We believe that finding the best possible processes, which are worth automating is one of the most important / critical areas of RPA – for which we recommend the bottom-up approach based on our experience. This can be most effectively helped by colleagues who are familiar with business processes. They need to be supported with RPA specific knowledge and tools to achieve effective demand management.

In our experience, the following approach/activities can be useful:

1. Workshop

on which software robots are widely presented to colleagues / key users with good real-life examples, prerequisites of possible processes, business benefit. We have discussed this in more detail in our previous blog post about the Proof of Concept. Don’t forget: better understanding brings better ideas.

2.Scoring solution

to support the previous point. This can be a well-parameterized Excel file that can be pre-filled by business users, or the UiPath Automation HUB solution also.

In the first phase of the introduction of software robot-based automation - for cost-effectiveness reasons - many people use an Excel-based scoring table - with the following main information and data:

 - Brief description of business challenge, solution proposal

 - Business / technical benefits and savings achieved by implementing automation

 - Determining complexity and benefits based on Tshirt sizing, which provide the primary scoring for prioritization based on appropriate weighting, including:

          - How rule-based the process is, number of exception branches

          - The number of transactions to be automated and the time of each transaction to run manually

          - Number of systems affected

          - Process and system stability

          - Level of standardization of input data

The purpose of the table is to capture the automation idea quickly - in a maximum of 1-2 hours - and based on this, the Excel file provides a high-level feedback with which the individual suggestions become comparable.

When reaching the higher level of maturity of RPA, we recommend the introduction of the UiPath Automation HUB tool, which, after finding, prioritizing and selecting new ideas for robotics, effectively supports the implementation process and documentation.

The following video shows the device at a high level very well:

3. Process discovery tools

When automation moves to the next level of maturity - after manually identifying the processes to be automated with the active support of users - we recommend the introduction of UiPath process discovery tools. The combination of these tools could help getting a full overview of the current state of the as-is processes:

      a. Process Mining is the most complex process discovery solution from UiPath. It could tell the story about how the processes work together, what their impact is and suggest functions to be automated based on the back-end data of the IT systems (logs and/or database).

      b. Not all legacy applications can be processed with this technology (yet?), but for example it can work efficiently with SAP. To support business understanding, we recommend to check the following demo dashboard out and more detailed operation by UiPath:

Demo Dashboard

      c. Task mining could be another powerful tool from UiPath soon, because it could make suggestions for the best candidates based on user activities. It captures screenshots on each mouse click and keyboard stroke. Also, it collects system metadata with each screenshot. This tool helps you discover what everyday tasks your employees do on a daily basis. As it will be generally available from this summer only, we hope to be able to come back with more details in another blog post soon.

As one of BCA’s key strengths is an effective understanding of business needs, supported by the company’s strong BA and transformative mindset roots, we are more than happy to discuss how the above tools / solution can best be tailored to the needs of each company.