IPsoft is expanding into business processes

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1 IPsoft is expanding into business processes Publication Date: 29 Sep 2014 Product code: IT Thomas Reuner

2 Ovum view Summary Technology service providers are increasingly open to publicly discussing details of their business and strategies, indicating that the traction of robotic process automation (RPA) approaches is accelerating. Furthermore, competition is increasing as new players enter the fray. Despite this, discussions around RPA still focus largely on two approaches: IT and business process centric. IPsoft s foray into business process use cases, with the launch of its artificial intelligence platform "Amelia," underlines the beginning of a convergence of these two approaches. Combining cognitive systems with innovative approaches to sentiment analysis will significantly accelerate RPA s development and maturation. The potential impact on both process efficiency and the transformation of knowledge work is considerable. However, to ensure the success of such comprehensive approaches, the industry will have to address the wider arena around governance, testing, and the overall impact on talent management. IPsoft leverages cognitive computing for business process centric services IPsoft s artificial intelligence platform "Amelia" will leverage and expand the cognitive capabilities that underpin IPsoft s IPcenter platform. Amelia is a virtual agent that analyzes natural language, understands context, applies logic, infers implications, learns, and senses emotions. As such, it is vastly different from existing low-level virtual agents that only repeat scripted passages. Rather, Amelia is more associated with the disparate set of concepts commonly referred to by the moniker RPA. Amelia s cognitive capabilities are further enhanced by multilingual competencies, and can over time be pre-loaded onto domain-specific knowledge repositories. IPsoft has developed well-documented solutions largely for IT help-desk-oriented use cases, but for Amelia, IPsoft is combining the self-learning capabilities of the cognitive engine that underpins its IPcenter platform with the extended abilities described above. Thus the value proposition of Amelia is not just enhanced process automation, but having a virtual agent interacting with clients and employees. The capabilities of these agents will be enhanced through sentiment analysis, which will go beyond the natural language processing that has become commonplace in BPO platform offerings. Despite the comprehensive set of capabilities that Amelia offers, IPsoft will focus initially on a select number of use cases. The majority of these will relate to help desk, but will be in the wider context of business processes and engagement rather than just IT. IT and business process centric services will converge IPsoft s strategy aligns with Ovum s expectation of how the process automation market will evolve (see Beyond the Hype: Assessing the Evolution of Robotic Process Automation). We expect the current bifurcation of ITSM and BPO-centric approaches to be overcome by increasingly integrated and scalable artificial intelligence approaches, resulting in a far more agnostic and relevant process automation approach. Mature clients are starting to address both areas holistically with a view to moving to a single, converged, service delivery model. The launch of Amelia will not revolutionize service delivery, but it is a key step in the acceleration of convergence Ovum. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. Page 2

3 IPsoft will increasingly overlap and potentially integrate with the capabilities of technology providers such as Blue Prism and Deskover in the business process arena. This will include capturing, scheduling, and executing process steps. Currently, specialist consultancies are bundling these tools with artificial intelligence tools to scale automation approaches. Thus, with Amelia, IPsoft will drive an increased level of competition, which is likely to accelerate the traction and uptake of RPA as a broader concept. The company s sales approach for end-user organizations needs to reference how Amelia will fit into a continuum of process automation approaches, and how it can be used to complement existing automation strategies. Artificial intelligence will become the cornerstone for the transformation of knowledge work IPsoft is in discussions with high-end management consultancies to take Amelia to market as part of their broader process transformation projects. If successful, this would be a clear differentiation to the more operationally oriented RPA projects currently on the market. This would also help to address the key challenges for RPA: how to adapt governance, what methodology to use for testing, and what the impact of recruiting (and retaining) talent will be. Process automation will fundamentally transform the way knowledge work is performed, and artificial intelligence will be a key conduit for this change. Virtual agents such as Amelia are one approach among an increasing set of new innovative approaches to process automation. At the moment, Amelia is one of the most comprehensive RPA propositions. Amelia is already being deployed in pre-production at several large organizations, including a media company, an investment bank, and a global energy provider. However, at this point in time, the largest traction for RPA is likely to sit with service providers rather than end-user organizations. Therefore, IPsoft needs to demonstrate how its approach fits in with the BPO strategies of the leading providers. To align with the strategies of BPO providers, it will be critical to communicate that clients have a choice of automation approaches and tools in line with their maturity. Given BPO providers investments in platforms and proprietary tools, it is paramount that IPsoft clearly articulates the use cases and robustly demonstrates the business case. If IPsoft addresses this in the right way and with the right use cases, Amelia could evolve into a significant tool in the sourcing toolbox of many providers. However, the challenge for IPsoft is to penetrate BPO providers that so far have not been its channel partners. Notions of robots and virtual agents will invariably lead to emotional responses. Therefore, IPsoft is rightly focusing on proving the technology in internal operations, in which the users are employees, before engaging in consumer-facing activities. Given the potential impact on the way we work, change management will be a crucial element. Amelia is an innovative approach that will have a more substantial impact in the medium to long-term, but the launch marks an acceleration of the development of RPA and places IPsoft at the forefront of this shift. Appendix Further reading Beyond the Hype: Assessing the Evolution of Robotic Process Automation, IT (September 2014) 2014 Ovum. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. Page 3

4 Beyond Labor Arbitrage: The Impact of Automation and Robotics on Service Delivery, IT (June 2013) SWOT Assessment: IPcenter, IT (August 2013) "Robotic automation goes mainstream: Accenture announces agreement with IPsoft," IT (February 2014) "Arago combines robotic automation with innovative engagement models," IT (November 2013) "Infosys s partnership with IPsoft breaks new ground in service automation," IT (April 2013) Author Thomas Reuner, Principal Analyst, IT Services Thomas.Reuner@ovum.com Ovum Consulting We hope that this analysis will help you make informed and imaginative business decisions. If you have further requirements, Ovum s consulting team may be able to help you. For more information about Ovum s consulting capabilities, please contact us directly at consulting@ovum.com. Copyright notice and disclaimer The contents of this product are protected by international copyright laws, database rights and other intellectual property rights. The owner of these rights is Informa Telecoms and Media Limited, our affiliates or other third party licensors. All product and company names and logos contained within or appearing on this product are the trademarks, service marks or trading names of their respective owners, including Informa Telecoms and Media Limited. This product may not be copied, reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of Informa Telecoms and Media Limited. Whilst reasonable efforts have been made to ensure that the information and content of this product was correct as at the date of first publication, neither Informa Telecoms and Media Limited nor any person engaged or employed by Informa Telecoms and Media Limited accepts any liability for any errors, omissions or other inaccuracies. Readers should independently verify any facts and figures as no liability can be accepted in this regard readers assume full responsibility and risk accordingly for their use of such information and content. Any views and/or opinions expressed in this product by individual authors or contributors are their personal views and/or opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views and/or opinions of Informa Telecoms and Media Limited Ovum. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. Page 4

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