Towards an Integrated Platform for Business Process Management Systems and Robotic Process Automation

Business Process Management Systems (BPMS) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) gain increasing relevance in digital transformation to enact and automate business processes. Recent discussions in academia and practice indicate a promising yet challenging integration of both technologies based on a standardized language for consistent process modeling and orchestration, like the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). However, scientific literature lacks profound approaches. Guided by Design Science Research, this empirical study substantiates the current debate with a scientifically grounded concept for integrating BPMS and RPA. Resting upon data from 20 expert interviews, we present the requirements and conceptual design of a holistic BPMS-RPA platform based on BPMN. The practicability of our approach is substantiated by five evaluation interviews and a prototypical implementation. Finally, we outline directions for further research and organizational practice.