The Evolution of Automation Anywhere (AA): A Journey of Innovation and Growth Over the Last 5 Years
Nazir Barbhuiya
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Introduction
In today’s fast-paced business landscape, where efficiency and productivity are paramount, the role of technology in streamlining operations cannot be overstated. Among the trailblazers in the realm of business process automation, RPA Automation Anywhere stands tall as a global leader in Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Founded approximately 16 years ago, this industry titan has grown exponentially, boasting a clientele of over 2600+ customers across more than 90 countries.
Some of the world’s most prominent names, including LinkedIn, MasterCard, Comcast, Hitachi, Stanley Black & Decker, IBM, Cisco, Symantec, Juniper Networks, Tesco, Unilever, Volkswagen, Whirlpool, Quest Diagnostics, Deloitte, Boston Scientific, Dell EMC, Accenture, Cognizant, Siemens, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the World Bank, have harnessed the power of Automation Anywhere’ s solutions to streamline their operations.
History
Automation Anywhere, was founded in 2003 named Tethys (Now Automation Anywhere) Solutions by current CEO Mihir Shukla (formerly of Kiva Software, Netscape, Infoseek and OmniSky), Neeti Mehta, Ankur Kothari and Rushabh Parmani. As Tethys (Now Automation Anywhere) Solutions draws its name from the Greek goddess of water, symbolizing their mission to make business process automation as ubiquitous as water itself.
The company was renamed to Automation Anywhere in 2010. Starting as a provider of macro-based desktop task automation tool to now a provider of enterprise RPA platform, few companies have made a mark as profound as Automation Anywhere. Initially a provider of macro-based desktop task automation tools, Automation Anywhere has evolved into a leader in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) with over 2,600+ customers across over 90 countries, an overall annual growth rate of over 100% and a subscription revenue growth rate of around 150%. It now has 1,800+ employees, this company has not only revolutionized the way businesses operate but has also set a remarkable example of entrepreneurial spirit and technological innovation.
The company also has significant clusters of customers across other industries – including telecoms, logistics, high technology and energy. The core of Automation Anywhere’s success story is a founding team driven by a shared belief in automating repetitive, mundane tasks to enhance efficiency. CEO Mihir Shukla, with a background in the software industry, has a vision that automation liberates resources for strategic endeavors. Neeti Mehta, with her experience at Oracle and Trilogy, ensured that solutions align closely with actual business needs. Ankur Kothari, the technical luminary, contributed invaluable insights into crafting robust software solutions. Rushabh Parmani, adept in software development and product management, fortified the technical foundation of Automation Anywhere.
In the year 2009, With an R&D center in India and a primary sales office in San Jose, Tethys (Now Automation Anywhere) distinguishes itself from major enterprise software firms by targeting the often-overlooked realm of business processes valued between $2,000 and $100,000—a long tail of untapped potential.
While many large-scale businesses process implementations are characterized by top-down dictation, Tethys (Now Automation Anywhere)’ flagship product, empowers users to craft automation solutions from the ground up and aimed to replace labor-intensive scripting applications within organizations. The focus was on supporting end-to-end business processes, making Automation Anywhere available as both licensed software and a cloud-based solution. Automation Anywhere’ s power lies in its intuitive visual design, which records processes as users perform them.
This dual function not only automates processes but also documents them—a valuable knowledge management system in the making. With over 300 actions available, such as conditional logic, file management, and database interactions, users can customize automation to fit their specific needs, all without programming.
One standout feature was the built-in ROI calculator, enabling organizations to track cost savings as they optimize their processes. Notably, despite economic challenges, Tethys (Now Automation Anywhere) has found success across a diverse client base, including large corporations like Oracle, IBM, and Accenture, who recognize the value of optimizing micro-decisions and eliminating inefficiencies. In a challenging economy, Automation Anywhere proves to be a timely and cost-effective solution for automating everyday business processes and enhancing operational efficiency.
Funding
In 2018, Automation Anywhere raised $550 million in a Series A funding round that included investments from SoftBank Investment Advisers, General Atlantic, Goldman Sachs, NEA, World Innovation Lab, and Workday Ventures. This infusion of capital marked a significant milestone, but the company’s growth trajectory did not stop there. In 2019, Automation Anywhere announced another monumental achievement, raising $290 million in Series B funding, valuing the company at $6.8 billion. Salesforce Ventures led the round, with contributions from existing investors, including SoftBank Investment Advisers and Goldman Sachs. This brought Automation Anywhere’ s total capital raised to date to a remarkable $840 million.
