Abstract:

For several years now, companies all over the world have been implementing digital transformation projects involving the ”use of new digital technologies (…), in order to enable major business improvements like enhancing customer experience, streamlining operations or creating new business models” (Fitzgerald and others, 2013). The digital technologies are the foundations of the transformation projects implemented. In accordance with analytics companies’ estimates robotic process automation (RPA) tools are currently the fastest growing group of digital transformation technologies on the IT market. According to Gartner the sales of solutions and services in this area rose 63.1% in 2019, as compared to 2018, coming in at USD 1.3 billion (Gartner, 2019). According to Forrester’s analysts the value of RPA licenses and services sold is to reach USD 2.9 billion by 2021 (Clair and others, 2017). While according to Fortune Business Insight analytics company, the value of the RPA market is to reach USD 6.8 billion by the end of 2026. Enterprises that use robotic process automation should periodically, in a systematic manner, conduct reviews of their approach in this area and business benefits obtained. The reviews should cover, among others, the degree to which the approach applied is aligned with the organization’s strategic goals (both in the business, as well as the IT domain), how efficiently activities related to robotic process automation are carried out on the operational level (both during software robot development, as well as during their maintenance), or finally, what the enterprise personnel’s level of skills with respect to robotic process automation is. This will allow for identifying areas in which it is necessary to improve the approach applied and it will be the starting point for defining improvement measures.