Category Archives: Automation

The world of test automation and quality assurance (QA) still undergoing a tremendous sea change wrought by the advancing maturity of DevOps in the enterprise. That's why as a QA professional you must remain on your toes if you are to stay on a solid career track.

TechBeacon spoke with recruiters, hiring managers, and experienced practitioners in test automation and QA. Here's what they say are the five most essential roles, and the three most in-demand skills.

[ Learn whatyour team needs to know to start taking advantage of test automation with TechBeacon's Guide. Plus: Get the Buyer's Guide For Software Test Automation Tools ]

One of the best-established trends in the world of software quality is the shift at many organizations to "transform legacy quality assurance teams into quality engineering organizations," saidBinu Mathew, director of quality engineering and engineering services for Sungard AS.

Moving toward continuous delivery of software has required organizations to develop testing systems and automation that bakes continual quality checks into the development pipeline. That means quality professionals are no longer doing the tests, but aredesigning them to be done. And that requires an engineering mindset.

"As DevOps engineering continues to shake up how fast a software solution can be delivered to market with high quality, continuous testing is one of the key pillars. The role of a quality engineer with revamped, higher technical skills is essential to make this transition happen."Binu Mathew

Quality engineers are sorely needed because test automation keeps growing more complex and more extensiveto account for modern development architecture. A hallmark skill amongquality engineers is being able to troubleshoot automation tools, saidLucas Donlon, senior QA test engineer for BCA Technologies.

"I learned early on I had to be an expert with the tool I was using;I couldn't always rely on reaching out to the company for help. There are always quirks to automation, and you have to know how to overcome them to make quality scripts that execute how you want them to."Lucas Donlon

Some QA engineers are evolving to become QA analysts,working with product teams and analytics toolsto determine test cases, saidErik Fogg, founder of QA automation startup ProdPerfect.

"QA analysts are embedded with these teams as consultants or advisers, helping teach the developers good quality and testing practices, and holding them accountable to maintain quality code."Erik Fogg

The test automation engineertitle, often used interchangeably with quality engineer, differs in that it requires additional test automation-relateddevelopment skills.

"Test automation engineers are experts with the testing mindset and quite deep coding skills," saidAndrei Mikhailau, software testing director at IT services firm ScienceSoft. These experts candesign and implement a test automation solution, thenplan and develop automated tests, heexplained.

"Despite the urgent and continuous need, they are still difficult to find in the talent pool," he said.

One of the reasons organizations struggle to recruit superstar test automation engineers is that the role generally requires a rare combination of technical acumen and soft skills. That's due to the level of collaboration these prosneed to engage in, saidColin Ma,director of engineering at Finliand a longtime consultant in QA who hashelped large enterprises interview and hire QA professionals.

Test automation engineers communicate with QA leads, fellow test automation engineers, and the developers on the project,and they needstrong organizational skills as well,he said.

Theyneed to be willing to go back and forth with developers to understand features. "They need to know about the nitty-gritty details of specific features so they can create good test scripts," Ma said.

The software developer engineering in test (SDET) role is another evolving title that peoplesometimesconfusewith quality engineer and test automation engineer roles.

But while quality engineers tend to be QA experts who consult with developers and advise them on testing best practices, and test automation engineers are skilled coders who can write automated tests, SDETs tend to be the Renaissance folk of the quality world.

They're software developers by profession who also possess an expert-level understanding of the fundamentals of test theory and methodology. These are the true rock stars of the modern CI/CD organization,saidDavid Moise, president of Decide Consulting, an IT and software recruiting firm. He's been seeingthe requests for SDET roles increasing.

"The gap between developer and tester has been getting thinner."David Moise

There was a time not too long ago whenit wouldbe rare for a QA professional to understand SQL, he explained. Now it is more unusual to not have that knowledge. As software architectures have evolved, more projects are a collection of APIs, and the only way to validate these is to check the database entries made by them.

"One needs SQL knowledge to do that. The QA folk are always better off writing their own SQL than looking to get that from the developers."David Moise

This is just a microcosm of the needs driving SDET, but it illustratesthe role's growth.

Whether they use a title such as QA lead, QA manager, or quality engineer, many companiesare hiring quality professionals to serve as arbiters of accountability for the thoroughness and soundness of automated test coverage.

They play the role of a testing marshal, saidDavid Messinger, CTO of Topcoder, who frequently works with global brands on software development strategies. A testing marshal "looks for complacency in testing," ferreting out the it's-always-been-done-this-way attitude from quality checks, he said.

They also buildmeasures for accountability to make sure testers are exhaustive in their testing. "Someone to be able to monitor this across teams is a necessity," Messinger said.

Performance management, asoftware quality specialty area, is growing in prominence. Most organizations recognize that poor software performance is costing them due tolow conversions, dropped transactions, and low user loyalty. As a result, ScienceSoft'sMikhailau said,you'll see a rise in the number of performance test engineers leadingthe charge in this niche.

These pros are a breed apart, he said.

Especially rare: Senior-level experts who can participate in the full software development lifecycle, provide guidance on effective performance testing strategy, lead the design and implementation of a performance test framework, review requirements, prepare test plans, and review the work of junior ormid-levelspecialists,Mikhailau said.

The importance of test automation development skillsis rising across all of the crucial QA roles identified by recruiters and hiring managers.

QA departments are notwhere they want to be yet,saidDecide Consulting'sMoise. Most quality professionals and hiring managers believe that 85% to 90% of their test cases should probably be automated, but realistically have only gotten to about 10% to 15% automation coverage.

"Companies are looking to shift towardmore automated QA from the manual side. The demand for people with scripting and automated testing experience is high and will be even higher."David Moise

Manual testing skills and knowledge haven't gone by the wayside. In the age of automated testing organizationswill alwaysneedpeople who have solid understanding of both manual and automated testing skills, especially in those QA lead roles. "They're much needed in fast-paced and flexible agile and DevOps projects to define the best testing type for each case and effectively balance manual and automated tests at lower costs," ScienceSoft'sMikhailausaid.

