10 Most Innovative Intelligent Automation Solution Providers in 2021

ISSN 2582-127X

August 2021

MOST INNOVATIVE

INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION SOLUTION PROVIDERS IN 2021

Leveraging Intelligent Automation: A Strive to Success for Global Companies

SIDDHARTHA SINGH CEO AND FOUNDER

QUALE

Intelligent Automation and its Applications

INFOTECH

Intelligent Automation, Reshaping the Technology Sphere for a Better Future

Using intelligent automation machines, industrial companies are reducing labour usage and redirecting the manpower to be spent on intellectual works. On the other hand, intelligent automation in manufacturing houses is enhancing product quality, precision, and

Natural evolution has created the sun, moon, mother

accuracy. Moving on a bit further, industries such as

earth, human beings, and plants and animals. Everything

mechanical, aeroplanes, hydraulics, computers, and

else we see and experience today turned out to be man-

many others have also employed intelligent automation

made. Technology, on the other hand, sits above all man-

to streamline the production process. Intelligent

made innovations. Everything related to data

automation machines assist to simplify tasks and operate

acquisition, monitoring, process control, analytics

in the most dangerous situations where a man is

modelling, simulation, and optimization, which are

incapable of working on. The worldwide adoption of

quickly moving into software and automation, are

intelligent automation is witnessing steady growth

changing the tailwind of our routine. Intelligent

because of the advent of Industry 4.0, IIoT, 5G

automation is one of the trending buzzwords of our

technology, smart devices, and the increasing need for

times. But what makes automation smart? As Bill Gates

high-volume mass production processes. Not only can

once said, “Automation applied to an efficient operation

automation assist in our immediate needs such as cost-

will magnify the efficiency... Automation applied to an

cutting efforts in times of financial uncertainty, but it can

inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”

also build business resilience and mitigate risk. When

Over the past couple of decades, intelligent automation

artificial intelligence and decisioning is applied to the

has evolved from basic hardware robotics into the new

orchestration of various devices, apps, and

age of complex, intuitive, and smart technology that can

functionalities, organizations can begin to achieve true

be programmed to automate almost any activity. If there

intelligent automation.

is one thing that the pandemic has taught the business

The storm of a surge in digital transformation, driven by

leaders, then it is the importance of building a resilient

artificial intelligence, automation, Industrial Internet of

business that can stand steady in rain and storm.

Things (IIoT), cloud computing, advanced analytics, and

However, doing so without technology is not a clear or

the push to managed services, continue to transform

easy feat. Therefore, to meet the challenges and conquer

how businesses function. Owing to the increasing need

tough times when we are forced to work from remote

for automation, almost every organization is looking for a

spaces, we need innovative solutions, and automation is

worthy intelligent automation solution provider. All

top of mind. Businesses are adopting intelligent

solution providers are pursuing their own set of

automation at an accelerating speed and expanding

intelligent automation solutions that can bring a

scale.

breakthrough to society.

At a certain point, Automation, the disruptive trend, that was seen as a trailblazer in the technology sphere, moved

-Adilin Beatrice

out and started making an impact in the industrial sector.

Senior Analyst

Ashish Sukhadeve

Adilin Beatrice

Apoorva Komarraju

Aratrika Dutta

Editor-in-Chief

Senior Analyst

Senior Analyst

Content Analyst

Aratrika Dutta

Satavisa Pati

Nikita Das

Manasa Muthyala

Content Analyst

Content Analyst

Marketing Manager

Research Analyst

Dharmendar Passi

Kushagra Gupta

Anusha Polneni

Sales Manager

Creative Head

Marketing Analyst

Jyothi Pandey

Pravallika Thammana

SEO Analyst

Web Developer

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COMPANY OF THE MONTH

16 Nine A Business Connect (9A)

22

08

Botminds COVER STORY

Quale Infotech ARTICLES

42

72

Leveraging Intelligent

Intelligent Automation

Automation: A Strive to

and its Applications

Success for Global Companies

28

34

44

Excelledia Ventures

Grooper

Kenmei

48

56

66

Roots Automation

Santa Marta AB

Syntiant

74

62

V2R limited

Painting the Digital Future of Enterprises with RPA

COVER STORY

Championing Innovation with Automation and Artificial Intelligence

Q

uale Infotech is a leading end-to-end IT consulting and implementation company,

with a laser focus on Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial

Intelligence (AI). Quale started with a vision to be a customer-oriented digital

services firm. The company has adhered to that aim and strived to be the partner of choice for its customers. Quale has been successfully helping companies scale their automation footprint, with the aid of its Intelligent Automation product, Aiwozo. Aiwozo tightly couples traditional RPA capabilities and AI technologies to achieve a high degree of process automation.

08

Siddhartha Singh CEO and Founder

09

“ Artificial intelligence is still in its early stages of adoption. However, it is not surprising that businesses are increasingly relying on technology to deliver value and optimize the way they conduct business operations. AI and its subsets, applications, and domains are responsible for almost every giant innovation happening now.

