Category Archives: Automation

Vancouver, British Columbia, Feb. 24, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global laboratory automation systems market is expected to reach a market size of USD 6.39 Billion in 2028, as a result of major R&D initiatives driving steady revenue growth, according to latest analysis by Emergen Research. Laboratory automated systems are becoming a major requirement in biological and chemical research industries as these solutions offer ideal approaches to protecting data and ensure that these data is easily available and accessible for laboratory personnel and teams, which in turn improves productivity of researchers as they can track everything that happens to a sample, enabling them to more efficiently monitor its entire history. These systems also allow researchers to control temperature, speed, stirring, and collect related data for graphical representation in real-time.

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The laboratory automation system market revenue is increasing significantly due to increasing demand and deployment of automation systems in drug discovery. Advancements in technologies such as, Artificial Intelligence and automated data analysis are aiding research teams in handling large number of test samples and efficiently analyzing research data. These systems can operate for long hours with minimum monitoring and instruction. These systems enable researchers to focus on core tasks and efficiently utilize time otherwise spent on repetitive tasks.

Further Key Findings in the Report:

Check Our Prices@ https://www.emergenresearch.com/select-license/517For the purpose of this report, Emergen Research has segmented the laboratory automation systems market based on product, application, end-use, and region:

Click to access the Report Study, Read key highlights of the Report and Look at Projected Trends: https://www.emergenresearch.com/industry-report/laboratory-automation-systems-market

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Laboratory Automation Systems Market to Reach USD 6.39 Billion by 2028 | Increase in Global Research and Development Activities & Rapid Adoption...

ABB boosts YuMi collaborative robot portfolio with GoFa and SWIFTI cobot fami-lies

Eight out of ten workplaces say they will increase use of robots in the next decade, pandemic cited as catalyst for accelerating investment in automation

ABB is expanding its collaborative robot (cobot) portfolio with the new GoFa and SWIFTI cobot families, offering higher payloads and speeds, to complement YuMi and Single Arm YuMi in ABBs cobot line-up. These stronger, faster and more capable cobots will accelerate the companys expansion in high-growth segments including electronics, healthcare, consumer goods, logistics and food and beverage, among others, meeting the growing demand for automation across multiple industries. GoFa and SWIFTI are intuitively designed so customers need not rely on in-house programming specialists. This will unlock industries that have low levels of automation, with customers able to operate their cobot within minutes of installation, straight out of the box, with no specialized training.

Our new cobot portfolio is the most diverse on the market, offering the potential to transform workplaces and help our customers achieve new levels of operational performance and growth. said Sami Atiya, President of ABBs Robotics & Discrete Automation Business Area. They are easy to use and configure and backed by our global network of on-call, on-line service experts to ensure that businesses of all sizes and new sectors of the economy, far beyond manufacturing, can embrace robots for the first time.

ABBs cobot portfolio expansion is engineered to help existing and new robot users accelerate automation amid four key megatrends including individualized consumers, labor shortages, digitalization and uncertainty that are transforming business and driving automation into new sectors of the economy. The expansion follows the Business Areas focus on high-growth segments through portfolio innovation, helping to drive profitable growth.

Automation driving the future of manufacturing

In a global survey1 of 1650 large and small businesses in Europe, the US and China, 84 percent of businesses said they will introduce or increase the use of robotics and automation in the next decade, while 85 percent said the pandemic had been game changing for their business and industry, with COVID-19 a catalyst for accelerating investment in automation. Nearly half of businesses (43 percent) said they were looking to robotics to help them improve workplace health and safety, 51 percent said robotics could enhance social distancing and more than one-third (36 percent) were considering using robotic automation to improve the quality of work for their employees. More immediately, 78 percent of company CEOs and Managing Directors said recruiting and retaining staff for repetitive and ergonomically challenging jobs is a challenge.Cobots are designed to operate in the presence of workers without the need for physical safety measures such as fences and to be very easy to use and install. In 2019, more than 22,000 new collaborative robots were deployed globally, up 19 percent compared to the previous year2. The demand for collaborative robots is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 17 percent between 2020 and 20253 while the value of global cobot sales is expected to increase from an estimated ~$0.7 billion in 2019 to ~$1.4 bn by 20254. The global market for all industrial robots is projected to grow from ~$45 billion in 2020 to ~$58 billion by 2023 (CAGR of 9 percent)5.

GoFa and SWIFTI are engineered to help businesses automate processes to assist workers with tasks including material handling, machine tending, component assembly and packaging in manufacturing, medical laboratories, logistics hubs and warehouses, workshops, and small production facilities.

With this expansion, we are making cobots easier to use and deploy, with real-time support to help speed their adoption in businesses that may have not considered their use previously, Atiya said. Our experience is that the best performing operations harness peoples skills, alongside the potential of new technologies. Users comfortable with operating a tablet or smartphone will be able to program and re-program the new cobots with ease, using ABBs fast set-up tools. Customers will also benefit from ABBs global industry and application expertise, which has been developed from installing more than 500,000 robot solutions since 1974 and supported by ABBs network of over 1,000 global partners.

