In today’s fast-paced business environments, agility and efficiency are essential.
Business automation platforms (BAPs) are at the forefront of transforming business processes and operations across enterprises. These tools streamline processes across the organization to boost performance while cutting costs through automation.
What are business automation platforms (BAPs)?
Business automation platforms, or BAPs, integrate diverse functions across an enterprise into a unified system, enabling seamless communication and data exchange between processes.
With enterprises increasingly adopting automation technologies, they often find themselves using multiple platforms that function independently, which can lead to complexity and inefficiencies.
Bobby Patrick, chief marketing officer of UiPath, says:
“Businesses are now facing a new reality: usually by choosing several platforms for one or more related automation technologies, these are managed differently, with each platform functioning independently of the others. The complexity of the automation-driven processes and all the challenges that come with it make all enterprises search for an end-to-end strategy for automation. This gives rise to a fresh category, with huge potential: Business Automation Platforms—which will become the one-stop for companies seeking to maximize the benefits of their automation investments.”
BAPs bring together core components to streamline automation efforts
Business automation platforms (BAPs) streamline and automate workflows, reducing manual effort and minimizing errors. These platforms support organizations in designing, orchestrating, and managing automation strategies.
The key components of BAPs include:
- Robotic process automation (RPA): These tools automate repetitive tasks, allowing teams to focus on more strategic initiatives.
- Low-code development platforms: These platforms enable developers to rapidly build, test, and deploy applications with minimal manual coding, thereby accelerating product development and deployment.
BAPs also offer sophisticated tools that use cutting-edge technology to refine and enhance business processes:
- Process and task mining: Process and task mining can help analyze existing processes to identify inefficiencies and opportunities for optimization and automation.
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning: Most BAPs have embedded AI and ML capabilities that help automate complex processes requiring predictive capabilities.
- Data analysis and reporting: Data analysis and reporting capabilities help organizations monitor performance metrics and derive actionable insights.
Integration is key for BAPs
When we looked at the most loved capabilities of low code development platforms and RPA tools that form an essential part of BAPs on G2, we found that users appreciate how these tools bring significant time savings and improve efficiency.
Intuitive interfaces, rapid development, and high flexibility are some of the features that users appreciate in these tools. An important capability for BAPs is integrating all the tools so that the most crucial operations can be automated. About 20% of reviewers of low-code development platforms and 15% of reviewers of RPA tools appreciate this capability.
Setup and support remain major challenges
However, despite these benefits, users also face challenges with RPA and low-code development platforms.
The complexity of setup, lack of supporting documentation, and limited functionalities emerge as top challenges for RPA tools. For low-code development platforms, the major challenges are limited customization options and scalability concerns. Around 15% of users also express concerns about insufficient documentation.
These insights highlight the strengths and areas for improvement in current BAPs, guiding future developments in the industry.
BAPs: The future of intelligent automation
By addressing the current challenges and leveraging advanced technologies, BAPs can transform into comprehensive solutions that not only automate processes but also enhance decision making and strategic planning, delivering efficiency and high performance at practical costs. This infusion of AI will enhance predictive capabilities, making operations more intelligent and adaptive.
Matthew Miller, a research principal at G2 focused on AI, notes that businesses can unlock new opportunities when automation and AI come together. However, beware of shiny object syndrome, wherein every new idea and innovation is adopted unquestionably and without thinking.
First, ensure that business processes and goals are well understood and defined. Understand that a positive ROI might take time—on average, businesses take a year and a half, based on review data from the past two years. Only then can this powerful technology aid in achieving great things.
Learn about the differences between low-code and no-code development and where to apply them.
Edited by Jigmee Bhutia
Reduce effort and minimize errors
