14 Top Tips For 2022 For Those In RPA | IA By Tech Experts – Who All Just Happen To Be Women

In this industry we hear a lot of male voices and as a result not enough female expert voices get heard as often as they should. We have an opportunity to help change that. The insights below reflect the exceptional expertise of those quoting; the voices all just happen to be women.

Tip 1: “Human collaboration at a very early stage is very much the key to success. Representation from all areas; Business Stakeholders, Process SME’s, Developers (yes them too), IT and Operations teams.” Kally Gill, Head of RPA services

Tip 2: “Harvard Business Review did a study that pointed out that high-performing women were more likely to emphasize connecting, shaping solutions, and collaborating, while their male counterparts will focus on improving and driving outcomes. Both are critical for a successful transformation, but sometimes transformation efforts overlook solid change management practices that pull heavily on the skillsets of highly performing women.

Do not forget to help the PEOPLE in the process adjust to the change. Help them understand why, understand the value it will bring to their lives, why it is important for the organization, communicate when the approach needs to be adjusted and finally celebrate and communicate your successes. Even digital initiatives need connection and collaboration.” Ema Roloff , Intelligent Automation Thought Leader

Tip 3: Intelligent Automation (IA) is the cherry on top of RPA. It connects the brain (AI) with the hands (RPA) to augment the intelligence of knowledge workers. “Gartner predicts that by 2024, companies that leverage automation and intelligence will reduce operational costs by nearly 30%”. Organisations who fail to see IA as a business imperative will become the laggards of their industry. Preparation and strategy are key to winning the future. Tolani Jaiye-Tikolo, Automation Leading Light

Tip 4: “Talent is all around us. You have something very unique to offer the world. Don’t compare yourself to others. You are an unique, innately talented individual.” Coreyne Woodman-Holoubek, Progressive HR Podcaster, LinkedIn Live Host

Tip 5: “Demonstrate your ‘quick wins’ early on. This will enhance your relationship with the Executive Sponsor and Champions. And this will help to accelerate your automation program. From here you would have demonstrated trust and credibility to scale your program. The CFO will be pleased as well!” Janine Gill, Intelligent Automation Client Director

Tip 6: “We all know the keys success factors for getting an initiative or project delivered successfully; a clear vision with an understood strategy, a sponsor backing a business case aligned to the strategic goals, great capability (tech and people) and a super change program backed by a culture that rewards action. 

Now imagine you applied that Learning to yourself instead of leaving you to the bottom of the pile as we women always do! Imagine where you want to be in 2025 and work backwards, spending an hour a week on your career. A mentor/sponsor/friend is worth having as a sounding board. Be brave and pick someone really senior, if they say they are too busy ask them to recommend someone else. Two new contacts already. 

This approach led me to joining a tech company after 20 years in insurance, it was thrilling and terrifying, now I feel I am making g a difference. The new enabling technologies (Intelligent Automation) and your talent will make a significant difference. Jump in and take the Forrester FutureFit survey, surprisingly its all about resilience, curiosity etc that 10 mins.” Elaine Mannix, Global Insurance Leader

Tip 7: “Start-ups can pivot quickly to build platforms with new features and functionality that may suit your needs better than the more established players in the market. There is considerable value in looking beyond your industry to determine if non industry specific platforms are a better fit. Speak with the vendors’ references and avoid anyone wanting to sell you the big ticket enterprise solution at the outset. It is more cost effective and time efficient to start small and build upon the success of the smaller project.” Sharan Kaur MBA, Global Architecture and Automation Lead

Tip 8: “Talent, innate skills and human potential is not determined by the level of a job; neither the wages earned, nor a degree….only YOU can determine your success and the route you will take to rise to it!” Coreyne Woodman-Holoubek, Progressive HR Podcaster, LinkedIn Live Host

Tip 9: “In one estimate, the worldwide market for AI solutions could be worth more than £30bn by 2024, meaning even 1% of that market share would be 300 million! Yet although industry has evolved at exponential rates the evolution has left it difficult to scale for the longer term using RPA alone. This is something organisations struggle with particularly when RPA is seen as a sticking plaster. Some of the ways to exploit these opportunities from a holistic standpoint have been outlined by Gartner in an article about changes in the innovation space over the next 5 years. They propose evolutions in 3 key areas:

 1. the role of CIO in a large enterprise,

 2. voice as platform solutions and data exploitation opportunities

3. current computing capability.

Regarding the role of CIO Gartner predict that by 2024 25% large enterprise CIOs will be held accountable for digital business operations results, becoming “COO by proxy”. This means a move towards a more holistic technological view of the enterprise. It will also mean benchmarking and process technology will become key to measure those operational results. Thus tools like process mining will become pervasive, not only to save on analysis efforts but also to give a more scientific none biased view of a process and measure and manage operational units before RPA is deployed. Furthermore by 2025, 75% of conversations at work will be recorded and analysed say Gartner, enabling the discovery of added organizational value or risk. Data scientists will be mining and analysing those nuggets of truth” Laura J Robertson,Vice President Intelligent Automation

Tip 10: “If you are embarking on a digital transformation agenda, start by building a robust business case, backed by metrics, about why, how and the impact the changes will have. Ensure that you have senior management sponsorship. It helps accelerate wider adoption. Help your employees succeed- give them the room to understand, accept and adapt to the new ways of working. Remember there isn’t a one size fits all for all employees and organisations. Invest time in determining what works best for your organisation. Be open to pivoting as you get feedback and come up against unanticipated obstacles- there will be several.” Sharan Kaur MBA , Corporate Lawyer and Legal Transformation Though Leader 

Tip 11: “I want to quote my manager here. When I first started at SSAB a couple of years ago, we were all women in the team. My manager was often asked: “How come you only hire women?”. He would always reply, unsmilingly: “I don’t. I hire the best.” I wish everyone thought the same way. Anna Lagerhed, Head of Intelligent Automation

Tip 12: “The networking and learning opportunities in the RPA/Intelligent Automation community have really impressed me. If you want to know more, just contact that person and he or she will most likely be more than happy to talk to you. Don’t hesitate to ask, even though it can feel a bit daunting at first. I have gotten much more insight from networking than any training could provide.” Anna Lagerhed, Head of Intelligent Automation

Tip 13: “Intelligent Automation (IA) is the next step in driving digital transformation through your business. But it’s not just about the technology. Explore providers methodologies to implementation and deployment and ensure they fit in line with your own agile approaches and acceleration programmes for 2021.” Janine Gill, Intelligent Automation Client Director

Tip 14: “I believe that we will not “lose our jobs” to AI and robots. Use of automation will make our lives easier, taking away those boring repetitive tasks, helping us find our ‘center of genius’ and our unique human resource. AI and robots will help humans create more value, give us more time, and the ability to – just be human”. Coreyne Woodman-Holoubek, Progressive HR Podcaster, LinkedIn Live Host

Thank you Elaine Mannix, Coreyne Woodman-Holoubek, Ema Roloff, Janine Gill, Laura J Robertson, R.P.A, Lean, Cognitive, Anna Lagerhed, Kally Gill, Tolani (aka RPA Jargon Buster) Jaiye-Tikolo, and Sharan Kaur MBA ..

About the author: I am a Digital Transformation expert. I am recognised as an intelligent automation, data analytics and robotic process automation industry leader. I write and talk extensively about better ways for businesses to use digital and intelligent automation technologies to drive business performance. Follow me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kierangilmurray/, join me monthly on LinkedIn live https://www.linkedin.com/company/third-thursday or connect on Twitter https://twitter.com/KieranGilmurray.