taking automation to the next level...increasing availability and use of artificial intelligence and...

Executive Study

Taking Automation to the Next Level How to Scale RPA from the Tactical to the Strategic

A Teknowlogy Group White Paper, Sponsored by Blue Prism Cloud, part of Blue Prism

Taking Automation to the Next Level – Copyright teknowlogy Group 2019 2

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………….…………….……….3

KEY FINDINGS……………………………………………………………………..……4

PREPARING FOR LAUNCH…………………………………………………………...5

GETTING OFF THE GROUND………………………………………………………....9

SCALING THE HEIGHTS……………………………………………………………..17

CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS………………………………………....25

METHODOLOGY…………………………………………………………………...….28

ABOUT BLUE PRISM CLOUD ..……………………………………….…………….29

ABOUT TEKNOWLOGY GROUP……………………………………………………30


INTRODUCTION

Robotic automation (RPA) has already become a critical element of digital

transformation strategy across all industry sectors.

From banks to manufacturers to public sector agencies, the automation of specific

parts of the organization is viewed as essential to unlocking the agility, speed and

efficiency that they need to respond to rapidly changing customer needs and an

evolving competitive landscape.

But the use of RPA is about to enter an important and challenging new phase, as

many businesses look to move on from a period of experimentation to a focus on

achieving deeper transformation.

Many organizations have adopted RPA solutions at a tactical level, leveraging

software “bots” to handle repeatable manual processes. This has often been as

part of focused digital transformation projects playing out across different

departments and siloes, with little coordination.

This has led to a situation where many businesses are struggling with a fragmented

landscape of automation projects, making it difficult to stay on top of issues such

as licensing costs and bot utilization. A lack of a clear joined-up strategy also makes

it more challenging to get both line-of-business leaders and the wider workforce to

buy-in to an extended and more effective use of automation technology.

At the same time, automation technology is maturing and opening up new

possibilities to buyers, with RPA solutions increasingly incorporating machine

learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to enable more predictive and proactive

approaches. We are now in the era of Intelligent Automation.

In order to understand how experienced automation users have successfully got

their early initiatives off the ground and explore the tactics they are deploying to

drive scale, industry analysts teknowlogy Group has undertaken a major new study

based on interviews with 100 senior business and technology executives at leading

UK organisations.

This report discusses the technology and operational challenges that these

stakeholders have faced, from how they developed the business case and

prioritized processes for automation, through to the governance structures they

have put in place to drive buy-in from all parts of the organization.

The report also offers practical guidance to senior decision-makers that are looking

to learn lessons in how to lay the right foundations for developing a truly scalable

strategy for automation.

Nick Mayes, Principal Analyst


KEY FINDINGS

UK businesses are aiming high with their automation strategies

60% of strategy leaders are aiming to automate more than 10% of their

processes within the next five years. This is double the current level.

Early automation initiatives have delivered on their promise…

55% stated that the results of their early automation initiatives met their

expectations, while 44% said they exceeded them.

…But the goals for automation initiatives are evolving

50% cite improving productivity and cost reduction as the main goals of their

early automation initiatives. But improving business outcomes and

accelerating speed to market will be key drivers for future initiatives.

Intelligent automation is seen as a game-changer

71% of automation strategy leaders believe that the use of machine

learning/AI technology in automation could have a transformational impact on

their business.

Business will take a hybrid approach to driving scale

25% already have a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in place to drive adoption

and standardization of automation across the organization, but 79% see

expanding their distributed teams as key to driving scale.

Complexity, licensing & utilization are the main technology challenges

to scaling automation

31% cite the cost and complexity of bot lifecycle management as the primary

challenge, with a quarter naming software licensing and low utilization levels

as the biggest issues they have faced.

Skills and stakeholder engagement are the biggest operational barriers

30% identify a lack of skilled resources as the main operational challenge to

scaling automation, with 24% citing a lack of engagement between business

and IT leaders.

Automation strategies are being driven from the top

55% of organizations stated that their CEO is involved in building the business

case for new automation initiatives.


PREPARING FOR LAUNCH: Choosing The Right Processes, Measures & Goals

Many large and medium sized UK organizations have been exploring the potential

of automation technology for several years.

Brands as diverse as EDF, HSBC, Unilever and Vodafone have put automation at

the heart of their future strategies as they look to re-wire what are often decades

old processes that underpin key moving parts of their business.

But how did these organizations get their early initiatives off the ground, and what

lessons can those businesses that are currently at an earlier stage in their

automation journey take away from this experience?

Industry analyst firm teknowlogy Group undertook briefings with 100 senior

automation strategy leaders at UK organizations with more than 1,000 employees

to better understand their progress. These stakeholders, which included CEOs,

Line of Business leaders and Heads of Technology, are overseeing the adoption

of automation at companies in sectors including financial services, manufacturing,

utilities and government. A more detailed breakdown of the sample of this study

can be found at the conclusion of this document.

One of the first aspects of building an automation strategy is to set out what you

want to try and achieve. The study found that cost reduction was the primary

motivation behind many of the first wave of automation initiatives, with 42% citing

it as the main goal, including 46% of participants in the life sciences segment and

45% of retail executives.

42%

of automation strategy

leaders stated that cost

reduction was the main

goal behind their early

initiatives.


What were the main goals of organizations’ early initiatives in automation?

The second biggest target for early automation initiatives was improved productivity

(31%), and this was the number one driver cited in the manufacturing sector (47%).

