Ahead of Corinum’s AUTOMATE : 2018 event in Melbourne (27-28 February, 2018) we caught up with Nishad Mehare, Lead Business Analyst (Robotic Process Automation), Telstra, to talk about best practice and his thoughts about what an ideal RPA Implementation Framework should consider and how best to preempt or avoid some of the most commonly occurring issues and scenarios.
There is a lot of buzz at the moment around AI, RPA, machine learning etc. What does the future hold really with all these technologies going through such a big growth at the moment?
[NM] Currently there aren't many tools that provide a direct link between RPA-AI-Machine learning and hence there isn't a one-stop solution at present that might enable an organisation to implement all 3 at once. There is a high-possibility that one of the RPA product teams develop a solution which would provide a common minimum framework integrating RPA-AI and Machine Learning that organisations would be able to adapt and improve upon depending on the need or requirements within the organisations.
Additionally, the big software giants such as Oracle, Microsoft, SalesForce, SAP etc. currently do not have any built-in capabilities for RPA or AI. The next step for these giants ideally will be providing built-in RPA flows or AI framework in the newer versions of their products. This way organisations would not have to implement RPA/AI as additional layers on top of these products. This will open up an entirely new set of opportunities for organisations where manual workflows would already be available within the products; thus eliminating the need to perform repeatable tasks using human resources at any given point with minimum supervision.
What would be your best tips for organisations who are looking to get started with intelligent automation? What is the business case?
[NM] While implementing RPA for even the most simple processes, few of the really basic things I have seen organisations miss is identifying the opportunities re-engineering processes because there hasn't been a fresh pair of eyes looking at any process for a very long time, updating their process documentation to incorporate the changes in the process/application & lack of knowledge sharing within teams thus increasing dependency on limited member in a team in some cases drastically. Therefore, a simple recommendation would be to put these things in place to ensure adequate coverage.
There are multiple ways intelligent automation can help integrate one of more blocks within the organisation that are currently operating independently such as sales, products, billing, revenue management etc. While intelligent automation can integrate them, it can also provide the necessary controls that would enable accuracy, monitoring, reporting and efficiency at different levels that we cannot fathom with manual workforce in place. Imagine the advantage it would provide an organisation in any domain in the competitive environment that exists today!
Do you see RPA as a gateway technology to true AI?
[NM] AI has existed without RPA for a while and in many fields, it has identified and helped implement improvements in many organisations & fields. RPA in a way provides the consistency, efficiency & accuracy that provide better inputs into AI and thus would enable AI to give the best output that it can.
How do you see the industry changing over the next few years?
[NM] I have partly answered this question as a part of Q1. We are already seeing the life-sized robots such as Sophia from Hanson Robotics that can interact with humans pretty much like any other human being. So apart from the industrial and organisational spaces, we will see the influence of RPA, AI in our day to day life or daily chores as well.
Will intelligent automation be a threat to the existing workforce?
[NM] The perception that 'a BOT would do my job' sounds very negative or threatening indeed but the way I look at it is with the Robots doing things that currently humans are involved in, we as humans would be able to do things that really require a human touch or human intelligence. This would provide a lot of us with an opportunity to pick-up and learn something new. There may not be opportunities for the existing workforce to do the same sort of tasks that some of us do today but there certainly would be a skill upgrade that would be required. This might start at the college level with the introduction of some new courses. But if automation closes one door, it would open some more opportunities that would be able to accommodate the existing workforce with some skill upgrade.
About
Nishad Mehare is Lead Business Analyst (Robotic Process Automation), Telstra.
See Nishad present at the upcoming Automate Melbourne Event as he makes his presentation on - Setting the stage for a champion RPA Strategy
