Automation Archives - Page 3 Of 37

Task Mining Playbook: Featuring Bayer Case Study | On-demand Webinar

September 29, 2022

In this on-demand webinar, Amardeep Modi, VP at Everest Group, will join a panel to discuss why organizations demand deeper visibility into people, processes, and technology.

You will learn:

Why traditional manual techniques for process discovery are a barrier to scale
How organizations can kick-start their task mining journey
How technology leaders can drive a shift towards task mining in their organizations, and more

Watch Now

Presenters

Amardeep Modi
VP, Everest Group

Jürgen Winandi
Group Product Manager, Automation, Bayer

Samson David
CEO, Soroco

Watch Now

How Automation Makes Biz Processes Agile, Less Tedious | In the News

August 17, 2022

When we think automation, we normally think robotic assembly lines on factory floors. But automation is now everywhere in the enterprise, thanks to technologies like robotic process automation (RPA), AI, and ML.

Anil Vijayan, Partner at Everest Group, said a big advantage of the new automation tools is that they are non-invasive. “You need not rip and replace fundamental systems within the organization,” he said.

Digital Transformations: 5 Emerging Trends in the Intelligent Process Automation Market

August 4, 2022

The pandemic’s effects on the digital landscape are long-lasting. Businesses are evolving to rely on the intelligent process automation market (IPA) to promote growth and keep up with competitors. Read on to learn more about five growing IPA trends.

In a world becoming increasingly reliant on technology, financial services organizations are digitizing and automating more processes to keep up with the competition. The intelligent process automation market, growing by about 20% across all fields, is now becoming ubiquitous.

IPA is defined as automation in business processes that use a combination of next-generation automation technologies — such as robotic process automation (RPA) and cognitive or artificial intelligence (AI)-based automation, including intelligent document processing and conversational AI. Solution providers are offering solutions across RPA, Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), and workflow/orchestration, as well as crafting innovative solutions such as digital Centers of Excellence (CoE) and investing more in as-a-Service offerings.

In our recent Intelligent Process Automation (IPA) – Solution Provider Landscape with PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2022 report, our analysts ranked IPA technology vendors and looked at the market for IPA solutions. Based on the research, the growth of IPA technology and reliance will expand to around 25% over the next three years.

Five intelligent process automation market trends enterprises should know

The question of how to become faster, more efficient, and more resilient is the focus for just about any organization undergoing digital transformation. Very often, the answer to this question is at least, in part, intelligent process automation. In the near future, we can see five emerging IPA trends:

IPA will get smarter

A greater proportion of cognitive elements is finding its way into the intelligent process automation market. About 60% of new automation projects involve more advanced cognitive tools such as IDP, conversational AI and anomaly detection. As the maturity of AI-based solutions increases, cognitive automation will be in greater demand. All-round adoption of IPA will be fueled by providers entering new geographies and organizations starting IA initiatives.

IPA will be more scalable

Although many organizations are trying to adopt intelligent process automation, the real question is if it can be scaled up or, in other words, if it can be brought across the organization. To help enterprises scale automation, solution providers are investing in expanding their partner ecosystem, strengthening technology capabilities, and enhancing their services portfolio.

Providers are also expected to help enterprises scale up through more effective change management and CoE set-up strategies. Aided by the prevalence of process intelligence solutions to form robust pipelines and orchestration tools to facilitate holistic automation, enterprises are better equipped now to move away from siloed applications of IA to scaled-up automation implementations.

Citizen development will grow

Many organizations are experimenting with what they can do with citizen development, especially with the current talent shortage. Citizen-led development also holds the power to disrupt the current state of building automation and addresses the issue of talent availability. Solution providers are expected to invest in citizen development and low-code/no-code technologies enabling business users to build automation, consequently also addressing the talent shortage in the market.

Solution and technology providers are also expected to invest substantially in developing the low-code/no-code capabilities of their platforms to enable business users with limited technical exposure to build automation solutions on their own. A few solution providers are implementing citizen development programs in their own organizations and are planning to leverage the learnings to develop effective governance programs for enterprises.