At the end of the day, even when end-to-end testing is completely owned by development, a company will need quality experts who knowthe fundamentals of test theory and methodology.

The three most common competencies companies look for are general test knowledge, knowledge of specific test systems, and, for more senior candidates, a deeper project discussion about test methodology, saidShannon Hogue Brown, global head of solutions engineering at Karat, which designs technical interviews for large enterprises.

Tostand out in your interview, be prepared to have a general conversation about things such as the pros and cons of different testing methodologies, and "be ready to talk through specific examples of test cases for a detailed scenario," Brown said.

In a highly integrated DevOps environment, collaboration is crucial for both QAand test automation professionals.

Successful quality and test automation pros are the ones who see product managers, developers, operations staffers, and executives as peers and who strive to understand how their domain of expertise fits into the wider picture, saidMarcus Merrell, senior director of field services for Sauce Labs.

"They familiarize themselves with the company financials" andattend conferences that focus on the business, as opposed to specific QA-centric events,Merrell said.

More importantly, they check their ego at the door.

"I'd rather hire a person who works well with others and adapts to new processesthan a person who has all the answers but clearly won't fit culturally."Marcus Merrell

[ Understand quality-driven development with best practices from QA practitioners in TechBeacon's Guide. Plus: Download the World Quality Report 2019-20 ]

Ultimately the goal of both the quality employee and the employer isdiversity. QA and test professionals need to broaden theirskills as organizations demand more soft skills and coding acumen to bolster existing competenciesin quality fundamentals.

Meanwhile, organizations seeking to more seamlessly integrate quality functions into DevOps teams should work tobuild a culture of inclusion that creates a team with a broad base of professional and life experiences upon which to draw.

"Your customers are diverse, and your QA and development teams need to be as well. To develop and deliver software that meets your customers'needs, you have to understand their needs. And to understand those needs, you need people on your team who share their perspectives."Marcus Merrell

[Understandthe issuesand risks that come with SAP modernization with TechBeacon's Guide. Download: Ensure SAP Modernization Success with DevOps ]

Read more:

Test automation and QA career guide: Top roles and skills - TechBeacon

Israel-based online marketplace Fiverr on Thursday launched a tool powered by artificial intelligence for designing company logos.

The Fiverr Logo Maker asks users several questions about their business and style preferences, including the brand name, slogan and industry. They are presented with style options including a classic or modern look, fun or serious, and traditional or sophisticated.

The automated program then takes over and generates an array of logos in several seconds. Each branding option generated by the program presents several variations, with different colors, fonts and designs. Examples of the emblems are also projected onto cups, business cards and phone screens.

Get The Start-Up Israel's Daily Start-Up by email and never miss our top storiesFree Sign Up

The logos are based on the work of top designers on Fiverr, which are then adjusted by the automated tools to suit the specific users needs and preferences.

It is free for Fiverr members to try, but they must pay to download a branding package and gain rights to the logos. The branding package includes the logo in different formats, sizes, and colors, and a social media kit.

The tool seeks to combine artificial intelligence and human creativity amid fears that automation will replace jobs.

The power of Fiverr Logo Maker rests in its approach to combining the creative artwork designed by Fiverr community members and its intuitive AI algorithms that allow it to generate relevant, effective logos for businesses in a few clicks, the company said in a statement.

Automation will not displace human imagination and creativity, rather, the technologys impact will be in supporting and enhancing fundamental human capabilities. The future of work is one where AI supports more people, to create more with less effort, Fiverr founder and CEO Micha Kaufman said in a statement.

Fiverrs co-founder and CEO, Micha Kaufman (Courtesy: Yuval Taog)

As a company that puts our community first, we believe our approach to building smart AI tools not only supports their efforts in delivering exceptional work, but also bolsters their opportunities for work and earning potential, Kaufman said.

Fiverr connects business with freelancers offering digital services, such as copy editing or website consulting. The company said it has served over 5.5 million businesses and carried out over 50 million transactions. It supports freelancers in 160 countries working in 300 service categories.

The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2019. It trades under the ticker FVRR and has a market cap of $836 million.

It was founded in 2010 by Shai Wininger and Micha Kaufman.

The rest is here:

Fiverr launches AI-powered automated logo maker - The Times of Israel

Many people think thatenterprise service management(ESM) isall about adapting the concepts ofIT service management (ITSM)to other areas of the business.

That's not quite the case, and there are two things you should be concerned about.First, many ITSM implementations are really not service management; they are at best implementations of process management or IT operations management.

Many IT organizations missed the boat in terms of ITservice management.Yes, you can apply ITSMto justIT operations, but this method does not represent a complete approach to ITSM.Other parts of the IT organization, such as application development and information security, make significant contributions to the co-creation of value and business outcomes based on the use of technology.

Which leads to my second concern.If you extend this same approach to adoption of service management concepts into the enterprise, your ESM project will fail.

ESM isan organizational capability for delivering desired outcomes and value by leveraging the resources of the entire enterprise in a holistic, integrated way.

Here's why ESM must evolve.

[ Learn how to add AIOps to your playbook in TechBeacon's Guide. Plus: Download two reports: AI is Transforming the Role of IT | The State of Analytics in IT Ops ]

Many organizations are moving forward with what they are calling ESM.This typically involves expanding the use of theexisting ITSM tool more broadly into the organization.

One approach involvesestablishing a central service desk for the organizationcreating one point ofcontact forany issue or request. Organizations that take this approach may have some defined workflows, but those are often no more than a dispatcher of specific tasks to specific departments.

