Look at what we have picked out for you today.
News, Data and Craziness
Old but Gold
Top 3 Postings
Brain Snacks
CoF: Center of Funpetence
Upcoming Stuff
The third edition of the Automation Magazine is out and it's full of the latest gossip, news and postings from the world of process automation and digitalization.
So have fun and leave feedback! 🙂
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Alper Yesiltas is a world-renowned photographer from Istanbul, Turkey has completed a new project called "As if nothing happened" which features AI-based images of people such as Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson, Kurt Kobain, Tupac and more. 😮
What makes this collection so special is that it captures what these individuals would look like if they had not experienced some of the great tragedies of their lives.
This project will make you think about how different our world would be if certain events had never occurred.
Which pictures do you find the most interesting?
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At the FORWARD 5 event in Las Vegas UiPath and Microsoft have announced an extended strategic partnership that will see the two companies work together to deliver market-leading integrations across Microsoft's commercial cloud offerings.
The two companies will work together to create new automation capabilities that will help organizations across a variety of industries optimize their business processes.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Microsoft to deliver best-in-class automation solutions to our joint customers,” said Daniel Dines, CEO and co-founder of UiPath. “This partnership is a natural extension of our existing relationship and underscores our shared commitment to helping organizations automate their business processes and achieve their digital transformation goals.”
“UiPath is a valuable partner in helping our customers digitally transform their businesses,” said Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Cloud + Enterprise at Microsoft. “By working together, we can provide customers with even more powerful and efficient solutions that drive real business results.”
The two companies have already begun working together on several joint initiatives, including:
👉 click to read the full announcement 👈
What do you think about that partnership?
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The FORWARD 5 event is an annual conference for RPA and UiPath enthusiasts. This year it was held in Las Vegas from 27-29 SEPTEMBER.
The conference is always packed with great advice and insights from industry leaders such as from Co-CEOs Daniel Dines and Robert Enslin or from New York Times best-selling author of Love + Work Marcus Buckingham but also a lot of opportunities for hands-on and exploring new technologies.
Couldn't make it to Las Vegas? Don't worry! 🤗
Here are some possibilities for you to get the most important insights:
Have you been able to attend the FORWARD 5 or do you wish to do so in the near future?
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Have you heard about our 100-page long eBook? 😎
In it, we unravel the mysteries surrounding Process Automation like Indiana Jones unraveled the secrets of the Ark of the Covenant.
Take a look and download it for free:
👉 Download 👈
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These are the articles, videos and podcasts that have stood the test of time.
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No-code might not be the best solution for everyone, but it worked well for the people at FINN. They were able to grow from 0 to 20,000 car subscriptions in just two years and expanded to the US during that time as well.
Their success was due in part to their use of no-code tools like Airtable, Make (Integromat) and Retool. These tools allowed them to automate a lot of processes related to e-commerce and car subscriptions and to move fast and iterate quickly on their product.
In the early days, they were able to test out different pricing models and subscription lengths without having to build anything from scratch. No-code also meant that they didn't have to worry about hiring expensive developers or waiting for weeks for new features to be released.
Now, FINN is one of the leading car subscription companies in Europe with over 50,000 subscribers. And they're not slowing down anytime soon!
Nevertheless, no-code is not scalable in the long term, says Ishtiaque Zafar, Senior Software Engineer at FINN.
If you want to know why:
👉 click to read the full article 👈
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According to Anders Jensen, there are five coding languages that an RPA Developer must master.
Do you meet the criteria? 😋
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This post could actually find a home under the Brain Snacks category as well, as Kieran shares not only his own thoughts on Conversational AI, but also a forty-page-long e-book with you.
That's the way to go! 💪
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We don't speak Portuguese, but this posting was awesome! 🔥
Filipe shared an overview for almost all the no-code tools out there filtered for your needs.
See the image here:
Lilith Brockhaus already mentioned in the comments that she misses Make (Integromat) in the Automation section. 🙈
Which no-code tool are you missing here?
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The field of Process Automation is still male-dominated. We wanted to know what it's like for the “Women of Process Automation” working in that field. 🙋
Our first interviewee was Alisa Kliuchnikava, an Automation Engineer at Bots & People. She's a popular speaker and consultant whose work has helped lots of organizations improve their efficiency and productivity.
If you want to know about the prejudices Alisa has faced over time and her thoughts on the changing face of automation, read on.
👉 click to see the interview 👈
What are your experiences? Share them with us in the comments!
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The way Business Process Automation is usually approached is by identifying processes that are manual, time-consuming and/or error-prone, and then finding ways to automate them. This approach has been successful for DHL Global Forwarding (DGF), who have managed to save time and money by automating their business processes.
However, Frank Schüler believes that there is a better way to approach Business Process Automation:
What do you think about the "Idea2Robot" framework?
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If you're looking for a way to get free meals in your city, you may want to consider using social media and process automation.
Chris Buetti figured out a way to do it, and he's been eating like a king ever since. All he does is post pictures of his meals on social media, and then he automated the process of reaching out to restaurants and asking for free meals. It sounds too good to be true, but it's working like a charm. 😎
What do you think about Chris's solution?
