ARMONK, N.Y., July 8, 2020 /CNW/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM)
today announced it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire
Brazilian software provider of robotic process automation (RPA) WDG
Soluções Em Sistemas E Automação De Processos LTDA (referred to as
"WDG Automation" throughout). The acquisition further advances
IBM's comprehensive AI-infused automation
capabilities, spanning business processes to IT operations.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
In today's digital era, companies are looking for new ways to
create new business models, deliver new services and lower costs.
The need to drive this transformation is even greater now given the
uncertainties of COVID-19. IDC predicts that by 2025, AI-powered
enterprises will see a 100% increase in knowledge worker
productivity, resulting in shorter reaction times, greater product
innovation success and improved customer
satisfactioni.
When AI-infused automation is applied to business processes and
IT operations, it can help shorten the time between identifying an
issue and responding. This is critical as unforeseen IT incidents
and outages, for example, can cost businesses in both revenue and
reputation.
By embedding WDG Automation's RPA capabilities into IBM's
existing AI-infused automation capabilities across business
processes and IT operations, business leaders including Chief
Operating Officers (COOs) and Chief Information Officers (CIOs)
will have broader access to intelligent automation through software
robots. The acquisition also will extend IBM Services' ability to
transform clients' operations as RPA, analytics and AI bring
more intelligence to the enterprise workflows that fuel adaptive
and resilient businesses and helps to expand IBM's capabilities for
delivering automation pervasively across client organizations.
With today's news, businesses will be able to efficiently
re-engineer, optimize and standardize operations, while eliminating
business processes and IT operations that are redundant or
unnecessary. Available through IBM Services, organizations
will be able to quickly identify more granular opportunities
for automation, including tasks that have many steps, as well as
help ensure consistent and accurate data is being used across all
tools and business functions, including customer service, IT,
finance, HR, and supply chain.
"IBM already automates how companies apply AI to business
processes and IT operations so they can detect opportunities and
problems and recommend next steps and solutions," said Denis Kennelly, General Manager, Cloud
Integration, IBM Cloud and Cognitive Software. "With today's
announcement, IBM is taking that a step further and helping clients
accelerate automation to more parts of the organization, not just
to routine, but more complex tasks so employees can focus on higher
value work."
"Automation is crucial in the digital era, as businesses need to
perform several repetitive or routine tasks, so that employees are
able to focus on innovation. I'm incredibly proud of the role WDG
Automation has played in the RPA market with a unified and
integrated platform to help companies in Brazil increase their productivity," said
Robson Felix, Founder and CEO, WDG
Automation.
"Joining forces with IBM will scale our capabilities to a wider
audience, helping companies around the world accelerate their
growth on their business transformation journeys," said
Kleber Rodrigues Junior, co-founder,
WDG Automation.
WDG Automation's RPA Capabilities Automate Basic and
Complex Tasks
WDG Automation is a software provider of RPA, headquartered
in São José do Rio Preto,
Brazil. WDG Automation provides
RPA, Intelligent Automation (IA), Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
and chatbots primarily to customers in Latin America.
The WDG Automation technology is designed for business users to
create automations using a desktop recorder without the need of IT.
These software robots can run on-demand by the end user or by an
automated scheduler.
IBM Offers Complete AI-Infused Automation Capabilities –
Spanning Business Process to IT Operations
Today's news will further extend the capabilities of the IBM
Cloud Pak offerings on Red Hat OpenShift, starting with Cloud Pak
for Automation. As part of the acquisition, IBM will integrate over
600 pre-built RPA functions from WDG Automation into Cloud Pak for
Automation to help businesses turn insights from AI into automated
actions.
Available on any public or private cloud, or on-premises, the
IBM Cloud Pak for Automation offers clients a single set of
AI-infused automation software and services, including data
capture, workflow orchestration, decision management, monitoring
and reporting, that helps companies design, build and run
intelligently automated business processes and IT operations. With
WDG Automation, clients will be able to more quickly identify more
granular opportunities for automation, accelerate the deployment of
bots, and streamline more end-to-end workflows. For example, during
invoice processing, WDG Automation click-mining capabilities can
help prioritize RPA deployments with WDG Automation pre-built
scripts, integrated with the Cloud Pak for Automation, and can be
deployed faster and smarter with infused AI.
Organizations including Banco Galicia, ENN Group in China, PNC Bank throughout the U.S., several
Qatar government entities, and UK
NHS Blood and Transplant, already are using IBM Cloud Pak for
Automation capabilities to digitize and automate work.
In addition to business operations, IBM plans to integrate WDG
Automation RPA into its capabilities for automating IT operations,
specifically Watson AIOps and Cloud Pak for Multicloud Management.
IBM Watson AIOps, for example, automates how CIOs self-detect,
diagnose and respond to IT anomalies in real time. RPA can help
close the loop and ensure consistent data across all tools that
connect to Watson AIOps. This can increase data quality and improve
the accuracy of AI, as well as the productivity of engineers
involved.
IBM's investment in AI-infused automation will help improve the
workflows that drive the operations across an organization. IBM
Services delivers fast prototyping, rapid scaling, and management
of digital operations for business process and IT. For example, in
a procure to pay process, the workflow engine determines that the
best way to handle certain types of invoices is to route them to
the bot. These intelligent workflows reduce response time and save
time for the invoice processor to focus on other work by automating
the entire process of requisitioning, purchasing, receiving, paying
for and accounting for goods and services.
The WDG Automation technology will join the IBM Cloud
Integration organization and be available through IBM Cloud Pak for
Automation on-premises, and in public or private cloud
environments.
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. It
is expected to close in Q3 2020.
For more information,
visit: www.ibm.com/cloud/blog/why-ibm-acquired-this-rpa-provider.
i IDC White Paper, sponsored by IBM.
"Architect Business Transformation with AI and Hybrid Multicloud."
Copyright 2020
Media Contact
Hanna
Smigala
IBM Media Relations
smigala@us.ibm.com
(203) 512-5497
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SOURCE IBM