Tag: RPA

Enterprise RPA Adoption: Behind the Curtain | Sherpas in Blue Shirts

March 20, 2018

Now that we’ve put the finishing touches on our first-of-its kind assessment of enterprise RPA adoption around the globe, we’re seeing a full dismantling of several RPA assumptions and myths.

After surveying enterprises across a wide swath of industries, we have finalized the analysis and are releasing a goldmine of data and insights for enterprises looking to take a confident step forward in their journey toward Pinnacle RPA status. While the full results are laid out in our Enterprise RPA adoption | Pinnacle Model™ Analysis for 2018, I want to provide an overview of some of the findings here that I think you’ll find interesting.

RPA adoption is size- and industry-agnostic across enterprises

Enterprise RPA adoption is not a trend for big organizations in certain industries to pursue while smaller players maintain the status quo. Stagnation is a recipe for complete disaster in the industry’s rotation to digital. In our research, we’ve found that all types and sizes of enterprises are adopting RPA. This includes both top-down adoption across the org to improve overall speed to impact and bottom-up adoption where segments of orgs are adopting RPA to optimize specific processes. Regardless of size and type, enterprises are going all-in and getting results.

Related: How to transform with RPA implementation

So, what happens if you’re not a part of that? Well, you can imagine the way Toys ‘R Us execs felt when they realized they were about to watch the titan enterprise enter into complete oblivion. Part of that is due to a failure to transform the model in the age of digital transformation. Enterprises that are not thinking in the direction of some level of enterprise RPA adoption are in danger of charting a course to that same end. The takeaway here is clear: adopt or be disrupted.

RPA Pinnacle Enterprises™ significantly excel in three impact areas

RPA Pinnacle Enterprises exceed others in the three critical areas of cost impact, operational impact and business impact. Statistically, they have seen a 50% improvement in operational impact alone. Those enterprises not at the Pinnacle level, but who are still adopting RPA, have seen a 30% improvement.

Enterprise RPA adoption

So the news for all enterprises moving along the RPA adoption curve is either good or great – there is really no bad news here. This is a fascinating and important statistic for all enterprises, and warning of what’s to be missed out on for those on the sidelines of adoption.

RPA and massive job loss is a myth

Automation is soon to be a driving factor for sweeping job losses across all industries. While that’s great fodder for headlines, blog titles, and social media clicks, the actual enterprises we’re talking to aren’t singing that song at all. I talk about this more in a recent blog, The Robots are Coming – Should You Fear or Welcome Them, but in essence, enterprises are talking about reskilling, upskilling, and enhanced training; they’re not talking about eradication of the human element.

As you might have heard, in the midst of this rotation to digital across all industries, we’re actually experiencing a labor shortage in the United States and Europe. We’re just not seeing it in the headlines.

Instead of the comparison to Skynet or some other Terminator-related theme, a better comparison for RPA and jobs is one that involves our actual history. When you review what happened in the industrial revolution, you don’t find the entire workforce replaced by machines (Of course, individuals were impacted at various levels). Instead, you find massive reskilling and upskilling so that the new technology can complement and improve human effort – AND by improving productivity, allow our companies to continue to grow even in the face of a labor shortage. That’s much more along the lines of what enterprises are discussing, planning, and doing. Unfortunately, news like that doesn’t make the cut for trending stories.

RPA Pinnacle Enterprise webinar

Many more in-depth details about these enterprise RPA trends are laid out in our Pinnacle Model analyses. Moreover, this research is brimming with data-packed analysis on what is truly differentiating Pinnacle RPA enterprises from the rest of the pack. The kind of analysis that all enterprises are clamoring for as they determine where they are on their journey to Pinnacle, and decide what the next best steps should be. We also hosted a webinar on April 12 that dispels popular myths surrounding RPA using our fact-based analysis from the RPA Pinnacle Model study. Watch the webinar replay.

Please contact us with any questions you may have about our Pinnacle Model analyses, or reach me directly at [email protected].

Five Ways to Reduce Contact Center Costs with Automation and Chatbots | Sherpas in Blue Shirts

March 12, 2018

Everest Group’s recent research revealed that successful adoption of RPA and chatbots in contact centers can reduce the total cost of contact center operations by 11-16 percent. Yet, very few enterprises have achieved these levels of automation-driven cost reduction in their contact center operations. Why? Technology is just one piece of the puzzle. In order to unlock the true benefits of automation solutions in your contact center, you also need to focus on organizational readiness, effective change management, and better governance mechanisms.

Five ways to reduce contact center costs with RPA & chatbots


Analyze and select the right processes for automation

Enterprises should start by identifying the contact center processes that are most suitable for automation. To achieve breakeven in quick time, it’s best to start by automating highly repetitive and less complex business processes with RPA. For example, a process wherein agents spend exorbitant amounts of time navigating through multiple systems and applications to fetch the required information is ideal to automate with RPA.

