Robotic process automation (RPA) software provider UiPath has unveiled multiple product updates and strategic partnerships with IT consulting firms and MSPs. The updates, which surfaced at the Forward 5 conference in Las Vegas, reinforce UiPath's growing focus on managed services partnerships.
On the product front, forthcoming UiPath enhancements -- expected to arrive October 31 -- involve:
- UiPath Studio Web, a browser-based automation tool for software developers, will make it "easier to distribute automation at scale in an organization." Watch for new capabilities that simplify API connection to both in-house applications and specialized industry solutions, the company said.
- Continuous discovery capabilities that will help "customers discover the as-is state of processes and tasks, take action to optimize them, and continuously monitor them for ongoing improvement to achieve desired business outcomes."
- Automation Hub with ROI comparisons between estimated benefits and actual outcomes.
- Process Mining with "high scalability, improved performance, and new analytics for better process insights."
- Task Mining with a "new assisted mode that delivers a more complete view by allowing process experts to supplement their own knowledge with AI discovery."
Also, the acquisition of Re:infer allows Communications Mining. The result: Organizations can "analyze emails, documents, chat logs, social messages, and more to create actionable business data and new opportunities for automation," the company said.
UiPath: New and Expanded Partnerships
On the partnership front, UiPath announced:
UiPath remains a fast-growing provider of RPA software. Revenue was $245.1 million in Q1 of fiscal 2023, up 32 percent from the corresponding quarter last year, according to a June 1, 2022 earnings statement. Still, UiPath reduced its headcount targets in a bid to improve its path to profitability, according to a June 2022 statement.
Market forecasts suggest the overall automation software market will continue to grow rapidly. Indeed, the global robotic process automation market is expected to reach $10.7 billion by 2027, expanding at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 33.6% from 2020 to 2027, according to Grand View Research Inc.
Amid the RPA market growth, multiple companies are acquiring RPA software providers and associated RPA consulting skills.
RPA Software: Enterprise Rivals, SMB Upstarts
Key enterprise-focused RPA software companies include Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, Microsoft Power Automate, Salesforce, ServiceNow and UiPath, among others. Moreover, startups such as Rewst and ElectroNeek want to bring the power of RPA into the MSP sector.
