This article examines how the automation technology Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can be used to optimize and automate a law firm's internal client acceptance process. Business-related service providers are intrinsically predestined for particularly intensive use of information and communication technologies (Jorgenson & Timmer, 2011, p. 25). The service sector depends on a constant flow of communication between all parties; accordingly, it can be assumed that the industry participants benefit particularly from innovations and optimizations in information and communication technologies (ICT). In addition, certain parts of the service sector are pioneers in using ICT (Jorgenson & Timmer, 2011, p. 25). While the automation of the production sector already began with the Industrial Revolution, the automation of cognitive work steps has only been possible since the widespread introduction of ICT. Despite many parallels, there are fundamental differences between this and the automation of the production sector. However, the literature shows that the increasing digitization of these sectors does not necessarily have a positive effect on their labor productivity (Flegler & Krämer, 2021, p. 38f; Sorbe et al., 2018, p. 8f). Increasingly complex IT structures are becoming a bigger problem and inhibit a positive development of the service sector (Bygstad, 2017, p. 181). This paper addresses this discrepancy and uses a case study considering automation technology to describe how the advancing digitalization of the service sector affects it.
While this case study, an RPA bot was set up using UiPath to realize a proof-of-concept model for automated file creation. The bot was connected to the LegalTech software timeSensor for this purpose. In addition, the open-source document creation tool Docassemble complemented the mandate acceptance process and acted as an information interface for transfer to timeSensor. From the result evaluation, a direct comparison between automation and the human employee shows a significant improvement in the required working time, mainly be- cause manual input requires a high level of attention to detail to avoid incorrect input. The direct comparison shows significant timesaving. Thus, automation matches the quality of the initial process or even surpasses it in terms of speed. The process quality can thus be maintained or increased