Category Archives: Automation

Whats Going on with HollySys Automation Technologies?

HollySys Automation Technologies (HOLI) has just provided an update related to litigation filed against the automation and control technology firm in the British Virgin Islands. The litigation was filed by Mr. Baiqing Shao and Ace Lead Profits Limited in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (the Court) Territory of the British Virgin Islands. HOLI stock, at market close yesterday, Sept. 23, dipped down to $20.53, which is a 0.68% decrease in value.

According to a company news release, HollySys adopted amendments to the Amended and Restated Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Company on January 7, 2021. On February 4, 2021, Mr. Baiqing Shao and Ace Lead Profits began court proceedings against HollySys seeking to prevent HollySys from enforcing the 2021 Amendments.

On September 22, 2021, the Court rejected Mr. Baiqing Shaos claim, which means the 2021 Amendments were valid and are currently effective. Furthermore, the claimants have been ordered to pay HollySys' litigation expenses, which HollySys plans to enforce, including by seeking satisfaction against the shares in the company held by Mr. Baiqing Shao.

HOLI has a Short-Term Technical Rank of 98. Find out what this means to you and get the rest of the rankings on HOLI!

Hollysys Automation Technologies Ltd is a China-based company that provides automation and control technologies and products. The company operates through three segments. Its IA segment supplies solutions including third-party hardware-centric products, proprietary software products, and others. The Rail segment supplies train control center and automation train protection to the rail and subway industries. The M&E segment consists of its two Southeast Asia-based subsidiaries that provide mechanical and electrical solutions. Hollysys Automation Technologies generates most of its sales from the Chinese domestic market.

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HollySys Automation Technologies (HOLI) Provides Update Related to Litigation Filed Against the Firm in the British Virgin Islands - InvestorsObserver

With 50% of jobs at risk of automation, future economies will reward people that display human services traits. Thats why Jeff Tan, Innovation Solutions Officer at dentsu encourages us all to reflect upon how we can uplift those around us in our daily jobs.

Last weekend, I completed my usual long run along the bike paths that gently curve through the Santa Monica sand. Seeking caffeination, I hobbled into my local Starbucks. Coffee snobs, I just heard your collective hmmph! but I dont care.

There is a regular employee there named Jessica. A fifty-something, curvy woman addicted to smiling, Jessica has the ability to make customers feel as toasty as the breakfast sandwiches in the boxed-shaped ovens behind her. Shell usually chat away while I wait on my black grande Americano and finger-burning toasted cheese. She provided food, coffee, conversation my hierarchy of needs.

Jeff! Great to see you, what a beautiful day it is today, right?! How was your run? Wow, youre so athletic and handsome!*

*Disclaimer: this conversation is recalled to the best of my memory.

As a coffee drinker and lover of small-talk, I felt at home. If your Myers Briggs indicator starts with an I, you will hate sitting next to me on a Los Angeles - Sydney flight.

Ive been to hundreds of venues over my lifetime and staff are usually friendly and polite. Yet most of the time, it can feel like a sanitized hospitality, all part of the grueling job at front of house. Often, its a smile and a minimal-viable-conversation while taking orders or collecting the check.

On rare occasions, a venue would be fortunate to discover someone that can truly engage with customers. Someone with an inner brightness and the capability to make people feel as sparkly as the Santa Monica water.

Its no new insight that artificial intelligence is playing an increasing role in the workforce. Sneak in a flask to any industry conference and take a swig every time you hear, AI is replacing workers. Youll be stretchered out.

If youre not yet worried about future-proofing your skillset against automation, you should be. We often associate at-risk jobs as lower-skilled. However, any routine or process-driven task that can be optimized falls this category. In marketing services this includes media campaign optimization and management, reporting and analytics, elements of creative production, billing and budget reconciliation, elements of people management. The list goes on and on.

A study by McKinsey suggests that 50% of current job tasks have the potential to be automated based on current technologies, not considering the technological advancements still to be developed. Automation will have a far-reaching impact globally across every sector.

Worried now? Well, theres hope.

Kai-Fu Lee, author of AI 2041 and prominent leader in Chinas technology industry said in a recent Economist Asks podcast, In 20 years people will be paid not just based on [their] economic contribution, but how much they make other people feel better, how much they are indispensable in the process of winning people over.