“

- Siddhartha Singh CEO and Founder Quale Infotech

w w w. q u a l e i n f o t e c h . c o m

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Introducing Inclusivity in Automation Roll-Out Quale's Intelligent Automation vision is making it

limited to repeatable, rule-based tasks. Quale has been

available and affordable to all, which includes the SME

focusing on enhancing the use of AI for Automation for

segment. Currently, the company's core team feels that

the past 4 years, and through Aiwozo, the company

automation is focused on the larger enterprises at the

wants to make these feature additions at a much faster

moment and the pricing of Automation software

speed. Quale's key investments in the product have been

products is unaffordable to smaller enterprises. In

towards the addition of AI activities into Aiwozo.

addition, the scope of automation is currently very

Aiwozo, the Signature Product Unravelling Automation In addition to Quale Infotech's services around RPA and

issues processing transactions without validation, audit

AI, the company has developed a state-of-the-art

trail of transactions, reporting on a timely basis and with

Intelligent Process Automation platform called 'Aiwozo.'

higher accuracy, faster turnaround time with 24x7

With inbuilt AI and deep-learning capabilities, Aiwozo

availability for business, lowering costs over time, etc.

can achieve a higher degree of automation that is not

among the other factors.

feasible using RPA. The easy-to-use platform also helps

Aiwozo offers multiple unique features, such as pre-

companies adopt new technologies quickly with minimal

configured Machine Learning algorithms that help

or no technical support.

automate more complex tasks easily, multiple hosting

Aiwozo aims to solve the challenges faced by the

options like on cloud and on-premise service both large

automating legacy systems currently used by

and small enterprises, and is a single platform to support

businesses. This helps businesses become more 'digital'

multiple environments. It also includes enhanced

without excessive spending on technologies from

security features like credential management, role-

international markets. The current business operations

based user login, and integration with an Active

are highly manual in nature and bring in problems that

Directory.

can be solved by using automation bots like compliance

Shower of Awards and Recognitions Quale Infotech is recognized with some significant awards and accolades for its organizational culture,

culture of innovation, trust, and quality standards. Ÿ

The company was also recognized as the "30 Best

leadership, and innovations in developing Intelligent

Indian Founded Companies 2019" from The Silicon

Automation solutions for its clients.

Review.

Ÿ

Ÿ

Analytics Insights recently recognized Quale

Ÿ

The founder & CEO, Siddhartha Singh, was

Infotech as "The 10 Most Innovative Intelligent

announced as the "Most Promising Business Leaders

Automation Companies of 2020".

of Asia 2019" by The Economic Times; and was also

Business Connect named Quale as "The Best

named the "50 Best Entrepreneurs 2019" by the CEO

Company to Work For in 2019-20," specifically for its

Insights.

11

Disrupting Every End of the Society with Technology Quale brings a lot of changes in the society by working

companies to look for skilled professionals for their

immensely with the people. Some of them are listed as

automation projects.

follows, Ÿ

Employee Satisfaction – The company's tools help

Education - Quale has launched its free-to-use

automate repetitive and mundane tasks, and

community platform along with an online academy

removes human errors, thus allowing employees to

that is free for anyone who wants to learn RPA or

focus on more meaningful and higher-value work.

upgrade their skill sets. Ÿ

Ÿ

Ÿ

Reach – Till now, RPA had only been for the

Job Creation – Quale's online forum and platforms

enterprises. Quale has made it affordable with unique

enable the community to share thoughts & interact

pricing structures to let the SMEs use the power of

with the fellow professionals. The portal also helps

RPA and be more competitive in market.

Streamlining the Digital Motive At Quale, the core team believes that, AI is the future and

company creates a roadmap for organizations to move

will change the way traditional firms operate. The

towards adopting digitization and supports the technical

company is leading this change with its Aiwozo platform,

implementation of the same. Using automation, AI, and

a combination of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and

experience as key levers, Quale assists its customers in

AI technologies. Aiwozo is helping organizations reach a

genuinely becoming a digital organization. The company

higher degree of process automation.

has the ability to have a techno-functional perspective

Quale Infotech's digital consulting practice, helps do a

towards problems rather than just being a technology

dipstick assessment for the organizations on where they

partner. This key differentiator makes Quale stand out

are functioning as a digital company. From here, the

from its competitors.