IPA service providers will bring IPA solutions packages to the market

Packaged solutions are gaining traction in the IPA market due to their ease of implementation and quick Return on Investment (RoI). Solutions for F&A are the most prevalent in the market. These solutions will need training on particular data sets to make them functional for a particular process, but they will speed up implementation. Providers are expected to take conscious steps toward promoting sustainable AI by developing solutions complying with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) parameters. They are also investing in AI solutions that are transparent about their working and usage of data.

IPA service providers will pre-build connectors to legacy and other systems

There are a host of technologies, including RPA, conversational AI, process mining, and process orchestration in the IA ecosystem. Very often these IA solutions need to talk to the various other systems. Many IPA service providers are driving innovation and crafting new solutions to keep pace with the fast-moving IPA market and create a more holistic integration process. One such method is offering enabling capabilities like pre-built connectors for a faster and less complex implementation.

If you would like to learn more or discuss the intelligent process automation market and IPA trends, reach out to [email protected].

Learn how the healthcare industry is utilizing intelligent automation, digitalization, and telehealth as fundamental driving forces to transform and evolve in the webinar, How Intelligent Document Processing Is Transforming the Healthcare Industry.

Composable Commerce: For Composing the Best-of-Breed Customer Experience

July 20, 2022

From monolithic to MACH architecture, the next evolution in digital experience is here – composable commerce. Similar to building with Lego Blocks, this modular approach allows enterprises to create unique models by selecting “best-of-breed” digital commerce components. Learn how composable commerce is optimizing all aspects of the online shopping experience and what tech providers are pioneering solutions in this rapidly rising area.

Digital commerce growth leads to composable commerce

Just as the COVID-19 pandemic has been a catalyst in accelerating digital platform adoption among enterprises, modern consumers’ purchasing habits have dramatically changed due to frequent lockdowns and increasing online purchasing convenience.

According to a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report, the average share of internet users who made purchases online increased from 53% before the pandemic to 60% across 66 countries following its onset in 2020/21.

The shopping experience has evolved from brick and mortar stores to online and moved to unified commerce – an amalgamation of offline and online channels with an ever-evolving myriad of customer touch points such as social commerce, video commerce, and now metaverse, etc.

Emerging business models such as Digital to Commerce (D2C), new and interactive channels, and advancements in technology, especially Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR), have fueled digital commerce’s growth. In response, the underlying digital commerce architecture principles have also morphed to meet the pace of change in digital-native customer expectations.

What is composable commerce, and how will it unlock business value?

Up until a few years ago, monolithic architecture-based platforms were the de facto choice for any digital commerce storefront. These big and chunky solutions providing standard out-of-the-box features for all customers offered a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Enterprises had to be content with these standard features and were required to spend huge budget and time on customizations to meet their business requirements.

However, major issues with scalability, complexity, longer time to market, and budget made this implementation approach less useful for modern commerce businesses where staying abreast of technological advancements, customer centricity, and nimbleness are of utmost priority.

The next major evolution in digital commerce architecture is MACH (microservices-based, API-first, cloud-native, and headless) architecture enabled enterprises. This approach will overcome the shortcomings of monolithic architecture and responsively and dynamically adapt to customer expectations.

Taking a step forward from MACH architecture, the era of composable commerce has dawned. Composable commerce – a modular approach to implementing digital commerce – uses interchangeable building blocks, leveraging the MACH Architecture framework. It offers enterprises the choice to select “best-of-breed” digital commerce components such as Product Information Management (PIM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), pricing, etc., and is similar to Lego Blocks where users can create unique models. These composable components are the specific solutions provided by third-party vendors.

While the microservice approach breaks down the digital commerce modules into individual building blocks, composable commerce enables the linkage of these microservices to realize a specific business value. Composable commerce utilizes Packaged Business Capabilities (PBCs), a fully functional, independent component serving a defined business capability. These are used as building blocks for “composing” the unique platform. Each PBC can consist of several microservices. These PBCs can be individually replaced or modified without impacting the entire platform.

