Implementing Robotic Process Automation in Sales Support
Lahtinen, Laura (2023)
Lahtinen, Laura
2023
Tuotantotalouden DI-ohjelma - Master's Programme in Industrial Engineering and Management
Johtamisen ja talouden tiedekunta - Faculty of Management and Business
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2023-03-23
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202303022724
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202303022724
Tiivistelmä
Digitalization has been shaping the ways how we work and live for a considerable length of time. Businesses’ competitiveness is partially determined by their capability to adopt and leverage new technologies. One of the latest trends in digitalization is the automation of repetitive, low-cognitive human tasks in white-collar jobs. A tool that was created to automate low-cognitive hu-man tasks, Robotic Process Automation (further only RPA) utilizes software robots to address this topic. RPA gains attraction because it is easily scalable and implemented at a rather low cost and the use of it doesn’t require prior programming skills. The implementation of RPA has been studied to some extent, however, the studies of implementation in sales and sales support are lacking. Notably, the automation of sales tasks is lagging far behind other business functions, even though a great deal of sales tasks could be automated. To address the limited understanding of automation in sales this study’s objective was to investigate the impact special features on sales might have with automation on a practical level, and the influence of human factors in RPA implementation and addressing employees’ commitment factors to ensure the use of RPA.
Reaching the targets of the study was ensured by answering the following research questions: 1) What are the prerequisites for the automation of sales support processes, 2) How to ensure employees’ commitment to RPA, 3) What kind of resources are needed from the organization in the RPA implementation, and 4) How to prioritize the tasks to be automated with RPA. The study was conducted as a single case study at a Finnish technology company. The primary data was gathered through semi-structured interviews and the interviewees were all employees of the case company with a relevant role to the studied issue. Multi-sourced secondary data was used to ensure data triangulation and broaden the insights of the results provided. The data was analysed through a thematic analysis.
To understand the main empirical findings some prevailing facts must be known. First, RPA is to be utilised by the Sales Support team for the first time, but RPA is not new in the company. However, the Sales Engineers (further only SE) have been provided with RPA training before this study took place. Second, the RPA process at the case company relies on the individual users and their motivations as it is not mandatory for SEs to use RPA.
It was discovered that SEs’ lack of motivation to use RPA is the main reason hindering the automation process in Sales Support. This could be addressed by increasing SEs’ knowledge of RPA by improving the provided training courses and by naming a key user or users to support SEs with the automation design. The importance of the key user should diminish when the use of RPA stabilises. It is also suggested to make the use of RPA temporarily mandatory through KPIs because the voluntariness of use has not led to the adoption of RPA as intended. Lastly, the first tasks to be automated should be prioritized based on task simplicity, as it will support the learning of the individuals and minimize the risk of systems operations being compromised.
This study contributes to the literature by increasing the understanding of the factors affecting the new technology implementation within sales and confirming some prior findings in the rather new field of study. In practice, the findings of the study advise managers on how to deal with and support already overloaded salespeople in RPA adoption. The study also investigated the voluntary use of technology at work which has been previously associated with private life only in the literature but could be further studied in the future. The study despite aiming for generalisability covers only a niche area of sales and thus a general study of RPA possibilities in sales could be of interest.
Reaching the targets of the study was ensured by answering the following research questions: 1) What are the prerequisites for the automation of sales support processes, 2) How to ensure employees’ commitment to RPA, 3) What kind of resources are needed from the organization in the RPA implementation, and 4) How to prioritize the tasks to be automated with RPA. The study was conducted as a single case study at a Finnish technology company. The primary data was gathered through semi-structured interviews and the interviewees were all employees of the case company with a relevant role to the studied issue. Multi-sourced secondary data was used to ensure data triangulation and broaden the insights of the results provided. The data was analysed through a thematic analysis.
To understand the main empirical findings some prevailing facts must be known. First, RPA is to be utilised by the Sales Support team for the first time, but RPA is not new in the company. However, the Sales Engineers (further only SE) have been provided with RPA training before this study took place. Second, the RPA process at the case company relies on the individual users and their motivations as it is not mandatory for SEs to use RPA.
It was discovered that SEs’ lack of motivation to use RPA is the main reason hindering the automation process in Sales Support. This could be addressed by increasing SEs’ knowledge of RPA by improving the provided training courses and by naming a key user or users to support SEs with the automation design. The importance of the key user should diminish when the use of RPA stabilises. It is also suggested to make the use of RPA temporarily mandatory through KPIs because the voluntariness of use has not led to the adoption of RPA as intended. Lastly, the first tasks to be automated should be prioritized based on task simplicity, as it will support the learning of the individuals and minimize the risk of systems operations being compromised.
This study contributes to the literature by increasing the understanding of the factors affecting the new technology implementation within sales and confirming some prior findings in the rather new field of study. In practice, the findings of the study advise managers on how to deal with and support already overloaded salespeople in RPA adoption. The study also investigated the voluntary use of technology at work which has been previously associated with private life only in the literature but could be further studied in the future. The study despite aiming for generalisability covers only a niche area of sales and thus a general study of RPA possibilities in sales could be of interest.