Robotic process automation (RPA) technologies are helping leaders increase efficiencies across the enterprise.
Yet, early adopters have found it difficult to scale their initiatives. In a Deloitte survey, only three percent of organisations said they had more than 50 robots in service.
The biggest barrier according to respondents? Process fragmentation.
Resources performing the work—human and digital—still exist in their silos. To scale automation initiatives, organisations need an overarching strategy for managing their digital workforce.
As intelligent automation continues to mature, enterprises can turn to digital workforce management solutions to efficiently and securely manage all digital workers, no matter what resources are performing the work—people, automation or both. The right digital workforce management solution adds substantial value and supports your organisation today, tomorrow, and well into the future.
Eliminate Silos with Digital Workforce Management
Enterprises need flexibility, security and the ability to orchestrate all workers and processes. Here are four reasons why digital workforce management is a key ingredient for scaling your intelligent automation program.
- A single platform
An open platform is essential if enterprises want to orchestrate work across people, in-house technologies, and multiple third-party RPA bots. Organisations can assign the right worker, whether it’s human or digital, to the right task at the right time, while maintaining total control over the complexity and cost associated with a given task or project. Additionally, an open platform enables companies to take advantage of more advanced AI technologies as they emerge.
A sophisticated platform enables users to build robots and connect to external applications using custom code, increasing the pace at which companies can expand the digital workforce. Support for modular robot building and reuse enables companies to build complex robots without having to write complicated code.
- An ability to mitigate risk
As enterprises integrate their human and digital workforces, a single governance environment is essential for effective risk mitigation and compliance. Security is also of paramount importance, yet many companies don’t properly consider the security risks associated with RPA, such as the access software robots have to sensitive data.
Central control allows managers to synchronise software robot releases with broader IT system updates, minimising disruptions and failures among the digital workforce. Robust digital workforce management software lets companies secure and monitor how information is used by all resources. The integration of identity management with enterprise security solutions supports unified governance over the access human and digital workers have to sensitive systems and applications.
Enterprises also need a way to address potential misuse of digital worker credentials. A sophisticated solution supports the segregation of duties, in which functions are spread out across people and departments. Managers can ensure a particular individual doesn’t have access to too much sensitive information based on the combination of digital workers they oversee.
In addition, automated processes must meet audit and compliance requirements. A digital workforce management solution should enable the organisation to manage and enforce policy controls throughout the entire lifecycle of the digital worker, from creation all the way through decommissioning. Control over the entire lifespan of digital workers enhances security, compliance and auditability.
- A holistic view of operations
In order to drive continuous improvement, achieving—and maintaining—total visibility into all resources performing tasks within a process is essential. Managers need to be able to answer such questions as:
What tasks are being worked on?
What’s in the pipeline?
How does process performance compare with KPIs?
An intelligent automation platform including process discovery and visualisation provides insight into business processes across the enterprise. Executives and managers get a holistic view, overcoming the boundaries between departmental silos, making it easier to identify opportunities for digital workforce automation that can have a greater impact across the entire organisation.
- An open, integrated platform
Successful intelligent automation is scalable. But even as enterprises have embraced RPA, many early adopters have found themselves in a state of fragmented operations.
The processes themselves, however, aren’t fragmented. Rather, resources performing the work, including humans and software robots, exist in silos. Fragmented operations increase overhead costs and eat into the ROI on digital transformation investments. An open, integrated platform is the most effective way for enterprises to align resources and orchestrate processes.
Digital workforce management solves the scalability problem for enterprises, but it also helps them achieve much more, from breaking down silos to mitigating risk. A low-code, customisable intelligent automation platform harnesses the power of RPA, allowing organisations to build and manage a digital workforce in which human and robot workers amplify each other and work like tomorrow—today.
Tyler Suss is responsible for delivering global product positioning, sales and partner enablement, and go-to-market strategy for the Kofax Intelligent Automation platform (RPA, process orchestration, cognitive capture, advanced analytics, and mobile engagement). Kofax intelligent automation is the combination of artificial intelligence and automation technologies that enable organizations to achieve operational excellence and transform customer experiences.
Featured image: ©Raw Pixel
