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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nWe\u2019ve seen a lot of trend lines moving throughout 2020 and into 2021 around automation, workflow, robotic process automation<\/strong> (RPA<\/strong>) and the movement to low-code and no-code application building. While all of these technologies can work on their own, they are deeply connected and we are starting to see some movement toward bringing them together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the definition of process automation is open to interpretation, and could include things like industrial automation, Statista estimates that the process automation<\/a> market could be worth $74 billion in 2021. Those are numbers that are going to get the attention of both investors and enterprise software executives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just this week, Berlin-based\u00a0Camunda<\/a>\u00a0announced\u00a0a $98 million Series B<\/a>\u00a0to help act as a layer to orchestrate the flow of data between RPA<\/strong> bots, microservices and human employees. Meanwhile, UIPath, the pure-play RPA <\/strong>startup that\u2019s going to IPO any minute now,\u00a0acquired Cloud Elements<\/a>, giving it a way to move beyond RPA <\/strong>into API automation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not enough proof for you? How about ServiceNow announcing this week that\u00a0it is buying Indian startup Intellibot<\/a>\u00a0to give it \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 RPA<\/strong> capabilities. That acquisition is part of a broader strategy by the company to move into full-scale workflow and automation, which it discussed just\u00a0a couple of weeks ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, at the end of last year,\u00a0SAP bought a different\u00a0Berlin process automation startup<\/a>,\u00a0Signavio, for $1.2 billion after announcing\u00a0new automated workflow tools and an RPA<\/strong> tool<\/a>\u00a0at the beginning of December. Microsoft is in on it too, having acquired\u00a0process automation startup Softmotive<\/a>\u00a0last May, which it then combined with its own automation tool\u00a0PowerAutomate<\/a>. Read On:<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Everyone’s getting in on the RPA act and rightfully so. It seems that this new focus on cloud (meaning API) is beginning to address a current shortfall for RPA as a solution. Trying to automate from a web interface brings a host problems that are not really an issue for a thick-client. API integration would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[674,628],"tags":[675,629],"class_list":["post-46062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-robotic-process-automation-processs-automation","category-rpa","tag-robotic-process-automation","tag-rpa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t