Artificial Intelligence, the Magic Wand to Improve Business Perspectives Siddhartha believes that artificial intelligence is still in its

capabilities, or virtual assistants (Alexa, Siri, etc.) and

early stages of adoption. However, it is not surprising

chatbots that use Natural Language Processing (NLP) to

that businesses are increasingly relying on technology to

match users' voice or text inputs to execute commands,

deliver value and optimize the way they conduct

digitization is seen as the key to the race. The banking

business operations. AI and its subsets, applications, and

sector adopted digital modernization at an early stage,

domains (ML, NLP, deep learning, etc.) are responsible

utilizing it to optimize and speed up various processes

for almost every giant innovation happening now.

like customer onboarding (KYC), fraud detection, loan

Various industries are adopting AI and digital

processing, etc. The e-commerce industry is blending

technologies to increase their ROI and maintain a

automation and AI in invoice processing, customer

competitive edge. Whether it's the new generation

service, and inventory monitoring.

chipsets that utilize the Neural Network processing 12

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Willingness and Need as the Catalyst of Innovation Innovation is in Quale's DNA and it's the company's way

and not sharing it with the world. The company follows

of doing everything in the organization. The culture of

the mantra, "Innovation at the right price." That way,

Quale encourages asking questions about everything it

Quale can have the technology available for everyone to

does and how it can do it better? Setting this culture from

use and not limit it to a particular set of customers. The

the initial days helps the company keep innovation at the

company is always ready to experiment with new things

forefront for itself and its customers. This culture has led

with its customers, more often at its own cost to see if the

Quale to build its Intelligent Automation platform,

technology could work effectively in the customer's

Aiwozo. The company doesn't set out to purely replicate

scenario. Quale's willingness to try out new things helps

what others did, but rather, the motive was to solve

the company innovate and allows its customers to try

customer issues and address the market's need. Besides,

new technologies.

Quale doesn't believe in keeping what it creates in a box

A Roadmap to Change the Tailwind of AI Usage There are some key initiatives that Quale is working on as

Ÿ

part of its roadmap. A few of them are: Ÿ

automation using voice commands to allow further

Human-In-Loop: These are Bot plugins, that will assist humans running in the same hardware. These

Voice commands: This is to create and run ease of use for business users.

Ÿ

AI activities: Readily available self-learning bots for

will be easy-to-use pre-built automation that runs in

specific activities, which will help automate more

the background.

processes that are not just rule-based.

Envision a Hyper-Growth in the Upcoming Years Quale's strategy of being a customer-centric and

years were dedicated to building a base and healthy

innovation-based organization, has worked for

practices within the company. The core team's intent

everybody. The core team of the company, wants to stick

now is to look at hyper-growth in the next couple of

to these fundamentals and keep working on providing

years. Expansion into new geographies and segments

value for its customers. They are looking to focus on the

will be the primary strategy for achieving this growth.

growth of the company in the coming years. The last two

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Quale Infotech

Kbotminds

Siddhartha Singh

Gokul Ganapathi

CEO & Founder

CEO & Co-founder

Quale Infotech is a leading endto-end IT consul ng and implementa on company, with a laser focus on Robo c Process Automa on (RPA) and Ar ficial Intelligence (AI). Quale started with a vision to be a customeroriented digital services firm. The company has adhered to that aim and strived to be the partner of choice for its customers.

Botminds is a revolu onary intelligent document process automa on pla orm that allows enterprises to liberate their employees from tedious tasks like reading documents and extrac ng informa on from them. Botminds is the world’s first unified no-code intelligent document processing (IDP) and process automa on (IPA) pla orm. The company builds cu ng-edge AI to extract insights from documents and websites.

www.qualeinfotech.com

MOST INNOVATIVE

INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION SOLUTION PROVIDERS IN 2021

www.botminds.ai

9A Business Connect

BIS

Kenmei

Santa Marta AB

Apurva Boradia

Dan Rotelli

Javier Grau

Eduardo Valdelomar

Founder & CEO

CEO

Co-founder & COO

CEO & Founder

9A Business Connect uses technology to simplify business, create long-term value, and enable connected life. The company helps organiza ons in digital transforma on with an immersive experience. 9A has been providing efficient technology solu ons to solve real-world problems of enterprise customers while encouraging innova on in the space of ar ficial intelligence, robo cs automa on, big data, and advance analy cs-based solu ons.

Grooper was built in 2015 from the ground up by BIS, a company with 35 years of con nuous experience in developing and delivering document automa on technology. Grooper is an intelligent document processing and digital data integra on solu on that empowers organiza ons to extract meaningful informa on from paper or electronic documents and other forms of unstructured data.

Kenmei is a European company founded by telecom and so ware experts, specialized in data analysis and mobile network automa on through ar ficial intelligence. The company is known for its ADELE® solu on, which stands for Autonomous Decisions and Learning. It is a pla orm na vely developed for big data environments and features advanced AI algorithms for automa ng network processes.

Santa Marta AB is a Swedish company created in 2020 to provide business process automa on from the cloud. The company’s main product, Laura, digi zes any process by flexibly communica ng with other applica ons and human beings.