Rolls Royce, is one of UK manufacturing’s most forward-thinking organizations in

extending its use of automation beyond the production line and into other parts of

the business. The company’s treasury function, for example, has managed to

reduce the time it takes to close each month from four days to a matter of seconds,

by automating the collection of data from underlying financial systems.

Another key question for businesses preparing to tackle automation for the first

time is how to identify the processes to prioritise. For the majority (61%), the starting

point was to focus on the most under-performing processes, and this was the

particularly the case in the financial services sector (75%). Less than one third of

participants stated that they decided to start by focusing on those processes that

would deliver the fastest RoI or by providing employees with tools to experiment.

This is understandable. It is typically more straightforward for strategy leaders and

other key stakeholders to point to those parts of the organization that are broken

and to build a business case for automation based on fixing or streamlining the

component processes. But as we shall explore later in the report, the focus for new

initiatives is clearly evolving as usage matures.

How did organizations first identify the areas of greatest potential benefit for intelligent automation?

42%Cost

reduction

31%Improved

productivity

13%Improved business

outcomes

12%Improved speed to

market

© teknowlogy Group, 2019

Focused on most under-performing processes

Providing key employees with

tools to experiment

Leveraging existing use cases

at other businesses

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61% 31% 21% 3%

Identifying areas that will deliver the fastest ROI


What type of processes were the focus for early automation efforts? Perhaps

surprisingly, two thirds (67%) of the participants said that they started out by

automating “critical business processes", rather than customer-facing processes

(20%) or non-core back office processes (13%).

This is an interesting finding. Of course, the definition of what is mission critical

varies from one company or industry to the next. Rather than testing the water by

automating low-impact, low-risk processes, many businesses have chosen to

initially look at more important aspects of the organization. This is in tune with the

earlier goal of cost reduction and the focus on the most under-performing

processes, but there are some interesting differences across vertical sectors.

In the financial services sector, an overwhelming 75% stated that they started their

automation journey by focusing on mission critical processes, with the repetitive

transactional nature of many parts of their day-to-day operations making them ripe

for automation. One UK bank has used automation software to automate the

process of processing payment protection insurance (PPI) claims. Despite having

a team of several hundred staff to tackle the claims, the bank faced a huge

challenge due to so much of its historical customer information being buried in

multiple legacy systems, including a lot of duplicate data. By automating several

aspects of the claims process, the bank has saved thousands of hours of manual

effort each week, and put itself on track to meet strictly regulated deadlines for

handling each claim.

In contrast, automation leaders in the retail sector have been much more focused

on automating customer-facing front office processes. More than one third (36%)

stated that this was the starting point for automation, as they looked to drive

improvement at the all-important customer interface. Key use cases in this area

include contact centre automation, chat bot operation, complaints handling and

trade planning.

What were the first processes that organizations selected for automation?

67%

Critical business

processes

20%

Customer-facing

front office

processes

13%

Non-core back

office processes

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9


How do organizations measure the success of their automation investments?

How did organisations measure the success of the early automation initiatives?

Given that the business case was largely based on achieving cost reduction and

improved productivity, it is not surprising that cost savings (35%) and output

increases (41%) ranked as the major measures of success. This was the case

across major industry sectors, but as we shall see, as the business cases for

automation evolve, so will the way that organizations assess its value.

One of the clearest findings from the study was that automation strategy leaders

have an overwhelmingly positive view of the impact of their early initiatives. More

than half (55%) of participants in the study stated that their initial projects met their

expectations, whereas a further 44% claimed that they exceeded them.

The feedback was most positive from executives in the utilities and public sector,

where 58% and 52% respectively said that their early automation projects had

delivered results that exceeded their expectations. In contrast, just 8% of financial

services executives gave this response, with over 90% stating that their initial

engagements met their expectations. This reflects the fact that banks and

insurance companies led the first wave of adoption of automation solutions over

the course of the last decade at a time when there was little precedent to inform

how they developed their strategies and business case.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Automation strategy leaders have a highly favourable view of the impact of their

early automation initiatives.

These first wave projects have been largely aimed at driving out cost and improving

productivity, and this has been reflected in the way that automation strategy leaders

have measured their success. The initial focus for automation strategies has been

on under-performing business critical processes, and it is encouraging that even

with a focus on important areas of the organization, many executives felt that their

initial expectations for what automation could deliver had been exceeded.

In the next section of the report, we will look at the factors that strategy leaders

believe were key to the success of their early initiatives, and how they tackled the

challenges they encountered on the first stages of their automation journeys.

41%Productivity/

output

increase

35%Cost savings

14%Process

simplification

1%FTE hours saved


11%Customer

satisfaction


GETTING OFF THE GROUND: Early Challenges and Critical Success Factors

Automation strategy leaders have had positive experiences from their early

initiatives, but what were the factors to which they credit their success?

The participants in the study suggest that positive outcomes are driven by a number

of different levers, rather than by any single solution. More than one quarter of

executives cite both putting the right governance structure in place and selecting

the right processes for automation as being of high importance, while 24% state

that engaging the right stakeholders in the decision-making process is also a key

success factor.

Again, there are some interesting differences across industry sectors. Some 42%

of executives in the utilities and financial services sectors cited the governance

structure as the top success factor, while for their peers in the transport and public

sectors, it was selecting the right processes for automation that topped the list for

close to a third of participants (30%).

