Monthly Archives: June 2022

Automation, as a subject for OODA Loop research and analysis, cuts a broad swath across many industry verticals. As we attempt to further scope our coverage, specific areas of interest have emerged that we thought would be of interest to the OODA Loop membership:

Security Automation: Specifically, using automation for repetitive and time-consuming tasks for external cyber threats and internal information technology security. What are the safety and risk variables of this type of IT-based automation?

Automation and the Workforce: How is this implemented and what are the objectives: Efficiencies? Collaboration? Scalability? Cost-cutting? Innovation in operations? Does this type of automation always map back to a reduction in the workforce?

Automation or Augmentation of the workforce: The perennial debate surrounding robotics automation of the workforce is will jobs be 100% automated (with large-scale job elimination and job loss)? Or will there always be a need for a human factor in certain industry verticals, translating into machine augmentation of certain tasks and operations, which a human operator integrated into the robotics design?

Autonomous Vehicles as Automation:This one is a bit tricky: but think of an autonomous fleet of trucking vehicles, for example, as one automated system in a larger production and distribution ecosystem or supply chain. Where is the innovation at this economy of scale? How do the business issues differ, if at all, at this scale of operations?

Automation of AI/Machine Learning Training Models: Can and should machine learning models retrain automatically? Should there be a human touchpoint integrated into this retraining process, to guard against biases becoming embedded into an AI system and/or the risk of AI Accidents when retraining is left unsupervised prematurely?

Automation Case Studies: Where are the best-in-class examples of automation, in the federal space and the private sector, worth researching and analyzing for strategic insights?

Industry Standardization: Like TCP/IP (or any of the IEEE ISO standards) what are the emergent industry standards which will allow for seamless interoperability and widespread commercial scalability? Are some commercial releases operating in a closed garden architecture? If so, is there a clear competitive advantage to such an approach?

Please reach out to us if there are any industry sectors, government agencies, robotics sub-disciplines, or robotics subsectors you would like us to explore in our research and analysis.

OODA members can contact us by replying to any of our emails or using this form.

We now turn to a recent SWJ article on a significant increase in robot sales in 2021, which continues in earnest in 2022.

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The Future of Automation and The Recent Industrial Robot Sales Surge - OODA Loop

Companies looking to integrate fast and scalable development, security and operational philosophies into their DevSecOps strategy shouldn't ignore automation, or they'll miss out on one of the greatest benefits the practice has to offer.

Here are eight reasons why DevSecOps automation should be a critical part of an enterprise's overall framework.

DevSecOps is a management lifecycle approach that combines application planning, delivery and monitoring approaches under a single framework. Part of the allure of DevSecOps is it can speed up many steps in the software development lifecycle (SDLC) and ensure continuous code integrations and updates are handled at the ever-increasing speed of business.

An automation framework can be constructed and executed during the deployment phase of the SDLC process. Applications can be placed into a framework where security functions are added, tested and automatically pushed into production. DevSecOps tools can also automatically monitor newly launched applications and can trigger a rollback to a previous version if an application-breaking bug is detected.

As with most technology automation practices, low-level, remedial tasks can be automated and eliminated throughout the SDLC. This includes the implementation and monitoring of security features within applications, as well as the monitoring of apps from a cybersecurity perspective.

When speed is critical to software development, it often comes at the cost of code accuracy. It's important to implement automated code verification checks into DevSecOps frameworks. These checks can identify errors and potentially point to remediation steps that won't slow down software updates and deployment schedules.

A detailed DevSecOps framework should include processes that automatically integrate security functions across all software builds in a uniform manner. This highly structured approach creates a consistent security foundation where security is built in the same way every time an application moves through the continuous integration/continuous delivery lifecycle process.

Mature DevSecOps automation involves providing developers with self-service security tools that remediate identified vulnerabilities without the need to directly interact with IT security staff. Self-service tools can be ingrained into the DevSecOps process during the following:

Self-service tools within DevSecOps not only empower developers to take control of security without human bottlenecks, but also encourage cross-team skill development.

Advanced DevSecOps frameworks take advantage of AI and machine learning techniques to streamline, simplify and speed up complex DevSecOps tasks. Two examples are the following:

Once DevSecOps tools and processes are developed and tuned, it makes little sense to manually replicate them when more compute resources are required or when entire frameworks need to be replicated and placed in other physical locations. Scaling these systems and processes upward or downward at a moment's notice can be fully automated and kicked off with just a few clicks thanks to automated DevSecOps. A recent case study from Comcast showed 85% fewer security incidents with DevSecOps in place.

