Robotic Process Automation solutions automate mindless and repetitive tasks that involve moving and manipulating data through several information systems in line with an identifiable set of rules.
This tasks automation with RPA offers benefits such as: creating a fast deployment, obtaining immediate efficiency gains, and requiring low investment requirements.
As a downside, the only way to obtain the benefits of an RPA solution is the result of successful project implementation and operation.
There are three main choices that every IT team must take into account in every RPA initiative.
Who should make the RPA development?
How to deploy?
What proprietary or open sources?
Who should make the RPA development?
There are three main options for who will handle de RPA implementation.
Over time, every organization focuses on developing its internal capabilities for RPA operations.
The following criteria provide an overview of use cases for every option.
Option 1
Low internal capabilities.
Minimum experience with RPA solutions.
Less margin for initial errors
Low quantity of process
Low availability of resources in the short term
Option 2
Strong desire to build internal capabilities
A considerable amount of processes to automate
Availability of resources in the short term
Option 3
Critical business processes
High availability of internal resources
High internal experience in projects development
How to deploy?
Like many software solutions RPAs can be deployed in-house or in cloud services. The right decision will impact the success of the project.
Organizations should use the following parameters to decide how to deploy the solution.
Internal policies
Costs
Security
Scalability
Flexibility
What? Proprietary or open source?
Besides differences between commercial solutions, the main decision for IT teams relies on using proprietary solutions or open sources.
Out-of-box
Commercial solutions provide out-of-box functionalities that satisfy common business use cases and reduce the time to deploy.
Lower cost
Commercial solutions provide lower costs in cases of common needs and a high volume of processes.
Desire of modification
Open-source solutions facilitate the integration of custom operations for complex or non-common tasks.
Interoperability
Open-source enhances interoperability with other solutions. Commercial solutions integration depends completely on vendor decisions.