At most financial organizations, robotic process automation (RPA) is still in its infancy.

In fact, it still remains largely an IT project, Beji Varghese, partner at financial services consultancy Guidehouse, told Bank Automation News.

“Bots have in some places made it even more integrated than others, but they’re not completely integrated into the workforce,” Varghese said. “That being the scenario, if there are controls, then the controls are pretty much built and managed by the technology group, which probably is not how it should be. … The business should manage the controls.”

Involving the business is among the best practices experts prescribed for bot governance. But to find success with automation, banks and credit unions should also govern the change the automation brings, experts told BAN.

Managing the process change for employees

Change management is critical to governance, said Ken Mertzel, global industry leader of financial services at RPA vendor Automation Anywhere.

“You need to have an understanding of exactly what that process is, whether your backup plans extend upstream or downstream, data sources or processes change, and how you’re going to adapt, either whether that’s a manual process or an automated process, to be able to handle that,” Mertzel told BAN. “So change management is absolutely critical to successful automation.”

Organizational leadership should champion automation if it’s to succeed, Kelly Combs, director at KPMG’s Digital Lighthouse group, told BAN. That means practicing leadership when it comes to managing any changes, Combs and others said.

Governance also means managing the change for employees.

“Automation requires as much people change management as it does technology,” Combs said.

In fact, people should be at “the heart” of automation, according to IDC and UiPath guidance on automation for good.

Part of ensuring employees are comfortable with automation is to provide them with skills and data literacy programs “to better define how to work with automation on an ongoing basis,” Combs told BAN.

“Ideally the program vision is broader than just RPA and the goals are beyond just saving time [and] costs. To be effective the program should be targeted to improve bad processes and measure benefits beyond costs and reducing headcount,” Combs said. “There should be a goal of improving the way we work with automation and a roadmap for what automation capabilities may be provided to the business to solve problems.”

Bank Automation Summit, taking place March 1-2 in Charlotte, N.C., is the first and only event to focus solely on automation in banking. The event will feature the brightest minds from across financial services on intelligent automation strategies and deployment. Learn more and register for Bank Automation Summit 2022.