Adhering to business and industry policies and government compliance mandates is important for most business verticals. Auditing and reporting functions must, therefore, identify relevant information, ensure accuracy and display data in an understandable and consistent manner.

For many security teams, auditing and reporting can be arduous tasks. They can be rife with complications due to lack of visibility, constantly changing data collection sources, and manually configured and operated tools that deliver varying results.

Automated auditing and compliance tools take a holistic approach to this process using a DevSecOps framework. Tools use AI and machine learning to intelligently learn a software's underlying infrastructure architecture and perform auditing scans on VMs or containers to verify if they have the proper security controls in place. The same tool set can also move up the stack to identify software-specific security controls, such as authentication, authorization and accounting, that may or may not meet acceptable compliance levels.

One additional benefit that can result from proper DevSecOps automation is inherent cost savings. Gains can be found in several areas, including the speed at which software can be delivered, the lower likelihood of a catastrophic cybersecurity incident and the reduction in the number of operations staff required to thoroughly execute a secure SDLC process.

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8 benefits of DevSecOps automation - TechTarget

WordLift SEO Tool for Google Sheets is a cost-effective and beginner-friendly SEO tool that quickly identifies opportunities to improve the way you create content.

One of the most important elements of any digital marketing strategy is to find ways to generate traffic to your landing pages. While there are many techniques, one of the most budget-friendly is search engine optimization because it ideally leverages Googles algorithm to make your site the first rank for search terms.

Even if you dont know the first thing about SEO, there are no shortage of SEO tools available. However, not all SEO tools are cost-effective, and many require some technical expertise. If youre looking for a beginner- and budget-friendly solution, consider WordLift SEO Tool for Google Sheets.

WordLift has earned 4.8 stars on both Capterra and GetApp because it helps you build a knowledge graph to overhaul your SEO strategy in just a matter of minutes. All you have to do is input your websites URL, and WordLift automatically analyzes your search engine result pages, identifying the most relevant entries, and builds a Knowledge Graph from scratch to help you identify your best opportunities for ranking highly across a variety of terms.

Making it work is simple. Set the WordLift key and connect the domain to the Google Search console, and youll have performance data in just a moment. From there, you can import entities to your site to mark up content to improve your SEO and overhaul the way youre creating content. This SEO tool works on any website and leverages automation to make everything as simple as possible.

With a Premium subscription to WordLift SEO Tool for Google Sheets, youll have support for up to three domains. Get it for life for just $49 today.

Prices and availability are subject to change.

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Overhaul your SEO with this automation tool - TechRepublic

Arizona is a hotspot for new technology in self-driving vehicles. A new study from the Grand Canyon Institute said that could put over half of transportation sector jobs in the state at risk.

It also said the state can soften that blow by providing more training for workers in that sector.

Max Goshert co-authored the study, and he said that in the short-term, more automation could help companies that have struggled to hire get more done. But itll eventually put people who rely on these jobs out of work.

"When automation starts to become more and more available to these companies, these people that previously relied on these jobs are not going to be able to rely on these jobs anymore," he said.

Most people in these roles dont have a college degree. Goshert said adding more training programs that would help them work with automated vehicles would help them transition.

"One example is Pima Community College District has this really great partnership with TuSimple. They develop this new certificate program, which trains truck drivers to operate in autonomous trucks," Goshert said.

He recommends more community colleges develop similar programs and that the Arizona Commerce Authoritys Institute of Automated Mobility expand its mission to address the needs of workers.

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Automation could leave many Arizonans out of work, study warns - AZPM - AZPM

The Six Five Summit 2022 has just ended, and day two of the global virtual tech event brought some innovative automotive companies to speak about the future of the trucking industry in the field of automation. There are ongoing projects to build electric roads that will charge the EVs on the go or at rest. Many other creative ideas and actions were discussed at the event.

An interesting discussion with the founder and CEO of Plus, David Liu, sheds light on the future of the autonomous trucking industry and the concerns regarding the implementation of the technology. At the event, Liu said that the company works in close association with the trucker community to understand how the present technology can be used to fully automate the trucking industry.

