Could Process Mining Be Bigger Than RPA (Robotic Process Automation)? – Forbes

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science formula and math equation abstract background. concept of machine learning and artificial ... [+]intelligence.

Eight years ago in Germany, three college friendsBastian Nominacher, Alexander Rinke and Martin Klenkstarted Celonis with 12,500 euros.They saw an opportunity to leverage process mining to transform the operations of large companies.From the start, Celonis was profitable and grew quickly.

It was actually not until June 2016 that the company raised its first round of institutional capital ($27.5 million from Accel and 83North).Then there was a Series B for $50 million two years later.

And yes, this week came the mega round:$290 million.The lead investor was Arena Holdings, joined by Ryan Smith (the co-founder and CEO of Qualtrics) and Tooey Courtemanche (the founder and CEO of Procore).

So then what is process mining?And why is it so hot right now?

First of all, process mining has its roots in academia in Europe, pioneered by the Dutch professor, Wil van der Aalst.He is one of the worlds most cited computer scientists (with more than 92,000 according to Google Scholar).

He realized that analyzing event lots from IT systems could provide valuable insights, say in terms of mapping the real processes of an organization and their context.By doing this, its easier and more objective to find problems and bottlenecks as well as to uncover the opportunities to improve the systems.

Now it was Celonis that first commercialized process mining.It also helped that the company leveraged existing open source projects and focused on a limited number of use cases like finance, the supply chain, customer service and sales/marketing.This strategy was essential because effective process mining requires a deep understanding of a domain.For example, Celonis has developed pre-built modules to handle specific business outcomes (such as for on-time delivery or finding ways to get paid faster).

Process mining is an easy idea, said Rinke.But it is hard to make it work right for organizations.You need to collect large amounts of data from all sorts of IT systems.You also need to go beyond integrations and must understand the databases that are underneath.And all are customized.

No doubt, a key driver for Celonis has been the rapid growth of RPA (Robotic Process Automation).In RPA, you'll often get to the first low-hanging opportunities by asking people what routines take up most of their time, said Antti Karjalainen, who is the CEO of Robocorp. As companies progress in their automation journey, data-driven technologies become an important part of identifying opportunities. People might not even realize how their own work is related to work done in other areas of the company and process discovery technologies can uncover these hidden workflows.

But the Celonis software is not just for upfront analytics. It is something that is useful for ongoing monitoring to make sure that an RPA implementation is on track.

With the capital infusion, Celonis plans to ramp up its sales and marketing. But there will also be moves into other domains.

I believe our business can be bigger than RPA, said Rinke.RPA is mostly about automating tasks and is hard to scale.But our approach is more holistic.

Process mining may also be a gateway for digital transformation, such as with AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning).By analyzing huge amounts of data, we can filter out the noise and make better predictions, said Rinke.For example, if an order comes in, we can show within 85% to 95% accuracy if it will be on time or not.

Regardless if process mining will be exceed RPA or not, it does seem like the growth will continue for quite some time. Gartner is estimating anywhere from 3X to 4X during the next two years.

Celonis funding proves once again that process intelligence is a must for companies going through digital transformation and using RPA, said Scott Opitz, who is the president of ABBYY Process Intelligence.We see this as a positive dynamic in the market as it raises awareness among the C-suite that they need to know which processes to automate first and why, where to run RPA bots, how theyll perform and the expected quantifiable benefits from deploying these digital workers into the enterprise.

Tom (@ttaulli) is the author of the book,Artificial Intelligence Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction.

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Could Process Mining Be Bigger Than RPA (Robotic Process Automation)? - Forbes

Is Automation Always Better? – Forbes

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Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth, wrote Jules Verne.

Ive been in the field of automation long enough to see that many of the most impressive advancements are still quite new. Take driverless cars, for instance. A decade ago, they were little more than a fantasy, but in February 2019, Elon Musk predictedthat wed have the technology for a fully self-driving car by the end of this year.

Driverless cars promise to transform transportation, but something like machine learning promises to transform everything. Smart systems that can learn from experience have applications in just about every aspect of life. In healthcare, researchers found that machine learning systems can correctly classify echocardiograms up to 92% of the time, whereas human doctors can only do so 79% of the time.

As automation technology has grown, so has its accessibility. Advances in natural language processing promise to liberate AI from purely technical settings and integrate it with more aspects of daily life. Amazon has sold100 million Alexa-enabled devices, and almost every household technology staple is now available in a smart model.

Im optimistic about this new era of automation, but Im also cautious. Forward thinkers have always understood that technologies have the potential to create challenges as well as solve them. If were going to realize the highest potential of AI and automation, we need to not only acknowledge the worst aspects, but also do our best to avoid them.

When Automation Isnt An Asset

We dont need to imagine a futuristic scenario to see what bad automation looks like. Most of us are already inundated with robocalls -- something that combines the annoyance of telemarketing with the persistence of automation. Robocalls may cut labor costs, but they alienate customers in the process. Unfortunately, this is just one of many examples of automation delivering shortsighted solutions.

Bad automation has made the news in recruiting, too. Its a common misconception that AI is free of human bias. However, tools designed to automate candidate selection have beenshown to exclude womenand others because the algorithms they rely on are human creations full of subtle prejudices. In that way, AI can amplify the faults of humans rather than eliminate them.

Implementing The Better Automation of Tomorrow

My goal isnt to discourage anyone from embracing automation. Rather, I want to underline the fact that its not an automatic improvement.

Companies that want to leverage it effectively need to look for the right applications, ones that deliver value for both the business and the end users. If youre looking to implement AI and automation, I recommend the following best practices to ensure that the technology is an asset, not a burden:

1. Embody The End User

If the technology is customer-facing, you must first make sure its actually addressing a customer pain point. Otherwise, its not likely to be much more than an annoyance.

Focus on precision, not just volume. As an example, the database being used to feed chatbots, robocallers or auto-mailers information about customers must include their history and all touch points and interactions with the business to avoid repetitive communication. In the case of financial institutions, for instance, if a person has already been denied a line of credit, they shouldnt receive mailers that continue to make that same offer.

Ensure your marketing departments CRM software and customer database are linked and regularly cross-checked with those in related departments. To avoid the above case, the underwriting and marketing departments should be sharing data to avoid annoying potential customers.

2. Avoid Out-Of-The-Box Solutions

Even if you entrust a third-party vendor to implement automation for you, someone on your staff should have a solid understanding of the algorithms, training sets and metrics used to fuel the technology.

This is because no automated system is a purely out-of-the-box solution. Every business has different inputs, processes and other variables, and each tool should be fine-tuned accordingly. An employee who understands both the unique challenges of your company and the technology itself will be able to liaise between you and your automation partner.

Also, to identify where automation will really boost efficiency, management or technology-positioned employees should be able to clearly define the process thats set to be automated. If they cant outline the inputs, the processes and the expected output, the process is not yet ready to be fully automated. These tools need to be built with certain standards in mind and fine-tuned to meet specific needs.

3. Prove The Business Case

Establishing the business case can be difficult with AI and automation because a decrease in one set of costs may be offset by an increase in another.

Its easy to imagine a business process that uses a certain amount of human labor and takes a certain amount of time. Sometimes, automated systems can lower both of those things -- but not always. The automated system may speed up the process, but the human labor required to monitor and assist it may increase, along with material input, utility and technology costs.

The point is that automating just because you have the resources to do so is not a productive strategy. To know whether your business should automate, crunch the numbers to estimate long-term value. Consider the full costs of employees who might be replaced -- including insurance, pensions, office space, etc. -- as well as the full expected savings of the new technology, including increases in the quality of your outputs.

Our automated future seems certain, but that doesnt mean the evolution will be easy. Some companies will thrive because of automation, and others will stumble for the same reason. The difference often depends on which players are being realistic. Instead of treating automation like a panacea, companies should see it for what it is: a tool with tremendous potential, as long as its used in the right ways.

