Introducing RPA and automation in the financial sector : Lessons from KAS Bank

During an annual board meeting in 2016 KAS Bank’s executive management discussed various business and client trends and their effect on future banking. Based on the discussion, they recognised the need to improve internal business processes, and as such, increase the degree of client satisfaction. In the meeting, they considered the idea of using automation as a way to achieve their goal, as since their start in 1806, KAS Bank embraced technical innovations. For example, they introduced their first mainframe in 1961, a first web application in the late 1980s and subsequently introduced a monitor app to provide financial information to pension funds and insurance firms. The executive board decided to further explore various technical innovation opportunities and consequently asked the Chief Information Officer to explore possible solutions. As the was pondering on this new task, he was wondering: where do we start, which type of processes can be automated, do we have the capabilities in-house to be successful, and what will be the impact on our personnel? This case study describes an actual situation of KAS Bank and its journey to implement robotic process automation solutions. The structure that is followed comprises three stages: Development stage, Implementation stage, and the Operational stage. This teaching case consists of two parts. The first part introduces robotic process automation and KAS Bank, while the second part discusses the three stages and corresponding challenges. Full paper available at https://doi.org/10.1177/2043886921994828