Santa Marta’s mission is to help companies automate their processes in a short me and at a reduced cost.

www.9abusiness.com

www.bisok.com

www.santamarta.se

www.kenmei.ai

V2R Limited

Roots Automation

Syntiant

WeAreBrain

Stephane Metral and Paul Young

Chaz Perera Co-Founder & CEO John Co ongim Co-Founder & CTO

Kurt Busch

Jack Myasushkin

CEO & Co-founder

Co-founder & CTO

Roots Automa on is a Digital Coworkers-as-a-Service company, offering pre-trained bots or Digital Coworkers. These bots come preprogrammed with the knowledge, skills, and experience required to perform a variety of roles commonly found in Insurance, Healthcare and Financial Services. The Digital Coworkers are compa ble with exis ng technology and operates safely and securely in the cloud and VPN.

Syn ant is enabling customized voice experiences at the edge, across mul ple products and use cases including wake word, command control, and event detec on, free from cloud connec vity, ensuring privacy and security. The company’s advanced chip solu ons merge deep learning with semiconductor design to produce ultra-low-power, high performance, deep neural network processors for always-on applica ons in ba ery-powered devices.

WeAreBrain is an award-winning AI solu on provider in the business of ideas, entrepreneurship, and technological inven on. Founded in 2014, the company enables global clients to create and execute strategies for their digital transforma on. WeAreBrain develops AI-powered support tools and Intelligent Automa on solu ons, empowering business and technology teams to run and scale their daily opera ons efficiently.

www.rootsautoma on.com

www.syn ant.com

www.wearebrain.com

Co-founders V2R Limited is a financial services company that provides financial accoun ng, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, procurement processes, management accoun ng, and program project services. The company’s management-as-aservice u lizes specialist skills to reduce the delivery costs, turnaround and recovery, support businesses to stabilize through their approach, enable them to grow back to previous levels and beyond. www.v2r.work

Apurva Boradia Founder and CEO Nine A Business Connect (9A) 16

COMPANY OF THE MONTH

Unifying AI, Automation & Analytics Solutions with Innovative Thinking for Digital Transformation and Immersive Experience for Enterprise Customers

N

ine A Business Connect uses technology to simplify business, create long-term value and enable connected life.

It helps organizations in digital transformation with an

immersive experience. Treasuring the economy of value over the economy of scale, 9A uses innovation in every aspect of its solutions and customer engagement. The teams understand their customers and align the goal towards solving their business challenges by using a unique solution stack. They strive to develop and deliver cutting-edge solutions that enable the customers to achieve growth, success, and satisfaction. 9A has 300+ happy customers using its innovative solutions across industry domains.

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“

In this current age of disruption, organizations face constant pressure to become more competitive and deliver more value to their customers. 9A helps them to harness the power of data to ensure growth, success and profitability by delivering digitally transformed products and services.

“

- Apurva Boradia Founder and CEO Nine A Business Connect (9A)

w w w. 9 a b u s i n e s s . c o m

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Leveraging Business Growth with an Expertise

and successfully closing complex, multi-million-dollar

9A has been providing efficient technology solutions to

technology contracts that meet customers' expectations

solve real-world problems of enterprise customers while

and propel them to new levels of revenue and

encouraging innovation in the space of artificial

profitability.

intelligence, robotics automation, big data, advance

With rich domain knowledge, enterprise experience,

analytics, BI & IoT-based solutions. The company has

vast skill sets and technology depth, 9A, under the

helped over 300+ enterprise customers in digital

leadership of Apurva, has pioneered the customer-

transformation with immersive experiences spanned

centric value-based solution, completely based on

across multiple enterprise sectors like media and

analytics, artificial intelligence and automation which

entertainment, FMCG, tours and travel, hospitality,

drive the digital transformation with an immersive

manufacturing, textiles, steel, healthcare, logistics and

experience for the customers. Prior to 9A, Apurva was

supply chain, dotcom and education, oil and gas and BFSI.

the Global Leader for some of the leading MNC's like

Nine A developed its unique cognitive platform

Aspect, Avaya, Nortel, Wipro, and CMC to lead global

A9AXAA, which is AI-powered with built-in machine

business, channel and distribution, product

learning, predictive analysis, NLP, voice recognition &

management, new markets, and global strategic

data mining capabilities to provide an immersive

alliances.

experience and real-time data insights.

Driving Innovation with Disruptive Technologies Expertise in Every Way Possible

In this current age of disruption, organizations face

Apurva Boradia is the Founder and CEO of Nine A

constant pressure to become more competitive and

Business Connect (9A), providing reliable and efficient

deliver more value to their customers. Apurva explains

solutions, to solve real-world problems of customers, by

that 9A helps them to harness the power of data to

using cutting-edge technologies to transform

ensure growth, success, and profitability by delivering

businesses. With a rich enterprise experience spanning

digitally transformed products, solutions and services.

across 23 years, he is a self-sufficient innovator,

The key offering of 9A ensures assisted, augmented and

managing executive boardrooms, customer

autonomous intelligence for customers by providing

relationships, product innovations, strategic alliances

solutions around data lake consolidation including big

and team morale.

data, business intelligence, advanced analytics, artificial

Apurva's innate ability is to build high-performance

intelligence, robotics process automation, emerging

teams, that turn technologies into business solutions by

technologies based on IoT and Cloud computing.

mitigating challenges and act as a catalyst towards customer growth making workplace quite productive.

