(When) Will Digital Process Automation Vendors Get Their Mojo Back? - Analyst Brief
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Deep Analysis
Analyst Brief
(When) Will Digital Process
Automation Vendors
Get Their Mojo Back?
By: Connie Moore
The Essentials comprehensive offerings, doesn’t matter, but
the process automation vendors need to get
Digital process automation vendors have moving. Otherwise, hotter markets will soon
crossed the sales and marketing chasm, going eclipse their software offerings and they will
from niche software status to a mainstream be relegated to a lesser status, particularly as
IT-approved offering that empowers both RPA and process mining vendors grab all the
business processes and businesspeople. By available mindshare.
dumping the Lean/Six Sigma/BPM lingo
in 2015-2016 and going full bore into low-code What will it take for the process automation
and robotic process automation (RPA) vendors to get their mojo back? Some
partnerships, process automation vendors of the areas they must address – either
have finally received the attention from IT through internal product development, deep
that they needed for their market to grow. partnerships, and/or acquisitions – include:
That acceptance, in turn, has opened the door AI/ML for specific process automation
to significantly more business buyers and functions (many of them yet to be
has finally “legitimized” the process discovered)
automation market.
Process mining for process insight and
Unfortunately, many of the digital process continuous improvement that also taps into
automation vendors have lost their mojo along AI/ML for making real-time improvements
the way. Adjacent markets and process-related in complex, dynamic environments
technologies are ripe and even compelling for
the vendors to pursue, while machine learning New process modeling approaches that
(ML) also beckons the R&D developers’ go well beyond BPMN – a notation standard
attention. But still, the large majority of first developed in 2004 (!) – making it
vendors remain stuck in an automation box. easier for businesspeople to envision and
Whether they develop or acquire their way out create new processes and to align process
of an automation-only mindset, and into more transformation with customer experience
initiatives
Deep Analysis © 2020 | info@deep-analysis.net (When) Will Digital Process Automation Vendors Get Their Mojo Back? 1
RPA for task automation within process are all pursuing it from similar angles –
transformation and automation which includes pushing deeper into
supporting citizen developers in addition to
Process-based packaged business
providing tooling for business analysts and
applications for functional and industry-
application developers.2
specific processes
Case management is mainstream.
This list is not exhaustive; process automation
While straight-through processing is
vendors must pursue many other areas such
still important for transaction-intensive
as blockchain, process governance, workforce
processes that have low or no human touch,
intelligence, integrating customer journey
case management is the widely accepted
mapping with process mapping, automating
approach for long-running, people- and
more freestyle collaboration activities, and
document-intensive processes. Many
automating processes within digital business
vendors are comfortably positioned in the
networks that span multiple organizations and
case management market and continue to
business entities.
innovate (e.g., Alfresco, Hyland, IBM, and
OpenText) because they are strongly rooted
What Happened in the document management and capture
to the Vendors’ Innovation markets, which enjoy a natural marriage
Momentum? with dynamic case management. Other
process vendors fill the content technology
Last year Deep Analysis conducted deep- gap by partnering with document
dive research into the current state of the management providers and may even
digital process automation market (2019) to support federated content architectures
identify the five-year trends driving the market (e.g., Pegasystems).
and products (2020-2025).1 The interviews
and demos made it clear that the process
automation vendors had lost their innovation Stuck in an Automation Box
moorings. At that time, the vendors were
winning the low-code process battle but losing
Process
the overall technology innovation war. Now, the Discovery RPA
state of the 2020 market can be summed up as
AI/ML
follows: Blockchain
Low-code is king. For the past 3-5 years,
process automation vendors have
been rightly preoccupied with providing
more low-code process design Process
Journey Mining
and development functionality for Mapping
developers, business analysts, and
even businesspeople. Low-code is now
where most vendors focus their R&D
Work
and marketing energy. However, it is Business Collaboration
Applications Customer
getting harder for vendors to differentiate experience
themselves on low-code alone because they
Deep Analysis © 2020 | info@deep-analysis.net (When) Will Digital Process Automation Vendors Get Their Mojo Back? 2
Packaged business apps are tantalizing RPA was ascendant, most of the process
but too hard, too scary, or both. A couple automation vendors missed their chance,
of process automation vendors (Appian even though task automation is a crucial
and OpenText) have made initial forays into part of process automation. One could even
developing packaged business applications argue that task automation is subservient
such as customer service and contract to more widely scoped process automation
management; however, with the exception initiatives and the two technologies belong
of Pegasystems, most process automation together. To make up for missing the RPA
vendors have been reluctant or very slow market when it first emerged, virtually
to move definitively in this direction. every process automation vendor has
In the meantime, Pegasystems zeroed followed a well-trod path to partnerships
in on customer service and customer with Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, UI
experience long ago and has been a richly Path, and other RPA companies. Some of
featured CRM vendor for years. Conversely, these partnerships are barely more than
Salesforce has expanded from CRM into co-marketing agreements, while others
the digital process automation space, and involve deeper integration (e.g., IBM resells
SAP has added process automation and Automation Anywhere).4
RPA throughout its portfolio of packaged
AI/ML is tantalizing but the details are
business apps.