You may associate human services with social work and humanitarianism. Yet, I believe that the term should be much broader and describe any type of services industry work that requires an understanding of humanity. Does this sound like your job? Mine too. Of course, almost all marketing-industry related jobs fall into this category.

I encourage you to reflect upon those that you interact, be it colleagues, clients or customers. Are you enriching their lives with your words and actions? Are they feeling energized and just a little bit more human after engaging with you? Are you helping them be the best version of themselves?

You may write this off as too idealistic, or too fluffy. Dammit Jeff, we have tasks to finish, we dont have the time.

Yet so many aspects of our jobs involve understanding and dealing with humanity. Focusing on building up your human-services skills will only future proof you as a contributing member of a future AI-driven economy.

If you ever want an example of human services personified, come down to my local Starbucks and meet Jessica. Just dont burn yourself on the toasted cheese.

Jeff Tan is innovation solutions officer at Dentsu International.

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There's a 50% chance your job will be automated. Why acting more human will protect you - The Drum

At a time when sporting events were shuttered, the U.S. Soccer Federation focused its energy on a new goal: organizing its customer data in a way that unlocked a more tactical approach to marketing.

Step one was to implement a customer data platform. And as the world opens back up and soccer is back in action, U.S. Soccer has a new approach to connect with millions of fans while keeping a tight budget and staff.

We really only have about 15 to 20 people that are working directly on our loyalty program between marketing and our product and business intelligence teams, said Ross Moses, Senior Director, Analytics and Insights for the United States Soccer Federation. We dont have the ability to go in and basically turn on campaigns every day for different types of segments.

Implementing the CDP helped U.S. Soccer centralize its data for a more complicated marketing automation strategy.

We needed something that was going to update in real-time, Ross said. Its going to plug into all kinds of data sources and ultimately be able to react in real-time based on who that customer is. If somebody changes from a non-ticket buyer to a ticket buyer, the campaign has to update accordingly, and the same goes for all of our business lines.

Considering a CDP back in 2018 was pretty cutting edge for a nonprofit organization with a relatively small team. But to meet the demands of millions of fans, U.S. Soccer needed to scale their campaigns and other marketing efforts.

The outdated infrastructure was holding back the marketing team from executing many more automated campaigns and sending personalized messages to fans.

We were sitting on what was really an outdated digital infrastructure, and I use infrastructure very loosely because there wasnt much there, he said. We had an outdated website. There was no mobile app. We had a lot of manual tasks that we were doing in order to track who our customers were, Ross said.

The whole question around CDPs was a key moment for us, he added. Ross said the organization explored whether a traditional CRM could solve that challenge, but opted for a CDP since it was more focused on ingesting data from multiple sources and being able to automate campaigns.

We were doing data prep and data hygiene to run analysis, and then having to redo it and update a week or a month later, said Ross.

With 80 percent of U.S. Soccers website traffic coming in from mobile devices, they needed to make sure they had a mobile-first experience, as well as a mobile app. And now that they were equipped to engage with more fans digitally, they need to keep track of these consumers.

We needed the 360-degree view of the customer and this tends to be the Holy Grail, said Ross. And how do you achieve this? Easy to say, hard to do.

They adopted single-sign-on credentials for users across all channels, including the website, mobile app and online store. Thats critical, but also on the back end, making sure weve got one ID for one person and were appending transactional and engagement data to one profile and not multiple users, Ross said.

To break through with a more personalized experience, U.S. Soccer also put in place self-service measures so fans could customize their experience. This puts fans in the drivers seat and also takes some of the workload off of the lean marketing team.

People basically expect personalization these days, said Ross. For as much as the business knows about the individual customer, they should be able to tailor their messaging or marketing or the content based on who they are.

With a CDP in place to centralize and update customer data, U.S. Soccer can orchestrate more personalized and efficient campaigns with limited resources. And greater success meant more revenue to support soccer programs nationwide.

We needed to take that step and lay the foundation for what were still working on every day, Ross said. Were trying to do more and more of this and leaning in.

View the full presentation from our fall MarTech conference here (free registration required).

Marketers today face increasing pressure to provide a unified experience to customers across many channels. And these avenues are growing each day. Thats whycustomer data platforms, or CDPs, have become more prevalent than ever. These help marketers identify key data points from customers across a variety of platforms, which can help craft cohesive experiences.

