Toward robotic process automation implementation: an end-to-end perspective

Filipa Santos,José Braga Vasconcelos,Rúben Pereira

doi:10.1108/bpmj-12-2018-0380

Filipa Santos, José Braga Vasconcelos + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1108/bpmj-12-2018-0380

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Abstract

PurposeRobotic process automation (RPA) seeks to automate business processes, using software robots that interact with systems through their user interface, improving efficiency and reducing costs. However, some critical steps, such as identifying processes suitable for RPA automation, can have a tremendous impact in organizations if a wrong process is selected. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide an approach for analyzing RPA development in business organizations.Design/methodology/approachThis research presents a cohesive literature review about RPA, in order to identify RPA main concepts, which should be reported and considered in all RPA case studies. A model connecting the main elicited RPA concepts is presented as well as its evaluation and applicability grounded of past RPA case study (CS) analysis, using design science research.FindingsThe results from this research show that most of the RPA main concepts gathered in the literature review are not reported in the selected RPA CSs.Originality/valueAs RPA is a recent topic, literature lacks a synthetization of RPA main topics. This research aims to fill the gap on that, by identifying and synthesize the main topics related to RPA and proposing a model that connects the main RPA concepts, which can be used by researchers as a schema for conducting and writing RPA case studies.

Highlights

The Robots Revolution is on the rise
Robots execute repetitive tasks by using Graphical User Interface (GUI) adaptors instead of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) (Cewe et al, 2017), without changing the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure (Mindfields, 2015), meaning that the robot does repetitive tasks that used to be done by humans faster and cost efficient
A robot is capable of doing repetitive tasks that used to be done by humans, such as filling forms, logging into many systems, monitoring events, performing checks, sending emails and extracting data from many file types (Anagnoste, 2017), so that the workers can dedicate their time and effort to tasks that add more value (Aguirre and Rodriguez, 2017)

Summary

Introduction

After the revolution that Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) created, a new term is going to revolutionize the workplace: Robotic Process Automation (RPA) (Anagnoste, 2017) This type of automation aims to automate business processes with the goal of improving efficiency while cutting costs (Cewe et al, 2017), by reducing the time humans spend dealing with Information Systems (IS), doing repetitive tasks, such as typing, extracting, coping and moving huge amounts of data from one system to another system, meaning that these structured and manual tasks can be done by a robot, so that the workers can dedicate their time and effort to tasks that add more value (Aguirre and Rodriguez, 2017). Using RPA, no expensive integration with systems is required (Mindfields, 2015) and the automation of BPs can be done by the BUs (Lacity et al, 2016), without hiring offshore Full-time Equivalents (FTEs) (Slaby, 2012), with the advantage of being more familiar with the processes than the IT teams

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