hard to figure out. When asked about
“Workflow for all” is surfacing with a low- R&D plans for artificial intelligence and
code focus and new technology building machine learning, most process automation
blocks. A few vendors, such as Catalytic, vendors say it is too early to make a call
Flowforma, and Nintex, started making a about where and how to apply them. They
run at the general-purpose workflow market aren’t even sure how ready their customers
with a full range of process automation are to implement AI/ML within processes,
tools for businesspeople and those elusive where the data for machine learning will
citizen developers. Catalytic has a deep war come from (e.g., process transaction logs,
chest to become the next market maker. process mining, IoT, case data, etc.), and
This “workflow for all” focus is unfolding where that data will be stored. Clearly,
now despite the ever-present risk of being most vendors are working hard to figure it
eclipsed by Microsoft, Amazon, or some out. The challenge is that different AI/ML
other software mega-giant that supports a solutions apply to specific pockets within
roll-your-own approach. 3
the process automation software, making
a blanket strategy hard to develop, plus
RPA partnerships are everywhere, but
totally new data sets are often needed to
high valuations hinder acquisitions. When
support machine learning. Although it’s
The challenge is that different AI/ML solutions apply to specific
pockets within the process automation software, making a blanket
strategy hard to develop, plus totally new data sets are often needed
to support machine learning.
Deep Analysis © 2020 | info@deep-analysis.net (When) Will Digital Process Automation Vendors Get Their Mojo Back? 3
true that envisioning how to apply AI/ML to email and may later ingest the results,
to process automation is hard work, the but what happens within those emails,
vendors can’t shy away from embracing discussions, and document exchanges
it now.5
is usually outside the purview of the
automated process. But now, if nothing
Operational excellence and customer
else, the Covid-19 pandemic has shown
experience (CX) initiatives are miles apart.
how frequently important decisions are
Today, an inexcusable and yawning gulf
made by remote workers and teams using
separates business process transformation
a hodgepodge of tools. This crucially
projects from CX transformation projects.
important work could be – but hasn’t been
Although these efforts are actually two
– brought into the process automation
sides of the same coin and should be
fold, with AI/ML driving the collaborative
treated as such, business process and CX
processes. At the same time, collaboration
professionals rarely talk to one another,
vendors are aggressively adding their own
have been trained in different disciplines,
AI/ML capabilities to bring structure to
use different tools for transformation, and
these ad hoc scenarios.
report into different parts of the C-suite.
Much of this is historical: business process
initiatives have been heavily tilted toward
operational excellence in the back office A Handful of Vendors Are
and championed by the COO and CIO, while Pursuing New Innovations
CX is nascent in comparison and usually
While most of the digital process automation
championed by the chief customer officer,
vendors are stuck in an automation-only
chief digital officer, CXOs (i.e., functional
mentality, a few are envisioning a new future
heads), chief revenue officer, and/or the
for their evolving software products (see
CMO. As a result, process automation
Figure 1). Part of the problem is that the word
products offer very little thought-
“automation” has created a mindset that is
leadership in integrating with customer
too limiting and constraining for the digital
journey mapping and transforming digital
process automation market. To set the stage
touchpoints.6
for innovation, the vendors must get back
Supporting collaboration is an to thinking seriously about what it takes to
afterthought. Historically, digital process successfully support business transformation,
automation has focused on the highly end-to-end business processes, outside-in
structured processes that move data, thinking, customer journeys, and – dare
information, work activities, and decision- we say it? – continuous improvement.
making through a department or across The future for digital process automation is
the organization. But a lot of work gets an intelligent business automation platform
done informally – in email, conference calls, that encompasses process mining, digital
web conferencing, and collaboration tools process automation, and RPA, leverages AI/ML
– and this work largely goes unaddressed throughout, and provides intelligent, predictive,
within the automated process. It’s true that process-enabled business applications.7 The
workflow often hands activities or tasks vendors need to get moving again.