Thus, composable commerce has shifted the focus toward business-centricity. Composable commerce is built for an organization’s unique operating models, strategic priorities, and customer focuses. Businesses can select essential functionalities for their requirements and “compose” them into a custom application built for their digital commerce platform. This allows enterprises to focus on the relevant PBCs for their business that are sometimes unavailable in the traditional and bulky monolithic platform’s “out-of-the-box” features.

Below are some benefits of composable commerce that enterprises can realize.

The number of PBC vendors providing functionalities such as loyalty, promotions, search, reviews and ratings, analytics, etc., is rapidly growing. Enterprises have the flexibility to choose the best vendor for their platform, considering their individual business and technical requirements. They can manage multiple brands and varying business models, leveraging the same composable commerce stack to stay nimble in response to market changes. Complex business can be launched and managed more efficiently using composable commerce.

Technology providers are already pioneering composable commerce solutions

Technology providers have extensively started working on solutions to enable enterprises to get on board the composable commerce bandwagon. Below are some examples:

Spryker has launched the cloud-native “App Composition Platform,” which gives enterprises seamless access to third-party services and best-of-breed digital commerce vendors
Virto’s Atomic Architecture™ allows customers to get a composable, flexible, manageable, customized, and easily-updated digital commerce architecture that is fully adaptable to market challenges
Elastic Path’s Composable Commerce Hub is an open exchange of composable commerce solutions for digitally-driven brands that want to seamlessly create complete digital commerce experiences for their business
Fabric provides a configurable and composable commerce solution to rapidly deploy and scale unique brand experiences, product offerings, and services
Infosys Equinox is powering Nu Skin to compose unique and delightful digital journeys across ever-evolving channels
Avensia’s composable commerce solution Avensia Excite is built on commercetools. Avensia Excite uses Contentful for CMS, Inriver for PIM, and Apptus eSales for search engine

Composable commerce outlook

While MACH architecture had set a strong foundation for modern digital commerce architecture, composable commerce is the next logical iteration in the digital commerce business model to meet rapidly changing customer expectations and the growing number of touch points. Composable commerce adoption will continue to witness a rise as enterprises plan to move away from the traditional approach of implementing digital commerce solutions. More and more niche third-party vendors are emerging faster than before, providing ample choice for enterprises to craft and “compose” their digital commerce stack.

If you have questions about digital commerce, please reach out to Nisha Krishan ([email protected]) and Aakash Verma ([email protected]).

Stay tuned for insights on the digital commerce platform market from our recently launched inaugural Digital Commerce Platform PEAK Matrix^® Assessment.

Roadmap to an AI-driven Enterprise | Market Insights™

July 16, 2022

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Selecting the Right Low-code Platform: An Enterprise Guide to Investment Decision Making | Blog

July 15, 2022

Enterprise adoption of low-code platforms has been invigorated in recent years by its potential to drive digital transformation. This fast-rising platform solution offers promise to democratize programming with today’s talent shortage and help companies develop applications and enhance functionalities faster. While the opportunities are clear, charting a path to successful adoption is ambiguous. Learn the 4Cs approach used by best-in-class enterprises for selecting and adopting the right-fit low-code platforms in this blog.

As many as 60% of new application development engagements consider low-code platforms, according to Everest Group’s recent market study. Driven by the pandemic, the sudden surge in demand for digital transformation accelerated low-code annual market growth to about 25%. Considering its potential, low code is appropriately being called the “Next Cloud.”

Interest by investors also has accelerated, further driving R&D spend for new product development. Funding activities in 2022 to companies featuring low code in their profiles already amounts to $560 million across 40 rounds.

Platform providers are responding to these elevated expectations with equal fervor by building platforms with deep domain-specific expertise, while others are providing process-specific solutions for enterprises’ customization requirements.

While these markets have resulted in a proliferation of low-code platforms to choose from, it also has led to confusion and inefficiencies for enterprises. As more and more enterprises explore the potential of these platforms, IT leaders are faced with numerous questions and concerns such as:

“How do I select the platform that can address my current and future requirements?”

“Which platform will work best in my specific enterprise IT landscape?”

“How can we optimize the investment in this technology?”

“How do I compare the pricing structures of different low-code platforms?”

“How do we ensure governance and security of the IT estate with these new tech assets?”