Ciscos Annual Internet Report found that internet-connected devices are growing at a 10% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2018 to 2023. COVID-19 has only sped up this marketing transformation. Technologies are evolving at a faster rate to connect with customers in an ever-changing world.

Each of these interactions has something important in common: theyre data-rich. Customers are telling brands a little bit about themselves at every touchpoint, which is invaluable data. Whats more, consumers expect companies to use this information to meet their needs.

Meeting customer expectations, breaking up these segments, and bringing them together can be demanding for marketers. Thats where CDPs come in. By extracting data from all customer touchpoints web analytics, CRMs, call analytics, email marketing platforms, and more brands can overcome the challenges posed by multiple data platforms and use the information to improve customer experiences.Learn more here.

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US Soccer leans on a CDP to make its marketing automation more personal - MarTech

Newswise Vienna, Austria (VIRTUAL) A variety of scientific discovery and technology awards were presented during SLAS Europe 2021 Digital Conference and Exhibition, which took place June 23-25 online. The annual European forum of the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening bestowed the Ignite Award to the most promising new startup company, the New Product Award, SLAS Tony B. Academic Awards and Student Poster Awards.

Hopstem Biotechnology Co., Ltd. has been selected as the SLAS Europe 2021 Ignite Award winner. Hopstem was founded in January 2017 by Jing Fan, a neuroscientist and stem cell biologist from Johns Hopkins University (Boston, MA, USA). Hopstems technology and service revolve around its novel 3D brain organoid product for high-throughput calcium imaging. It is derived from a stable human iPSC line, which is a new way to screen, validate and de-risk the lead compound/molecules at the early stage of drug development for central nervous system diseases, with established targets involved in neuronal activity phenotypes. Hopstem has received four rounds of financing totaling more than 20 million Euro and established a research and development and manufacturing facility in Hangzhou, China, with a sales department in Houston, Texas, USA. As the SLAS Ignite Award winner, Hopstem receives a $5,000 cash prize, an opportunity to speak at SLAS2022 International Conference and Exhibition in Boston, and will record an SLAS New Matter podcast episode to discuss its products and services.

Denmark-based Reshape Biotech won the SLAS New Product Award for its Reshape Imaging System, an automated robotic solution that remotely monitors plates in incubators, while automatically creating time-lapse videos for high-throughput. Their product is quite unique and ahead of the competition, the SLAS judging panel commented, citing their automatic generation of time-lapse videos and remote monitoring, as well as the systems high capacity, flexible integration and cost-effectiveness. The Reshape Imaging System can also monitor growth of microorganisms in the incubator with no additional effort. The New Product Award is given to companies showcasing a new product that is commercially available within 90 days pre- and/or post-conference.

Three students were recognized with this years Student Poster Award. Winners were evaluated online and were judged on various content and design themes as well as presentation. The SLAS Student Poster Award recognizes the innovative research by students, graduate students, post-doctoral associates and junior faculty (less than four years in first academic appointment) who are chosen to present a poster during the conference.

Finally, SLAS provided three SLAS Tony B. Academic (Travel) Awards to students, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and junior faculty chosen for their original scientific research. Applicants submissions were evaluated by a panel of judges on the relevance of the research to the conference program, statement of value of the conference and overall scientific merit. Each winner had a chance to present their research at the meeting and received complimentary conference registration and, when the conference is held in person, Tony B. Award recipients receive roundtrip travel and shared hotel accommodations.

SLAS Europe Conference and Exhibition

The SLAS Europe 2021 program showcases four important tracks focused on emerging biology, technology, discovery and careers in business and technology that elucidate scientific advances and state-of-the-art applications of new technologies through scientific podium and poster presentations, exhibitor tutorials, special interest group discussions and inspiring keynote speakers. The 2021 conference was conducted online due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Careers in Business and Technology Track was conducted as a free standalone online event on June 16. For more information about SLAS and its educational events, visitwww.slas.org/events.

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SLAS(Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening) is an international community of more than 16,000 researchers and technology providers dedicated to life sciences discovery and technology. The SLAS mission is to bring together researchers in academia, industry and government to advance life sciences discovery and technology via education, knowledge exchange and global community building.

SLAS publishes two MEDLINE-indexed scientific journals,SLAS DiscoveryandSLAS Technology. For more information about SLAS and its journals, visitwww.slas.org.

