Business System Consultation Center - Our Business System ColumnVol.94 2019.09.01 Takahashi Minoru

Small businesses that end up buying RPA — a useless tool

Thank you for your interest and continued support.
This is Takahashi from the Marketing Plan Research Laboratory.


I’ve reviewed numerous software and services for businesses
I have seen numerous software products and services for businesses that use this as a selling point,
but to be perfectly honest, all of these are nothing more than a “fantasy.”


Here’s why I call it an “illusion”:


① Regarding “No programming knowledge required,” it may sometimes be true
*In fact, many services that use this slogan are outright lies.


② They deliberately conceal the fact that “design skills are essential for creating systems (mechanisms)”
Specifically, design ability refers to the following:
　　・Comprehensive knowledge of how current business operations are carried out
　　・The ability to analyze what problems exist in current operations (e.g., taking too much time, making mistakes)
　　・Negotiation skills to formally raise the findings of the above analysis as an agenda item within the company (including laying the groundwork)
　　・The ability to build relationships with each person responsible for the work
　　・The ability to determine the validity and priority of each issue
　　・Ability to establish performance metrics for deliverables


③ “After signing a contract for software or services, there are essential skills required to design and implement the system
and get them up and running within the company”
　　・The ability to understand how to use the software or service itself
　　・The ability to build a system (mechanism) based on the usage and specification limitations in accordance with the design described in ② above
　　・Debugging skills (trial and error, identifying areas that do not function as intended, isolating causes, and the ability to make corrections)
　　・Skills to keep track of the history, reasons, background, and priority of specification changes to minimize redundant work
　　・The organizational ability to carve out time for the above construction work amidst an extremely busy core workload
　　　*Companies that desire such systems are often extremely busy
　　・The ability to engage in constructive discussions with those who oppose the idea and to provide logical explanations to internal users


④ If your company lacks the capabilities described in ② (Design) or ③ (Implementation) above,
it will be necessary to pay high consulting fees separately to software or service vendors
If you pay these fees at the asking price, the cost will be equivalent to—or even exceed—the cost of building a business system from scratch


For small and medium-sized enterprises, RPA is the prime example of the illusion described above.
Unless your company has skilled personnel in-house, I recommend staying away from it.


That's all, Thank you for reading.

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