Engaging the right stakeholders was seen as the top success factor by more than

a quarter (28%) of organizations in the public sector, but perhaps one of the most

interesting findings from the study is the level and diversity of management and

leadership that is involved in shaping automation strategies.

42%

of automation strategy

leaders in the utilities

and financial services

sectors view their

governance structure as

critical to the success of

their early initiatives.


What were the key success factors behind any successes in organizations’ early automation initiatives?

More than one half of automation strategy leaders (55%) stated that their CEO was

involved in building the initial business case for automation (including 66% of

participants from the financial services sector), while a further 45% said that their

COO or Head of Operations was involved. Technology leaders are also putting

their shoulder to the wheel, with 43% acknowledging the involvement of their Head

of Digital/Chief Digital Officer and 39% pointing to backing from the CIO or head of

the enterprise IT function.

This is a very encouraging finding. As organizations look to scale up their

automation adoption from a tactical to a strategic level, it becomes crucial to have

guidance and involvement for all the impacted areas of the business in order to

shape a strategy that benefits the wider organization, encourages consistency in

approaches and drives buy-in from the workforce.

As we have seen, getting the right governance structure in place was seen as one

of the most important enablers for success, and one aspect of this can be the

creation of a Centre of Excellence (CoE). This is typically established with the aim

of enabling different divisions and functions to create virtual workforces and realize

automation opportunities that improve efficiency, control and client experience.

Which stakeholders were involved in building the initial business case for automation?

Selecting the right processes for automation

Engaging the right

stakeholders

Building the right business case

Getting buy-in from the

workforce

Putting the right

governance structure in

place

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29% 26% 24% 17% 12% 7%

Finding the technology

platform that best suited our needs

55%CEO

45%COO

43%Head ofDigital

30%CFO


39%IT Leadership

18%Line of

Business

Leaders

25%Head of Shared

Services


Just under a quarter (24%) of participants said that they had a CoE in place, with

adoption highest in the manufacturing, financial services and utilities sectors. One

major international bank said that the CoE has helped it to establish the “rules of

the game” in terms of what the organization wants to achieve with automation and

how it plans to achieve it. This has helped it take adoption beyond pockets of the

business to helping the whole organization change the way it works.

Where this CoE sits within this organization varies from one company to another.

For some, it resides in the group technology function (including more than 80% of

the participants in the study with an active CoE); for others it is part of a shared

business services division. But the most important factor is that it must be

centralized, and it must have the power to pollinate guidance, expertise and

direction across the organization.

Another financial institution stated that its biggest challenge has been balancing

the need to equip the workforce with the tools that they need to accelerate their use

of automation at pace, while ensuring it is done in a controlled manner. This is a

major undertaking, given that the organization is on track to have more than 1,000

robots running in its business within the next six months, supporting critical

functions such as clearing and settlement, client support and risk control.

The company’s automation strategy leader has tackled this by creating a central

control framework, that manages the implementation and use of robots across the

business, providing clear guidance and controls to manage the firm’s risk. It has

implemented a federated operating model to empower business-led automation

while driving scale and value realization. The CoE hands over the keys of building

the business case for automation adoption and implementing specific projects to

the business leaders, but it ensures that while the actors change, the rules and the

tools stay the same.

Have organizations created a dedicated CoE to support automation? It so, where is it located?

No Yes Within another centralized

function

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76% 24% 83% 17%

Within a group technology

function


Another key finding from the study is that organizations are building significant

internal resources to drive their automation strategies forward. Some 44% of

participants stated that they had a team of between 10 to 50 employees tasked

with driving the use of automation within their organization. As would be expected,

larger businesses have bigger teams. More than 70% of companies with over

10,000 employees have dedicated automation units consisting of in excess of 50

employees. The reverse is true for smaller companies, with three quarters (75%)

of organizations with between 1,000 to 5,000 employees having automation teams

of fewer than 50 staff.

Attracting and retaining the right skills relating to business processes and

automation technology is crucial to any project success, but it is not viewed by

strategy leaders as one of the more significant challenges that they faced with their

early initiatives. Less than a quarter of executives (22%) flagged up access to skills

as one of the major hurdles that they had to overcome. In contrast, building the

business case was named as a major challenge by 44% of participants, with low

adoption and usage levels (34%) and engaging process subject matter experts

(SMEs) (25%) viewed as the other two biggest obstacles.

Building the business case for exploiting a relatively new technology is never easy,

particularly when attempting to quantify the potential cost savings or productivity

gains with what can be limited insight into existing baseline levels. But it is

particularly interesting to see that a significant number of automation strategy

leaders struggled to get buy-in from the SMEs within their business.

This can be one of the most sensitive aspects of the automation journey. The

knowledge that the SMEs carry in terms of what parts of a process work and which

don’t is hugely valuable in building the business case and strategy. But at the same

time, the initiative may fundamentally change their role and they need to be given

the right incentives to adapt. One utilities operator has addressed this by creating

a new set of “Automation Champion” positions which, supported by a clear career

progression plan, gives some staff the opportunity to move into more diverse,

cross-organisational roles.

What were the key challenges that organizations faced in their early automation initiatives?

44%

Building the

business case

34%

Low adoption/

usage levels

25%

Engaging

process subject

matter experts

22%

Access to skills

12%

Complexity of

automation

technology

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13%

Buy-in from both

technology and

business leaders


Just 13% of participants stated that the complexity of the automation technology

that they deployed was a major obstacle to their early initiatives. Digging a bit

deeper, 55% of automation strategy leaders said that the experience of designing

and implementing an automation solution was easier than they expected, with just

9% stating that they found the going tougher than they had envisaged (including

12% of participants from the public sector).

