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RPA/AI/ML Service Provider - To Be Or Not To Be

As with the global organisations, IT services companies too are exploring various offerings in Robotics Process Automation, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning and if these services make sense for company's positioning, growth and profitability. Various financial, operating, human resource, governance models are being experimented by and within companies. Most popular service offerings in these areas are:  1. Professional Services - Consulting (Automation Potential Assessment, Building Road-map, Tool Selection, Cost Benefit Analysis, Center of Excellency Setup Services, Audit services) 2. Professional Services - Training  3. Professional Services - Implementation (Design, Build, Run and Maintenance) 4. License Resell Services It has been observed that consulting based assignments tend to more profitable than implementation and resell services. IT companies don't qualify their offerings on "profitability" alone but als

How to create Digital Transformation Business Case ?

Assumptions : Most of the business case are projected over period of three years. No of working days are considered to be 22 Per month. No of working hours are assumed as 8 Hours. Costs : Platform Cost (One Time) Platform Cost (Annual Recurring) One Time Development  Annual Maintenance (depreciating over period of three years) Hardware Setup (On-premise) Or Hardware over cloud costs Business SME costs (opportunity cost due to Project involvement) Benefits : Hard benefits --> Prelude - Scientific Calculation of "Average Handling Time" reduction. In some case AHT can be reduced by 100% (unassisted automation or straight through processing) and in other AHT can be reduced partially (assisted automation) Total Hours Saved = AHT Reduction X Annual No. of transactions Part A : Total $ savings = Hours X Per hour fully loaded cost of business resource Part B : Cost Saved due to additional costs (over-time) Pat C : Cost Saved due to additional resources (Te

Digital Labor - Where & How to Start ?

Robotic Process Automation is most popular tool-stack to start your journey of digital transformation. Reasons - its easy to implement and maintain, equally effective, and relatively cheap. But which business area to start with? Things to consider - Are processes efficient ? How structured is Input ? Is required output consistent or vary from transaction to transaction ? Do processes change often ? How stable is underlying applications ? How often they change ? Are process steps documented ? Or knowledge resides with business teams ?  What is ROI Expectation ? Is process big enough (in volume) to generate enough "hours saved" to justify investment ? Ideal features of business process which can yield "Pilot Bot" Structured Input Uniform processing Consistent output Limited exception handling  Not much variations Business Users are on-boarded to RPA Implementation and business team can be collocated High transaction volume Less risky to auto

Setbacks in larger scale RPA implementations

Organisational Setbacks 1.        Bots don’t justify investment … RPA Objectives need to realistic and timely monitored (and course corrected) a.        Often Organisation create very aggressive goals before starting RPA which are not course-corrected and monitored resulting in budget overshoot or expectation mismatch. 2.        Bots are not properly configured .. Business and IT have to be on boarded and should be committed a.        RPA initiatives will fail if business team sees this initiative as threat (job cuts etc.) b.        In few organisations RPA is business driven initiative bypassing IT teams which makes such program un-scalable Process Setbacks 3.        Bots are incorrectly configured … Service provider should understand business complexity a.        Often business analysts tasked with process analysis considers only “happy path” and variations come out as surprise in UAT or production 4.        Bots lack capability .. Understanding limitation