As the COVID-19 crisis drives home the importance of automation, enterprises look to scale RPA initiatives and large tech players enter the vendor landscape
The COVID-19 crisis has not only exposed the inefficiencies of legacy business models but also challenged the very survival of businesses that rely on manual operations. As a result, businesses worldwide are realizing the importance of automation for ensuring business resilience, agility and growth. According to Everest Group, the global Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software market had already surpassed US$1,200 million at the end of 2019, posting a healthy year-on-year pre-pandemic growth of over 75%. Although the pandemic slowed growth in 2020, Everest Group expects RPA adoption to experience a significant uptick coming out of the crisis. Driven by pent-up demand for automation, the RPA market will grow at a CAGR of 45-50% over the next two years.
These findings and more are shared in Everest Group’s recently published report, “An Evolving Digital Workforce to Assist Humans – Robotic Process Automation (RPA) State of the Market Report 2021.” This research provides RPA buyers, software vendors, and third-party enablers (service providers, system integrators, etc.) a detailed view of the current state of the market and analyzes it across various dimensions, including market size and adoption trends, buyer expectations, key barriers to RPA adoption and best practices, solution characteristics, product capabilities & trends, RPA vendor landscape, and outlook for 2021-22.
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Selected findings:
- RPA adoption is being increasingly driven by factors beyond cost savings, with higher focus on improving operational efficiency and enhancing customer experience.
- Vendors have increased their focus on developing and enhancing the online training portal and support forum to overcome traveling restrictions due to the pandemic.
- Deployments on the cloud are rapidly gaining traction. To help enterprises reap the full benefits of the cloud, RPA vendors are rearchitecting their products into a cloud-native architecture based on loosely coupled containerized microservices that can scale independently.
- Merger and acquisition activities are expected to further intensify, with several large tech players entering the vendor landscape. The entry of big-tech players is driving unlimited usage-based pricing models, exerting downward pricing pressure on the market.
- Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism and UiPath continue to dominate the market in terms of RPA software revenue. NICE, Pega and UiPath are the top vendors in terms of RDA/attended RPA license revenue.
About Everest Group
Everest Group is a consulting and research firm focused on strategic IT, business services, engineering services, and sourcing. Our clients include leading global enterprises, service providers, and investors. Through our research-informed insights and deep experience, we guide clients in their journeys to achieve heightened operational and financial performance, accelerated value delivery, and high-impact business outcomes. Details and in-depth content are available at http://www.everestgrp.com/