Many organizations expand the use of their IT self-service portals into enterprise self-service portals.This provides internal resources with a one-stop interface forrequesting and receiving certain defined products, service actions, or access to resources. But in many cases the requester must know exactly what they need in order to place the right request.

Another approach is to implement specific modules, or sets of prepackaged workflows, within the ITSM tool for specific use by other departments.These modules typically use the same vernacular used within that department; for example, an HR module would refer to an "employee," while anITSM module would refer to a "user."

The modules would also includepredefined workflows for specific activities performed within that department. This approach allows those departments to leverage the capabilities of the ITSM tool.

So, what's wrong with any of that? you might be thinking.

While extending the ITSM tool solution to other departments may improve the ROI of the tool,it doesn't necessarily result in an enterprise approach to service management.Infact, it may exacerbate and further reinforce any silo mentality that may exist within the organization.

And while data from various departments may be stored with a single ITSM tool, workflows typically don't cross departmental domainsunless additional modules, coding, or customization is done within the tool.

[ Find outwhat your team needs to know to roll out robotic process automationin TechBeacon's Guide. Plus: Getthe white paper Enterprise Requirements for RPA ]

Among other things, ESM should support workflows that themselves measureenterprisevalue streams.A value stream is the sequence of activities required to design, produce, and deliver a good or service to a customer. (See Value Stream Mapping: How to Visualize Work and Align Leadership for Organizational Transformation, by KarenMartin and MikeOsterling.)

Value streams already exist within every enterprise, although they may not be well-understood or documented.People within an organization may not understand their role or contribution within a value stream.Good ESM would address these issues.

Good ESM will help break down any silo mentality that exists within an organization.Frankly, organizations that are working within silos cannot react or respond quickly to changes in marketsand the overallbusiness.

The ability for enterprises to adapt and respond quickly in the digital age is critical.Good ESM allows the organization to act holistically, rather than as a collection of parts.

Good ESM results in defined and documented enterprise workflows thatin turncan be automated.Enterprise workflows that are well-designed and frictionless result in better experiences for both customers and employees.

ESMtools have essentially evolved as extensions of traditional IT service management software. ITSM tool vendors may see themselves as evolving into an ERP system for organization-wide workflows.

Unfortunately, today's service management platforms typically are extended into the enterprise by bolting on new modules for HR or procurement or other business areas. They don't necessarily handle end-to-end, cross-functional value streams without customization.

A true ESM system would handle these value streamsandenable process automation across a business's value streams.

Is this where ITSM platforms are going? So far, I'm not seeing that. But it's where the market needs to go.

But the huge lesson learnedfrom ITSM implementations that must be applied to ESM adoption is that it takes more than just technology to have an effective service management system.

Cultural change is the most significant challenge for ESM.The departments within many organizations are more focused on meeting their internal departmental goals and less on achieving organizational goals. ESM shifts the focus from individual departmental efforts to enterprise outcomes.

Many organizations suffer from the lack of cross-departmental views of the flow of information across the enterprise.Individual departments may know what they do, but they do not know how what they do fits in within the rest of the company.

Perhaps the most significant challenge facing ESM adoption is the lack of ownership for end-to-end outcomes. In most organizations, there is no individual, other than the CEO, whohas enterprise-wide responsibility for outcomes.

Typically, those reporting to a CEO have ownership of onlyspecific enterprise outcomes.For example, the human resources department is concerned onlywith human resources.The finance organization is focused only on financial systems. While individually each of these outcomes is important, no one owns the value streams that flow across the organization.

The most important aspect of ESM adoption is to make sure you put the "enterprise"into ESM. Here are some things you should do to get your ESM adoptions started correctly.

Invest in teaching the business about the business.Many employees are unaware of how the business operates outside of their own area or department.

Create customer journey maps. Once the domain of marketing departments, customer journey maps are a great way for the entire enterprise to understand how customers interact with a company. Customer journey maps follow an "outside-in"approach, looking at an organization from the customer perspective.Where are the touch points between the customer and the company?How does technology support those interactions?What company resources are involved within each of those interactions?

Engage in value stream mapping.If a customer journey map represents the outside-inperspective, value stream maps represent the internal, end-to-end view of the flow of information and goods from demand to delivery.How dovalue, information, andmaterials flow from customer demand to customer fulfillment? Where are the handoffs within the enterprise? How does technology support or enable those handoffs?

Just extending the use of an ITSM tool into the organization is not ESM.True ESM takes a holistic view of how an organization works together to deliver the desired outcomes and value for both the enterprise and its customers.

ITSM tools must evolve to support ESM by supporting and automating the end-to-end workflows that underpin the value streams of an enterprise.

[ Get up to speed on changing the IT services game with ESM in TechBeacon's Guide. Plus: Download the Forrester Wave for Enterprise Service Management ]

Here is the original post:

Why ESM must evolve to automate end-to-end value streams - TechBeacon

Advances to ReversingLabs Titanium Platform Deliver Transparent and Trusted Malware Insights that Address Security Skills Gap

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ReversingLabs, a leading provider of explainable threat intelligence solutions today announced new and enhanced capabilities for its Titanium Platform, including new machine learning algorithm models, explainable classification and out-of-the-box security information and event management (SIEM) plug-ins, security, orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) playbooks, and MITRE ATT&CK Framework support. Introducing a new level of threat intelligence, the Titanium Platform now delivers explainable insights and verification that better support humans in the incident response decision making process. ReversingLabs has been named as a ML-Based Machine Learning Binary Analysis Sample Provider within Gartners 2019 Emerging Technologies and Trends Impact Radar: Security1.. ReversingLabs will showcase its new Titanium Platform at RSA 2020, February 24-28 in San Francisco, Moscone Center, Booth #3311 in the South Expo.