The new GoFa and SWIFTI cobot families build on the success of ABBs YuMi family, which has been helping businesses safely automate key tasks since YuMi, the worlds first truly collaborative robot, was launched in 2015. Today, ABBs YuMi cobots are working alongside people in factories, workshops and laboratories all over the world, performing tasks from screwdriving and assembling electronics and electrical components, to making valves and USB sticks, and testing COVID samples in laboratories.

Every ABB cobot installation includes a start-up package that provides ABB Ability condition monitoring & diagnostics as well as a support hotline free for the first six months to access ABBs expert technical assistance, which is offering support across all industry segments.

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ABB launches next generation cobots to unlock automation for new sectors and first-time users - DC Velocity

FANUC America and Rockwell Automation officially formed a coalition to kick off accelerated work and learn apprenticeship programs designed to upskill current and future workers for jobs in advanced manufacturing, robotics and automation.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210223005825/en/

FANUC and Rockwell Automation apprenticeships will provide more people with fulfilling careers and help companies to bridge the demand for skilled workers. (Photo: Business Wire)

The coalition includes APT, a FANUC and Rockwell Automation systems integrator, and NOCTI Business Solutions, which provides independent assessments of occupational standards and validation using recognized International Organization for Standardization (ISO) process validation methods. Franklin Apprenticeships is also a key partner of the coalition, ensuring apprenticeship support structure and success enablers for employers and apprentices.

The coalition has developed new apprenticeship programs offering people opportunities to gain credentials that include fundamental robotics (Robot Operator) and automation (PLC Operator). The program offers a second level of credentials for Robot and PLC Technicians. A third credentialing level called Integration Specialist builds on the fundamental and technical skills that teaches people to operate and troubleshoot integrated FANUC-Rockwell Automation technologies. All of the new apprenticeship offerings will provide more people with fulfilling careers and help companies to bridge the demand for skilled workers.

"Our number one goal is to help create a worker pipeline that will not only help people increase their skills and future earning potential, but to help manufacturers achieve their production goals and maintain a thriving economy," said Paul Aiello, Director of Education, FANUC America. "In most cases, current and future workers can complete the apprenticeship skills training and achieve their industry-recognized certifications in less than one year. Its also important to note that these programs support all types of apprenticeship and certification models, including pre-apprenticeships."

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"As industry adopts new technologies, it is vital to be able to quickly adapt with a well-trained workforce," said Michael Cook, Director Global Academic Organization, Rockwell Automation. "Having the most current standards will drive manufacturing competitiveness and simultaneously grow new talent to these new occupations, upskill current employees, and allow companies to be more agile in their workforce planning."

The apprenticeship programs aim to help companies rapidly upskill employees at every level from Operator to Technician to Integration System Specialist. In addition to improving the skills of current production workers, these programs will be extremely valuable for engineers who are working to implement new automation systems and processes that require new employees trained in the latest automation technologies.

"As technology advances at a fast pace, it is important that companies play a bigger role in education to ensure a safe, productive and sustainable work environment," said Aiello. "FANUC and our coalition look forward to helping as many people as possible take advantage of these accelerated work and apprenticeship programs."

Over 40 leading companies, including Dana, Magna, Tyson Foods and Flex-N-Gate, have agreed to support and participate in apprenticeships for automation technologies, ensuring that their employees receive adequate training and are qualified to succeed.

Customer Testimonials

"Automation is imperative to a competitive U.S. manufacturing base. In order to meet our demand in automation expansion, we will need skilled candidates to fill high-demand, and technically driven positions like Robot Operator, Robot Technician and Integrated Systems Specialist." Heidi Koedam, Manager, Engineering Learning Organization, Dana Incorporated.

"In order to support the expansion of manufacturing automation and create growth and development opportunities for our employees, we join this project team to engage skilled candidates and help fill technically driven positions like robot operators, robot technicians and integrated systems specialists. Magna Seating projects it will support a number of maintenance technician trainees between 2021 and 2023." Paul N. Myles, Sr. Manager, Government Workforce Development and Training Programs, Magna International Inc.

"Tyson Foods currently has a US DOL Industrial Maintenance Apprenticeship underway and we are successfully developing our team members. FANUC has won our national account and it makes a lot of sense to collaborate with FANUC and other vendors, such as Rockwell/Allen-Bradley on these Level 1, 2, and 3 apprenticeship standards. I applaud FANUCs support of workforce development across the nation at secondary and post-secondary institutions." Mike Rogers, Senior Director Maintenance and Refrigeration, Tyson Foods.

"We take pride at Flex-N-Gate in helping our employees build fulfilling careers. As we expand, were looking for qualified and ambitious people for our team, and we feel high-value apprenticeships are an ideal avenue to helping people start or expand their careers." Bill Beistline, Executive VP Flex-N-Gate Metals Manufacturing & Procurement.

