Blue Prism

Blue Prism is the trading name of the Blue Prism Group, a UK multinational software corporation that pioneered and makes enterprise robotic process automation (RPA) software that provides a digital workforce designed to automate complex, end-to-end operational activities.

Blue Prism Group
Public
Traded as
ISINGB00BYQ0HV16
Industry
FoundedJuly 26, 2001 (2001-07-26)
Founders
Headquarters
2 Cinnamon Park Crab Lane Warrington WA2 0XP, UK
Key people
Alastair Bathgate (Co-founder)
David Moss (CTO & Co-founder)
Jason Kingdon (CEO & Executive Chairman)[1]
Websitewww.blueprism.com

Blue Prism's headquarters are at 2 Cinnamon Park Crab Lane Warrington WA2 0XP, UK with regional offices in the U.S. and Australia.[2][3] The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange AIM market.[4]

History

Formation

Blue Prism was founded in 2001 by a group of process automation experts to develop technology that could be used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of organisations.[5] Initially their focus was on the back office where they recognised an enormous unfulfilled need for automation. The company was co-founded by Alastair Bathgate and David Moss to provide a new approach that today is known as robotic process automation, or RPA.[6]

In 2003, Blue Prism's first commercial product, Automate, was launched. In 2005, the second version of Automate was released with features for large scale processing. Co-operative Financial Services began using Blue Prism software in 2005 to automate manual processes in customer services.[7]

Robotic Process Automation

Robotic process automation (RPA) is the application of technology that provides organisations with a digital workforce that follows rule-based business processes and interacts with the organisations' systems in the same way that existing users currently do.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Blue Prism has been credited for coining the term "Robotic Process Automation."[6][15]

RPA is a growing industry and is expected to reach $3.11 billion by 2025.[16] It has been used to handle the requests generated by the General Data Protection Regulation;[17] by Tokio Marine Kiln for back-office transaction framework; by the nutrition company, Fonterra, to fix quantity mismatches in planning software SAP;[18] and by Milaha for the entry, processing and transfer of data.[19] The independent market research company Forrester Research identified Blue Prism as one of three companies that is considered a leader in the robotic process automation field both in terms of their market presence as well as the quality of their offering in a 2017 study.[20]

An October 2018 study by Grand View Research, Inc. stated that the key companies in the RPA market included: Automation Anywhere, Inc.; Blue Prism Group PLC; UIPath; Be Informed B.V.; OpenSpan; and Jacada, Inc.[21] In 2019, Gartner released its 'Magic Quadrant' for RPA, and Blue Prism was one of the leaders in the market.[22]

Stock

On March 18, 2016 the company floated on the London Stock Exchange AIM market, becoming a public company.[4] With a market capitalisation of £48.5 million, Blue Prism underwent an IPO in March 2016.[23] The company's shares rose 44 percent on the first day of trading on AIM, under CEO Alastair Bathgate.[24] Customers include O2, Co-operative Bank and Fidelity Investment Management. By November 2016, it had offices in Chicago and Miami, as well as the United Kingdom.[25]

On 6 January 2017 Blue Prism announced it would open new offices in Austin, Texas, while remaining based in London. At the time, it employed 86 people worldwide.[26] In March 2017, a group of shareholders sold stakes in Blue Prism. At the time, Blue Prism remained based in Merseyside.[27] In June 2017, Blue Prism announced that a new version of its software would run on public clouds such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. Previously, the software had run on customers' own servers.[28]

In 2019, Blue Prism announced changes to its platform and the issuing of new stock. It included a new AI engine, an updated marketplace for extensions, and a new lab for in-house AI innovation.[29]

As of April 2020, the leadership team is made up of executive chairman and CEO Jason Kingdon and co-founder and CTO David Moss.[23][30] Kingdon, an early investor in the company, became chairman in 2008 and led the company until its successful IPO in 2016. Kingdon returned as chairman in 2019[31][32] and became CEO in April 2020 when former CEO Alastair Bathgate stepped down.[30]