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The Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) Announces its Europe Conference Life Science and Technology Awards - Newswise

NEW DELHI: Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) has signed a five-year partnership with Automation Anywhere, a global player in robotic process automation (RPA) to accelerate and scale automation to drive innovation across its 30,000-strong employee organization.

During the first phase of a five-year plan, IOCL has automated select key processes across departments including finance, human resources, and inventory, using Automation 360, an AI-powered RPA platform, Automation Anywhere said.

IOCL said its overall vision is to improve operating agility, connect disparate systems, and at the same time, empower employees to work more efficiently by allowing them to create solutions which help them move away from tactical and mundane repetitive tasks and ultimately focus on delivering more compelling products to market.

Energy companies grapple with legacy systems, multiple data sources and manual, repetitive processes that get in the way of driving speed and impact," said Milan Sheth, executive vice president, IMEA at Automation Anywhere. "With our trusted automation platform, we look forward to collaborating with IOCL to unleash automation capabilities across their entire organization and streamline repeatable tasks."

IOCL is India's largest refining and marketing company engaged in the business of refining, transportation, and marketing of petroleum products. Under the ambit of its digital transformation program, Project i-DRIVE, the company is implementing hundreds of digital solutions across advanced analytics, emerging technology platforms, and custom tools and solutions.

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Indian Oil inks five yr deal with Automation Anywhere to accelerate RPA - Mint

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Hello and welcome to another Take Five with Automation World . Im David Miller, Senior Technical Writer for Automation World.

Today, Im going to be talking about a very interesting development relating to digital twin technology. Now, as our viewers certainly know, digital twins are simulations that provide end-users with a virtual copy of plant assets and production systems, and are used in industry for a multitude of tasks such as remote asset monitoring, remote training, and virtual commissioning of new facilities.

However, what were starting to see now is that their functionality is actually being extended being these production-oriented uses and into other business departments such as sales and marketing. And whats even more interesting is that in order to enable this shift, technologies and methods from the field of video game development are being used to enhance the usability, aesthetic presentation, and degree of realism these simulations are able to achieve.

In essence, what you have with current industrial digital twins is, its true, a visual representation of plants, but the representation is often highly technical and may be difficult for someone without an engineering background to fully comprehend or make sense of. But the engines that drive video games are capable of generating highly sophisticated and realistic visual imagery that is aimed not at engineers and specialists, but frankly your average video game playera consumer.

And on top of that they actually boast quite sophisticated physics engines that are able to replicate all kinds of interactions between objectsif our viewers have ever played or seen a modern video game played they know what Im talking aboutexplosions, objects colliding and tumbling around, bodies strewn through the air, etc.? Thats all driven by physics simulations.

So, I was able to speak recently with Brad Hart, Chief Technology officer at Perforce Software, which works with companies on implementing these types of digital twin technologies, and he was able to share with me some specific examples of more precisely how this technology is actually being put to use and how its enhancing not only the digital twin experience for industrial users, but helping the digital twin to find new uses, like I said, in departments such as sales and marketing.

So lets talk about some use cases. Heres one from the automotive manufacturer Audi. Audi uses the Unreal Engine, which is what drives the popular Unreal series of video games to bring data from its production pipeline into a highly realistic, physically responsive simulation of new vehicle designs. And they do two things with these simulations.

On the one hand, they use them to test the performance of vehicles in a virtual environmentso thats not so different from virtual factory commissioning, though it does involve some more sophisticated physics. The second thing they do is they are using the technology to exhibit their new vehicle designs to corporate executives in a highly realistic and interactive manner before even a single unit has been produced. And so the key here is theyre not just looking to create a representation that engineers will understandtheyre looking to make a very glossy, splashy sort of model that someone on the business and marketing side can see and get familiar with.

Another exampleaerospace companies that build private jets for high-class clientele or companies that build custom yachtsthese are very expensive, luxury pieces of equipment and those purchasing them want to know what theyre getting. So in these situations, these more realistic digital twins can be used as a marketing tool for these very, very upper-echelon types of consumers. And thats helping them to make these frankly massive sales.