As digital initiatives continue to gain momentum, companies are exposed to an increasing number of threat vectors fueled by a staggering volume of data that contains countless malware infected files and objects, demanding new requirements from the IT teams that support them, said Mario Vuksan, CEO and Co-founder, ReversingLabs. Its no wonder security operations teams struggle to manage incident response. Combine the complexity of threats with blind black box detection engine verdicts, and a lack of analyst experience, skill and time, and teams are crippled by their inability to effectively understand and take action against these increased risks. The current and future threat landscape requires a different approach to threat intelligence and detection that automates time-intensive threat research efforts with the level of detail analysts need to better understand events, improve productivity and refine their skills.

According to Gartners Emerging Technologies and Trends Impact Radar: Security, Gartner estimates that ML-based file analysis has grown at 35 percent over the past year in security technology products with endpoint products being first movers to adopt this new technology.2

Black Box to Glass Box VerdictsBecause signature, AI and machine learning-based threat classifications from black box detection engines come with little to no context, security analysts are left in the dark as to why a verdict was determined, negatively impacting their ability to verify threats, take informed action and extend critical job skills. That lack of context and transparency propelled ReversingLabs to develop a new glass box approach to threat intelligence and detection designed to better inform human understanding first. Security operations teams using ReversingLabs Titanium Platform with patent-pending Explainable Machine Learning can automatically inspect, unpack, and classify threats as before, but with the added capability of verifying these threats in context with transparent, easy to understand results. By applying new machine learning algorithms to identify threat indicators, ReversingLabs enables security teams to more quickly and accurately identify and classify unknown threats.

Key Features Available now with Explainable Machine Learning, ReversingLabs platform inspires confidence in threat detection verdicts amongst security operations teams through a transparent and context-aware diagnosis, automating manual threat research with results humans can interpret to take informed action on zero day threats, while simultaneously fueling continuous education and the upskilling of analysts. ReversingLabs Explainable Machine Learning is based on machine learning-based binary file analysis, providing high-speed analysis, feature extraction and classification that can be used to enhance telemetry provided to incident response analysts. Key features of ReversingLabs updated platform include:

-- Explainable MachineLearning o Patent-pending Binary Machine Learning Classification Models o New threat-specific machine learning algorithms for a variety of malware types o Explainable Malware Classification Indicators in a human readable format that brings understanding to file classification for security analysts -- Explainable SIEM & SOAR ThreatIntelligence o Integration with leading SIEM platforms, including new or enhanced APIs for Splunk Enterprise and Microsoft Azure Sentinel o Integration to leading SOAR platforms including new or enhanced APIs for Splunk Phantom -- Explainable Threat Insight Dashboards o MITRE ATT&CK Framework Support: Explainable indicators mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework for actionable analyst remediation o File Intelligence Dashboard: Enhanced summary of the organizations overall security posture with at-a-glance views into top malware families investigated with human readable understanding broken out by type, and extracted network observables. o New Timeline Analysis Panel: Visualizes zero-day events identified by ReversingLabs before and in comparison to third party detection engines

Effective machine learning results depend on having the right volume, structure, and quality of data to convert information into a relevant finding, said Vijay Doradla, Chief Business Officer at SparkCognition. With access to ReversingLabs cloud extensive repository, we have the breadth, depth, and scale of data necessary to train our machine learning models. Accurate classification and detection of threats fuels the machine learning-driven predictive security model leveraged in our DeepArmor next-generation endpoint protection platform.

1, 2 Gartner, Emerging Technologies and Trends Impact Radar: Security, Lawrence Pingree, et al, 13 November 2019

About ReversingLabsReversingLabs helps Security Operations Center (SOC) teams identify, detect and respond to the latest attacks, advanced persistent threats and polymorphic malware by providing explainable threat intelligence into destructive files and objects.ReversingLabs technology is used by the worlds most advanced security vendors and deployed across all industries searching for a better way to get at the root of the web, mobile, email, cloud, app development and supply chain threat problem, of which files and objects have become major risk contributors.

ReversingLabs Titanium Platform provides broad integration support with more than 4,000 unique file and object formats, speeds detection of malicious objects through automated static analysis, prioritizing the highest risks with actionable detail in only .005 seconds. With unmatched breadth and privacy, the platform accurately detects threats through explainable machine learning models, leveraging the largest repository of malware in the industry, containing more than 10 billion files and objects. Delivering transparency and trust, thousands of human readable indicators explain why a classification and threat verdict was determined, while integrating at scale across the enterprise with connectors that support existing SIEM, SOAR, threat intelligence platform and sandbox investments, reducing incident response time for SOC analysts, while providing high priority and detailed threat information for hunters to take quick action. Learn more at https://www.reversinglabs.com, or connect on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Media Contact: Jennifer Balinski, Guyer Group jennifer.balinski@guyergroup.com

More here:

ReversingLabs Releases First Threat Intelligence Platform with Explainable Machine Learning to Automate Incident Response Processes with Verified...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MedEvolve, Inc., a leading provider of data-driven solutions that provide unmatched transparency, automation and accountability for healthcare organizations, today unveiled its AI-powered Financial Clearance Workflow Automation platform. The solution leverages visual cues and natural workflow automation to ensure resources are used effectively, financial data is transparent and accurate, revenue cycle risk is minimal, and any necessary follow up or action is easy to identify.

Financial clearance, known to many as pre-registration, comprises all the tasks a healthcare organization should complete before the patient arrives for an appointment. This ensures patients are aware and accountable for any balance owed (past, present and future), and that all necessary information has been verified or collected (demographics, benefits, eligibility, pre-certifications, etc.). Taking these steps allows the claim to move through the revenue cycle without issue or delay.

The number one thing healthcare executives are worried about is how to reduce spend and improve receivables -- and that has everything to do with identifying what you can control when it comes to financial assurances, said Matt Seefeld, Executive Vice President for MedEvolve. Our new platform facilitates work, actions and information required before the patient walks through the door, so practices eliminate risks up front and minimize the chances of missing out on revenue later. Its really about peace of mind and making informed decisions about your practice.