Working with a Team of Achievers

Apurva firmly believes in inclusive innovation and drives

Apurva believes that the company's employees are its

leadership through perseverance, action and building

biggest assets. 9A ensures value-based learning and

trust. He has a strong reputation for leading

training for its people while emphasizing integrity and

organizations and driving result-oriented business

honesty, commitment and accountability to the

growth along with a demonstrated ability to sustain

customers and rewarding talent and innovations. for a

competitive advantage in emerging technologies and

maximum team satisfaction, 9A has an open office to

markets.

welcome ideas and creativity with an agile & adaptive

Apurva has a proven track record in identifying, pursuing

approach.

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Hard work is Always Recognized

company uses augmented intelligence to advance

9A has a rich domain knowledge, experience and skillset

machine learning technologies and augment human

to provide optimal technology-based solutions to

capabilities in problem-solving and decision making and

mitigate the business challenges of its enterprise

use autonomous intelligence that allows machines, bots,

business and help them in digital transformation. The

and systems to act independently to human

company's efforts have been recognized and awarded

interventions. Apurva adds that, 9A's AI-based solution

with many accolades, including the first prize for an

is a transformational technology that helps

amazing performance which made the company win a

organizations to go digital and boost growth, speed,

Volkswagen Polo GT Car, at India's first and world largest

experience, efficiency and effectiveness. It offers an AI-

'Bot Games' held in India for artificial intelligence+ RPA-

based solution for businesses and governments to

2018, CIO Choice Winner for Advance Analytics-2016

radically reform and redesign their services, offerings,

at one of the biggest ICT events in India and CIO Choice

and consumer experience. The company's AI helps in

Winner for Business Intelligence-2015 at one of the

data-driven analysis, actionable insights, and decision

biggest ICT events in India. Indigenous product

support at the right time, with the potential to introduce

developed by 9A known as A9axaa was also a semifinalist

new sources of growth for almost all Industries, defense,

at the last Gitex event in Dubai against 500+

government and citizens. It implements AI solutions that

participants.

can help in the integration of human intelligence with machine intelligence and reinforce the role of people to

Strengthening its Future

drive growth and boost productivity while human

9A uses assisted intelligence to automate a lot of manual

resources can continue to focus on imagine, create and

tasks and processes by harnessing the combined power

innovate. These applications secure the future of 9A as

of data science and big data for decision support. The

one of the market leaders.

20

Gokul Ganapathi CEO and Co-founder Botminds 22

COMPANY OF THE MONTH

Fostering Digital Transformation with AI-Powered Business Automation

B

otminds is a revolutionary intelligent document process automation platform that allows

enterprises to liberate their employees from tedious tasks like reading documents and

extracting information from them.

Business-critical information is often buried in documents and it requires subject matter expertise to analyze them and to draw valuable insights. However, the review and granular analysis of documents in different forms and formats from diverse sources are expensive and error-prone.

Unreliable inferences impair the quality of business decisions and affect growth and sustainability.

Conventional automation or simple rules-based RPA offers speed and reduced manual intervention, but it is not sufficiently equipped to handle non-standardized formats or unstructured data. Gartner estimates that 80% of an organization's data is unstructured. What people need here is Intelligent Document Process automation and that's when Botminds comes in.

Botminds is the world's first unified no-code intelligent document processing (IDP) and process automation (IPA) platform. The company builds cutting-edge AI to extract insights from documents and websites. So, whether it's customer's annual financial statements, contracts, or tenders, Botminds is a tool that users can rely on for end-to-end processing of information-intensive documents. This paves the way to two things, one is fast processing and the other one is leveraging flawless operations. Botminds empowers enterprises to build an end-to-end process pipeline in weeks instead of months.

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“ Anyone familiar with the landscape knows that real AI solutions aren't cookie-cutter.

That makes Botminds go above and beyond a vertical solution that's trained using generic models.

“

- Gokul Ganapathi CEO and Co-founder Botminds

w w w. b o t m i n d s . a i

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C o m b i n i n g S p e e d a n d I n t e l l i g e n c e t o U nve i l Automation Enterprises are always looking for scalable automation solutions to drive cost efficiencies and higher ROI. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotic process automation players have so far combined OCR, computer vision, and document understanding capabilities, while retaining RPA at its core. Botminds has gone a step ahead to build a futuristic, AI-first model, with an RPA layer around it. This allows the company to understand documents just like humans do. At Botminds, the core team doesn't want businesses to stop at speed.

They want businesses to combine speed with intelligence.

