Category Archives: Automation

by D3 Security Sep 1, 2022

In previous articles, weve explained how MSSPs can pick the low-hanging fruit of automation, and how SOAR can help improve analyst-to-customer ratios. These articles covered how there are major gains to be found in both profit and quality of services through different levels of automation. In this article, well illustrate the benefits of targeted automation particularly valuable for small or mid-sized MSSPs through a hypothetical case study.

In this case study, well show how a small MSSP could save as much as $1 million per year with a strategic approach to automation that minimizes overhead and time-to-value.

Lets say our imagined MSSP has seven analysts serving 30 clients, with plans to double their client base as soon as possible. They have an annual revenue of approximately $1.2 million USD.

They are experiencing stagnated growth because their analysts are struggling to keep up with an unending stream of low-fidelity alerts from their clients. Adding new clients wouldnt just mean hiring more analysts; it would also require more administrative work to track billable hours and SLAs.

They dont want to commit to deploying a full SOAR platform because they think it will cost too much and require too much time to implement and maintain. Theyre swamped enough as is.

A targeted use of automation is the solution we would prescribe this MSSP. Given their specific problems, they can focus on alert-handling and basic investigation, which are the processes that have been taking up so much of their time.

In addition, they need full multi-tenancy and automation that extends to administrative work, like SLA tracking and reporting. They cant double their capacity if thats going to double their paperwork and administrative time too.

With just two playbooks, they can automate exactly what they need, without getting bogged down in an overly complicated project. First, they need an alert-level playbook that integrates with the subset of tools that generate the most alerts in their clients environments e.g. EDR, network security, and identity management. This playbook will triage every incoming alert by extracting artifacts (e.g. usernames, IPs, and device IDs), checking them against global lists, and making the decisions to dismiss or escalate the alert.

The second playbook they need is an incident-level playbook to investigate escalated alerts. In this playbook, incidents are enriched with threat intelligence and related incidents are retrieved from the incident database. The results are summarized in an automated report for the analyst, so they can decide to dismiss the incident or notify the client with an automatically generated incident report.

Now lets do some back-of-the-napkin calculations on how much our hypothetical MSSP could save with this type of targeted automation.

We estimate that the alert-level playbook we described would turn a 15-minute process into one that takes just seven seconds. And the incident-level playbook cuts a 45-minute process down to 11 seconds. Even adding in five minutes for the analyst to review the results, thats still a time-savings of almost 90% for the second playbook alone.

So, based on these estimates, if the MSSP is ingesting 300 alerts per day, that means theyre saving around 75 hours of labor per day, from the alert-level playbook alone. At a conservative estimate of analyst salaries, thats an annual saving of $810,000.

Then, if 10% of those alerts are escalated to incidents, 30 incidents are going into the second playbook. Based on our estimate that includes five minutes of manual review on each incident, the MSSP is still saving around 20 hours per day. Thats $270,000 in salaries per year.

Between the two playbooks, thats over $1 million in annual savings, just from this targeted use of automation. For our hypothetical MSSP, that means theyll have the capacity to double their client base with minimal increase in headcount or budget.

Thats why we think its not an exaggeration to say that even a small MSSP can save $1 million per year by being strategic in how they use automation. This type of security automation is a game-changer for MSSPs who have previously written off SOAR because they think it will be too expensive or require too much time to get up and running.

D3 Security supports MSSPs in every corner of the globe and enables high-value services with our next-generation SOAR platform. D3 Securitys SOAR platform supports full multi-tenancy, so you can keep client sites, data, and playbooks completely segregated. Importantly, were vendor-neutral, so no matter what tools your clients use, our 500+ integrations will meet their needs. Our new offering for MSSPs, D3 Chronos, is a streamlined SOAR package that is designed to start paying for itself within two weeks while increasing your capacity 10x through automation.

Blog courtesy ofD3 Security. Read more D3 Security guest blogshere.Regularly contributedguest blogsare part of MSSP Alertssponsorship program.

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How to Save $1 Million with Targeted Security Automation - MSSP Alert

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Robotic Process Automation Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Type, by Service, by Application, by Deployment, by Organization, by Region, and Segment Forecasts, 2022-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global robotic process automation market size is anticipated to reach USD 30.85 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 38.2%. The increasing need for reduced operational costs is a significant driving factor for the market. Furthermore, the installation of the market with ease of business processes and transformation of robotic process automation with traditional business processes have boosted the market growth.

Continuous improvement and automation remain top of the strategic plan for an organization. Adopting some form of automation within enterprises is either on the roadmap or in a pilot stage. As a result, the implementation of RPA for ensuring cost reduction to build improved compliance, productivity, and maximize returns are becoming the top priorities for businesses. Moreover, focusing on improved outcomes through measurable indicators such as improved quality of work and time saving are positively impacting the dynamics of RPA within industries.

