Monthly Archives: May 2020

Microsoft Corp. is in talks to buy Softomotive Ltd., a UK-based startup that makes software robots to automate tasks, according to people familiar with the matter.

If talks are successful, a deal could be announced as soon as the coming weeks, said the people, asking not to be identified because the matter isnt public. No final decision has been made and talks could still fall apart, they said.

The terms of the deal being discussed couldnt immediately be learned. Softomotive raised $25 million in 2018 from London-based investment firm Grafton Capital.

Representatives for Microsoft and Softomotive declined to comment.

Softomotive specializes in robot process automation technology, or software that helps companies save time and money by automating repetitive, manual tasks such as entering data into spreadsheets. The companys products are used in the health-care, banking, insurance and telecommunications industries, according to its website.

It competes with startups such as Automation Anywhere Inc. and UiPath, which was most recently valued at $7 billion and has been eyeing an initial public offering, Bloomberg News previously reported.

ALSOREAD:Facebook to pick up 10% stake in Mukesh Ambanis Jio: What the deal means

Microsoft, one of the largest software companies in the world, posted better-than-expected quarterly results Wednesday, as increased remote work accelerated demand for its cloud-computing products. It said in November that it had added robotic process automation to its workflow product and has signed up customers.

Softomotive was founded in 2005 in Greece and moved its headquarters to London in 2015. Its website states that its a gold partner to Microsoft.

The former chief executive officer of UK-software firm Sage Group Plc, Guy Berruyer, was appointed chairman of the board last year.

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Microsoft in talks to acquire Softomotive, a robot process automation firm - Hindustan Times

The coronavirus pandemic has imposed several significant changes to organizations information-technology teams, such as increasing capacity and accommodating remote workers. Automation has been a means for these teams, already stretched to the limit, to meet these unprecedented demands.

With the help of the exponentially growing community of contributors and the countless playbooks available, theRed Hat Ansible Automation Platform seeks to guide companies toward automation to navigate this turbulence.

For folks that are in a traditional IT department just trying to get along day to day right now its Im just glad that I continueto have this Ansible thing. Theyre using Ansible Tower, said Robyn Bergeron (pictured), principal community architect, Ansible, at Red Hat Inc. They are glad that they can still manageto figure out how to collaborate with their coworkersin that type of environment.

Bergeron spoke with Stu Miniman, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Medias mobile livestreaming studio, during the Red Hat Summit Virtual Experience. They discussed the need for automation in times of crisis and how Ansible is dividing its repository into collections. (* Disclosure below.)

In addition to creating a simple automation language to help organizations get started, Ansible provides ways for IT teams to solve doubts and problems that may arise in this journey, according to Bergeron.

We have folks on [Internet Relay Chat], we have folks on Stack Overflow, there are folks literally everywhere, she said. You can ask a question on Twitter, and it is a pretty large, friendly, global communityof people who have plenty of answers.

Thanks to a large number of contributors currently around 5,900 from all over the world Ansible has a huge information repository, which grows every day. To facilitate access and management of this data, the repository will be divided, Bergeron explained.

That stuff is actually getting split out into Ansible Collections that well have or repository thats actually more managed by the community, which will empower them to be able to make more decisions for us to be able to get things done more rapidly, Bergeron said.

Ansibles Collections will be pre-composed modules and roles around specific topic areas to bring flexibility and to save time and work. We have got a handful of contributors who are adding new modules into this new repo, but they are also helping us work out all the kinks in the contributor process and how it works that way, Bergeron concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLEs and theCUBEs coverage of the Red Hat Summit Virtual Experience. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Red Hat Summit Virtual Experience. Neither Red Hat Inc., the sponsor for theCUBEs event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

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Automation enables IT teams to face unprecedented demands - SiliconANGLE

Jeff Miller, director of project management, Interstates

Todays workforce has just experienced a transformational shift. Though many people were working remotely before COVID-19, there were still many jobs and situations where it was thought to not be an option. COVID-19 crushed that notion and forced us to find a way to make remote work viable. But to make it worktechnically or even logisticallyis much easier than finding a way to make it work within company culture.

The following article was something that I started writing before COVID-19 was a reality, yet much of it still rings true and can be applied to anyone who now finds themselves experiencing or leading in a remote environment.

The longer Im in the workforce, the more I see the importance of building culture in our organizations. In the words of Tamien Dysart and Vaney Hariri of Think 3D, a corporate culture consulting firm, A culture will emerge whether intended or not, but if its not one you invest in, it will certainly be one that you pay for. This is so true and important to remember as your company grows and changes. Interstates has been investing in building a high-performance, high-trust culture for as long as I have been a part of the company, and this culture is what drew me to come to work for them over 20 years ago.