MedEvolve Financial Clearance Workflow Automation provides visual cues so practice executives know where each patient is in the financial clearance process, in real-time, and what needs to happen next. By ensuring that providers have financial sponsorship before delivering care to patients, practices can strengthen their revenue cycles and improve net revenues. Ultimately, providers improve patient engagement by offering more flexibility in scheduling and payment plans, as well as eliminating surprise billing.

People always ask me, what can I do to improve the back-end of the revenue cycle? and I always say, fix the front-end. There are a lot of people and processes involved between scheduling and billing, which means a lot of room for error, said Seefeld. Weve invested a significant amount of time and resources to find the smartest, most natural way for practices to gain transparency into their current processes, avoid denials, understand write-offs, improve training, establish accountability and more.

Financial Clearance Workflow Automation also helps to ensure that practices have the right people in the right positions. Providers can free up staff to focus on the necessary tasks, monitor productivity, establish accountability measures, and provide additional training where needed. On top of that, staff have visibility into their own performance, which boosts morale by empowering them to take ownership in their roles.

We knew our front desk staff were making mistakes, but we didn't know how to resolve them because we couldnt identify the problem areas. We didnt know what changes to make or where the mistakes were being made, said Maryanne Thompson, Controller for MidLantic Urology. Now, if I see Front Desk Denial: COB in our workflow, I can click to see who in which office isnt checking in advance so I can train that person. Our front-line staff feel empowered. They want to know if they missed somethingif they forgot to check insurance for example. It is boosting staff morale and were constantly improving based on the data.

Financial Clearance Workflow Automation joins MedEvolves full suite of solutions designed to eliminate staffing challenges and reduce the cost to collect. To learn more, visit http://www.medevolve.com.

About MedEvolve

MedEvolve empowers physician practices to work smarter with data-driven solutions that provide unmatched transparency, automation and accountability. Our suite of analytics software and services, including MedEvolve RCM Scorecard, is designed to uncover cash opportunities, identify problem areas and resolve issues quickly to improve financial, operational and clinical performance. MedEvolves Workflow Automation solutions eliminate the guess work from managing a practices revenue cycle and leverage AI to define what needs to be worked, when and by whom. In addition, MedEvolve offers Practice Management (PM) technology that can integrate with any EHR and, Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) technology and services. Visit http://www.medevolve.com to learn more.

Read the original here:

MedEvolve Announces Workflow Automation to Minimize Financial Clearance Risk for Physician Practices - Business Wire

In a report released yesterday, Scott Graham from Rosenblatt Securities maintained a Hold rating on Rockwell Automation (ROK), with a price target of $217.00. The companys shares closed last Monday at $198.74, close to its 52-week high of $207.94.

According to TipRanks.com, Graham is a 4-star analyst with an average return of 7.8% and a 63.6% success rate. Graham covers the Industrial Goods sector, focusing on stocks such as AO Smith, Pentair, and Ametek.

Rockwell Automation has an analyst consensus of Hold, with a price target consensus of $193.11.

See todays analyst top recommended stocks >>

Rockwell Automations market cap is currently $23.09B and has a P/E ratio of 25.44. The company has a Price to Book ratio of 32.20.

Based on the recent corporate insider activity of 77 insiders, corporate insider sentiment is negative on the stock. This means that over the past quarter there has been an increase of insiders selling their shares of ROK in relation to earlier this year.

TipRanks has tracked 36,000 company insiders and found that a few of them are better than others when it comes to timing their transactions. See which 3 stocks are most likely to make moves following their insider activities.

Rockwell Automation, Inc. engages in the provision of industrial automation and information services. It operates through the following segments: Architecture and Software, and Control Products and Solutions . The Architecture and Software segment contains hardware, software, and communication components of its integrated control and information architecture which are capable of controlling the customers industrial processes and connecting with their business enterprise. The Control Products and Solutions segment combines a portfolio of intelligent motor control and industrial control products, application expertise, and project management capabilities. The company was founded in 1928 and is headquartered in Milwaukee, WI.

See more here:

Rockwell Automation (ROK) Gets a Hold Rating from Rosenblatt Securities - Smarter Analyst

What is the single most significant trend you see in enterprise adoption of automation over the last year? How do you see it panning out to impact the industry over 2020?

Intelligent (AI-driven) automation will replace rules-based automation. While many RPA platforms now offer AI capabilities, historically, RPA and AI have been used as two separate applications one is rules-based, and the other is adaptive and predictive. Over the next year, RPA and process analytics will become entirely infused with AI and machine learning (ML), accelerating process mining and discovery, and dramatically simplifying human effort in these areas. Automation Anywhere has been engaging in this area and our software bots will be able to automatically identify the best business processes to automate, act upon this insight, and optimize deployments to guarantee the best possible results.

Smart Ways to Fast-track AI Implementation

This is not the first time you are joining a team as the first CIO. What typical challenges do you see the very first head of IT faces in a company? How do you mitigate them?

Often, CIOs biggest challenge is managing and prioritizing a myriad of opportunities available so that their organization is in the best position to evolve and thrive. More importantly, as the first CIO of Automation Anywhere, my goal is to provide governance and harness the positive momentum that we have experienced during the companys steady growth and become a partner to the product, marketing, and sales teams.

One of my priorities at Automation Anywhere is to set up a Center of Excellence (CoE) to implement thousands of bots internally to automate end-to-end business processes. The company has more than 200 bots deployed internally, with expectations to grow that number to 500 bots in the coming months and over 1,000 or more in the next year to 18 months. My job is to remove roadblocks to internal automation of processes and arm our team with the knowledge and confidence to tell us how we can use our RPA tools to save time, effort and make our work more human.

Intelligent Automation Technology Is a Necessity In 2020

In your experience, which vertical is seeing the most significant adoption, and reaping the highest benefit form RPA?

