The impact of the Center of Excellence governance on the definition of RPA KPIs : An exploratory case-study of the Dutch banking sector

Abstract

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has become a significant tool for organizations to increase effi-ciency and to cut costs, especially in the banking sector. However, the adoption of RPA is not as extensive as it could be. Research shows that a potential cause for this can be attributed to the defini-tion of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for RPA. According to the Instrumental Stakeholder The-ory when it comes to making organizational decisions, management should consider all the relevant stakeholder interests. This exploratory research aims to determine whether the Instrumental Stake-holder Theory can be applied to RPA-related decisions such as the definition of KPIs and therefore questions what the impact of the RPA Center of Excellence (CoE) governance model is on the defi-nition of KPIs for RPA. The focus of this paper is the Dutch banking sector and interviews were conducted with RPA stakeholders of two representative banks. The responders were divided accord-ing to the stakeholder group that they belonged to. The results of the analysis indicate that the CoE governance model indeed has an impact on the definition of RPA KPIs. Further research could be applied to determine the other influencing factors or two investigate the future potential of the com-bination of RPA with AI technology.