Industry leaders FANUC and Rockwell Automation have worked together over the past decade developing training, certifications and an education and training delivery network. FANUCs network of educational partners includes more than 1200 high school and post-secondary FANUC-certified training organizations, and over 150 university and career technical training partners associated with this industry team. FANUCs network of schools coupled with Rockwell Automations education partners represent nearly 1600 schools, the largest nationwide collaboration of industry and education working to narrow the skills gap. For more information, visit http://www.fanucamerica.com/apprenticeships.

About FANUC America Corporation

FANUC America Corporation is a subsidiary of FANUC CORPORATION in Japan, and provides industry-leading CNC systems, robotics and factory automation. FANUCs innovative technologies and proven expertise help manufacturers in the Americas maximize productivity, reliability and profitability.

FANUC embraces a culture of "Service First" which means that customer service is our highest priority. We are committed to supplying our customers with parts and support for the life of their FANUC products.

FANUC America is headquartered at 3900 W. Hamlin Road, Rochester Hills, MI 48309, and has facilities in: Auburn Hills, MI; Atlanta; Boston; Charlotte; Chicago; Cincinnati; Cleveland; Houston; Huntington Beach, CA; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; Montreal; Pine Brook, NJ; Pontiac, MI; Birmingham, AL; San Francisco; Seattle; Toronto; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Sao Paulo, and Manaus, Brazil; and Aguascalientes, Monterrey, and Queretaro, Mexico. For more information, please call: 888-FANUC-US (888-326-8287) or visit our website: http://www.fanucamerica.com . Also, connect with us on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

About Rockwell Automation

Rockwell 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 23,500 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.

About APT Manufacturing

APT Manufacturing Solutions has been providing high-tech solutions to manufacturing problems for over 25 years. Our operations are ISO 9001:2015 certified, as well as RIA Safety Certified for Robotic Integration. We are an authorized FANUC robotics integrator and certified at the highest level (IV). Above all else, APT Manufacturing Solutions is committed to employee development and training in the manufacturing space. This begins with the idea that we cannot continue to grow without constantly producing talented engineers, programmers, machinists, and fabricators. We support this mission by a one-of-a-kind high school training program. APT furthers this development post-graduation with 6 registered apprenticeship programs that funnel a handful of new employees through the pipeline each year. This passion for education has given way to APT Manufacturing Solutions commitment to building training systems with FANUC and Rockwell that teaches Industry 4.0 and IIoT manufacturing in vocational schools, trade schools, and universities throughout the United States. https://aptmfg.com

About NOCTI

NOCTI is the largest provider of industry-based credentials and partner industry certifications for career and technical education (CTE) programs across the nation. Whether using assessments to meet Perkins accountability requirements, to guide data-driven instructional improvement, or to assist with teacher evaluation systems, NOCTI provides a credible solution through its validated and reliable technical skill assessment. For more information visit https://www.nocti.org/aboutnocti.cfm.

About Franklin Apprenticeships

Franklin Apprenticeships leverages its extensive modern apprenticeship expertise to deliver Technology Apprenticeships and Pre-Apprenticeships nationally. Franklin attracts workers in overlooked communities, and under employed workers and introduces attractive, lucrative career paths, broadens the talent pool and upskills incumbent workers for employers, elevating organizational and personal outcomes. http://www.FranklinApprenticeships.com. #changingtheamericanworkforce.

About Dana Incorporated

Based in Maumee, Ohio, USA, and founded in 1904, Dana has established a high-performance culture that focuses on its people, and the company has earned recognition around the world as a top employer. In 2019, the company reported sales of $8.6 billion with 36,000 associates in 34 countries across six continents. https://www.dana.com/.

About Magna Seating of America, Inc.

Magna Seating of America Inc. operates an extensive manufacturing campus at 747 Mill Park Drive, Lancaster, Ohio. Magna Seating Columbus is an operating unit of Magna Seating of America Inc. Magna Seating of America designs, develops and manufactures technologically advanced automotive systems, assemblies, modules and components, and engineers and assembles complete vehicles, primarily for sale to original equipment manufacturers ("OEMs") of cars and light trucks. https://www.magna.com/company/company-information/magna-groups/magna-seating.

About Tyson Foods

Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE: TSN) is one of the worlds largest food companies and a recognized leader in protein. Founded in 1935 by John W. Tyson and grown under three generations of family leadership, the company has a broad portfolio of products and brands like Tyson, Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Ball Park, Wright, Aidells, ibp, and State Fair. Tyson Foods innovates continually to make protein more sustainable, tailor food for everywhere its available and raise the worlds expectations for how much good food can do. Headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas, the company has 139,000 team members. Through its Core Values, Tyson Foods strives to operate with integrity, create value for its shareholders, customers, communities and team members and serve as a steward of the animals, land and environment entrusted to it. Visit http://www.TYSONFOODS.COM to learn more.

