The idea of empowering people with tools that they can easily access to build RPA is fantastic. We’re 100 % behind anyone learning more about the technology.

But (and it is a big ‘but’) the impact of putting someone who has next-to-no training into a position where they can affect your business at a process level is not ok.

Today we’re talking about citizen developers and why you need to watch out for them.

No Code, Some Problems

Citizen Development is the idea of using a distributed network of individuals who create RPA bots using publicly accessible UI automation tools. These individuals can have any background, and providing they have a good working knowledge of computing, they will be able to create bots which can be put to work. Think of them as an open-source productivity tool.

UI automation tools enable them to build a simple flow that understands where on the screen you need to click, type, or extract information. For those that have written macros before, these tools have a similar level of complexity. Because of the lack of training required to get started, the cost of development is often lower – but don’t be sucked in by that.

Don’t Be Fooled

Hidden behind the lure of cheap development from a wide network of easily accessible people is the real danger – their lack of experience. It’s hard to understate how important this is so we’ll say it again. The lack of experience that untrained citizen developers have means they probably aren’t going to have great business acumen; let alone understand the intricacies of your operation.

This type of development can create a real burden for your business – rather than leveraging RPA to remove manual tasks and save time. Because these people aren’t trained, they don’t have an awareness of every step surrounding automation.

How will the automation be maintained? How will the automation be adapted if the process changes? This adds a lot of work for your existing IT team as they are going to have to work with and maintain RPAs that aren’t future proofed or even built to the right standard in the first place.

Power To The People

It’s a great concept to empower people with technology, but it just isn’t as easy as many are making out. In the same way there aren’t citizen mechanics, you can’t expect people who aren’t well trained to perform well at a complex task. Even with the documentation that comes with these pieces of software, there is no provision of contextual training to show the user how to think about processes and automation.

Ultimately, whether or not you use citizen developers is down to agility versus control. Do you want to react quickly or react well?

Power to the people, absolutely, but don’t let go of the control you already have on your quality. Sure, citizen developer programmes have their problems, but they’re also a great way of identifying competent candidates, who – with the right training – could be some of your most valuable employees. If you want expert advice when it comes to RPA, or want to find our more about our beginner’s training programme, then drop us a line before you reach out anywhere else.

So your business has identified a process which is repetitive and would benefit from RPA… that’s fantastic and you’ve got our attention! But do you know how you’re going to put it in place?

Structure isn’t a very sexy word, but without it, your bot isn’t going to get very far. Even if you understand how your business works, how are you going to get that across to a developer who doesn’t know your business?

A solutions architect is a handy fix to this problem so if you want to know more then read on.

Mind The Gap

We’ve looked before at the disconnects between business leaders, their goals, and their IT team. This is true as well in the relationship between business leaders and external developers but for slightly different reasons.

The internal party – the business leaders – know their business inside out but often don’t understand the technology they want to employ, and vice versa for the external developer. This lack of common knowledge leads to misunderstanding, which in turns stumbles into poor development.

Documentation plays a key part in communicating the vision of an RPA development. A good process design document is going to allow a business to define every step of a process and give context to the developer to automate those steps.

Unfortunately, more often than not we see developers who have little to no experience in business and so even with a well written document they can’t always run with it.

Feathers In The Cap

With a solutions architect you have an individual or team who is well versed in business and the needs and common pain points of a company. At the same time, they also have the technical knowledge needed to see a business through the lens of a developer. This combination of skills creates someone who can skate between the two camps – who understands what is required as well as how to achieve it.

Now, we would love to work with you on your RPA and bot development but we understand that you might have someone in mind already who you trust as a developer. That doesn’t mean we can’t help you. Our team is built from solutions architects who have the backing of experienced developers. In this way you can use us as a middle ground between you and your nominated developer.

Together We’re Better

All of this is on offer because we’re in it for the long haul. We want to start partnerships off in a way where we immediately demonstrate our value. Often, we provide this sort of advice at the beginning of a relationship as a way of developing trust with new partners and by and large it comes with no cost. Again, we aren’t interested in dumping RPA into your business and then never answering the phone – we want to help.

It might sound trivial but without asking the basic questions about a process you can’t develop effective RPA. It’s a false economy to rush into this technology without understanding exactly what you want to do with it. We’re here to help you get on track wherever you are on your journey, so get in touch with us today.

Automation journeys which fail normally do so because of a lack of understanding – so let us help you. With the brilliant folks over at NICE we’ve written a whitepaper – ‘RPA Reality Check’. It gives you all the info you need to get started with RPA. We wanted the material to give you simple, straightforward answers which will help you avoid the mistakes we’ve seen other companies make.

Get Out What You Put In

Not only is it a great piece that condenses the core ideas of RPA deployment into an easy format, it also suggests some best practices that you can take into your own business. One notable suggestion is the idea of walking before running. Too often we see companies throw money, time, and energy at RPA hoping for results – without really having prepared for it in any way.

RPA does require investment but with the right planning you can generate fantastic ROI. We recently wrote a piece on ROI, and if you really want to get into the nitty gritty we’ve even made a calculator that you can apply to your own business.

Riding Shotgun

All of these resources are great and we regularly get positive feedback on them from clients. But most, once they’ve read the material, want to get started for real. That’s where they need a partner – to guide them on their journey.

