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Finished our Automation Anywhere pilot, looking to expand

  • 9 November 2023
  • 5 replies
  • 69 views

We’ve had a slow start with our Automation Anywhere pilot. We’re a very small team with a lot of hats to wear.

We’re looking forward to growing our RPA footprint and having a greater impact. It has felt overwhelming with all the various roles needed. During our pilot phase, we engaged a vendor, but that ended. We may or may not be able to bring in 3rd party experts back, so developing the needed skills internally is a high priority. I’d be very interested in connecting with others to learn what you did that helped you grow & learn what sort of stumbling blocks to be mindful of. What is more important in the early stages and what can wait?

I’d also like to connect with others in the healthcare space to share ideas and experiences.

5 replies

Aaron.Gleason
Userlevel 4
Badge +7

Hello. The question of the ages: How do we start?

A “canned” answer would be to follow the Pathfinder Program. This will obviously not be specific to you or your area of business, but will give you things to consider and get you up to speed.

https://community.automationanywhere.com/automation-pathfinder-program-85029

The less canned answer would take some time to determine. With things like cloud-based control rooms, the number of people needed to administrate automation within your company is greatly reduced. You will still need administrators -- a center of excellence for people to use as a reference for assistance building automations and administering the platform. Once you have that, however, much can be put into “citizen developer” hands. Our platform was designed for business people, not programmers, meaning that regular people can make automations. If you have programmers on-staff, they will be able to generate automations faster with Automation Anywhere than regular automation tools.

We have two lines of learning available in the Pathfinder Academy (different than Pathfinder Program above). One for “citizen developers” to get started, and one for more experienced developers. The video presentations are short snippets of knowledge rather than sticking you in a classroom for days.

I’m having a bit of difficulty finding your account based only on “JDF”. You may send me a direct message and we can start getting more people involved with getting you up to speed.

Micah.Smith
Userlevel 5
Badge +9

Hey @JDF 

Having lived this story myself - I would recommend a laser focus on the following:

  1. Focus on Quick Wins
    1. The worst thing an automation program can do when starting out is take on a super complex use-case that takes way longer to deliver than anticipated because the team wasn’t ready for that level of complexity.
    2. Quick Wins = Low Risk, Low Complexity, and as-high-as-possible ROI
  2. Set standards as you grow
    1. It can be overwhelming to hear about Automation Programs that have a ton of people doing individualized roles - and that’s great - but that isnt the reality for everyone, especially when starting out.
    2. Recognize that people will be wearing multiple hats as your program starts and continues to mature
    3. Try to set standards in place to make the most of this time:
      1. Work from automation templates/frameworks to standardize development
      2. Work from solution design document templates to consistently have good quality documentation
      3. Establish a cadence for testing, sign offs, and promotion to production
  3. Establish a Competency Framework
    1. What skills does the team already have?
    2. What skills do you need to develop?
    3. What skills are required to take on the type of automation opportunities you’re trying to tackle internally?
    4. If you can map these things out, then you can start to build a plan for where you want to go. The free training resources available at Pathfinder Academy/AAU are a great place to help upskill the team
  4. Be and advocate for your success
    1. Feel weird for those coming from leading other IT programs - but be prepared to talk about the impact of the automations that the team is delivering on
    2. This is how you promote and grow your program - create a blog post about an automation you recently launched along with a video of the automation running
      1. This can be a great way to educate and inform others at your org on some of the impact the automation program is delivering
      2. This will also lead to increased pipeline if automation opportunities
kate-ressler
Userlevel 4
Badge +6

Hi @JDF -  You’ve got some awesome info from @Aaron.Gleason  and @Micah.Smith … I wanted to also let you know that Mission 1 in Pathfinder Mission Control was created for automation programs like yours that are just getting started. After you take the assessment, you’ll unlock access to best practices and blueprints for setting a strong foundation for your program. Here’s a quick preview of Mission 1.

 

Let's connect! https://www.linkedin.com/in/kressler/
J
Badge +1

Hello. The question of the ages: How do we start?

A “canned” answer would be to follow the Pathfinder Program. This will obviously not be specific to you or your area of business, but will give you things to consider and get you up to speed.

https://community.automationanywhere.com/automation-pathfinder-program-85029

The less canned answer would take some time to determine. With things like cloud-based control rooms, the number of people needed to administrate automation within your company is greatly reduced. You will still need administrators -- a center of excellence for people to use as a reference for assistance building automations and administering the platform. Once you have that, however, much can be put into “citizen developer” hands. Our platform was designed for business people, not programmers, meaning that regular people can make automations. If you have programmers on-staff, they will be able to generate automations faster with Automation Anywhere than regular automation tools.

We have two lines of learning available in the Pathfinder Academy (different than Pathfinder Program above). One for “citizen developers” to get started, and one for more experienced developers. The video presentations are short snippets of knowledge rather than sticking you in a classroom for days.

I’m having a bit of difficulty finding your account based only on “JDF”. You may send me a direct message and we can start getting more people involved with getting you up to speed.

Aaron, My name is Jeremy Fink. Jeremy.Fink@hsc.utah.edu. Thank you for the tips. We are starting to dig into the pathfinder program. I have very little programming experience, but a great deal of programming experience, but a lot of deployment, testing & design. We’ve struggled with coming up with ‘sound’ programming logic & the citizen developer approach has been … uneven. We will keep at it.

J
Badge +1

Hey @JDF 

Having lived this story myself - I would recommend a laser focus on the following:

  1. Focus on Quick Wins
    1. The worst thing an automation program can do when starting out is take on a super complex use-case that takes way longer to deliver than anticipated because the team wasn’t ready for that level of complexity.
    2. Quick Wins = Low Risk, Low Complexity, and as-high-as-possible ROI
  2. Set standards as you grow
    1. It can be overwhelming to hear about Automation Programs that have a ton of people doing individualized roles - and that’s great - but that isnt the reality for everyone, especially when starting out.
    2. Recognize that people will be wearing multiple hats as your program starts and continues to mature
    3. Try to set standards in place to make the most of this time:
      1. Work from automation templates/frameworks to standardize development
      2. Work from solution design document templates to consistently have good quality documentation
      3. Establish a cadence for testing, sign offs, and promotion to production
  3. Establish a Competency Framework
    1. What skills does the team already have?
    2. What skills do you need to develop?
    3. What skills are required to take on the type of automation opportunities you’re trying to tackle internally?
    4. If you can map these things out, then you can start to build a plan for where you want to go. The free training resources available at Pathfinder Academy/AAU are a great place to help upskill the team
  4. Be and advocate for your success
    1. Feel weird for those coming from leading other IT programs - but be prepared to talk about the impact of the automations that the team is delivering on
    2. This is how you promote and grow your program - create a blog post about an automation you recently launched along with a video of the automation running
      1. This can be a great way to educate and inform others at your org on some of the impact the automation program is delivering
      2. This will also lead to increased pipeline if automation opportunities

Thank you Micah, that is all very helpful information.

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