Viral Automation Will Require “Bot Stores” For Sustainability

In recent visits with leading enterprises and service providers deploying Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tools we see signs that the use of RPA software “bots” is moving from a period of experimentation into one of viral growth in deployments. The opportunity for broad and rapid adoption of RPA in the enterprise was also clear at our recent HfS Working Summit where 45% of attending enterprise buyers identified “rolling out an automation strategy in tandem with their service providers” as the leading way to improve service quality entering 2016.

While viral adoption of RPA with a grass-roots level solution and deployment approach can drive rapid and broad benefits across the enterprise or service provider it can also create risks. In particular, duplication and inefficiency in the design and operation of the bots within and across business processes as “bot” designers continually design new and unique “bots” to complete the same tasks, sub-processes and processes. This duplication can squander the availability of the best RPA resources and create long term management issue for “bots” as well.

One possible solution that was shared with the industry this week by a panel of HfS Research, Automation Anywhere, Capgemini, Ascension Health and Alsbridge at the IRPA Automation Innovation Conference would be the creation of “bot stores” for the hosting of common, re-usable “bot” automation routines. Think of these as akin to Apple or Android app stores but instead of apps, pre-defined software automations would be available. This is still an emerging idea which comes with significant strategic questions for participants in the RPA marketplace but at its heart, the availability of core repeatable automation routines would allow solution architects and delivery teams to speed the delivery of new automations and manage a much more consistent library of automations as well.

The full range of potential benefits from the use of a “bot store” would include: quicker deployment, consistency in automations within and across processes, easier upgrade and version management not to mention revenue opportunities to commercialize automations that could be used by other enterprises.

But before the “bot store” really becomes an industry reality, a variety of challenges need to be addressed as well. There will need to be: standardization in process definitions (which may result in “bot stores” being relevant for only common low level sub processes), naming and descriptive conventions to explain what is available in the “bot store” and guidelines for intellectual property ownership over the hosted “bots.” As an industry, there will also be a need to decide whether individual “bot stores” by enterprise/service provider/RPA vendor is the model or whether it may be possible to create truly inter-operable “bots” that can be used more universally. These are not simple issues but for RPA to achieve its full potential in the industry, and become a sustainable capability over time, these issues will need to be addressed going forward. It should also be noted that “bot stores” are just one approach for how RPA may develop and it may prove to be irrelevant for other technologies within Intelligent Automation such as Autonomics and Cognitive where the learning engine does much of the work in configuring transaction routines.

HfS believes that in 2016 RPA vendors and service providers will focus their attention on the creation of “bot stores” to support the pending viral availability of process “bots.” To make the most of this opportunity and ensure long term sustainability, the RPA marketplace will also need to move towards greater standardization in process and routine definition which may take longer to realize.