We never tell our clients which way to go, we just help them find the best way to get there. We never suggest how much a client should or shouldn’t spend, we just help them predict their return on investment. Most importantly, we don’t encourage chargeable revisits or high consulting fees. We stay with them at every stage until implementation is right.

Picture of Health

All this starts with our free health check. We find out where a company wants to get to and identify how RPA can be applied to their current processes. To do this we benchmark them against the other clients we have worked with to show where they are right now.

By keeping as much of RPA in-house as possible customers also benefit from bridging the normally separate camps of business leadership and IT.

Ultimately, deploying RPA in your business requires careful planning. The work you do before implementation is going to have the greatest impact on the whole journey. The whitepaper is ready for you to read whenever you like, but once you’ve taken the key points from that you may want to take the next step.

That’s where we come in, as your guide we’ll help you get where you want to go, so reach out to us today. Also for small questions, don’t hesitate to call or reach out to us on LinkedIn.

The classic clash in companies nowadays is between business operations and IT. Thankfully we can say with some confidence that RPA actually can act as a bridge between the two -– unlike some other tech.

Business objectives are often worked toward by constant, agile adjustments in processes. Conversely, IT is often slower and more methodical in its approach. These polarised positions can produce conflict within a business with the relative push and pull of each position being a constant battle. However, RPA has the potential to help both camps find common ground – and real value.

Origin Story

RPA was initially thought of as a great idea because of the lack of programmers in tech. RPA would help free up existing programmer time by allowing non-programmers to create bots – which can operate autonomous processes with less human intervention. Now, however, we see that RPA is often used when a solution is needed quickly – most commonly because business needs change.

RPA gives IT the ability to get on top of a problem far quicker than a more traditional solution. In fact, depending on the situation, RPA can give an IT team the time they need to design and implement a longer term solution. It’s flexibility as a tool is being leaned on more and more – and business leaders and IT teams alike are coming to depend on RPA, mainly because it can be deployed quickly and developed almost indefinitely.

Thinking Ahead

Viewing approaches as tactical versus strategic, short term versus long, gives a nice frame for the potential of RPA. We’ve recently worked with a tax authority who sees surges in public contact around tax deadlines. In just over a week, we’ve been able to put in place a bot which could support the contact centre helping them cope with their increased traffic.

Longer term, because of this initial success, we were able to develop a system which would handle all the digital tax submissions, automating what has historically been an incredibly labour intensive process.

Good Decisions From Good Data

Now, RPA can be mistaken as a quick fix – a band aid – but just like a house renovation it doesn’t matter how well you paint the walls, if the foundations aren’t sound the whole thing can come crashing down. The basis of all RPA development should be on a detailed understanding of current processes and outcomes. Without that, the chances of good ROI drop significantly.

It really comes down to the classic project management balance – time, cost, and scope. More and more, IT teams and business leaders are able to find common ground and value in RPA as it helps bridge the gap between tactical decision making and long term technical planning. In every time frame RPA has the ability to give great benefits providing the planning for it is done right. For us, we can see that any technology that brings people together is powerful – all the better if it helps a company perform better.

RPA is growing so if you want to find out more about how it can help you, bring your company value, your teams together and make your customers happier then get in touch with us today.

The fear we have from film and television is that robots are coming for our lives. In real life, people fear more that they are coming for our jobs. Neither of those things is really true. Robots stand with us as a means to free ourselves from the zombification of ourselves at work. They are designed to help us have more time in and out of work, and they’re presence will only grow in the coming years.

Just The Job

There is no question that automation is going to play a part in reducing the number of basic jobs that are available to us. Their very purpose is to be set to tasks we would rather not do. In many cases this is repetitive and labour intensive work. But this isn’t new, in fact in our short history, humans have continuously developed ways to make things easier which has always meant someone was no longer required to complete a task.

Robots Work for Us

However, this doesn’t mean that work will dry up for a huge number of people. Human oversight is still very much required. Robots by nature are simple, they struggle with fringe cases or errant data.

Humans are perfect in situations that require flexibility and the application of intelligence. The only jobs that will be lost are the zombie ones – which leave people bored and unfulfilled. Robots can give us the time to learn more and focus on the jobs where we can add value – and in turn feel more valued.

Time Is Relative

The real irony here is that we quickly approach a reality where people expect access to everything all the time wherever they are. They themselves want to work less and more flexibly – but at the same time demand more availability from every other person and company.

The only feasible way to achieve this is with robots. Robots which can manage customer service out of regular hours. Robots which can keep manufacturing when we are with our families. RPA enhances our lives, by allowing business to scale: without us always needing to be there.

Machines Bring Opportunity

When was the last time you asked if your employees were enjoying their work? It’s a vital question. If you can afford your employees more balance in their work and personal lives, more freedom to choose and pursue new avenues of learning. they will be fundamentally happier.

Ultimately, every business, every customer, every person is looking for ROI. They are looking for the best ROI they can find – both financial and personal. More money, more time, more balance. Happy employees make happier clients – which make the happiest shareholders.

That’s the simple recipe for a healthy company. RPA can be the spark for that shift and can offer some of the best ROI of any tech on the market.

If you want to find out more about bots and how they’ll help us vanquish the zombie threat, reach out to us today.