The company aims to help enterprises achieve end-toend automation for high-value document-centric processes and bring 10x efficiency in weeks. Using Botminds' unified AI platform, businesses can build custom AI models to automate the process of reading, understanding, and summarizing data from unstructured data, documents, and websites, within days and with no coding at all. The company helps organizations tap into the vast wealth of unstructured data and unlock new insights.

A Trailblazing Leader Gokul Ganapathi is the CEO and Co-founder of Botminds. With close to two decades of experience in IT, Gokul has spent the last six years driving innovation in the field of document understanding AI and has deep insights into the domain. Having worked as an Information Retrieval Architect, extracting businesscritical information from documents and webpages to develop internet-scale projects and BI tools, he experienced first-hand challenges related to data extraction faced by information providers and data vendors. On digging deeper, Gokul realized that it was not due to lack of skills, motivation, or talented team, but because of shortage in technology. He noticed that there was no elegant tool to address the recurring challenges in document processing. That's how Gokul set out for something great. He elevated the experiences of people in enterprises, allowing them to work on intellectual jobs

and keeping away the time-consuming documentation.

With documents being a crucial component of businesses, Gokul is passionate about correcting the fundamentally flawed approach to understand them.

Interestingly, he also sees a philosophical element in developing technology that reads and understands documents. Gokul believes that it further accelerates humankind's unending quest for knowledge. Thanks to his mentors and veterans in the field, he has been successful in his refreshing take on a pertinent problem.

Availing AI to Tackle Documentation Issues Within five years of its inception, Botminds has catered to a broad spectrum of well-renowned clientele. Being an AI-first company, the expert team at Botminds has engineered the AI models to solve the underlying problems of document understanding. They have a set process in place that is executed once the client is on board. The company builds up a POC, for any document need including financial document, balance sheet, company public announcement, tender documents, lease documents, and legal papers, in seven days or below, and provides 80% accuracy, with just 100-200 examples.

An interesting feature about Botminds platform is that, it has semantic AI built-in as its core model. This permits the platform to attain a complete understanding of a document, almost mirroring a human's comprehension ability through headings, fonts, tables, positioning, and so on. As part of vertical integration, the company has designed multiple AI models that are pre-trained to handle individual-specific scenarios and it orchestrates them to provide the desired solution.

IDP, a Blend of Human Interaction and ML When businesses struggle to handle their data, they face challenges related to growth and sustainability. It is also important to note that with the ongoing digital transformation and the everchanging world of business, companies use technology that can adapt to evolutions and is sustainable. Rooted in AI, Botminds' IDP is an appropriate blend of human interaction and ML. While the human-in-the-loop component monitors accuracy,

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the ML component manages the automation. IDP is a productive and cost-efficient method for extracting key information from any unstructured document, without the need for manual effort.

Innovating Transparent AI to View Confidence Score At Botminds, the core team is constantly striving to push the boundaries of intelligent document processing. As an AI-first company, Botminds offers its customers the ability to create cognitive components with a simple point and click activities and zero code. This allows businesses to leverage the latest breakthroughs, without directly dealing with the underlying technology or algorithms.

Botminds also provides Transparent AI, that enables consumers to view the confidence score of each trained model and helps them assess their performance. Besides, the company's Transparent AI also allows customers to see confidence scores at an Attribute level as well. Any model that's not offering peak performance can be optimized with subsequent training to achieve the desired level of accuracy.

Conquering the Challenge of Taking Document Processing to People In the nascent stage when document processing was not quite the buzzword that it is today, Botminds found it challenging to take the idea to people. The familiarity people now have with the document processing and the bright future they see is something the company's core team has worked hard at.

Gokul remarks, “We were seeing prospects lured by vertical solutions or 'readily available solutions' as they're popularly called, only to come back to us later, realizing its limitations. Anyone familiar with the landscape knows that real AI solutions aren't cookiecutters. That makes Botminds go above and beyond a vertical solution that's trained using generic models.”

With Botminds, enterprises can go in for solutions or a unified platform that's capable of addressing specific problems. The company enables them to create their own AI.

26

Another challenge Botminds is tackling is the wrong expectations set by other players in the space and the misconceptions they've managed to create around the kind of documents that can be processed and the process involved. The company is embracing this challenge by disseminating knowledge that shows the limitless potential of AI when it comes to document understanding. Botminds is happy to witness the tide turning in its favour with more people understanding and appreciating its offerings.

Remarkable Recognition and Feedbacks Botminds' core team loves to see its customers infuse agility into their businesses with the company's AI. Customers are using Botminds' enterprise SaaS technology to track competitive intelligence, make investment decisions, and analyze massive legal and tender documents to assess risk clauses. The company has bagged the 'ISG Digital Case Study Award, 2021,' for its best-in-class digital transformation work with enterprise customers. Botminds has a 4.6/5 rating on G2, along with some great customer reviews. The company strives to deliver better experiences to its customers and helps them realize their business goals.