Deep Analysis © 2020 | info@deep-analysis.net (When) Will Digital Process Automation Vendors Get Their Mojo Back? 4
Figure 1
Intelligent business automation platform encompasses many technologies
CONTEXTUAL
PROFILE
Biometrics
Personalization PROCESS
ENGAGEMENT APPLICATIONS
Chatbots CRM
WFO/contact center WFO
Social Customer service
Mobile apps Digital supply chain
Omnichannel ERP
Virtual/augmented reality DATA SOURCE(S) Vertical apps
IoT/drone integration
Data models
Etc.
Data lakes
Predictive analytics
CRM
Emerging Tools ERP
MDM INTELLIGENT
COGNITIVE CDP CONTENT
SERVICES AUTOMATION
Machine learning Intelligent capture
Deep learning Content management
Biometrics Sentiment analysis
Natural language processing PROCESS Information governance
Natural language generation AUTOMATION Predictive content
Ephemeral content
Process governance
Process models/journey maps
Low-code design & management
Workflow
Straight-through processing
Business rules
RPA
Innovators forge different Timeline.8 Others rely on partnerships, such as
and often parallel paths Alfresco’s relationship with Amazon, or K2’s
and Nintex’s relationships with Microsoft.9 The
For enterprise buyers, the first thing to smaller vendors that can’t make acquisitions
understand about digital process automation but have big visions are partnering to round
vendors is that a handful of innovators are out their offerings – but buyers should use
pursuing many different paths, often at the caution because not all these partnerships
same time. For example, companies such as are very deep. An example of a smaller
Appian, Kofax, Nintex, and Pega have moved vendor differentiating itself through strategic
their competitive goalposts by acquiring partnerships is FireStart, an Austria-based
RPA vendors (among other ways), while company that partners with process mining
others have developed something entirely vendor Celonis, as well as with RPA vendors, to
new and different, such as ABBYY’s Process cover the full spectrum of automation. While
IQ and Content IQ, and BP Logix’s Process other vendors may have similar partnerships,
Deep Analysis © 2020 | info@deep-analysis.net (When) Will Digital Process Automation Vendors Get Their Mojo Back? 5FireStart intentionally goes to market with
Figure 2
an integrated approach that spans process
Digital Process Automation Innovators:
mining, digital process management, and RPA. Three Dimensions
The end result is what matters. Ask these kinds
of questions: are our vendors’ products highly Strategic Innovation
Pega leads the pack, followed by
differentiated? Has market and technology Appian, Kofax, and Nintex
convergence through acquisitions moved
some of our vendors more quickly toward the
intelligent business automation platform?
And finally, do their innovations allow us to Product Innovation
Pega, Nintex, BPLogix, ABBYY,
better transform the business by focusing on and IBM show leadership
operational excellence, customer experience,
and/or end-to-end, outside-in processes?10
Business Apps Innovation
Pega, Salesforce, and SAP lead
Overall innovation in the digital process the pack, followed by Appian,
Hyland, OpenText, and Ultimus
automation market is being driven by a handful
of vendors, most notably Pegasystems and
to a lesser extent Appian. Other standout
vendors include ABBYY, BPLogix, Hyland, IBM,
Kofax, Nintex, and OpenText, although these
The innovation path ahead
vendors are innovative for different reasons
includes at least eight directions
(and none of them should rest on their laurels).
The vendors can be clustered on these three A deeper dive into the many dimensions of
dimensions (see Figure 2): innovation shows that the most innovative
vendors pursue more than one approach,
Strategic innovation: Pega leads the pack,
often in parallel (see Figure 3). Many more
followed by Appian, Kofax, and Nintex
approaches will surface as the market
Product innovation: Pega, Nintex, BPLogix, transitions to an intelligent business
ABBYY, and IBM show leadership (although automation platform over the next 3-5 years.
