Tips for Overcoming IT Bureaucracy, Part 2

In a previous post, we highlighted some helpful tips for the CEO/CIO interested in making a transition to RPA.  When approaching from the other direction, however, as a brand-new IT employee, you need an entirely different set of tactics.  If you’re excited about what RPA can do for your workplace, the most important advice is to tread carefully.  Not only do you need to respect pre-existing work structures, but you also have to be aware that your coworkers may not share your excitement for RPA.  With popular news sources warning that "the robots will take our jobs", selling the idea of RPA at your workplace might be an uphill battle.

Whatever department you’re in, chances are good that RPA can help eliminate the menial, mindless tasks that everyone hates to do.  Time will be freed to tackle bigger and better projects, take more time for customers, or innovate the way you do things.  Advocating for RPA might be difficult, but it’s a worthy cause.  Check out these tips for overcoming bureaucracy from the other direction:

• Know the correct communication channels: If your CEO or CIO has an open-door policy, great!  If not, you need to figure out the best way and time to make your case.  However friendly they are, stopping an executive in the hallway and gushing about RPA may only win you their goodwill and support, not their serious attention.  Make an official meeting (always include your supervisor), fill out the appropriate ticket, get it on the right agenda – every company is different.  Find out which way will get the right people to listen.

• Come very well prepared: Do your research.  If you think RPA can save your company money, you need to back up that hypothesis with good data and compelling arguments.  Read up on surveys from analysts like HfS Research or organizations like the Institute for Robotic Process Automation.  Time is precious to everyone, so boil down your research findings to five minutes or less.

• Suggest concrete actions: No one likes attending a meeting that ends with a whimper.  You may or may not have an action plan for RPA in mind, but you should be able to propose at least one course of concrete action.  Just don’t overdo it.  Having a few focused and targeted uses for RPA is better than wildly throwing out ideas.

• Advocate, don’t annoy: Once you’ve made your case, allow time for the idea to process.  Bureaucracy means that things probably have to go through multiple departments and channels before even getting close to approval.  Your task is to convince your CIO/CEO and let them take it from there.  Of course, checking in with someone in the know every once in a while can show that you’re still passionate about RPA.

• Be prepared to do everything again: Maybe it’s not the exact right time for the company to implement RPA; maybe the excitement you initially created was smothered by a company crisis.  If things aren’t progressing and you’ve got the energy, be ready to persevere and start the whole process over.

If you have any questions on whether or not UiPath is the right direction for your business, please contact us.

Image used under CC license from Flickr user Gavin Schaefer: https://www.flickr.com/photos/uxud/3396427350