A fascinating aspect of RPA is that almost any industry can benefit from utilizing this powerful technology. A report from Futurum Research commissioned by Automation Anywhere found that the media and publishing sector has been the most eager to embrace automation, with 87.5 percent of respondents claiming that their firms have already implemented some form of RPA. The complete digitization of media has driven companies and content publishers to replace manual content and media management processes with flexible, adaptable, machine-learning-based automated solutions.

There is no more doubt about RPA adoption in enterprises. But it is also true that enterprises need to be ready for this kind of process transformation. What do you advise companies planning to adopt RPA for benefits? What should they do to be, so to speak, RPA ready?

RPA will transform business, but thats not a given. There is the right way as well as the wrong way to implement RPA. Adoption is a long-term journey of creating change that will empower the workforce to become more productive and creative. The RPA journey is closely connected to digital transformation. Creating an enterprise-wide strategic move is the hallmark of successful RPA implementations. RPA, as one of the core elements of digital transformation, has the power to augment and free resources. It redefines the standards of speed, efficiency, and changes the way businesses operate both, organically and intentionally.

Discovery is the first step in ensuring your organization is RPA-ready. CIOs should start by assessing organizational fit, appetite, and readiness for RPA, and researching the available RPA tools and then begin to sketch a vision for organizational transformation. Its essential to bring in HR early to keep people at the center and establish an open, pragmatic approach from the start.

Voice-based AI Assistant Certainly the Future of Workplace

Are there any risks associated with RPA and its rapid entry into the B2B enterprise? Have you seen any instances of such an incident? If yes, how did you eliminate it?

Ive spoken with hundreds of CIOs over the last two years, so from my vantage point in hearing about challenges at other companies, RPA offers tremendous value for businesses: dramatically reducing operating costs with near-zero error rates, 70% higher productivity gains, and infinite scalability. While RPA is the fastest-growing segment of the global enterprise software market, according to Gartner, there are still several barriers to overcome before the full promise of RPA is fulfilled.

Getting a deployment off the ground can be the hardest part. The largest stumbling block I see is the need for proper RPA skills and training. Integrating emerging technologies with an existing workforce is challenging. Automation not only stands to change how individuals perform their jobs but will transform the behavior of the organization itself. For CIOs, it will transform the IT team to do so much more impact on the rest of the company. Thats why Automation Anywhere launched Automation Anywhere University (AAU), our online RPA training academy, to prepare the workforce of today with skills for the automation-driven future. Through AAU, Automation Anywhere has trained more than 350,000 developers, business analysts, partners, and students in RPA to prepare the workforce of today for the automation-driven future.

How to Zoom onto the Perfect AI Model by Measuring Business Needs Accurately?

Read more:

RPA Adoption across Industries and the Associated Risks - EnterpriseTalk

Dr Paul Rivers, CEO, Guidance Automation

There has been much written about the benefits that automation can unlock for businesses, but too often businesses think they need to jump in at the deep end and deploy automation technology straight away, hoping it will solve the problems they are experiencing.

But how will a process optimised for a manual workforce perform with automation such as an automated guided vehicle (AGV)? How will people respond when their day-to-day roles change?

If the aim is to improve efficiency and productivity, technology is just one part of the overall solution.

In this article, I explain why a considered deployment of an automation solution that takes into account the process needs, the people as well as the technology, ensures businesses can introduce automation that can augment the workers experience whilst also transforming productivity.

Automation misconception

Industry 4.0 can transform organisations processes and operations. It can revolutionise productivity, improve accuracy and unleash new levels of efficiency.

In operating environments where skills are thin on the ground and staff recruitment and retention a challenge, automation appears to be a fast track to nirvana. Yet the reality is somewhat different.

Automation is not a direct replacement for a human workforce and how could it be?

However technically advanced, todays automated solutions may offer huge opportunities to improve productivity, but they do not replicate the activities of a human workforce in a like for like manner.

By failing to truly consider how the technology will be deployed and, critically, how it will work in tandem with a human workforce organisations are fundamentally failing to get the point of automation or reap the rewards.

Some mistakes are basic, such as installing a fleet of AGVs but failing to consider the need for automatic door opening.

Others are more fundamental, such as overlooking the implications of dropping technology into a workplace without engaging the workforce.

Either way, a misunderstanding of automation and its implications for both people and process can lead to serious operational problems that risk derailing essential investment in improvement.

Understanding the process

Assessing the way in which automation will fit within an existing process is critical.

If, for example, one of the biggest issues within a warehouse is vehicle congestion, especially at peak times, simply replacing human operated vehicles with AGVs without considering the timing and location of the routes is not going to address the problem.

Reconsidering the traffic flow, the way orders are batched, the tasks and schedules is essential to maximise the specific value of the AGVs.

Growing numbers of organisations are considering the use of automated vehicles to replace the highly manual task of driving around a warehouse, picking items and delivering those items to a loading station.

Reallocating those individuals to dedicated pick locations makes operational sense but this is not a like for like situation.

For example, while individuals may only be able to operate a single pick model, an AGV may be able to pick up to three, not only reducing non-productive time but also cutting the number of autonomous vehicles, and hence investment, required.

For companies investing in automated mobile robots (AMRs), analysing the SKUs, the process, the distance travelled by vehicles on each route is key to understanding how many robots are required.

Furthermore, by running a simulation of how the automated model would work in practice, an organisation can highlight opportunities to optimise the batching of orders to dispatch to the AGVs, gaining further efficiency advantages.

Engaging the people

Of course, the most optimised process can still be derailed if the workforce does not understand how to work with AMRs or, even worse, is actively interfering with the robotic vehicles.

Ensuring people are part of this process from the very beginning is essential because their day to day activities will change.