Its [trucking is] a trillion-dollar industry, and its really exciting to be able to be part of the technology solution to help bring to market the technology that will help transform the industry, said Liu.

Suppose the technology has to be implemented in the near future. In that case, as Liu said, it is important to work closely with truckers and think about facilitating them rather than taking them away from them. Addressing the safety concerns associated with this technology, Liu said, Now, what we do very differently is we look at a commercialization approach that would be able to focus on safety that is critical to autonomous driving technology to help fleets address their pain points today. The companys commercial product is called Plus Drive, which allows drivers to choose between various modes to control the automation as per their needs.

A study from the University of Michigan, published in March, opens up more debatable questions in the deployment of fully automating a truck. The study found that automation could lead to the elimination of thousands of jobs. However, these jobs were also found to be unsatisfactory and underpaid. Another finding of the study is that because of automation, there are chances that people could lose operational hours and get paid less. The study also found that trucking automation could add more short-haul jobs to the market. But the short-haul jobs pay less than the long-haul jobs.

A recent McKinsey report that studied autonomous trucks or ATs put forward a few concerns and insights into their deployment. The primary concern is the cut on the operational hours, a subject that is still under study. Another insight is that a surge of ATs could lead to the consolidation of the now fragmented fleets in the AT market. A key insight is that if this technology is implemented, it will be highly profitable to the OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer).

Plus works with both fleets and OEMs and is well aware of the impact that the autonomous trucking industry will have on the transportation market. While working with the OEMs or the truck manufacturers, the association happens at the fundamental level of the design and the companys vision. With OEMs, the company is looking to be able to install this technology at a factory and deploy it scalably, said Liu. While working with the fleets, the integration happens at the operational level. For the fleets, the company works on a post-factory installation level.

Largescale automation of the trucking industry could take some time before becoming a reality due to the wide level of societal and governmental acceptance that it would need. Liu takes those challenges on board and believes that the company is in a good place. You know, the ultimate use of technology is to help people, to help our customers achieve a safer mode to deliver more sustainable transportation solutions to society. So as long as were doing that, applying the technology to do that, I think were, were in a good place, said Liu.

Although the technology is the same, the use cases differ across the spectrum of driverless technology applications. Pluss main focus is on heavy vehicles for fleets and OEMs rather than passenger vehicles. They see a huge potential in the trucking market, and 90 percent of the cases they study are trucks on highways. Highways provide a great environment for the company to study the implementation of their technology. Versus if you look at passenger vehicles, a lot of driving conditions are in the urban scenarios, said Liu.

The Six Five Summit is a free, virtual, on-demand event designed to help you stay on top of the latest developments and trends in digital transformation brought to you by the analyst firms Futurum Research and Moor Insights & Strategy.

YouTube: Delivering Autonomous Trucking Technology Today David Liu

Photo credit: The photos shown are owned by Plus and were provided as part of press releases. The infographic has been done by Statista.

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The Future of Trucking Is Automation TechAcute - TechAcute

Press release

World-leading collaborative robot manufacturerDOBOThas unveiled a core Indian distribution partner Jendamark

In 2014, Jendamark Automation entered the Indian market and offered the Indian customers a unique mix of world-class engineering, following Jendamarks motto Passionate about technology, focused on people.

Since then, Jendamark India has delivered turnkey solutions to optimize manufacturing. The company has pioneered Industry 4.0 by implementing AR, VR and software solutions and developed the ODIN Eco System platform.

Jendamark makes automation more human-centric, developing applications where humans, automation, and software work in sync to enhance human potential and increase production efficiency.

DOBOTintegrates AI-powered lightweight cobots and a proprietary software suite, helping industrial clients navigate rising wages, lack of qualified laborers, and other bottlenecks preventing companies from scaling.

By replacing traditional manufacturing with advanced human-machine collaboration, DOBOT meets production demands and plays a critical role in elevating manufacturing.

Jendamark and DOBOT have another common DNA strand of spreading education to the masses using technology. Jendamarks ODIN Education platform complements the DOBOTs approach to spreading robotics awareness in teaching.

On 7th June 2022, the Jendamark India factory organized a grand launch event to announce Jendamark as a Core Distributor of the entire DOBOT range in India.

