This book brings together experts from research and practice. It
includes the design of innovative Robot Process Automation (RPA)
concepts, the discussion of related research fields (e.g., Artificial
Intelligence, AI), the evaluation of existing software products, and
findings from real-life implementation projects.
Similar to the substitution of physical work in manufacturing (blue
collar automation), Robotic Process Automation tries to substitute
intellectual work in office and administration processes with software
robots (white-collar automation). The starting point for the development
of RPA was the observation that - despite the use of process-oriented
enterprise systems (such as ERP, CRM and BPM systems) - additional
manual activities are still indispensable today. In the RPA approach,
these manual activities are learned and automated by software robots,
either by defining rules or by observing manual activities.
RPA is related to business process management, machine learning, and
artificial intelligence. Tools for RPA originated from dedicated
stand-alone software. Today, RPA functionalities are also integrated
into elaborated process management suites. From a conceptual
perspective, RPA can be structured into input components (sensors in the
wide sense), an intelligence center, and output components (actuators in
the wide sense). From a strategic perspective, the impact of RPA can be
related to the support of existing tasks, the complete substitution of
human activities, and the innovation of processes as well as business
models.
At present, high expectations are related to the use of RPA in the
improvement of software-supported business processes. Manual activities
are learned and automated by software robots that interact with existing
applications via the presentation layer. In combination with artificial
intelligence (AI) as well as innovative interfaces (e. g., voice
recognition) RPA creates a novel level of automation for office and
administration processes. Its benefit potential reaches a return on
investment (ROI) up-to 800% that is documented in various case studies.
