Business Orchestration and Automation technologies

At theApplication Innovation & Business Solutions Summit in Las Vegas in June 24, 2014, Gartner announced the concept of BOAT, which stands for Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies, which, as explained by VP Analyst Saikat Ray, signifies the evolution of automation tools and technologies.

BOAT focuses on the convergence and evolution of various automation technologies - Business Process Automation (BPA) technologies, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tools, Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS), No-Code Application Development Platform (LCAP), and Generative AI.

He explained that from a business perspective, automation is now easy to understand and justify its need: it provides cost optimization, agility, efficiency, and accuracy.

However, it's not always possible to do so. Among the reasons why

1. In the automation software market, tools and vendors often have partial or overlapping functionality across tools and vendors.
2. Because it's still too hard for business users to use

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The importance of orchestration

THE "O" IS FOR BOAT IF YOU CAN'T ORCHESTRATE THE PROCESS OF BUILDING AND SELLING YOUR COMPANY'S PRODUCTS AND SERVICES AND THE DATA THAT COMES WITH IT, YOU WON'T GET THE TRUE BENEFIT OF AUTOMATION TECHNOLOGY.

Organizations often adopt automation tools for partial or discrete tasks. While they may see small wins in the short term, by their very nature, they are disconnected from the company's business processes and data and require more effort and IT resources to integrate into business processes. These automation tools create technology debt and lead to abandoned automation that can't keep up with the ever-changing nature of the business.

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The importance of data

From a functional perspective of what orchestration integrates, you can think of it as connecting data, systems, and applications, but at a more fundamental level, it's about connecting the data that happens in your business and is needed for your processes.

IN THE WORLD OF PROCESS AUTOMATION, IT'S NOT ENOUGH TO BE CLOUD-FIRST, API-FIRST, OR AI-FIRST; SCALABLE AND ELASTIC PROCESS ORCHESTRATION IS FUNDAMENTAL, AND DIFFERENTIATION IN ORCHESTRATING THE DATA THAT HAPPENS IN THE PROCESS BECOMES ESSENTIAL.

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End-Users

From a Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (BOAT) perspective, the most important factor is the user.

As many companies are undergoing digital transformation, the workload of IT departments has skyrocketed. This has led to an increased demand from business units to develop the applications they need directly. To automate work processes and drive innovation, companies have started to create development environments where non-developers can participate. Companies are actively adopting automation solutions to increase work efficiency, giving rise to the concept of so-called citizen developers.

The knowledge and skills required for citizen developers to be effective are varied. These include business understanding, basic technical knowledge, and problem-solving skills, as well as the ability to leverage low-code and no-code platforms. Acquiring basic programming knowledge has been essential. Because of these obstacles, the number of civic developers in the average organization is very small, and dedicated developers in line-of-business departments are often referred to as civic developers.

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Beyond citizen developers

The most important thing about the new technology, Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (BOAT), is that it allows business users to create the automation they need for their processes on their own.

The rise of disruptive technologies, including generative AI, is opening up automation to anyone in an organization, not just citizen developers. Where automation used to require specialized knowledge and training, AI is eliminating that step.

AUTOMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ARE POWERFUL TOOLS IN THEIR OWN RIGHT, BUT THEY ARE EVEN MORE SYNERGISTIC WHEN USED TOGETHER. AI ADDS INTELLIGENCE TO AUTOMATION TECHNOLOGY, ENABLING IT TO HANDLE MORE COMPLEX AND UNSTRUCTURED TASKS, AND AI MAXIMIZES THE REACH OF AUTOMATION BY APPLYING AI-REPLACED FUNCTIONS IN REAL TIME. THE CONVERGENCE OF THESE TWO TECHNOLOGIES IS PLAYING A KEY ROLE IN DRIVING INNOVATION ACROSS A WIDE RANGE OF INDUSTRIES AND MAKING COMPANIES MORE COMPETITIVE.

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