Appian Acquires Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Company

Appian will add RPA capabilities to its low-code automation platform following the acquisition of Novayre Solutions SL, developer of the Jidoka RPA platform.

According to Forrester, the RPA market is expected to reach $US12 billion by 2023, but many organisations are still in the early stages of their RPA journey.

Appian says robots are often deployed in silos without effective human oversight, creating management challenges. CIO concerns about robot security and governance have also limited the growth of RPA for larger-scale use cases.

The company says it will unify low-code development and RPA in one comprehensive automation platform, enabling the orchestration of all three agents of modern work -- humans, bots, and artificial intelligence. Appian’s case management capabilities are included, so if robots create errors or exceptions, humans are involved in-the-loop to quickly make corrections.

Appian promises to deliver RPA governance so organisations will be able to manage robotic workforces from major RPA vendors, including Blue Prism and UIPath.

The business interfaces for managing robots -- including monitoring, scheduling, and reporting -- are available on both the web and mobile devices.

“Appian is extending our lead in low-code automation by adding RPA,” said Matt Calkins, CEO, Appian. “Together, the products enable end-to-end process orchestration where humans, software robots, and AI all work together in a coordinated way.”

“Our shared vision for automation makes this a natural fit for Novayre. By joining forces with Appian, we will make it easier for companies to adopt and deploy RPA at enterprise scale,” said Víctor Ayllón, CEO of Novayre.

Financial terms are not being disclosed.