And the final thing, which is more general, is just that the previous capacities that industrial digital twins already possess for rapid prototyping and virtual commissioning are simply enhanced as the simulation technology becomes more robust. So, tests that previously involved complex calculationseven with the aid of a digital twincan be iterated more quickly through the use of a more powerful simulation.

So, thats all I have for you for today, but keep your eye on this space for more videos to come in the days ahead.

Excerpt from:

Perforce Software Industrial Digital Twin Take Five with Automation World - Automation World

As the world of business continues to change, pressures from investors continue to influence industry trends. As a result of increased fees and lower margins, improving operational efficiencies becomes even more necessary.

Does this have anything to do with hedge fund management and automation? Quite a lot as the industry is finding out.

In the competitive world for hedge funds and other forms of asset management, automating standard processes is an essential step for managers of hedge funds to differentiate themselves from the crowd.

The impact and transformative power of technology on business and client relationships make automation a must for asset management firms of all sizes and types - whether family offices, private equity funds, hedge funds, or fund administrators.

Managers are specifically investing in technology in the middle and back office to improve the speed and quality of data reporting and management. Ernst and Young reported that of hedge fund managers interviewed in a survey, 57% said their organization is investing or will invest in operational efficiency. In addition, 28% of investors said they would like to see their hedge funds become more innovative regarding their operational efficiency.

Business Spectrum benefits

Over the years, fund accounting and middle office have developed to become the most advanced functions where managers invest in accurate and timely reports. On the other hand, the marketing and investor relations department is the least automated. This can be deduced from the EY 2020 Global Alternative Fund Survey, where nearly 65% of investors believe an investment in this area would benefit their future relationships.

By using technology to automate operations in the marketing and investor relations area, managers will enhance the investor experience and meet the needs of their clients.

One of the most significant benefits of automation in hedge funds is the power it gives managers to do more with equal or lesser resources. Good workflow automation optimizes operations at every stage, allowing managers to do more with the same or less staff, improve investor relations, improve reporting and regulatory requirements, making the manager more profitable.

Why now?

It is imperative that managers prioritize investor experience to stay competitive in the market. An asset owner told a recent EY global survey on alternative investing that managers should value people and their infrastructure more than costs. Hence, hedge funds need to free up time and use the right tools to deepen client relationships.

Automation and integration of communication and collaboration tools can provide hedge fund managers with a more comprehensive understanding of their investor journey, allowing them to identify better ways of attracting and retaining investors.

Multifaceted solutions for diverse needs

The smooth operation of a fund is dependent on multiple systems communicating on the back end, which is why fund managers require a centralized, automated terminal that enables them to create a fund swiftly, manage personnel and resources, and optimize processes to ensure flexibility and scalability.

Hedge funds can do this either through internal development or by partnering with a service provider like MetaQuotes Ltd., which provides a comprehensive set of solutions, including automated tools for hedge funds.

An administrative terminal on MetaTrader 5 for hedge funds, for example, permits managers to create funds and financial instruments in less than five minutes, automate fund and fee calculations, and select shareholders and investors to the fund and amount of shares they hold.

While investors may be satisfied with their managers technology implementation, there is certainly room for improvement in the automation of various other functions. Automating hedge fund operations makes sense because investors and other constituents expect that manual processes can and should be phased out.

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Automation: Manage Hedge Fund Effortlessly and Stay ahead of the Markets - Benzinga

Its pretty ironic to consider how automation is transforming the fintech sector when fintech transformed the financial sector.

Perhaps its testimony to the speed and pervasiveness of technological advances that the disruptors are being disrupted.

Transformation today is coming from hyper-automation, intelligent automation, or extreme automation. These terms mean that automation tools are very sophisticated and are being used in combination with each other.

Lets look at how they are being used for fintech applications.

Fintech companies have used technology to cut costs and time and replace traditional institutions. However, they must also provide quality, customer trust, and regulation.

Advanced automation tools provide the solution.

RPA has been with us for a while. These are the bots that automate routine and rules-driven tasks. They are efficient, tend not to make human mistakes, and significantly cut the time and cost of repetitive tasks.

However, these bots cant deal with complex, dynamic processes and workflows.

This is where Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Natural Language Programming come into play.

In these technologies, the software learns from itself and uses guiding principles to solve new problems.

AI is the science of using computers to mimic human intelligence. It is a form of advanced information processing.

For example, in the financial field,

Machine Learning is a subset of AI.

