UdZ 01.21

SPECTRUM – APPLIED RESEARCH 28 / UdZ 2-2021 RPAcceptance: Development of a Change Management Concept The focus of the ‘RPAcceptance’ funding project is on employee acceptance of robotic process automation (RPA) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The employees concerned and their acceptance play a decisive role in the sustainable use of the efficiency potentials associated with the automation of administrative processes through RPA. The goals of this research project are the development and experimental validation of a model that can be used to identify and adequately address the factors that infuence employee acceptance. The resulting design of a change management concept that promotes acceptance is intended to enable SMEs to gradually introduce their workforce to the use of RPA and convince them of the benefits. > R obotic Process Automation (RPA) has proven to be an efficiency-increasing automation technology in companies and makes it possible to automate large parts of internal administrative processes through standardized data processing. In this process, a software bot virtually imitates the work steps of employees and interacts with existing standard software across systems just like a human actor 1 . Various studies show that companies benefit from different potentials raised by RPA. Efficiency and time gains are at the top of the list, closely followed by quality increases, more comprehensible processes and the optimization of interfaces 2 . A showcase example of the successful application of RPA is Telefónica O 2 , which in 2015 deployed 1 van der Aalst et al. 2018, p. 269 2 PwC 2020, p. 15 3 Lacity and Willcocks 2016, p. 25 4 KPMG 2021, p. 10 28 / UdZ 2- 021 approximately 160 software robots in 500,000 transactions from 15 core processes. The company was thus able to automate 35 percent of its internal administration through RPA 3 . Companies such as Coca-Cola , Siemens and others are also exploiting the enormous efficiency potential of this technology 4 . Technology Acceptance as a Success Factor For RPA Deployment The workforce involved and its acceptance play a decisive role in the sustainable exploitation of the potential associated with the automation of administrative processes through RPA. Process automation has also undergone a major transformation in recent years: Where partially automated systems (e.g., robotic desktop automation) were used some time ago, processes are nowpredominantly processed end-to-end by RPA. In addition, the increased use of artificial intelligence is contributing to the fact that RPA will develop in the direction of intelligent systems such as cognitive process automation (CPA) in the future (Figure 1, p. 30).