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A Framework of Cost Drivers for Robotic Process Automation Projects

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Business Process Management: Blockchain and Robotic Process Automation Forum (BPM 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 428))

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Abstract

Robotic process automation is a technology to imitate human behavior when interacting with computers to perform digitized tasks manually, such as opening and closing applications, reading documents, entering data, and sending e-mails. As with any new technology, estimating the costs and break-even of robotic process automation projects is challenging. Currently, in practice, there are no dedicated guidelines for defining cost components in those projects that go beyond simple comparison with person-hours and salary cost. To address this gap, we review literature on the cost of robotic process automation projects to collect and structure those cost drivers that can be generalized. We categorize and prioritize them and derive a novel cost framework specifically for the cost estimation of robotic process automation projects. The framework comprises three cost calculation perspectives for three distinct project scopes hosting eleven cost drivers in the three categories development, investment, and operation. We illustrate the framework in a robotic process automation use case to demonstrate its usefulness.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt, Ingolstadt, Germany

    Bernhard Axmann & Harmoko Harmoko

  2. Julius-Maximilians-Universität, Würzburg, Germany

    Lukas-Valentin Herm & Christian Janiesch

  3. HAW Landshut, Landshut, Germany

    Christian Janiesch

Authors
  1. Bernhard Axmann
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  2. Harmoko Harmoko
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  3. Lukas-Valentin Herm
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  4. Christian Janiesch
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lukas-Valentin Herm .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería, Seville, Spain

    José González Enríquez

  2. IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Søren Debois

  3. German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany

    Peter Fettke

  4. Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Pierluigi Plebani

  5. Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Inge van de Weerd

  6. TU Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Ingo Weber

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Axmann, B., Harmoko, H., Herm, LV., Janiesch, C. (2021). A Framework of Cost Drivers for Robotic Process Automation Projects. In: González Enríquez, J., Debois, S., Fettke, P., Plebani, P., van de Weerd, I., Weber, I. (eds) Business Process Management: Blockchain and Robotic Process Automation Forum. BPM 2021. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 428. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85867-4_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85867-4_2

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-85867-4

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