RPA projects are a challenging endeavor. According to a survey that was conducted recently, sixty-nine  per cent of RPA projects fail to take off owing to their complexity, however, the lucky ones which manage to proceed to execution, but unfortunately even fifty per cent of them fail. To further complicate matters, Blueprint, an enterprise automation firm, states that sixty three per cent of business leaders are not satisfied with their Robotic Process Automation implementation speed and PWC's study supports this idea. The consultancy found that conducting an RPA proof of concept or a pilot project often takes four to six months rather than that of the expected timeline such as four to six weeks.

However, if organizations take on their automation projects which are prepared & are aware of the possible Robotic Process Automation challenges, they can reap significant rewards & most of these are already benefiting from workflow automation services since the global Robotic Process Automation market increases in value. As per a recent report by The Grand View Research RPA market is anticipated to reach USD 13.74 billion by 2028.

Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has vastly accelerated automation, in spite of the pitfalls of Robotic Process Automation deployment. In order to highlight the significant role of the pandemic, Mihr Shukla, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Automation Anywhere, stated the following illustration: "At one point during the pandemic, a large bank was forced to update six million loan records immediately. Without RPA, such an enormous task would take two years to accomplish."

Top RPA challenges to address while embarking on your new automation project include the lack of business & IT alignment, lack of ownership & poorly defined responsibilities, absence of a clear RPA strategy, attempting to automate the whole process and Security. Below you will find a detailed rundown of RPA challenges together with possible solutions.

Organizational pitfalls of Robotic Process Automation

Lack of business & IT alignment

According to Deloitte lack of business & IT alignment is one of the major challenges of Robotic Process Automation implementation. When starting with automation, firms begin to separate business as well as Information Technologies responsibilities and delay compromising the Information Technology department till after the POC phase, that leads to frustration & skepticism.

David Wright, Consulting Partner at Deloitte, emphasizes the importance of IT involvement, “IT are absolutely critical to the successful deployment of RPA. This was a lesson we learned early on in our own RPA deployment in Deloitte. I’ve found there is a significant difference in both speed and cost to deliver between clients that have an engaged and supportive IT function and those where IT is less supportive.”

The solution to this can be that business department should highlight the fact that Robotic Process Automation efforts aim to unburden IT staff & not totally replace the system. Furthermore, they should be prepared for addressing any security concerns the Information Technology department may possess. In order to make sure the business as well as the IT can understand each other & communicate freely, organizations can establish a Robotic Process Automation competence center comprising members from both the sides.

Lack of ownership & poorly defined responsibilities

The second challenge of Robotic Process Automation stems from the fact that companies need not  appoint any individual responsible for several parts of an Robotic Process Automation project. Although this would be confusing for all the stake holders involved and will lead to hindering the decision-making process, once the RPA solution is implemented, it is highly essential that the employees understand their roles in the new environment.

The solution to this can be that it is best to explicitly specify who is in charge of several project aspects, that comprise approving the design, monitoring the execution and measuring the success rate of the project.

Absence of a clear RPA strategy

Defining automation strategy is a highly important factor in eliminating RPA pitfalls. Zeeshan Rajan, Senior Manager at PWC stated that, “RPA is a technology that is easy to use, but things take time, and so does an RPA implementation. A sound foundation must be created for the purpose of further scaling, and this requires a solid basis with a defined strategy, communication plans and change management, trained RPA experts and a stable IT infrastructure – just to mention some examples.”

Prior to implementing any Robotic Process Automation solution, every organization should be defining a strategy for guiding the project & in doing so, firms can ask the following questions like what are the objectives for  implementing RPA in our organization? How can the results be measured? When Robotic Process Automation presents a viable solution, & when can other technologies be considered? Also, is Robotic Process Automation a permanent or temporary solution? and lastly what is our aim regarding scaling?

Attempting to automate the entire process

Although it is not feasible to automate the entire process always, seventy to eighty per cent of a process can be automated without much efforts, while the last twenty per cent can increase automation costs 5x. Therefore, before taking this decision the organization should think if they should go the extra mile? and if yes, is it worth the effort?

The solution to overcome this RPA issue, is to determine whether you have to automate the complete process and if the answer is a no then you should identify which tasks suffice. Where RPA is not good enough but you still have to relieve your employees from a specific task, and it is possible to combine RPA tools with Artificial Intelligence-based technology.

In a nutshell

Successfully automating the right processes will help in gaining several advantages. However, Robotic Process Automation removes obstacles which may arise from the daily tasks and routine running of the business and this helps in enhancing the business processes as well. Although the capabilities of RPA technology are going to increase, the future of Robotic Process Automation at your firm should depend on the future of your enterprise.