Seamless Automation through No-code Approach for the Future Botminds started early and is excited about the long road ahead. The company believes that the time is ripe to make a mark. The entire ecosystem that's based on document processing is gaining a lot of traction and Botminds is a frontrunner. Document understanding is the holy grail of AI and every customer or prospect has come to realize it.

The future of Botminds is about enabling subject matter experts directly. The company aims to remove the artificial impediments set by RPA developers to seamless automation through a no-code approach. Botminds is in the journey of creating accessible solutions that subject matter experts have long been deprived of. That's what makes the company purpose-built.

Muhammed Farooque Founder

Excelledia Ventures

28

Embedding Digital Technologies to Provide a Competitive Edge to Organizations

A

business-performance management firm that

solve critical problems and push the frontier of

focuses on people, processes, and technologies

technology. It also supports founders who transform

to help businesses become more efficient,

industries and create new ones.

successful, and long-lasting is the perfect way to describe Excelledia Ventures. Combining digital innovation with

Empowering Entrepreneurship - 500+ Digital

modern technology is the passion that drives the

Innovation Ventures in Next 3 Years

efficient operations of the company, specializing in

The critical driver for any economy is to strengthen its

integrating digital technologies such as Artificial

entrepreneurship culture. As a part of Excelledia

intelligence, Machine learning, Robotics, Data analytics,

Ventures' entrepreneurship outreach program, it

AR, VR, etc. to global principles and standards.

supports founders and start-ups who transform

Excelledia Ventures supports businesses of all sizes and

industries and create new ones. With the unique

ambitious founders, who push the edge of what is

ecosystem, it is keen to develop 500+ digital innovation

possible. The future will be shaped by advances in AI,

ventures in the next 3 years. The company is inviting

RPA, XR, Robotics, Blockchain, Quantum computing, and

digital idea holders to consult with their technical

Deep tech. It supports organizations and aspiring

experts, business growth advisors as it is willing to

founders with their expertise and drives them to tackle

support the business case, prototyping, and testing. It

major global issues. It helps to design, build, launch and

has multiple commercial models to bring clients' ideas to

scale ventures across all stages and sectors. Business

life, it even helps with finding funding and investors to

growth advisors, data scientists, and programmers of the

transform ideas into business ventures.

company work side by side with portfolio companies to

29

“ AI will become a permanent aspect of the business landscape and AI capabilities need to be sustainable over time to develop potential new business models and capabilities.

“

- Muhammed Farooque Founder Excelledia Ventures

w w w. exc e l l e d i ave n t u r e s . c o m

30

80+ International partners, 90+ AI projects,

international tech-focussed management consulting

Assignments in 50+ Countries with 7 Ventures in 11

firm 2021, and many more.

years Muhammed Farooque founded Excelledia in 2010 with a

The Future is Integration and Collaboration

clear mission in mind to inspire and guide companies

According to Farooque, the Covid-19 pandemic changed

worldwide to embrace and reap the benefits of modern

the way of operation and effective integration with

digital technology and encourage an open approach

synergistic collaboration is going to be the future.

towards collaborative innovation. For a while, it was just

Artificial intelligence, Machine learning, Robotic process

a one-man training and consultancy company, bringing in

automation, Natural language processing, Automation,

specialists from all over the world to deliver best in class

etc was transformational, exciting, and mysterious

service that was missing in the industry. Within the first

yesterday, but today it is omnipresent and has become

few months, the company secured a prestigious training

critical and crucial for the overall success of any

contract with Qatar Petroleum, the largest company in

organization. In 2021 the majority of the growing

Qatar, and one of the biggest oil and gas producers in the

organization will be investing in workplace AI, ML, RPA,

world. Being an MBA graduate in Total Quality

NLP, Automation, etc.

Management and Marketing, AI (University of Oxford),

Excelledia Ventures believes in creating a fruitful

Venture financing (University of Oxford) has helped him

partnership ecosystem which is the foundation for long-

to earn a name for himself among his peers. His expertise

term business growth. It looks forward to working

in business development and management consulting

together in an integrated manner to build a long-

combined with hands-on experience in running an

standing relationship with shared values. In line with the

enterprise laid the perfect foundation stone in building

vision to inspire and mission to serve it has created Ai

up the company to what is seen today. His passion for

Centre of Excellence (Ai CoE) and Innovation engine

teaching and willingness for sharing the gained

(Dezign Space), 2 versatile ecosystems that will embed AI

knowledge earned him the role of a visiting professor at

technologies and Innovation at the heart of every

The University of Leeds. Farooque built a world-class

organization to build resilience. The company welcomes

t e a m o f b u s i n e s s , t e c h n o l o g y, a n d t e c h n i c a l

thoughts and ideas on integrating digital technologies or

professionals within Excelledia Consulting and

digital innovations into the business process or

Excelledia Ventures. He believes that a team of talented

operations, which are vital for organizational resilience.