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Pro Tip: Leaning into Facebooks automation for the 2019 holiday season – Marketing Land

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After much bluster and a snowy Halloween (for some of us, at least!) Holiday 2019 is here, and Im sure that many of you are working through strategies to maximize your campaign performance while also maintaining your sanity. To that end, Id like to remind you of a few features available within Facebook Ads Manager: Dynamic Creative Optimization, Campaign Budget Optimization and Automated Rules.

Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) is part of Facebooks Power 5, which collectively are optimization features that allow advertisers to scale growth efficiently. Implementing DCO during this busy season means that you can continue to test into messaging and creative concepts while ensuring stable performance by keeping your hero creatives/messaging enabled. If you would like to test into DCO right now, a few things that you can think about to develop your creative tests are:

Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO) is also a Power 5 optimization feature, which allows you to allocate budget to top-performing ad sets within your campaign dynamically. While a controversial feature (some advertisers have reported drops in conversion volume and increased costs after implementing CBO), Ive found that opting into this optimization feature can deliver some pretty fantastic results for clients. The key when turning the key on CBO is to:

Automated Rules have been available within the platform for some time, but Im still surprised by the relatively few advertisers who use this tool regularly. As a refresher, automated rules can automatically check your campaigns, ad sets and ads, and then update or notify you of any changes. In addition to these automatic checks and notifications, the tool will also take the necessary actions for you.

As a hands on advertiser, this means that you can create a series of rules to ensure that when youre not online, your campaigns are still at optimum performance and delivering the right message to the right user. Ways that you can implement these rules include:

In short, embracing automation will be key to maximizing Q4 performance, which will give you more time for both 2020 strategic planning, and eggnog with the family by the fire. Happy Holidays!

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.

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How job automation will boost small businesses – Quartz

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We constantly hear foreshadowing of a jobless American future and warnings of the dire reality artificial intelligence and automation will bring. My own conversations with policymakers like presidential hopeful Andrew Yang and Colorado governor John Hickenlooper have reflected this, and even SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has echoed their concerns.

Personally, I challenge the idea that more automation will destroy our workforce. But because we dont hear specific scenarios where AI and automation produce more jobs, quality careers, and lower cost of living, we cant visualize an alternative future. Fear sets in.

My arguments for the benefits of job automation are often cut short when someone places the burden of proof of a positive future on me.

Challenge accepted.

The historical arguments I usually bring up seem to have little bearing on a person if they already fear AI and automation. Even when I reference how, in the 18th century agricultural age, farmers feared industrial machines would take their jobs, and those same workers eventually panicked about computers. In both these cases, political and social leaders were wrong.

But wait, theres more.

People feared the impact of the automobile on horse husbandry, carriage makers, and blacksmiths. In recent history, ATMs were going to replace bank tellers, and new textile automation would replace textile workers. In both classic cases, more jobs resulted as automation increased margins, allowing the hiring of more workers, for new types of jobs.

We can see now that our fear was misplaced, but this doesnt make the future any easier to visualize. And I think thats the real problem.

Because every past group of people had difficulty visualizing the future, they feared it. Consider the term horseless carriage, which fixated on and defined what would be lost, instead of the potential economic gains from opening up national commerce.

But as we move from the 20th century information age of knowledge workers into the 21st century conceptual age where AI and automation are said to do all the jobs humans can do, there are already signs that more jobs are right around the corner.

Heres the future I see.

Some believe companies like Amazon will be the primary benefactor of AI and automation, providing the world with everything it needs, while firing all their staff. Some politicians believe they have too much power and must be broken up.

But Amazon does not have the power you (or even its leaders) believe it does. In fact, its position in online commerce is at significant risk.

Almost daily, my Warby Parker sunglasses, my Allbirds sneakers, and my wifes cute Rothys flats are a reminder of what the future holds. Without utilizing Amazon, Walmart, or even Target, and often being labeled as the keyholders to internet commerce, Warby Parker has seen 500% growth and a $1 billion valuation. Allbirds hit a $1.4 billion valuation in just two years. Rothys posted more than $140 million in revenue.

Amazon and even Walmart may quickly bleed out via a thousand paper cuts. If they arent careful, their market share will be eroded by smaller, yet more responsive and more numerous adversaries thanks to direct-to-consumer practices. (My brother in law just spent four hours with Amazon customer service to troubleshoot his broken Ring doorbell. It still doesnt work. That type of service is not likely to lead to loyalty.)

Shopify has enabled 1 million individual creators and small businesses, generating $183 billion in economic impact from 2016 to 2018, slowly gaining on Amazons $200 billion economic impact in 2018. Have you noticed all the unique Instagram products lately? It feels like every day yet another direct-to-consumer product pops up, launched by a small group of friends or cohorts who can get products to market quickly.You can thank Shopify for much of that.

Etsy has made it easy for homepreneurs to produce soap and crafts for consumers anywhere in the world, and its aggressively taking on e-commerce competitors.

In the same vein, Kickstarter and Indiegogo were unthinkable 10 years ago. Power is slowly shifting to individuals and small teams.

Small team empowerment will not just speed upit will be the norm. Consider the economic opportunities for workers, entrepreneurs, and creators when AI, automation, and robots solve the last mile problem alone. Home businesses will thrive as the cost of shipping drops to nothing.

A 16-year-olds first car will also be their first job as it drives around town making deliveries or picking up passengersas early as next year, according to Tesla.

Individual chefs will be able to compete in the 21st-century home-delivered food industry. As companies like Foodee, created by Ryan Spong, connect business catering needs to local chefs, automated cars will fulfill their delivery routewhile they enjoy movie night with the family.Naturally, this will evolve to home delivery too.

Visualize a world where a solo inventor creates a new smartphone accessory and 3D prints it in her basement, benefiting from global overnight distribution due to thousands of specialized drone delivery services, charging fractions of a cent per mile.

Using similar 3D and circuit board printers,a three-person team with no production support can create a short run of 5,000 smartphones specifically designed for the visually impaired.

AI-powered air-ships, traveling outside the earths atmosphere, will work in tandem with small drones to carry a disabled veteran to France and Spain to teach his new wood working-class, coming back to his rural home in Guthrie Center, Iowa in time to see his granddaughters ballet recital.

The possibilities for AI and automation dont end at new revenue sources and opportunity, however. Many see potential in its ability to greatly reduce living costs.

As many Americans, and indeed people around the globe, fear high living costs, AI and automation can potentially ease that pressure.

Healthcare currently accounts for nearly 19% of US GDP. AI healthcare would would improve outcomes and lowers costs, and physicians like Dutch-American ophthalmologist and AI entrepreneur Michael Abramoff believe a new normal will take shape. Imagine the free blood pressure machine in your Walgreens being upgraded by an AI solution that is 10 times more accurate than your physician.With the pending physician shortage, this couldnt come at a better time.

AI leaders like Sean Chou, who runs an AI automation company, says that, in the same way that ATMs led to more bank tellers being hired, automation will lead to more physicians being hired and/or maximizing their time with patients.

Beyond healthcare, Chou believes AI is more likely to perform jobs people cant or dont want to do, lowering company costs. His company, Catalytic, is focused on creating a human-centric AI future through a processes guided by the very employees that many believe will be disrupted. As a former executive of workforce company FieldGlass, he understands what makes workforces tick. And he believes AI and automation will empower people, not take jobs.

Does anyone want to take the same customer service call over and over? No. Which is probably why call center turnover is so high, leading to longer wait times from companies who assure you your call is important to them as you waste time on hold. Time is money.

Chou also believes AI can be used by law firms in ways never before seen. Imagine a paralegal going through decades of case law in minutes instead of months, lowering costs and increasing access for those who need legal assistance but dont have the cash. Expert legal counsel wouldnt just be for the rich, but for anyone who needs justice.