The event was presided over by Mr. Quinton Uren (MD, Jendamark Group), Mr.Himanshu Jadhav (CEO of Jendamark India) and Mr. Sanjeev Kulkarni (CEO of Kalyani Powertrains), the evenings chief guest. Several vital customers and premium partners of Jendamark visited the event.

Jendamark displayed diverse applications using DOBOT robots, where the guests felt the DOBOT robots performing tasks, including cutting a cake, followed by a selfie clicking DOBOT and EV cell sorting application.

To strengthen the ongoing association with MIT WPU and DY Patil Education University, Quinton Uren Quinton gifted 2 DOBOT Magician robots to two universities.

After unveiling the new cobot DOBOT CR5, the CR5 waved to the audience, cut the cake itself, and offered it to all the dignitaries on the stage!

About DOBOT

Founded in 2015, DOBOT is a world-leading intelligent robotic arm provider for manufacturing, higher education, etc. DOBOT values innovations with over 686 patents. Today, DOBOTs products are exported to more than 100 countries with a cumulative shipment of 55,000 units.

About Jendamark India

Pune-based Jendamark India offers innovative solutions from its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. Jendamark has five business verticals, including Powertrain, Aerospace, Catalytic converter assembly lines, Electric Vehicle assembly lines, and Digital services. From bending and cutting metal to developing the latest software codes, Jendamark is a one-stop solution provider for customers.

Website: http://www.jendamark.inJendamark India Gat 736/733, Pune Bangalore Highway, Post Velu, Taluka Bhor, Pune 412205Email: info@jendamark.inTel: +91 77 2202 7005

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Jendamark and DOBOT Shake Hands to Bring the Future of Automation to India - Robotics and Automation News

REE Automotive, a manufacturer of rolling chassis for commercial electronic vehicles, plans to build a highly automated assembly plant in the UK to supply customers in Europe. The Israeli-based startup said the manufacturing facility will be completed this year in partnership with Rockwell Automation (NYSE: ROK) and Expert Technologies, which will provide robotics and automated assembly.

Rockwell Automation Technologies To Power New EV Plant in UK

REE will make use of technologies from Plex, a Rockwell Automation company, to underpin its cloud-based manufacturing operations for its highly digitalized EV platform. The Plex Manufacturing Execution System (MES) platform will be rolled out at REE Automotives integration center at Coventry, which will have an initial capacity of 10,000 vehicle sets this year. The North American Integration Center in Austin, Texas, is expected to double global capacity to 20,000 vehicle sets in 2023 by replicating the highly automated cloud-based architecture of its European sibling.

The automotive industry is evolving, said Malte Dieckelmann, regional vice president, software sales, EMEA, Rockwell Automation, and a complete ecosystem is needed to enable and accelerate commercial vehicle electrification. REE is here to lead the industry with a turnkey solution and mission-specific vehicles for greater fleet efficiencies.

Learn more about REE Automotives commercial EV plant.

About Rockwell AutomationRockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE: ROK), is a global leader in industrial automation and digital transformation. We connect the imaginations of people with the potential of technology to expand what is humanly possible, making the world more productive and more sustainable. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Rockwell Automation employs approximately 25,000 problem solvers dedicated to our customers in more than 100 countries. To learn more about how we are bringing the Connected Enterprise to life across industrial enterprises, visit http://www.rockwellautomation.com.

More from Rockwell Automation

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Rockwell Automation Technologies To Power New EV Plant in UK - RealWire

The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) had some encouraging industry growth news to tout at the start of its Automate show in Detroit earlier this week: After a record year in North America for industrial robot orders in 2021, that momentum has carried into the first quarter of 2022.

A3s figures show that North American companies started the year by purchasing the most robots ever in a single quarter, with 11,595 robots sold at a value of $646 million. Thats up by 28% by units and 43% in dollars over the first quarter of 2021, and 7% and 25% respectively over the previous best quarter, Q4 of 2021. Back in February, A3 reported that industrial robot sales in North America had a record year in 2021, up 28% over 2020 and 14% higher than the previous top year in 2017.

A3s figures are for industrial robots, which are mainly those with articulated arms that do tasks like picking and placing goods, as opposed to autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) that have gained a significant foothold in warehousing and materials handling.

