December 2022Issue 13

COVER STORY

Rob Enslin of UiPath interview: All paths lead to automation By Paul Esherwood

UiPath has been the market leader in automation for as long as automation has been a thing. But a sharp decline in value as a public company and a big shift in its go-to-market strategy poses fresh challenges for new co-CEO, Rob Enslin.

EDITOR'S CHOICE

A complete guide to UiPath By ERP Today

Free downloadable resource containing original articles, case studies and analyst reports covering the full spectrum of the UiPath proposition.

Don’t bring a hammer to an automation fight By Paul Esherwood

In 2019 I wrote that “AI and automation will be the most transformative technologies that we ever invent”. Today we are starting to see the realisation of that prediction as point solution RPA matures into enterprise-wide hyperautomation.

It’s time for a new automation approach By Craig Le Clair

To excel at automation and outperform competitors, intelligent automation (IA) and hyperautomation is only part of the answer.

FEATURES

How global consulting firms are adapting to life out of the box By Christine Horton

There is no major technical complexity for GSIs to manage anymore. So how are Big 4 giants like KPMG, Deloitte and EY responding to increased demand for business process design and change management rather than tech implementations?

Supermarket Sweep: the enterprise app store is open for business By Adrian Bridgwater

As enterprise technology vendors now seek to make the software procurement process simpler and safer for clients, the use of enterprise app stores to present a ‘curated showcase of solutions’ is an appealing customer proposition for many.

Big Miner: the hot potato in automation ethics By Stephanie Ball

Intelligent automation is the hot potato every business wants to grab. But what will businesses need to consider to ensure data privacy for employees? And how long before hands are burnt as automation technology moves faster than ethics?

Industry 4.0: How are firms addressing the skills shortage?By Christine Horton

Despite the hype surrounding the next Industrial Revolution, there’s one big problem: a global skills shortage is hampering the progress of Industry 4.0. Christine Horton asks how firms will solve the problem.

A new intersection: IT Policy-as-Code By Adrian Bridgwater

Moving commercial business policy forwards into the digital age requires a deeper reliance upon cloud-native automation control. Here's why business policy and IT policy-as-code is the next intersection in ERP.

Did software wolves cry BUG in Y2K?By Marc Ambasna-Jones

Marc Ambasna-Jones explores mafia killers, K-pop and woodland bunkers to find the truth about the Y2K bug and some pretty big bucks. Oracle for example saw a 22 percent growth in a record quarter, while SAP also saw record profits.

Doctor Bot, curing the NHS backlog?By Stephanie Ball

Technologists are out to heal the deficit in NHS resources, creating battalions of digital workers to bolster the front lines with intelligent automation. Neeti Mehta Shukla and Tremaine Richard-Noel are leading the charge.

Expert Opinions

Automation leading to greater innovation By Daniel Dines

We at UiPath have created a form of automation that emulates people performing a business activity on a computer. The software infrastructure, existing applications, and workflows are reused, reducing complexity and cost of implementation.

The vision for automation By Ted Kummert

Automation should empower both devs and business users to reach new capacity with their work, no matter background and experience. Our core automation platform continues to expand, combining UI automation and API integration, ML, and AI.

Unlimited opportunities for customers with intelligent automation By Paul Esherwood

Today, the remit for automation goes far beyond narrow optimisation. It's providing radical alterations in the way data, processes and humans interact. Hear how the conversation is evolving from leading technologists.

Machine learning in erp needs Clarity with a capital C By Adrian Bridgwater

Develops want speed, functionality and choice with software tools, while operations want security and compliance. The worlds don't always align: to find a middle ground, what comes next is MLOps.

Electric Sheep: The two-horse race in AI By Holger Mueller

Which company is the Switzerland of AI? Why have AWS and Microsoft failed? Who is leading in artificial intelligence? Find out with Holger Mueller, VP and principal analyst at Constellation Research.

Guest Contributors

Saying goodbye to ERP Today By Emma Sinclair MBE

Many years of entrepreneurship have taught me it’s not enough to just start a project: you have to finish it too. We live in a society so obsessed with the new, we tend to not give a lot of time and respect to the closing of a chapter.

Privacy: Straitjacket or competitive advantage?By Wayne Lloyd

It’s simply not enough to have data anymore. To unlock value, organisations and businesses must implement a robust data strategy that enshrines a commonly understood and consistently executed set of rules and behaviours for managing data.

The Dragon has awoken and is finding its voice By Mark Sweeny

In Wales, the tech dragon is well and truly roaring and finding its voice, aided and abetted by a series of business-friendly policies that encourage entrepreneurs to develop local businesses that actively contribute to the local economy.

The fall of Babylon? Lessons for AI in the NHS By Jaco Vermeulen

Babylon Health’s presence in the NHS should have been beautiful with its AI-based chatbot. The promise of huge savings and efficiencies was huge. In practice, it has been a spectacular failure, even by the standards of public sector IT.

Automation outlook for 2023 and beyond By Maureen Fleming

Economic uncertainty, the need for automation technologies to operate seamlessly together and the rapidly increasing adoption of citizen automation programmes are converging to alter how enterprises will plan for automation in 2023.

Process automation is a people-first concept By Joshua Greenbaum

Extracting greater functionality and productivity out of existing enterprise software landscapes has always been an important goal for IT and line of business users alike. As business priorities change and new opportunities or threats arise, there’s an almost natural reflex...

Using data to navigate the busy roads of enterprise By Rohit Shrivastava

Anaplan's Rohit Shrivastava explains how to achieve results from a strong data foundation, even in the face of unpredictable disruption.

How AI is turning issues into opportunities By Ulf Brackmann

AI transformation varies by region. Can enterprise keep up with the changing tech? SAP's Ulf Brackmann discusses.