Blog

Best Practices for an RPA Center of Excellence (CoE)

Nov 1, 2021 | 2 min read

Author

Roboyo

Share Insight:

Within the CoE structure, the sponsors, users, and RPA development team form the roof of the house RPA built. These include the executives who want to make a difference, the developers and testers who deliver automation, and everyone in between who ensures that the CoE can handle any degree of complexity or amount of output. Consider the CoE’s PEOPLE to be the canopy that protects the organization’s structure.

If everyone is invested in the outcome and works together in the common goal, the CoE will function smoothly and create continuous impact, much like a factory.

PILLARS OF SUCCESS

Inside the CoE, there should be pillars of success that support the stakeholders. These pillars support the standards, expectations, and operating model to govern the RPA program, maximizing the impact it drives at the enterprise level. In a centralized CoE model, these pillars of success can be based on functional departments, but in a federated model, they can be mapped to business units or regional operating units.

The pillars for a CoE are driven by the CoE program lead and usually consist of the following:

• Strategy: The RPA strategy and operating model matches short-term decisions to the long-term vision for the RPA scale in the enterprise, defining budget allocation, communication plan, enterprise rollout, and so on.​
• Model: Documentation is key for establishing the standards, methodologies, and best practices for scaling towards a mature CoE. Roboyo typically documents needs, solutions, and project impact for the client’s consumption. ​
• Governance: Establishes the methods used to provide guidance, support, shared learning, and oversight for the CoE based on the input from the leadership of the CoE and the leadership from the internal and external groups involved.​
• Enablement: Outlines the methods to identify best practices and create a cross-training methodology where it makes sense. Training includes any content provided to or by the CoE. ​
• Support: Establishes any ties with external and internal providers of guidance to the CoE. This should include a listing of executive stakeholders and expectations of the guidance to be provided. ​

A robust CoE with a foundation of process and tools supported by strong pillars of success will bear the weight of RPA stakeholders’ expectations, timelines, and anticipated ROI. Based on RPA candidates, development capabilities, and future scalability, the COE framework provides a means to ensure a continuing output of automation.

Getting started is the most challenging element of building a CoE. It’s never too late to put in the framework to ensure future scalability in your RPA implementation, whether you have one automation or a hundred.

Related Content:

• “RPA team structure & CoE”

Are you having trouble scaling your RPA program or facing roadblocks around your CoE strategy? Roboyo can help your organization navigate the nuances of setting up a digital-first enterprise.

Book a meeting to talk to our automation experts about your automation goals.

Related content

Answering the Wrong Question & the Science of Thought

Our Lean Methodology Series explores a range of business approaches. This blog covers Dr Daniel Kahneman�…

Webinar On-Demand: How to Take Higher Education to the Next Level with Intelligent Automation

In this webinar, Roboyo presented a stellar panel of key opinion leaders in Higher Education to discuss h…

Whitepaper: Innovating the Retail industry with Hyperautomation

Discover the potential for RPA and Intelligent Automation in the retail industry.

Tame your data monster with IDP

A major challenge that businesses face in managing the digital landscape is the maintenance and storage o…