José González Enríquez (editor) - Business Process Management: Blockchain and Robotic Process Automation Forum: BPM 2021 Blockchain and RPA Forum, Rome, Italy, September 6–10, 2021: Proceedings

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/7911

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG

The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

This volume contains the proceedings of the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Forum and the Blockchain Forum, which took place during September 610, 2021. Both of the forums were organized as part of the 19th International Conference on Business Process Management (BPM 2021), held in Rome, Italy.

The concept of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has gained relevant attention in both industry and academia. RPA raises a way of automating mundane and repetitive human tasks requiring a lower level of intrusiveness with the IT infrastructure. The RPA Forum aimed to bring together researchers from various communities and disciplines to discuss challenges, opportunities, and new ideas related to RPA and its application to business processes in private and public sectors. The forum solicited contributions related to three main RPA areas: management, technology, and applications. The keynote given by Andrs Jimnez Ramrez from the University of Seville, Spain, revolved around two main topics, namely, how to frame RPA in the existing Business Process Management (BPM) paradigm and hyperautomation. The RPA Forum took place for the second time, after its first successful appearance at BPM 2020, in Seville, Spain.

A blockchain is a distributed data structure that guarantees immutability and integrity protection, providing a practical solution to complex problems in coordination. Blockchain-based systems open up diverse opportunities in the context of the BPM lifecycle to redesign business activities in a wide range of fields, including healthcare, supply chain, logistics, and finance. However, these opportunities come with challenges to security and privacy, scalability, and performance. The third Blockchain Forum provided a platform for the discussion of ongoing research and success stories on the use of blockchain, including techniques for and applications of blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology. The program was complemented with a keynote by Fransisco Curbera from the IBM Center for Blockchain and Data Transparency.

The RPA Forum received five submissions, which led to the acceptance of the top three as full papers; the Blockchain Forum received nine papers, of which the top five were accepted as full papers. The overall acceptance rate was 57%. For both forums, each submission was reviewed by at least three members of the respective Program Committees.

We hope that the reader of these proceedings will enjoy the papers presented at both forums. We would like to congratulate both the authors of the accepted papers and those who submitted their work that, unfortunately, was not accepted despite its quality. We also thank our colleagues who acted as reviewers in the selection process and provided the authors with meaningful and constructive comments.

Finally, special thanks go to Massimo Mecella (general chair of BPM 2021) and his Organizing Committee, including Simone Agostinelli, Dario Benvenuti, Eleonora Bernasconi, Francesca de Luzi, Lauren Stacey Ferro, Francesco Leotta, Andrea Marrella, Francesco Sapio, and Silvestro Veneruso. Their great effort enabled these forums take place under safe conditions.

The 19th International Conference on Business Process Management (BPM 2021) was hosted by the Dipartimento di Ingegneria Informatica, Automatica e Gestionale Antonio Ruberti at Sapienza Universit di Roma. It took place in Rome, Italy. The Robotic Process Automation Forum and Blockchain Forum were co-located with the main conference, which took place during September 610, 2021.