Information and Communication Technology Capabilities and Business Performance

This paper analyzes the rapid onset of Robotic process automation (RPA) technologies in the Czech financial sector between 2015-2020. The development and experience from the “hype-and-fear” phase contributed to business process integration and technological spillovers are expected in the future. If ICT capabilities are the source of performance differences, then most likely candidates are inventory and finances business process integration and implemented Enterprise Resource Planning and Customer Relationship Management systems. The RPA should not be seen only as simple automation but as a complex instrument offering a lot of advantages with a focus on benefits for internal and external stakeholders. PURPOSE. The goal is to qualitatively analyze the experience with RPA implementation and quantitatively assess ICT capabilities via analysis of differences between various organizational ICT activities and types of companies in the Czech financial sector. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH. The qualitative case study was performed in the bank ČSOB, a.s. in 2019, respondents, owners of processes in the final part of automation, were chosen randomly from different departments of the bank. Data for the quantitative part comes from the ICT survey (Czech Statistical Office), business performance dataset (EMIS) and a case study about ICT capability implementation. Differences are assessed and indirectly interpreted using goodness-of-fit approach. FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS. The results from the RPA case study revealed that the Czech financial sector is past the “hype and fear” phase and many companies focused on their return on investment and are beginning to focus more on other stakeholders. According to this development, the requirements and outputs are suggested in the phases of RPA implementation. The possible source of rofitability performance differences are integrated business processes. LIMITATIONS. Financial sector data are anonymized in ICT surveys and the measurement of the competitive advantage of ICT capabilities is only indirect. Qualitative approach is suggested with focus on technological efficiency measurement using data envelopment approach. ORIGINALITY. This paper provides an understanding of the strong experience in RPA in Czech financial sector. Certain initial setbacks in RPA are expected and this paper suggest to focus on knowledge management (lessons learned) and other requirements influencing the successful RPA prototyping and implementation process.

Integración de procesos de negocio aplicando servicios web

La Integración de Procesos de Negocio (Business Process Integration – BPI), utiliza una gran cantidad de servicios distribuidos, por lo que la comunicación entre estos servicios es clave para el buen funcionamiento del sistema. En este modelo de cooperación, la arquitectura Cliente-Servidor tradicional ya no es suficiente para la implementación de soluciones que soporten comunicación entre aplicaciones distribuidas, independientemente de la plataforma y del lenguaje de programación que utilizan estas aplicaciones. Por su parte, las Arquitecturas Orientadas a Servicios (Service Oriented Architectures - SOA) proveen una estructura que posibilita el modelado de procesos y conexiones interorganizacionales. Mientras que la Gestión de Procesos de Negocio (Business Process Management - BPM) es el conjunto de sistemas de software, herramientas y metodologías para gestionar tales requerimientos y, el Lenguaje de Ejecución de Procesos de Negocio (Business Process Execution Language - BPEL), es un lenguaje de orquestación de servicios que permite definir la forma en que cooperan entre sí los Servicios Web para alcanzar la lógica de negocio. En este escenario, existen buenas herramientas para asistir desde lo conceptual y desde lo práctico a la Integración de Procesos de Negocio aplicando Servicios Web. Entonces, la problemática se plantea al momento de vincular estas herramientas de manera apropiada para facilitar el proceso de definición e implementación de este tipo de sistemas y en particular, en el ámbito de las pequeñas y medianas empresas (PyMEs).En este trabajo se propone un modelo que hace posible el BPI mediante Servicios Web de una manera ágil y practica, facilitando su implementación. El mismo será aplicado metodológicamente a un Caso de Estudio en el dominio de las PyMEs, con el propósito de evaluar su eficiencia, evidenciar sus beneficios y hallar oportunidades de mejora.