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Unlocking Value Through RPA Migration: Cost Savings and Scalability

2 min read
Oct 21, 2024 4:10:08 PM

As RPA (Robotic Process Automation) matures, many organizations are growing frustrated with legacy platforms due to rising costs and excessive complexity. This has led to a surge in RPA migrations, with businesses moving to more modern, user-friendly tools like Microsoft Power Automate.

In this post, we’ll explore the key reasons behind this trend, the challenges involved, and best practices for successfully migrating RPA estates.

Why Are Organizations Migrating?

Legacy RPA platforms are becoming too expensive and complicated to maintain. Many organizations initially adopted these platforms when automation was in its infancy. As automation practices have evolved, businesses are finding themselves locked into costly, high-maintenance solutions that no longer meet their needs. Factors driving this shift include:

  • Cost Reduction: With operational expenses rising, organizations are seeking alternatives to legacy tools with aggressive pricing models. Platforms like Microsoft Power Automate offer more cost-effective pricing structures that help businesses reduce their Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

  • Decreased Complexity: Next-gen platforms simplify the automation process with intuitive, drag-and-drop interfaces. This democratizes automation by enabling non-technical employees, or "citizen developers," to design and deploy automated workflows, significantly reducing the reliance on IT departments.

  • Improved Scalability and ROI: Older RPA platforms often create bottlenecks due to their technical complexity, which slows down the scaling of automation. Modern solutions, with easier-to-use interfaces, allow businesses to scale automation faster and unlock higher ROI.

  • Advanced Features and Compatibility: New platforms like Power Automate offer superior features and integrate seamlessly with modern enterprise architectures, especially those leveraging the Microsoft ecosystem, including Azure and Office 365.

What Makes RPA Migrations Challenging?

The main challenge with RPA migrations lies in the fact that each RPA platform defines automated processes differently. Historically, this meant that moving automations from one platform to another required a manual rebuild of each process. This manual work was costly, time-consuming, and prone to errors, leading to potential downtime.

Today, however, purpose-built RPA migration solutions have emerged, automating much of this process. These tools analyze and map existing automated workflows to the new platform, reducing manual effort and minimizing risk.

Signs It’s Time to Migrate Your RPA Estate

How do you know when it’s time to consider migrating your RPA estate? There are several key indicators:

  • Underwhelming ROI from your current automation tool
  • Rapidly rising costs and licensing fees
  • Over-reliance on technical staff to maintain and develop automations
  • Difficulty in scaling automation across the business
  • Existing enterprise systems that don’t integrate well with your current RPA platform

If you’re seeing these signs, it may be time to assess your RPA estate and explore more flexible, cost-effective alternatives.

How to Successfully Migrate

Before beginning any migration, it’s essential to conduct a feasibility assessment. This should include an evaluation of how much of your existing automation estate can be transferred seamlessly, opportunities for optimization, and areas where automations can be retired to reduce future maintenance costs.

For a successful migration, consider using a dedicated RPA migration solution that automates much of the conversion process. You should also partner with an experienced Global Service Integrator (GSI) to handle the technical deployment and testing of your new automation environment.

Final Thoughts

RPA migration can seem daunting, but with the right approach and tools, it can be a smooth transition that results in significant cost savings, better scalability, and enhanced automation capabilities. By switching to modern, intuitive platforms, businesses can empower more users to build and deploy automations, ultimately driving greater value from their automation initiatives.