This is a far-cry from the problems that businesses have suffered over the years in

introducing new technology platforms into their organization, from ERP systems

through to customer relationship management automation software. The leading

automation platforms were created during the modern era of digital transformation,

where ease of configurability and integration, and a compelling and intuitive user

interface are essential.

What criteria did executives use to select their automation platforms? Cost was

named as one of the top factors influencing the final decision by 61% of

participants, but it was interesting to see that a cloud-based delivery model was

viewed as a key factor by more than half (58%), including two-thirds (66%) of

organisations in the financial services sector.

Automation platform vendors have been shifting towards cloud-based delivery for

some time, as buyers embrace the flexibility and scalability that as-a-service

solutions can offer. This is part of a wider shift that will see cloud-based software

account for 52% of total software spending in the UK within the next five years, up

from a current level of 35%, according to teknowlogy Group’s latest forecast.

The other major shift playing out in the automation platform market is the growing

use of machine learning and artificial intelligence technology to drive enhanced

insight into process performance and enable a more proactive approach to process

optimization. Less than one third of strategy leaders said that this was a factor that

influenced their initial platform selection, but as we shall see in the next section,

this looks set to become an increasingly important aspect as automation strategies

enter a new era.

What factors influenced organizations in their selection of an automation platform provider?

61%Cost

58%Cloud based

delivery

model

52%Flexibility &

scalability of

solution


54%Technology roadmap

29%Cognitive/ AI capabilities

46%Relevant industry

references


KEY TAKEAWAYS

The study found that the large majority of automation executives considered their

early initiatives to be successful, but they do not believe there is a single magic

bullet to getting it right.

A diverse set of stakeholders need to be involved from the start. Successful

initiatives are being supported by the involvement of both business and technology

leaders, with more than half gaining backing from the highest level within the

organization.

Selecting the right processes to target and building the right business case are of

course important factors, but the top priority for businesses starting out on their

journey should be to put the right governance structure in place.

Some organisations are addressing this with the creation of an automation Centre

of Excellence (CoE), which can be a valuable asset in helping the organization take

a consistent, efficient and effective approach across the business.

Technology is not seen as a major barrier to getting started with automation, and

while selecting the right platform partner is considered an important success factor,

many are taking advantage of the increasing availability of cloud-based solutions

in order to create a more flexible, scalable and accessible technology foundation

to support their strategy.


LESSONS FROM THE FRONT LINE A Governance Model for Scaling Automation

Developing the right governance structure was highlighted in the study as perhaps

the key ingredient in a successful automation strategy.

One organization that has first-hand experience of ensuring that its approach to

governance can adapt to the changing needs of the business is Utilita, one of the

fastest-growing energy suppliers in Europe. Using its smart meter technology,

Utilita has helped to put more than 800,000 customers in control of their energy

usage and spend and estimates it has saved Britain’s households more than

£500m since 2010.

Utilita is currently several years into a long-term Intelligent Automation roadmap as

part of an overall IT Transformation strategy that moves technology from being a

support service into being the heart of the company’s ability to create long term

sustainable differentiation within the marketplace. Specifically, automation is

driving momentum behind increasing levels of business efficiencies that in turn

allow it to provide outstanding customer service.

The initial phase of the project focused on reducing the manual effort in highly

routine tasks. Early success was achieved by automating the ordering of new pre-

payment top-up cards. Previously the Revenue team carried out the process

manually: checking various systems, they would validate information before

sending an email to the card processing company detailing the payment request.

The automation team then focused on automating a range of field services

processes including scheduling appointments for field engineers to perform installs

and meter checks. The company is also using automation as a way to speed up

the way it processes and responds to customer queries, with virtual workers being

trained to read customer email correspondence and to use Natural Language

Understanding and Sentiment Analysis in order to determine the contents.

“Automation is now

considered as a viable

option for a greater

number of change

requests and projects

that are raised with IT

from the full spectrum of

the business. It

becomes an important

way in which to ensure

swift and effective

response to our internal

stakeholders,”

Glyn Turk, Head of IT

Development


Automation has also proved critical in enabling Utilita to rapidly take on customers

at a time when a growing number of challenger providers are struggling to scale.

Utilita recently onboarded approximately 31,000 customers from the failed Scottish

provider, Our Power, and a further 29,000 from Manchester-based Eversmart. In

both instances the use of digital workers to support the verification of details and

set up of new accounts within a whole new range of CRM and billing systems was

critical to being able to complete the acquisition efficiently.

The key goal behind the setup of the automation initiative was to support the

company’s transformation programme and increase Utilita’s agility. In order to

establish a strong connection with the business and stay focused on driving

business outcomes, the Automation Centre of Excellence was initially led directly

from the Business Operations team. As the programme gathers pace and scales

it has now been folded into IT Development. The programme is being led by Glyn

Turk, Head of IT Development, who states: “By placing the Automation team into

IT development, we are making sure that the automation team have access to a

wider range of tools, resources and programming expertise. This in turn helps them

integrate automations more fully with the bespoke software stack Utilita has

developed in-house. The move also means that automation is considered as a

viable option for a greater number of change requests and projects that are raised

with IT from the full spectrum of the business.”

