Academic literature on the topic 'Business process automation'

This Master’s thesis deals with the selection and compilation of a suitable process for automation using RPA technology. The thesis first introduces the theoretical background needed to understand the issue. Subsequently, an analysis of the current state of the company is performed. In the third part, the selection of the process and assembly of your own robots is verified.

The objective of this thesis paper is to answer the question: is robotic process automation efficient/beneficial and should accountants consider its implementation? For accountants, robotic process automation is a software that “perform[s] tasks such as processing sales and financial transactions, managing data, communicating between different systems, and access management, as well as monitoring and reporting” (Seasongood, 2016). In order to determine whether or not RPA should be implemented, a survey was found that had over 500 responses from varying companies currently using RPA. A statistical analysis will be performed in order to determine if any statistical significances exist between questions (both the benefits and challenges of RPA), by countries, by employee sizes, and by business functions. Based on the results, a conclusion will be provided on RPA’s implementation into the accounting field.

This paper summarizes a panel discussion at the 15th International Conference on Business Process Management. The panel discussed to what extent the emergence of recent technologies including machine learning, robotic process automation, and blockchain will reduce the human factor in business process management. The panel discussion took place on 14 September, 2017, at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. Jan Mendling served as a chair; Gero Decker, Richard Hull, Hajo Reijers, and Ingo Weber participated as panelists. The discussions emphasized the impact of emerging technologies at the task level and the coordination level. The major challenges that the panel identified relate to employment, technology acceptance, ethics, customer experience, job design, social integration, and regulation.

This paper summarizes a panel discussion at the 15th International Conference on Business Process Management. The panel discussed to what extent the emergence of recent technologies including machine learning, robotic process automation, and blockchain will reduce the human factor in business process management. The panel discussion took place on 14 September, 2017, at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. Jan Mendling served as a chair; Gero Decker, Richard Hull, Hajo Reijers, and Ingo Weber participated as panelists. The discussions emphasized the impact of emerging technologies at the task level and the coordination level. The major challenges that the panel identified relate to employment, technology acceptance, ethics, customer experience, job design, social integration, and regulation.

Technology is advancing at a rapid pace impacting many industries including accounting and auditing industries. Technological development has enabled implementation of automated accounting systems that make it possible for firms to shift from traditional accounting to automated accounting. This change in record keeping has a direct influence on audit firms. As record keepings changes, it puts pressure on audit firms to implement systems that cater for the change in their clients’ systems. This promotes automated auditing where the use of tools such as data analytics and AI are of importance. There is prior research related to accounting system, automated accounting, automated auditing and the impact of technological development on various industries and professions. However, the impacts of automation on the audit process remain unexplored, especially in Swedish audit firms. As there is only a little literature on the subject, in spite of considerable amount of discussion inside and outside academia about how automation impacts the audit process, the subject is seen as current and interesting. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to discover how automation impacts the audit process in Swedish audit firms. The research question for this thesis is “How does automation impact the audit process?” The audit process is seen as being closely related to audit quality, audit efficiency and competence and skills of auditors. Thus, as sub-purpose, this research also aims to find out how the mentioned aspects are impacted by automation. In this thesis a qualitative approach was taken. Semi-structured interviews were performed with various auditors in order to explore the subject in question. Empirical findings of this thesis suggest that the execution stage of an audit process will be impacted the most by automation. The shift can already be seen but in the future the emphasis will be even more on testing internal controls than substantive procedures. It was also discovered that audit quality and audit efficiency are expected to increase because automation is believed to decrease the amount of human errors and speed up the audit process as well as help auditors draw better conclusions. Competence and skills of auditors were found to be as important in the future as they are nowadays, but the findings suggest that a higher level of IT knowledge and skills are desired in the future as more technology will be integrated in auditing. This research offers theoretical, practical and social contributions. This research extends the existing knowledge on the subject in question. It also helps accounting and auditing firms to understand the impact of automation in the field as well as gives them an opportunity to prepare in advance for changes that may occur. Additionally, the findings of this research can give educational institutions an indication in which way the curriculum in universities should be adjusted. On a national level the findings can be used to encourage continuous learning.  Furthermore, this research can be used as a point of departure for future research.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) är en allt mer framväxande teknologi och används i organisationer för att automatisera och effektivisera manuella affärsprocesser. Det finns en rad fördelar med att använda denna teknik. Implementeringen av RPA kan dock kopplas till blandade reaktioner hos anställda och det är inte ovanligt att en del anställda motsätter sig tekniken på grund av rädsla och okunskap för automatiseringens påverkan. Denna fallstudie syftar att undersöka hur implementeringen av RPA påverkar organisatoriska aspekter som arbetssätt, roller och ansvar samt att undersöka om det finns skillnader i hantering och upplevelse kring detta i konsult-, privat- och offentlig verksamhet. För att undersöka ovan nämnda områden skedde datainsamlingen genom semistrukturerade intervjuer hosorganisationer som implementerat RPA samt genom litteraturundersökning. Resultatet visar att det finns en hel del likheter i hur RPA påverkar arbetet i organisationer, men skillnaderna ligger i hur arbetet med RPA bedrivs.<br>Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is an increasingly emerging technology and is used in organizations to automate and streamline manual business processes. There are a number of advantages to using this technology. However, the implementation of RPA can be linked to mixed reactions among employees and it is not unusual for some employees to oppose the technology due to fear and ignorance of the influence of automation. This case study aims to investigate how the implementation of RPA affects organizational aspects such as working methods, roles and responsibilities, and examine whether there are differences in management and experience regarding this in consulting, private and public activities.In order to investigate the above-mentioned areas, the data collection was conducted through semistructured interviews with organizations that implemented RPA and through literature research. The result shows that there are a lot of similarities in how RPA affects the work in organizations, but the differences lie in how the work with RPA is conducted.