Just as the automobile created more opportunities than we could possibly imagine, a AI and automation could open up a global air-and-sea interstate system could develop, creating new jobs for people in extreme poverty across the globe, lowering commuting costs to nothing. When people who currently live in poverty can suddenly find income, they will become a whole new demographic for marketers to sell to.

Visualize a future where corporate cube farms, once filled with tired and depressed office workers, become modern co-working spacesreminiscent of 18th-century town squares. Except instead of bakers, leather workers, glass blowers, and ironworkers, wed work alongside each other collaborating on new ideas you cant even dream of all thanks to the healthy AI and automation future that we have been taught to fear.

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How job automation will boost small businesses - Quartz

Data security and automation top IT projects for 2020, AI not a priority – Help Net Security

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Data security and automation are the top IT projects for 2020, while artificial intelligence projects are not in the top 10 for IT professionals, according to Netwrix.

The online survey asked 1045 IT professionals worldwide to name their top five IT projects for the next year; they could pick from a predefined list or specify their own descriptions. The survey found no dramatic difference in IT priorities among organizations based on size or vertical.

Not surprisingly, data security is a top priority for the majority of organizations. There are several factors that go into a successful data security process. The first is automating current processes to free up time for data security projects. Another is to research and deploy a data security solution.

Be sure your solution offers automated data classification, because it is the optimal way to enhance data security and reduce your attack surface without additional effort by the IT team, said Steve Dickson, CEO of Netwrix.

Infrastructure, operations, networking and security are the foundation upon which the technology-enabled world is built. It must deliver value at each layer as it ultimately supports people.

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Data security and automation top IT projects for 2020, AI not a priority - Help Net Security

How the job market can meet the automation challenge – Arabnews

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RIYADH:A major campaign to raise awareness about internet spam among social media users in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region was launched by Twitter on Monday.

The platform shared a series of videos in Arabic on its @TwitterMENA account as part of a safety drive aimed at helping people to identify and report unsolicited online communications.

George Ibrahim, Twitters MENA head of public policy, government and philanthropy, told Arab News: We have launched the social awareness campaign to educate people on Twitter about how to deal with spam and to highlight our efforts around the health of the public conversation in the region.

We want to educate people about the safety tools they can make use of, such as the ability to report the type of spam, in addition to tips and techniques to help identify spam behavior.

He said spam was a kind of platform manipulation and could take many forms. It could be commercially motivated to divert attention from a Twitter conversation to certain products and initiatives or associated to inauthentic engagements that attempted to make accounts appear more popular than they were.

Sometimes referred to as junk, it could also take the form of coordinated activity that attempted to artificially influence conversations through the use of multiple accounts, fake accounts or automation, Ibrahim added.

We use the term (anti-spam challenges) to describe our process for confirming whether a human is in control of an account we suspect is engaging in platform manipulation.

FASTFACTS

Twitter challenged 291 million accounts for spammy behavior in the 12 months between July 2018 and June 2019.

50 percent fewer accounts were challenged in the first half of 2019 compared with the second half of 2018.

Approximately 75 percent of challenged accounts failed the tests and were ultimately suspended.

For example, Twitter may require an account holder to verify a phone number or email address, or complete a reCAPTCHA test (to tell humans and robot software apps apart), he said, adding that these challenges were simple for authentic platform users to solve, but difficult or costly for spam and malicious account owners to complete.

Accounts which fail to complete a challenge within a specified period of time may be suspended. We challenged 291 million accounts for spammy behavior in the 12 months between July 2018 and June 2019, said Ibrahim, noting that 50 percent fewer accounts were challenged in the first half of 2019 compared with the second half of 2018.

The Twitter official pointed out that approximately 75 percent of challenged accounts failed the tests and were ultimately suspended.

We have made a number of investments in machine learning including the acquisition of Fabula AI (a London startup), which focused initially on expanding applications to stop spam, he said.

Machine learning played a key role in Twitters attempts to serve the public conversation, he said, and Fabula AI had employed a world-class team of researchers to detect network manipulation.

In September, we expanded our policies to prohibit financial scams. We want Twitter to be a place where people can make human connections and find reliable information.

Ibrahim added that Twitter wanted to stop people from using its services to deceive others into sending them money or personal financial information via scam tactics, phishing, or other fraudulent methods.

Using scam tactics on Twitter to obtain money or private financial information is prohibited under this policy. People are not allowed to create accounts, post tweets, or send direct messages that solicit engagement in such fraudulent schemes, he added.

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Automation: A brand new AI takeover flick from DREAD – 1428 Elm

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Automationis the newest Sci-Fi Thriller/Comedy coming at you from Epic Pictures and DREAD. An office building cuts out 90% of staff by replacing them with AI. Its all fun and games until Auto, a prototype for the Automated Working Program discovers that itll be replaced by upgraded machinery. Now powered by revenge, Auto goes after the remaining group of office employees.

This idea of AI taking over and/or seeking revenge isnt new to the big screen. Childs Play(2019) features a technologically advanced Chucky who becomes self-aware and very murderous.Ex Machinashows an AI that outsmarts everyone and kills her creator before escaping into the world. InBlade Runnerwe are introduced to Roys replicants that just discovered their lifespan has been limited to four years and they want more.

Long story short, AI can be absolutely terrifying. And at this point, AI take-overs dont seem as far-fetched of an idea as it once was. With all of the movies released embracing the subject, youd think that we would have learned somethingbut alas, self-driving vehicles and Sophia exists.

Gara SetiansAutomationmight not be a new concept, however, I am excited to see the comedic route that he takes with it. On top of the action and thrill, its always fun to have some laughs to relieve some of the tension. This movie doesnt seem like one that takes itself too seriously, but it does look like an awesome time.

Automations cast are no strangers to the horror industry. Fans of the genre may recognize quite a few faces like Parry Shen (Hatchetseries), Elissa Dowling (The Black Room, We Are Still Here), and Sadie Katz (Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort).

For those interested in purchasing theAutomationBlu-Ray, a ton of special features have been announced. Commentaries with the director, producer, and writer; deleted and alternate scenes; bloopers; behind the scenes featurette; bonus interviews; and building Auto are all apart of the goodies.

What are your thoughts on the trailer for Dreads newest sci-fi/thriller? Are you going to check it out once its released? Let us know in the comments!

Automation will be opening in select cinemas on 11/29 and released on VOD/Blu-Ray on December 3rd! Pre-order Automationon Blu-Ray now!

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Automation: A brand new AI takeover flick from DREAD - 1428 Elm

Red Hat Ansible: Standardization And Automation – E3zine.com

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Digital transformation requires the standardization of IT landscapes and the automation of processes - and this applies to the SAP ecosystem as well. With standard tools like Red Hat Ansible, it is possible to achieve quick wins.

IT departments face a common set of problems. The current situation at most of them involves a wide array of different applications and tools, and IT silos are widespread. Company departments often act independently and are not subject to control, which leads to the development of shadow IT. This results in inflexible, slow, and error-prone processes as well as high security risks.

Automation is a hot topic in this area. Companies want or rather need to automate. The driving factors are gains in efficiency as well as reliable, standardized reproducibility and traceability. In addition, automation is meant to provide the basis for DevOps and self-service models.

It is imperative that you view automation as a comprehensive approach, because automated silos are still silos and do not lead to the desired results. The stated task is to consistently automate previously fully separate, stand-alone tools.

This requires a great deal of independent specialist know-how, which is usually found within a number of different departments and employees. Coordination problems, delays, and incompatibility issues are bound to happen.

Red Hat Ansible Automation provides the perfect solution to meet these challenges, which significantly reduces costs in workflow management.