Additionally, RPA technology has proven to reduce the cost of a full-time offshore employee by half. RPA is creating a shift after labor arbitrage to reduce labor costs by 25 to 40 percent in business processes and IT environments. Moreover, the software robot replaces two to five full-time employees and the amount of work done by them, thereby increasing the efficiency of business processes.

The COVID-19 outbreak has sped up the demand for a workforce with digital skills across enterprises and opened up new directions for RPA companies to capture the market. Automation is anticipated to define the work after the pandemic as the organizations are witnessing organizational changes with work from home employees. The positive result of applying RPA during a recession influenced by the pandemic is anticipated to grow its demand post-pandemic and propel market growth.

Robotic Process Automation Market Report Highlights

Key Topics Covered:

Chapter 1 Methodology and Scope

Chapter 2 Executive Summary

Chapter 3 Market Variables, Trends & Scope

Chapter 4 Type Estimates and Trend Analysis

Chapter 5 Deployment Estimates and Trend Analysis

Chapter 6 Organization Estimates and Trend Analysis

Chapter 7 Application Estimates and Trend Analysis

Chapter 8 Regional Estimates & Trend Analysis

Chapter 9 Competitive Landscape

Companies Mentioned

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/noxkbb

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Robotic Process Automation Market Report 2022: Increasing Need for Reduced Operational Costs Driving Sector - ResearchAndMarkets.com - Business Wire

Falkon, a sales analytics platform that uses AI to attempt to show where successful product sales are occuring in an organization, today announced that it raised $16 million in a funding round led by OMERS Ventures with participation from Greylock Partners, Trilogy Financial, Flying Fish Partners and Madera Partners. CEO Mona Akmal says that the new money which brings the companys total raised to $20 million will be used to build integrations with workflow partners, support product research and expand the size of Falkons team from 20 to 30 employees by the end of the year.

Akmal started Falkon in 2020 alongside Josh Zana and Aakash Kambuj as an augmented analytics company with the goal of improving business operations through analysis and automation. Theyd all three worked together on the OneDrive team at Microsoft and went on to spend time at Dropbox, Amazon, Amperity, Code.org and Zulily. Akmal was the VP of product and engineering at Code.org and the head of product at Amperity, while Kambuj previously headed engineering at Dropboxs search team. Zana, meanwhile, was a senior software developer at Amazon working on the Fire TV line of devices.

Our thesis was that while companies collect mountains of data, the return on investment on it remains low because its predominantly used in dashboards and reporting, not daily actions and automation, Akmal told TechCrunch in an email interview. The modern data stack has seen billions of dollars of investment but requires a massive and expensive workforce of data engineers, scientists and analysts to mine data for insights. These people are in high demand and there arent enough to go around. So for the 90% of companies that cant hire and retain such talent at scale, there must be solutions like Falkon to get the same value from data that weve all been promised.

Image Credits: Falkon

Falkons platform tries to unify a companys go-to-market data (e.g. product usage metrics, customer relationship management and sales enablement data and web traffic), de-duplicating the info and generating data-driven recommendations for sales and marketing teams specifically sales development representatives, account executives and account managers. Falkon can uncover stuck sales pipelines and find new opportunities, according to Akmal, through algorithms and a collection of apps that can be used together or individually.

Falkon users can connect business intelligence tools to the platform to do reporting on customer accounts, contacts and channels data. Insights are delivered via Slack, email and embedded apps in services from Salesforce and other vendors; Falkon can automate workflows like enrollment in marketing campaigns and Salesforce task creation.

Go-to-market intelligence is a fractured space with many point solutions. We take a horizontal and comprehensive approach, Akmal said. We use econometric techniques, [relying] on one fundamental approach: Success prevalence. Tactics that are often prevalent in successful outcomes (like deals being won, standout reps and features used by customers that convert) and less often present in failure outcomes (like deals being lost and underperforming reps) are the winning tactics and companies should bet on them more than losing tactics, which are detected through the same approach.

Akmal wouldnt reveal revenue figures but claimed that Seattle-based Falkon is seeing brisk uptake, with a customer base that includes Redis Labs, Icertis and Zendesk.

With the market correction thats happening in the tech world, companies are starting to care about the operational efficiency of their go-to-market teams through insight and automation, so our message is resonating strongly, Akmal continued. While were encountering some budget freezes, were working through this with creative pricing We feel good about our position there.

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Falkon closes $16M round to automate sales workflows and analyses - TechCrunch

Specialist drilling waste management company, TWMA, has launched its new XLink solution, designed to provide oil and gas operators with increased automation, deeper insights and real time data monitoring to improve the efficiency of their wellsite drill cuttings processing system.

XLink is a new hardware and software system upgrade that provides both POB reduction through offshore automation and allows customers to monitor their drilling waste operations live from anywhere in the world. The system links drill cuttings volume monitoring, and material conditioning, all combined through a data platform that delivers real time monitoring capability.

