Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is often talked about as a magic wand for businesses. The promise is compelling: slash operational costs, boost efficiency, eliminate human error, and free your employees for more creative work. And while all of this is achievable, the journey from an idea to a successful, scaled automation program is rarely a straight line. The internet is filled with success stories, but the real learning often comes from understanding the hurdles along the way.
At MYND, we’ve guided numerous organizations on their automation journey. We believe that true success isn’t about just implementing technology; it’s about implementing it wisely. This means being prepared for the practical, real-world rpa implementation challenges that can arise. Ignoring them can lead to stalled projects, wasted investment, and frustrated teams. Facing them with a clear strategy, however, is what separates a successful automation initiative from a failed one.
This guide moves beyond the hype to give you a clear-eyed view of the common challenges and, more importantly, how to navigate them effectively.
Challenge 1: Choosing the Wrong Processes to Automate
The excitement around RPA often leads to a rush to automate the biggest, most visible “problem” process. However, not all processes are good candidates for automation, especially at the beginning. This initial choice is one of the most critical factors for success.
The Common Mistake: Businesses often target processes that are overly complex, require frequent human judgment, or rely on unstructured data (like interpreting the sentiment in a customer email). Automating a process that changes frequently or has too many exceptions is a recipe for a fragile bot that breaks down constantly, requiring more manual intervention than the original process.
A Practical Example: A company tried to automate its entire customer support ticketing system as its first RPA project. The bot struggled because every customer ticket was different, requiring a human to understand the context, tone, and unique problem. The project was eventually paused, leaving the team discouraged about RPA’s potential.
How to Get It Right:
The first step in avoiding one of the most fundamental rpa implementation challenges is thorough process discovery and analysis.
- Start with the “Low-Hanging Fruit”: Look for tasks that are highly manual, repetitive, rules-based, and work with structured data. Think of tasks like data entry from a standard form, generating a daily report, or reconciling financial data between two systems.
- Prioritize Stability: Choose processes that are mature and stable. If a process is currently being redesigned, wait until it’s settled before trying to automate it.
- Calculate the Real Impact: A good first candidate has a high transaction volume. Automating a task that only happens once a month might not deliver a noticeable return on investment, but automating a task that happens 200 times a day will show immediate value and build momentum for the program.
Challenge 2: Overlooking the People Factor and Change Management
RPA is not just a technology project; it’s a business transformation project. It changes the way people work, and humans, by nature, are often resistant to change, especially when they feel their jobs are at risk. A lack of communication and planning for this human element is a major roadblock.
The Common Mistake: An RPA project is managed exclusively by the IT department without involving the business users who perform the process every day. Employees hear rumors of “bots” and “automation” and immediately fear they are being replaced. They become uncooperative, withhold crucial process knowledge, and view the bot as a threat rather than a helper.
A Practical Example: A finance team was told a bot would soon handle their invoice processing. With no other information, they assumed layoffs were coming. When the implementation team came to ask questions about the process, the finance employees were guarded and unhelpful, making it incredibly difficult to design an effective bot.
How to Get It Right:
Addressing the human element is a critical part of overcoming rpa implementation challenges.
- Communicate Early and Often: Be transparent about the goals of the RPA initiative. Frame it as a way to eliminate boring, repetitive work so employees can focus on more valuable activities like analysis, problem-solving, and customer interaction.
- Involve Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): The people who do the work know the process best. Involve them from the very beginning. Make them “automation champions.” Their knowledge is essential for building a robust bot, and their involvement turns them from critics into supporters.
- Focus on “Augmentation,” Not “Replacement”: Position bots as “digital assistants” that work alongside your human team. This helps create a collaborative environment where humans manage the bots and handle the exceptions and complex tasks the bots escalate. Plan for upskilling and reskilling your workforce for these new roles.
