Organisations aim to improve efficiency, speed and accuracy with RPA tools; rise of the digital workforce
Robotic process automation tools cut costs, eliminate keying errors, speed up processes and link applications. Enterprise architecture and technology innovation leaders must understand the differences in technical functionality of RPA tools to select the right software platform. Also increasingly known as the digital or virtual workforce, this is a billion dollar industry that is currently taking shape with key players positioning themselves ahead of the pack. This is even more evident with two high profile investments earlier this year valuing UiPath and Automation Anywhere as unicorns.
The industry has seen a flurry of activity in 2018 and this will continue over the coming years as the benefits of automation alongside the significantly improved technology landscape means that highly complex business processes can now be executed efficiently.
Whilst there is a shortage of trained RPA resources organisations leading like UiPath and Automation Anywhere are providing excellent online academies which helps potential candidates for the industry to develop their skill set. Most of the RPA providers do look for technical candidates who have a background in computer science and some software development experience helps the transition in to this burgeoning industry.

Leading RPA Software Providers
Automation Anywhere
UiPath
AutomationEdge
Blue Prism
Contextor
EnableSoft
Epiance
Kryon Systems
OpenConnect
Softomotive
Software providers where RPA is included in their portfolio
Kofax
Nice
Pegasystems
Cloudera
AntWorks
Help Systems
Infosys (EdgeVerve Systems)
Jacada
Perpetuuiti
Verint
Redwood Software
Servicetrace
SpiceCSM
Winshuttle
WorkFusion
IT or BPO providers with proprietary RPA software
Another Monday
Cognizant
Conduent
Sutherland
Syntel
Tech Mahindra
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Industry Leaders
Automation Anywhere (www.automationanywhere.com)
Product description: Automation Anywhere Enterprise (AAE) uses RPA taskbots, metabots and an embedded analytics tool, Bot Insight. In addition, cognitive IQ Bots can be added to the platform. BotFarm provides RPA as a service for on-demand scaling.
Percentage split between attended and unattended use cases: 20% attended, 80% unattended
Business process discovery approach (manual or automated): AAE Process inVision provides a graphical interface to document existing processes and operational infrastructure, which is automatically fed into the AAE RPA platform. Implementation teams ensure that all enterprise processes have been correctly documented and are optimally sequenced for rapid deployment.
Robot runtime control dashboard: AAE Control Room delivers in-the-moment and historical information, 24/7, on the health and performance of bots and machines.
Product name: Automation Anywhere Enterprise (digital workforce platform), IQ Bot (cognitive bots), Bot Insight (operational and business analytics), and BotFarm (RPA as a service, bots on-demand)
Delivery: Software and SaaS
Additional machine-learning/AI functionality: Machine learning and AI are embedded across Automation Anywhere’s suite of products. The products also integrate with commercial AI platforms, such as IBM Watson. AAE leverages computer vision to automate processes involving desktop virtualization solutions such as Citrix. IQ Bot is designed for unstructured data, which learns from humans correcting it.
Key Facts:
- Headquarters: San Jose, California
- Year Founded: 2003
- Valuation: $1.8bn
- Revenue estimate: Not disclosed
- Customer geographies: U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Netherlands, India, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Switzerland, Japan and Singapore
- Consulting, integration and BPO partners: 39 global partners, including Hitachi
- Specialist software partners: BPM partner: IBM
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Blue Prism (www.blueprism.com)
Product description: The scalable enterprise RPA platform enables control, high availability, high performance, failover and disaster recovery. Blue Prism’s robotic operating model provides oversight with processes defined in a tool that resembles a Visio diagram.
Percentage split between attended and unattended use cases: 100% unattended. “Attended RPA” is available via a partnership with TrustPortal, which offers a digital front end for the attended deployment of RPA.
Business process discovery approach (manual or automated): Blue Prism robots have been designed to automatically “discover” business processes.
Robot runtime control dashboard: The console controls, monitors, executes and schedules process execution on the distributed robots. It uses automated runtime distribution. Version 6.0 (V6) enables users to know if a robot was slowed or stopped, and if an escalation was created. It can also show a screen shot of where the robot stopped.
Product name: Blue Prism V6
Delivery: Software and reference architectures for Blue Prism’s partners include Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and IBM
Additional machine-learning/AI functionality: V6 uses machine learning for workload management, computer vision technology and best-of-breed AI technologies from partners.
Key Facts:
- Headquarters: London and Austin, Texas
- Year Founded: 2001
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UiPath (www.uipath.com)
Product description: UiPath is an RPA tool that builds computer vision capability into its robots. UiPath is also able to integrate AI technologies to allow customers to move from rule-based to cognitive and machine-learning process automation. UiPath Studio is the workflow designer. UiPath Robot is programmed to execute processes. It operates with remote connections via Citrix or any legacy systems.
Percentage split between attended and unattended use cases: 30% attended, 70% unattended
Business process discovery approach: Manual building autodiscovery capability
Robot runtime control dashboard: UiPath Orchestrator provides virtual workforce management. Process operations analytics and monitoring use Elasticsearch and Kibana for process execution logs and audit trails. Kibana enables the design and configuration of process operation dashboards.
Product name: UiPath
Delivery: Software or SaaS via partners
Additional machine-learning/AI functionality: For text analysis: Google Translate, Google Text Analysis, IBM Watson Text Analysis and Microsoft Text Analytics. For computer vision, language detection and named entity recognition: Sentiment analysis from Oracle Cloud Applications combines RPA with BPM and case management capabilities. Machine learning is combined with Oracles’ Adaptive Intelligence Applications, including chatbots.
Key Facts:
- Headquarters: New York, New York
- Year Founded: 2005
- Valuation: $1.2bn
- ARR: $100m
- Customer geographies: Global
- Consulting, integration and BPO partners: More than 200 partners including EY, Deloitte, PwC, Cognizant, Capgemini, Accenture, Genpact
- Specialist software partners: Integration with three OCR engines (Google, Microsoft and Abbyy). BPM and CRM integration are in scope.
Other technology partners and integrations include: Oracle, Enate, Newgen OmniFlow Intelligent Business Process Suite (iBPS), Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft SharePoint, Celonis, K2, Abbyy and many others.
Source: Market Guide for Robotic Process Automation Software Published: 5 December 2017