Following successful roll outs in the UK and Norway, the cloud-based system, which can be integrated into any existing TWMA asset operating offshore or on land, is increasingly becoming a core component of TWMAs global solution offering.

At the systems core is XLink CST automation, a unique patent pending air mixing system which is retrofitted into the cuttings, storage, and transfer tank (CST), conditioning the drill cuttings without the need for manual intervention thus reducing POB requirements.

The XLink system allows for full control of the drilling waste management handling process from one central control point on the rig. The radar level sensors fitted within the CSTs allow tank volumes to be tracked and displayed in real time via TWMAs secure online portal, which customers can access from anywhere in the world.

Gareth Innes, Chief Engineering and Commercial Officer at TWMA said: Following successful roll outs for our new XLink real time monitoring technology in the first half of the year, we are excited to now be bringing this innovative technology to our global market.

XLink is a great example of us working closely with our customers to design, manufacture and deliver solutions which combat their most pressing issues. By allowing customers to monitor their operations remotely, we are providing them with real time insights into the performance of their operation while also optimizing the efficiency of their project.

Offering sustainability benefits, the XLink system, coupled with the TWMA RotoMill wellsite processing solution, allows remote cuttings volume tracking and subsequent hole condition monitoring. By processing the drill cuttings at source, the solution eliminates the requirement for the transportation of drilling waste onshore, removing all logistics and associated costs. This has been proven to reduce carbon emissions by 50%, significantly lowers costs and improves safety performance.

TWMA is exhibiting in Hall 2 on stand number 2230.

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TWMA launches XLink real time monitoring and automation solution at ONS - WorldOil

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Dublin, Sept. 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Logistics Automation Market By Component, By Application, By Organization Size, By End-Use Industry: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Logistics automation market was valued at $49.7 billion in 2020, and is estimated to reach $147.4 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 11.9% from 2021 to 2030.

North America is expected to dominate the global logistics automation market owing to growth in e-commerce and adoption of automation solutions as a result of labor shortages in the region. Moreover, adoption of robots in the region has been observed, which is expected to create demand for automation solutions and in turn is anticipated to contribute in the growth of the market.

For instance, in August 2021, Yandex Self-Driving Group partnered with Grubhub to operate delivery robots on college campuses in the U.S. Moreover, in 2020, Hyundai Motor Group acquired controlling interest in Boston Dynamics with the aim of advancing robotics and mobility.

Labor shortages are currently being faced across the globe, which in turn is creating the demand for warehouse automation. Moreover, companies in emerging countries such as China and India, are also adopting automation in warehouse to get ahead of labor shortage.

For instance, in 2022, Cainiao Network Technology built the largest unmanned warehouse in Southeast Asia for Thai courier Flash Express. This unmanned warehouse can process 6,000 parcels a day and this can rise to 20,000 a day during peak season. Henceforth, greater demand for warehouse automation from emerging countries is the factor that will be creating new growth opportunities for logistics automation market during the forecast period.

Based on organization size, the global logistics automation market is segregated into SME, and large enterprises. Large enterprises are utilizing automated material handling technology for several processes such as categorization and moving heavy items, or containers within warehouse. In addition, autonomous mobile robots are also being utilized to move materials from picking area to order packing area within the warehouse.

Story continues

For instance, in January 2022, DHL supply chain announced15 million investment in robotics solutions from Boston Dynamics to further automate warehousing in North America. Boston Dynamics will equip DHL facilities with 'Stretch", which is a robot designed to automate unloading process in distribution centers.

The significant factors impacting the growth of the logistics automation market comprise improved efficiency & workforce safety, growth in e-commerce, adoption of industry 4.0 technologies, and advancements in robotics technologies. Moreover, factors such as high initial investment, are expected to be hampering the market growth.

Furthermore, adoption of autonomous vehicles & drones, and greater demand for warehouse automation from emerging economies are expected to create new growth opportunities for the logistics automation market during the forecast period.

COVID-19 Impact Analysis

The COVID-19 crisis has created uncertainty in the market, and led to massive slowing of supply chain, falling business confidence, and increasing panic among the customers. Governments of different regions have announced total lockdown and temporary shutdown of industries, thereby adversely affecting the overall production and sales.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in workforce changes, temporary restriction on movement of goods, and adoption of automation solutions. The pandemic has resulted in supply-chain disruptions causing temporary restriction on movement of goods. In 2019, online shopping rose by 20% and then by 30% during lockdown.

Rise in online sales compelled companies to restructure their warehouse to manage e-commerce logistics. At the same time, companies have also had to safeguard the health & safety of their employees working along the entire supply chain. In order to fulfill e-commerce demand, and adapt to new situation, several logistics companies introduced changes in their workforces, and opted for logistics automation.

