Employees in an organization spend days working on administrative tasks that negatively affect their productivity. Irrespective of the industry, automating mundane tasks is always a great idea.

The costs for an RPA software bot vary from vendor to vendor. So, what are the key factors on which the average cost of RPA implementation depends on? Is there a formula to calculate the overall cost? First, let us look at some of the challenges in calculating the total RPA ownership cost.

The challenges in estimating the total cost of RPA implementation

What are the common challenges in implementing RPA?

How to overcome these problems.

  • Complexity of process
  • Scalability of solutions
  • Integration with other systems
  • Various Vendor pricing models
  • Training and support costs
  • Data security and compliance

To calculate cost estimation, we need to analyze the headers where you can incur costs

The total cost of RPA implementation depends on the complexity of the software bot to be deployed, the number of bots, and various other factors. Let us look at the costs incurred while implementing RPA. Below is a list.

  1. The Cost of RPA Software:This accounts for about 20-30 percent of the total cost of RPA. Usually, vendor pricing model and the type of deployment you opt for, decide the cost of an RPA license. The cost of an attended RPA bot would differ from that of an unattended bot and the cost difference is quite huge. The complexity of the task is also a factor that would determine the cost. If your automation requirement includes processing a few documents the RPA implementation cost would be easy on your pocket but, if the RPA tool that you are looking to implement has to work with several applications and under workflows with several conditions, then the cost and time taken would spike up.
  2. The Cost of Hardware Requirements: If your organization looking for an on-premise robotic process automation solution then a check has to be done if your current infrastructure can withstand it. Your organization may require system upgrades to support the RPA software bot that is being deployed. If you are looking for a cloud solution, then there will be recurring costs of virtual servers that host the bots on other platforms.
  3. The Cost of Development: This includes the cost of planning, designing, developing, and testing the RPA bots. If your organization is looking for a solution that has to be customized to your needs, the vendor will not have a ready-to-go solution. The RPA solution would have to be created from scratch. The RPA analysts and RPA engineers should be selected accordingly to program the bots that suit your requirement. This is a one-time expense, a high-cost component, but a small portion of the total cost ownership.
  4. The Cost of Training (bots): Robotic Process Automation bots are installed in the organization’s hardware or cloud servers to execute the processes assigned to them. However, behind every bot, there is a human programmer who trains them. Hence a ‘Bot’ is only as good as its training. The Bots keep improving if the people responsible for programming them look for better and more efficient ways of training them. The cost incurred with bots will depend on the number of bots you would need and the type of process you want to automate. For example, if you would need 50 RPA bots to run 75 processes in your organization then you would have to buy 50 licenses.
  5. The Cost of Maintenance: Robotic Process Automation Services require constant monitoring and maintenance. Failing to do so can adversely affect a business process. This is one area of cost if not managed well enough will increase the overhead costs by a huge margin. The cost incurred here includes the cost of bot monitoring, fixing the bots for any bugs when needed, bot upgrades or updates, and IT customer support team for resolution of any issues that arise after deployment.

How can our RPA project estimator help?

Is your organization ready for RPA? A few questions before we calculate an estimated cost for implementing RPA in your organization.

Do you know how well your process is documented? What are the kinds of digital input types (excel, pdf, etc.) are you working with? How many steps does it take to finish a transaction in your workflow? How many applications are involved in a single complete transaction? How many business validations are involved? What is the source of the data? What are the types of applications that you work on? 

Answered all of them? Here is the link to our RPA implementation cost estimator.