A few months ago, we brought in Think 3D consultants to help us focus on ensuring that all our office locations have the same culture. We have found that many of our remote locations tend to take on a variation of our corporate culture. We expect, and welcome, some of these variances among our offices, as subcultures emerge to give employees in each a collective to identify with. But the key with having office subcultures is to ensure they still align with your organizational culture core identity (i.e., your values, your vision, your why for existing).

Maintaining a corporate culture is difficult even when you are with all your people every day, but it certainly seems even harder when you are separated from them by miles. It pays great dividends to really invest in setting, maintaining, and living out the valued tenets of your culture every day.

Jeff Miller is a director of project management at Interstates, a certified member of the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA). For more information about Interstates, visit its profile on the Industrial Automation Exchange.

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The Importance of Building Corporate Culture - Automation World

Thrio is alone among CCaaS solutions providers because it has created a novel, no-code solution framework, NPA, that recognizes different triggers from either agents or customers. - Dan Miller, Lead Analyst of Opus Research

CALABASAS, Calif. (PRWEB) May 04, 2020

Thrio, Inc. announced the general availability today of Thrio Native Process Automation. Thrio Native Process Automation enables complex, customizable, multi-step omnichannel interactions to occur with a few clicks or even fully independent of agents/end users. Thrio NPA enables enterprises to automate, accelerate, and elevate enterprise communications with clicks, not code. With a near infinite array of potential configurations of the NPA systems, Thrio Native Process Automation offers tremendous flexibility and unmatched simplicity in advancing enterprise communications.

Thrio NPA has attracted attention from noted industry analyst Dan Miller, Lead Analyst and founder of Opus Research. Thrio is alone among CCaaS solutions providers because it has created a novel, no-code solution framework, NPA, that recognizes different triggers from either agents or customers, Miller explains. Responding with consistent, correct answers at scale makes agents more productive, while improving customer experience.

Thrio NPA enables enterprises to get more done, faster and easier than ever, said Lance Fried, CMO. We are thrilled to enhance our award winning CCaaS platform with such forward looking capabilities, continued Fried. Thrios CCaaS platform drives efficiencies across the enterprise. From leading native process automation capabilities that can be combined into a vast array of unique workflows to record-fast deployments, Thrio customers love having an all-in-one contact center infrastructure that meets them -- and their customers -- wherever they are across the globe.

Customers can deploy Thrios NPA systems as part of a deployment of Thrios CCaaS platform.

About Thrio, Inc.Thrios team consists of leading contact center experts who develop and market modern, cutting edge technology and reliability that aims to redefine contact center industry standards. Thrios groundbreaking CCaaS platform features leading native process automation capabilities, inbound and outbound voice engines, a complete suite of digital channels (email, chat, SMS, social), and a range of AI tools built right in. To learn more, please visit http://www.thrio.com.

Thrio Contact:Lance FriedChief Marketing Officer858-248-0098Lance.Fried@Thrio.com

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Thrio Announces General Availability of Thrio Native Process Automation - PR Web

Products For Industry (PFi) is a Queensland-based engineering company that offers services from machine and component design through to complete factory builds, including bespoke turnkey automation and process solutions.

With over 150 tradesmen and engineers, the company has grown to be one of Australias leading service providers in the food Industry.

Managing Director Gavin Dunwoodie commented: Growth over the last five years can be attributed to the growing strength and innovation of Australian Food Industry and the pressing need for higher quality in design and service life.

Management from our key customer base has decided that importing low-cost machinery that consistently requires maintenance and improvement, have cost considerably more in the medium to long term, than sourcing locally designed and manufactured machinery, with local support and aftersales service.

PFi has invested heavily in software packages such as Emulate 3D, to accurately simulate the process and flow within each function of a machine, material handling project or automation project.

This investment in the front end of the project gives our client the comfort that our proposals will actually work, Dunwoodie commented.

Too often we are called in to assist with changes to existing projects to ensure they meet the specifications they were originally promised.We are happy to assist any client but it makes far more sense to engineer the project correctly at the beginning than fix it at the end, said Dunwoodie.

PFi has completed numerous turnkey robotic packaging projects throughout Australia and with the low Australian Dollar, opportunities will begin to present in the coming months. Automation is the key to margin and volume output, with less down time and reduced maintenance costs of capital equipment and infrastructure.

To view this video, click here.

