common lessons learned are:

• Don’t automate a bad process. Remember to ‘optimize’ your processes before you automate them (you may have 20 analysts doing the same process 20 different ways, find the best way and then build your automation).
• Learn to fail fast and fail early. (Yes, it is okay to fail, just learn from it).
• Ensure that you have IT, HR and C-Suite support from the on-set.
• Data structure is key to advancing your program.
• Governance, governance, governance. It may seem boring or unnecessary to discuss governance upfront, but if you get to production without it, trust me you will be having a much different type of discussion. Governance and risk mitigation are very important.
• Have a defined strategy. Know where you are going and why.
• Have a change management plan that is focused on both the technical and human aspects.

To set yourself up for success, and the ability to scale, you should look at all facets of your long-term intelligent automation program. 

How do you move forward? 
An enterprise RPA maturity model is built around the organizational culture of the RPA program. You move through three phases:

1. Initialize - establish capability and pull together experts (the evangelists)
2. Industrialize - replicate, ramp up, federate, centralized, or hybrid models
3. Institutionalize  - RPA is embedded in all work

The key to the long-term success of your RPA capability is to embed the cultural adoption and capability during the initialize phase. Don’t do things ‘half way’ - by following your strategy and taking actions to create strong minimum viable products within each phase you will allow your organization to build and scale successfully.

You might be asking yourself, ‘why is Accenture/Avanade an authority on RPA and intelligent automation?’ Quite simply, we have the experience and technical ability. Accenture/Avanade’s 4,200 business and automation experts have completed over 6,000 automations for more than 350 clients across a range of industries.

In addition, we’ve partnered with automation pioneer Blue Prism to turn RPA into ROI for our clients. Blue Prism's robotic automation software enables business operations to be agile and cost-effective through rapid automation of manual, rules-based, back office administrative processes, reducing cost and improving accuracy by creating a "virtual workforce". We’re also the only IT services company with Blue Prism Certified Training Partner status.

The adoption of your RPA capabilities will allow you to leverage the full power of the Blue Prism Platform – specifically how cognitive, advanced analytics, and machine learning can augment your Blue Prism Digital workforce. 

Go beyond intelligent automation at Blue Prism World 2019 
Want to see intelligent automation in action? We will be showcasing 4 demos at Blue Prism World 2019 in Orlando, FL: 

• Resultant - allows humans to handle business exceptions that Digital Workers cannot
• Know Your Customer (KYC) - an RPA solution that integrates with OCR to extract, validate and assist with customer on-boarding
• The Blue Prism Analytics Tool - provides real-time insights into your automation project via visualizations in Power BI
• Intelligent Help Desk - integrates Microsoft's Cognitive services from Azure with text analytics, API and RPA software

Our Automation CoE experts will be available  to share how we help our clients maximize their intelligent automation value. Stop by booth P7 to discuss how we can make your digital workforce even more productive. 

In addition, attend our special breakout session on May 22 at 9am at the Orlando Convention Center entitled, “Get ‘Un-stuck’ and Maximize Your Automation Value.” Register to reserve your seat now. 

See you at Blue Prism World Orlando!  If you’re not attending, contact me to learn more about intelligent automation and read our joint point of view paper with Blue Prism.