However, with the removal of lockdown restrictions, several logistics companies have started to invest in industry 4.0 technologies in order to deal with labor shortages issue, and to fulfill rising demand from the e-commerce sector. Companies are adopting autonomous robots for automating the tasks within warehouse, and drones for last-mile delivery.

Key Market Players

Key Market Segments

By Organization Size

By End-Use Industry

By Component

By Application

By Region

North America

U.S.

Canada

Mexico

Europe

Germany

United Kingdom

France

Italy

Rest of Europe

Asia-Pacific

China

Japan

India

South Korea

Rest Of Asia Pacific

LAMEA

Latin America

Middle East

Africa

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/fcezib

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Global Logistics Automation Markets Report 2022: Adoption of Autonomous Vehicles & Drones and Greater Demand for Warehouse Automation from...

Dive Brief:

AI has evolved, from cool novelty to narrowly focused tactical tool to a strategic asset with a broad range of enterprise applications.

The technology has now reached a tipping point, Gartner says.

Rather than restricting AI only to specific operations, companies are considering potential applications for AI across the enterprise, whether or not its actually going to be used, said Erick Brethenoux, distinguished analyst and VP at Gartner.

The survey was conducted online from October through December 2021 but reflects current headlines:

Cardinal Health is using AI for inventory management, pricing, logistic and supply chain management, Ray Bajaj, the healthcare giants CTO and SVP, said as part of a Reuters virtual symposium on August 25.

AI has also been deployed to assist in population health risk management, to provide physicians with clinical decision support, and to help pharmacists more efficiently count pills, according to Bajaj.

Every process is going to be AI and machine learning enabled, he said.

Wins with automation ML-based operations that reduce the need for workers are fueling enthusiasm for AI. Successfully upskilling in-house talent has smoothed the way for AI deployments, according to Brethenoux.

Brethenoux said companies are finding employees with backgrounds in operational research, statistics, HR, finance, and engineering who can learn AI.

One of my clients told me it's a lot easier to teach data science to subject matter experts than to teach subject matter expertise to data scientists, said Brethenoux.

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AI for everyone: Companies are bullish on automation - CIO Dive

Machine vision is a growing market that offers a way to improve efficiencies and support companies as they look to not just survive but thrive in a volatile environment. A recent report says the machine vision market is projected to be worth $15.5 billion in 2026.

Machine vision is a class of technologies that process information from visual inputs such as images, documents, computer screens, videos and more. Its value in automation lies in its ability to capture and process large quantities of documents, images and video quickly and efficiently in quantities and speeds far in excess of human capability.

Machine vision usually works with other advanced technologies, including natural language processing, robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML), to deliver automations impact on business operations. You can think of machine vision as the eyes of automation, while AI and ML are the brains and RPA provides the hands on keyboards required to do the work, as well as the backbone you hang these technologies onto to leverage them in automation.

Everything from a growing need for quality inspection and automation to vision-guided robots, from government initiatives supporting industrial automation to the integration of AI into edge devices, are just some of the reasons this market is growing. Automation adoption has accelerated in recent years, becoming essential for businesses to remain competitive across industries. To put it simply, think of automations as digital employees doing work. Without adding machine vision, all of those digital employees will be blind.

One of the most common uses of machine vision in automation is document processing. Machine vision combined with machine learning are the active ingredients in what is referred to as intelligent document processing (IDP): automatically processing and classifying documents, extracting printed or handwritten data, and then deciphering the content for further automated processing. This technology is so powerful, it is now actually better at reading handwriting than humans are.

Insurance administrators need no longer devote their days to manually digitizing paper applications; banking clerks dont have to manually enter customer information or spreadsheet data into databases; brokers can avoid the additional work that arises from the errors that can occur when processing high volumes of transactions under strict daily deadlines. By filtering machine vision-extracted data inputs through machine learning and AI based technologies, the speed, accuracy and organization of processing needed to embrace automation technologies can be realized.

The sophistication of how computer vision is applied in automation is not limited to document processing, though. Video-based facial recognition in security processes, checkout-less supermarkets and remote equipment identification via drones for inventory management are examples of how computer vision is being leveraged in automation.

Machine vision-based technologies are even becoming central to the creation of automations themselves. For example, instead of relying on human workers to describe processes that are being automated when designing automations, recordings of the process to be automated are created and then machine vision software, combined with other technologies, is used to capture the process end-to-end and provide the input for automating a lot of the work needed to program the digital workers (bots).

Standards of accuracy and bias are a concern cited by organizations when it comes to relying on artificial solutions to undertake certain processes. This is why its important to have the right processes in place for each application to ensure the best outcome. For automated document processing, measures that loop in human workers when uncertainties arise are common. Just as some oversight is needed for humans undertaking processes, diligence should be applied to digital workers, as well.

At the same time, machine vision and AI are also used to QA human-based processes. In financial services, machine vision is used to help monitor processes to ensure compliance. In healthcare, automated second opinions of radiology-based diagnoses are increasing in use; this is partly because it reduces the time and cost it takes to process second opinions but also because, in a growing number of areas, machine vision/AI-based processing of radiology images is more accurate than humans.