Blue Prism technology

Blue Prism is built on the Microsoft .NET Framework. It automates any application and supports any platform (mainframe, Windows, WPF, Java, web, etc.)[33] presented in a variety of ways (terminal emulator, thick client, thin client, web browser, Citrix and web services). It has been designed for a multi-environment deployment model (development, test, staging, and production) with both physical and logical access controls. Blue Prism RPA software includes a centralised release management interface and process change distribution model providing high levels of visibility and control. Additional control is provided to the business via a centralised model for process development and re-use. Blue prism records every system login, change in management action, and decisions and actions taken by the robots to identify statistics and real-time operational analytics.[34] The software supports regulatory contexts such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA and SOX, with a large number of controls in place to provide the necessary security and governance.[34] All of the process coding is automated on the back end, allowing even non-technical users to automate a process by dragging components into an interface.[35]

In 2016, Blue Prism received one of the top honors at the AIconics Awards, named as The Best Enterprise Application of AI.[36][37] In 2017, the company was named one of MIT Tech Review's 50 Smartest Companies and was the winner of the UK Tech Awards.[38]

In 2019, Blue Prism announced its idea for connected-RPA. Connected-RPA is the offering of an automation platform with AI and cognitive features built in.[39] It includes features like a Digital Exchange, with online access to drag and drop AI, machine learning, and cognitive and disruptive technologies; a web-based tool that reduces the time to prepare for a RPA deployment; and an online community for sharing knowledge and best practices.[39] The Digital Exchange gives customers and partners the ability to create and share tools that can be used with Blue Prism's software.  To encourage innovation, Blue Prism has an AI engine for building connectors to advanced AI tools from Amazon, Google, IBM, and other AI platforms.[40]

In the summer of 2019, Blue Prism acquired Thoughtonomy for $100m[41]. Thoughtonomy was later renamed Blue Prism Cloud. The acquisition provided Blue Prism with Cloud capabilities, allowing them to offer Automation as a Service over the cloud.

The digital workforce

Blue Prism's digital workforce is built, managed and owned by the user or customer, spanning operations and technology, adhering to an enterprise-wide robotic operating model. It is code-free[42] and can automate any software in a non-invasive way. The digital workforce can be applied to automate processes in any department where clerical or administrative work is performed across an organisation.[43]

Business and markets

Blue Prism has been deployed in a number of industries including banking, finance and insurance, consumer package goods, legal services, public sector, professional services, healthcare and utilities. [44]

Its RPA software has been purchased by companies such as Coca-Cola, Pfizer, Prudential, Sony, and Walgreens.[45][46]

In 2018, the UK water company United Utilities purchased robots from Blue Prism in order to use RPA to streamline its processes and increase efficiency.[47] The robots monitor signals and alerts on the water network and automatically inform engineers as to any issues.[47]

The company IEG4 worked with Blue Prism to improve the handling of benefits claims with more efficient data processing.[48]

The finance company Fannie Mae used an RPA platform from Blue Prism to automate a review and notification process within its mortgage operations area.[49] Another finance institution, Mashreq, worked with Blue Prism to automate multiple functions, including banking operations, compliance, customer care and help desk operations.[50]  In the healthcare industry, Ascension Health has used Blue Prism's RPA technology for back-office functions, and to manage the licensure and certification of clinicians.[33]