For more information, visit https://www.pfi.com.au/food

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Bespoke turnkey automation for the food industry - Foodprocessing

HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo., May 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Field Squared, Inc.TM, the industry's first Field Service Automation Platform, announced today that Health Testing Solutions has selected Field Squared to drive digital transformation of the company's mobile occupational medical services operations.

"We evaluated other software providers. No competing solution could automate our onsite medical service delivery with the breadth and depth of capabilities as Field Squared," said Darren Sanders, CEO at Health Testing Solutions. "We're growing and we're excited that Field Squared will grow with us. With Field Squared, we're future-proofed."

Servicing many Fortune 500 companies, Health Testing Solutions is a fast-growing mobile occupational medicine services provider that specializes in occupational medical surveillance screening. From audiometric exams, pulmonary function tests and drug/alcohol screening to employee physical exams, Health Testing Solutions required software that was as mobile as their operations.

Field Squared was chosen to enable Health Testing Solutions with the capabilities to improve its customer experience as well as to provide field technicians with an intuitive mobile app to conduct visits more efficiency, thereby improving the employee experience.

Health Testing Solutions will utilize Field Squared's scheduling and dispatching, work order management, real-time notifications, and mobile forms. To increase field efficiency and reduce field data entry errors, mobile health care forms will be pre-populated with customer details.

"Health Testing Solutions is a great example of an innovative company. They understand the need for digital processes in the still heavily paper world of health care," said Christopher James Camut, Director, President and CEO at Field Squared. "We are pleased to welcome them into the Field Squared family of customers."

About Field SquaredField Squared is the industry's first unified Field Service Automation Platform. As a cloud-based SaaS solution, Field Squared is flexible, scalable and purpose-built to optimize the efficiency of the mobile workforce in the field. Focusing on business process automation, Field Squared enables enterprises to digitally transform, automate and streamline their field service operations, from the frontline to back-office systems. Learn more at http://www.fieldsquared.com/company.

Media Contact:Tiffany AastedVice President of Marketing at Field Squaredpr@fieldsquared.com720-845-6683

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Field Squared Selected by Health Testing Solutions to Automate Its Mobile Occupational Medical Services Operations - The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel

The coronavirus pandemic has upturned businesses worldwide (Reuters ) 2 min read . Updated: 05 May 2020, 08:09 AM ISTStaff Writer

We are entering an era of the Big Reboot, a rare, once-in-a-lifetime moment that will change everything forever. Businesses will not be the same. The way of doing business will change, as will key markets and customers. Mints Pivot or Perish campaign focuses on how companies are responding to a new normal across key sectors.

In our second interview in the Pivot or Perish series, wherein top companies share their vision for mapping the future after the coronavirus outbreak, S.S. Kim, managing director, Hyundai Motors India Ltd, the countrys second-largest carmaker, shared how digital will play a critical role in sales operations of automobile companies. Usage of vehicles will also change drastically towards greener solutions, Kim said. (Read full interview here)

Post-coronavirus outbreak, digital will play a critical role in sales operations of automobile companies. Usage of vehicles will also change drastically towards greener solutions. The manufacturing process and supply chain will evolve differently in the near term, as companies focus on reducing dependencies, said Hyundai Motors India MD S.S. Kim. (Read full interview here)

Survival calls for adaptation. This sounds Darwinian, but the fittest" businesses that survive the impact of covid-19 will have no time for trial and error down the generationsor cycles of production, in this case. It would require transformations made at warp speed, based on forecasts that look uncertain and driven by decisions that would test every leaders mettle. (Read Mint Views)

"The electric vehicle (EV) plan can have some delay for some months for sure as it is more of an investment for the future. That said, we want to maintain our strategy because I think that it is a good opportunity for the three-wheeler business in the next 3-5 years is going to come from last mile transportation and electrification. We do not want to miss that opportunity," says CEO Diego Graffi.

The Nikkei Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, compiled by IHS Markit, plunged to 27.4 last month from March's 51.8, by far its lowest since the survey began in March 2005 and its first time below the 50-mark separating growth from contraction in nearly three years. (Read here)

Diego Graffi speaks about the tough calls the company may have to take as uncertainty looms on resuming operations. 'The situation has become more complicated under the third phase of lockdown. We have received the permission to resume operations at our manufacturing plants in Baramati, but the problem is that our suppliers located in the Pune region cannot resume production," he says. Read full interview here

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Pivot Or Perish - We are on the cusp of a new automation era - Livemint

ANZ today announced the appointment of Emma Gray to the Group Executive Committee in a newly-created role as Group Executive Data and Automation.

Prior to joining ANZ in 2016, Mrs Gray spent three years at Woolworths where she most recently served as Chief Loyalty and Data Officer, reporting to the CEO. Before that she was a partner at Bain & Company, having worked across the United States, Europe and Australia for 15 years.