With automation, human healthcare workers have more time to devote to their patients. This is the real driver of automation in healthcarethe realization that every cost saved in administration and clinical processes can be allocated to improving patient care.

The future of work is agile and machine vision is the key to unleashing automations full potentialadding more intelligence to intelligent automation. This technology allows digital workers to interact with screens, documents and video like humans do, which is a big breakthrough. Ultimately, it results in a more fulfilled and satisfied workforce, along with a more competitive and profitable business.

Machine vision is integral to maximizing the impact of advanced automation technologies on business operations and paving the way for increased capabilities in the automation space. Self-driving cars, a technology that is not too far off, demonstrates how machine vision is being pushed to its furthest capabilities. But for now, machine vision enables businesses to successfully navigate an evolving landscape, reduce costs and increase efficienciesno matter what challenges and uncertainties lie ahead.

Lou Bachenheimer, PhD, is CTO, Americas for SS&C Blue Prism.

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Machine Vision: The Key to Unlocking Automation's Full Potential - Dice Insights

Vijoy Pandey, vice president of emerging technologies and Incubation for Cisco, explains why automation has become an absolute IT necessity. The video is below followed by a transcript of the conversation.

Michael Vizard: Hey, guys, thanks for the throw. Were here with Vijoy Pandey, whos vice president of emerging technology and incubation for Cisco. Were gonna be talking about all things related to automation. Vijoy, welcome to the show.

Vijoy Pandey: Thank you, Mike, pleasure to be here.

Michael Vizard: Right now, everybody is struggling, looking to find people, hire people, retain people, and this was an issue before COVID came, but it seems like its much worse these days, and there seems to be no end in sight. So, what is your best advice to folks about how to think about managing talent these days?

Vijoy Pandey: Yeah, I think thats a pretty important point you raise there, Mike. Just like everybody else, weve been seeing not just news articles around the great resignation, but also were feeling that inside of Cisco as well. We know that our partners, our customers, all of us are feeling that pinch, where its incredibly important to retain top talent, but its also very hard to find talent, given the trends that were seeing around us.

Anything about cloud computing, anything about AI, all of those things. So, we think of the problem in a very different way. We think and weve done a bunch of surveys inside of Cisco what we realized was given the global nature of events we know some events unfolding right now and all of the geopolitical events happening, all the pandemic, people really are realizing that life is too short.

Its not a pithy statement here, its actually people believe that life is just too short, and they actually want to do meaningful work. They want to make an impact, not just to the team that they are with, nor the company that theyre with, but even a global impact with the work that they do.

But they also want to grow and learn, and make sure that they are on a path themselves towards meaningfully improving their own lives. So, I think those are pretty important characteristics that we have gathered, and as organizations and as teams we need to harness that desire to make both local impact as well as global impact as well as figure out how to drive meaning into everybodys personal lives yours, mine, our teams, and so on and so forth.

So, theres a bunch of things that we are doing inside of Cisco to make sure that this meaning, or meaningful impact, is nurtured. One of the things that we keep on saying is that yes, there is a business to run, but theres also an avenue we need to give our employees and our teams to innovate, to look at impact beyond the run-of-the-mill business that any corporation needs to do.

So, typically what we end up doing is we end up taking problem statements that we face, lets say, as a team or an organization, and we start splitting it into buckets. So, think about buckets that deal with run-of-the-mill business, because that, you need to absolutely take care of.

But also, there are buckets that you need to innovate around or do meaningful work around. So, we have a portfolio management system inside, at least on my team, that says lets take 60 percent of your time and make sure that thats allocated towards run-of-the-mill business as usual projects, and then maybe 30 percent of the time which is future-looking and adding new features or looking at new markets and so on and so forth, and maybe 10 percent of your time is actually towards growing yourself, nurturing yourself, or making some meaningful impact on the global stage. So, thats actually how weve been viewing the problem.

Michael Vizard: Early on, I think a lot of people were intimidated by automation, and there was concerns that people might lose their jobs. Now, I wonder if weve flipped that entirely, where people are saying hey, I dont really wanna work for organizations that dont have automated IT process in place because of your points theres just things that I dont wanna spend my day doing anymore. So, has the whole conversation flipped, as far as automation is concerned?

Vijoy Pandey: I would say the conversation is flipping as we speak, again, yeah, going back to the previous comment, yes, people dont want to spend time on repeatable tasks, on things which a computer can do better than you and I can do. I have this constant struggle with my kid nowadays as to why do I need to learn grammar when theres Grammarly? But thats a different matter.

But I think its a similar mindset going through every individual in the workforce, as to am I really adding value in the workplace, and am I being more productive, which in turn translates is the organization being more productive, which in turn translates to is the economy and the country being more productive.

