RPA Weekly for May 5th 2020
Microsoft Is in Talks to Buy Startup Softomotive (Bloomberg)
This would not only expand Microsoft’s RPA platform, but would put them directly in competition with UIPath and Automation anywhere. Good for the industry, but it will definitely present a more challenging landscape for the incumbents.
The SBA bans RPA for PPP loans (Journal of Accountancy)
Well that didn’t take long.
“Some banks have been using RPA to enter PPP loans applications into the SBA’s E-Tran electronic loan system. In a PPP lending operations update issued Tuesday, Treasury and the SBA said the use of RPA burdens the E-Tran system and reduces its capabilities.”
As someone on LinkedIn asked - “So now they'll build in more wait/sleep stages to the robots?”
Automation anywhere responds to SBA ban (Business Insider)
Their argument? “…the move to block RPA disadvantages smaller lenders, who can't process as many loans as quickly as their larger competitors”
US small biz loan system bans software robots. The lesson? Make sure IT knows about any automation projects (The Register)
The Registers take? You should have told IT what you were up to.
“RPA is often sold directly to business teams. They think, 'Don't bother IT, they have not got time or money to do automation.' But as soon as you deploy at scale and you don't tell anyone in IT then, things go bad really quickly and the back end cannot cope.”
Instabase Demo Video (YouTube)
This ones a few months old, but it’s worth checking out this up and comer in the RPA space that raised $105M last year at more than a billion dollar post-money valuation.
Weekly Feature: RPA Podcasts
A few weeks back we launched our own RPA focused podcasts, so we thought we’d highlight a couple episodes and also include some other RPA podcasts you might be interested in.
The It’s Automic Podcast:
Scaling RPA in a large organization - We talk with Lasse Rindom about what it’s like building and scaling an RPA practice inside a large organization.
Process improvement and RPA: Marshall Sied of Ashling Partners talks about setting up frameworks and RPA best practices for clients and the life-cycle of RPA.
Subscribe to our podcast here.
Other RPA podcasts you may find interesting
All you need to know about RPA - The “What the Dev” podcast recently had an episode focused on RPA which is a great introduction to the space for anyone new to RPA.
The Intelligent Automation Podcast - Twice monthly podcast focused on interviewing leaders in the IA space.
Understanding Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to Disrupt Your Business - An older episode, but still an interesting listen with topics like “the ethical usage of RPA”.