In my two days at Automate, that momentum was visible in the solid attendance at the event as well as the number and variety of exhibitors. By variety, I especially mean more AMR vendors with larger booth exhibits, compared to past Automate events. Yes, the biggest exhibit spaces tended to be from major robotic arm providers like Fanuc, Universal, Kuka, and others, but mobile robots were to be found at 20-plus booths, not just a handful. Then there were major, diversified technology providers like ABB, Teradyne, or Zebra Technologies, whove acquired AMR vendors, are Automate exhibitors, and were showcasing AMRs as part of what they offer.

This shift in exhibitor variety at the show is likely tied to the underlying pressures facing companies with production and fulfillment operations. Everyone is dealing with acute labor challenges, tighter cycle-time pressures, and the need to move goods to end customers as quickly as possible once they can secure raw materials or receive finished goods to distribute. As a result, all types of automation and robotics solutions are seeing strong interest. There are more robotic arm solutions being sold, but often as part of integrated solutions which aim to accelerate overall operational speed and efficiency.

Given these larger pressures, many of the vendors I visited with were talking about integration of fixed piece-picking robots with AMRs, as well as integration of robots with other forms of automation like conveyors and automated storage & retrieval systems (ASRSs), and for that matter, with software and devices that support human-centered workflows.

Industry leaders I spoke with say this trend toward converged, integrated solutions is driven by industry needs around speeding up the entire flow of an operation, not just one corner of it.

At Plus One Robotics, which provides vision software for logistics robots, integration was the focus. Their booth demo showcased a robotic arm driven by Plus Ones vision software picking and placing a highly varied mix of parcels onto mobile sortation robots from Tompkins Robotics. The two vendors announced an integration partnership earlier this year that allows Plus Ones software and Tompkins tSort AMRs to work in concert to accelerate fulfillment processes in DCs.

Plus Ones software provides an industrial robotic arm with the perception and eye-hand coordination capability to pick and place objects in DCs which have high package variability, explained Erik Nieves, Plus Ones founder, while the tSort system offers a scalable means of automated sortation. Last fall, Plus One also partnered with Locus Robotics to integrate AI-enabled piece-picking with AMRs from Locus.

Generally, Nieves explained, automation of all types needs to become more integratednot just robots with each other, but robotics with traditional fixed automation like ASRSs or shuttles, as companies seek to accelerate the overall fulfillment process while offsetting the inability to find enough human workers to stick with manual tasks which often exist on the edges of their operations.

Nieves foresees that more and more companies will turn to solutions from robotics partners to extend the benefits of traditional automation like an ASRS, so that you dont have one big zone of automation in the middle of a DC, but then bottlenecks upstream or downstream.

If you make gains by automating in one area, but what exists is downstream remains manual, all you are really doing is moving the bottleneck, said Nieves. That is why fulfillment centers are going to turn to integrated solutions that can expand the benefits of automation out from the center, from something like an ASRS. That is where the value increasingly will come fromin deploying flexible robotics automation out from the middle, so you can have efficiencies not just in one area of your fulfillment center, but from one end of the building to the other.

Another robotics industry executive I got to meet with is Melonee Wise, VP of Robotics Automation at Zebra Technologies. Wise joined Zebra through the 2021 acquisition of Fetch Robotics where she was the CEO. Fetchs AMR solutions continue to be advanced upon as part Zebra, with part of these advancements coming in the form of integration with Zebras solutions for work execution software, mobile devices, scanning, data capture, and label printing.

Our meeting came Tuesday afternoon, shortly after Wise was part of a panel discussion at the events show floor theater, titled, How Robotics and Automation Are Transforming the North American Economy, which also featured other top industry leaders including executives from Fanuc, Teradyne, Nvidia, as well as Greg Brown, VP of the Advanced Technology Group for UPS.

During the panel, Wise observed that traditionally robots have acted as sole agents focused on narrow tasks, and thus historically not adept at operating collaboratively in integrated, multi-agent settings. But that is changing, added Wise, via integration to other types of automation as well as people-centered workflows and data capture devices and technologies like printers.

After the panel, Wise said in an interview that the value of mobile robots will increasingly come from how easily they integrate with other automation and with software and devices, so that user companies can speed the overall fulfillment process and have robots that work well in tandem with people.

When you look at the needs of customers, what they after is an end-to-end solution, Wise said. They dont want just a robot, they want a solution to their problem. And if their problem is how do I get something off the shelf, and packed out, and onto a truck on time, it involves addressing this cascading series of tasks. But if we can create this interconnected world that takes in mobile robots, and mobile devices, and things like printers, and packaging machines, then there is greater value for our customers, because they can optimize across their larger process.

