Optimization of License Management for Business Process Automation with Robotic Process Automation

Purpose Nowadays automation of business processes is increasing in popularity among organizations. The undeniable benefits, like freeing up the potential and time of well-educated employees so they can focus on more valued activities, are well known. With the growing number of automated processes, optimization of bot usage has become a significant factor in reducing costs. This paper presents an analysis supporting the proper management of business process automation in the context of bots’ license usage. Design The goal of this research is to build a tool that allows for the analysis of license demand and supports automated management of process runs. Findings For the described case, the research estimated the minimum number of bot licenses to ensure that the automated processes would run in a stable manner, and identified the time periods of different license utilization levels. Practical implication The described analysis is a tool for cost optimization of current bot infrastructure. It supports the continuous improvement processes for automated processes run management with balanced levels of license utilization. Value The analysis can be easily adopted for different setups of bot infrastructure to bring about benefits of cost optimization.