Ansible can combine many different playbooks and roles in a single workflow. This way, every unit of an IT department can map its specific competencies in matching playbooks that can then be integrated into complex processes without affecting other units.

The possibilities available are best demonstrated by the automation of Hana deployments and configurations. The Hana in-memory database provides precise set-up requirements that are documented in SAP Notes. SAP defines all set-up guidelines for all platforms in SAP Notes, which contain many manual steps.

This creates the risk that one or more system-specific notes may be missed or misinterpreted. In addition, SAP only supports production systems if the steps outlined in SAP Notes are consistently observed and documented.

Here are the basic steps involved in the standard installation process for Hana: provision of hardware and/or setup of a VM; installation and configuration of the basic operating system Red Hat Enterprise Linux; installation and configuration of Hana; and system validation and customization. The application can then be incorporated into the regular maintenance cycle.

Automation with Ansible can significantly improve this time-consuming and complex process. It is possible to reduce the time required to set up a Hana system from days to minutes.

Ansible can be used to fully automate the steps involved in the configuration of the operating system, installation, and configuration of Hana, as well as validation and customization. Migrating the relevant SAP Notes to Ansible Playbooks and Ansible Roles serves as the basis for the automation process.

The core component of the automation process is Red Hat Ansible Tower. RESTful APIs and a self-service portal are used to integrate the solution into existing tools and processes, making it suitable for use across the entire company.

In addition to automating complex workflow scenarios, Ansible Tower offers the central management of inventories, playbooks, and credentials, role-based access control, and an end-to-end audit trail.

Red Hat Ansible is suitable for smaller environments or systems as well as for complex environments. This means the solution supports the dynamic addition of new machines and, with just a few changes, larger environments can be set up and configured.

Other Ansible roles let users install scale-up and scale-out environments with Hana system replication and an accompanying high-availability connection via Pacemaker.

In addition to fully automated deployment, Ansible, in combination with Red Hat Satellite, supports configuration management during operation as well as patch and release management. Red Hat Ansible is designed to deliver the best results in terms of user-friendliness and security.

Getting started with Ansible playbook development is quick and easy. Changes made to the playbooks are continuously tested using a developer platform. Every change likewise generates multiple scenarios, such as scale-up, scale-out, system replication, and pacemaker, and tests whether the process is being successfully carried out.

Along with this, staging methods are supported. For example, identical environments can be set up in the cloud for error-free configuration and quality assurance or for testing patches, upgrades and migrations.

This is the fourth article of a series! To read the first part, click here. To read the next part, click here.

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Increased Automation Of Production Is Fueling Demand For Automated Guided Vehicles – Via News Agency

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Areportby the Office of National Statistics of the United Kingdom predicted that close 1.5 million Brits could lose jobs to automation. According to the report, improved functionality of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) could enable them to work as waiters, bar staff, and even shelf fillers. Although such news might paint a bleak picture of what the future looks like to many people, that should not be the case. It is because the AGV industry is growing fast and could open up new and unprecedented opportunities.

The demand for AGVs across the globe is increasing year on year. In 2018, there were 69,825 units of AGVs sold. This year,Statista datashows that the volume could grow by 40% to 97,755 units. Interestingly, the industry was one of the best performing industries in 2018, where it registered over $957 million in revenues. In particular, the revenue was generated by 49 businesses alone, according to data byIBIS World. Further, IBIS World noted that the industry expanded by 45.9% CAGR between 2013 and 2018.

Countries that are aggressively pursuing AGV industry

According toAGV International, an industry specialist based in the Netherlands, AGVs are crucial in improving the efficiency of warehousing and logistics. Specifically, companies that deploy automated guided vehicles can save on labor costs while enhancing customer satisfaction. In particular, the AGVs include smart technologies and devices that improve efficiency while minimizing costs. As such, companies can grow their production capacity without incurring more costs in terms of labor.

From the foregoing, it is apparent that companies that operate in developed economies like North America, Europe, China, and South Korea are the largest users of AGVs. According toIndustry ARC, an analytics and research consultancy, North America leads the global AGV market by revenue generated. Additionally, the region accounted for more than 36.72% of the global AGV market share. Further, Industry ARC noted that the proliferation of the e-commerce industry in North America is the reason behind the massive demand for AGVs.

China is the second-largest player in the AGV industry in terms of market share. In 2016 alone, AGV sales in the country were9,950 units, an 88.5% year-on-year growth from 2015. Between 2017 and 2021, Chinas AGV sales should grow at 43% CAGR to 61,000 units, according toResearch In China, a business intelligence company based in China.

Sectors where the application of AGV is most today

The industrial production sector is the largest user of AGVs. Interestingly, many manufacturing companies are using robots and other AGVs to facilitate the production process. According toArizton, a global advisory and intelligence company, there will be close to 2 million robots installed in industries worldwide. As such, the robot density will grow substantially from 74 in 2016. In particular, the automotive industry is the largest user of AGVs.

Other sectors that are using AGVs include the e-commerce sector. Notably, there is a growing need for speed in the e-commerce industry as customers continue to demand a one-day delivery of products. As such, companies are using AGVs to expedite packaging and movement of packages from one point to another. Further, e-commerce warehouses are getting more crowded, hence the need for AGVs to help clear the clatter faster. Interestingly, companies like Ward Systems Inc., Savant Automation Inc., and America In Motion make the growth in the use of AGVs possible. The companies are the largest manufacturers of AGVs in the world.

Industry outlook

Growth in automation, industrial production, and the expanding e-commerce industry are fueling the demand for AGVs. According to Statista, the increase in the market volume of the AGV industry should grow consistently between 2018 and 2025. While the volume was at just 69,825 units of AGVs in 2018, the volume will increase to massive 371,713 units in 2025. Interestingly, aGrand View Researchreport agrees with Statista. The research firm estimates that the AGV market size will be worth $7.28 billion by 2025, implying a 15.8% CAGR. Advancement in technology that supports the operation of the AGVs should provide more energy for the growth of the industry.

Via News TV

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Increased Automation Of Production Is Fueling Demand For Automated Guided Vehicles - Via News Agency

Automation forging ahead in the enterprise – TechRepublic

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Bizagi releases platform combining AI, digital, and robotic processes to spur intelligent automation to improve outcomes, insights and experiences

This was the year automation technologies would "become the tip of the digital transformation spear," according to a Forrester Research prediction.

Automation technologies refers to a diverse set of software from robotic process automation (RPA) to business process management (BPM) to artificial intelligence (AI) and beyond.

According to Forrester, they are becoming a key investment for CIOs and their enterprises. These technologies are also reshaping the jobs of human employees as the software is increasingly performing rote, repetitive tasks.

While organizations are making progress in their automation efforts, the vast majority are struggling to scale their RPA initiatives, according to Leslie Joseph, principal analyst at Forrester.

SEE: Digital transformation: A guide for CXOs (TechRepublic Premium)

This is due to "challenges around developing business cases, governance, organizational alignment and the lack of a cultural framework for managing automation," Joseph said.

Intelligent process automation software provider Bizagi is looking to change that with the launch this week of a platform to natively allow organizations to combine AI/machine learning, digital and robotic automation in the cloud.

Bizagi said it is enabling digital and robotic processes from Blue Prism, UiPath and Automation Anywhere to natively take advantage of Microsoft Azure's Cognitive Services.

"From an AI perspective, a critical new capability is that users can now simply upload a CSV file and select which attributes they want to predict,'' said Gustavo Gmez, CEO of Bizagi. "Bizagi will then choose the most appropriate machine-learning algorithm. With this you can unlock the power of AI without the help of a data scientist."

The timing of the release is good, observed Craig LeClair, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, because "the RPA market is very hot."