Systems learn from data, identify patterns, and use algorithms to predict outcomes. It is particularly useful for data on a large scale.

For fintech,

NLP is a subset of ML.

Computers now understand, analyze and even generate human language.

We know how Google can find relevant search results, translate pages from one language to another, or auto-correct spelling. NLP has now moved to recognizing speech and answering questions. It generates text from images or videos and detects sentiment.

All these functions are relevant to fintech.

A blockchain is particularly well suited to fintech.

It is a virtual ledger of transactions, tracing the transfer of ownership of assets. Records are authenticated by computers spread across the world and cannot be altered. Everybody has access to the same data in real-time.

Smart contracts can be attached to transactions, automatically triggering actions when pre-defined conditions have been met.

Automation is even better when techniques are combined.

The ultimate combination is blockchain and AI. AI deals with large data sets, and blockchain provides security, trustworthiness, and quality to that data.

Ultimately, there will be trading on blockchain as the tokenization of assets becomes more prevalent and datasets grow. AI and ML will be used for pattern detection and predictive algorithms.

Advanced automation tools such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, blockchain, and smart contracts are transforming the fintech sector.

They bring both convenience and security to fintech applications and open the door for new products and services.

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How Automation is Transforming the Fintech Sector - FinSMEs

Twitter today is introducing a new feature that will allow accounts to self-identify as bots by adding a label to their profile. This feature is designed to help people better differentiate between automated accounts like bots that retweet the news, public service announcements or other updates from those operated by humans. Its not, however, designed to help users identify the bad bots, which are those that pose as people, often to spread misinformation or spam.

The company has been contemplating labeling bots for years.

In 2018, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was asked during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing whether he believed users had a right to know if they were speaking to a bot or a human on Twitters platform. He agreed that Twitter should add more context to tweets and was considering identifying bots, to the extent that it could. However, Dorsey also pointed out it would be more difficult to identify bots that were using scripting to give the appearance of being a human, compared with those that were leveraging Twitters API.

Last year, the company finally solidified those plans, saying it would later introduce new features that would allow users to be able to distinguish between human-run accounts and those that were automated. When Twitter launched its account verification system in May, it reminded users that it would soon offer other ways to identify different types of accounts beyond the long-coveted blue badge such as labels for bots.

Image Credits: Twitter

Today, Twitter says its new Automated Account label that identifies good bots will be made available to over 500 Developer Accounts. This group will test the feature and provide feedback before its opened up more broadly to all Twitter developers. As its still a test for the time being, the label wont be required.

However, when Twitter updated its Developer Policy last year, it did ask developers to indicate in their account profile or bio whether the account was a bot, what the account is and whos behind it. These account labels would allow developers an easier way to comply with that policy rather than having to handwrite this information in their bio.

Twitter tells TechCrunch that based on what it learns during this experiment, it may decide to make adopting the label a requirement for all developers who run automated accounts in the future, once it becomes broadly available.

Image Credits: Twitter

To be clear, Twitter doesnt have any problem with those who run good bots, as it understands how automation can allow accounts to update people with helpful, relevant or, sometimes, just fun information. The company even celebrated a few of its favorite bots when announcing todays developer news, including the public service account @earthquakesSF; a bot offering COVID-19 updates, @vax_progress; a bot that offers an ongoing breakdown of the last 100 bills introduced in Congress, @last100bills; an accessibility-focused bot, @AltTxtReminder; and others that just add value in their own way, like @met_drawings, which shares public domain works from The Mets Drawings & Prints department, or the goofy @EmojiMashupBot, among others.

All these will be a part of the initial test group.

Twitter is also less concerned with how consumers may use automation to update their own accounts, perhaps by using third-party tools like IFTTT to post links or other content.

You are ultimately responsible for the actions taken with your account, or by applications associated with your account, Twitters policy advises Twitter users. Before authorizing a third-party application to access or use your account, make sure youve thoroughly investigated the application and understand what it will do. It also adds that Twitter users that adopt automation will still need to adhere to Twitters guidelines.

The company has been on a tear lately in terms of rolling out new features. Just this week, it has launched Communities, tests of emoji reactions, support for full-width photos and videos and a way to soft block followers, among other things.

Twitter has not said how long the test would run before the Automated Account labels are rolled out more broadly.