they innovate their products in different
Process mining is crucial for business and
areas and in varying ways)
process insight
Business apps innovation: Pega,
The process mining market – which has taken
Salesforce, and SAP clearly lead the pack
up the mantle of continuous improvement
for process-enabled business applications,
and operational excellence in a way that the
followed by Appian and OpenText; Hyland
digital process automation vendors have more
and Ultimus provide many mature
recently ignored – is on the cusp of becoming a
applications as part of their baseline
significant force, particularly in manufacturing,
products11
pharma, oil & gas, and other regulated
industries. Business acceptance is still slow
(Celonis leads the market, along with Kofax,
Minit, QPR, Signavio, Software AG,
UiPath, and 25+ other pure-play vendors)
but enterprises are increasingly interested in
Deep Analysis © 2020 | info@deep-analysis.net (When) Will Digital Process Automation Vendors Get Their Mojo Back? 6Figure 3
Digital Process Automation
Innovators: By Approach Process
Insight
AI/ML
(process
mining)
ABBYY Celonis
Appian Kofax
IBM QPR
Appian Nintex Signavio
Hyland Pega 25+ others Process
Business Design
Apps OpenText BP Logix
(modeling)
Pega IBM
Salesforce Nintex
SAP
Ultimus
Appian
Catalytic Kofax
Flowforma Nintex
Nintex Pega Task
Workflow for Automation
Alfresco IBM SAP
Everyone
Hyland Pega (RPA)
IBM Progress
OpenText
Pega
Content
in Action
(case, Digital
blockchain & Decisioning
governance)
gleaning insights from their business processes loop is getting much harder for digital process
and then improving the automation. Riding automation vendors, given the widespread
on the coattails of big data, process mining use of microservices, serverless systems,
software uses transaction logs from enterprise cloud computing, dynamic case management,
apps, legacy apps, digital process automation and more complex business processes. As a
systems, RPA software, and other systems to result, vendors are largely ignoring the need
identify and correct root causes for process for a continuous feedback loop. This myopic
inefficiencies and bottlenecks. Originally, thinking needs to stop. The vendors must
process mining applied to historical data, but instead envision how process mining, AI/
now it can consume execution data that is ML, and automation can be combined in new
refreshed every hour. and different ways for supporting process
improvement and business transformation. For
Historically, continuous improvement was
example, machine learning could be trained to
an important aspect of business process
identify and correct bottlenecks and deviations
management. But automating the improvement
within executing processes. Unlike with RPA,
Deep Analysis © 2020 | info@deep-analysis.net (When) Will Digital Process Automation Vendors Get Their Mojo Back? 7which eluded the process automation vendors
Figure 4
until it was too late, these companies need to
The Deming Continuous Improvement Cycle
invest in process mining before the market
explodes. They also need to target process
mining at customer-facing processes, tracking
metrics such as net promoter scores and other
customer experience data. Process mining PLAN The digital
Process mining process
is core to transformation and operational software automation
tackles three ACT DO
excellence, making it imperative for process vendors have
parts of the concentrated on
automation vendors to pursue (see Figure 4). Deming process one aspect of
improvement
Process design (or modeling) needs CHECK the continuous
cycle. improvement
rethinking and updating cycle.
Although flowcharting is the default for
depicting and designing business processes,
companies automating end-to-end processes
or highly dynamic case management solutions
often hit the wall at some point. And it’s identify what each task and activity needs
no surprise. The world is moving beyond before completing, and the timeline
flowcharting with BPMN as processes become software determines which tasks and
increasingly more complex.12 Taking this into activities execute, and in what order, while
account, some process automation vendors the process runs.13
have developed innovative design approaches Nintex allows its process mapping,
such as timeline-based process design or modeling, and workflow users to describe
natural language processing for capturing processes in plain English, then uses natural
business activities. Others are contemplating language processing (a type of AI/ML) to
ways (but moving too slowly, in our opinion) match the text to standard workflow actions
to integrate process models with customer and automatically generate the skeleton
journey mapping and touchpoints. of a workflow process. These descriptions
For example: are stored as parent/child process snippets
that can be reused in multiple processes.14
BP Logix’s Process Timeline, which is
a time-based modeling and execution IBM Blueworks Live provides a SaaS-
approach, offers the richness of BPMN based collaboration environment for
flowcharts without the complex depiction business subject-matter experts to capture
of dependencies, parallel processing, and their process knowledge prior to process
arrows pointing in all directions. When modeling. Hundreds or even thousands of
designing processes, businesspeople business teams commonly use Blueworks
Historically, continuous improvement was an important aspect
of business process management. But automating the improvement
loop is getting much harder for digital process automation vendors ...
Deep Analysis © 2020 | info@deep-analysis.net (When) Will Digital Process Automation Vendors Get Their Mojo Back? 8Live to crowdsource innovation and customer micro-journeys usually involve
solicit process improvement ideas from multiple channels.
colleagues, document their process
insights, and then pass this information Task automation belongs
to process design business analysts and with process automation
developers. Blueworks Live precedes the
process design and modeling stage, and As a growing number of RPA customers
not all ideas captured by businesspeople are learning, automating just the manual,
are incorporated into the process design. laborious parts of a process without thinking
However, once the effort moves to process about transforming and automating the
design, modeling, and automation, overall business process results in a myopic,
the platform provides low-code forms, band-aid approach to operational excellence
documentation, prompts, checklists, etc. for and business transformation. Think about
business analysts and developers to design it – task automation is a fairly granular
the process.15 activity, with tasks belonging to activities
within one or more larger processes.