This diploma thesis deals with robotic automation of selected business process using RPA technology. Robotic automation tools are compared with each other and two are subsequently selected for development of the automation – the UiPath software and the AiVIRO library. Realized automations are compared and evaluated in conclusion.

Dagens samhälle präglas av innovation och snabba teknologiska utvecklingar. Dessa teknologiska utvecklingar är till för att underlätta och effektivisera både vardagen och arbete för dess användare. Ett exempel på en sådan utveckling är Robotic Process Automation (RPA). RPA är robotprocesser som används i företag för att utföra enkla, repetitiva och tidskrävande arbetsuppgifter som tidigare utfördes manuellt. Tidigare forskning visar att användningen av RPA har resulterat i att redovisningsekonomens roll har förändrats. Denna förändring har inneburit olika effekter, både för- och nackdelar, för användarna av robotprocesser. Denna fallstudie på ett försäkringsbolags redovisningsavdelning syftar till att analysera hur användningen av RPA förändrar redovisningsekonomens roll, identifiera vilka effekter användningen kan få för redovisningsekonomer samt att förklara hur dessa effekter uppstår för redovisningsekonomer. För att uppnå studiens syfte användes en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi i form av semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Resultatet visar att redovisningsekonomens roll förändras till en hybridekonomroll i ett försäkringsbolag. Denna rollbeskrivning härstammar från att redovisningsekonomerna är mer aktiva, beslutsfattande och samarbetande i organisationen samtidigt som klassiska ekonomiuppgifter fortfarande är viktiga. Den förändrade rollen resulterar i två konstaterade effekter, tidseffektivitet och kvalitet på arbetet, och två icke konstaterade effekter, arbets- och kompetensförlust. För att förklara dessa effekter och hur de uppstår har även två förklarande variabler identifierats, robotprocessernas kravställning och arbetsuppgifter.

This master‘s thesis focuses on assessment of a particular part of information system of selected company and its ICT modification proposal. This thesis explains the problematics of information systems, business process management (BPM) and robotic process automation (RPA) in its theoretical part, then focuses on the current situation and detailed analysis of the selected business process. The final part provides a modification proposal using business process management and robotic process automation technology. The aim of the thesis is to design a solution that will optimize information system via process automation and robotization thus reducing work time, error rate and costs while increasing efficiency of this company.