Adoption journey and evaluation parameters for low-code platforms

In addition to the high-priority use cases that initiate the adoption, enterprises should consider the platform’s scalability potential, talent availability for support and enhancement, and integration with the broader IT landscape to make the right selection.

Additionally, low-code platforms are intended to address the requirements of the IT function as well as business stakeholders. Considering the drivers, expectations, and requirements of both when making the selection is essential. A collaborative decision-making set-up with the central IT team and key Line-of-Business (LoB) leaders is critical for a successful platform selection. Let’s explore the 4Cs to low code success.

4Cs to low code success

The key steps to ensure successful low-code platform selection and adoption are:

Contemplate: Initiate platform adoption by a set of high-priority use cases but plan for scalability at the enterprise level during platform selection
Collaborate: Bring together the central IT group to lead the selection and adoption effort and meaningfully involve the LoB stakeholders
Compare: Start with business and tech drivers, expectations, and requirements from both IT and business to prioritize and rank platforms and select the best-fit platform
Customize: Make small and incremental enhancements post-adoption to broaden the platform’s scope without disrupting daily operations

This approach can provide a roadmap for enterprises with distinct outcomes. We have witnessed enterprises either adopting the best-fit approach resulting in a platform portfolio or leveraging a single platform as a foundation for an enterprise-grade innovation engine.

For instance, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of a leading bank in the US invested in establishing a low code Center of Excellence (CoE) that uses different platforms for process automation, IT Service Management (ITSM), and enabling point solutions for business users.

On the other hand, a large US commercial insurer built its entire end-to-end multi-country app on a single low-code platform. This comprehensive, business-critical application managing claims, billing, and collection is accessible by all underwriters and service personnel.

Next, we explore how to best compare platforms based on their offerings and capabilities. The tables below illustrate the top five business and technology-oriented parameters to consider when evaluating platforms, along with their relevance and enterprise expectations.

Technology parameters for low-code platform selection

Factors associated with the platform’s technical robustness are of key importance to IT decision-makers. Integration and UI/UX capabilities are at the top of enterprise’s technology priorities when comparing multiple platforms.

For instance, Appian ships with 150-plus Out-of-the-Box (OOTB) connectors. Appian SAIL, a patented UI architecture, takes declarative UI definitions to generate dynamic, interactive, and multi-platform user experiences. It also makes the applications more secure, easy to change, future-proofed, and native on the latest devices.

Business parameters for low-code platform selection

Assessing these parameters is important to understand whether low code can be sustained and scaled long-term and if it addresses the business users’ expectations. Pricing and security constructs are at the top of the list for businesses looking to adopt a low-code platform.

Let’s consider Salesforce as a case-in-point. Salesforce has security built into every layer of the platform. The infrastructure layer comes with replication, backup, and disaster recovery planning. Network services have encryption in transit and advanced threat detection. The application services layer implements identity, authentication, and user permissions. In addition, frequent product updates that help it to align its product offering with changing market demands put Salesforce as one of the go-to platforms for all the CRM needs of enterprises.

Low-code platform outlook

The plethora of options makes it difficult for enterprises to zero down their investments on a particular low-code platform. Enterprises must also leverage their network of service partners for guidance in this decision-making process.

Talent availability for implementation and enhancement support is critical to keep in mind during the platform selection. For the same reason, multiple system integrators are now taking the route of inorganic growth to bolster their low-code capabilities.

This is the time to hop on the low-code bandwagon and establish low code as the basis for enterprise digital transformation.

Everest Group’s Low-Code Application Development Platforms PEAK Matrix^®Assessment 2022 provides an overview of the top 14 platforms based on vision, strategy, and market impact.

To share your thoughts and discuss our research related to low-code platforms, please reach out to [email protected] and [email protected].

Metaverse and ScienceTech: Will These Virtual and Real-world Markets Compete?

July 4, 2022

Metaverse is the buzz these days. While Metaverse provides an embodied virtual-reality experience, ScienceTech fuses technology and science to solve real problems of humanity. Who will win in the battle for relevance, investments, and talent? To learn more about these virtual and real-world market opportunities and what actions technology and service providers should take, read on.