About Flex-N-Gate

Flex-N-Gate is a leading manufacturer and supplier of large stamped metal and welded components, assemblies, and plastic parts for the automotive industry. A global platform with 64 integrated manufacturing facilities in United States, Brazil, China, Argentina, Spain, France, Germany, Mexico and Canada that provide clients with improved quality, efficiency, cost and control. With over 24,000 associates worldwide, we can build your components and deliver them anywhere your factories are. Visit http://www.flex-n-gate.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210223005825/en/

Contacts

FANUC America Corporation PR contact:

Robotics: Cathy PowellPublic Relations and Communications ManagerFANUC America CorporationT: 248-377-7570E: cathy.powell@fanucamerica.com

Factory Automation: Debra SchugCNC Strategic Communications SpecialistT: 847.898.5673E: debra.schug@fanucamerica.com

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FANUC and Rockwell Automation Form Coalition to Quickly Address Manufacturing Skills Gap with Robotics and Automation Apprenticeship Programs - Yahoo...

The majority of U.S. restaurants have made or plan to make investments in kitchen automation technology in the future, according to new survey data from payments company Square.

The company just released its Future of Retail and Future of Restaurants reports to offer an overview of what businesses are investing in from a technology standpoint and how processes and operations are changing.

Notable among the many pieces of data: Ninety-one percent of restaurants surveyed will implement some kind of automation technology into their kitchens if they havent done so already.

It should be noted that Square has some skin in this game, since the company has some technology in the restaurant back of house. Therefore, automation in this context is more about software that runs in restaurants than it is about articulating robot arms making food.

Why the rush to digitize the back of house? In order to take advantage of opportunities like multiple revenue streams and creative dining experiences, the back of house needs to be buttoned up, notes the report. Restaurants certainly grappled with things like multiple order streams (e.g., delivery, takeout, etc.) prior to COVID-19. But few would deny the pandemic accelerated the widespread adoption of these off-premises formats, and up to now restaurant tech has only had time to react to the changes, not get ahead of them.

Hence more investment in back-of-house tech. Bruce Bell, Head of Square for Restaurants, said in the report he sees more of a hub-and-spoke model these days, where the kitchen sits at the center of a growing number of sales channels. One channel might be the dining room, one channel might be first-party delivery, one channel might be meal kits, and so on, adds Bell. Having the kitchen run as efficiently as possible extends that efficiency into all of those channels, he said.

The hub-and-spoke model is already popular with some ghost kitchen setups. For larger restaurant chains, many of which are decreasing the sizes of their dining rooms or eliminating them altogether, this model could become the norm, too.

As far as those formats go, Squares report found that restaurants plan to offer the following in 2021: curbside pickup (66 percent); drive-thru service (52 percent); drive-in service (48 percent); and drive-through dining (46 percent).

Loyalty programs, digital menus, in-house delivery, and digital ordering and payments are all technologies we can expect to drive these formats as well as the dining room experience in the future.

If you are interested in kitchen automation and robotics, make sure to attend the second food robotics summit on May 18th!

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Survey: 91% of US Restaurants Will Invest in Kitchen Automation in 2021 - The Spoon

A study on CIO and CISO prioritization showed these two areas are most important this year. Cloud security is another area high on their lists.

TechRepublic's Karen Roby spoke with Bob Blakley, operating partner at Team8, a venture capital think tank, about investments CISOs should be considering in 2021. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Karen Roby: Bob, talk about two big areas that really stood out in your recent survey.

SEE: Social engineering: A cheat sheet for business professionals (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

Bob Blakley: We ran a survey of our community of CIOs, CISOs, and information security professionals. We have about 350 people in what we call the Team8 village, these are executives from our customer and partner organizations, and we asked them what areas they were prioritizing for investment in 2021. And two of the areas that we had mentioned by a lot of our CISOs were security automation and application security. I think it's pretty evident why those two areas in particular are our focus areas for 2021.

In the case of security automation, it's well known that there is a big talent shortage in the security market. Automation allows you to increase the leverage of the talent that you already have by enabling them to codify their wisdom into automated actions and have those actions applied without having to hire more people to do them manually. In the case of application security, what we're finding is that more and more of not only the security job, but of all jobs, is shifting left into the application development phase of the product cycle. What this means is that developers, who by and large are not security experts, need to have better tools to help them build security into their applications. And that's the basis for investment in that area.

Karen Roby: Bob, from that survey, 64% of those who responded said that cloud security is their top priority this year. No surprise, with all of the people working at home, it's more important than ever.

Bob Blakley: As you mentioned, 64% of the CISOs in our village survey mentioned cloud security as their top area for investment in 2021. I think there are two obvious reasons why cloud security is an area of increasing focus. The first is that cloud adoption, partly driven by the pandemic, is accelerating and is happening maybe faster than people had planned for. And along with adoption of cloud comes the requirements to secure operations in the cloud. And the cloud operates quite differently from on-premises infrastructure and applications.

