Recommendation
In order to ensure the success of an RPA implementation project, business processes must be defined well and in detail. Such processes are the foundations of RPA automated tasks: the robot works on the client side – runs on a desktop computer – and provides data manipulation for the process it is involved in. It is safe to say that no robotic work can be performed outside larger processes, therefore it is absolutely necessary to examine and manage the process which require the given automated task completion from a robot. Actually, research shows that 80% of failed RPA implementations did not deliver the expected results because of the lack of business process management. Hence we do recommend completing BPM first, then move on for robotic process automation.
RPA implementation stages
The actual stages of RPA implementations may vary from case to case, however, a general framework of the most usual tasks to be done are the following:
- Business analysis – choosing processes to be automated, deep dive into the processes which needs to be automated.
- Automation and infrastructure planning for the chosen processes
- Building test robots and automations
- Testing, feedback and fine tuning
- Go-live
- Support
This list of stages might be extended or narrowed as needed.
Integrations
It goes without saying that creating the appropriate interfaces and integrations for the RPA environment also happens during the implementation. By default, we suggest creating a hyperautomation environment by integrating the RPA solution with a BPM system, however, many other possibilities can be realized. RPA can connect to various other IT systems as needed: CRM, ERP, OSS, billing, AD, or others, even including chatbots and other customer facing solutions.
Once integrations are needed, the UiPath RPA will be connected to any other system through the UiPath Orchestrator component, which enables the scheduling, remote management and integration to other systems. Without this component, true integration is not possible.
Legacy systems
There are a number of aging legacy IT systems which are still doing their job fine, although provides very limited possibilities for integrations or automation. In such cases, RPA itself will become th tool of integration, by using the interfaces of such systems just as humans would. Even IBM AS/400 (IBM i Systems) terminal servers can be automated through RPA, as there’s no need for APIs to accomplish that. Hence, any data management, controlling, data transfer or other human tasks can be automated in terminal environments by UiPath RPA.
Non-invasive projects
UiPath RPA can be implemented without serious changes in the existing IT systems and infrastructure. As the solution is cloud based, only some RPA processes are running on clients, while server, or other IT resources are not needed. Therefore, the project will mean minimum or no extra workload for the IT team and infrastructure, compared to classic enterprise software implementations.