Automatización de Procesos

For the exclusive use of F. Flor, 2021.
Digital
Article
Technology
Before Automating
Your Company’s
Processes, Find Ways
to Improve Them
by Thomas H. Davenport and David Brain
This document is authorized for use only by Fernando Flor in GESTIÓN DE CALIDAD Y PROCESOS_2021-3 MAE taught by JOSÉ XAVIER SÁNCHEZ MACÍAS, Universidad Internacional
SEK from Apr 2021 to Aug 2021.
…
HBR / Digital Article / Before Automating Your Company’s Processes, Find Ways to Improve Them
Before Automating Your

Company’s Processes, Find
Ways to Improve Them
by Thomas H. Davenport and David Brain
Published on HBR.org / June 13, 2018 / Reprint H04E12
MirageC/Getty Images
One of the most recent automation technologies to emerge is robotic

process automation, or RPA. RPA is a category of software tools that
enable complex digital processes to be automated by performing them in
the same way a human user might perform them, using the user interface
and following a set of predefined rules. What sets RPA apart from other
automation technologies is that its ability to imitate a human user of one
or more information systems reduces development time and extends the
range of functions that can be automated across a much wider range of
Copyright © 2018 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. 1
…
business activities. It is frequently used to automate financial processes,

such as comparing invoices with shipment notices, or transfering data
from email and call center speech-to-text systems into transactional
systems of record. Many organizations have adopted it for automating
back- and middle-office processes, and many have achieved rapid returns
on their investments.
To be clear, however, the match between RPA and business processes isn’t
a perfect one if the goal is to redesign or improve the process rather than
to automate its current state. As Andrew Spanyi, the author of four books
on process management, put it to us by email: “RPA does not redesign
anything. It doesn’t ask whether we need to do this activity at all. It
operates at the task level and not the end-to-end process level.”
But RPA can be combined with changes in the relevant business process. If
the goal is to go beyond basic labor arbitrage savings to improve the
process — and it should be — then companies need a good understanding
of both their existing business processes and the new processes they want
RPA to enable before implementing the technology.
However, many companies don’t do that. Their RPA implementations

support the “as-is” process, with no improvement or examination of the
current process steps that are automated. As a result, they may achieve
modest savings, but in many cases they will miss out on opportunities to
dramatically improve process outcomes, quality, costs, and cycle times.
Why RPA Needs Process Analysis

We see several reasons why process mapping, analysis, and redesign
work are essential to an effective RPA implementation. The existing
business process is often overly complex, with unnecessary steps that
could be eliminated before RPA is implemented. RPA involves the
codification of business rules, but in many cases, business rules haven’t
been examined for many years and don’t make sense in the current
environment. In addition, existing business rules are sometimes described
…
as requiring judgment, but in actuality they can be turned into more-

accurate and more-consistent algorithms for better, more-consistent
decision making. At a leading global logistics company, for example, the
business rules in a claims process suggested that decisions on tolerances
for refunds required the judgment of a manager. But when interviewed,
the manager was able to clearly articulate rules of thumb he followed,
which could be defined as rules for the RPA process to follow.
In many companies, the level of process knowledge and understanding is

quite low. The company may have collections of standard operating
procedures, but they are often poorly documented and out of date. Each
employee typically follows their understanding of best practices. By
working with high-performing employees to challenge and improve the
process and embed this into RPA, we have seen not only significant
improvements in the processes being automated but also reduced process
problems across other parts of the business.
RPA can also simplify the information environment. The technology is

sometimes described as supporting “swivel chair” processes involving a lot
of back-and-forth access to multiple information systems. In many cases,
however, the process could extract all the necessary information at once
from a system — that is, with less swiveling. Often, there are also built-in
checkpoints for processes previously performed by human workers that
are no longer needed with RPA — because, at least after any initial kinks
are resolved, RPA doesn’t generally make mistakes and therefore doesn’t
require checking. For one recruitment-process-outsourcing client,
consultants found that the existing process involved the same data being
checked by several teams in different countries. The purpose was to
address historic quality issues as work was offshored, but these steps
became redundant with the certainty of accuracy that RPA brings.
RPA-based process design can restore some useful steps at little cost.
Some organizations have cut out steps from existing processes that add
customer value because the necessary resources to perform them weren’t
…
available. For example, in-process communications with customers about

the state of their orders or applications may be time-consuming for human
workers to send and receive, but they are very easy for robots. A U.S.
health care firm, for example, had over the years stripped a process down
to the minimal viable steps to achieve efficiencies. However, the process
resulted in a lack of communication to the service users, and that in turn
drove up costs in the contact centers.
With changes like these, a process enabled by RPA can become much more
efficient and effective than a process that is automated but otherwise
unchanged. Redesigning processes while implementing RPA can increase
the time and cost of the overall initiative, but the return on investment can
be as great or greater when compared with RPA implementations with no
process change.
In many RPA implementations, there is also the question of whether RPA

systems will eliminate some human workers’ jobs. While it is likely that
some human functions will be taken over by RPA, in most companies that
have implemented the technology, job losses have been relatively minor.
Redesigning the process while implementing RPA can help to ensure that
human workers are performing tasks that are worthy of their capabilities.
In the past, new technologies such as enterprise resource planning systems

and the internet have been the catalyst for many companies to reengineer
their business processes. While RPA may not be as dramatic a technology
advance as those other examples, it does have the potential to power new
process designs. Smart companies will use this technology to enable new
ways of performing important business activities.
Examples of RPA and Process Improvement

