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Towards an Integrated Platform for Business Process Management Systems and Robotic Process Automation

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Book cover Business Process Management: Blockchain, Robotic Process Automation, and Central and Eastern Europe Forum (BPM 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 459))

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Abstract

Business Process Management Systems (BPMS) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) gain increasing relevance in digital transformation to enact and automate business processes. Recent discussions in academia and practice indicate a promising yet challenging integration of both technologies based on a standardized language for consistent process modeling and orchestration, like the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). However, scientific literature lacks profound approaches. Guided by Design Science Research, this empirical study substantiates the current debate with a scientifically grounded concept for integrating BPMS and RPA. Resting upon data from 20 expert interviews, we present the requirements and conceptual design of a holistic BPMS-RPA platform based on BPMN. The practicability of our approach is substantiated by five evaluation interviews and a prototypical implementation. Finally, we outline directions for further research and organizational practice.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://github.com/bptlab/holistic-process-platform/raw/main/quotes.pdf.

  2. 2.

    The open-source prototype can be found here: https://github.com/bptlab/holistic-process-platform.

  3. 3.

    https://robotframework.org/ (accessed: 11.04.2022).

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Acknowledgments

We thank Mika Göckel and Alexander Steiner for the constructive discussions that contributed to the improvement of this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Christian Flechsig & Christian Egger

  2. Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Maximilian Völker & Mathias Weske

Authors
  1. Christian Flechsig
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  2. Maximilian Völker
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  3. Christian Egger
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  4. Mathias Weske
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christian Flechsig .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Andrea Marrella

  2. University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    Raimundas Matulevičius

  3. University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

    Renata Gabryelczyk

  4. Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt, Ingolstadt, Germany

    Bernhard Axmann

  5. University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

    Vesna Bosilj Vukšić

  6. Télécom SudParis, Evry, France

    Walid Gaaloul

  7. University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Mojca Indihar Štemberger

  8. Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary

    Andrea Kő

  9. Data61, Eveleigh, NSW, Australia

    Qinghua Lu

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Flechsig, C., Völker, M., Egger, C., Weske, M. (2022). Towards an Integrated Platform for Business Process Management Systems and Robotic Process Automation. In: Marrella, A., et al. Business Process Management: Blockchain, Robotic Process Automation, and Central and Eastern Europe Forum. BPM 2022. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 459. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16168-1_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16168-1_9

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-16168-1

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