Responding to Healthcare Emergency Outbreak of COVID-19 Pandemic with Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

During the complex emergency of COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare sector experienced challenging pressure surge, related to rapid increase in the number of infections, patient inquiries, and demand of immediate treatment. Such situation, experienced also in Finland at the Welfare Division of Turku City, required quick decision making and fast implementation of a reliable and secure technological solution that can take some of administrative burden off the shoulders of nurses’ personnel. The case presents the implementation of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology that has already been recognized as an efficient tool at multiple business organizations, allowing to automate various commercial processes with quick returns and scalable results. The presented case discusses the drivers and outcomes of automating non-commercial, healthcare processes, as well as its impact on emergency response, operations, and society

From Accountant to Software Developer – Transforming Employees with Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Constantly changing technologies affect not only the value types that companies generate but also their processes and their most important resource: employees. Such transitions referred to as digital transformation, mean that employees must tailor their skills and ways of working to stay considered a long-term asset for their company. Intelligent information systems, such as robotic process automation (RPA), are gradually taking over employees' work efforts, and thus replacing part of the human workforce. In the paper, we investigate whether non-technical employees (in this case, accountants) can be retrained to work as entry-level RPA software developers. In our case study (observations blended with interviews), we show how retraining transforms employees’ identity, addresses their anxiety and skepticism, and impacts the organization. Further, we show the relevance of domain knowledge, digital literacy, and the cornerstones of a training program transforming accountants into RPA developers

‘Leanbotics’ Case – Exploring Inclusive Synergies Between Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Process Improvement

In the rapidly changing organizations, the importance of inclusive service design is growing, both for external relations and internal communities. In our case study, we explored the synergy between process improvement and automation for the inclusive digital transformation at a large Nordic organization. Merging the governance of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Continuous Improvement (CI) programme, by developing a ‘Leanbotics’ programme allowed for more efficient and engaging experience, by shifting the focus on including everyone in the community. The insights collected qualitatively from the key personnel taking part in the transition uncovered meaningful synergies in the novel value proposition of easily understandable and inclusive service design

Unveiling Challenges and Opportunities in Low Code Development Platforms: A StackOverflow Analysis

As the rapidly expanding digital transformations at multiple organizations require development of growing number of software solutions, low code development platforms (LCDPs) started to be widely used by pretrained business users, in such use-cases as process automation and rapid application development. Our study explores the challenges of LCDPs use for developers, by investigating 30 000 of their posts at one of the most prominent fora StackOverflow. It is conducted with text-mining approaches, primarily Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), aiming to identify challenges for users of LCDPs. As they were from the areas of visualization, third-party integration, database and table management, datatype conversion, programming languages, and file handling, we further discussed them to propose possible enhancements for users of LCDPs

Offshored Service Cost Model as a Key Post-Transition Challenge

Business process offshoring has been dynamically growing worldwide in the last few years, facilitated by the corporate need for operational expenses reduction, overcoming skilled workers shortage and the potential for operations optimization. At every stage of organizational changes, there are various challenges the service offshoring managerial community constantly struggles with. Th e paper presents the offshored service cost model that can be adjusted and applied for service budgeting, valuation and control, for it has been identified as the most common challenge affecting Polish service off shoring corporations in the post-transition period. Th e need for strengthening this area of knowledge was identified through empirical research and the case study conducted in this work serves for presenting the authors’ insights on cost modelling for offshored business services

Offshored Service Cost Model as a Key Post-Transition Challenge

Business process offshoring has been dynamically growing worldwide in the last few years, facilitated by the corporate need for operational expenses reduction, overcoming skilled workers shortage and the potential for operations optimization. At every stage of organizational changes, there are various challenges the service offshoring managerial community constantly struggles with. Th e paper presents the offshored service cost model that can be adjusted and applied for service budgeting, valuation and control, for it has been identified as the most common challenge affecting Polish service off shoring corporations in the post-transition period. Th e need for strengthening this area of knowledge was identified through empirical research and the case study conducted in this work serves for presenting the authors’ insights on cost modelling for offshored business services

Governance models for robotic process automation: The case of Nordea Bank

The teaching case addresses the governance of robotic process automation at Nordea, a large banking group operating primarily in the Nordic region. Nordea has deployed numerous software robots, for a wide range of business processes, from transaction-processing work and both internal and external reporting all the way to interaction with end users in handling of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)-related queries. The scene is set with a meeting where three people discuss the current state of robotic process automation implementation at Nordea: Group Head of Robotics Agnieszka Belowska Gosławska, Head of Robotic Process Automation Operations Piotr Stolarczyk and Acting Head of Robotics Execution Jaroslaw Motylewski. The presentation outlines several governance-related issues and decision points that must be addressed in connection with any deployment of robotic process automation at somewhat large scale within a company. The key issues are related to the software’s development and maintenance, robotic process automation governance and IT infrastructure. Students who have worked through the case should be able to (1) describe archetypal and hybrid governance modes for robotic process automation and (2) evaluate their advantages and disadvantages for solid infrastructure and effective software development and maintenance.peerReviewe

Outsourcing of Information Technology and Business Processes in Poland: Motivations and Environmental Factors

The aimof the paper is to summarise the literature focusedonInformation Technology and Business ProcessOutsourcing in Poland and to contribute to understanding ofmotivations and environmental factors driving service relocations to Central and Eastern Europe. This exploratory study is based on academic literature and two data sources: government and industry reports, as well as small-scale exploratory survey. The findings confirm the cost reduction to be the main driver, followed by the willingness to improve processes and business performance. The substantial advantage of Poland is human resources – the availability of highly skilled, well-educated workforce at relatively low cost. Even though the salaries are often higher than in Asia, it is compensated by the number of graduates and knowledge of foreign languages.Membership of the EuropeanUnion and political stability also plays an important role. This exploratory study, aside of relocation trends overview, enabled the views among service providers to be captured and compared with the commercial and governmental reports.peerReviewe