Signavio is focused on integrating This is one reason why so many process
customer journey mapping for digital automation vendors have partnered
transformation projects and process with RPA vendors. Ideally, the process
modeling for operational excellence automation vendors should have developed
projects. These two worlds have or acquired RPA products long ago and
traditionally operated independently folded them into their platforms, as Kofax
of each other, although they are highly did with Kapow, and as Pega did with
intertwined and should be brought together. OpenSpan. Now that RPA valuations are so
Specifically, customer journey mapping high, it’s much more difficult for vendors to
depicts how the company’s customers make acquisitions. But as Appian has shown
engage with the organization throughout with its recent acquisition of Jidoka, there
the customer journey (the end-to-end are still many small RPA companies that
process) and the business process model would be smart investments – allowing the
represents what the organization does combined functionality of RPA and process
internally to support the customer. Bringing automation to execute work without band-
these two worlds together is an important aids for achieving operational excellence,
breakthrough. customer-facing processes, and end-to-end
Pega uses stage-based case modeling to business transformation.16
design microjourneys and visualize the
customer journey. Pega's approach is Digital decisioning could be a new point
pragmatic: rather than tackle the entire of differentiation
customer journey, Pega recommends
automating micro-customer journeys The digital process automation firms know
and then integrating them into the overall business rules technology very well, having
customer journey to support the used rules for many years to automate
end-to-end customer experience. Pega business and process logic. However, a
cautions against automating customer handful of vendors – namely Pega, Progress
journeys by channel because even Corticon, IBM, and Salesforce – have gone
Deep Analysis © 2020 | info@deep-analysis.net (When) Will Digital Process Automation Vendors Get Their Mojo Back? 9beyond the more typical embedded business process automation companies are now
rules by offering a full complement of digital including intelligent capture and sentiment
decisioning that combines business rules, analysis as part of their process automation
predictive analytics, AI/ML, and business offerings, and, for example, Appian has
process automation software for intelligent implemented an innovative solution using
decisioning. As organizational leaders move
17
natural language generation. The biggest trend
more into algorithm-driven business decision- the vendors should move on is blockchain,
making, process automation vendors have an which provides a secure way to move
opportunity to differentiate their products by information between business entities and
supporting real-time, predictive decisioning at across the information supply chain.19
every customer touchpoint and by using digital
decisioning for next-best-action and fraud
“Workflow for everyone” is risky business but
detection.
an area of innovation
Content in action requires case management The low-code era for workflow ushered in a
and blockchain new breed of vendors willing to pursue selling
workflow as a general-purpose business
The digital process automation vendors have tool for everyone in the organization. Just
always been bifurcated along the lines of how as ordinary businesspeople routinely use
they support document management and fairly complicated software such as Excel
content services. Several vendors with deep and PowerPoint and think nothing of it,
heritages in document management – these vendors believe the time has come for
namely Alfresco, Hyland, IBM, and OpenText – workflow automation. There’s little argument,
are also significant players in dynamic case and vendors such as Catalytic, Flowforma,
management and other types of process Nintex, and Ultimus are making inroads, but
automation. Also, many other vendors have many market watchers think they are putting
forged deep partnerships using Microsoft themselves at risk of competing against
SharePoint, such as K2, OpenText, and Nintex.18 Microsoft, Google, Amazon, or some other
For many years, content management was mega-vendor. Differentiation can be had in this
considered a mature market, but AI/ML has market segment, but for many other process
made deep inroads into case management automation vendors, pursuing this target is too
through intelligent content, intelligent much of a David and Goliath scenario for their
capture, sentiment analysis, and many other comfort zone. In the meantime, Nintex stands
content-centric features. This gives the digital out with the breadth of its product line (process
process automation vendors that stayed out modeling, automation, and RPA) and use of
of the content market another opportunity AI/ML. Companies like Nintex and Ultimus are
to differentiate themselves by managing also hedging their bets by pushing hard into
unstructured information. As a result, some departmental implementations for strategic
business processes.
The digital process automation vendors have always been bifurcated
along the lines of how they support document management and
content services.
Deep Analysis © 2020 | info@deep-analysis.net (When) Will Digital Process Automation Vendors Get Their Mojo Back? 10Business applications are ever so to move back and forth seamlessly between
slowly emerging highly structured work and unpredictable,
ad hoc, and often messy work. But now,
It’s been over seven years since Forrester
with more companies depending almost
Research first coined the term “smart process
exclusively on remote workers in virtual teams,
applications” to describe functional and
they find very few tools at their disposal that
industry-specific business applications built on
support remote work. In the new “normal,”
a platform including digital process automation,
organizations require a more structured way
document management, collaboration, and
to capture collaborative decisions instead of
analytics. That view of the future has been
relying on creaky email and document-sharing
extremely slow to materialize, with the notable
tools coupled with web conferencing and
exception of Pega, which had always focused on
collaboration software. And they need those
the CRM market and further sealed the deal in
decisions and collaboration artifacts to be
2010 by acquiring Chordiant. Some vendors are
integrated into the automated process.
