Benchmarking for Capacity Planning with ECM & RPA Processes

Benchmarking assesses a company’s performance by measuring it against the processes and procedures of others in the same field. It allows a view into how one business compares to the standard, and it is necessary when planning for growth. In the business world, Enterprise Content Management (ECM), its relative Content Services Platforms (CSP), and its automated rule-based cousin, Robotic Process Automation (RPA,) have become critical but evolving systems. However, preparing for change and scale is vital for all these systems.

Knowledge is key to this preparation; guessing will not work when planning ECM changes, such as capacity upgrades, new applications, platform consolidation or expansion, or cloud migrations. Compared to established standards, best practices, or competitors, a clear understanding of performance, efficiency, and effectiveness is required. This is where benchmarking key metrics leads to informed decisions and mitigates the risk of errors. These key metrics include:

• User Levels
• Capture Processing Levels
• Repository Activity
• Transaction Performance Levels
• Database Activity
• Application Server Activity
• Workflow Processing Volumes
• Transformation Processing Volumes
• ECM Platform Service Levels
• RPA Platform Service Levels
• Application Integration Service Levels

Know Before You Grow

Before investing in additional capacity, an accurate measure of actual current performance is necessary. Knowing when a system is at capacity becomes critical for avoiding system failures, data loss, and disruptions. Signs which indicate that the ECM and RPA infrastructure may be reaching capacity are the following:

• Slow Performance
• Frequent Downtime
• Difficulty Scaling
• Storage Space Depletion
• Prolonged Backup Times
• Decrease in Functionality
• Extended Document Driven Processing Times
• Increasing Production Support Issues
• Increasing User Generated Trouble Tickets
• Low Application User Adoption

Aside from these capacity indicators, user frustration is the best gauge for knowing when the infrastructure is reaching its limits. Complaints about slow performance or frequent system errors clearly show that a system is overextended and failing to meet demands. Again, benchmarking will help determine where bottlenecks occur and illuminate other areas needing attention. Good metrics will reveal the system’s limitations so informed decisions can be made on the appropriate growth enhancements.

Investment Necessitate ROI

Once the upgrade decision has been made, a measured assessment throughout the process is indispensable for understanding the effectiveness. A good measure will result from benchmarking, which provides a performance baseline before, during, and after the upgrade. By comparing the results, performance expectations can be met, and any possible problems can be identified.

Numbers are critical to any positive change-effectiveness reporting, and—numbers do not lie. This definitive proof comes in the form of quantification; storage cost reduction, improved retrieval and workflow automation, less staff time on production support, faster application delivery, and the ability to scale without additional infrastructure purchases are all essential factors for ROI.

See also: How Businesses Can Drive Impact by Using AI/ ML in Cloud Computing

New Systems? Mind The Gaps!

Benchmarking is also critical if a new ECM or RPA system is desired. It provides realistic performance expectations and assurances that the new system will meet the organization’s requirements. This is achieved by simulating real-world scenarios and workloads to find performance gaps and make adjustments before implementation.

It’s not just a good look at the performance that benchmarking offers; it also can be a big help when selecting ECM or RPA. Benchmarking compares vendors or configurations, such as on-premises, cloud-based, and mobile applications. Finding the right vendor also includes knowing how the new system will integrate with other enterprise systems, i.e., Incident Management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and human resource systems.

In addition, pilot testing must be completed. Knowledge gained through benchmarks becomes indispensable before committing to a system. Stakeholders want to know if the chosen system will fit the company’s requirements rather than discovering that it doesn’t when user complaints roll in.

Migrating

Organizations need to take content migrations seriously. The smoother the transition of installing and migrating to a new platform, the less those actions need to be repeated. If migration is improperly done, whether on-premises or in the cloud, additional migrations will soon follow, prolonging the process and increasing costs.

Degraded performance is anathema to successful migration. Migrating from one system to another is complex and resource-intensive; benchmarking helps ensure success. Knowing the baseline performance—before the change—is essential to knowing whether or not the change is effective. Needless to say, the migrated data and processes must perform at least as well or better than the previous system and include:

• Ensuring that the ECM meets the business’s needs.
• Deciding which domain (i.e., claims, finance, HR, case applications, files) to migrate first.
• Eliminating redundant, outdated, and trivial information.
• Validating migrated content by format, document type, and timespan.

All of these steps require reliable benchmarks.

Conclusion

Benchmarking is indispensable when evaluating ECM or RPA, especially in a constantly changing environment. The goal is accurate measurements, and the optimal approach is to get those numbers with minimal resource and system overhead. Most importantly, benchmarking must be reliable; if not, ineffective, time-consuming steps can complicate the process and return suspect information.

Almost every company is in the digital transformation (DX) process, creating new or modifying existing business processes, culture, and customer experiences. ECM and RPA platforms are significant intelligent automation components, and benchmarking quantifies the new digital experience to deliver new revenue sources. Ultimately, the desired result is a satisfied end user. Business-critical applications dependent on these ECM and RPA platforms must result in a smooth, easy total experience, or customers will migrate to your competitors.