So, I think the bump towards productivity is definitely a goal that people are more concerned about, and you hear the other side of this, which is, as you pointed out, is the digitization of the workplace is the digitization of all economy. Thats in progress.

Weve called that using various phrases software eating of the world, or the API economy whatever term that you want to use. But we are moving towards a world where software is critical in driving everything that we do. Software in terms of automation, or even beyond that, is definitely key to whatever we do.

Michael Vizard: Not too long ago we all thought wed be running around by flying cars by now, and that IT would be easy. Weve seen neither, and it looks like IT is getting more complex than ever. So, my question to you is is IT getting to the point where it is just too complex to manually deal with and we need automation, because we are seeing all these microservices, serverless frameworks.

Theres all our existing monolithic applications, its distributed all the way out to the edge now. Have we reached some sort of inflection point?

Vijoy Pandey: Yeah, I think to your point IT is definitely way more complex than it was even a decade ago, and I think the crux of the matter is that the way you are building applications and all of the digitization that we talked about is actually taking place in a very, very distributed manner.

So, as an application developer, first and foremost, we at Cisco like to say that the application is your brand. So, if I am a bank, how my customers interact with the apps that I build defines me, my company, my bank, as the brand. Because if bank A has more capabilities in their software, their mobile app, versus bank B, I will migrate towards bank A.

So, I think the application is becoming the front end to everything customer experience is all about. So, if you take that notion and play it out, that means the application developer that is developing those applications is under extreme pressure to deliver velocity behind features, do deliver trust with the data of the customers, to deliver uptime and security and so on and so forth.

So, which means that they are picking and choosing all of these APIs that exist anywhere to make their job faster, easier more secure, more trustworthy. So, if you think about that kind of an environment, as a developer, Im picking APIs from cloud providers, SaaS providers, I have legacy systems, I have transaction systems, I have edge devices, in the case of a bank. It might be sitting at a branch office.

I have all of these APIs and systems that I need to interface with just to build one particular app or feature. So, in this kind of a distributed environment, think about the IT more IT people, right? Its like Im trying to build a platform that caters to these kind of demands, and so it is definitely getting more complex, its getting more distributed, and every provider in the distributed environment has their own semantics, their own lifecycle management behind their APIs and their infrastructures.

So, automation I mean, its just humanly impossible to not just deploy but even manage and observe such a highly distributed and secure, by the way such a highly distributed system. So, automation is key to doing all of this, a direction automation, to me, is discoverability.

Its intent-based, its security, which is theres no longer a perimeter of security, and its observability across all of these end points, API to mainframe. That is key to moving forward.

Michael Vizard: Do you think as we go along that organizations at least some of them I talked to, its almost like a chicken and an egg kind of issue. They have so much legacy stuff that cant be automated that they cant invest in automation, and they cant necessarily buy all new platforms tomorrow. So, how do we get over the automation hump to kind of get from point A to point B without necessarily breaking the IT budget?

Vijoy Pandey: Yeah, thats a great point. I think some of that, Ive dealt with in my previous lives as well. The way to do that is and theres no questions about it, that for some period of time, there is going to be more chaos and more money spent than before that time or after that time.

So, we just have to acknowledge that as vendors, as customers, as organizations, that for some period of time, theres going to be turmoil. Thats the way, at least, Ive handled it in the past, where you say lets put milestones, where we say maybe we look after a pocket of the organization, and say were going to build this out in a highly automated, distributed, cloud-first, API-first manner.

This part of the application, this part of the infrastructure goes out and does that. To do that, were going to do a clean slate process here. So, well think about we wont get ourselves bound to organizational boundaries, skill set boundaries that is very hard to do. Most peoples jobs, peoples skill sets, organizational structures, all of that.

But we have to try in some pockets, and then give ourselves strict guidelines and metrics, and try and meet those metrics. If we meet those metrics, the resulting outcome is that I will be spending less moving forward than Im spending today.

So, I might spend a little bit more in getting maybe SREs or software engineers, and marrying them up with IT folks or architects, and getting something going. Ill give myself a timeline of lets say a year or 18 months; it cannot be longer than that, otherwise its a science project.

But after those 18 months, these are the metrics Im going to come back to. Ill get X percent improvement in productivity, and Y percent reduction in head count, lets say. We shall measure ourselves to that objective, and Ive seen that work.

If it works and start with something simpler. But go all the way, dont go 80 percent. Lets not do 80 percent automation or 80 percent of the use cases. Hundred percent automation, 100 percent of the use cases for this pocket of your environment, and then grow that out over time.

Michael Vizard: We, of course, hear a lot about artificial intelligent and AI Ops. Are the machines gonna save us from ourselves? Whats the reality of AI?

Vijoy Pandey: To me, AI is a tool, just like all of the other tools that weve talked about, which is weve talked about automation or infrastructure as code, weve talked about cloud native and serverless and microservices. Each one of these tools, programming and scriptings tools.

