Analysis

Breaking through the barriers

Delivering breakthrough outcomes from intelligent automation

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Beyond RPA: The path to intelligent automation

Most enterprise leaders today recognize that intelligent automation—the next evolution of robotic process automation (RPA)—has the potential to transform productivity, improve accuracy, reduce costs, and improve customer and employee experiences. Yet many organizations indicate that these investments have missed the mark in delivering targeted benefits.

Too often, companies are trapped by walls of their own making. We see four common barriers that limit the success of intelligent automation (IA) initiatives. Breakthrough value can only be achieved by breaking through these barriers.

Barrier 1

Siloed transformation priorities

Behind the barrier

Improvement initiatives delivered within a single line of business or within narrow functional walls can prevent companies from getting the most out of their IA investments. Oftentimes, executives have incentives to focus on the issues and metrics within their own areas, leading to separate transformation agendas across business units and functions. When initiatives are not coordinated—upstream and downstream—impacts and dependencies across end-to-end processes are missed, slowing success and even negating improvements made in other areas.

What leading companies get right

With an end-to-end lens, teams can build solutions that address the root of the issue, rather than building a combination of “patches” downstream where the impact is felt.

Barrier 2

Old tools misapplied to new challenges

Behind the barrier

In the rush to seize opportunities on the horizon, organizations too often lean into familiar technologies. In the process, they may overlook or shy away from other solutions that can deliver better, more transformational outcomes. Leaders who are under the gun to deliver quickly often worry that selecting, learning and adopting a suite of technologies will slow the pace—and in the meantime, business priorities may shift.

What leading companies get right

Teams with specialized knowledge in specific solutions are brought together, alongside business stakeholders, to take a holistic view of the process and the multitude of technology options available to them.

Barrier 3

Technology initiatives decoupled from process improvement

Behind the barrier

Transformation initiatives that focus on technology solutions alone can overlook opportunities to standardize and streamline processes—thereby building a set of tools for broken or suboptimized processes. This fragmentation positions teams to focus on challenges within an overly narrow piece of an end-to-end process and leads to solutions that typically have limited value and cannot be scaled.

What leading companies get right

The introduction and expansion of intelligent automation serves as a catalyst for taking a fresh look at what business problems are being solved and then for senior business and IT leaders to create excitement around a future-state vision that carries a sense of purpose that goes beyond simply solving point problems.

Barrier 4

Project metrics misaligned with business goals

Behind the barrier

When it comes to investing in intelligent automation, organizations that target an overly narrow benefit (e.g., labor cost reduction) or focus on metrics that do not translate to business value (e.g., how many bots are deployed) struggle to create meaningful impact. Many organizations struggle to gain alignment and then to calculate and communicate the impacts. Even organizations that are narrowly focused on cost reduction and revenue impacts struggle to track these measures.

What leading companies get right

Leading companies establish a comprehensive set of measures to evaluate the impact of IA solutions that directly support strategic priorities (e.g., customer growth, profitability, employee retention). They then establish disciplined tracking of these measures and communicate the value delivered broadly across the organization.

Conclusion

Break through the barriers

The horizons of possibility for intelligent automation grow more expansive by the day. But reaching those horizons is impossible if you’re stuck in old mindsets and processes, and/or relying on the wrong technologies and metrics.

It takes big-picture thinking, ambitious vision and cross-functional collaboration to drive value through intelligent automation. You can streamline investments, create operational flexibility and unlock greater value by:

Reimagining workflows and how teams collaborate and deliver services to create new experiences for customers and employees
Retooling transformation teams with a broader set of technology capabilities including IA
Reprioritizing solutions to focus on top opportunities with measurable impacts across the enterprise

Being aware of the barriers discussed in this paper will help you deliver breakthrough value from your IA investments.

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Breaking through the barriers

Delivering breakthrough outcomes from intelligent automation