What to consider when you choose tasks for RPA to automate

Imagine that, as the owner of a sports franchise, you somehow manage to scoop LeBron James or Cristiano Ronaldo to work for you. Your first move: Putting them in the accounting department to ensure that your tax liability is covered effectively. You wouldn’t do this, of course. Both of these figures would be indispensable to the right sports franchise – but only so long as they were able to do what they have made their name doing. Put them into the wrong position and suddenly, you’re not sitting on a goldmine so much as you are a very expensive liability.

The same is true when it comes to choosing the right deployment for RPA, also known as Robotic Process Automation. These game-changing software bots are capable of carrying out an ever-expanding number of mundane and repetitive workplace tasks, such as extracting data from individual spreadsheets and then entering it into the right database to ensure that orders are properly fulfilled.

Right now, usage of RPA bots is exploding – for reasons that vary from greater levels of productivity to massive cost-savings. However, just like the LeBron James and Cristiano Ronaldo examples, RPA only stands a chance of living up to its enormous potential if you properly identify the right use-cases for it. Do so, and you can expect to benefit massively. Fail to, and the results could be little more than a costly headache.

So how do you make sure that you’ve got the right job in mind for RPA? Here are four points to consider.

Is it a rule-based job?

RPA bots are getting more capable all the time. However, at their root they are still scripts that carry out set processes in a sequential, largely unchanging way. If the mundane task you’re thinking of automating requires a high level of subjectivity and varies as a process each time you perform it, unfortunately it may be a task that you’re going to need humans to continue performing for the foreseeable future. If, on the other hand, it’s a task that follows the same path each time, which could be written down as a series of step-by-step actions, then RPA could be the solution you’re looking for.

Is the task one you have to carry out regularly?

All of us have, at some point, bought a gadget for a task we simply don’t do all that often. Maybe it’s that pressure-washer you’ve used once since buying it six years ago. Perhaps it’s that smartphone-connected waffle iron your tech buddy sold you on. Whatever it is, it can be a costly mistake to make. RPA bots can be used to perform a wide number of tasks effectively. 

But make sure it’s a task that you have to perform frequently. If it’s repetitive and COULD be automated, but only needs to be performed one day out of every work year, chances are that it would be cheaper to have it carried out by humans, whether these were your regular workforce or a temporary worker brought in for the occasion. For RPA tools to truly earn their keep, target not just mundane and repetitive tasks, but mundane, repetitive tasks that have to be performed frequently in high volumes. Pinpoint these tasks and you’ll have a major time and effort-saver on your hands.

Is the job one you could stand to speed up?

Identify the bottleneck tasks in your organization which slow down your processes. Perhaps answering customer queries or processing invoices leaves you with a constant backlog, and is extra tough because demand fluctuates so much throughout the year. If you have a task such as this, it’s worth assessing whether it could be carried out by RPA. RPA bots work rapidly, and do not take breaks. They are also impressively scalable, able to adjust to whatever workload you’re facing at that particular moment. 

Not every job that causes bottlenecks or pain points within the organization will be open to automation. (Maybe certain tasks take a long time because you’ve got a micromanaging VP who takes forever to sign off on certain tasks.) However, it’s quite likely that many of the tasks which create these pressures within a company CAN be automated. It’s a conversation that’s at least worth having…

Is it one that takes up time which could be more valuably used?

Is the task in question one that takes away time that highly paid and skilled human workers could be using for something more productive? Ultimately, the big promise of – and hope for – RPA tools is that they can free up human workers to focus on more interesting and rewarding work. If you find that large amounts of time are taken up by dull tasks that stop your highly valued employees from focusing on other more value-adding jobs, then consider these as candidates for RPA. 

After all, finding ways to automate these tasks will not just make work a more enjoyable experience for them (which could keep superstar players in your employ for longer), but may also free them up to come up with the next brilliant idea for expanding your business. And all thanks to the support of RPA.