Automation Anyplace has entered into a definitive arrangement to acquire FortressIQ, a procedure discovery and mining vendor.

The robotic procedure automation (RPA) vendor revealed details bordering the acquisition on Dec. 23. The acquisition is set to close in early January. Neither Automation Anyplace nor FortressIQ disclosed the cost of the acquisition.

Founded in 2003, Automation Anyplace is observed as just one of the major unbiased RPA vendors, together with UiPath. The vendor offers consumers with applications to automate business procedures making use of AI-powered “digital employees,” or bots.

The acquisition of FortressIQ will let Automation Anyplace to progress its AI-powered, cloud-indigenous Automation 360 system with procedure discovery, intelligence and optimization so consumers can scale to any system or software. Consumers will also get new applications with created-in intelligence to rapidly discover which procedures can and should be automated.

“FortressIQ is a way of supercharging RPA since it permits us to feed new factors to automate into our system and do it seriously successfully and successfully,” reported Mike Micucci, Automation Anywhere’s chief operating officer.

Getting ready to go general public

This acquisition of FortressIQ is heading to aid them say ‘we have all the parts expected for substantial scale tasks, substantial scale automation or digital transformation tasks.’
Kashyap KompellaAnalyst, RPA2AI Exploration

The acquisition is a way for the vendor to round out its item portfolio as it races toward an IPO in 2022, reported RPA2AI Exploration analyst Kashyap Kompella.

“This acquisition of FortressIQ is heading to aid them say ‘we have all the parts expected for substantial-scale tasks, substantial-scale automation or digital transformation tasks,'” Kompella reported.

Considering the fact that procedure intelligence — which is made up of procedure mining and procedure discovery — is a complementary technological innovation to procedure automation, many of the substantial players in the RPA market have added it to their portfolio just before heading general public. Automation Anyplace competitor UiPath similarly obtained ProcessGold, a procedure mining vendor, as it ready for an IPO two several years ago. Other RPA vendors, such as Kyron, also have potent procedure intelligence capabilities.

“On the procedure intelligence entrance, this acquisition assists Automation Anyplace catch up,” Kompella reported.

An intriguing place

The acquisition puts FortressIQ in an intriguing condition. The vendor — started in 2017 — has technological innovation partnerships with Microsoft Electricity Automate and Blue Prism, which competes with Automation Anyplace.

Very last yr, Microsoft obtained RPA vendor Softomotive to give a small-code system for its Electricity Automate buyers. And though Blue Prism is envisioned to be obtained by Vista, a non-public equity agency, the RPA vendor employed to be just one of the major vendors in the procedure automation space.

As FortressIQ integrates with Automation Anyplace, its partnerships with Microsoft and Blue Prism are likely to be deprioritized, Kompella reported. Consumers making use of Microsoft Electricity Automate or Blue Prism should produce a very long-time period approach for their procedure preparing, Kompella reported.

FortressIQ founder and CEO Pankaj Chowdhry reported that though partnerships are great, staying obtained by Automation Anyplace offers worth to consumers. He reported consumers want a firm that can be a solitary issue to take them from the discovery procedure to notice worth, which is tough to do with partnerships.

“The blend with Automation Anyplace … we get a further level of integration,” Chowdhry reported. “We can affect their roadmap, they can affect our roadmap, so we can deliver to consumers successfully.”

A normal progression

The acquisition is a normal progression for the complete sector, reported Jason English, an analyst at Intellyx. The very first technology of RPA has performed alone out as far as staying equipped to seize handbook perform procedures and repeat human steps, English reported.

RPA vendors will move toward further automated signifies of capturing decision procedures, he reported.

“You happen to be heading to see much more substantial vendors investing in info science on the downstream aspect,” English reported. “On the upstream aspect, you happen to be heading to see much more and much more intelligent seize of interactions in between techniques and individuals, as properly as staying equipped to mine procedures from all the current communication and info they previously have.”