In 2021, robotic process automation (RPA) is no longer an option but a necessity. A recent report by Forrester Consulting – The Future of Work: A Pandemic Spotlight – companies are increasing their RPA investment to address new business and market pressures stemming from the pandemic. 48% of respondents shared that their organization plan to increase their RPA investment by at least 5% in the coming years.
However, the same survey also notes that as organizations have little to no visibility into their process flow, they have no insights to steer their automation program. In fact, 41% of the respondents expressed their hesitation to implement RPA. There are several reasons why processes happen in a black box. End-to-end complex processes are supported by multiple teams and systems, creating potential blind spots. Legacy processes retained during process revamp and modernizations cause discrepancies. And the increasingly divided responsibilities and large-scale transactions make it almost impossible to identify process gaps.
In pursuit of process excellence, organizations rely on manual process discovery approaches that are highly biased and subjective, providing insights into only pieces of a process. 66% of the survey participants responded that their organization does not have a tool that gives them process-related insights such as process deviations and root-cause analysis.
Process ignorance is perhaps the biggest roadblock to digital transformation. Without complete visibility into “AS-IS” processes, most of the investments into technologies miss opportunities or fail without producing the desired results and returns. For instance, an organization seeking to automate its accounts payables needs insights into the first-time-right process, potential duplicate payments, payment lead times, and other pre-implementation insights.
Process deviations are inevitable and creep in shortly after standardizations – this is where continuous discovery becomes imperative. Only an automated process discovery tool can show the actual performance of a process along with the extent of deviation from the expected path. It provides businesses with full visibility into process variations to enable improved strategic decisions. When we work with our customers we see our AI-powered process discovery platform – SurfaceAI – discover variations that are beyond the extent of what organizations would like or expect. This is a common scenario faced by the majority of organizations. 49% of enterprises reported that their documentation did not capture the actual process driven by adaptations and alternative process variations over time.
With SurfaceAI, enterprises can accurately capture their process as-is to ensure they don’t overestimate the level of standardization, improving harmonization, controllability, and efficiency. While it’s true that processes are often executed in many different ways, the insights help organizations to react by redesigning and optimizing processes for a more standardized way of working. Our automated process discovery solution demystifies your business process, helping you see where and how you can (and should) steer to improve your automation program. It provides an end-to-end view of the process built up from the lowest level of detail, allowing for both high-level and drilled-down visualizations.
What is holding your RPA initiative and change program back? Talk to our experts today to accelerate intelligent automation for your organization.