When embarking on the use of RPA (Robotic Process Automation) in a business, the question gets asked, “Why hire an RPA Expert?”
Adding an RPA Consultant or an RPA Expert, depending upon which term fits the culture of a business, it is a about balancing costs and risks.
Despite the hype from some AI vendors, automation is not instantly achieved at the press of a button.
Taking an existing business process that is working and changing it through the implementation of automation, has potential benefits and risks.
It starts with a business problem. The amount of manual effort being consumed to operate a business process.
Yes, there can different aspects to the problem, such as the number of human errors, but generally automation is considered for an existing activity.
Once an idea to investigate the potential usage of RPA is established, there is a period of fact finding, discovery, etc. before a proposal for an automation project can be created.
When should an RPA Expert be hired / engaged during the activities?
There is no single trigger that would cause engagement of an RPA Expert, but generally the earlier in the process the better.
Adding RPA Consultancy into the discovery activities can help shape, formulate and direct effort into the areas where there is biggest opportunity for success.
Every automation vendor will promote that automation is easy. Yes, they all have a “Low Code / No Code” approach to the software build for the automation, but that does not make the whole project easy.
As Donald Rumsfeld put it:
“There are known unknowns and there unknown unknowns”.
For any business starting with its first automation implementation, the knowledge and experience available from the existing staff will depend on activities earlier in their careers at other businesses. That is a different scenario from a business is commencing its 10th automation project.
Lots of information is available on YouTube about automation technology but there is nothing better than being able to ask questions of an expert who understands the context of the question.
Is the automation project going to be a Pilot or Proof of Concept?
Depending on the priorities for the business, the investment a business will make training staff or recruiting experienced automation staff, is probably going to vary between the first automation project and subsequent projects.
For Pilot projects and Proof of Concepts, successful implementation is the priority and the use of RPA Consultancy to deliver the actions is an effective approach.
Subsequent automation projects usually come with a longer term view. The transition to developing staff capability to build and operate the automation is reflected in a change from RPA Consultancy delivering the service to an RPA Expert providing advice / guidance.
Automation more than RPA
Although thoughts on automation often start with RPA, to address the manual effort challenge, other aspects are likely to be considered in a wider automation programme.
Process Automation (aka Business Process Automation) is more generic and address scenarios where software robots may not be the only choice. For example, where the automation is primarily about the use of API calls.
Intelligence Document Processing (aka Document Management) is when the focus is about working with documents and in particular the extraction of data from documents in order to drive business activity.
RPA Experts have knowledge and experience that has been gained from many automation implementation projects across a range of businesses.
The skills of an RPA Expert are in being able to use the experience to provide advice and guidance for new automation projects.
From a business perspective, investing expertise can save time and money for a project. Helping a project to do the right things, at the right time in the right sequence can avoid expensive errors, gaps, re-work, etc.
Being able to guide the use of “Best Practice” and the adoption of Standards will ensure that the automation is implemented with long-term operation in mind.
How much does an RPA Expert cost?
Commercial terms will vary but in the UK, a typical day rate will be in the range £1,000 to £1,500 plus VAT.
Please contact us to discuss your requirements and we would be pleased to provide a quote.
Are all RPA Experts the same?
Experience can be for Global enterprises, Public sector or Mid Market businesses. Technology knowledge may be focussed on one or two vendor ‘s products.
Ether Solutions team are specialists with UiPath, Open RPA, DocProStar and OCTO technology.
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