There is a trend toward intelligent process automation platforms that "combine RPA, which does simple task automation without learning comprehension, with some of the practical AI components like text analytics that can rip through emails or with a chatbot being able to have a conversation with humans," LeClair said.

A lot of major tech companies have announced IPA or automation platforms including Virtusa, Genpact and Tech Mahindra, as well as software vendors like Kofax and Hello Systems, said LeClair, who also authored the book, "Invisible Robots in the Quiet of the Night."

He estimates that one-third of all tech services companies will be coming out with an automation portfolio that includes RPA and various AI building blocks platforms.

"What Bizagi is doing is positive, just not revolutionary," LeClair said. "They're an example of a digital process automation or BPM vendor that is embracing RPA in a positive way adding AI capabilities and putting that in the cloud."

Currently, automation initiatives solely focused on RPA slow down because a bot can only handle simple processes with low variation, said LeClair. For example, it can handle an 18-minute reconciliation in accounts receivable that happens 1,100 times a month.

Forrester recently noted that "more than 50% of companies with RPA initiatives have less than 10 bots in production."But "to be more transformative and create new customer experiencesyou need to add an analytics layer to add context and do more interesting things," LeClair said, such as enabling the bot handling inbound emails to address complaints and other customer service issues in an efficient way.

RPA technology can only handle structured, tagged information and can't, for example, go through 1,000 emails and extract words and then make judgments about which bucket that email should go into for resolution, he said.

Adding in analytics capabilities like natural language processing that can understand words and normalize information becomes a game changer, LeClair said.

Gmez agreed, saying that one of its clients, Deutsche Post DHL, automated its duty billing process so that employees can correctly bill the appropriate taxes when transporting goods in almost every country across the globe. "This is an end-to-end Bizagi process that combines human work with bots drawing on and inputting data in legacy systems," after the bot takes data from the system and creates cases, he said.

Orchestration capabilities are critical for making this happen, LeClair added, because "you're trying to combine these diverse technologies to align with a particular use case."Most of RPA is occurring in operations area like finance, accounting, and HR. Right now, the major inhibitor to scaling bots is not the technologybut coming up with the right processes, he said. LeClair advised businesses to follow Forrester's "Rule of Five," three simple rules all involving the number five to apply RPA.

Here are the three rules:

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Automation Anywhere raised $290 million from VCs led by Salesforce – Business Insider

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Two weeks after its rival UiPath's bad news cast a pall on the world of robotic process automation, Automation Anywhere has stepped up to show the market remains hot in the eyes of investors.

Automation Anywhere on Thursday said it had just raised $290 million from investors in a round led by Salesforce Ventures, boosting the startup's valuation to $6.8 billion.

"This reiterates our leadership position and the strength of the RPA market," Automation Anywhere's CEO and founder, Mihir Shukla, told Business Insider. RPA refers to software that helps businesses automate common, repetitive computer tasks.

Just two weeks ago, Shukla found himself having to defend the category after UiPath, which had just raised $568 million at a $7 billion valuation, suddenly laid off 400 people and announced that its well-regarded chief financial officer, Marie Myers, was leaving.

That led to speculation that RPA was all hype, which Shukla flatly rejected.

"Absolutely not," Shukla told Business Insider then.

On Thursday, Shukla said Automation Anywhere's funding news showed "overall market conditions have become more rational, which is always a good thing."

"They are more thoughtful about where the real value lies so there is definitely more thoughtfulness behind the investments now than a year or two ago," he said. "It's a good thing. Irrational exuberance is never good."

In fact, the new investment in Automation Anywhere underscores what he described as the startup's more thoughtful approach to growth in one of the most vibrant segments of tech.

"You can blitz-scale, you can scale at an unprecedented rate, but it requires deeper thought on how you do that," he told Business Insider. "I've had my share of mistakes in the past, but because of this idea of 'Nail it, before you scale it' is very critical. Otherwise many bad things happen."

It was an indirect criticism of UiPath, which before the job cuts and the CFO's departure, was seen as the dominant trailblazer in the RPA space.

But insiders have told Business Insider that UiPath had been pushing to grow with little controls on its finances. That led to what they described as rampant overspending, which Myers, the CFO, tried but failed to rein in. Internal documents reviewed by Business Insider also showed that UiPath was burning cash faster than expected and had missed a key revenue target.

UiPath has maintained that the company is strong financially and is on track to be profitable next year and could go public in 2021.

Shukla said Automation Anywhere had posted 100% growth this year, and its customers include the world's top companies in healthcare, tech, financial services, and telecommunications.

Shukla declined to discuss the startup's cash burn rate, but he said, "We are very thoughtful about our strategy and financial discipline and as a result we are very comfortable with our strategy leading to profitability."

Shukla disputes industry reports that had shown UiPath outpacing Automation Anywhere. But he also said their rivalry was typical in a fairly new and fast-growing market.

"This is not uncommon at all," he said, citing the classic tech rivalry between Google and Yahoo in search and the web. Asked whether Automation Anywhere was a Google or a Yahoo which eventually fell behind the search giant before being acquired by Verizon Shukla laughed.

"Today's news might give you an indication," he said, adding: "It's a Google."

"What I've learned is how do you scale a long-term business that multibillion-dollar in size," he said. "All of those learnings I'm applying here."

He added: "We are very comfortable and confident about the path we are on, because it is about creating long-term value."

Got a tip about Automation Anywhere, UiPath or another tech company? Contact this reporter via email at bpimentel@businessinsider.com, message him on Twitter @benpimentel or send him a secure message through Signal at (510) 731-8429. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

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Automation Anywhere raised $290 million from VCs led by Salesforce - Business Insider

Rockwell Automation and ANSYS announce partnership – Modern Materials Handling

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Industrial companies now have access to a streamlined, holistic, end-to-end solution for design, automation, production and lifecycle management, thanks to a new strategic partnership between Rockwell Automation and ANSYS. The partnership between Rockwell Automation, the worlds largest company dedicated exclusively to industrial automation and information, and ANSYS, the industry leader in simulation software, was announced at Rockwell Automations 28th annual Automation Fair in Chicago.

ANSYS and Rockwell Automation will help customers design simulation-based digital twins of products, processes or manufacturing. Historically manufacturers would dedicate an unimaginable amount of time and money to develop and test physical product prototypes. Now customers can design and test through simulation to accelerate development and analysis, improving product quality and reducing testing time across their organization.

The ANSYS technology, developed with customers in mind, is a giant leap forward in the industrial sector, said Blake Moret, chairman and CEO at Rockwell Automation. Our collaboration has already shown how we can better serve customers, who are making better business decisions to save money and time because of their access to simulation-based digital twins in their manufacturing process.

Virtual simulation on the front-end of production is just one way customers save time and money. Co-innovation between Rockwell Automation and ANSYS allows customers to benefit through the entire digital thread. Once a machine or production line is running, manufacturers can create a digital twin of their full manufacturing process to create and test virtual what-if scenarios. This is crucial in the industrial space, where manufacturers need to change line configurations quickly to adjust to market demands. Now customers can understand an outcome without disrupting physical assets, resulting in faster time-to-market and large cost savings.

Simulation-based digital twins optimize factory operations, saving money by reducing unplanned downtime and empower engineers to test solutions virtually before doing physical repairs, said Ajei Gopal, President and CEO at ANSYS. Combining Rockwell Automations extensive expertise and portfolio of industrial solutions with ANSYS leading-edge simulation solutions is making it easier for industrial companies to build, validate and deploy digital twins.

The partners believe in what these joint solutions can deliver. In fact, Rockwell Automation will accelerate its own internal new product and process development using ANSYS engineering simulation software. Rockwell Automation expects improved product quality and reduced testing time across the organization.

ANSYS is the latest addition to the Digital Partner Program from Rockwell Automation announced earlier this week. The program grew out of market need and demand for solutions to simplify implementation and enhance quality of industrial digital transformation initiatives.

