This book integrates the material of the lecture series “Blockchain and Robotic Process Automation”, offered at Kiel University. The lecture series sheds light on current research topics on blockchain and robotic process automation (RPA) also in combination with business process management (BPM) or process mining. In this series, leading scientists and business experts give insights into the use of the blockchain technology and RPA. The seven contributions included offer a general introduction into blockchain and smart contracts, and detail the extraction of meaningful events for process mining from blockchain, challenges of blockchain-based collaborative business processes, executing Decision Model and Notation decisions on the blockchain, a blockchain-based solution for digital payment, blockchain use cases in transportation and logistics, and automatically identifying process automation candidates using natural language processing. Overall, the book provides researchers and graduate students with a basic introduction into blockchain, its applications, useful combinations of BPM and blockchain, and use cases for RPA.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the Blockchain and RPA Forum, held as part of the 19th International Conference on Business Process Management, BPM 2021, which took place during September 6-10, 2021, in Rome, Italy. The Blockchain Forum and the RPA Forum have in common that they are centered around an emerging and exciting technology. The blockchain is a sophisticated distributed ledger technology, while RPA software allows for mimicking human, repetitive actions. Each of these have the potential to fundamentally change how business processes are being orchestrated and executed in practice. The 8 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 14 submissions.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the Blockchain and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Forum which was held as part of the 18th International Conference on Business Process Management, BPM 2020. The conference was planned to take place in Seville, Spain, in September 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the conference took place virtually. The Blockchain Forum and the RPA Forum have in common that they are centered around an emerging and exciting technology. The blockchain is a sophisticated distributed ledger technology, while RPA software allows for mimicking human, repetitive actions. Each of these have the potential to fundamentally change how business processes are being orchestrated and executed in practice. The BPM community has embraced these technologies as objects of analysis, design, development, and evaluation. The 14 full plus one short paper presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 28 submissions.

Blockchain technology presents numerous advantages that include increased transparency, reduced transaction costs, faster transaction settlement, automation of information, increased traceability, improved customer experience, improved digital identity, better cyber security, and user-controlled networks. These potential applications are widespread and diverse including funds transfer, smart contracts, e-voting, efficient supply chain, and more in nearly every sector of society including finance, healthcare, law, trade, real estate, and other important areas. However, there are challenges and limitations that exist such as high energy consumption, limited scalability, complexity, security, network size, lack of regulations, and other critical issues. Nevertheless, blockchain is an attractive technology and has much to offer to the modern-day industry. Industry Use Cases on Blockchain Technology Applications in IoT and the Financial Sector investigates blockchain technology’s adoption and effectiveness in multiple industries and for the internet of things (IoT)-based applications, presents use cases from industrial and financial sectors as well as from other transaction-based services, and fills a gap in this respect by extending the existing body of knowledge in the suggested field. While highlighting topics such as cybersecurity, use cases, and models for blockchain implementation, this book is ideal for business managers, financial accountants, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in blockchain technology’s role and implementation in IoT and the financial sector.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the BPM Forum held at the 21st International Conference on Business Process Management, BPM 2023, which took place in Utrecht, The Netherlands, in September 2023. The Blockchain Forum provided a platform for exploring and discussing innovative ideas on the intersection of BPM and blockchain technology. The RPA Forum focused on the use of the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in the field of Business Process Management. The Educators Forum brought together educators within the BPM community for sharing resources to improve the practice of teaching BPM-related topics. The 18 full papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 39 submissions.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the Blockchain and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Forum which was held as part of the 18th International Conference on Business Process Management, BPM 2020. The conference was planned to take place in Seville, Spain, in September 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the conference took place virtually. The Blockchain Forum and the RPA Forum have in common that they are centered around an emerging and exciting technology. The blockchain is a sophisticated distributed ledger technology, while RPA software allows for mimicking human, repetitive actions. Each of these have the potential to fundamentally change how business processes are being orchestrated and executed in practice. The BPM community has embraced these technologies as objects of analysis, design, development, and evaluation. The 14 full plus one short paper presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 28 submissions.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the Blockchain, Robotic Process Management (RPA), and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) Forum which were held as part of the 20th International Conference on Business Process Management, BPM 2022, which took place in Münster, Germany, during September 11-15, 2022. The Blockchain Forum is dealing with techniques for and applications of blockchains, distributed ledger technologies, and related topics. "The RPA Forum brings together researchers from various communities to discuss challenges, opportunities, and new ideas related to robotic process automation and its application to business processes in private and public sectors." The CEE Forum provides a discussion platform for BPM academics from Central and Eastern Europe to disseminate their research, compare results and share experiences. The 20 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 40 submissions.