Blueprint Report Indicates Companies Are Changing RPA Platforms to Modernize Processes, Improve Automation, Increase ROI
Organizations Abandoning Automation Anywhere and Blue Prism for Microsoft Power Automate
Blueprint Software Systems – a leading provider of cloud-based software solutions designed to help large organizations understand and improve their business processes – today published its “Process Modernization in 2022” report, examining how organizations are re-platforming their current intelligent automation estates from one RPA platform to another. Re-platforming is common for businesses that want to modernize business processes, improve ROI, and use the best technology available.
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Blueprint surveyed 400 IT Executives, Directors, Department Heads, Senior Managers, and Analysts at large companies (1,000-10,000+ employees) in the United States and Europe and found that better capabilities, features, extensibility, and cost-effectiveness were the top reasons driving organizations to re-platform.
“Historically, re-platforming has been risky, time-consuming, and expensive because RPA tools build process automations in different ways which, in turn, required rebuilding automations from scratch in order to make them compatible with a competing RPA platform,” says Dan Shimmerman, President and CEO, Blueprint. “Despite these challenges, we’ve discovered a considerable amount of automation re-platforming happening across all industries as organizations seek to capitalize on the benefits of a modern approach to RPA development.”
Organizations that have redeployed their automation portfolios reported that the specialized resources needed for re-platforming (45%) and the need to rebuild entire automations from scratch (44%) were the most significant challenges they encountered. Similarly, organizations considering re-platforming expected the need to rebuild their automation portfolios to be the biggest challenge they would face, as well as the greatest hesitation they would have when considering a switch.
On the other hand, the benefits most realized for companies that have re-platformed are better capabilities and features (43%), higher returns (38%), and less technical complexity to make automation more accessible to the average business user (36%).
Most organizations use their original RPA platforms for an average of three years. On average, organizations moved 120 automations into their new destination RPA platforms and took an average of 10 months to complete the transition. The average cost to re-platform was approximately $500,000. Automation Anywhere and Blue Prism are the most common platforms companies have abandoned, with nearly half of the survey respondents moving to or considering Microsoft Power Automate.
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“It’s not surprising that Microsoft Power Automate is the new RPA platform of choice since most organizations already use Microsoft products and services. Microsoft is arguably simpler to use and promotes accessibility to a larger portion of an organization, promoting increased scale,” notes Shimmerman.
Better compatibility with enterprise architecture was both a primary motivator and a realized benefit for those organizations switching RPA platforms. Lowering the cost of ownership was also a driver as organizations look for more affordable licensing models for their automation practice. While consolidating automation into one RPA tool was predicted to be a key motivator for re-platforming, 74% of organizations reported they will use multiple RPA tools for the foreseeable future, suggesting specialization, compatibility, and business unit preferences still have a place in automation programs.
Out of the organizations surveyed, 26% have already switched RPA platforms or had at least one business unit in their organization change platforms. Of the 74% organizations that have used the same singular RPA platform, most are in the process of re-platforming or are considering it, indicating that the desire to switch platforms is moving into the mainstream.
