Management guru Peter Drucker is credited with the saying: if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. William Thomson Kelvin is said to have stated: if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. Today, we should add: if you can’t analyze it, you can neither manage nor improve it. This is why RPA analytics has become—or at least should become—an inseparable element of Robotic Process Automation solutions. It enables organizations to track, measure, and manage the performance of individual automations and entire corporate automation programs, and consequently, to move to higher levels of maturity in this area. Ultimately, it facilitates the assessment of automation’s impact on the business, particularly in terms of increased efficiency, process acceleration, and savings in both time and money.
Why do companies launch Robotic Process Automation programs? The answer is relatively simple: robots not only accelerate business processes and ensure increased productivity, but they also enhance operational precision and reduce error rates. They work consistently, according to established rules, and never get tired. This is true, of course, but one might ask: do we have to take these claims at face value? Every organization that invests in RPA wants to know how much it has actually gained by implementing a robot. Was a return on investment achieved, and if so, when? How does the robot’s performance translate into financial results—do we gain anything, and how much, thanks to such a digital worker? Furthermore, it is not the case that every implementation goes perfectly. Not every robot works flawlessly. Even a robot, or rather its creators, make mistakes that result in cases unresolved by the robot that require human intervention. This is precisely why every robot implementation should be thoroughly analyzed and its operation corrected in such a way that additional benefits can be achieved or increased. It is no coincidence that we speak of automation as a multi-year program rather than a single project. The development of such a program depends on making sound, fact-based decisions. And this is where RPA Analytics comes in—a set of tools and technologies that allow for fact-based decision-making and provide valuable information necessary to maximize the value of automation and its business impact. Robotic Process Automation analytics allows for the measurement and clear presentation of indicators such as robot productivity, process throughput, average handling time, or SLAs. Tools of this type can be used to define key success indicators and link information from RPA implementation directly to business outcomes.
How to approach RPA analytics
Suppliers of Robotic Process Automation technology offer dedicated or built-in RPA Analytics solutions that work perfectly with their platforms. Such vendor-provided integration ensures seamless analytics performance and allows not only for quick and reliable answers to key questions but also enables easy information sharing. By using such ready-made or built-in solutions, you can quickly and easily obtain up-to-date information on return on investment (ROI), the functioning of the entire RPA program, or compare individual processes. RPA Data Analytics solutions provide a complete, multi-dimensional view of the implemented RPA program while providing guidance on necessary adjustments and future development opportunities. Solutions such as UiPath Insights provide ready-made management dashboard templates that contain information about robots, processes, and business ROI. They also allow for calculating the business impact of individual automations. In other words, they enable an accurate calculation of time and money saved. All of this is fundamental information needed to improve and scale a Robotic Process Automation program.
The benefits of analyzing RPA in an enterprise
Let’s take RPA in the Human Resources department as an example. As we wrote in our blog article about
RPA in HR, robots allow for “freeing up as much as 40% of HR experts’ time,” which is all the more important as HR departments often lack staff today. If robots take over some routine tasks, the HR team will be able to focus more on processes and services that could provide the company with a competitive advantage. However, for this to be possible, data analysis and the insights derived from it are needed. In the aforementioned article, we cited a case study on HR process robotization prepared by UiPath. As UiPath reports, citing the example of one HR service provider, it is possible to precisely determine, for example, the percentage to which individual processes have been automated, as well as provide a detailed time for return on investment. For instance, in the case of academic qualification verification, the process was 50% automated, and ROI was achieved after 8 months. In the case of criminal background checks, the process was 40% automated, with ROI also achieved after 8 months. In turn, the process of checking references from employers and colleagues was 60% automated, and here ROI was achieved after just 6 months. Without analytics, all this information would be much harder to obtain and would not be entirely reliable.
Why you need to analyze the operation of RPA systems in the enterprise
Let’s look at another example we wrote about on our blog:
RPA in chatbot automation. “Robotic Process Automation + chatbot” projects bring many benefits. The most important include: better customer and employee experience, lower business costs, faster information processing, better workforce allocation, and gaining a competitive advantage. One use case is lead generation and conversion. RPA bots can interact with website visitors and register or acquire information relevant from the marketing team’s perspective. Moreover, they can also identify lead quality and increase conversion, as well as be integrated with intelligent recommendation systems to support cross-selling and up-selling activities. This is an extremely important function that translates directly into the organization’s financial results. If a company does not precisely monitor and analyze data from this area and draw conclusions to correct their operation, the gains from using robots will certainly not be maximized.
The role of RPA analytics in calculating and maximizing ROI
Calculating the return on investment in robots is essential to prove the value of robotization. Regardless of whether we want to check how much money or time we will save, or how much higher customer satisfaction will be, an analytical approach to Robotic Process Automation allows for very precise ROI calculations and its maximization across the entire program. Specialized RPA analytics solutions such as UiPath Insights allow for the use of unique KPIs and the precise definition of success. Thanks to them, you can customize the way ROI is calculated and align automation goals with the specific needs of the organization. By using a ready-made ROI management dashboard, you can start tracking the amount of time and money saved by each implemented automation. This information can be used to maximize ROI in subsequent projects.