In her expanded role, Mrs Gray will continue to lead the transformation of the strategic use of data, as well as creating new customer insights and driving automation to ultimately improve customer experience.

Commenting on the appointment, ANZ Chief Executive Officer Shayne Elliott said: The effective use of data, insights and automation will be a key in preparing the bank for the future, particularly as we respond to the challenges presented by COVID-19.

Emma is an experienced international executive with significant experience in data and customer insights and the creation of this new group executive role recognises the critical role of data, insights and automation has in the continued digital transformation of ANZ, Mr Elliott said.

The appointment is effective 1 May 2020 and reports to Maile Carnegie, Group Executive Digital and Australia Transformation.

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ANZ chief data officer Emma Gray promoted to group executive, data and automation - Finextra

Market Expertz have recently published a new report on the global IT Process Automation Tool market. The study provides profound insights into updated market events and market trends. This, in turn, helps one in better comprehending the market factors, and strongly they influence the market. Also, the sections related to regions, players, dynamics, and strategies are segmented and sub-segmented to simplify the actual conditions of the industry.

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Leading IT Process Automation Tool manufacturers/companies operating at both regional and global levels:

OptessaBroadcomSMA TechnologiesMicrosoftAutomationEdgeMicro FocusBMCVmwareResolve SystemsServiceNowAdvanced Systems ConceptsAyehuCortexPMG

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To summarize, the global IT Process Automation Tool market report studies the contemporary market to forecast the growth prospects, challenges, opportunities, risks, threats, and the trends observed in the market that can either propel or curtail the growth rate of the industry. The market factors impacting the global sector also include provincial trade policies, international trade disputes, entry barriers, and other regulatory restrictions.

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IT Process Automation Tool Market 2020 | In-Depth Study On The Current State Of The Industry And Key Insights Of The Business Scenario By 2027 Cole...

One of the challenges facing the public sector during this global pandemic is the issue of whether NHS staff that have developed coronavirus symptoms should stay at home. There is still significant confusion around official self-isolation guidelines and the services capacity to cope with patient demand is already being pushed to its limits across the country. It is therefore crucial that NHS trusts deploy whatever tools they have at their disposal to limit unnecessary self-isolation and maximise resources. This, in turn, will result in improved doctor performance and increase the number of positive patient outcomes.

With fast-changing government and NHS advice often resulting in misinterpretation, large numbers of NHS workers are (albeit with the best intentions) needlessly staying at home. Aside from lower capacity for treatment across the nation, hospitals HR departments are experiencing added confusion when it comes to managing the workforce, assigning shift work and predicting their ability to cope with the huge volume of cases the NHS faces.

One way in which these issues can be addressed is through the use of intelligent automation technology. This is because it can often be quickly designed, developed, and implemented to effectively and seamlessly support human workforces, dramatically cutting the time and resources required to carry out mission-critical tasks.

We have witnessed these benefits first-hand after launching an online tool for the NHS which provides personalised, contextual advice on self-isolation to staff showing COVID-19 symptoms. The tool, which takes into account staff members unique circumstances (and those of others in their households), can be tailored to individual trusts and adapted on-the-go, in line with their requirements.

The portal combines both government and NHS advice, giving straightforward, safe and accurate recommendations to the services vital, frontline healthcare professionals. Additionally, the system automatically notifies line managers of workers using the tool of their upcoming absence or lack thereof. Staff are directed to a printable PDF, which is linked directly to the departments online database and should be handed to HR departments.

The results of the tools rollout so far have been extremely promising. While we were hearing of occupational health teams receiving several hundreds of calls a day (focused on staff and rota management and allocation), these plummeted within two weeks of the tool being deployed by the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals Foundation Trust (NNUH). This not only significantly freed up time for these healthcare workers, it also allowed them to focus other resources on more pressing concerns.

Looking to the future, a key benefit of this technology will be its flexibility: its ability to be rapidly set up and amended in line with dynamic, complex requirements is vital its being regularly updated to reflect newly-discovered secondary symptoms of COVID-19. In addition, were in early development of a second tool that will perform a comprehensive evaluation of various factors to determine in which frontline zones specific members of staff may operate.

Of course, this is just one case study of how automation technology can be used to streamline and alleviate pressure on public services and organisations. However, I believe it is emblematic of how the digital revolution currently spreading across all sectors, can make a tangible difference to peoples lives, when implemented responsibly and carefully.

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Intelligent automation technology can relieve strain on the NHS - Open Access Government