So, all of these tools bring in something to the table, and infrastructure as code brings in consistency and intent-based infrastructures, and serverless and microservices, or cloud-native, bring in immutable architectures.

The fact that you can grow and scale out and do all of those things, and availability goes through the roof and velocity goes through the roof. Similarly, AI and ML bring in insights to the table where it was humanly, again, impossible to do that just by looking at the vast variety of data and the deluge of data coming our way.

If we could just take all of that and its all unstructured. So, if I could take all of that and somehow put it in a structured database and somehow make sense of it as an individual, sure, we dont need the AI or ML. But if I need to take all of that unstructured data and make some sense out of it, theres no other way out, and I do need AI and ML.

I mean, I do need some statistical mechanism first, to figure out and make some sense out of it. I do need AI/ML, maybe deep-learning, to make some sense out of it. But then I need to marry that tool with subject matter expertise, I need to marry that tool with what I as an individual, or as humans, weve learned in the past, because AI doesnt have that context.

Yes, we can do learning, all sorts of learning, but it doesnt always work in all kinds of environments. We need to marry that with subject matter expertise, with some boundary conditions, and then we need to marry it with actions. Because AI/ML is gonna give us insights, but somebody needs to take actions on the insights.

So to me, its a tool in the toolbox, and we need to leverage it when it makes sense. We need to rely on subject matter expertise when it makes sense, and eventually things will get to a point where we need to go to the next level of abstraction.

So, its always a game of moving that level of abstraction higher and higher, and thats what we are after. So, maybe someday there will be flying cars and robots that will take all our jobs, but not right now.

Michael Vizard: How do I bridge this divide in IT that maybe we dont talk enough about, but theres clearly a DevOps community thats very programming-centric. The use APIs. Then theres traditional IT administrators that use ITSM tools. They tend to be more graphical in nature. As we move forward with automation, do you think that those two camps are gonna converge, or how will this all play out?

Vijoy Pandey: In my opinion, I think they have to converge. I think each one of those pieces have their space in the hierarchy of things. One of the things I learned pretty early on in one of my previous lives is what good is a dashboard if you cannot take an action on it?

So, if you think about all dashboards that exist today, eventually, there is data being presented in a certain way about a certain problem, so that somebody can look at that and take an action. If you think about infrastructure as code, its exactly that.

Its basically lets remove the dashboard, and lets figure out what goes triggers that, that allow me to take those preset actions. Lets try and remove the action of a human looking at a dashboard, thinking about it, and taking some action on it.

Now, again, Im describing utopia, but I think thats where, as engineers, as operations folks, we all need to move towards. To me, dashboards are a good start when the problem is less well understood. As we understand the problems better, we need to move towards code.

Dashboards will still have their place in helping us understand more and more complex problems, but as problems are better understood, they need to move towards code. And thats the way at least I think through it.

Michael Vizard: All right, so automation needs to be our new North Star, as it were. Hey, Vijoy, thanks for being on the show.

Vijoy Pandey: Thank you so much, it was a pleasure, and I enjoyed our conversation.

Michael Vizard: All right, back to you guys in the studio.

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Automation has Become an Absolute IT Necessity Techstrong TV - DevOps.com

New study highlights the strategic role that F&A departments must play in ensuring business success. In a challenging climate of rising inflation and high employee mobility, the research shows that opportunities afforded by automation to positively transform F&A are not yet fully exploited.

HELSINKI, Aug. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In a recent commissioned research study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of global business automation experts Digital Workforce, findings show that F&A teams are hindered by their failure to adopt automation for strategic success. The study reveals that although many businesses have invested in RPA (Robotic Process Automation), their efforts have not gone far enough to truly digitally transform their F&A processes. F&A departments continue to grapple with manual, repetitive tasks which result in errors, inefficiencies, unnecessarily high workloads and expenses.

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The business advantages of automation were widely acknowledged by study participants* who consisted of North American F&A leaders, 75% of which represented mid-sized and large enterprises with $250-999 million in company revenue. The majority of respondents were well-versed in the technology's benefits, noting automation's ability to:

Improve business insights 69% use RPA to enhance data and analytics in order to improve the business's ability to forecast and plan ahead.

Enhance employee experience 65% recognize its power to improve employee satisfaction and help to retain talent.

Support digital business transformation in order to better serve customers (63%).

However, the research also revealed that most F&A departments are facing challenges in their adoption of automation:

The majority of respondents (61%) struggle to generate insights and forecasts. More than half (54%) face difficulties scaling automation throughout a finance value chain.

60% experience difficulties in shifting employees' focus from manual tasks and enabling them to develop new skills.

Over half of those surveyed (55%) struggle to manage siloed applications and integrate different systems to gain a holistic view across the entire F&A stack (51%).