The positive benefits for employees are significant not least the use of solutions such as mobile conveyors to minimise the need for heavy and repetitive lifting.

When technology can completely eradicate these arduous tasks and the workforce is required to simply verify the item by scanning individuals will respond well to the change.

But people need to be educated, trained and confident. They need to understand how the technology works and how they work together.

A workforce chasing AMRs down the aisle because they do not understand where the system is designed to stop does not represent a harmonious man / machine interaction.

There will, of course, be changes to the skillsets required forklift drivers will increasingly be replaced by automated vehicles.

However, in a market desperate to recruit and retain individuals with experience, this provides companies with a chance to retrain highly skilled forklift drivers to, for example, supervise loading or oversee picking teams.

Highlighting the specific skills such as picking that are simply not in the purview of automation today is an important part of this automation evolution and key to creating an operating environment that combines excellent technology with an engaged and motivated workforce.

Embracing the technology

The automation technologies available to organisations today are compelling.

From autonomous mobile robots to automated guidance vehicles, as Industry 4.0 gains both momentum and maturity, confidence in the quality of the technology to deliver and enable significant operational change continues to grow.

But, if businesses fail to get processes aligned and truly understand the goal of any automation investment, problems will arise.

By considering both the processes and the people who operate those processes today, organisations can take a far more intelligent approach to automation.

Add in simulation to understand how AMRs, for example, might operate at different times is critical to highlighting potential problems and avoiding inefficiencies.

Plus, of course, these systems deliver real time data in huge detail. Combining analytics to monitor conditions in real time with dynamic fleet scheduling and route optimisation will enable continuous improvement.

The technology is brilliant; but it is the way it is deployed, the way orders are batched, and schedules planned, the way people are managed and skilled, that is the key to truly realising the potential of automation.

You might also like

Read more here:

Opinion: How will people respond when automation changes their roles - Robotics and Automation News

The conventional tools to ensure cybersecurity are not sufficient in todays world especially in 2020 where using just anti-malware software or login audits will not work at par with rising threats. Organisations need more resources and powerful infrastructure to resist any type of data breach. To enable such strength, they need to embrace AI/ML and automation to fortify their company and company data against malicious intentions.

In an interview to Tech Republic, Greg Martin, general manager of the Security Business Unit at Sumo Logic, said, AI/ML and automation greatly enhance endpoint protection, but where we see the most benefit in the technology is guiding security operations in what exactly to do with those threats once they hit the enterprise. The ever-increasing sophistication and persistence of cybercriminal activity is requiring security operations teams to rethink how they use people, processes, and technology.

Obfuscation, polymorphism and certain others are among most challenging hacking techniques which make it difficult to spot malicious programs. Moreover, security engineers with domain-specific knowledge and workforce shortage are another significant issues in regard to ensure cybersecurity. However, using AI and ML, experts and researchers are dedicating their best to utilize the best of the technologies in an effort to identify and counteract sophisticated cyber-attacks with reduced or no human intervention. AI and ML have enabled the security professionals to learn about new attack vectors.

In the domain of cybersecurity, ML is much more than just an application of certain algorithms. The technology can be leveraged to analyze cyber threats better and respond to security incidents. Detecting malicious activities and stopping cyber-attacks while analysing mobile endpoints for cyber threats are among the significant benefits of ML in cybersecurity. The technology also tends to improve human analysis from malicious attack detection to endpoint protection.

As noted by Forbes, cybersecurity products designed to automate specific processes are widespread, and the likelihood is that you have already implemented automation tools within your organization. For example, vulnerability management products can be configured to automatically detect and scan devices on an enterprise network. They can then conduct an assessment based upon a set of security controls authorized by the organization. Once the assessment is complete, identified defects can be remediated.

To enable the cybersecurity in todays age, a number of experts tend to refer to the tools like security automation and orchestration (SOAR) products, robotic process automation (RPA) and custom-developed software and code that automate processes and perform analysis.

Where SOAR products are purpose-built tools that orchestrate activities between other security tools and perform specific automation activities in response to identified threats, RPA tools, on the other hand, are a broader set of automation tools that allow for a wide variety of processes to be automated.

Moreover, RPA tools have seen a significant acceleration in adoption in the HR and finance fields but can also be leveraged by cybersecurity teams. According to Forbes, custom-developed software and code can automate all manner of analyses and is often leveraged for a niche or specific challenge within an organization that may not have an out of the box tool available.

Share This ArticleDo the sharing thingy

About AuthorMore info about author

Smriti is a Content Analyst at Analytics Insight. She writes Tech/Business articles for Analytics Insight. Her creative work can be confirmed @analyticsinsight.net. She adores crushing over books, crafts, creative works and people, movies and music from eternity!!

Read this article:

How AI and Automation Help Ensure Cybersecurity? - Analytics Insight

The global warehouse automation market is estimated to double by 2025, which means more of your competition will be exploring, and investing in, automated warehouse solutions. If they havent already, warehouse companies and executives will soon have to decide if (and how) to incorporate warehouse automation and robotics into their own daily operations if they want to remain competitive.

However, with new technology comes new hurdles and new unexpected issues to resolve. While automation and robotics are ultimately implemented to make your operations more streamlined, accurate and efficient, there will always be the chance that it causes issues and downtime if not implemented and maintained properly. Many companies have felt the effects of a less-than-perfectly planned automation implementation strategy, such as online retail giant ASOS. A glitch in their automated warehouse management system caused a backlog of product that cost the company upwards of $31 million.

So, while some data-based IT issues and some downtime will inevitably occur down the line, there are many steps you can take before or during your search for the right automation solutions for your operation that will help you identify potential, and altogether avoid, automation downtime.

A popular trend in warehouse automation is the incorporation of automated guided vehicles (AGVs). These machines vary in size, shape and function, but they mostly all rely on an accurate map of their environment from a warehouse management system (WMS) in order to function properly and safely.

