A few weeks ago, we introduced to you the insights from an RPA developer Allison Rose Barry, who told about her role within Deloitte’s intelligent automation team. This time, we want to augment that stuff by adding an interview with Conor Wallace, a colleague of Allison. He, in turn, works for Deloitte as a Business analyst in the same team. Here are a few of his answers to the most interesting questions.
Are there any common misconceptions about RPA?
One of the huge misconceptions is that staff are redundant with the introduction of RPA. It’s a common pushback we get from staff when working within an organization.
RPA is a very powerful tool but there are many examples of processes that RPA cannot automate. I see RPA working best alongside people, and the majority of us would only be happy to concentrate on the more complicated and challenging daily tasks that require cognitive thinking rather than the repetitive and straightforward tasks!
We also work with clients to upskill their people in RPA, providing them with the skills to not only work alongside automated processes but also automate some of their own tasks – I believe this provides a huge benefit.
RPA software such as Blue Prism and UiPath are simple drop-and-drag automation platforms, meaning they don’t require advanced development skills to automate simple tasks.
Can you describe a typical day for you?
No day is the same, although the majority would involve at least some combination of certain tasks. Responding to client questions and queries on the RPA processes already in production would be part of most days – this is usually followed by an hour or two of calls assessing potential processes for RPA suitability.
The business comes forward with processes or ideas that they feel RPA can help with and a large part of my job would be to advise on the suitability of the process as well as the capabilities of RPA so that the business invests in RPA solutions that they will get the most benefit from.
When not discussing and assessing processes, my day then turns to documenting them. Process proposal documents are used to evaluate potential processes, and once given the go-ahead from the client, more detailed process definition documents are required by developers to start work on the RPA solution.
The part I most enjoy is delivering RPA demos. We regularly speak to different client departments on what RPA can do and what it has delivered already. I thoroughly enjoy the discussion on the capabilities and potential for RPA that these presentations create. The majority of my day is people-focused and involves a lot of discussion and problem-solving, which are some of the most enjoyable aspects of the job for me.
What do you enjoy most about your career?
I thoroughly enjoy the communication and problem-solving aspects of my career. I love presenting and chatting to clients about how we can best provide a solution to their business problems. Questioning and trying to foresee issues or better solutions is a key part of the job and I enjoy trying to mentally piece the puzzle together to ensure there aren’t any missing pieces when we get to the end.