The evolution of the programme brings the capabilities of the automation platform

into the heart of a wider IT transformation and connects it to investments in AI and

next generation architecture of systems. Rather than being seen as a standalone

technology, it becomes integral to the design of key initiatives such as enabling and

promoting customer self-service through mobile apps and online platforms.

Beyond IT, Utilita is also looking to establish a new business framework that will

further spread benefit across the organization. The plan involves creating a

framework in which a wider number of people in the business can create simpler

automations while the Centre of Excellence expert group focus their skills on more

complex, high impact processes that maximise returns. A training programme is

now underway with one business function at a time being invited to join two-to-

three hour training sessions. Following the introductory course, members of the

Automation CoE team up with their colleagues in a buddy system to help them set

up their first digital worker task. Once the business users are up and running

however, no support will be needed other than the review and approval of

automations before they are put into production.

An important factor in the success of Utilita’s automation journey has been a flexible

approach to deployment, where it has not sought to solve operational issues in a

rigid, singular fashion. Ian Burgess, Director of Information Technology at Utilita

explains: “Be selective and distinguish between the needs of different processes

and scenarios. As new processes and complimentary technologies are rolled out,

automation can be baked into the overall design to maximise the effectiveness of

the total investment and create an otherwise unachievable outcome.”

“As new processes and

complimentary

technologies are rolled

out, automation can be

baked into the overall

design to maximise the

effectiveness of the total

investment and create

an otherwise

unachievable outcome,”

Ian Burgess, Director of

Information Technology

at Utilita

SCALING THE HEIGHTS: The New Challenge When Automation Goes Strategic

As we have seen, UK organizations have made some significant progress in

applying automation, but the study found that the next five years will see an

explosion in usage.

The majority of businesses (68%) have applied automation to less than 10% of

their processes to date. Progress has been greatest in the life sciences and utilities

sectors, where 46% and 36% of organizations respectively have automated more

than 10% of their total processes to some extent.

Life sciences companies face huge pressure to maximize the productivity and

accelerate time-to-market for new products, while ensuring compliance with

stringent regulatory demands. One of the UK’s largest life sciences organisations

has automated processes including reporting on the impact of new products on test

patients as well as areas including order management, regulatory reporting and the

management of access to clinical data.

But one of the most interesting findings was the increase in the adoption of

automation that looks likely to play out in the coming years. While just 7% of

organizations claim to have automated more than 20% of their processes to date,

this level will increase to 38% in five years’ time, with the highest levels expected

in the retail (64%) life sciences (62%) and financial services (50%) sectors.

The appetite for automation in retail is understandable. UK retailers are under

pressure, with the British Retail Consortium recently recording the biggest monthly

decline in consumer spending in a quarter of a century. Driving productivity gains

and enhancing the customer experience have become matters of life or death.

38%

of UK organisations

expect to have

automated more than

20% of their processes

within the next five

years.


To what percentage of their processes have organizations applied automation and how will this change in the

next five years?

Another important shift will be that in parallel with the rise in volumes, the business

case for automation will also evolve.

Improving productivity will overtake cost reduction as a main goal for new initiatives,

with 44% citing it as one of their top targets, compared to the 31% of the participants

that saw it as one of the main aims of their early automation projects. Cost reduction

will continue to be an important element of automation strategies, but the other

major talking point is the growing proportion of strategy leaders (24%) citing

improved business outcomes as a key goal for their future projects, which is close

to double the level that cited it as a factor on early initiatives (13%).

The study also suggests that other areas will emerge to support the future business

case for automation. More than half (52%) of organizations state that creating new

or enhanced revenue streams will become one of the three main targets for their

future automation initiatives. It already forms an important strand of automation

strategies in retail, where organisations are using chatbots to prompt customers

with personalized offers during appropriate stages of their digital shopping journey,

based on both historical behaviour and real-time pricing and availability data.

There will also be a change in the types of processes on which organisations focus

their automation efforts. Early efforts focused on critical business processes, and

while 62% believe that they will continue to be the area where automation can

deliver the greatest business benefit, future initiatives will increasingly touch on

customer-facing front office processes (24%, versus 20% for early initiatives).

What will be the main goals of organizations’ automation initiatives over the next five years?

8%

1-3%

22%

4-5%

38%

6-10%

7%

More than 20%

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26%

11-19%

31%Cost

reduction

44%Improved

productivity

24%Improved business

outcomes

12%Improved speed to

market

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Automation strategy leaders also believe that as they look to scale their automation

usage to the next level, they will have to overcome a new set of challenges.

Whereas the biggest operational challenges for early initiatives were building the

business case, low adoption levels and engaging process subject matter experts,

the new battlegrounds will be a lack of skilled resources (30%) and driving

successful engagement between business and IT leads (24%).

Being able to recruit and retain the necessary numbers of skilled automation

practitioners will be critical if organizations are to double the coverage of

automation in their businesses during the next five years. With a highly competitive

labour market, the importance of re-training existing staff members and

establishing a supporting talent management and career progression framework

will only increase.

The majority of the participants in this study stated that both business and IT

executives were involved in helping to get their initial automation efforts off the

ground, but ongoing, effective collaboration between the two sides will be hugely

important as initiatives scale up. Both need to have a very clear view of the strategy

for automation adoption across the organization, and look to identify potential

obstacles in the wider IT roadmap. One organization in the insurance sector stated

that boardroom buy-in to its automation programme suffered a major set-back

when it started to automate processes at the same time as a major ERP systems

platform was taking effect.