now making a serious – although constrained
– run at the business applications market for One workflow automation vendor, Zapier, has
digital process automation platforms, including created such an in-house tool to help manage
Appian and OpenText. Others, such as Hyland its virtual workforce. This so-named “decision
and Ultimus, use a full complement of process- log” software, called Async, substitutes for
based business applications to capture new the firm’s email system by providing a place
customer wins and to deepen their footprints to find important discussions and track
within existing customers without charging for important information and documents.20
the applications. The opportunity for innovating One could imagine such a tool, powered by
through business applications based on a AI/ML, being integrated with digital process
process platform is a no-brainer. Maybe one automation software to provide more structure,
day the rest of the vendors will wake up to this governance, and knowledge management
opportunity for differentiation. (that really works this time around) for virtual
workers.
An untapped opportunity exists to marry
collaboration with structured business AI/ML has a major role and vendors need to
processes figure it out
For decades, process automation tools have When we recently asked vendors about their
lacked true collaboration while, at the same plans for AI/ML, many of them responded that
time, the collaboration tools have needed less they think it is important but 1) don’t know
“mess” or “chaos” and more structure. Over the where to apply it within process automation,
years, knowledge workers have been expected and 2) don’t know if customers are ready yet.
In the new “normal,” organizations require a more structured way
to capture collaborative decisions instead of relying on creaky email
and document-sharing tools coupled with web conferencing and
collaboration software.
Deep Analysis © 2020 | info@deep-analysis.net (When) Will Digital Process Automation Vendors Get Their Mojo Back? 11Still, some of the innovators have concrete Recommend design options in modeling
plans for moving into AI/ML, even if they aren’t and RPA scripting
ready to reveal their R&D roadmaps. Here’s a
Eliminate duplicated/conflicting processes
refresher on the AI/ML holy grail for process
that may be creating regulatory/compliance
automation:
issues
An event from a dynamic case management
Improve process models based on process
system automatically triggers human
mining outputs
actions and automated systems based on
machine advice and creates new processes Identify duplicated global processes
on the fly; for example, when a system and recommend the best version to
detects an intruder and dispatches a guard operationalize
to look at the situation while at the same
Analyze process performance data to
time updating other people, systems, and
correct inefficiencies (e.g., customer
even IoT devices.
shipments, billing, payments)
There’s a good reason why the vendors are so
Use process mining for predictions based
unsure. For AI/ML to work in applications, the
on process models
tools must be applied in very specific, targeted
ways. The AI/ML platforms – IBM Watson, Use AI/ML for intelligent capture (e.g., to
Salesforce Einstein, Google TensorFlow, completely streamline the input process,
Microsoft Azure AI, and Amazon AWS Machine capture relevant data automatically, apply
Learning – are just that . . . platforms. They are processing rules, and capture sentiment
pre-trained for generic purposes, but software analysis to identify hot-button issues)
vendors looking to use them must build their
In the meantime, innovators like IBM and
own applications to meet their own needs.
Nintex are integrating with data lakes
Some of the areas that process automation
to store large amounts of process and business
vendors are considering include:
data needed for AI/ML and are targeting
Analyze workstreams to determine the specific areas to focus on. Already, several
business value of different workflows and vendors have trained their eyes on using
select the highest performance workstream AI/ML within process automation, including
IBM, Kofax, and Pegasystems, followed by
Combine case data and business data
ABBYY, Alfresco, Appian, Bizagi, K2, Nintex,
to improve decision-making and make
OpenText, and Ultimus. In particular, ABBYY
predictions (e.g., automatic escalations,
is taking a highly innovative approach by
preventing actions that would negatively
developing a neural network for analyzing
impact high-value customers, and
dynamic case management instances,
identifying the potential for missed
including forecasting process outcomes and
deadlines before they occur)
event timing. For example, in a healthcare
Deep Analysis © 2020 | info@deep-analysis.net (When) Will Digital Process Automation Vendors Get Their Mojo Back? 12process, ABBYY’s system will predict whether Process-based business applications
the patient will be sent home, sent to the
Process mining
hospital emergency room, or sent to the
operating room, and make recommendations RPA
for prepping the healthcare providers and
Many other technologies on the horizon
administrative staff based on those predictions.
that will impact the speed and direction
After defining the deadlines for a process
of product development for the intelligent
instance, the software can also predict the
business automation platform
probability of missing a deadline, and the
financial impact. Following this analysis, the The main question isn’t whether these
software can then advise the businessperson of technologies provide an opportunity for
the next best event for processing the case and vendors to differentiate; it is whether the future
engaging with the patient. solutions will be best of breed or an integrated
platform. Well-formed arguments can be made
for either approach. The most likely answer will
be that vendors will use both approaches. The
Call to Action vendors that like to offer everything in their own
Sometimes things just belong together, and platform (e.g., Pega and Appian) and partner
this is one of those times. In fact, this research out of necessity will be those leading the charge
– while directed at enterprise buyers – is a toward an integrated platform – through
cri de coeur for digital process automation in-house development or through acquisitions.
vendors to wake up and 1) move beyond their Smaller vendors are more likely to partner their
automation comfort zone into other aspects way to innovation and the intelligent business
of business process transformation, and automation platform.