Re-engineer business processes before automation

Automating business processes that aren’t standardized or simplified can result in more exceptions. But optimizing them before automating them, with IT and operations jointly looking at them through the RPA lens, can greatly reduce exceptions. Learnings from best-in-class RPA implementers also suggest that business process re-engineering is a significant step to realizing the strategic objectives of RPA adoption.

Build winning partnerships

Building a partner ecosystem with leading RPA technology vendors and/or system integrators that offer best-in-breed automation platforms and specialized domain expertise is crucial to achieving successful RPA adoption. Doing so can help enterprises save time and effort at every stage of RPA adoption, which eventually manifests in effective cost savings.

Make a quick transition from pilots to large-scale deployments

Enterprises that achieve significant financial impact and rapid return on their RPA investments quickly scale-up from the pilot stage to large-scale deployments. To move fast successfully, it’s important to foresee challenges ahead while in the pilot stage, and begin mitigation efforts earlier. Enterprises can also follow an agile implementation approach, which could enable their RPA deployments to quickly and flexibly adapt to changes in business requirements or underlying applications.

Integrate RPA with chatbots to achieve incremental cost reduction

Once RPA has delivered some quick wins, enterprises can deploy chatbots alongside RPA to realize incremental cost savings. For example, chatbots can resolve less complex customer queries more quickly when RPA bots fetch the necessary information and relevant insights from multiple systems and applications. Enterprises should envision building a digital workforce with both RPA and chatbots in their contact centers to achieve long-term benefits that can extend well beyond the incremental cost savings.

Adoption of best practices for contact center automation can help enterprises achieve tangible business outcomes. And the returns can be quick: our latest research shows 9-15 months with RPA, and 18-24 months with chatbots adoption.

To learn more about how you can build a successful business case for automation adoption in your contact center, check out Everest Group’s recently released report: “The Business Case for RPA and Chatbots in Contact Centers.” And, please feel free to share your automation adoption experiences in contact centers with us: Katrina Menzigian ([email protected]) and Jayapriya K ([email protected])

A New RPA Unicorn is Born | Sherpas in Blue Shirts

March 7, 2018

UiPath recently made history by becoming the first Romanian RPA unicorn, thanks to $153 million Series B funding provided by a group of investment firms led by Accel and including CapitalG and Kleiner Perkins. This is the largest round of funding to date in the RPA market, leading to a valuation of over $1bn for UiPath – a unicorn. It is good news for all vendors and buyers as well.

What it means for the RPA market

Other examples of increased investment in the RPA industry include Blue Prism raising £70m ($100m) in funding through new share issuance in January 2018 and WorkFusion raising $35m in Series D financing in January 17.

The fact that investors are willing to put in these huge sums of money is great news for the industry for both buyers and vendors.

What it means for enterprises and RPA

  • This is an endorsement of not only UiPath but RPA as whole by the cream of Silicon Valley investment firms
  • These and other RPA investors will have completed many rounds of due diligence with the vendors, and in the process put a big lens on each software product
  • That RPA is here to stay – that the investors will be doing their best to make sure that the vendors and the platforms perform, to protect their investments
  • That there will be significant investment in enhancing the products to keep ahead in this very competitive market

What it means for other RPA vendors

For other RPA vendors, this may seem like a huge competitive threat but it also means that:

  • Other investment firms will be looking for similar deals. Consequently, we will see rising interest in other vendors and there are an increasing number. We have conducted in-depth assessments of 18 RPA vendors in the past six months and will be publishing our results very soon:
  • With both Blue Prism and UiPath now valued over $1bn, any RPA vendor thinking of issuing public shares will have a very strong backdrop for the IPO
  • It is great for the partners of RPA vendors, particularly technology partners that are likely see more resources thrown at their integrations with the RPA platforms

What could happen next in RPA

Organic or inorganic growth: We now have several RPA companies that are flush with cash; most were already able to operate in a cash-positive manner, so these funds provide for accelerated investments. Some have had the money for longer than others and have invested in organic growth, e.g., opening new offices and hiring more staff. This is a path that UiPath, Blue Prism and WorkFusion have taken already. Expect more announcements from some of them on this front. For UiPath, given that CapitalG is an investor, we expect to see much more integration with Google AI/ML technology.

Then there is the inorganic growth option – to acquire complementary capabilities. This could be cognitive or other technologies to enhance the core RPA capabilities or growing their professional services to accelerate adoption/training. We believe this is highly likely.

Is Your GIC the Secret Weapon for Digital Enablement? | Sherpas in Blue Shirts

January 26, 2018

You might recall, back in December we identified digital agility as a key 2018 initiative. In that blog, we discussed how you can create business value by making things easy, reliable, and fast for your customers. The question I would ask GIC organizations for 2018: In realizing that goal, are you part of the problem? Or are you part of the solution?

Our research, Digital Maturity in GICs | Pinnacle Model™ Assessment 2018, seeks to answer those questions.

