Founders Arno Van Rooyen and Sascha Cutura begin with big news: Vista Equity Partners buys BluePrism, a deal that is estimated to be worth $1.5B. BluePrism is one of the big three RPA vendors, the other two being UiPath and Automation Anywhere.
Arno Van Rooyen and Sascha Cutura explain that the BluePrism acquisition could mean big things are coming from the trailing Platform. I’ve found a similar resonance from RPA professionals that I’ve spoken with: UiPath seems to be leading the big 3, however this could change.
Cutura goes on to explain that although the big 3 have been historically dominant, RPA is hot: “left and right, there are a new vendors popping up and other, bigger vendors are buying smaller vendors.” There’s a lot of fluidity in the Automation space. There exists ample M&A activity from PE firms and vendor on vendor acquisitions. This signals that RPA is a hot space full of promise and potential.
The below episode focuses on BluePrism, as their Advisory Alliance Director Brad Hairston talks about the future of Intelligent Automation. Brad is passionate about accelerating Digital Transformation through a blend of Human Capital, Digital Workers and Systems.
The duo continues to talk about Low Code and No Code Platforms. As of late, there has been a plethora of activity within the market. Appian, a superior leader within Low Code Platforms has announced their newest version that will allow users to further leverage Automation within the Platform. With this version, they’ve allowed for seamless access to data pools across several applications.
They then spoke about brand-new-to-me technologies such as Anvil, a free Python-based drag-and-drop web app builder. With Anvil, one can build full stack web apps with nothing but Python. This is extremely interesting to me, as I just started the “Automate the Boring Stuff with Python” course on Udemy.
Another new-to-me technology is Creatio, a platform that enables users to customize a mobile app as quickly and easily as it takes to customize a desktop application. This sounds similar to Appian, and, with its strategic alliance with Low Code Labs, could be a well founded competitor.
Next, we hear of Claris, another Low Code RPA Solution, announcing their Low Code Accelerator Program. The program was created in respect to the the massive growth in low-code technology and the significant opportunity for increasing diversity within the tech industry. As someone with a barely technical background (MIS degree), this is extremely exciting for me. The program aims to equip students with technical and operational training on the Claris platform.
Lastly, and most exciting to me, the Process Mining Platform Celonis recently established a center of expertise called “Celonis Labs” for developing new and cutting edge solutions. The Lab will focus on the intersection of Process Mining and innovative technologies like AI and Augmented & Virtual Reality. It will be interesting to see how these concepts interact with and enhance Process Mining. They’ve also unveiled a Data Robot AI Cloud solution that will be used to unify the environment for what they call “the next generation of intelligent businesses.” Process Mining looks to be a budding practice– I can’t wait to get my hands dirty and dive into this exciting and evolving territory.
The scope and market for Automation is ever increasing. We see the evidence through PE firms getting in on the action, firms investing in RPA, RPA program development, and vendors investing in AI. I’m excited to be a part of this rapidly evolving industry.
For more information about the Process and Automation Podcast, visit their website.
Zen Making Robots 