While they once seemed far out, the Metaverse and ScienceTech are here now. As part of our continued Metaverse research, let’s explore these emerging technologies and whether they will collide or coexist.

ScienceTech brings together technology and science to improve the real world by enhancing living standards and improving equality. It combines technology with physical sciences, life sciences, earth sciences, anthropology, geography, history, mathematics, systems, logic, etc.

Meanwhile, the Metaverse is an emerging concept that uses next-generation advanced technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR)/Virtual Reality (VR), digital assets, spatial computing, and commerce to build an immersive, seamless experience.

Over the past few months, Metaverse has become a hot topic not only in technology circles but also among enterprises. As providers pump billions of dollars to create the landscape and value realization becomes clearer, Metaverse will grab increasing attention from enterprises, providers, and market influencers.

Its serious market potential can be seen by the collaboration of industry participants to define standards to interoperate Metaverse platforms and ecosystems. Everest Group is witnessing great interest in our Metaverse research and our recent webinar Web 3.0 and the Metaverse: Implications for Sourcing and Technology Leaders generated unprecedented client inquiries.

ScienceTech has been around for many years but has been mostly experimental with limited revenue and growth. Technology and service providers have been reluctant to meaningfully scale this business because of its complexity, significant investment requirements, and high risk of failure.

However, the pandemic has changed priorities for enterprises and individuals, making ScienceTech more critical to solving real-life problems. The cloud, an abundance of data, better manufacturing processes, and a plethora of affordable technologies have lowered the cost of enabling and building these offerings.

Competition between Metaverse and ScienceTech

Below are some of the areas where these two emerging fields could conflict:

Relevance

Many cynics have decried Metaverse as one more fantasy of BigTech trying to take people further away from reality. This cynicism has gained pace in light of the disruptive global pandemic. The make-believe happy world driven by a heavy dose of virtual reality takes the focus of humanity away from the pressing needs of our time.

While not well defined, ScienceTech is generally perceived as being different from pure play. Some of its ideas have been around for many years such as device miniaturization, autonomous systems, regenerative medicine, and biosimulation. The core defining principle of ScienceTech is that science researched, validated, and hypothesized themes are built through technology. The relevance of ScienceTech may appear far more pressing to many than the make-believe virtual world of Metaverse.

Investment

The interesting competition will be for investments. Last year, venture capitalists invested over US$30 billion in crypto-related start-ups. As the Web 3.0 and Metaverse tech landscape becomes more fragmented and crowded, investors may not want to put their money into sub-scaled businesses. This can help the ScienceTech space, which is not well understood by investors, but offers a compelling value proposition.

Talent

Technology talent is scarce and ScienceTech talent is even scarcer. Although Metaverse vendors will continue to attract talent because they can pay top dollar, ScienceTech vendors can offer more purpose and exciting technologies to niche talent. In the internet heydays, people bemoaned that bright minds were busy clicking links instead of solving world problems. Metaverse may have that challenge and ScienceTech can benefit from this perception. GenZ job seekers want to work in areas where they can impact and change the world, and ScienceTech can provide that forum.

What should technology and service providers do?

Both Metaverse providers and ScienceTech companies will thrive and share quite a few building blocks for technologies, namely, edge, cloud, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and data. Multiple technology and trends will not battle. Moreover, these two markets serve different purposes and Metaverse and ScienceTech will coexist. Technology and service providers will need to invest in both segments, and capture and shape the market demand.

Providers need to prioritize where to focus efforts, investments, partnerships, and leadership commitment. A different people strategy will be needed because skilling technology resources on science and vice-versa will not work. They will need to select specific focus areas and hire people from multiple science domains. The R&D group will have to change its constituents and focus on science-aligned technology rather than just Information and Communications Technology.

To be successful, providers also will have to find anchor clients to underwrite some offerings, collaborate to gain real-life industry knowledge, and engage with broader ecosystems such as academia, government, and industry bodies to build market-enabling forums.

To learn more about our Metaverse research and discuss your experiences in these emerging areas, contact [email protected] or contact us.

Visit our upcoming webinars and blogs to learn more about upcoming technologies and trends.