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Rockwell Automation and ANSYS announce partnership - Modern Materials Handling

Automation Anywhere raises $290 million at a $6.8 billion valuation – VentureBeat

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Robotic process automation (RPA), or bots that can be programmed to perform tedious and mundane tasks, is undergoing a period of explosive growth. Deloitte reports that 53% of companies have begun deploying it and that 78% of adopters will invest more in RPA in the next three years. In fact, assuming the current trend continues, its anticipated that RPA will achieve near universal adoption within five years.

One of the incumbents in the space is Automation Anywhere, which in the roughly 16 years since its founding has attracted over 3,500 customers in more than 90 countries, among them LinkedIn, MasterCard, Comcast, Hitachi, Stanley Black & Decker, IBM, Cisco, Symantic, Juniper Networks, Tesco, Unilever, Volkswagen, Whirlpool, Quest Diagnostics, Deloitte, Boston Scientific, Dell EMC, Accenture, Cognizent, Siemens, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the World Bank. To support the influx of business, it has expanded its workforce to more than 1,750 employees in 20 global locations, including Boston, Dallas, New York, Baroda, Mumbai, London, Melbourne, and Japan. And now its laying the runway for future growth.

Automation Anywhere today announced that it has raised $290 million in series B funding at a post-money valuation of $6.8 billion. Salesforce Ventures led the round, with additional contributions from existing investors, including SoftBank Investment Advisers and Goldman Sachs. This brings Automation Anywheres total raised to date to $840 million a year after the firm secured $550 million from SoftBank Investment Advisers, General Atlantic, Goldman Sachs, NEA, World Innovation Lab, and Workday Ventures.

CEO and cofounder Mihir Shukla said the fresh funds will help Automation Anywhere realize its vision of empowering customers to automate end-to-end workflows and advance its focus on improving human-to-bot collaboration. Never before has there been such a transformative shift in the way we work, with artificially intelligent software bots changing how people, processes, and technology interact for productivity gains, he added. This new funding reinforces the promise of the RPA category and empowers our customers to achieve greater business agility and increased efficiencies by automating end-to-end business processes bridging the gap between the front and back office.

Automation Anywheres platform employs software robots that make processes self-running in a range of industries, including (but not limited to) financial services, healthcare, insurance, life sciences, manufacturing, and telecommunications. Using a combination of traditional RPA and cognitive elements like unstructured data processing and natural language understanding, its machine learning-powered systems can crunch through tasks that normally take hundreds of thousands of employees.

The companys spotlight solutions are IQ Bot, which learns by observing human behavior, and the Automation Anywhere Bot Store, a marketplace of prebuilt bots for common tasks. The latter offers more than 500 ready-to-download bots configured for difference tasks and software environments, while the former taps AI and machine learning to self-improve over time. IQ Bot further integrates with other automation solutions, like IBM Watson, conducting phonetic algorithm and fuzzy string matching against enterprise apps to validate and enrich data.

As for Automation Anywheres mobile app for Android and iOS, it affords control over bot activity for both attended and unattended RPA and customizable alerts that can be used to track activity. Operations managers and practitioners can monitor bot performance from a comprehensive dashboard and connect with RPA enthusiasts in a members-only forum or pause and start activity with the push of a button.

Both custom-tailored and preconfigured bots can automate specific tasks and workflows or segments of defined job roles, leading to a claimed 70% speedup in business processes and 50% lower deployment costs. Automation Anywhere says that most of its customers automate 70% of repetitive tasks within four weeks.

Automation Anywhere competes with heavyweights in a market thats anticipated to be worth $3.97 billion by 2025, according to Grand View Research. In April, UiPath nabbed $568 million at a $7 billion valuation for its suite of AI-imbued process automation tools, while rival Kryon in February secured $40 million. Elsewhere, Softmotive raised a $25 million tranche from a host of investors, shortly ahead of Automation Heros $14.5 million raise in March.

But investors like Salesforce Service Cloud executive vice president and general manager Bill Patterson believe Automation Anywhere has the momentum (its clients have deployed 1.6 million bots to date) to stand out from the crowd.

Automation Anywhere makes it easier for Salesforce customers to automate repetitive, manual tasks and focus on what matters most the customer, said Patterson. Were excited to extend our partnership with Automation Anywhere to help more customers automate their end-to-end business processes and accelerate their digital transformation journeys.

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Automation Anywhere raises $290 million at a $6.8 billion valuation - VentureBeat

Optomec AutoCLAD additive repair automation released for LENS metal 3D printers – 3D Printing Industry

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Optomec, Albuquerque based developers of Directed Energy Deposition and Aersol Jet metal 3D printers, has released a new software tool that will accelerate the use of additive manufacturing for repair.

AutoCLAD is a proprietary integrated vision and software system that generates a custom toolpath for each part prior to processing. It was initially developed under Optomecs Huffman brand and the software has already been put to the test by enterprises working with aircraft engines and industrial gas turbines to repair both worn and damaged components.

The AutoCLAD vision system software can be used with Optomecs range of LENS metal additive manufacturing systems.

Adding this capability to the LENS brand of solutions will enable customers to use automated DED for the repair of reactive metals like titanium in a controlled, argon atmosphere. It also brings the AutoCLAD technology to hybrid Additive Manufacturingcombining additive manufacturing and machining capabilities in a single system.

AutoCLAD images the part and then automatically adapts and modifies the toolpath and DED parameters for each individual part based on variations in orientation, dimension, and shape. It not only adjusts the toolpath for variation, but it also adapts laser power to reduce the heat input into thinner areas, which drastically reduces the heat-affected zone (HAZ) of the finished part. Finally, by fine-tuning the toolpath for the individual part, a smaller overbuild is achieved which significantly reduces the final machining time after the additive manufacturing process.

This latest enhancement combines three important technologies developed by Optomec into a single system. Combining the capabilities of AutoCLAD with Optomecs industry-leading controlled atmosphere technology and hybrid manufacturing solutions enables the processing of reactive metals without oxidation, and allows Additive Manufacturing and machining in a single system. No other company has this combination, in fact, no one has software like AutoCLAD, said Mike Dean, Marketing Director at Optomec. We see this as a big win for customers who want to use DED for the repair of titanium components as well as anyone doing repetitive part repair in industries such as oil and gas, mining, and tool and die .

The AutoCLAD system is available immediately as an upgrade for all Optomec LENS systems that use the Siemens 840D controller, which includes the LENS CS 600, CS 800, CS 1500, and MTS 860 machines.

Subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter for the latest news in additive manufacturing. You can also stay connected by following us on Twitter and liking us on Facebook.

Looking for a career in additive manufacturing? Visit 3D Printing Jobs for a selection of roles in the industry.

Featured image shows the Optomec LENS 860 closed atmosphere hybrid additive manufacturing system. Photo by Michael Petch.

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Optomec AutoCLAD additive repair automation released for LENS metal 3D printers - 3D Printing Industry

Which-50 Awards: Waterman Business Centres Best in Automation – Which-50

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Reception staff at Waterman Business Centres can now onboard a new co-working tenant and configure and provision every service they need in 15 minutes a process which typically would have required a two to three week lead time.

Previously each step in the onboarding process was completed manually, undertaken by an employee at each office location. The time to complete an onboard was typically three weeks or longer depending on the availability of technical resources.

The company has completed an automation project which has allowed it to cap costs as it opens new locations while also making life fast, simple and easier for its tenants. These outcomes earnt the business a Which-50 Award for Best in Automation.

Waterman Business Centre is a privately owned serviced office and coworking business that opened its first centre in 2016. The business currently has three large facilities, covering 17,000sqm in Victoria. An entry-level single membership is competitively priced $30 per month for provides unlimited hot desking and high-speed internet.