In a brief interview after Tuesdays panel discussion, UPSs Brown said that just in the last few years, advancements in machine vision and AI software have made it possible to do more with industrial robot technology in logistics, because the robots now have AI-enabled intelligence to be able to deal with more package variability. The technology is definitely maturing and getting better and more precise, Brown said. Depending on the application, its going to vary as to how useful it is today, but its definitely getting to the point where is it becoming more useful and allows us to think about ways to incorporate it into our operations and day-to-day practices.

AMR vendor executives say they are enjoying rapid growth, often driven by customers who started out with small proof of concept projects a few years ago, grew them into larger pilots, and have now expanded into production-scale fleets. In a visit to the booth of Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR), a global AMR vendor and a subsidiary of Teradyne, Sren Nielsen, MiRs president, said this progression to larger fleets is fueling MiRs growth.

It is expanding rapidly both with new projects, and also, existing customers who now have much larger fleets, Nielsen said. The pattern we see is that they deployed maybe a few robots as a proof of concept, then expanded that further after 12 to 16 months, and now are increasing the size of their fleets to production scale. We now have customers with 100 to 200 robots in their fleets, and one customer with 86 robots in a single facility. And, at the same time, they are after better and better utilization of the robots.

As AMRs get more widely deployed, Nielsen said that users want to achieve very high utilization of AMRs and want to do away with any incidents where an AMR needs manual intervention. Typically, he adds, its a matter of fine-tuning aspects like wireless network performance, or the setup of docking points, or analyzing traffic management patterns in fleet software, to bring the percentage of missions with no interventions to a high level. AMRs are not toys anymore, they are becoming part of production environments, which is why we see this focus on utilization, he says. This is what we seelarger fleets, and higher interest in utilization.

MiR is known for larger format AMRs, and while it is expanding its product line, there are so many AMR types and potential use cases, says Nielsen, such as cleaning robots, inventory scanning robots, and assistive-pick AMRs, that it is inevitable customers will have AMRs from multiple vendors, with a resulting need for a layer of interfleet management software. He said that MIR isnt developing this capability itself, adding that some of its customers are looking at using software from Amazon Web Services (AWS) called RoboRunner for this purpose.

Other notes of interest from visits at Automate:

SVT Robotics had a sizeable booth at Automate. The vendor, which offers a software platform to speed and simplify integration of robotics solutions with host systems like a warehouse management system (WMS) or an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, has drawn significant funding from investors who see industry interest in rapid integration of robotics solutions. Jim Hodson, VP of marketing for SVT, noted its not just deployment speed for one robotic solution that interests companies in SVTs SOFTBOT platform and its connector approach to integration, but also the ability over time to reconfigure an integration, or integrate additional robotics solutions to a host system, leveraging the same connector, rather than starting from scratch.

Startup InOrbit was at the show exhibiting its cloud robot management platform, and also as one of the finalists for Automates Cowen Startup Challenge. Florian Pestoni, InOrbit co-founder and CEO, explained that InOrbits software is essentially a cloud data platform that robot vendors can use to improve the performance of what they offer to end users, and now new orchestration features in the platform along with a partner certification program allow end-user organizations to use the software to avoid conflicts between different types of AMRs, without competing with the fleet software from each AMR vendor. For example, InOrbits solution can be used so that cleaning robots dont interfere with large AMRs moving pallets, or to keep inventory counting bots out of the aisles being used by other bots. You want each system to do what it does best, without interfering with each other, said Pestoni.

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Automate 2022 Recap: Integration as the Future - Modern Materials Handling

DUBLIN, June 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --FlowForma, the leading provider of Process Automation tools for Microsoft Office365, today announced it has been selectedby NHS Digital as an approvedvendor for the provision of its award-winning FlowForma Process Automation toolfor NHS trusts, across the United Kingdom.

Olivia Bushe, Chief Executive Officer, FlowForma

As a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NHS prioritised implementing a shared tenancy, 'N365', to increase collaboration and improve productivity among staff. With over one million users to date, procuring solutions to further drive efficiency and create a culture of continuous improvement became a priority for NHS staff.