Low-code Market Realities: Understanding Common Myths to Avoid Costly Mistakes

June 23, 2022

Despite their growth, low-code platforms are still surrounded by much confusion. Many enterprises incorrectly believe that real developers don’t need low code, anyone can do it, and it’s only for simple problems. To debunk three common myths in the low-code market, read on.

With its increasing importance, low-code platforms are also subject to several myths and misunderstandings. As with every evolving technology, enterprises have many questions about optimally using these platforms.

Based on our conversations with multiple enterprises confirming the lack of understanding about the low-code market, we tackle the common misperceptions below:

Myth #1: Low-code platforms are meant for use by citizen developers

The term low code generally evokes the impression of an HR manager who, tired of following up with the IT team multiple times, decides to create a leave approval workflow application. While this impression is not incorrect, professional developers and enterprise IT teams are key stakeholders in the low-code ecosystem as well.

Professional developers increasingly use low-code platforms to improve their efficiency. Some of these platforms can provide code quality alerts and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered recommendations, not to mention custom solutions that require minimal tuning.

The built-in DevOps capabilities in these platforms also encourage a culture shift from the commonly used waterfall model among users. For example, supply chain management software provider Nimbi significantly reduced developers in their team from 40 to 24 when they switched to OutSystems from traditional platforms.

We strongly believe central IT teams have a meaningful role in the ecosystem to provide effective oversight and governance, in addition to strategizing the use of the best low-code platforms at the enterprise level. In the absence of centralized governance, low-code platforms may proliferate across the organization leading to aggravation of the shadow IT issues and higher spend.

Myth #2: Low-code development does not require technical skills

As much as we may want to believe, low-code platforms are not a panacea to the ongoing talent crisis. Misleading promises by certain technology vendors have created a common impression that any user can develop any application using low-code platforms. However, low-code development does not imply zero technical skill requirement.

Most low-code platforms enable the extension of their capabilities through traditional programming languages like Java and C#. Off-the-shelf solutions have their limitations, and most applications need custom logic at some point. Typical job descriptions for low-code developer profiles outline technical qualifications like JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3, alongside Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) pipeline tools like Jenkins.

Thus, it is unrealistic to expect an army of business users to step in and take over all application development-related needs from the IT organization. Low-code development remains a role with a highly demanding skillset across various technologies.

Myth #3: Low code cannot be used for enterprise-grade development

Many enterprise leaders and service providers believe that low-code platforms are only suitable for small-scale department-level needs. However, our conversations indicate that low-code platforms are being rapidly adopted for critical applications used by millions of users. Here are some examples of how low code is solving complex IT problems around the world:

A large US commercial insurer has built its entire end-to-end multi-country comprehensive, business-critical application that manages claims, billing, and collection on Appian
One of the largest consumer goods companies in the world built a huge global application for financial management on Microsoft Power Platform

As we witness the adoption of low-code platforms garnering pace, a lot of myths and misunderstandings need to be cleared up about low code versus traditional development. Technology providers and service partners play a key role in helping their clients navigate the abundant options to orchestrate a carefully crafted low-code strategy and select the best low-code platforms.

At Everest Group, we are closely tracking the low-code market. For more insights, see our compendium report on various platform providers, the state of the low-code market report shedding light on the enterprise adoption journey, and a PEAK Matrix assessment comparing 14 leading players in the low-code market.

To share your thoughts and discuss our low-code market research, please reach out to [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected].

You can also attend our webinar, Building Successful Digital Product Engineering Businesses, to explore how enterprises are investing in next-generation technologies and talent and the most relevant skillsets for digital product engineering initiatives.

Healthcare Payer BPS Market: Automation Adoption, Potential, and Technologies | Market Insights™

June 6, 2022

Healthcare Payer

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5 Intelligent Process Automation Trends to Watch | In the News

June 3, 2022

Financial services organizations are digitizing and automating more processes to keep up with competition, and intelligent process automation (IPA) — which has been growing in use about 20% across all fields — is now becoming ubiquitous. Market research firm Everest Group in a recent report ranked IPA technology vendors and looked at the market for process automation.

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Tag: automation