There's a lot of investment that is going to be required to get enterprises up and running on high consequence applications in the cloud, just because it's a different environment. The other reason I think that people are investing in cloud security is because they are increasingly moving operations that normally they would have performed on-premises into the cloud, just because the employees increasingly with pandemic restrictions are working from home and because upgrading infrastructure and deploying things on-premises requires getting a lot of people into the building to do the work. In some cases, it is quicker to adopt a cloud technology than it is to implement an on-premises technology when you're operating in a distributed mode and a lot of your employees are not on-premises.

SEE: Looking for cybersecurity experts? Consider hiring veterans (TechRepublic)

Karen Roby: I know you have a lot of conversations with CISOs, and the ones that I have with the CISOs, CTOs, CIOs, so many of them are feeling really overwhelmed, stretched very thin now as this pandemic has raged on. In the beginning in March, it was a race to get employees home, to get them set up to work remote. And since then, it just seems so many of these IT professionals are really stretched very thin.

Bob Blakley: I think it's definitely the case that security organizations have been stretched actually for years. I mean, it's well-known that there's a big talent shortage in the sector and that the problems continue to get more serious every year. Certainly the pandemic has stretched people even thinner, partly because it raised a new set of problems. You put a bunch of people outside of the corporate network, outside of the corporate premises, and that creates a set of security requirements which weren't designed into the controls in the on-premise infrastructure. And that's one of the reasons why we are emphasizing, in our new cyber brief that we published recently, both smarter security, which is the application of not just automation but artificial intelligence and other technologies to the operation of the security program, but also shift-left and increasing adoption of cloud security technologies to allow the security organizations to make more efficient use of the limited staff resources that they have.

Karen Roby: Yeah, there's definitely a disparity in the supply and demand when it comes to experienced, educated security professionals. Bob, in closing here, going back to this survey, talk just a little bit about some of the things that really stood out to you, what you really think people need to know.

SEE: 6 enterprise security software options to keep your organization safe (TechRepublic)

Bob Blakley: We recently undertook the preparation of what we call a cyber brief. The idea behind the cyber brief was we wanted to lay out our thesis for what trends and developments were likely to influence the development of information security and cybersecurity for the next three to five years. So, we laid out a series of seven themes in the cyber brief, and we're getting quite good engagement and discussions on the themes. Cloud security was obviously one of the themes in the brief. Resilience and recovery was another of the themes in the brief. And we think that's important because while security in general is pretty effective, it's never going to be 100% effective. So, you have to be good at responding to the incidents that do occur.

And we also focused on smarter security, which we've already touched on in the earlier part of the interview, and on shift left, providing better tools to application developers to create applications that don't have as many vulnerabilities in the first place. I guess I would summarize the brief by saying this is our view, informed by our conversation with the teammates CISO village of what is going to drive the security market for the next couple of years. We hope people will read it and we hope also that they'll engage us in conversation on it.

Strengthen your organization's IT security defenses by keeping abreast of the latest cybersecurity news, solutions, and best practices. Delivered Tuesdays and Thursdays

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Cybersecurity pros: Automation and app security are top priorities in 2021 - TechRepublic

Indiana has about 387,000 people working in production occupations and about 314,000 people working in transportation and material moving occupations, according to data from the BLS. With such high numbers, its probably safe to assume terms like autonomous trucking or smart factories has a lot of people concerned about the future. Companies want to be proactive, but theres a lot of uncertainty ahead. What types of things should we be training for today so we can preserve jobs for tomorrow?

Such a big question required expert input, so we reached out to two of the leading statewide organizations for manufacturing and logistics-related companies: the Indiana Manufacturing Association (IMA) and Conexus Indiana. Their responses provided valuable insights that employers should know.

Embracing New Mindsets

Malika Graham Butler, Assistant Vice President, Governmental AffairsIndiana Manufacturers Association

The likelihood of certain jobs being impacted by technology is largely driven by two factors: creativity and repetition. Jobs requiring high creativity and less repetition arent as vulnerable to replacement by artificial intelligence.

As the revolution in technology substitutes for lower-skilled jobs that pose the most vulnerability across the entire economy, the displacement of workers by technology will provide the opportunity of the creation in new and innovative jobs that cant even be forecasted yet.

As companies begin to strategize how to respond to this challenge, there should be openness to a shift in expectations about employment and willingness to embrace new mindsets for what it means to be employable: the agile and adaptive skills for humans and technologies in hybrid roles in the work-place.

In order to keep hiring practices and workforce development competitive for tomorrows jobs, the foundation of employability is critical. Emotional intelligence. Agility. Soft Skills. Craft training practices around strengths that people will need to develop to find security in this rapidly changing environment, including critical thinking skills, adaptability, and tenaciousness. Skills and behaviors such as these will be a crucial in preparation for highly technical jobs we arent quite able to see yet.

Basic Skills, Lifelong Learning

Brad Rhorer, Chief Talent Programs Officer,Conexus Indiana

Companies across the country are maximizing the use of advanced technology, automation, and data to increase their competitiveness and productivity. In Indiana, companies are at different stages in this digital transformation commonly referred to as Industry 4.0. Preparing talent to succeed in this constantly evolving landscape requires an equal amount of basic skills training and lifelong learning.

