RPA is one of many automation technologies designed to automate tasks. IT leaders who have identified RPA as the best tool for their automation needs need to select the task automation scenarios where RPA is best deployed.

Ideally, any process with a clear structure, repeatability, and well-defined rules can be automated using RPA. To identify the best use cases, leaders need to consider the following four key principles in their assessment:

User number
Number of steps
complexity
stability
Establish thorough evaluation criteria

In order to accurately assess the capabilities of RPA vendors and select the best partners, domestic IT leaders should actively consult with stakeholders before and during vendor selection, prioritizing the following metrics.

Integration capability. IT leaders must ensure that vendor software is compatible with their own IT environment. To do this, you need to list all existing systems and applications that might be applied to RPA, and then divide them into three categories – popular software that is used frequently, general software that is used occasionally, and niche software that is rarely used.

User experience. End users have very unique insights into the process details of their own work. As a result, IT leaders need to communicate with business end customers and application technology professionals to get feedback on product requirements.

User experience is especially important in China. Local RPA vendors understand domestic users better, so it is easier to make the intuitive product user interface (UI) that Chinese citizen developers need. At the same time, local suppliers are also better at providing Chinese language services throughout the sales and support period.

Return on investment and total cost of ownership. Given the constraints of project budgets, domestic IT leaders tend to favor the lowest-priced RPA products. A low price is attractive, but it does not equal a high return on investment. If a low-priced product lacks key features, long-term maintenance and labor costs are very high. In short, resist the urge to choose the lowest price.

Long-term cooperation potential. Many domestic IT leaders underestimate how long it will take to work with an RPA vendor. RPA often takes years from deployment to maturity. Therefore, leaders need to determine whether the supplier has the potential to become a long-term partner. Qualified suppliers not only cover short-term automation needs, but also have an RPA product vision that matches the company’s growth strategy and long-term goals.

Establish RPA governance model

In order to push the RPA project to the mature stage and complete the RPA promotion within the enterprise organization, IT leaders need to establish the RPA governance model. In order to choose the most appropriate RPA governance model, domestic IT leaders need to prioritize the following three areas:

IT skills support
Life cycle management
Center of Excellence construction