Taking the robot out of the human - part 2
As a reminder, the five reasons for not having started yet an RPA project / initiative:
- The cost
- No idea where to start and how to start
- The negative image of an RPA project
- Non support from Board/Exec team
- Process too complex and too specific
The first two reasons were discuss in the part - 1 .
Negative image:
When it comes to Robot Process Automation people feel very quickly, if not instantly, threaten for their job. It's clear in most people mind that robots can and might one day replace us in our job, and therefore it's hard to support this kind of project. People need to be able to have a vision for the future, and if possible a positive one.
This feeling not only come from the employees, but also from managers. The reason is slightly different, as managers are afraid to lose power. Many managers value their power and status based on the answer to the question "How many people do you manage?".
Managers are supposed to take care of their people, therefore investing in a RPA project doesn't feel like being a good manager.
All these points are valid, and link to change management and overall company strategy when it comes to training, talent fostering, core business and added value. These topics need to be addressed independently of a RPA project.
Non support from Board/Exec team:
Digitalisation, IA, AI, RPA, Cloud, Internet of things, As a Service, 5G, Big data, Quantum computing, Machine learning .... lot of buzz word in the IT world, sometimes over utilised by consulting/marketing company. All C level are being flooded by them, and under a lot of pressure to become digital leader/enabler, as this is view as the only chance for company to survive and beat competition.
I don't have a secret recipe to convince exec team, it all depends on their sensibility and which pitch they like to hear. But there are couple of points to guide you thru the presentation:
- Focus on the problem not on the solution: provide couple of real example, most likely they have encountered the pain directly or someone in their direct report. With couple of example you will get their attention.
- Explain the benefits: talking about efficiency and productivity, might lead to negative thinking of downsizing teams. Always depends on the company culture and exec agenda, but I would avoid that discussion. Focus more on real benefits, like for example: "if supply chain was spending less time on reconciling data for the goods in transit, they will be able to focus more on inventory management and strategy." reconciling data doesn't seems to add much value, but we all know people have to spend time on it, while improving inventory management will directly improve the working capital, and service level provided to the customer.
- Poke the bear: could be risky, but done properly I found it very successful. In a nutshell, find what competitors are doing on the topic. Most likely you will find one competitor that have already started the journey. Use their success story on RPA to challenge the exec member. RPA not being a new topic/technology, you are not part of the early adopter anymore, so your provider should be able to help you with industry successful use cases.
- Explain the strategy and gate control: Whatever the strategy is (iterative use cases, three year plans, MVP per team, ...), explain it to the exec including your gate control. If you are not prepare with a clear strategy for the execution, then your project will be seen as yet another fancy technology with no real use cases.
We will discuss the last point "Process too complex and too specific"in the part3 of this serie.
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