One of our newest talent programs is designed to build a stronger workforce pipeline and establish a foundation for continuous learning as companies adopt Industry 4.0 technologies. Several of our other talent programs give students hands-on, real-world experience.

Workers in the advanced manufacturing and logistics industries need basic skills and the ability to problem-solve and learn as technologies are introduced. Each company will adopt new technologies at their own pace, and the technologies they adopt will be unique to their business goals. The good news is that Industry 4.0 will provide opportunities for talent to upskill and have meaningful, challenging careers.

Preparing to Learn

Rather than making training plans for any particular technical skill, companies need to focus on developing the kinds of continuous learning skills that will be essential for building an adaptive workforce. The future holds a large amount of fluidity, and were going to need people that can adjust quickly to new challenges and new problems. These uniquely human abilities will position any company well against the forthcoming challenges headed for many industries.

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Re-Thinking Workforce Training with Automation's Rise - Building Indiana

Nearly half of all businesses in India will implement robotic process automation (RPA) by 2024, said an IDC study on Wednesday.

The study commissioned by Automation Anywhere, a global leader in RPA, found that 57 per cent of organisations are investing in RPA and intelligent automation to build resilience post-Covid, as opposed to 21 per cent investing in analytics/big data, 7 per cent in machine learning, and 15 per cent in other emerging technologies.

Indian organisations cited trustworthiness as their top priority for digital transformation and are looking to automation for increased security and overall governance of processes.

Respondents also said they believe that RPA can improve accuracy, consistency and security of transactions.

The IDC study, which surveyed technology executives across India, combined with Automation Anywhere's survey of more than 1,600 customers in multiple industries, revealed that the pandemic spurred a recalibration of business plans accelerating digital transformation and RPA adoption.

The report, titled "Building Business Resiliency: Automation the Path to the Future Enterprise", identified four key pillars essential for an automation journey that include business resiliency, democratisation with automation, efficiency and scalability -- and trust, as businesses move to a new normal.

"The pandemic is a stark reminder of the critical importance of being prepared for any future calamity or uncertainty," Milan Sheth, Executive Vice President, IMEA (India, Middle East and Africa), Automation Anywhere, said in a statement.

"Automation is at the core of any business transformation strategy -- and two out of every three customers today are starting that journey in the cloud. Cloud RPA is the future, enabling remote work, reducing the burden on IT resources, and lowering infrastructure costs."

Among the key findings, 56 per cent of organizations surveyed plan to deploy digital workers and software bots that work directly with employees, encouraging more human-bot collaboration.

The study found that 47 per cent of employees believe that RPA increases business efficiencies.

--IANS

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50% of Indian firms to deploy intelligent automation by 2024: IDC - Business Standard

Woman-Owned Cloud Service Provider Based in Oregon Celebrates 25th Anniversary and Increases Employees 70% YoY

HILLSBORO, Ore. (PRWEB) February 24, 2021

Opus Interactive, a leading provider of complex hybrid cloud hosting services, announces its 25th Anniversary in the cloud computing industry.

Opus enters the 25th year announcing:

"As an organization, we foster a culture of innovation that constantly measures customer needs and asks -- how can we make IT better, faster, and more cost effective to meet the needs of our customers -- and that's what's driving expansion coming into our 25th year," said Shannon Hulbert, CEO. "New territories to meet growing demand in specific markets, strengthening organizational support expertise, and further innovation in how we respond to customers that are all faced with managing increasingly complex solutions. We're committed to expanding customer visibility into hybrid/multi-cloud environments, applying reusable application logic to infrastructure builds and management, and incorporating automation to accelerate continuous innovation - which is what has driven Opus forward for 25 years."

Opus Interactive began as an IT division in a creative agency, hosting applications and sites. The Company joined HPE and VMware's Partner Programs and began working with what was then called "virtualization" in 2003. Opus' History timeline, shows they launched their core IaaS offering, OpusCloud from Oregon in 2005.

Today, Opus Interactive delivers tailored hybrid and multi-cloud solutions for mission critical workloads from state-of-the-art data centers that enable customers nationwide. As stewards to customer infrastructure, the Inc 5000 company is committed to green IT and sustainable hybrid and multi-cloud services. The organization, whose facilities are known for commitment to renewables and efficiency, was named Oregon's Best Green Companies list in 2020.

About Opus Interactive

Founded in 1996, Opus Interactive has earned a reputation for custom IT solutions that fit unique requirements for security, scalability, cost, and future growth needs of its customers. An accredited member of the International Managed Services Provider Alliance, the Company operates from Tier III+ data centers located in Hillsboro, Portland, Dallas, and Northern Virginia. Through close partnerships with industry-leaders and a commitment to customer satisfaction, Opus delivers custom solutions for Cloud Hosting & IaaS, Colocation, DRaaS & Backup, Object Storage, VDI, and Public Cloud Monitoring & Management.

