Citizen Developer RPA Challenges and Benefits

Those interested in citizen developer RPA challenges are taking on development tasks themselves or are leaders who want to know what responsibilities a citizen developer can handle.  

Robotic process automation aims to eliminate mundane tasks and free-up an employee’s time to work on high-value tasks. RPA platforms allow a business to put their efficiency on hyperdrive through enhanced workflow automation.   

Automations benefit teams and a company as a whole, and the culmination of automations can give a company the winning edge over its competition. Companies without an in-house development team are turning to employees who are business and tech-savvy to bring RPA to their organizations.  

In this article, we cover the challenges and benefits that citizen developers face with RPA development. After reading, you’ll be ready to improve your RPA program using citizen developers and know when to enlist the help of professional RPA developers. 

Citizen Developer RPA: When It Works and When It Doesn’t  

Individuals with a knack for tech but no formal training in coding are taking on basic development responsibilities. These citizen developers are naturally curious about technology tools—their temperament and business skills allow them to address company goals and assist with the RPA development process.    

Savannah Bell, Director of Strategic Partnerships at OpenBots, is well-versed with the impact of citizen developers on implementing RPA in an organization. “Normal, business-focused individuals who don’t necessarily have a tech background are implementing RPA within their individual workflows,” says Bell.  

Become a Citizen Developer: Citizen Developer Jumpstart Program 

Many RPA Platforms on the market are low code/no code, making it easy for citizen developers to automate their day-to-day work. Friction-free platforms like OpenBots take it a step further by enabling experienced developers and citizen developers alike to develop enterprise-level automations without losing ROI on bot licenses. 

Even With Low Code, RPA Has a Learning Curve 

Citizen developers have a lot more responsibilities on their plate than before—expecting a person with no tech background to understand all the nuances of RPA development is a big ask.   

Niching RPA to an organization’s needs is what gives it its punch. Many RPA tools have loads of built-in commands that a citizen developer can string together to automate basic tasks. 

Pre-loaded commands like this work well for the first few automations that are low-hanging fruit. After you get past those initial automations, nuances are where the rubber meets the road with your entire workflow automation.  

Addressing these can create a roadblock for citizen developers since they don’t have the expertise to handle them as an experienced RPA developer would.   

There are excellent instructor-led RPA training available and free academy courses to skill-up your team on the OpenBots Platform. Even with these resources, the knowledge that comes with years of RPA experience is hard to cram into a course.   

An Operating Model Can Make or Break Your RPA Program  

Often, companies are excited to start automating and don’t set up the essential legwork correctly. Down the road, this can diminish the effectiveness of automation and the ROI they produce.  

There are a lot of pieces that you need to set up in your organization for citizen development to work effectively. One of them is creating a center of excellence (COE) or operating model.  

The operating model acts as a system of checks and balances for automations as a “process for the processes” that includes development approvals, maintaining standards, and maximizing the ROI of deployed bots.    

Understanding how you’re your business is affected when you automate a task is critical. Part of this is ensuring that a bot in production meets the operating model standards to benefit the end business goals. 

Watch Part 2: Citizen Developer RPA Challenges   

Traditional RPA vendors use a pay-per-bot model, which creates a financial obstacle for companies, regardless of whether or not they have a COE.  

The organization purchases a bulk number of licenses with the expectation that citizen developers will be able to develop. Still, many of these licenses go unused, sitting on the shelf and draining the budget. This experience with RPA creates a lot of friction for businesses looking to automate.  

Traditional RPA platforms are not elastic and don’t allow you to turn off bots when you’re not using them. So, in effect, an organization has to pay for something they may or may not be able to use. 

Bot Automation Requires On-Going Maintenance  

When a citizen developer deploys a bot successfully, there is ongoing work necessary to keep it running. Like any other software tool, some updates could knock it off-line, requiring adjustments over time.  

Imagine a citizen developer in financial services sets up a few bot licenses for their day-to-day tasks. At the get-go, the automations can help as a piece of their overall workflow automation.  

But what happens when something breaks and the citizen developer who developed the bot is no longer in the company or transferred to a different department? What typically happens is the bot becomes useless, but the RPA platform still charges the firm an annual licensing. 

Related read: Which Processes Can Be Automated Using RPA: Top Use Cases 

The person that steps in that previous role is unaware of the nuances of how the bot was setup or how to fix it when things change. It could be the web page the bot was pulling data from are no longer available. The new person inherits bots that were previously working and now are not. For the company, that means that the bot licenses are still costing them money, but that they aren’t getting value from them.  

Customizing Requires RPA Expertise 

There’s a lot that goes into an enterprise-level RPA program, which is what it will take for a growing company to remain competitive and get the most out of their automations. As Bell points out, “it’s a heavy burden for your average business person to take on […] developing something there not quite equipped to do at times.” 

Watch Part 3: Citizen Developer RPA Challenges   

If a company is currently using RPA, it doesn’t mean that they have a dedicated development team for RPA. Developers already have tasks they’re working on and may not have extra bandwidth to take on RPA development.   

These are scenarios where citizen developers can benefit an organization by introducing RPA to their workflows. Using an RPA implementation partner is another option to scale RPA development for the long term.   

Level Up Your Workflow Automation With an RPA Implementation Partner 

An expert in RPA will understand how to set up your bots correctly compared to a citizen developer dabbling with RPA technology. Most importantly, working with a partner with extensive RPA knowledge can help prevent bot licenses from going unused.  

Automations require ongoing maintenance and support. Organizing at any level will have to address the limitations of the bot-licensing model of traditional RPA vendors. How will your company navigate this challenge?   

OpenBots is a friction-free RPA platform that comes built-in with zero-bot licensing. Choosing a partner that uses the OpenBots will ensure your automation workflow produces long-term value for your business. 

If you’re ready to learn more about working with an RPA implementation partner who specializes in OpenBots, let’s talk!