Businesses also believe that the technology challenges posed by scaling

automation will be different to those that they faced at the start of their journey. The

cost and complexity of automation platforms was the main stumbling block in the

first wave of adoption, but now bot lifecycle management (31%), software licensing

and virtualization costs (26%) and low bot utilization levels (24%) are seen as the

main technology hurdles to overcome.

What are the main operational challenges that organizations face in scaling automation?

Lack of skilled resources

Engagement between

business and IT stakeholders

Lack of access to cognitive/

AI skills

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30% 24% 22% 18%

Lack of buy-in from

workforce

Not gainingthe right

sponsorshiplevel

7%


What are the main technology challenges that organizations face in scaling automation??

The challenge of bot lifecycle management is a challenge of which many

automation leaders only come to understand several months or years into their

journey. There is a huge leap in complexity from building, testing and launching a

bot to tackle a single business process, to ensuring that a team of 50 or 100 bots

supporting multiple disconnected processes and underpinning applications are

performing and working as they should be, are fully utilized, and are both secure

and compliant.

Increasingly, bot management will become an area where customers will look to

intelligent solutions that leverage AI as a way to tackle the complexity and cost of

managing teams of virtual workers. Attempting to manage bots manually –

particularly as their number increases – could severely impact any business case

based on improving efficiency or productivity.

Earlier in this study, we looked at the important role that Centres of Excellence

(CoEs) have played in helping organizations take a controlled and standardized

approach to automation adoption. But will the CoE retain its relevance as

businesses look to drive scale at speed?

While 12% of automation strategy leaders state that they believe that expanding

the team within the CoE will be the best way to accelerate the adoption of

automation across their organization, 79% favour expanding distributed teams

across the business. The remaining 9% plan to do both.

This is interesting, and suggests that while the CoE is not going to become

completely obsolete in the future, and will retain a role in managing standards,

consistency and skills development among other areas, it will be distributed teams

of process and technology expertise that will be tasked with pollinating automation

adoption across multiple business lines and departments.

Cost and complexity of bot lifecycle

management

Software licensing and virtualization

costs

Complexity of integration with existing

systems

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31% 26% 24% 15%

Low bot utilization

levels


What benefits do organizations think that increasing the use of Machine Learning/AI technology in automation can

bring to their business?

The biggest technology trend that will play out over the next five years will be the

increasing availability and use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in

enhancing automation platforms. Automation strategy leaders believe that this

could be a real game-changer, with 43% believing that it could potentially transform

a vital process or part of their business, while 28% believe that that it could

transform their entire organization. Anticipation is strongest in the retail sector,

where 82% of executives believe that the blend of AI/ML with automation could

have a transformative impact on all or part of their business, ahead of their peers

in the life sciences (77%) and manufacturing (73%) sectors.

A lack of skills was flagged up by automation strategy leaders as the biggest

challenge to driving scale, which suggests that they will be looking to lean on

external partners to support their efforts. But in a fragmented and evolving supplier

landscape, where new entrant and well established technology and IT services

providers are looking to help buyers along their journey, what type of partner do

businesses see as delivering the greatest value?

Close to a third (31%) name specialist intelligent automation platform providers as

their preferred external collaborator, while 35% see either the specialist IT services

providers or consulting firms with whom many of the platform providers work as

partners, as their favoured option. The traditional ERP platform providers are

belatedly targeting the robotic automation opportunity, but they are seen as the

most effective partner by 21% of businesses.

Which organizations do businesses see as being most effective at supporting their automation strategy?

43%It could transform a

vital part of our

business

28%It could transform our organisation

27%Very limited

benefits but worth

exploring

3%No benefit

worth exploring

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31%

Specialist intelligent

automation platform

providers

21%

ERP platform

vendors

18%

Specialist IT

services

providers

14%

Generalist IT

services

vendors

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9

17%

Consulting

firms


KEY TAKEAWAYS

Businesses are planning to massively expand their use of automation, which will

pose a new set of challenges and opportunities for automation strategy leaders.

The business case for scaling automation will move on from a pure cost reduction

argument, to one led by improving productivity and business outcomes, and factors

such as creating new revenue streams will also rise up the agenda. Customer-

facing processes will be a growing area of focus and AI/ML technology will play an

increasingly important role in enhancing existing approaches.

Skills management and ensuring successful engagement between IT and business

leaders will be the main operational challenges, while bot lifecycle management is

seen as the main technological hurdle. Expanding distributed teams of experts are

viewed as the most effective way of helping businesses scale their automation

strategies at speed, while specialist automation platform providers and their

specialist IT services and consulting partners are viewed as the most effective

source of support from the external supplier market.


LESSONS FROM THE FRONT LINE Skills Development and Platform Evolution at ESNEFT

This study highlights the huge importance that getting the right blend of skills and

underpinning technology will play in successfully scaling automation.

One interesting example of how these twin challenges can be tackled is at the East

Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), one of the largest public

healthcare trusts in the UK and an organization that is almost two years into its

automation journey.

The Trust’s Chief Technology Officer, Darren Atkins, led an ambitious programme

to support the NHS’ “Paper Switch-Off” initiative, by automating the 2,000 GP

hospital referrals it processed on a weekly basis. The Trust implemented an

Intelligent Automation platform to automate an initial two key processes; eReferrals

and Do Not Attends (DNAs); and is in the process of automating a host more.