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Twitter introduces a new label that allows the good bots to identify themselves - TechCrunch

Like their cloud-native counterparts, many large or long-standing enterprises aspire to automate as much of their operations as possible. As a result, many of them get overly ambitious with their process automation goals, and attempt to roll out sweeping, company-wide digital transformation initiatives. While ambition is a good thing, many of these initiatives take years to complete, and often require ripping and replacing legacy systems.

Few organizations consider that end-to-end process automation takes a change in mindset that spans people, processes and technology. Lets take a look at three of the most common process automation mistakes, and how organizations can work together to fix them.

Rolling out strategic automation initiatives too fast is the first. While theres nothing wrong with being strategic, thinking on too large of a scale is a common pitfall of overly ambitious automation projects.

Taking on too much strategic work too early runs a high risk that the organization doesnt see any business value for a long time. As a result, developers will most likely get completely stuck in shaping a complex platform without understanding its use case.

Instead, try to break down larger strategic initiatives into component parts, starting with the most urgent or important projects first. Heres one way to approach it:

Start with Pilot Project: The goal of this project is to define and validate both architecture and stack. Very often, this pilot project is set up as a proof-of-concept (PoC). However, it is important to go-live with that pilot to really learn about all aspects of the workflow solution throughout the full software development life cycle (SDLC).

Accelerate to a Lighthouse Project: Soon after running a successful pilot, you should tackle a lighthouse project. This project should have a broader, but still realistic scope which can be better leveraged to show off architecture, tooling, and value of workflow automation to other people and teams within your organization.

Progress to Broad-Scale Transformation: Leverage the lessons learned from the lighthouse project, empowering the people on that project team to run a Centre of Excellence (CoE) to break down silos across teams and drive organization-wide change.

I call this approach the art of gradual transformation.Ideally, before approaching a large-scale automation project, try to map out the entire ecosystem of processes including the people, systems and devices at work in the background. Start by modernizing high impact processes that affect customers the most. Then design a transformation approach that fits the business or customers needs, rather than your technology stacks requirements.

Handling Automation Projects in Silos

Even though a gradual transformation approach is recommended, it does not mean siloed or without structure. If each team chooses its own tools, it can be hard to effect organization-wide change, or end-to-end process automation. Technology decisions are a commitment for years and sometimes even decades. These decisions and the resulting maintenance affect more than just the current team in the trenches.

As mentioned above, a CoE approach can help break down organizational silos and share best-practices on what has worked or not worked in previous automation projects. Ideally, this group does not dictate arbitrary standards, but maintains a list of approved tools and frameworks that can be reused across the entire company.

Beyond tooling alone, a CoE can also maintain start guides, project templates, and reusable open source components/libraries for teams to leverage. In addition, they can serve as advocates for automation, by running a community to raise awareness for new automation initiatives within the company. Within this framework, more teams can get inspired by the potential for automation within their departments.

Failing to Embrace Microservices Architectures

One important factor to address is the way software is built within the company. Embracing a microservices architecture in a legacy company is easier said than done. Often, there are legacy systems in place that are difficult to unseat.

By one estimate, there are still more than 200 billion lines ofcode written in COBOL, a decades-old programming language. A wholesale replacement of these systems could cost upwards of $US4 to $US8 trillion (or more).

Thats where the gradual transformation approach comes into play. For example, many companies have surface-level automations in place with RPA implementations sitting on top of legacy systems (like those written in COBOL). A good approach for these scenarios would be to go through a modernization in three main stages:

The advantage of a microservices-based automation workflow is that it allows for a decentralized architecture where each team owns its own isolated processes. In the event something goes wrong with a single process, it can be easily controlled and fixed. From there, a process engine can drive these microservices-based processes across the organization, and unify them where it makes sense.

To sum up, end-to-end process orchestration cant happen in a vacuum. Stakeholders from across the organization should be involved, and projects should start small. Without a clear pilot project, large-scale, strategic automation efforts can easily fail to prove their business value. By working together to define priorities, create best-practices, and roll out the technological changes needed, organizations can ensure that end-to-end process automation happens successfully.

To learn much more about process automation, sign up for the virtualCamundaCon 2021event on September 22-23. Jakob Freund is CEO at Camunda, a business process management solution provider.

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3 common process automation mistakes (and how to fix them) - IDM.net.au