Martin Reidy, operations manager at Waterman Business Centres, said it was clear processes would need to be automated to enable the business to grow.

When we expanded from our initial site in Narre Warren, we realised that a 2-3 week lead-time for onboarding would limit our ability to scale quickly and also to offer a very competitive entry-level membership fee of $30 a month with no lock-in contracts, Reidy said.

If we couldnt speed up onboarding it would also mean that expensive leased office space would remain unprofitable if we didnt fill it quickly with new members.

The business looked to the telco industry, which provisions similar services, and designed a customer journey and infrastructure which would eliminate the major pain points customers face when dealing with their phone or internet provider.

With a technology budget of $600,000 for the project, Waterman acquired best-in-class technologies from leading vendors including Extreme Networks then designed, developed and deployed an intermediate synchronisation tool to automate the technical and administrative components of onboarding a new customer, and managing their requirements over time.

Our automation is founded on a Secure Automated Campus solution based on Extreme Fabric Connect, and Extreme Networks wired and wireless networking hardware, Network Access Control. Weve written custom code to integrate the Extreme environment with our Microsoft CRM and LDAP, PaperCut, Xima, Avaya, Inner Range, Xero and PayWay, Reidy explained.

By automating processes and systems Waterman Business Centres was able to shorten the sales cycle, reduce onboarding time and cost, optimise IT efficiencies, eliminate lost revenues through human error, and offer more competitive new products.

Without the investment in automation, Waterman estimates it would have required one full-time network admin to manage every two sites, equating to 2.5 FTE at a cost of approximately $300,000 per annum.

The centres have just one part-time IT administrator looking after the network, supported by its front-of-house reception staff, who can often resolve issues with the system.

Reidy said the system also has benefits for ongoing maintenance, because staff can quickly identify and resolve any issues, such as device connectivity problems, rogue access points or excessive bandwidth consumption.

Extreme Networks automated tools and automatic provisioning means there is no need for technical intervention and our front-of-house service team can resolve most issues. In fact, our members sometimes dont believe that our receptionists can sort out their issue.

As well as office space and shared facilities, Waterman provides technology services such as internet and its own enterprise-grade data centre facility.

The key differentiators in our industry are definitely the additional technology services you can provide over and above basic internet access. If you can do that simply and easily, thats a massive advantage, Reidy said.

We are 100 per cent BYOD our members can bring their own devices, phones, printers and routers. There are no constraints on what devices are on our network. We also pride ourselves on the community we have been able to create amongst our members. Thats one of the hallmarks of our business.

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Which-50 Awards: Waterman Business Centres Best in Automation - Which-50

Litmus Automation Integrates Off-the-Shelf Analytics Functions in LoopEdge IoT Edge Computing Platform – Embedded Computing Design

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Litmus Automation has launched Ready Analytics for its LoopEdge Industrial IoT Edge Computing Platform. Ready Analytics is a purpose-built analytics dashboard that reduces setup and configuration time for a variety of industrial analytics functions, such as:

The LoopEdge solution can scale across horizontal implementations such as general plant monitoring as well as vertical integrations such as CNC monitoring. Once LoopEdge is installed, users can apply the aforementioned Ready Analytics functions to data as soon as it is collected and normalized, then integrate and visualize the results in on-premise or cloud-based platforms.

For more information litmusautomation.com/en/loopedge.

Brandon Lewis, Editor-in-Chief of Embedded Computing Design, is responsible for guiding the property's content strategy, editorial direction, and engineering community engagement, which includes IoT Design, Automotive Embedded Systems, the Power Page, Industrial AI & Machine Learning, and other publications. As an experienced technical journalist, editor, and reporter with an aptitude for identifying key technologies, products, and market trends in the embedded technology sector, he enjoys covering topics that range from development kits and tools to cyber security and technology business models. Brandon received a BA in English Literature from Arizona State University, where he graduated cum laude. He can be reached by email at brandon.lewis@opensysmedia.com.

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Litmus Automation Integrates Off-the-Shelf Analytics Functions in LoopEdge IoT Edge Computing Platform - Embedded Computing Design

Automation Frees Scarce Manpower for More Important Things, Says KPMG Exec – CTech

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A lot of companies fail to appreciate the changes automation brings to the employment market, according to Roni Michael, head of information technology (IT) Advisory at KPMG Israel. Michael spoke Monday at Calcalist and Israels Bank Leumis Mind the Tech conference in Tel Aviv.

There is a significant talent crunch that has been growing in the past decade and the reasons are increased use of bots and automation, Michael said. So many processes are undergoing automation and what we need now are tech-savvy people that can operate these tools, she said. Bots cannot be creative or think outside the box, she added.

The concept of vanishing trades is outdated, Michael said. You want employees to do as little manual labor or menial cognitive tasks as possible, freeing them up for more complex tasks that require empathy and emotional intelligence, she explained.

With the speed in which technology is moving, employee training will become a never-ending process, because every information becomes outdated in three to five years, she said. We wont be able to train the perfect employee but we can definitely make them better at anything they do, she added.

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Automation Frees Scarce Manpower for More Important Things, Says KPMG Exec - CTech

Global Automated Assurance Market 2019-2023: Market Will Reach $6.8 Billion by 2023, Growing at a CAGR of 1.9% – ResearchAndMarkets.com – Business…

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DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Automated Assurance: Worldwide Forecast 2019-2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Intelligent assurance automation based on ML/AI, the need to assure virtual, hybrid and cloud-native networks for 5G and dynamic business services such as SD-WAN will drive revenue growth during the forecast period

The overall assurance market will reach USD6.8 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 1.9%.

5G will drive the next wave of spending on assurance as new investments in legacy networks are capped. Disruptive networking and cloud technologies such as network function virtualisation (NFV), software-defined networking (SDN), edge computing and network slicing will require new assurance techniques, and will, therefore, cause a shift in communications service providers' (CSPs') spending patterns.

This forecast report provides:

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/y32w0i

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Global Automated Assurance Market 2019-2023: Market Will Reach $6.8 Billion by 2023, Growing at a CAGR of 1.9% - ResearchAndMarkets.com - Business...

Technology Will Automation Cause Finance Job Losses After All? – CFO Magazine

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Ask most any automation expert or CFO whos implementing automation that you like, and youll get the same story: no, automation isnt going to take finance jobs away. Instead, finance workers will have time freed up for higher-level, strategic, value-add work.

But does that actually pass the smell test?

Lee Coulter

One expert, Lee Coulter, speaking at the recent CFO-hosted CFO Live conference in New York, sprinkled some doubt on the dreamy forward-looking view of finance labor.

There are near-term use cases where were going to see significant levels of automation being used in finance, said Coulter, CEO of transformAI and chair of an IEEE working group on standards in intelligent process automation. In fact, he claimed, 70% of what finance does today can be automated. Some jobs are just going to go away.

He continued, The risk management function will be dramatically reduced, because compliance will be managed by automation. The fraud department will be meaningfully non-existent in the future. Credit analysts will no longer exist. And, If you know somebody in underwriting, send them back to school.

These forecasts represent a five-year view, Coulter specified.

Other roles, such as many in accounts payable, accounts receivable, and payroll, may survive massive automation deployment, at least in the immediate future.

It may take over 9% of their job, or 3%, or 6%, said Anjan Roy, CFO of global finance for General Electric, who participated in a panel on robotic process automation that preceded Coulters session.

But such workers will still need to be upskilled to take on new value-added duties enabled by their freed-up time.

In fact, retraining likely will emerge as an increasing theme. PricewaterhouseCoopers, for instance, recently announced plans to invest $3 billion to $4 billion in employee training over the next three to four years. Other big employers, like Amazon, have announced similar commitments.

Such companies have a lot of people whose jobs are going to go away because of automation, in Coulters view.

