After two decades of steady outsourcing now large companies are looking at Machine Learning and Robotics Process Automation to reduce manpower and cut the time to market or cycle time involved in process and thus reduce costs.  Thus comes the great debate – do we tighten process or use the full power of technology.  I have seen both with classic waste of talent, time  and money.   Some managers still believe writing up long SOP’s (Standard Operating Process) and the need for continuing to maintain lengthy ones that young millennial’s struggle to use on a day to day basis.  They don’t seem to understand the power of technology well and the utility that comes with  using some of it to help bring down the burden of  processes overload. Some are purely for extending their career spans and finding a scape goat to blame i.e. offshore teams that are far away.

Some have happily derailed implementation of technology initiatives which they find threatening to their areas of influence.  While few dont understand how to take advantage of already available and proven methods to optimize.    Examples of failures to apply good technology are ripe.  Once  during the midst of a good RPA (Robotic Process Automation)  project a stakeholder came up changes both minor and major thru out the SDLC cycle and more during UAT in the name of show stoppers. They just dont understand the simple premise the more you find at the latter stages of project the more time you spend to test. Other interesting example are the business owners in the name of automation and reducing cycle time end up choosing candidates and putting it thru a RPA project only for the technology team to come back and say this is a readily available BOT or an app – why customize.  The worst example is just going out to buy a technology product and try to implement themselves.

Not having the relevant parties at the center of automation is a major issues.  While everyone’s goal is to improve processes, the ways to get there could be mined with failures due to wrong choices being made.

There are millions to be made using the newest technologies be it RPA, Machine learning and Block chain in the years to come, the secret is to strategize and collaborate on the right technologies for the right application of the business cases to drive the desired outcomes.