The adoption of robotic process automation in a financial institution in South Africa

Abstract

For various reasons, most financial institutions in South Africa are adopting Robotic process automation (RPA). In South Africa, most of the financial institutions especially in the banking sector adopt RPA to enhance service delivery to provide effective and efficient services. Due to the high demand for innovative technologies in the banking sector, most banks are adopting RPA prematurely without proper understanding and planning on the adoption and implementation. This could be because of shortage of skills and lack of knowledge within the organisations. Furthermore, there are concerns from the workforce (employees) that the adoption and implementation of RPA could result to job losses due to most processes being automated replacing the human capabilities and skills sets. The use of RPA is not properly understood in financial institutions in South Africa and as a result has caused conflict between the technology and the workforce due to different interpretations on what adopting and implementing RPA means in the banking sector. The aim of the study was to develop a model, which can be used as a solution to guide the adoption of RPA in financial institutions in South Africa, in a way that the organization and employees are in synergy in the adopting process. In achieving this aim, one South African banking institution was selected as a case and the case study approach was applied. Qualitative research methods were used to gain in-depth understanding of RPA within the financial institution. This was done through the interpretivist approach to understand the relation between the RPA and the workforce. Semi-structured interviews were conducted for data collection to allow for detail and understanding of the RPA adoption and implementation with the organisation. Data was analysed using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as the lens to guide the data analysis process. The TAM components namely, perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), attitude towards using the technology (ATU) and actual system use (ASU) were used to guide the data analysis process. From the analysis conducted the RPA adoption model was developed and can be used to influence the adoption and implementation of RPA within a financial institution, six factors were found and used to create the model, namely; (1) Readiness assessment; (2) Legacy systems; (3) Integration of current systems with RPA; (4) Success factors – implementation and use of RPA; (5) Alignment between business requirements and RPA functions; and (6) Manageability.