#8 Interviewing RPA Industry Leaders and Practitioners – Narasimhan Narayanan

Narasimhan has 9+ years of IT experience with primary focus on Process Automation. He is currently working as Solution Architect – RPA Center of Excellence at Yash Technologies.

He has implemented RPA solutions in different verticals such as Banking, Insurance, Manufacturing, HRMS.

Narasimhan was recently selected as an A-Lister (MVP) by Automation Anywhere for his contribution to the RPA community.

Hobbies:

Narasimhan is a passionate photographer. He has won several awards and published articles in regional newspapers.

Few of his photographs were selected as Best by the Nat Geo Your shot editors and were published in the National Geographic Magazine online portal.

One of his work was exhibited by SeeMe in France Louvre Museum as a part of Fifth Annual Exposure Award

You can view some of his works at www.500px.com/narsitec

Small Talk

Sharath Raju:
What would be the starting point for RPA implementation in a company?

Narasimhan Narayanan:
First step could be an Interactive RPA workshop for the SMEs on Myths & Reality of an RPA Implementation. This will help the team to understand the benefits of RPA and in identifying a good RPA opportunity.

Second step is to unearth RPA opportunities within a department through a brainstorming session with SMEs and create a project pipeline.

Third step is to prioritize and identify a suitable process for PoC which interacts with more than one of the core applications. (This is the base to showcase RPA benefit to the Management and to identify a sponsor)

Next step is to compare and identify a suitable RPA product vendor involving your IT considering multiple factors such as PoC Support, License cost,Deployment and Delivery models (Cloud, Hybrid, On-Premise, SaaS), Cloud Support (AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure). Security Certifications, Audit logs, Analytics/Cognitive Capabilities, OCR, Support Matrix, Product Road Map etc.,

Next big step is to establish an effective RPA Center of Excellence and identify an implementation partner.

To avoid unfavorable costs, RPA initiatives can be started with a PoC and based on the outcome can scale the implementation.

Sharath Raju:
What is the biggest mistake that we end up doing while adopting RPA?

Narasimhan Narayanan:
There are so many parameters to talk about, some of the common mistakes are in

1. Choosing the right process/Project pipeline
   1. Should consider some of the key factors like Input type, Volume, Frequency of change, Error rate, SLA breach, Regulatory Requirements, Human Decision etc. Process with frequent changes in terms of either biz rules or application may end up investing more on redevelopment, it is always recommended to streamline/stabilize the process before automation
   2. Not utilizing the bots to the fullest. Bots are 24/7 digital workers hence it is advisable to have a good pipeline of projects.

Note: Not all process can be automated with standalone RPA, some process might require a supporting technology like OCR, Cognitive Service. If you have any existing OCR/Cognitive solution make sure it can be integrated with your choice of RPA tool

2. Right RPA Tool Selection
   1. As I mentioned above, should keep the IT in loop during the RPA tool selection considering the License cost, Deployment Model, Easy Scalability, On-Demand Services, Security Certifications, Analytics/Cognitive Capabilities, OCR, Support Matrix, Product Road Map etc

Note: Bots created in one RPA tool cannot be directly consumed/transferred by/to another RPA tool in case of change of tool at a later stage. Hence tool selection plays a major role. Despite the above fact, It is good to have a backup tool transition plan considering the rapidly evolving  RPA industry trends and competitive offerings among top RPA vendors.

Sharath Raju:
How can an organization adopt RPA Change Management?

Narasimhan Narayanan:
Change Management plays a critical role in any transformation project and the same applies to RPA. Implementing RPA will have impact on the Business and People’s current state. People is the key to drive any new initiatives. Companies should make their employees understand the benefits of RPA in their day to day operation by eliminating those repetitive mundane steps.There should be a regular upskilling session on RPA to prepare them for the change. Process current and future state should be well documented for a smooth transition. Governance with responsibility matrix should be well established.

Org IT leaders should be aware of the To Be RPA solution of the current process in terms of application data security and infrastructure, RPA CoE leaders should conduct a doubt clearing sessions with the IT leaders to address any security related questions. It is good to deploy the bots in production as two stages Soft Launch and Hypercare to avoid any SLA breaches.

Form a business & Technical combo standby team to prevent any impact on business operations during unexpected scenarios.

Set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for measuring bot performance.

Sharath Raju:
How important is analytics in RPA?

Narasimhan Narayanan:
RPA implementation always result in Qualitative and (or) Quantitative benefits. It is important to visualize these benefits through an analytical dashboard either in real time or historically to understand and publish the actual benefits to the larger group.

Analytics provide a 360 degree view of bot KPIs and will help in determining how efficient the bots are in terms of cost savings, productivity, business insights, error reduction etc.,