Opus Interactive is a woman and minority-owned enterprise that has worked closely with VMware and HPE partnership programs since 2005. With past performance that includes more than 20 years of proven results and current compliance with PCI-DSS, HIPAA, FedRAMP Moderate Ready and SSAE 18 SOC 2 Type II, Opus helps customers reduce cost and optimize resources using efficient operations.

For more information about Opus Interactive, visit http://www.opusinteractive.com.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: https://www.prweb.com/releases/opus_interactive_kicks_off_25th_year_expanding_territory_support_and_automation/prweb17744373.htm

The rest is here:

Opus Interactive Kicks Off 25th Year Expanding Territory, Support, and Automation - Benzinga

Simon Farthing, Commercial and Marketing Director at LexisNexis Enterprise Solutions, shows Lawyer Monthly how law firms can properly enhance their business using automation.

A recent survey of C-level executives and Heads of IT and Innovation shows that nearly 80% believe that of all their priorities, automation of business processes and workflows can deliver the greatest benefit to their firms. I wholeheartedly agree.

An opening word of caution: automation and workflow can have varied interpretations. For some they could be a set of simple linear steps for payment approval, for others a complex, multi-threaded legal process flow designed to drive hours out of a matter. So, a good starting point is answering these simple questions:

Without such clarity, you may find yourself with the wrong solution, insufficient resource to achieve the ambition and a lack of significant ROI.

Historically, legal process automation has been focused on taking transactional areas of work and using workflow to minimise human touchpoints. This has been as much due to work type specific cost pressures and restrictions as an exclusive technology fit. Now client expectations of greater efficiency, transparency and swifter turnaround have focused the spotlight on workflow even more.

Historically, legal process automation has been focused on taking transactional areas of work and using workflow to minimise human touchpoints.

Many technology providers will suggest you start your automation journey with something simple. A second word of caution: when selecting a target for automation, start with something difficult. Starting with a straightforward workflow in a lower volume department offers no guarantee of business efficiencies in more complex requirements later.

A mistake when automating processes is to create legal workflows focusing on how the firm typically delivers service rather than building processes that reflect the way the clients demand that the firm works with them. This is important when selecting the type of workflow tool you need.

Clients are increasingly aware of what they want you from you. There might be common needs across clients such as for management information, targeted SLAs, charging expectations and collaboration objectives but there will also be unique demands, which may be why they selected your firm in the first place. So, your options for approaching automation are:

Clients are increasingly aware of what they want you from you.

Understand the customer journey end-to-end to deliver the best outcomes in the most efficient manner. These outcomes must be more than legal process. For example, if youre trying to help a client acquire a business, think about the things you need to consider. Say the answer is, we need instant access to information. When designing the workflow, you need to determine whats the information thats needed, how can it be made available at the point of need in the transaction and so on, right until youre able to deliver the desired outcome to the client.

Ensure you have the right set of tools at your command so that you can customise those journeys for clients. A law firm wanted to expand its debt management portfolio, but realised that to win the business, they needed to be sharp and tight on costs. In preparation, they categorised the workflows involved in their customer journeys common processes across all types of clients, and workflows that were unique for specific sub-categories of clients. Thereafter, what other adaptations would be required to win the new debt management portfolio? Within that portfolio, would there be further unique requirements of some of the clients? Finally, how could the current technology enable the firm to establish all these different types of workflows and yet glue the various components together to create a seamless work environment across the business?

In short, look for exceptions at every level and then use technology to build processes and workflows to reflect them. Come up to the highest denominator i.e., what workflows can you reuse, what workflows do you need to build for a future platform that is suitable for the entire firm and finally, what is that 20% niche requirement that will make a substantial difference for the balance 80%?

Management information reporting is critical, but a common oversight is not to analyse and determine the data to report on when youre building the processes. So, when reporting is required, lawyers end up stepping outside of their routine business processes to go to different systems to access the relevant reporting data. If youre a litigation lawyer, having to record information around reserve value, key dates and changes in steps, it becomes a nuisance because this data isnt part of your regular transaction process.

When creating workflows for automation, think about the elements thatll require reporting on across the transaction journey. By doing so, data will be captured routinely as part of the natural workflow process. This is perhaps why often lawyers become disenfranchised by workflow firms dont take a client journey-led end-to-end approach.

Frequently, firms automate what they have already got leaving them with an old process that has been digitised, not the ideal solution you desire. Remember that you are the master of the technology that your firm deploys not the other way around. The technology must never take away your control. It must provide a flexible toolset that delivers real ROI on your ambitions.

Continue reading here:

Automating Legal Workflow the 'Right' Way - Lawyer Monthly Magazine

As managed service software vendors look to harness the power of AI and machine learning within their platforms, MSPs can expect to see a gradual, yet significant, emphasis on automation.