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This meme was stolen from Lasse Rindom. Thanks for the good laugh and I hope you forgive us! 😋
BTW: How do you like the new Lord of the Rings series?
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Is that correct dear Automation Engineers? 😅
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Has that ever happened to you? 😁
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The Connect & Automate 2022 event is planned as a casual meet-up for anyone interested in the topic of No-Code/Low-Code and Citizen Development.
If you're looking for a lively discussion on the latest hot topics, our Moderator Louise Kuehns is sure to deliver. She'll be joined by Sebastian Schrötel, Christoph Piller, Lilith Brockhaus, and Nico Bitzer for a lively debate on the topic: Citizen Development: Overhyped or Missing (Automation) Link?
Please click here to see the event booklet with all the necessary information.
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Date: 17.11.2022
Time: 18:30 - 21:30
Venue: Data Space by SAP, Rosenthaler Str. 38, 10178 Berlin
Capacity: 80 seats
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Thanks for reading! We hope you enjoyed it!
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If you want to make sure you never miss an issue of the Automation Mag, be sure to subscribe and get it delivered right to your mail box:
👉 register here 👈
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As always, we appreciate any feedback you might have. Please leave a comment below or contact us directly if you have any suggestions or ideas.
See you in two weeks👋
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Automation takes preparation. The last thing you want to is for your automation project to fail or end up with an unfinished automation initiative.
As a result, we decided to cover everything you need to know when starting a project, including what types of roles you are expected to assign. Read on.
We recognized five separate aspects of automation initiatives: organization, governance, people & culture, technology, and process. When looking at an automation project, it is essential to see it with a holistic view and address the different aspects equally.
Every successful automation project succeeds because someone knows which questions to ask. These questions will empower you to communicate what you intend to do clearly.
It all starts with the Why, what, and how.
Why do we do something? Why do we aim for automation?What do we have to do to implement it?How are we going to do it?Proof-of-Concept: Yes or No?There are two ways to approach the automation initiative. One is to build it by starting with process selection and identification right away, and the other is to build PoC first. By building PoC, you can learn a few things along the way that could be beneficial for your initiative. Here’s a quick overview of the two different perspectives.
Demand Funnel -> Identify -> Define/Design (PPD) -> Develop (SDD) -> Go LiveIdentify -> Define/Design (PPD) -> Develop (SDD) -> Go Live -> Demand FunnelGood PoC Can Result in Larger InitiativesInvite motivated MAs who are interested in the project and conduct a small proof-of-concept to convince management to end up engaging in a larger initiative.
There’s no single rule as to what approach to automation projects is correct. However, everything in automation can be measured, and it’s no secret that one approach turned out to be more successful than others. It can simply be described as: start small and scale fast. By starting small, you’ll be able to gradually expand the scope of your automation project, which will also affect the speed with which you can scale.
Instead of using several technologies at once, it’s always better to start with a single one and understand its scope. Focus on building new use cases around it. After completing one technology, you can explore others, one at a time, and come up with use cases for each.
Process discovery workshops help us discover new processes and analyze the existing ones. Holding frequent workshops can help us make continuous improvements of processes. In many cases, such workshops need to be held with the IT department included, especially if working on more significant processes, such as P2P or O2C. Planning and implementing changes should be conducted together with IT.
Formalization is the act of making something formal by defining rules and procedures clearly. These should be clearly stated between individual steps inside the project and especially between the interfaces of business and development, and it’s always a good idea to have built-in checklists for the handover.
Formalization also means having the entire process represented visually so that we can see if there aren’t any bottlenecks or irregularities that would hamper the possible scaling of the process.
Automation often includes many people working on it, and there are many names for roles in automation projects. Big players in the industry, such as Celonis or UiPath, usually assign all of those roles to people working on their initiatives. However, for us, the following three roles play an essential part:
Automation StrategistAutomation AgentAutomation LeaderAutomation StrategistAn Automation Strategist is responsible for all automation projects that are part of the business department. It is common for an Automation Strategist to be part of a functional department, and the person with the title must be familiar with all the business processes that are taking place in the department.
Suppose there’s a need for change management in relation to automation. In that case, an Automation Strategist is usually the one responsible for orchestrating it for the department where the change needs to take place.
An Automation Agent is usually part of one of the special departments, and they usually work hand-in-hand with an Automation Strategist. In a sense, they can be perceived as a junior Automation Strategist, as they still need to have some knowledge about automation in general.
In many cases, their job is to prepare the needed documentation for process automation and deliver it to the Automation Strategist. Moreover, they will also have the opportunity to participate in the automation initiative by sharing ideas and solutions with others.
The role of an Automation Leader is often mixed with an Automation Sponsor. However, in reality, the latter is more of a support role, and the former is responsible for the entire automation project. Ideally, they should be able to see the big picture and oversee the various details pertaining to the project, such as time, cost, investments, and more.
As part of managing a good automation project, being able to prepare it properly is an important aspect. To do that, it’s essential to understand various approaches to the project and learn how to prepare properly. Hopefully, our set of tips for automation projects helped you gain a better overview of what you need to do to become fully equipped before launching automation.
An important part of preparing for the project means understanding automation roles and assigning them to the right people who have received the relevant training and have the skills to contribute to the project.