With its recent rise in popularity, organizations are eager to incorporate Robotic Process Automation<\/a> (RPA) and other process automation technologies.<\/p>\n This is made easier due to approachable low-code platforms, free community software, and myriad training opportunities. But while many have dabbled, few have successfully taken their programs to maturity. Too often, they don\u2019t even make it past a pilot phase.<\/p>\n There are plenty of resources highlighting the elements of scaled RPA programs, but that\u2019s only part of the picture.<\/strong> How do you actually get there? In this two-part blog series, I will focus on the gradual progression to maturity \u2013 1 to 100 bots \u2013 not just the end goal.<\/p>\n Each organization is different, of course, and the path to success will vary. Still, we\u2019ll outline one possible progression based on our experience and observations. I didn\u2019t intend it as a roadmap but simply a guide to inform your own journey and anticipate challenges.<\/p>\n For part one, we\u2019ll focus on the first 1 to 10 bots.<\/strong><\/p>\n Throughout this story, let\u2019s pretend we work in the IT department of a typical company. We\u2019re growing, looking for ways to optimize our business, and we know that there are process and technology inefficiencies<\/a> everywhere.<\/p>\n Our IT team is tasked with exploring RPA, so we download the community version of a popular RPA tool and start fooling around. After some online training, we pick a simple use case from our finance team\u2019s manual tasks. The finance team has been vocal about needing automation and process improvement, so it makes sense to start there. The goal isn\u2019t to release anything to production, simply to get a proof of concept working and decide if the hype is real.<\/strong><\/p>\n The first bot is basic and doesn\u2019t handle errors, only the \u201chappy path.\u201d We don\u2019t worry about infrastructure, security, or coding to best practices either. Still, we\u2019re new, so it takes longer than estimated to build, it\u2019s not fully production ready and it won\u2019t generate a great return on investment. Nevertheless, we complete the automation and demo it to leaders around the organization. Just seeing the tool in action excites them about RPA\u2019s potential. They can\u2019t wait to expand the capability.<\/p>\n IT Leadership assembles a small team to turn our RPA proof of concept into an actual capability.<\/strong> We call on the leaders wowed by our demo to generate ideas in their departments. Most of their candidates don\u2019t fit RPA \u2013 not surprising since they don\u2019t fully understand the tool yet \u2013 but we end up with promising use cases across two key departments. We start by targeting unattended bots that are easier to manage and run on infrastructure our team directly controls.<\/p>\n Next, we purchase RPA software, selecting a package with just the basics: a few developer licenses, a few robot licenses and an orchestrator command center to manage the platform. With help from our IT infrastructure<\/a> team, we add the necessary servers and install the software. There\u2019s a hefty investment in software and infrastructure now, so we\u2019d better get busy delivering.<\/strong><\/p>\n We hire an RPA developer who can hit the ground running and pull in a business analyst to help with requirements. The team builds out use cases on a shoestring but is able to deliver working bots. We engage functional users to validate the automations, then get help from our IT operations team to deploy them.<\/p>\n After a couple of months, we manage to launch five bots. There are speedbumps along the way, including missed process requirements, long wait times for system access, and not picking the best RPA use cases. Nevertheless, RPA is gaining steam.<\/p>\n With more departments clamoring for automation, the need for structure and governance is clear. No more flying by the seat of our RPA pants \u2013 it\u2019s time for a Center of Excellence<\/a> (COE). We put new automations on the backburner and focus our efforts on key COE elements around intake, governance, delivery and operations. Since we can\u2019t go from 0 to 60 with a small team, we prioritize the items that help us improve immediately:<\/strong><\/p>\n Our biggest challenge is getting a commitment from those outside IT to participate in the full RPA lifecycle<\/a> \u2013 an ongoing struggle we\u2019ll continue to face.<\/strong> And though we still have a long way to go, the future looks bright. The COE emerged before our bots became unmanageable, creating a solid foundation to support what we had while building a backlog of future bots more deliberately. We can also leverage IT resources to support our growing infrastructure and ultimately provide quality service to the business users for whom we\u2019re creating automation.<\/p>\n\n 1 Bot: Proof of Concept<\/h2>\n
5 Bots: Opportunistic Solutions<\/h2>\n
10 Bots: Automation Center of Excellence<\/h2>\n
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