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Why Companies Use RPA: A Critical Reflection of Goals

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Business Process Management (BPM 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13420))

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Abstract

Scholarly literature discusses several goals companies pursue with robotic process automation. These goals include both instrumental and humanistic objectives, such as increased process efficiency or higher job satisfaction. However, single case studies often focus only on single goals – not on the full spectrum of goals. An overview and critical reflection of the range of potential goals for employing robotic process automation is still missing. In this article, we review scholarly literature and report on an analysis of multiple expert interviews. In total, we identify 28 goals companies pursue with robotic process automation. Further, we found that the goal dimensions mirror and extend beyond the well-known devil’s quadrangle for business process management and form a robotic process automation goal pentagon that also includes people as a goal dimension. Despite the breadth of goals covered in literature, we found that practitioners predominantly focus on financial goals. With our results, we enable an extended discussion on theoretical insights of robotic process automation goals and provide guidance for users and software vendors alike to context-sensitively shape development and implementation projects by focusing on a set of relevant goals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fachhochschule Südwestfalen, Lübecker Ring 2, 59494, Soest, Germany

    Peter A. François, Vincent Borghoff & Ralf Plattfaut

  2. TU Dortmund University, Otto-Hahn-Straße 14, 44319, Dortmund, Germany

    Christian Janiesch

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  1. Peter A. François
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  2. Vincent Borghoff
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  3. Ralf Plattfaut
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  4. Christian Janiesch
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Correspondence to Peter A. François .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Claudio Di Ciccio

  2. Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Remco Dijkman

  3. Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain

    Adela del Río Ortega

  4. Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany

    Stefanie Rinderle-Ma

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François, P.A., Borghoff, V., Plattfaut, R., Janiesch, C. (2022). Why Companies Use RPA: A Critical Reflection of Goals. In: Di Ciccio, C., Dijkman, R., del Río Ortega, A., Rinderle-Ma, S. (eds) Business Process Management. BPM 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13420. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16103-2_26

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16103-2_26

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