Story continues

As a result of these challenges, nearly 60% of organizations experience inefficiencies in their strategic collaboration with other business areas. Over half (51%) of respondents also reported increased errors, inaccurate reporting and unnecessarily high operational expenses due to lack of visibility over cost-saving opportunities.

The study calls F&A leaders to re-evaluate their use of automation in order to support teams in becoming a strategic partner across the business and supporting broader business transformation by automation, while also boosting efficiency and accuracy levels.

Mika Vainio-Mattila, Co-founder and CEO of Digital Workforce said,

"Forrester's study aligns with what we see when working with F&A clients. There is still much to do with RPA, but when combined with other technologies (Digital Process Automation, Conversational AI, process mining, etc.) the transformational value from automation increases exponentially. Strategic use of automation is a must-have for Finance leads who want to transform their F&A business processes and scale automation throughout a finance value chain."

CFOs have a unique opportunity to drive better decision-making, reduce workloads, improve employee retention and save costs. The Forrester Consulting study also found that the majority of respondents (60%) are looking for guidance from technology providers around the governance and operating models for automation use cases.

Read a copy of the full Forrester Study here https://digitalworkforce.com/automation-finance-study

*Respondents consisted of 104 U.S. and Canadian Finance & Accounting departments across the following industries: financial services and/or insurance; healthcare; manufacturing and materials.

About Digital WorkforceServicesDigital Workforce Services Plc is the leading business automation platform and service provider globally. Digital Workforce Outsmart platform allows organizations to accelerate digitalization, increase revenue, improve customer experience and gain competitive advantage. Globally, over 200 large customers use Digital Workforce's platform and services to transform their businesses with automation. Founded in 2015, Digital Workforce currently employs over 200 business automation specialists in the US, the UK, Poland, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Digital Workforce is publicly listed in Nasdaq First North Growth Market Finland.https://digitalworkforce.com

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Independent study reveals strategic potential of automation remains untapped within Finance and Accounting (F&A) - Yahoo Finance

CHICAGO, Sept. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --Door And Window Automation Marketsize is estimated to be USD 18.3 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach USD 23.6 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 5.2%,according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets. The increasing demand for automated doors in various industries and rising infrastructure development projects worldwide are responsible for the growth of door and window automation market. Additionally, the installation of automated doors and windows is increasing rapidly in hospitality sector, which is also responsible for the growth of the market.

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Browse in-depth TOC on"Door and Window Automation Market"

163 Tables60 Figures215 Pages

Access Control Systems is expected to hold the largest growth rate during the forecast period

An access control system is used for security, as it allows access only to authorized persons; however, it can also grant, modify, or deny access at any time. Automated door systems can be combined with access control systems to increase security. The increasing requirement of security at offices, airports, hospitals, and hotels, which, in turn, is driving the growth of the segment.

Pedestrian doors dominated the door and window automation market in 2021

Pedestrian doors are used where there is high pedestrian traffic, such as in hotels, hospitals, office buildings, banks, and airports, to provide optimum safety and security with ease of managing high crowds in commercial buildings. They are ideal for the entrance to homes and offices. The maintenance cost for these doors is low, and hence are highly preferred by the various end-users.

Hotels and restaurants is expected to hold the largest CAGR by 2027

Automated doors installed in hotels and restaurants minimizes the loss of conditioned air and improves the flow of foot traffic in busy doorways. Guests can use a single remote to control automated windows for ventilation and other security purposes. Automated doors can also be integrated with hotel locking systems to ensure a secure entrance not only to guests but also to other trade partners such as delivery personnel and staff. Pedestrian doors such as sliding and revolving doors are installed in hotels and restaurants to allow easy access to people on wheelchairs, strollers, and persons carrying large parcels. These doors provide hotels and restaurants with better designs and appearance. They are also used to control the high volume of traffic.

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The door and window automation market in North America is the dominating region in 2021

North America is one of the leading regions in the door and window automation market. Countries such as the US, Canada, and Mexico play a major role in the North American door and window automation market. The US is one of the major contributors to the growth of the regional market as several key players in the door and window automation market, including Royal Boon Edam International B.V., Honeywell International, and Insteon, have their headquarters in the US, which is expected to create immense market growth opportunities in the coming years.

Major companies operating in this door and window automation market includes ASSA ABLOY (Sweden), Nabtesco Corporation (Japan), Allegion Plc (Ireland), and dormakaba Group (Switzerland).

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Browse Adjacent Market: Semiconductor and Electronics MarketResearch Reports &Consulting

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Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.

Contact:Mr. Aashish MehraMarketsandMarkets INC.630 Dundee RoadSuite 430Northbrook, IL 60062USA: +1-888-600-6441Email: [emailprotected]Research Insight: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/door-window-automation-market.aspVisit Our Web Site: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/door-window-automation.asp

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Door and Window Automation Market worth $23.6 billion by 2027 - Exclusive Report by MarketsandMarkets - PR Newswire