Atkins says that building the right team has been critical to the success of

ESNEFT’s automation journey. There was a lot of debate in the initial planning

phase about whether the organisation should look to recruit external AI technology

experts to implement the programme or if it should look to internal process experts

to take the lead. In the end, it opted for the latter, with a small, diverse internal

team, only one of whom was an advanced coder. Atkins says that the team

members were selected for their logical thinking and puzzle solving abilities, as well

as their knowledge of how the hospital works on a day-to-day basis.

As a result, the automation platform that the trust selected had to be easy-to-use,

but of even greater importance, it had to be able to support the very specific

processes that ESNEFT was looking to automate. Atkins says: “We were very clear

about the processes that we wanted to automate, but we weren’t necessarily

looking for great developers. We thought that if we selected the right platform that

gave us access to advanced automation capabilities, it would be better to use

people who were more of a blank canvas in terms of automation technology, but

whose existing skills would translate well to their new role.”

“We thought that if we

selected the right

platform that gave us

access to advanced

automation capabilities,

it would be better to use

people who were more

of a blank canvas in

terms of automation

technology,”

Darren Atkins, CTO,

ESNEFT


While Atkins was clear about the initial focus areas for automation, he was also

wary that the technology platform that ESNEFT selected must give it the flexibility

and responsiveness that would enable it to tackle an evolving body of business

cases. “We recently opened a new urgent care centre, and we would not have been

able to do this if we didn’t have a number of key processes up and running. In order

to do this, we needed a new environment with three virtual workers within a 12-

hour framework. If we had to do this with a non-cloud solution, it could have taken

months to put the right architecture and security controls in place.”

ESNEFT uses an intelligent automation platform from Blue Prism Cloud, running in

Microsoft’s Azure environment. Atkins says that using a cloud-based service has

eased the burden on his internal team to manage aspects such as managing

upgrades and patch releases, which are dynamically handled by the partners.

Atkins said: “Some robots only go through platform upgrades once a year, which is

a concern if you think how quickly the pace of technology change is moving.”

ESNEFT is now 18 months into its automation journey, so what are the other key

lessons that Atkins has learned along the way?

He believes that it is the “Intelligent” aspect that delivers the real value in

automation. “We made sure that the robots are able to think for themselves. We

have a very low exceptions rate of less than 3%, whereas I’ve seen other examples

where the automation fails eight times out of ten.” Atkins also highlights the

importance of having an intelligent orchestration layer in improving areas such as

utilization. “We know what processes we want the robots to run, and the platform

decides itself what the best time would be to run them. For example, we always

experience a spike in referrals on the Tuesday following a Bank Holiday weekend,

so bots that are supporting other processes can be tasked with helping out. The

platform decides what is important based on the business rules that I’ve set.”

The study also highlighted that many organisations are focusing their automation

efforts on critical business processes, and Atkins believes that strategy leaders

should aim high. He states: “A lot of organizations focus on automating back office

corporate functions because they are low-risk, and if it goes wrong, it won’t really

impact the business. But we want to focus on our frontline services and improving

the lives of patients. We are using virtual workers to support areas as critical and

sensitive as managing patients on cancer pathways, and we can do this because

we have faith in our choice of platform. Be ambitious, and always ask why you are

automating, and who will benefit?”

“Be ambitious, and

always ask why you are

automating, and who will

benefit?”

Darren Atkins, CTO,

ESNEFT


CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

Intelligent Automation has entered the business mainstream, and buoyed by the

success of their early initiatives, strategy leaders are planning to dramatically step

up their usage from a tactical to a strategic level.

In just five years’ time, many companies across all major industry sectors will have

automated as much as 20% of the different moving parts of their business in order

to become leaner, faster and more in tune with the changing expectations of their

workforce and their customers.

One of the key takeaways from this study is that even if your own organization is

not planning to double its use of automation in the coming years, many of your

peers and competitors are doing precisely that with the belief that it could help them

transform a significant part of their business.

The study highlights the clear differences between building a successful plan of

action for starting out on an automation journey, and ensuring that the right building

blocks are in place to scale up across the organisation. The business case evolves

to take a broader view beyond cost and productivity, and new challenges emerge

in terms of governance, stakeholder engagement and bot lifecycle management.

Strategy leaders also need to consider how they can strike a balance between

ensuring a consistent and efficient approach to automation across the business

through a centralized function, and the benefits that a more distributed model can

bring in helping accelerate adoption across different silos. The key considerations

for early adopters and more mature consumers are set out in the chart on the

following page.

However, even those companies just embarking on their automation journey

should plan for scale at the earliest possible stage. Ensure that the governance

structure, skills development plan and automation software platform are able to flex

beyond single use cases and that the right foundations are in place to help your

organization take full advantage.

The use of Intelligent Automation is about to enter a new and exciting phase, as

consumers are increasingly able to leverage artificial intelligence and machine

learning technology. Automation strategy leaders already see huge potential in how

it can help them transform the way that they currently manage large parts of their

current operations, but also how it could open the doors for creating new growth

opportunities.

Those executives in a position to take advantage of the shift in the short-term, put

themselves in a good position to shape the future direction of their company as well

as their industry.


KEY CONSIDERATIONS

Automation stakeholders face a different set of challenges depending on whether

they are in the early stages of getting their automation initiatives off the ground, or

scaling up their existing initiatives to the next level. In the table below, we set out

the key differences, based on the findings from the study.

