Roadmap to an Intelligent Automation Centre of Excellence

Most organisations have adopted some form of automation, though many are struggling to scale and accelerate their programs. Building an Intelligent Automation CoE (IA CoE) is unarguably one of the most important steps any organisation can take if they want to achieve digital transformation.

The main purpose of a CoE is to ensure standardised practices are in alignment with organisational goals and that automation provides synergistic benefits. Firms will need to make important decisions on when to establish a CoE, identify the most suitable CoE model, adopt best practices established by consultants, resource it appropriately, and set realistic expectations to drive automation programmes across the enterprise.

What is an Intelligent Automation CoE?

Intelligent automation (IA) CoE is a team of highly skilled individuals with well-defined roles from across the organisation working together to enable and accelerate automation adoption across the enterprise. The IA CoE helps identify automation opportunities, establish the process of automation, share best practices, select appropriate tools and technologies, and track its results. It is built around critical processes, technologies, or applications that an organisation uses for its day-to-day operations.

An IA CoE can guide organisations towards high-value and long-lasting automation initiatives by strategically using robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), and analytics to effectively accomplish its objectives of a successful and self-sustaining transformation.

When is the best time to create it?

Opportunities for automation exist in every part of an organisation. As automation scales, a well-designed Intelligent Automation CoE can be the key to success in the digital future of the organisation.

Typically, an IA CoE is established once an organisation has automated a few processes or undertaken a few proofs-of-concept and realises there are significant benefits to expanding across the business. At this point, the organisation also has a few automation experts that would be better utilised in a team designed specifically for automation initiatives.

While an IA CoE can be established right at the start of the automation journey, composed of only the four critical roles (business analyst, developer, infrastructure engineer, and C-Suite champion), once the business aligns its goals and long-term plans and automation adoption spreads within the firm, the team can be scaled.

Start with a small CoE in the initial stages of your automation journey and gradually add more roles to the CoE as automation matures and the process pipeline expands. You may not want to start with a large CoE, as costs may increase and the team will be underutilised.

Automation silos are also a key challenge in scaling automation. When pockets of automation exist in a firm and are not interconnected, businesses incur a higher cost and don’t realise tangible returns. An IA CoE can help connect these automation silos into an automation programme by connecting processes within functions, bringing in economies of scale and higher returns on investment. It’s never too late to establish and utilise the expertise and vast knowledge that industry practitioners bring. Firms with a strategy to rapidly scale their programmes need such a team to support their plans.

Why is it needed?

Organisations face multiple challenges when implementing their intelligent automation strategy. Some of these challenges include:

• Process fragmentation: In most organisations, processes are spread across different functions in the front, middle, and back offices. Implementing automation in the front office can impact stakeholders in the middle and back offices. This restricts the scope of automation and limits the benefits it can provide.
• Lack of support from IT teams: With competing priorities in IT systems management, sometimes automation takes a back seat. In addition, IT teams are focused on applications, and automation is often focused on these applications rather than a holistic view of a process.
• Limited employee engagement: While the fear of losing jobs due to automation has reduced, it is important to ensure employee engagement with these initiatives. Firms often take only a top-down approach to automation, with little or no input from the people closest to the process and process owners, leading to scepticism around these strategies.
• Lack of clear objectives and vision or clear communication: Many firms create an automation strategy but often haven’t clearly defined their goals and visions. It is critical to clearly lay out why an automation programme is needed and communicate its need across the enterprise.

What are its benefits?

An IA CoE is the backbone of a successful automation program. It brings together people, processes, and technologies so an organisation can realise its goals, save costs, and automate faster.

• Organised automation implementation: An IA CoE will help translate an organisation’s automation vision into concrete actions backed by data and expertise. It brings in a cohesive and standardised approach, sharing best practices to ensure the efficient rollout of automation projects while making sure all standards of compliance and security are met.
• Cost Management: Infrastructure costs can sometimes be prohibitive for firms and curb their automation ambitions. With an IA CoE, these costs can be easily optimised with reusable components, shared licences, and technology setup. Also, an IA CoE can identify low-hanging fruits that can provide the impetus for an effective enterprise-wide automation programme.
• Resource Management: As automation programmes scale within an organisation, an IA CoE can provide expert resources and guidance to identify and fill resource gaps, enabling better utilisation of existing resources.
• Competitive Edge: To generate and maintain a competitive advantage, businesses need to find ways to better utilise technological advancements. An IA CoE helps leverage technologies effectively to provide deeper customer insights, launch new products faster, improve process efficiencies, reduce costs, and provide a competitive edge over peers.

Now that we know an IA CoE is essential to scale and optimise the automation programme across the company, how do we start putting one together, what should its structure be and who should be on it? Read more on this in part two of this IA CoE series.

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