Challenge 3: Underestimating the Technical and Infrastructure Needs
While many RPA platforms are marketed as “low-code” or “no-code,” this doesn’t mean they operate in a vacuum. A successful RPA program requires a solid technical foundation, proper governance, and a clear plan for maintenance. Treating RPA as a simple desktop macro can lead to serious security and scalability issues.
The Common Mistake: A department buys a few RPA licenses and starts building bots on individual employee machines. There is no central control, no security oversight for bot credentials, and no plan for what happens when a business application (like a CRM or ERP) gets updated. When that update happens, all the bots that interact with it break simultaneously, causing chaos.
A Practical Example: A marketing team built a bot to scrape data from a website. The website’s layout changed slightly, which the team didn’t notice. The bot started pulling incorrect data or failing altogether, corrupting their weekly reports for two weeks before anyone discovered the root cause.
How to Get It Right:
Technical readiness is an often-underestimated aspect of rpa implementation challenges.
- Involve IT from Day One: Your IT team is a crucial partner. They need to be involved in provisioning secure environments for bots to run, managing bot credentials and access rights, and ensuring compliance with company security policies.
- Plan for Maintenance: Applications change. Processes evolve. You need a plan for maintaining and updating your bots. This includes version control, testing protocols, and a clear process for making changes when a system they depend on is updated.
- Build a Scalable Foundation: Even if you start small, think about the future. A centralized, server-based approach to running bots is far more scalable and secure than running them on individual desktops. This ensures you can manage, schedule, and monitor your digital workforce effectively as it grows.
Challenge 4: The Scaling Trap: Moving from a Pilot to an Enterprise-Wide Program
Many organizations see great success with their first few bots. The pilot project proves the technology works and delivers a quick win. The real challenge, however, comes when trying to scale from 2 bots to 20, or even 200. Without a strategic plan, the program can become unmanageable.
The Common Mistake: Different departments start their own independent RPA initiatives. There are no common standards, no reusable code, and no central oversight. This creates a “wild west” of automation, where effort is duplicated, maintenance costs are high, and the overall business impact is limited and fragmented.
A Practical Example: A company’s Finance, HR, and Operations departments all automated parts of their new employee onboarding process. Because they didn’t coordinate, they built three separate bots that all performed similar functions, like creating user accounts in different systems. They missed a huge opportunity to build one efficient, end-to-end onboarding bot.
How to Get It Right:
Successfully scaling your automation program is one of the more advanced rpa implementation challenges, and it requires a programmatic approach.
- Establish a Center of Excellence (CoE): A CoE is a central team responsible for setting the strategy, governance, and best practices for RPA across the organization. They provide training, identify automation opportunities, manage the pipeline of projects, and ensure that assets (like code for logging into the ERP system) are reusable.
- Develop a Clear Governance Model: Who gets to build bots? What are the standards for development and testing? How are new automation ideas evaluated and prioritized? A strong governance framework ensures that the RPA program grows in a controlled, efficient, and secure manner.
- Think Long-Term: A successful RPA program is not a series of one-off projects. It’s an ongoing business capability. This requires a long-term vision, executive sponsorship, and continuous investment in the technology and the people who manage it.
Conclusion: Success is About Strategy, Not Just Technology
Robotic Process Automation holds incredible potential, but it is a tool, not a cure-all. The path to unlocking its full value is paved with careful planning, strategic thinking, and a clear understanding of the potential roadblocks. By anticipating these common rpa implementation challenges—from choosing the right processes and managing the human side of change to building a scalable technical foundation—you can move beyond the hype and achieve real, sustainable results.
The key is to approach automation not as an isolated IT project, but as a strategic business initiative that requires a partnership between your business teams, your IT department, and often, an experienced implementation partner who has navigated this journey before. An experienced partner can help you build the right foundation, avoid common pitfalls, and accelerate your time-to-value.
Ready to start your automation journey on the right foot or need help scaling your existing program? The team at MYND has the expertise in both business process and technology to guide you. Connect with our experts today for a consultation on how to turn your automation vision into a reality.
