Sílvia Catarina Moreira

Abstract
This study aims to develop a methodology to assist Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in effectively adopting Business Process Automation (BPA). Despite its growing importance in streamlining routine tasks and enabling employees to focus on more creative activities, numerous organizations face challenges in implementing BPA due to unclear procedures, insufficient knowledge of eligible processes, and uncertainty regarding the necessary technology. In response to these challenges, we introduce the Methodology for Business Process Automation (M4BPA), an artifact designed to guide SMEs through a structured BPA implementation process. The research follows the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM). The requirements for the artifact came from the results of a previous Systematic Literature Review (SLR). M4BPA was demonstrated within real SME environments, providing solid evidence of its efficacy. The findings suggest that M4BPA significantly enhances SMEs' ability to implement BPA efficiently, offering a practical toolkit that facilitates the process. The novelty of this work lies in the development of a BPA methodology specifically tailored for SMEs, addressing existing gaps in current frameworks and providing a best-practice model for similar organizations. This research contributes to the intermediate results of a doctoral project, offering valuable insights for both practitioners and researchers in the field of BPA. © 2025 by the authors.

Abstract
Business Process Automation has been gaining increasing importance in the management of companies and organizations since it reduces the time needed to carry out routine tasks, freeing employees for other, more creative and exciting things. It can be applied in the most varied business areas. Organizations from any sector of activity can also adopt it. Given these benefits, the granted success in transforming business processes would be expected. However, automation initiatives still fail. Adopting this technology can raise social, technological, ethical, methodical, and organizational issues. These facts have triggered the necessity for a summary that could extract more information about how to implement Business Process Automation (BPA), attending to the administrative processes, especially when applied in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). This study aims not only to review the available literature on how to implement BPA but also to typify the processes that can be automated, which technologies or tools exist for making that change, and influence factors in the procedure of BPA. We have covered more than 300 research papers published between 2016 and 2023 in reputable scientific data sources like Scopus, Web of Science/Clarivate, and ScienceDirect/Elsevier. The review revealed some paths for BPA, with some common steps. In addition, some common process characteristics fundamental to automation are exposed, as well as factors that are critical to an organization for successful automation. The results indicate that BPA is an established area in Business Process Management related to technologies/tools like Robotic Process Automation (RPA) or Cognitive-Robotic Process Automation (C-RPA), Workflow Management Systems (WfMS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and Blockchain. As far as we observed, this Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is a unique study that covers all the environmental variables for applying automation in business processes.

Abstract
Business Process Automation has been gaining increasing importance in the management of companies and organizations since it reduces the time needed to carry out routine tasks, freeing employees for other more creative and exciting things. The use of process automation seems to be a growing trend in the business's operational restructuring, combined with digital transformation. It can be applied in the most varied business areas. Organizations from any sector of activity can also adopt it. Given these benefits, the granted success in transforming business processes would be expected. However, 30 to 50% of automation initiatives with Robotic Process Automation technology fail. In this work, a set of guidelines will be proposed that will constitute, after validation, a framework capable of guiding organizations, with a focus on SMEs, in the procedure of automating their processes, thus obtaining the maximum return of this transformation.

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Abstract