CEO outlined a vision for the company’s future. He emphasized that the newly acquired capital would be instrumental in driving the company’s expansion into international markets. While the San Jose-based company already operated in over 10 countries, it aimed to deepen customer engagements in key regions such as North America, India, Europe, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. Furthermore, the investment was earmarked for the development of specialized machine learning capabilities, poised to transform how businesses leveraged automation, driving higher operational efficiency and flexibility.
Strategic Acquisitions
Automation Anywhere’ s journey was not just about organic growth but also strategic acquisitions. In 2019, the company acquired Klevops, a company based in Paris that operated in the finance, banking, and telecommunications industries. This acquisition was a step towards enhancing its RPA and cognitive automation capabilities. In November 2019, Automation Anywhere announced the acquisition of Cathyos Labs, further solidifying its position in the automation market.
However, one of the most significant moves came in December 2021 when Automation Anywhere revealed its intention to acquire process discovery startup FortressIQ. This strategic acquisition aimed to bolster Automation Anywhere’ s capabilities in process discovery and analytics, enabling the automation of more complex and data-intensive tasks.
Product and Innovation
The period from 2019 to 2023 witnessed a remarkable transformation in Automation Anywhere’ s offerings and strategy.
In 2019, Automation Anywhere sharpened its focus on the RPA market. With a well-developed Automation anywhere partner ecosystem and strong investor backing, it positioned itself as a significant player in the industry. The year 2020 marked a pivotal moment for Automation Anywhere as it released A2019, a game-changing version bundled with AI capabilities.
This release introduced IQBot for Hyperautomation, Bot Insight for advanced analytics, Bot Store for pre-built automation components, Discovery bots, and a native mobile app. In 2021, Automation Anywhere’ s A360 initiative came to life, offering RPA-as-a-service, AARI for conversational AI, AI/ML capabilities with IQBot, Discovery Bots, advanced analytics, and an enriched Bot Store. This transformation solidified Automation Anywhere’ s position as an end-to-end automation solution provider.
In 2023, Automation Anywhere unveiled its rebranded RPA product, now known as the Automation Success Platform. This evolution signifies its transition from being solely an RPA provider to offering capabilities that extend beyond RPA. The platform is available both on-premises and in the cloud. Automation Anywhere’ s flagship product, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, forms the core of its RPA offerings. It consistently enhances this core with additional capabilities.
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IQ Bot introduces machine learning-powered document classification and data extraction, while Bot Insight provides operational and business analytics. Bot Farm offers dynamic operational scaling, and Bot Store features a growing catalog of over 400 pre-built automation components. Furthermore, Automation Anywhere Enterprise supports project and program scale through features like artifact reuse, versioning, rollback, automation lifecycle management, role-based access control, and high availability.
In 2022, Automation Anywhere has an innovative strategy to embed automation in business applications so that users can realize the benefits of automation without leaving their application of choice. Business users can launch automations from familiar user experiences in web applications from vendors like Genesys, Avaya, Cisco, Salesforce and others. This strategy reduces barriers to RPA adoption and creates flexible options for enterprises to weave both attended and unattended automation into their core applications.
Overall, Major focus on innovation, scalability, and customer satisfaction positions Automation Anywhere as a compelling choice for organizations seeking to implement RPA at scale. Their robust suite of tools addresses the complexities of automation across various industries, making them a prominent player in the landscape of digital transformation. In 2020, Automation Anywhere pricing introduced transparent pricing model for A2019 with bundled solutions, this was major improvement from earlier versions in which IQBot and Bot Insight components were incrementally priced.
In 2021, AA offered simple, fixed pricing for bundled solutions that included unattended, attended, capped document processing and analytics which was well-suited to new customers. In 2023, Automation Anywhere has eliminated its value-for-money, entry-level package known as the Partner Pack. This raises the entry price point for new Automation Any-where customers, although in many cases they may find it on a par with competing RPA offerings. Automation Anywhere has indicated that it wants to begin moving away from product-centric packaging toward a packaged use-case pricing strategy.
The year 2022 saw a shift in pricing strategies, with Automation Anywhere moving from itemized pricing to use case packaging. Additionally, the integration of FortressIQ allowed the auto-generation of RPA bots through task mining, enhancing automation efficiency. Beyond its product offerings, Automation Anywhere places a strong emphasis on customer success through its A+ program. This program prioritizes customer satisfaction, a testament to the company’s “customer-first” culture. In 2023, Automation Anywhere has developed an impressive customer success strategy, the Pathfinder Program, to help customers start, develop, and scale their automation programs. This program aligns with an organization’s hyper automation journey and demonstrates a deep understanding of customers’ technical and business challenges.