The NHS London Procurement Partnership (LPP) provides a portal to its members to support the procurement process and facilitate contract management with suppliers nationwide. FlowForma has been recognised as a proven vendor to aid the digital transformation of NHS trusts across the United Kingdom.

The 3-in-1 FlowForma Process Automation tool combining forms, workflow, and document generation is a proven solution to replace paper, excel spreadsheets, and email-based processes across healthcare institutions. The 100% no-codetool features rapid prototyping capabilities that empower process ownersto deploy digital processes at speed and scale across hospitals and other public bodies, ultimately delivering better patient/customer experiences.

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one such institution who are reaping the rewards from digitising. Mark Greenwood, Senior Developer, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and his team have automated and streamlined more than 40 processes with further areas for transformation outlined.

"We had brought some processes online using other tools, but the speed of development and the opportunity to involve process owners in creating their own forms and workflows using FlowForma Process Automation is a game-changer. A process automation solution that can be procured easily for NHS trusts like ours is key to assista wider transformation across the entire NHS ecosystem. We hope we can act as a successful business case for others to follow in the future,"said Mark Greenwood, Senior Developer, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

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"For us, it was about leveraging the national tenant to gain further efficiencies and adopting an internet-first approach to cyber security. FlowForma was part of our core PASA (Provisioning and System Access) solutions and the ability to create workflows quickly with governance from IT, without being reliant on them, is critical as we seek to further automate in other areas," said Shaun Bucknill, Head of ICT & Acting Deputy CIO, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Olivia Bushe, CEO of, FlowForma added, "We are delighted to be selected as a vendor for the NHS's 'N365' shared tenancy. The FlowForma Process Automation tool will provide NHS bodies with a proven process automation solution to deliver rapid results throughout healthcare institutions.

"We are excited to continue working with NHS trusts and other institutions having recently also been selected by the NHS London Procurement Partnership as a trusted solutions provider to digitise processes and ultimately improve patient care as a result."

To accelerate process automation, FlowForma has recently launched a set of fully editable common process accelerator templates for this sector, helping organisations to digitise their business processes with speed and flexibility whilst encouraging adoption across all departments. Users can benefit from process templates such as:

Monthly Housekeeping Inspection

Hospital to Hospital Transfer Referral Form

Incident Report

IT Request

Medication Incident Report

Theatre Notes

Transfer Request

Waiting List Card

Consent for Release of Information

Users can benefit from our process accelerators and more by taking a free 14-day trialof the FlowForma Process Automation tool.

Supporting Resources:

About FlowForma

FlowForma is the leading provider of enterprise-class, no-code business process management, and automation tools that empower business people to rapidly digitise a wide range of processes.

The company empowers businesspeople in construction, engineering, healthcare, financial services, and more, to digitise complex business processes in-house, without writing any software code.

Customers are live with digital processes, empowered and self-sufficient within 4 weeks of onboarding. Users rapidly reap ROI, resilience, and innovation. FlowForma Process Automation is making waves in the automation space with its process accelerators, external stakeholder engagement, and offline capability.

FlowForma is a Microsoft Gold Partner, with over 200,000 global users. The company is headquartered in Ireland with offices in Boston and London and is motivated by its values to innovate, evolve, and achieve with employees, customers, and partners.

For further information or a 14-day free trial, visit http://www.flowforma.com.

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FlowForma Selected As Approved Vendor for Workflow Automation on NHS Shared Tenancy 'N365' - Yahoo Finance

Traditional on-premises data centers arent going anywhere, but the workflows that once dominated them are quickly becoming obsolete. Before Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platforms emerged to compete with data centers, organizations were accustomed to a static infrastructure. Resources were typically provisioned once, held long-term and were the domain of a central IT team that controlled them using a ticketing workflow.

Melar Chen

Melar is a product marketing manager for Terraform at HashiCorp and based in San Francisco. When not looking into how organizations can leverage the latest technologies to modernize their businesses, you'll find her exploring the outdoors.

Times have changed. Now, organizations deploy their data and applications to the cloud, harnessing the power of on-demand resourcing. But provisioning and maintaining infrastructure in a multicloud environment each with its own workflow brings a new set of challenges, from managing disparate workflows and infrastructure sprawl to coping with teams separated into silos and gaps in critical skills. With that in mind, adoption of infrastructure automation usually comes in three distinct phases:

Organizations and teams continue to find significant business benefits in a diverse set of public and private clouds, using those that work best for their unique situation and the task at hand and leveraging the efficiency that comes with spinning resources up and down according to usage needs. And with 76% of organizations already using multiple clouds and 86% on track to do so by 2023, according to the 2021 HashiCorp State of Cloud Strategy Survey, the dominance of multicloud environments is just getting started.

