The basic principle of automation and the search for efficiency within business processes have been around for quite sometime. We spoke to Mathias Fransen, managing partner and founder of RoboRana, and operational manager David Van Baelen, to find out the latest.
Seven years ago, we introduced RPA to the market, and today we are still convinced it’s a technology that is worth its salt. But even back then, we quickly noticed that just one technology did not cover all that was needed. That's where RoboRana's shift in vision came in: hyperautomation.
That’s orchestrating different technologies to establish an agile organization with efficient processes through data-driven end-to-end process automation and a human-first approach.
Organizations tend to seek applications for an already purchased technology, rather than focusing on finding a solution for their problems. There’s nothing wrong with generating quick-wins by looking for similar cases that they can automate or solve with one technology, but the question RoboRana is asking is: "How are we going to create maximum value with the customer from a human-centric approach—and link this back to the technology?"
We want to support and inspire our customers every day with what’s going on in the market so they can make the right decisions. This is why we are always looking for new "hypes"—innovative technologies and concepts such as case management, low-code application development, process mining, data insights, or knowledge graphs. This is also how several ventures have emerged within RoboRana, each with its very own specialization. They help enrich our knowledge, so we are able to offer a broader scope of automation solutions to our customers.
The shift to hyperautomation was only possible because of a multitude of technologies already present in the market. Both of us have seen how the market has evolved over the years, also when it comes to user-friendliness, innovation and also accessibility of technologies—in particular low-code.
Yet, we continued to find that knowledge and expertise were lacking within organizations. It is extremely important that organizations choose, install and manage the right platforms to make business processes more efficient and flexible. This can be done on the one hand by teaching people the right skills, and on the other hand by setting up a management structure that enables them. People should control the platform, not the other way around.
We aim to unburden customers by providing an end-to-end solution, so they can start automating not only at task or process level, but across departments. This widens the playing field, making the value to the organization much greater.
"RoboRana does not offer a 'one-stop shop' where one technology is chosen. No, choosing hyperautomation makes the playing field wider, making the customer’s return on investment much greater."
It's also not just about implementing applications or building robots but also about process mining and knowledge graphs. These establish links between data within the organization, departments, processes, and even tasks, to determine pain points and bottlenecks, which in turn helps us make the right choices when we start automating, because data maps the transition from technology to business value. We build bridges between silos, and efficiency is brought in organization-wide.
In the very beginning, nobody knew RPA. We were the early adopters, and that comes with a set of challenges. Because the technology was not yet known, we were often only asked to automate one specific step or task—at the very end of the process. Thinking outside the box about the efficiency of the entire process simply wasn’t in the cards. That was a pitfall we saw in many companies because, without a broader view of the entire process, suboptimal solutions are often what you end up with.
The importance of looking at an automation process more broadly and the dangers of unstructured over-automation, are things we still encounter today.
RoboRana positions itself as a partner in this. Our consultants challenge our customers through critical questioning, to come to the best solution possible. We also keep questioning ourselves on a daily basis: "Is different technology or knowledge needed to grow with the market and meet customer demand?"
In an ideal world, your company is as agile as the agility of your implemented processes or applications.
To see the next step, we should look at what we can do right now. We’ve automated repetitive tasks, can give people the correct information at the right time, and help organizations make correct decisions. All of this can be done already, based on technology that exists today.
The next step will be to embrace artificial intelligence to make our solutions even smarter and even more user-friendly.For this, we see potential in intelligent document processing, digital twins or chatbots. These are all ways to assist the user and take automated decision-making to the next level. On the other hand, we see the need to work even more data-driven, to take our own company as well as our customers on the journey to become an Autonomous Enterprise.
Both focus points will help move away from"as-is" automation and look at a "to-be" scenario.
