Why an RPA Center of Excellence Might be Right for You

Posted: 12/30/2017 - 04:09

Centers of Excellence (CoE) within Robotic Process Automation (RPA) are similar in many ways to other centers of excellence you may be running across your business. Essentially, a CoE is a centralized capability that enables you to perform all functions necessary for implementation and the ongoing operation of an RPA set of initiatives.

We typically see the functions in a CoE centered around demand generation and demand management, business analysis, process design, RPA configuration, testing, release management, as well as ongoing administration. When deciding whether or not to build your own CoE, you have to consider how large you want to grow that capability, how much you are willing to invest within your business, the core strengths of your company and where and when you want to bring in a third party.

We help our clients undertake two models of CoE: They can develop their own Center of Excellence, in which we help develop those capabilities in-house.  Or they can elect to have Managed Center of Excellence (M-CoE) capability, in which we run those services for them and they can buy usage on a utility model basis.

There has been an increase in demand within the market for utilization of M-CoEs as an outsource function for our customers. One major benefit of an M-CoE is the cost certainty for the project coupled with a high standard of service quality. In addition, clients are able to leverage Symphony’s best practices in deploying and managing robots as well as our ability to recruit and retain the highly skilled workforces resources to provide clients with top-quality services. We find this a very compelling opportunity and a great proposition to our clients who face the challenges of trying to retain a critical resource in a fast-growing market. 

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About The Author

David Brain's picture

David Brain, COO, Symphony Ventures, is a process and automation expert who has gained recognition as the pre-eminent expert in Robotic Process Automation and was named ‘Consultant of the Year 2016’ by the Global Outsourcing Association for his work in transforming global enterprises through the deployment of automation technologies and methodologies. As COO, David has built, and now continues to lead the global consulting, implementation and managed services teams within Symphony Ventures ensuring flawless solution design and execution on every engagement.