Be sure your warehouse location map is up-to-date when adding automated solutions that will rely on it for guidance on where to find everything it needs and the quickest route to get there. It would be a huge oversight to implement AGVs into your operation without first identifying, mapping and uploading the product shelving positions, travel paths and work areas you expect the AGVs to navigate.

Most automation processes and machinery rely on digital data. Any silos of manual data processing should be identified and run through a digital transformation before expecting your automation solutions to run smoothly while using it.

Similarly, if you have multiple programs with different information stored within each, take the time to explore ways you could consolidate and organize all of your data and software before linking it up to an automated process. The easier it is to view, collect and update data being sent to your automated warehouse solutions, the less downtime you can expect due to missing, inaccurate or inaccessible data.

Keeping timing in mind when exploring warehouse automation implementation is an important factor in avoiding issues and downtime that can cost your warehouse time and money. Even those who do not work in a warehouse know that there are busy seasons when it comes to fulfilling orders, especially for e-commerce. Right before an anticipated holiday rush is NOT the time to launch your new automated processes. As ASOS learned earlier this year, automation glitches can, among other issues, cause inventory backups that will affect business and sales for months.

Ensure that the right team members are in-house and available to help execute a smooth automation launch, because the last thing you want is your team to be over-loaded not only with busy-season order fulfillment but also with learning about, and adjusting to, new automated processes.

Oftentimes it is too easy to ignore inefficiencies or redundancies in warehouse processes because of reasons like thats the way its always been done or its just the way we do it. If you are looking into, or are currently in, the process of incorporating automation into your warehouse, consider taking a deep dive into each step of your operation and flagging anything that seems redundant, out of place, inefficient, or even unnecessary.

This is also a great opportunity to involve your entire team in the automation process. Not only will they feel valued by being asked for their insight on the day-to-day operations, but they will also feel better prepared to work alongside the automated solutions that will be incorporated into the process.

As the saying goes, A clean warehouse is a happy warehouse. Clean and organized is what your warehouse should be before expecting robotic solutions, like automated pickers, to move safely and efficiently through the environment.

Lee House, vice president of software solution provider I.B.I.S. Inc., suggests allocating 1-2 hours per week to basic warehouse cleanup to increase efficiency. Doing this could also increase the ability of your automated and robotic systems to work efficiently without running into unexpected product, materials, or trash. Also, take the time to optimize your warehouse storage systems so youre setting your automated processes up for success with the most efficient and logical layout for your needs.

If youre investing in automated vehicles, youll want to ensure youre getting the most work out of them each day, and choosing lithium ion forklift batteries is a small but significant way to reduce the downtime these machines typically require.

While its true that lithium ion batteries do not hold a charge for as long as lead-acid batteries, they charge much faster (in as little as 1.5 hours), have an overall lifespan that is 2-3 times longer than its lead-acid cousin, eliminating the need to take up warehouse space for a well-ventilated battery room, and reduces the risk of downtime caused by hazardous acid spills.

Having a thorough understanding of how your warehouse is running is imperative to preventing downtime, with or without automated warehouse solutions in place. What was working smoothly last year may no longer be ideal for your inventory or team this year, so putting a priority on regular audits to ensure that your processes, software, machinery and warehouse layout are still optimized to meet your needs will help you identify small issues or inefficiencies before they grow so large that they require downtime to get back on track.

Neglecting to train the team of people who will be working with your new automated solutions every day will surely result in surprise downtime. Most automation in warehousing today is built to work in tandem with human workers to increase efficiency, not to replace human labor completely. By empowering and educating your team before implementation, they will view automation as a tool that helps them do their job more easily and efficiently, rather than something that is getting in the way of them executing their job in the way they are used to or think it needs to be done.

On top of this, automated systems will need maintenance and a human hand to continue to run efficiently and safely, so having human employees who are educated on and responsible for the maintenance and care of these machines from the beginning will greatly decrease your chance of downtime should something go wrong or need repair.

In order for automation to be successful in a warehouse, your systems need accurate data to work off of (see point #2). Accurate data is one of the most make-or-break pieces of the automation puzzle and has one of the highest potentials for failure (especially considering retail inventory is found to be accurate only 63% of the time).

On top of an investment in picking technologies that aid in quicker and more accurate picking (like RFID scanners), investing in the right inventory management system can help make the road to automation smoother.

In the early 2000s, UK supermarket chain Sainsburys experienced a warehouse automation failure in the form of errors in barcode reading processes that were implemented by a third-party IT company. Some studies blame Sainsbury management as the cause of the eventual automation failure, claiming that they had such a lack of involvement with monitoring and evaluating the project that it caused it to fail to meet its objective. In addition, it has been suggested that a lack of communication and understanding of the business and IT risks also led to the failure.

To avoid this in your own journey into warehouse automation implementation, be sure that you have chosen a specific team of employees who will be communicating with your third-party providers when implementing automation. Frequent updates to the progress of the project and testing of the proposed systems should be part of the project timeline. Identifying potential issues before implementation and kickoff of any automation project is key to avoiding issues down the line.

Be sure that the point person on your team understands the goals and ultimate outcome your business would like to achieve with automation implementation so they can talk to your vendors and IT team to ensure everything that you set up will work towards that goal and issues and snags can be worked out before implementation goes live.

Robotics and automation seems to be where the future of the warehouse industry is headed for the foreseeable future, and they bring many means of cost savings, increased safety and improved efficiency to any operation. Understanding automation, its capabilities, limitations and every piece of its process and logic is imperative to implementing it properly. Do your homework and prepare your warehouse in as many ways as you can before hitting that automation on switch.

Evan Hammersley is the warehouse automation and robotics product manager for NITCO, a provider of material handling equipment and services.

Link:

Warehouse Automation Downtime and How to Avoid It - Material Handling & Logistics