Automation is already deeply tied to the managed service business model, which requires continual improvements to service delivery to grow recurring revenue. MSPs with limited staff can use specialized tools, such as remote monitoring and management (RMM) software, to support a large volume of customers. However, while RMMs and other managed service software can efficiently drive many day-to-day MSP operational processes, a portion of technicians' time and energy remains tied to labor-intensive chores.

"Software for MSPs has always existed, really, for one reason: to automate manual tasks," said Mike Puglia, chief marketing officer at Kaseya Corp., an IT infrastructure management software vendor that targets MSPs.

In the future, MSPs could, potentially, assign many of those manual tasks to an AI system, freeing up human technicians to create more valuable offerings for customers.

Kaseya, among other managed service software vendors, has started to explore how AI and machine learning models can improve its tools, with an initial focus on cybersecurity. In August 2020, Kaseya acquired Graphus, a cloud-based email security provider. Graphus uses machine learning to automate the prevention of email-based attacks.

MSP software vendor ConnectWise also applies AI and machine learning to cybersecurity within its products, mainly to detect anomalous user behavior. "We have built up some models, and we are utilizing the ingestion of different data points to look for [red flags]," said ConnectWise Chief Product Officer Jeff Bishop. ConnectWise's current AI-based security efforts focus on the company's RMM and remote-control technologies.

ConnectWise has begun testing how AI can enhance help desk ticketing and service delivery for MSPs, Bishop said. For example, the company is exploring how AI could automatically route help desk tickets to the right person or team. ConnectWise has also experimented with sentiment analysis to prioritize help desk tickets, escalating tickets when the system detects anger in the ticket filer's tone.

"These are things that [are mostly in an] alpha or beta state," Bishop noted.

ConnectWise partners with several third-party vendors of chatbot or service delivery tools with AI built in. MSPs can integrate those products into the ConnectWise software. "We have done our best to make sure that, through our APIs and integrations, we support [that technology]," Bishop said.

Pulseway, which provides RMM tools for MSPs, is also taking a measured approach to incorporate AI into its software. "We are going in for the most tangible [applications] of AI technologies inside our product," said Pulseway Founder and CEO Marius Mihalec.

As part of that initiative, Pulseway has built a machine learning-based notification and alert system into its RMM. While still in its early stages, the system aims to analyze MSPs' customer IT environments to predict technical problems and alert the MSPs' techs when they need to respond. "The accuracy is not where it should be, but, in most cases, we do provide a feedback mechanism" where an MSP can indicate whether a notification or alert is valuable, Mihalec said. This feedback helps train the machine learning model.

Despite AI-based automation's potential, MSP software vendors recognize there is a long way to go before the technology matures. Until then, it requires a tight leash.

ConnectWise's Bishop said AI has already demonstrated bad decision-making in several cases. "We are allowing [AI] and machine learning models to make decisions, and it is a little bit scary -- or it can be -- if you don't have full control over it," Bishop said. "We want to be very careful and cautious of how we roll this out."

Puglia and Mihalec shared Bishop's concern.

"One of the biggest fears of people in IT is that AI can do a lot of things that could wreck a lot of [things] by mistake," Puglia said. "If you don't have any kind of guardrails," the AI system could be more foe than friend.

"Obviously, it is a bit scary," Mihalec said. "This is a factor we take into account." He noted that Pulseway's notification system will automatically suggest, rather than execute, an action, because each customer IT environment is different and MSPs can handle each issue in various ways.

That said, Kaseya, ConnectWise and Pulseway all view AI as increasingly playing a role of an assistant in MSP operations. For example, AI systems could help technicians identify patterns and suggest ways to resolve IT issues, potentially boosting technicians' productivity.

"I think that is where we are going for at least the next 24 months," Puglia said.

Down the road, as AI technology matures, new automation capabilities could free up MSPs to focus more on their businesses, the MSP software executives said.

According to Puglia, MSPs are typically stuck in the operational weeds, which hinders them from growing their businesses. AI-driven automation could change that. "Every MSP I have talked to [says] they could do so much more if they could get out of a lot of the lower-level stuff, " he said. Once liberated, MSPs would be able to do more consultative-type work and, ultimately, be more profitable.

Bishop agreed MSPs will eventually see considerable benefits from AI in managed service software. "We see [AI] playing a major role in helping [MSPs] provide better customer success, as well as just be more efficient in the business to help them improve margins, be more profitable and really focus on their end clients," he said.

Mihalec said he believes future AI advancements could fundamentally change what MSPs do.

With an AI-powered RMM, for example, MSPs could configure the system's level of AI automation according to each customer's environment, then simply monitor the AI's actions against the applied policies. As a result, the MSP would become more like an "observer," ensuring the RMM system complies with a customer's service-level agreement. Additionally, an AI-powered RMM would enable MSPs to provide data-driven consulting services, using the data the system collects from the customer's IT environment.

"That is where [RMM] technology is going in our view," Mihalec said.

Read more here:

AI in managed service software to boost automation - TechTarget