Most GICs started small and expanded over time as they proved their value. Now that most GICs have realized the fundamental benefits of labor savings, quality and process improvement, and – in some cases – business outcome improvement, it’s time for them to look to their next act.

Our central thesis is that a GIC can be a critical driver in building and running new digital competencies. But we want to hear from you about the functions and processes that are getting the most attention and investment. Which digital technologies are you focusing their efforts on? And what capabilities did you deploy to build out these capabilities?

There are plenty of digital surveys that you can participate in, so – why Everest Group’s? Because we take a different approach that results in more meaningful, useful outputs. Our Pinnacle Model™ approach asks questions about what the very best GICs are doing in terms of real impact and then correlate the capabilities required to achieve those results. And we go beyond the online survey, talking with some respondents to understand their journeys – what worked and what didn’t.

With that information in hand, we identify a set of Pinnacle Practices™ that you can consider deploying in your GIC.

Yes, there is a ton of hype around digital; let’s get beyond the headlines and talk outcomes and practices in your GIC.

Take the survey

Driving RPA from GICs? Learn from the Best-in-class | Sherpas in Blue Shirts

January 22, 2018

The shift towards a “digital-first model,” in the wake of technology-led disruption, has given GICs an opportunity to become strategic entities that can drive innovation across the enterprise, instead of an arbitrage-first-oriented low-cost set-up delivering back- / middle- office services at scale. A very positive move for GICs and the enterprises they support.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA), among other digital technologies, is gaining popularity across enterprises and GICs thanks to its many business benefits. And enterprises are increasingly leveraging their GICs to drive RPA usage. This is largely driven by factors such as GICs’ tighter integration with the core business, increased endorsement from the enterprise, shift toward insourcing, higher visibility to enterprise leadership, lower costs, and availability of talent.

So what factors enable best-in-class GICs to drive RPA programs successfully? We’ve identified eight:

How GICs drive RPA

Successful GICs, through dedicated RPA CoEs, have gone beyond exploring RPA technology for in-house consumption. From educating various stakeholders across the enterprise on capabilities and benefits of the technology, to executing RPA solutions across functions and locations, these CoEs are playing a key role in transforming processes across the enterprise. CoEs in best-in-class GICs have gone a notch higher, and are focusing on creating an ecosystem that enables businesses to independently explore RPA opportunities.

While GICs are well positioned to drive RPA across the enterprise, successful implementation requires dedicated focus on factors including governance and business continuity. They must also be on the lookout for advanced technologies, such as AI and cognitive, that can augment existing RPA technology and enhance overall automation business benefits.

To learn more about the best practices employed by best-in-class GIC adopters of RPA, please read our recently published report, “RPA Implementation in GICs – Learnings and Best Practices.” We developed it based on interactions with 100+ global enterprises’ GICs and a range of automation technology vendors.

If you are driving RPA from your GIC, I’d love to hear your story. Feel free to share your opinions and stories on how your GIC is evolving in its RPA journey directly with me at [email protected].

And/or, join in on our research on how enterprises design their GIC journeys to drive their enterprises’ digital agendas. Click here to take the survey; responses will, of course, remain anonymous.

Digital IT contracts now come with tough liability clauses | In the News

January 19, 2018

The newer IT contracts involving higher levels of automation and New-Age digital components like cloud, analytics, and artificial intelligence, often get service providers better prices, but they also come with more stringent liability clauses.

This is because the work either impacts the front-end operations of clients, and hence the overall business — or they are aligned to delivering specific outcomes. Traditional IT contracts were based on the time-&-material model, under which clients simply paid for the number of hours spent on delivering a project.

Rahul Barwe, a senior analyst with IT research firm Everest Group, says a global consumer goods company’s outsourced robotic process automation (RPA) solution malfunctioned. “It took six months for the base product to be updated and fixed. The company could not recoup the lost opportunity costs from the service provider because such a scenario was not adequately incorporated into the contract terms and conditions,” he says.

Read more in ETCIO.com

Robotic Process Automation to create 2 lakh jobs by 2021: Dines | In the News

January 19, 2018

India is in prime position to become a Robotic Process Automation (RPA) powerhouse because of its growing talent pool and cost advantage and an estimated 2 lakh jobs can be created by it in the country by 2021. Daniel Dines, CEO and Co-Founder of UiPath, the leading enterprise Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software company said RPA had been gaining traction as a way of automating repetitive, tedious tasks to handle higher-value analysis and decision-making.

Sarah Burnett, Vice President, Global Research Company Everest Group, said that automation was the way to go. ”It will create incredible opportunities in the IT sector. In a recent study by Everest Group, 80 per cent of companies that we surveyed rated RPA to meet expectations and even exceed them. RPA addresses many areas including regulatory compliance, process automation and more. Also it is secure and most importantly, it is scalable.”

Read more in webindia123

 

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