2) rethink how they’ve done automation in
the past. Process automation vendors must
expand their horizons, whether their approach
is a best-of-breed strategy that involves
partnerships or a single integrated platform.
The digital process automation vendors may
have successfully crossed the sales-marketing
chasm, but they need to wake up to the
many opportunities that involve combining
other technologies with process automation,
including:
AI/ML
Blockchain
Customer journey mapping
Intelligent content
Predictive analytics
Deep Analysis © 2020 | info@deep-analysis.net (When) Will Digital Process Automation Vendors Get Their Mojo Back? 13Enterprise Buyer 3. Look at the different approaches for
Recommended Actions automating the enterprise’s roadmap. Is
best of breed most attractive (e.g., faster to
1. Create a 3-5 year strategic roadmap
implement, more selection, etc.) or does the
for achieving your business technology
enterprise prefer integrated platforms from
goals. These could be continuous process
single vendors. Or might it involve a combined
improvement, operational excellence, customer
approach?
experience, or business transformation
through end-to-end processes, to name a few. 4. Review the product and strategic roadmaps
of your organization’s technology partners.
2. Identify the most critical software
See what innovations are on the horizon and
components of an intelligent business
whether the timeline is sufficient.
automation platform for achieving your
strategic roadmap. For example: 5. Review best-of-breed products that fit into an
-- Does the roadmap require process-based expanded view of digital process automation.
business applications? This could include process mining, digital
-- Should RPA and process automation be decisioning, new types of process modeling,
implemented together (to support processes, RPA, and many other product categories on the
activities, and tasks) or separately? horizon that are AI/ML focused.
-- Do you have customer-centric processes,
6. Circle back to the 3-5 year strategic roadmap
meaning you need vendors with a customer
(in Step 1). Determine the best approach for
touchpoint and journey mapping mindset that
successfully implementing that vision. (If for
aligns with your organization’s vision?
any reason you don’t have that roadmap – e.g.,
mergers and acquisitions – it’s time to develop
a new one.)
Deep Analysis © 2020 | info@deep-analysis.net (When) Will Digital Process Automation Vendors Get Their Mojo Back? 14Endnotes
1 See State of the Digital Process Automation Market – Current 10 See Innovation—A Call to Action!
Assessment 2019 and State of the Digital Process Automation https://www.deep-analysis.net/2020/02/innovation-a-call-to-
Market Trends 2020-2025 action/
https://www.deep-analysis.net/report/state-of-the-digital-process- 11 See Hyland (Digital Process Automation) Vendor Vignette
automation-market-current-assesment-2019/ https://www.deep-analysis.net/vendor-vignette/hyland-digital-
process-automation/
https://www.deep-analysis.net/report/state-of-the-digital-process-
automation-market-trends-2020-202/ 12 Business process model and notation (BPMN) is a standardized
notation tool first developed in 2004 and released by the Object
2 Citizen developers are businesspeople who work in various
Management Group in 2006. BPMN version 2.0 was released in
departments and lack formal training in technology or application
2013.
