Should you standardise before you automate?

There is an ongoing debate, and an important one, over the necessity of standardising business processes before automating them with technologies like RPA and Intelligent Automation. Logically, it makes sense that you would. Why automate an inconsistent process? Yet, of course, nothing is ever that simple, and we need to consider the bigger picture.

Firstly, are standardisation and automation mutually exclusive?

Secondly, in some organisations, by the time you’ve mapped and standardised everything, years have passed, and your competitors have automated already and are operating at a fraction of the cost that you are.

A better approach

A different way of thinking about this:

Take a holistic approach to service and process design that combines standardisation, simplification, intelligent automation and technology enhancements to reimagine your services and processes.

Bring together a cross-disciplined team for the design activity. Mobilise a team that brings operational excellence, customer experience, intelligent automation and a technology perspective. Practice the art of the possible together in designing your future state.

Build a transformation plan that unlocks value early and often by sequencing improvements in the correct order. You may, for example, need to implement a workflow orchestration layer to enable a consistent process and data capture before you truly unlock the power of RPA and complementary Intelligent Automation capabilities.

Getting the basics right and considering your current level of maturity is important. However, it should not stop you from designing a future state that combines simple process optimisation with the technology and automation capabilities available to you today. Aside from the value you unlock, it will be hugely motivational for your people to visualise a transformational future state and a logical route to it.