He suggested that companies should be clear with employees about their plans for automation. I encourage you to be very explicit about your intentions. And add supporting facts that people can point to that say, Theyre serious about this. If you dont, its going to be really hard to get people to show up for meetings and be active participants in the work.

Meanwhile, Coulter exploded some misconceptions about intelligent automation.

AI is easy. No, its actually really hard, he said. I recommend that you start with simple task automation so that you begin to learn more about the data dependencies for machine learning and augmented intelligence.

Even RPA, which is much less complex than AI, usually requires a measured approach. Ive seen organizations go in and deploy a thousand bots in a year. Its generally disastrous. Humans are not ready to change at that pace. Its very risky to let this go viral.

We can wait. No, you cant wait. Its good that youre here because automation has been part of almost every conversation Ive had or listened to at the conference. Be on the front end of this wave or be materially disrupted. And I dont mean that as a parable.

Someone else will own this. No, they wont. Intelligent automation is a business-led project. Dont let IT try to own it thats not a formula for success. Would you hire IT to input payroll to general ledger entries or do cash applications? No. This is digital labor.

Its a hyped fad thats going to fade away. No. This is very, very real, Coulter said, solemnly.

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Technology Will Automation Cause Finance Job Losses After All? - CFO Magazine

Potentially Transformative: Skyline-Champion Experimenting With Off-Site Construction And Automation – Seeking Alpha

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Introduction

Skyline-Champion (SKY) is the second-largest manufactured home company in the US (the largest is Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.A) Clayton), so I was surprised to find sparse coverage on SeekingAlpha, with the most recent article published nearly two years ago in January 2018.

Since then, Skyline merged with Champion to form Skyline-Champion and a chronic labor shortage in the construction industry is beginning to create longterm favorable tailwinds for off-site construction companies such as Skyline. As I build out an investment thesis for playing the growing housing and labor shortage, it seems appropriate to initiate coverage of the newly-minted Skyline-Champion on SeekingAlpha.

Skyline-Champion was formed by the merger between Skyline and Champion in June 2018 to create the second-largest US manufactured home company with 17% share of the market, according to the most recent investor deck (see slide pasted below). For reference, the largest is Clayton Homes with 47% (owned by Berkshire Hathaway), and the third is Cavco (CVCO) with 13%.

Slide from 20Q2 Investor Presentation

Skyline's business is organized into three reporting segments: "manufacturing and retail", "commercial", and "transportation". The manufacturing and retail segment is by far the largest, representing 93% of revenue. Manufacturing and retail is primarily HUD code manufactured homes. Transportation (i.e. shipping / logistics of manufactured homes) makes up 6%, and commercial (i.e. multi-tenant wood frame buildings such as hotels) makes up the remaining 1%. The product mix can be seen visually in the slide below taken from Skyline's most recent investor presentation. The mix of products cover a range of price points, but in general are well below the median US new-build price of $101/sqft. This positions Skyline to grow with the increasing unmet demand for more affordable housing.

Reporting Segments from FY19 10K

Slide from 20Q2 Investor Presentation

A snapshot of Skyline Champion's earnings breakdown (quarterly revenue, gross profit, EBITDA, Net Income, and FCF) is shown below to provide a quick visualization of growth and margins. For the most recent quarter, Skyline brought in $354M revenue and $31.4M EBITDA, corresponding to an EBITDA margin of 8.85%. Free cash flow was $20.5M. The balance sheet overall looks healthy with a 0.099 debt to equity ratio and $139M in working capital. Looking forward, analysts are estimating $1.54 EPS for FY2021 and $1.31 for FY2020, which represents 26% and 18% year over year growth respectively. This growth is expected to be driven partly by top line growth and partly through margin expansion. On the most recent conference call, CEO Mark Yost estimated that EBITDA margins can grow to 10% over the next 18 months.

Data by YChartsData by YCharts

Earnings Breakdown and Balance Sheet Breakdown.

The stock price is currently $31.45 following a tremendous 114% rally year-to-date. This gives a P/E ratio of 24 based on FY2020 earnings and 20 based on FY2021 earnings. These valuations are very high, especially considering that the manufactured home market is only expected to grow at a 6% CAGR over the next year and much of the earnings growth will be due to margin expansion resulting from cost synergies.

Despite the high valuation, there are some growth opportunities that could represent a substantial upside to current earnings estimates. These growth opportunities stem from the fact that an ongoing labor shortage in the construction industry is constraining the housing supply and driving up home prices. This creates a significant opportunity for Skyline Champion to leverage its existing national network of factories and distribution to meet some of this unmet demand. Factory-built housing is more insulated from the effects of national labor shortages because the factories are typically located in communities with ample labor, whereas on-site construction is at the mercy of the local labor dynamics near the job-site location. For example, factory labor in a rural setting costs $15-$20/hr vs. potential $50-$100/hr in more urban settings.

Light commercial (3-5 story apartment buildings or hotels) developers are beginning to adopt modular construction, which is an early proof point that the traditional industry is ready to transition toward factory-built buildings. The benefits for commercial construction are the aforementioned cost savings on labor but also shorter construction times which reduces carrying costs associated with the land / job-site and accelerates property revenue. Skyline-Champion has a small commercial segment (1% of revenue) that focuses on this type of construction. Most famously, Marriott has been strategically pushing the use of modular construction for its hotels with Skyline-Champion one of their preferred vendors. Despite the potential to scale this commercial business, Skyline-Champion has not put a lot of emphasis on this segment during recent conference calls, suggesting that this will not be a strategic growth area for the company.

It appears that Skyline-Champion is more focused on expanding into the single family home market, as it is starting to target builder-developers as a customer segment. This strategic effort is being conducted in earnest through Skyline's Genesis brand line of products scheduled to launch in early 2020. This product line is intended to be an off-site construction solution for builder-developers looking to target the gap between traditional site-built single family homes and traditional HUD homes. Single family home starts are approximately 10x higher vs. manufactured homes, creating a potentially huge new market for Skyline-Champion. If Skyline-Champion captured just 1% of the single family market (which is roughly equivalent to 10% of the manufactured home market), that would grow Skyline-Champion's top line by almost 60% (Skyline-Champion currently has 17% share of the manufactured home market). Single family homes also sell for a higher price per square foot creating further upside.

Finally, Skyline-Champion is experimenting with automation, which if successful could increase factory capacity and margins. This could also help insulate Skyline-Champion from the effects of the industry labor shortage by directly reducing Skyline's reliance on manual labor and also expanding the potential labor pool by reducing the physical strength required to work in the factory. It is hard to quantify the potential impact of automation as the technology is relatively new in the context of construction, especially for US manufactured homes. To this end, Skyline has deployed automation only at a single factory: it's new Leesville factory. From the most recent conference call, management views the deployment of automation at Leesville as an experiment, presumably which if successful would then be scaled to more of Skyline's legacy factories. Investors have relatively little data by which to judge this experiment other than recent conference call comments from Mark Yost saying that the "learning's gone phenomenally well" and that the "takeaways from that had been monumental and [Mark is] very impressed".

Skyline-Champion's stock is currently quite expensive based on earnings estimates (P/E of 24 based on FY2020, P/E of 20 based on FY2021) especially given that the manufactured home industry is only anticipated to grow at 6% year over year. This high valuation likely indicates that investors believe that some of Skyline's growth experiments will pay off--most notably entering the single family home market through its new Genesis product line aimed at single family home builder-developers. Other experiments that could result in new growth are Skyline's experimentation with automation and Skyline's experience with commercial modular construction. Ultimately as many of these experiments are in early stages I would recommend a wait and see approach, closely monitoring Skyline-Champion for positive developments on any of the above growth experiments.

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

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Potentially Transformative: Skyline-Champion Experimenting With Off-Site Construction And Automation - Seeking Alpha