Thats good news for IT teams, because they now have more flexibility in their cloud infrastructure to enhance their business operations and help achieve their goals. But the downside is that multiple users and multiple clouds can create a complicated ecosystem and add risk because theres no central enforcement of compliance and security and less insight into resource use and costs.

The reality is that old provisioning and workflow rules no longer apply to todays multicloud environments. Organizations have to think about provisioning to multiple clouds, and the dynamic nature of cloud means that infrastructure can be constantly modified. The cloud also opens up infrastructure creation to more users.

Building, maintaining, and securing infrastructure in this increasingly complicated environment raises four primary challenges:

Adopting a multicloud strategy is only the first step, managing and optimizing it successfully is the next. And that means relying on infrastructure automation with a common provisioning workflow.

Organizations typically progress through three phases in their infrastructure workflow and automation journey:

Manually provisioning and updating infrastructure multiple times a day from different sources, in various clouds or on-premises data centers, using numerous workflows is a recipe for chaos. Teams will have difficulty collaborating or even sharing a view of the organizations infrastructure. To solve this problem, organizations must adopt an infrastructure provisioning workflow that stays consistent for any cloud, service or private data center. The workflow also needs extensibility via APIs to connect to infrastructure and developer tools within that workflow, and the visibility to view and search infrastructure across multiple providers.

Infrastructure as code (IaC) offers a way to consistently provision infrastructure across all your infrastructure. This provides a record of infrastructure and a provisioning workflow to collaborate on as a team.

Next, you want to standardize the provisioning workflow across your organization, making sure it provides adequate security and maximizes efficiency. The old-school, ticket-based approach to infrastructure provisioning makes IT into a gatekeeper, where they act as governors of the infrastructure but also create bottlenecks and limit developer productivity. But allowing anyone to provision infrastructure without checks or tracking can leave the organization vulnerable to security risks, non-compliance and expensive operational inefficiencies.

To avoid those issues, organizations need to standardize on a workflow that minimizes redundant work and includes the proper guardrails for security, compliance and operational consistency. Critical elements include the ability to publish reusable components of infrastructure as code that have been validated and approved by central IT, the ability to define policies and guardrails as code, the validation and enforcement of policies and guardrails, integration with central IT and ops tools for SSO, audit logging, notifications, and the ability to manage users and teams with role-based access controls (RBAC).

Even a standardized workflow isnt enough, however. To gain the full benefits of infrastructure automation, organizations must be able to continuously optimize their infrastructure and manage and operate infrastructure and resources at scale. That means extending automated, self-service infrastructure provisioning to developers, with the proper policies and guardrails in place, and a way to remediate policy violations. It means having alerts and notifications automatically fire whenever infrastructure changes according to predetermined parameters. And it requires the ability to use data to gather insights to optimize your infrastructure, such as viewing an entire organizations cloud spend to avoid over-provisioning, quickly deprovisioning un- or under-utilized resources and creating policies to enforce best practices to avoid future over-provisioning.

That single source of truth serves organizations well by making it easier to understand cloud spend, see infrastructure changes and provides continuous management and governance.

This final phase in the infrastructure automation journey allows organizations to scale in a way they couldnt when how quickly tickets could be approved dictated what projects team members could work on, work was often redundant and workflows were disparate. It all adds up to fewer headaches across platforms, while reaping the benefits of leveraging multiple clouds.

Maximizing the benefits of infrastructure automation is not just about creating and standardizing workflows. Its about streamlining work, lowering costs and making sure the organization can realize the promises of the cloud, from higher levels of flexibility and innovation to increased developer productivity and faster time to market for new digital products and services.

HashiCorp Terraform provides built-in functionality for infrastructure automation with workflows to build, compose, collaborate and reuse infrastructure as code. Terraform has the extensibility to work with all of the organizations infrastructure and tools and provides infrastructure lifecycle management capabilities after its provisioned.

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Read more:

The 3 Phases of Infrastructure Automation The New Stack - thenewstack.io