Technology dimensions of automation in business process management industry

Abstract

Internet revolution made it possible to export services beyond the nation’s boundaries to leverage global workforce at low cost locations that revolutionized outsourcing as a strategic strategy to optimize cost. Business Process Management Industry has gone through various types of continual improvement approaches in last two decades of its growth to improve processes for efficiency. A continual improvement methodology does help an organization during its growth phase, but, during transformational times, one needs to rely on automation as a solution. This is the current situation with Business Process Management industry where customer facing businesses are digitizing customer facing operations to gain the competitive advantage of speed in the business services. Business Process Management Industry which supports these customer facing businesses also needs to automate the back-office processes in order to add value to the business. Robotics Process Automation is being deployed across at an exponential rate since “Speed” is of essence to remain competitive in today’s challenging business times. While automation is being deployed across industry, one is seeing multiple instances of non-performance issues in deployment and technology causes of which is a grey area for investigation.Research methodology includes inputs from relevant literature and case studies from organizations who have experimented with automation and research conducted by industry think tanks. It carefully investigates technology aspects that impact automation initiatives from deployment perspective. Literature findings are further validated with empirical evidences through a likert 5 point scale survey taken by Project Managers and Users of automation. Survey is statistically validated and results are analysed to ascertain which are the most impactful causes that affect automation initiative. This research paper investigates technology related challenges of Robotics Process Automation deployment in the Business Process Management industry so that transition to digital business operation is seamless.