Why do so many companies stop after automating the ‘low hanging fruit’ processes instead of continuing to move forward along the automation path?

Why is the percentage of companies that scale up so small, when so many studies show that it is what really unlocks the full potential of software robots?

Lack of knowledge is supposedly the main reason: lack of knowledge about what to expect, about efficient practices for advancing automation, about the resources that must be invested, or about how to avoid the pitfalls that might stand in the way.

If it’s about a lack of knowledge, it’s worth starting the discussion with a functional definition of RPA scalability. It includes the following three aspects:

handling increased workload by involving more bots in task performance, aggregating bots’ capacities, and enhancing their versatility for optimal goal attainment;

expanding the range of automated processes, and generalizing the automation of similar processes across various departments;

increasing the broadness of access by fostering access to new technologies.

Tips for successfully scaling RPA

Before we discuss the bot categories that underpin scaling, we will first mention three helpful hints proposed by UiPath. We do this because we’ve seen plenty of case studies that speak for the effectiveness of the UiPath policy for scaling RPA.

1. Fully automating departments

Completing the automation of the ‘low hanging fruit’ processes leads to a time reduction between 7% and 15% per single department, which is much less than what you can expect from RPA implementation.

For this reason, it is mandatory to fully automate one or two departments. This is, in fact, the essence of the ‘total automation’ approach, based on per-department, and not a per-process business case, and characterised by longer ROI timelines.

2. Tackling inter-departmental processes

These processes are typically more complex, and, besides collaboration between different departments, they also require correspondingly complex technologies. For such reasons, successful automation of inter-departmental processes calls for educational interventions to support employees’ upskilling, and for the creation of an RPA Centre of Excellence with the required degree of oversight of the collaborative conduct.

Additionally, by centralising governance and decision making, the CoE fosters the enterprise-wide buy-in that you need. Lucrative automation of these inter-departmental processes can be viewed as a touchstone along the path towards organisation-wide use of software robots.

3. Investing in RPA-related continuous education for your employees

As we’ve talked before, addressing your employees’ resistance to RPA caused by the mythical fear of “robots will steal our jobs”, is among the top practices for successful RPA implementation.

Employees’ anxiety related to the development of disruptive technologies, with high potential to reduce the need for the human workforce, is certainly understandable to some extent. Training is the best way to alleviate these fears. An internal educational program meant to train your employees to become RPA developers and analysts can really make a difference: people are more likely to endorse the things that they understand and find predictable.

You might want to consider the free online RPA training and certifications offered by UiPath, or our recent guide for learning robotic process automation. The upskilled employees will not only be more enthusiastic and willing to support the automation journey, but they will also assure the right level of expertise for scaling RPA.