development. A citizen developer could be a person in accounting,
HR, or customer support. One trend in digital process automation is 13 See BP Logix Vendor Vignette
to give businesspeople all the tools to develop their own processes https://www.deep-analysis.net/vendor-vignette/bp-logix/
without assistance from IT. These individuals are elusive, however,
14 See Nintex Vendor Vignette
because most organizations do not have the resources (i.e.,
https://www.deep-analysis.net/vendor-vignette/nintex/
individuals working in their day jobs) or experience to build mission-
critical processes by themselves. Instead, these businesspeople
15 See IBM Vendor Vignette
usually work side-by-side with business analysts to design and
https://www.deep-analysis.net/vendor-vignette/ibm/
create processes. However, citizen developers are available for
“workflow for all” tools because these software products are 16 See Appian Buys Jidoka—Let the Acquisitions Begin!, RPA and
positioning process automation as true end-user computing tools Process Automation—It’s An Upside Down World and SAP’s Take on
(similar to how businesspeople use PowerPoint and Excel). the RPA Market
https://www.deep-analysis.net/2020/02/appian-buys-jidoka-let-
3 See Catalytic, Flowforma, and Nintex Vendor Vignettes
the-consolidation-begin/
https://www.deep-analysis.net/vendor-vignette/catalytic/
https://www.deep-analysis.net/2019/10/rpa-and-process-
https://www.deep-analysis.net/vendor-vignette/flowforma/
automation-its-an-upside-down-world/
https://www.deep-analysis.net/vendor-vignette/nintex/
https://www.deep-analysis.net/2020/03/saps-take-on-the-rpa-
market/
4 See RPA and Process Automation—It’s An Upside Down World
https://www.deep-analysis.net/2019/10/rpa-and-process-
17 See Progress Corticon Vendor Vignette
automation-its-an-upside-down-world/
https://www.deep-analysis.net/vendor-vignette/progress-software-
corticon/
5 See AI in Digital Process Automation: It’s Complicated
https://www.deep-analysis.net/2020/05/ai-in-digital-process-
18 See K2 and OpenText Vendor Vignettes
automation-its-complicated/
https://www.deep-analysis.net/vendor-vignette/k2/
https://www.deep-analysis.net/vendor-vignette/opentext/
6 See Digital Transformation – Bridge The Skills Abyss
https://www.deep-analysis.net/report/digital-transformation-
19 See Three Recent Acquisitions – Hyland, OpenText & Alfresco,
bridge-the-skills-abyss/
and Enterprise Blockchain Market Forecast
https://www.deep-analysis.net/2020/03/three-recent-
7 See Intelligent Business Automation: The Nexus for Process,
acquisitions-hyland-opentext-alfresco/
Content, Data, AI/ML, and More
https://www.deep-analysis.net/2019/08/enterprise-blockchain-
https://www.deep-analysis.net/2020/04/intelligent-business-
market-forecast/
automation-the-nexus-for-process-content-data-ai-ml-and-more/
20 See The Key to Building a Successful Remote Organization?
8 See ABBYY Timeline and BP Logix Vendor Vignettes
Data. Harvard Business Review, May 18, 2020
https://www.deep-analysis.net/vendor-vignette/abbyy-timeline/
https://hbr.org/2020/05/the-key-to-building-a-successful-remote-
https://www.deep-analysis.net/vendor-vignette/bp-logix/
organization-data
9 See Alfresco Software (Digital Process Automation) and Nintex
Vendor Vignettes, and Alfresco Software: Flying High in the Back
Office
https://www.deep-analysis.net/vendor-vignette/alfresco-software-
digital-process-automation/
https://www.deep-analysis.net/vendor-vignette/nintex/
https://www.deep-analysis.net/2019/04/alfresco-software-flying-
high-in-the-back-office/
Deep Analysis © 2020 | info@deep-analysis.net (When) Will Digital Process Automation Vendors Get Their Mojo Back? 15Deep Analysis
About Deep Analysis
Deep Analysis is an advisory firm that helps organizations
understand and address the challenges of innovative and
disruptive technologies in the enterprise software marketplace.
Its work is built on decades of experience in advising and
consulting to global technology firms large and small, from IBM,
Oracle, and HP to countless start-ups. About the Author
Connie Moore is Vice President and
Led by Alan Pelz-Sharpe, the firm focuses on Information
Principal Analyst at Deep Analysis.
Management and the business application of Cloud, Artificial She joined the firm after four years
Intelligence, and Blockchain. Deep Analysis recently published as Senior Vice President, Research, at
the book "Practical Artificial Intelligence: An Enterprise Digital Clarity Group, and more than
twenty years as Research Director and
Playbook," co-authored by Alan and Kashyap Kompella,
Vice President at Forrester Research.
outlining strategies for organizations to avoid pitfalls and Connie is a widely acclaimed speaker,
successfully deploy AI. advisor, consultant, and expert in
digital process automation, customer
Deep Analysis works with technology vendors to improve their experience management, digital
understanding and provide actionable guidance on current and experience platforms, and content
future market opportunities. services. In 2014 Connie received the
Workflow Management Coalition's
Yet, unlike traditional analyst firms, Deep Analysis takes a buyer- globally recognized Marvin Manheim
Award for influence, contribution,
centric approach to its research and understands real-world
and distinction based on standout
buyer and market needs versus the “echo chamber” of the
contributions to the field of workflow
technology industry. and business process management.
Contact us:
info@deep-analysis.net
+1 978 877 7915
Deep Analysis © 2020 | info@deep-analysis.net (When) Will Digital Process Automation Vendors Get Their Mojo Back? 16You can also read
