Although popular and widely discussed recently, RPA by definition is very limited technology, not a panacea on IT problems existing in a company. In this capacity, RPA is senseless and dangerous when applied alone.
Technically, RPA is a fragile collection of scripts, which are difficult to impossible to adapt on even slightest change in business environment. An intent to rely widely on RPA is equal to an attempt to conserve indefinitely a status-quo with legacy IT systems. Evidently, it is only a matter of time when such a crippled construct will collapse and bury business.
However, it does not diminish an important role of RPA as a facilitator and accelerator of digital transformation through robust instant automation of routine legacy procedures. It should serve as a proof of concept in discovery of business transformation potential in an organization.
To reap all benefits of this automated discovery, it is essential to explore RPA only in the context of a business model where RPA will allow to quickly evaluate transformation potential for previously identified bottlenecks and inefficient processes. Therefore, always start with careful business mapping and solid BPM analysis to succeed with RPA.
Role of business processes in a digital company is far more important than in a traditional organization because digital organization literally consists of the digital business processes it implements. Traditionally, most business processes are in possession of workers or groups of workers, in other words, process stakeholders. Every worker holds in memory, experience, notes or corporate regulations certain course of action to follow in every particular situation. This implicit or partially formalized set of rules comprises a business model of a company. The model is subject to change by mere verbal discussion and agreement between workers and management, happen business environment evolves or new challenges appear. Situation is entirely different in a digital organization. Digital systems do not have any implicit awareness on business aspects, just an explicit algorithm to do exact functions, for which they were designed. Therefore, a digital business system is a manifestation of a bu...
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