{"id":4121,"date":"2019-05-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/projects\/horsesforsources\/specific-actions-uipath_050819\/"},"modified":"2021-12-03T08:12:09","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T08:12:09","slug":"specific-actions-uipath_050819","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsesforsources.com\/specific-actions-uipath_050819\/","title":{"rendered":"15 initiatives UiPath and its competitors must take to prove they are serious about transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"
We’ve been pretty vocal regarding the unfocused direction<\/a> the industry which has called itself “RPA” has taken, and the obsession some of the firms are having with their self-declared valuations. So let’s change the story from how much these firms actually believe they are worth<\/em> to where they need to invest<\/em> their funding to show they are serious about being part of a transformative industry. <\/p>\n Don’t get us wrong, in software world, it’s common practice to get attention that your company is valuable and investors are falling over themselves to hurl money at it – this is common practice in markets that are very focused on selling to IT executives. And we’ve seen far more ludicrous “valuations” than the 35x earnings ones the robotic software firms are claiming (just look at Blockchain and AI). <\/p>\n So why aren’t we seeing firms like UiPath shift the focus to the investments<\/em> and changes<\/em> they intend to make to propel a truly transformational value proposition with their products? Especially where the prime target for growth is the business executive who is far less accustomed to a world where his\/her suppliers are obsessed with how much they’re worth, as opposed to how they can help you take your business through painful change.<\/p>\n It’s critical now to shift the vision to reality of making these bot dreams come true<\/strong><\/p>\n UiPath, more than its competitors, has always pushed the vision of democratized IT. Literally, RPA or a “bot for every worker” and not just a sanctioned crew of IT professionals (or even a sanctioned crew of enterprises) is a brilliant marketing gimmick. However, with UiPath’s hypergrowth and rapid-fire funding, the time has come to connect the dots between a folksy vision and how UiPath can truly enable the transformation of work.<\/p>\n As HFS recently articulated in our blog “RPA is dead. Long live integrated automation platforms<\/a>”, RPA is being used to automate tasks and prop up legacy processes. Broad business transformation is decidedly lacking and arguably cannot be achieved without supporting tools like artificial intelligence and analytics as well as digital change management to address how change is driven, managed and perpetuated. The one perhaps notable shift in the change winds is the on the democratization front – RPA is being bought and consumed primarily by business units not central IT. However, as enterprises push towards integrated automation, with a higher order of technical complexity of tools and data challenges, IT once again becomes essential. Integrated automation may drive the ultimate democratization – the balance between IT and business operations.<\/p>\n Despite its growth and funding, UiPath is a very long way from achieving this vision<\/strong><\/p>\n Our recent survey work with “power-users” of robotic software products (what we were calling RPA and RDA) clearly highlights the top three strengths and challenges of the UiPath solution (with sampled comments):<\/p>\n