Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Implementation Drivers: Evidence of Selected Nordic Companies

Along the continuous transformations of enterprises, centralized service delivery models have been transitioning from an offshore employee sourcing to digital sourcing. Deploying software robots with robotics process automation (RPA) became one of the most important and fastest growing technologies in the recent years. In this research, the blended qualitative approach was applied, as a survey was followed by interpretative interviews and narrative analysis. This exploratory, empirical study discusses the key drivers behind RPA implementations (financials, employee impact, risks) identified among experts involved in the deployment of intelligent automation solutions at selected Nordic enterprises. The findings highlight the focus on the operational benefits like releasing employees from the most monotonous, non-value adding assignments, strengthening enterprise efficiency, compliance, and quality. Notably, the strategic and external (customer) impacts were not at the core of the RPA decision-making process among the studied case companies. The findings suggest that RPA is mainly perceived as an operational tool to automate and improve internal processes with little consideration of its strategic and external impact, including impact on customers and service quality. This is in line with the approach to the way of how benefits are calculated, looking mainly at savings on labor costs.