Business Process Automation: 3 Questions to Ask Before You Start—or When You Get Stuck
February 5, 2019
Technologies like Robotic Process Automation (RPA) have fueled an eruption of new efforts to automate business processes or functions—especially those mundane, repetitive tasks that waste human capabilities, creativity, and talent. But realizing a return on investment from real world deployments has proved challenging for many organizations. In fact, a recent survey shows that more than 51% of organizations have stalled or abandoned IT transformation initiatives like Business Process Automation (BPA)—and that statistic goes up to 65% for enterprises with more than 10,000 employees.
So, whether starting the journey, seeking to recapture investment and excitement for stalled projects, or looking to build on early wins, those charged with making business process automation happen in their organization should ask these three questions:
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What is Business Process Automation?
At its essence, business process automation is the creation of a solution—best demonstrated by a one-page visual diagram that aligns understanding, creates a communication bridge, and resolves the business and technological issues that need to be addressed in order to solve the problem(s) within the defined and agreed upon business process.
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How Will You Solve My Problem?
Experienced business automation partners should have both technological expertiseas well an established process and methodology for how they undertake their analysis and recommend solutions to empower your business success. Don’t be afraid to ask what that process and methodology is and how it works.
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What’s the Secret to Success? How Do I Get a Stalled Project Restarted?
Successful business process automation requires a thorough analysis of the system and its stakeholders—and those stakeholders’ concerns. Projects stall when the size or complexity of the system have gotten in the way of the full understanding needed to achieve the desired outcome. Starting with that understanding fuels success for projects at their initiation. Being willing to reassess that understanding and what systems and/or interests may need reconsideration or inclusion is the first step to getting stalled projects restarted—and capturing the return on investment for both new technology spending and legacy system capabilities.
Oleg Polukeyev is a Senior Design Architect with Genus Technologies. Co-Creator of The Genus Way consulting methodology, Oleg’s 30 years of experience make him an expert at connecting process and technology to match complex business objectives. Connect with Oleg or Genus on LinkedIn or send any additional questions you have to: jordank@genusllc.com