References
  1. "Diginomica". Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  2. Howard, Tom (2019-11-22). "Relieved shareholders see Blue Prism Group in new light". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  3. Companies House (n.d.), Blue Prism Group PLC, retrieved 2020-01-27
  4. "Blue Prism to issue $130M in stock to raise new funds". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-04-18.
  5. "Blue Prism is raising $130M to fuel new technologies". Built In Austin. Retrieved 2019-03-27.
  6. "Blue Prism looks to partners to expand robotic process automation with AI". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-03-27.
  7. Ashford, Warwick (August 29, 2007). "Co-operative bank extends automation with Blue Prism". Computer Weekly. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
  8. Professors Leslie Willcocks and Mary Lacity. Service Automation: Robots and The Future of Work. London School of Economics. ISBN 0956414567.
  9. Times BPO Supplement, Raconteur
  10. How is technology changing BPO?, Computer Weekly
  11. Robotic Automation Emerges as a Threat to Traditional Low Cost Outsourcing, HfS Research, archived from the original on 2015-09-21, retrieved 2017-02-06
  12. Understanding Enterprise RPA: The Blue Prism Example (PDF), David Chappel & Associates
  13. A new approach to automating services (PDF), London School of Economics
  14. Welcoming our robotic security underlings, HFS Research
  15. Konrad, Alex. "From Communism To Coding: How Daniel Dines Of $7 Billion UiPath Became The First Bot Billionaire". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
  16. "Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Market Worth $3.11 Billion by 2025". www.grandviewresearch.com. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
  17. "How robots saved us from hours of GDPR-tasks". www.nordea.com. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
  18. "Meet Fonterra's newest team member – Enid". Fonterra. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
  19. Wee, Vincent; Wee, Vincent. "Milaha forges ahead with automation system for back office". www.seatrade-maritime.com. Retrieved 2019-04-17.
  20. The Forrester Wave™: Robotic Process Automation, Q1 2017 (PDF), forrester.com
  21. "Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Market Worth $3.11 Billion by 2025". www.grandviewresearch.com. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  22. Ramnani, Meeta (2019-07-16). "Gartner Released Its First Magic Quadrant for RPA with Three Leaders". EnterpriseTalk. Retrieved 2019-09-20.
  23. "Commercialising RPA - Blue Prism Chairman on "a technology that got invented in the UK - and no-one even noticed"". diginomica. 2019-10-29. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  24. Burgess, Kate (March 20, 2016). "Blue Prism rides the robot wave". Financial Times. United Kingdom. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
  25. Bounds, Andy; Tighe, Chris (November 23, 2016). "What businesses want from the Autumn Statement". Financial Times. United Kingdom. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
  26. Theis, Michael (January 9, 2017). "Two more British tech sector firms open Austin offices". Austin Business Journal. Austin, Texas, United States. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
  27. Frost, Richard (March 24, 2017). "Growth fund sells Blue Prism stake". Insider Media. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
  28. Darrow, Barb (June 6, 2017). "This Software Helps Bots Do Their Work". Fortune. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
  29. "Blue Prism to issue $130M in stock to raise new funds". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-04-24.
  30. "Blue Prism To Raise GBP100 Million Via Placing; CEO Bathgate To Depart" (2020-04-20). Retrieved 2020-04-22.
  31. "News & Tips: Reckitt Benckiser, Whitbread, Just Eat & more". Investors Chronicle. 2019-10-22.
  32. "Blue Prism Rehires Jason Kingdon As Executive Chair Amid Growth". MorningstarUK. 2019-10-22.
  33. "Blue Prism brings RPA technology to healthcare". SearchHealthIT. Retrieved 2019-04-24.
  34. "Blue Prism: Imagine a Different Kind of Workforce". robotic-process-automation.cioadvisorapac.com. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
  35. "Blue Prism looks to partners to expand robotic process automation with AI". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
  36. Blue Prism: Best Enterprise Application of AI, aibusiness.org
  37. London 2016 AIConics Winners, theaiconics.com
  38. "Mashreq Bank Selects Blue Prism to Drive Innovation Across All Banking Functions". finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2019-05-02.
  39. "Blue Prism launches connected-RPA to transform the market". Information Age. 2019-01-25. Retrieved 2019-05-02.
  40. "Blue Prism looks to partners to expand robotic process automation with AI". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-05-08.
  41. "Blue Prism acquires UK's Thoughtonomy for up to $100M to expand its RPA platform with more AI". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
  42. What knowledge workers stand to gain from automation, Harvard Business Review
  43. White Collar Robots: The Virtual Workforce, TEDx Talks
  44. Blue Prism Group plc – Year end results for the twelve months ended 31st October 2016, London Stock Exchange RNS
  45. "Robotic Process Automation From Blue Prism". Nanalyze. 2018-05-01. Retrieved 2019-05-23.
  46. "Mashreq Bank Selects Blue Prism to Drive Innovation Across All Banking Functions". finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2019-05-23.
  47. "United Utilities uses robots to 'revolutionise' service". Utility Week. 2018-02-09. Retrieved 2019-05-23.
  48. "Using robots to automate the repetitive". UKAuthority. Retrieved 2019-05-31.
  49. "Readying your IT shop for RPA software". SearchCIO. Retrieved 2019-05-31.
  50. "Mashreq Bank Selects Blue Prism to Drive Innovation Across All Banking Functions". finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2019-06-04.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.