The companies we have seen achieve the greatest success in deploying RPA
are those who combine it with the disciplines of process redesign and
continuous improvement. Two examples are described below (both clients
of Symphony Ventures, David’s consulting firm).
…
The first, Lloyds Banking Group, the largest retail and commercial bank in
the UK, is currently deploying enterprise-wide RPA rollout as part of its
end-to-end $4.1 billion customer journey transformation program. Gerald
Pullen, head of continuous improvement & RPA at the bank, has been
tasked with improving the end-to-end process, using RPA as a key enabler
for change. As Gerald explained to us, “The opportunity to deploy RPA has
energized other business improvement initiatives and allows us to better
leverage other investments in complementary technologies across the
bank.”
One example among many such improvements is in the secured lending

business. Through the application of RPA and process redesign, the
opportunity to deploy a front-end portal for solicitor requests was
identified. It was eventually built to digitize and structure the input. As a
consequence of this multifaceted approach to process redesign, the
business case benefits multiplied severalfold and delivered a dramatically
improved experience for both customers and their solicitors. The process
now turns around solicitors’ requests in an average of 30 mins versus two
days. The RPA-enabled business improvements have also become reusable
elements that similar processes in other business areas can reuse.
The second example is at ADP, the world’s largest payroll and HR services
provider. Having started its Lean Six Sigma journey almost five years ago,
ADP saw RPA as the obvious next step in its journey to drive efficiency.
The inclusion of the technology in its capabilities helped
enable its international service delivery strategy: to “standardize,
optimize, automate, and centralize” key processes.
With that in mind, ADP adopted RPA as a process efficiency tool within
the business process improvement (BPI) organization. Combining the
capabilities of RPA with a traditional Lean Six Sigma way of working was a
natural fit. It enables standardized waste-free automated processes
delivered at a speed and cost point much more advantageous than other
automation technologies, thereby extending improvements. Paul Sharrock,
HBR / Digital Article / Before Automating Your Company’s Processes, Find Ways to Improve
… Them
VP of business process improvement and process automation at ADP,

explains:
My team is always looking for new ways to improve cycle times, overall
lead time, quality, and the client experience. RPA technology really
supports this and is always considered during reengineering workshops.
While I am sure that the majority of BPI projects in the future will
involve RPA, the focus is on the optimization of the process coming first,
not the tool that will deliver it. First we standardize, we improve, and
then we automate.
This distinct focus of transforming a process through applying RPA as a

tool to deliver identified improvements, among other solutions that Lloyds
and ADP demonstrate, is fundamentally different from many deployments
where RPA is seen as a silver bullet to eliminate inefficiency in any
process.
It’s certainly true that RPA can yield substantial savings without delving
into the details of processes. However, RPA-enabled process
transformation can bring a much higher level of performance and value.
RPA in which the “P” stands for process improvement or innovation is a
much more valuable tool than simple task automation.
Thomas H. Davenport is the president’s distinguished professor of

information technology and management at Babson College, a visiting
professor at Oxford’s Saïd School of Business, a research fellow at the
MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, and a senior adviser to Deloitte’s
AI practice.
David Brain is co-founder and Chief Operations Officer of Symphony

DB Ventures, a firm that specializes in intelligent robotic process
automation.

Automatización de Procesos

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For the exclusive use of F. Flor, 2021.

Before Automating Your

One of the most recent automation technologies to emerge is robotic

business activities. It is frequently used to automate financial processes,

However, many companies don’t do that. Their RPA implementations

Why RPA Needs Process Analysis

as requiring judgment, but in actuality they can be turned into more-

In many companies, the level of process knowledge and understanding is

RPA can also simplify the information environment. The technology is

available. For example, in-process communications with customers about

In many RPA implementations, there is also the question of whether RPA

In the past, new technologies such as enterprise resource planning systems

Examples of RPA and Process Improvement

One example among many such improvements is in the secured lending

VP of business process improvement and process automation at ADP,

This distinct focus of transforming a process through applying RPA as a

Thomas H. Davenport is the president’s distinguished professor of

David Brain is co-founder and Chief Operations Officer of Symphony

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