Challenges
Automation Anywhere has undoubtedly emerged as a leader in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) industry, but like any technology, it has faced its share of cautions and challenges along the way. Let’s delve into some key areas where customers have encountered hurdles: In 2019, some clients voiced concerns about restrictive license terms, an underwhelming product dashboard, inadequate support, limitations in source code management, and issues with the screen recorder.
These factors impacted on the overall user experience. In 2020, customer satisfaction with deployment experienced a dip. Upgrading to A2019 presented numerous challenges, and attended bot deployment required significant manual effort, highlighting the need for streamlining these processes.2021 brought its own set of challenges, as customers reported difficulties in transitioning from v11 to A360.
Upgrading and adapting to new versions can be intricate endeavors, and ensuring a smooth transition is crucial. Automation Anywhere’ s IQBot boasts powerful AI/ML capabilities for intelligent document processing. However, in 2021, customers noted accuracy challenges in image data extraction. Fine-tuning such capabilities to achieve higher accuracy remains a priority. In 2022, it became apparent that Automation Anywhere’ s A360 platform does not embed process discovery to autogenerate process templates. Process discovery tools can significantly enhance automation efficiency, and this gap in the offering may pose challenges to some users. As Automation Anywhere expands its reach to small and mid-sized businesses, some SMB customers reported low-quality implementations in Automation anywhere support . Ensuring consistent quality across partner implementations, regardless of the size of the business, is an ongoing concern. User experience, ensuring smoother upgrades, refining document processing accuracy, incorporating process discovery, and maintaining implementation quality has been improved over this journey even more robust and seamless automation experience for its diverse user base.
Over the span of just five years, the company has undergone a transformation that is nothing short of remarkable. In 2017, Automation Anywhere served a respectable 500 enterprise customers. Fast forward to 2023, and that number had skyrocketed to over 2,641 customers. The financial success of Automation Anywhere is equally astonishing. In 2017, the Automation anywhere valuation was $100 million, a substantial figure by any measure.
However, by 2022, they had not merely doubled or tripled this number; they had surged to an impressive $640 million in revenue. Automation Anywhere boasts a workforce of over 1,800 employees who have been instrumental in driving the company’s success. In total, the company has raised over $1.1 billion in funding, a clear indicator of the confidence that investors have in their vision and capabilities.
Future Outlook
The Automation Now & Next 2023 report, based on global research conducted by independent firm Foundry, delivers crucial insights into the evolving landscape of automation. Across industries and organizations of all sizes, the research reveals a shifting paradigm where digital transformation hinges on empowering business users to build process automations. The rising priority of Hyperautomation is evident, driven by increased involvement of the C-suite in purchasing decisions and expanding budgets.
The convergence of automation and AI is perceived as vital for achieving exponential productivity growth. Generative AI and virtual assistants are gaining prominence for their potential to transform businesses and enhance productivity. Investments in AI and automation are on the ascent, with a strong focus on addressing security and privacy concerns. Automation Anywhere is proactively investing in AI/ML technologies to maintain competitiveness.
Key barriers to AI adoption, including data challenges, regulatory issues, and security/privacy concerns, are anticipated to be mitigated through strategic investments. The report forecasts substantial growth in generative AI, with a 42% annual spending increase, and a shift towards Hyperautomation that integrates AI and automation. Specialized AI applications, particularly custom large language models, are sought after to meet industry-specific needs.?
Ultimately, the primary driver behind automation efforts is the pursuit of improved productivity, with generative AI investments aimed at addressing productivity challenges. Generative AI technologies play a pivotal role in scaling automation by empowering business users. The report predicts sustained growth in automation investments, surpassing traditional RPA investments, increased adoption of complete Intelligent Automation platforms, and the use of generative AI-powered virtual assistants to elevate automation quality and volume.
In the past five years, Automation Anywhere has embarked on a remarkable journey of innovation and growth in the world of business process automation. What began as a vision to streamline repetitive tasks has evolved into a global leader in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) with over 2,641 enterprise customers, generating an astonishing $640 million in revenue by 2022. This journey has been marked by strategic funding rounds, strategic acquisitions, and a commitment to customer success through programs like the Pathfinder Program. Despite its impressive rise, Automation Anywhere has faced its share of challenges, from user experience concerns to the need for smoother upgrades and improving document processing accuracy.?
Yet, the company’s dedication to innovation and customer-centric solutions has only strengthened its position in the industry. As the Automation Now & Next 2023 report highlights, Automation Anywhere continues to lead the charge in the evolving landscape of automation, with investments in AI/ML technologies, generative AI, and a focus on addressing barriers to AI adoption. With a track record of success and a forward-looking approach, Automation Anywhere remains a driving force in the digital transformation journey of organizations worldwide.