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Robotic process automation (RPA) is a rapidly emerging field of computer science. It refers to the use of software robots or similar virtual assistants, which are programmed to complete repetitive and labor-intensive tasks. It has been shown that RPA offers technologically advanced solutions to businesses around the world and can cut costs, raise levels of efficiency, and improve quality. In the effort to remain competitive in the market, RPA has become a powerful and competitive tool for companies spanning a range of different industries. In this chapter, the authors’ focus is on the role of RPA in the banking sector. In this chapter author will analyze the existing scientific research in this area, with a focus on the process requirements for implementing RPA in banks, RPA vendors, and the general benefits of robotization in banking. The chapter will provide additional value through a list of suggestions for the practical use of RPA in the banking industry.

This study aims to examine the effects of the culture for innovation, work engagement and the use of interactive performance measurement systems (PMSs) in the interorganizational accounting processes automation at a shared services center (SSC).

A single-entity survey was carried out at an SSC provider of B2B accounting services of a multinational company in the electrical sector, and structural equation modeling was applied for data analysis.

The results show that the culture for innovation, the work engagement and the use of interactive PMS positively and significantly influence the accounting process automation in the investigated SSC. Moreover, the use of interactive PMS presents a mediating effect on the relationship between culture for innovation and work engagement.

The research findings contribute by revealing that the culture of innovation, work engagement and the interactive PMS support the use of robotic process automation and artificial intelligence in the interorganizational automation of accounting processes in an SSC-type service ecosystem. This highlights the importance of the culture of innovation and the positive feeling toward work being reinforced by the organization and the role of the interactive PMS as a formal instrument to transmit the organizational objectives and provide a common vision.

The study reveals that the use of interactive PMS seems to be an important conductor of the behavior of employees toward the accounting process automation strategy at the SSC, reinforced, in this case, by the culture of innovation and work engagement.

The objective of this article is to identify through a literature study which factors determine the success of process automation in management systems.

A systematic approach is applied to analyze the available literature on the topic. The first stage of the study consisted of analyzing publications aiming to identify aspects that may influence the implementation of automated process management tools in management systems. In the second stage, a synthesis of the information was performed, resulting in a set of representative factors of the aspects identified.

As a result of the literature review, determinant aspects were identified for the implementation of process automation in organizations in general. These elements are summarized in the following factors: Characterization and diversity of the context, Organizational Performance, People Engagement, Knowledge Management, Automated Process Management and Information Technology.

Prior knowledge of the determinants and associated aspects has the potential to optimize process automation, as it eliminates unnecessary steps and allows better application of the available resources.

This paper examines the relationship between marketing automation emergence and the marketers' use of heuristics in their decision-making processes. Heuristics play a role for the integration of human decision-making models and automation in augmentation processes, particularly in marketing where automation is widespread.

This study analyzes qualitative data about the impact of marketing automation on the scope of heuristics in decision-making models, and it is based on evidence collected from interviews with twenty-two experienced marketers.

Marketers make extensive use of heuristics to manage their tasks. While the adoption of new automatic marketing tools modify the task environment and field of use of traditional decision-making models, the adoption of heuristics rules with a different scope is essential to defining inputs, interpreting/evaluating outputs and control the marketing automation system.

The paper makes a contribution to research on the relationship between marketing automation and decision-making models. In particular, it proposes the results of in-depth interviews with senior decision makers to assess the impact of marketing automation on the scope of heuristics as decision-making models adopted by marketers.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand management accounting automation by exploring the programmability of management accounting work.

We build upon the literature on digitalization in management accounting and draw upon the pragmatic constructivist methodology to understand how digitalization takes place at the individual actors' level in accounting practice. The paper uses a data set from an interventionist case study of a machinery manufacturer.

We examine an actual process of automating management accounting tasks. During this development process, surprisingly, calculation tasks remained more fit for humans than machines though, initially, they were thought to be programmable.

According to our findings, practitioners may interpret experts' nonprogrammable work tasks as programmable and seek to automate them. Only identifying the factual possibilities for automating accounting-related work can lead to automation-improved efficiency. Our findings can be increasingly relevant for advanced analytics initiatives and applications within management accounting (e.g. robotic process automation, big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence).

Practitioners need to carefully analyze the entity they wish to automate and understand the factual possibilities of using and maintaining the planned automatic system throughout its life cycle.

The paper shows that when processes are assessed from a distance, the nonprogrammable management accounting tasks and expertise can become misinterpreted as programmable, and the goal of automating them has little chance of success. It also shows possibilities for human accountants to remain relevant in comparison to machines and paves the way for further studies on advanced decision technologies in management accounting.

This study intends to find the industries that have leveraged Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology and elucidate the extent of the adoption of RPA in various industry domains with benefits. The identification of tasks eligible for RPA itself is a challenge. Therefore, the study further brings out the challenges faced in various industry verticals and postulates the future direction of research and applications in RPA.

The study focuses on articles from popular databases such as SCOPUS, Web of Science and Google scholar. PRISMA methodology is used for systematic literature review and 113 papers are shortlisted for study. Three questions are framed to carry out the review and set the research direction.

It is evident from this study that RPA has been widely used in banking and related areas with moderate use in healthcare and manufacturing leading to operational efficiency and productivity. However, there are a lot more opportunities in other domains that need to be taped by leveraging technology advancements and a research agenda has been devised by postulating future directions.

The study brings out a new comprehensive perspective as regards RPA implementation across domains. There is no promising study found that gathers three-dimensional aspects of the meta-themes applications, benefits and challenges. The study summarizes the research agenda and projects the industry domains that have not yet explored, the benefits of RPA. This will be a good reference article for those who develop RPA techniques and organizations that have plans to go for RPA.

Improved production with quality, safety, and security is the biggest challenge of the food industry. Modern technologies, including robotics and automation systems, can help to cope with such issues. This chapter gives a brief view of robotics and automation for the sustainable food industry along with packaging, warehousing, distribution, marketing, and consumer services. It describes the recently implemented solutions of robotic automation in different supply chain operations and various food commodities. The benefits of robotic and automation technology for perishable and semi-perishable items have also been covered. The present research may assist the food industry professionals, supply chain managers, and academicians in implementing automation and robotics in the food industry.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrated approach to process integration, automation, and optimization through enhanced business process models.

The approach is based on a framework of process integration for functional applications, automation for business workflows, and additional functionalities for process optimization. The proposed approach is illustrated using enhanced process models over business integration, automation, and optimization with data elements, structures, and organizational elements. The standard sales order process cycle, quotation approval process, and production order cycle are chosen for illustrating process integration, automation, and optimization, respectively.

The proposed approach combines applications and workflows using integrated process/data models and forms a foundation for business process optimization. It is shown that the integrated approach can improve existing business processes in enterprise resource planning (ERP), beyond business process re‐engineering (BPR) principles, once enhanced business process models are implemented. This approach eliminates need for a hierarchical representation of business processes and highlights the flexibility and visibility of business process implementation in ERP system environment.

Although process integration, automation, and optimization are illustrated using selected business process examples, it requires generalization of these enhancements over entire business blueprint of ERP system. Thus, one key limitation of this research is that it is not generalized for the entire business blueprint of ERP. This also requires changes to data structures beyond current relational data in many ERP systems.

This research provides an integrated approach to business process modeling beyond traditional functional and workflow applications by eliminating hierarchical nature of process and data elements.