Early Initiatives Scaling Initiatives

Key Goals Cost reduction, productivity

improvement

Productivity gains, improved business outcomes, create

and enhance new revenue streams

Focus Areas &

Coverage

<10% of processes automated

across the organization, focus on mission critical processes

>20% automation of processes

becomes commonplace, growing focus on customer-

facing processes

Governance Centre of excellence leads

standardization and consistency

Distributed teams of experts

expanded to drive scale across silos

Technology

Challenges

Cost and complexity of

platforms

Bot lifecycle management,

licensing and virtualization

Operational

Challenges

Building the business case, low

adoption and usage levels

Access to skills, collaboration between IT and business

stakeholders

Key Success

Factors

Selecting appropriate

processes, getting the business case right, leadership

engagement

Internal skills development,

ensuring scalability of technology platform to ensure

security and compliance


BUYER CHECKLIST

Choose the right processes. Not every use case is suitable for automation

and assuming that it is a silver bullet solution from the start can damage any

transformation program. Each automation needs to stand alone and justify

itself from a financial and technical perspective. Identify potential blockers at

an early stage or risk a long-term backlash from the business.

Skills development is essential. Establish a training curriculum and create

clearly defined skills map to ensure that resources within both IT and business

units can upskill into coaching roles to accelerate adoption across the

organization.

Manage user expectations. One common experience among automation

users is that the level of expectation among the workforce for what software

bots can actually deliver is very high – particularly if they are underpinned by

intelligent machine learning or cognitive technology. Be clear in terms of what

users can expect in terms of added value, and in the level of training that the

bots will require in order to avoid a loss of interest further down the road.

Engage IT at an early stage. Many automation strategies are being led from

outside the traditional IT function, but that does not mean that it should be

side-lined completely. The CIO is a hugely important ally in ensuring that

aspects such as user acceptance testing are run smoothly, managing

potential cyber risk and in providing a clear view of when any changes are

going to made to the applications that are impacted by bot automation.

Evolve and mature. Nobody knows everything before they start, so do not

be too rigid or dogmatic in your approach. The benefits and risks that were

identified at the beginning of the journey will change over time. Set up the

processes, working groups and forums to evaluate and evolve the operating

model to ensure that it stays in tune with the changing needs of the business.

Plan for the intelligent era. RPA is rapidly evolving into intelligent

automation. Strategy leaders need to plan to have the right skills, technology

and structures in place in order to gain rapid access to cognitive and AI talent

and tools as they scale their initiatives. Look to use an automation platform

that can can take an intelligent approach to supporting critical areas such as

bot orchestration, lifecycle management and security.


METHODOLOGY

The results of this study are based on telephone briefings with senior business

leaders at large and medium-sized business based in the UK.

All participants are involved in leading the intelligent automation strategy of their

organization, including both business and technology leaders. Job titles that

participated in the study included CEOs, CFOs, Operations Directors, Line of

Business leaders, Chief Digital Officers and Chief Information Officers.

The field research was undertaken during the third quarter of 2019, and included

participants from seven major industry sectors: financial services; manufacturing;

life sciences; public; retail; transport; and utilities. A breakdown of the study

sample can be found below.

Telephone briefings with 100 senior business and technology leader with responsibility

for leading their organisation’s process automation strategy

SectorCompany Size Job Title

The survey was run in Q3 2019

1,000-5,000 employees

>10,000 employees

52%

Public Sector

Life Sciences

50%

33%

Transport Financial Services

Manufacturing

Retail

Utilities25%

15%

13%

12%12%

11%

12%

CEO

,M

D

CFO

CO

O

Sh

are

d

Se

rvic

es

Lin

e o

f

Bu

sin

ess

6%

10%

30%

6%

11%

17%

5,000-10,000 employees

CD

O

24%

CIO

13%


ABOUT BLUE PRISM CLOUD

Blue Prism Cloud, previously known as Thoughtonomy, delivers an artificial

intelligence (AI) driven intelligent automation platform that enables organizations

and the people they employ to do more and achieve more. A leading provider of

intelligent, cloud-based automation, the company’s award-winning Software as a

Service (SaaS) platform gives companies access to a pool of cloud based

intelligent digital workers that can perform the repetitive, time-intensive tasks that

slow people down. By integrating this digital workforce with their human teams,

companies can accelerate growth and achieve a step change in efficiency. Blue

Prism Cloud has grown at a rapid rate since being founded in 2013, with more than

200 customers using its platform in 29 countries spread across four continents, and

became part of Blue Prism in 2019, to add the SaaS offering into its wider

Connected-RPA portfolio. Visit cloud.blueprism.com to learn more.

https://cloud.blueprism.com/


ABOUT TEKNOWLOGY GROUP

teknowlogy Group is the leading independent European research and consulting

firm in the fields of digital transformation, software, and IT services. It brings

together the expertise of three research and advisory firms, each with a strong

history and local presence in the fragmented markets of Europe: Ardour Consulting

Group, CXP and PAC (Pierre Audoin Consultants).

We are a content-based company with strong consulting DNA. We are the

preferred partner for European user companies to define IT strategy, govern teams

and projects, and de-risk technology choices that drive successful business

transformation.

We have a second-to-none understanding of market trends and IT users’

expectations. We help software vendors and IT services companies better shape,

execute and promote their own strategy in coherence with market needs and in

anticipation of tomorrow’s expectations.

Capitalizing on more than 40 years of experience, we operate out of seven

countries with a network of 140 experts.

For more information, please visit www.teknowlogy.com and follow us on Twitter or

LinkedIn.

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