professionals is the major reason for the success they are seeing today, with clients from various sectors including

Ai Centre of Excellence (Ai CoE), Augmenting Business

large governments, public sectors, fortune companies,

with Smarter AI

SMEs, startups, and more. What started as a one-man

Artificial intelligence is one of the most powerful

band now comprises a dedicated team of professionals

technologies for reshaping business across the globe.

spread across 8 countries, 80+ international partners,

The technologies are optimizing processes throughout

90+ Ai projects, completed assignments in 50+ countries

organizations and are already an engine behind the

with 7 ventures under its belt.

world's most valuable businesses. AI will become a

Excelledia Ventures is recognized as the fastest-growing

permanent aspect of the business landscape and AI

consulting and workforce development company by

capabilities need to be sustainable over time to develop

Silicon India, Best consultant for the year 2019 by Dubai

potential new business models and capabilities.

RTA , C o r p o ra t e exc e l l e n c e aw a r d 2 0 2 0 , B e s t

The strategic alliance between a stakeholder and

31

Excelledia Ventures results in establishing an Ai CoE

potential risks, along with automating major

within the organization that encourages innovation

operations. isorobot has helped companies to save

through prototyping and simulation of AI use cases. The

time, cost, and effort alongside increasing

purpose is to embed AI technologies at the heart of every

productivity.

organization and build resilience to tackle ongoing and

Ÿ

CEO analytix, Live business insights - The intelligent

future disruptions. The proprietary technology platform,

metrics that will collect and process quantitative data

AI factory, AI solutions, AI innovation, AI academy, AI

from across the organization to deliver valuable

consulting, and AI research boost the outcomes

business insights.

economically.

Ÿ

xiro, Roadmap to Success - The Ai enabled business planners to articulate the idea to vision in realistic

Dezign Space, Innovation for Everyone Everywhere One of the core reasons for modern existence is

terms and identify the gaps in the business model. Ÿ

Lee, All-in-one learning management system -The

innovation. The macro perspectives of innovation are

customizable platform makes it easy to conduct on-

sustainability, poverty reduction, growth across all

job training, skill development, orientation,

sectors, quality of life, etc. The micro perspective

inductions, etc., and track training programs with

includes better market share, increased productivity,

ease and better convenience.

output, profitability, etc. According to recent data,

Ÿ

Chief Officers Group (CoG), Crafting a better life – A

innovative organizations grow faster with better profits.

collaborative platform that brings together industry

Another interesting fact is that only 12% of the Fortune

l e a d e r s f r o m a c r o s s t h e g l o b e ex p a n d i n g

500 companies from 1955 are still in business and half of

opportunities and making ways for better personal

the S&P 500 companies are expected to get replaced

life, professional life, and community life. CoG helps

soon, which confirms innovation is inevitable.

to solve the challenges of leadership and reap the

Dezign Space is a perfect engine for corporate

benefits of being connected.

innovation, digital innovation, start-up innovation, business model innovation, business function

Digital Innovations for Competitive Edge and

innovation, innovations within an organization,

Sustainability

innovation in the public sector, etc. The unique engine of

The quest to inspire technology across new and

Dezign Space helps in discovering ideas, designing

established companies worldwide has not been a path

prototypes, testing prototypes, motivating

filled with roses, a team with dedicated minds, and

stakeholders, and fast-track the conversion of an idea to

impressive talent has enabled them to create a

a business venture or product, or service.

benchmark in technology services.

Seeing how well digital innovation can make operations

Smart, Connected, and Intelligent Future

and workflows easier and services better for the

The company's different ventures helping enterprises

customer, the vision behind Excelledia Ventures was to

across industries include:

not just advise but to own and implement the advice and

Ÿ

The futuristic enterprise management system -

management systems. With the expertise of consulting,

isorobot, believes that performance with compliance

digital innovation, and metrics integrated

is sustainable. isorobot uses machine learning, data

i m p l e m e n t a t i o n , t h e c o m p a ny e m b e d s d i g i t a l

analytics, AI, etc for accurate risk prediction and thus

technologies and innovations to every organization they

guiding to make appropriate decisions to tackle those

partner with and provide a competitive edge with sustainability.

32

Dan Rotelli CEO

Grooper

34

Helping Organizations Innovate Workflows With Intelligent Document Processing and Data Integration

G

rooper was built in 2015 from the ground up by

where unstructured data is easily accessible,

BIS, a company with 35 years of continuous

understandable, and useful for driving business

experience in developing and delivering

efficiency and innovation. The company is on a mission to

document automation technology. Grooper is an

help organizations transform their information and

intelligent document processing and digital data

workflows to become industry leaders.

integration solution that empowers organizations to

He believes being able to know and trust the data is

extract meaningful information from paper/electronic

essential for meaningful digital transformation and

documents and other forms of unstructured data.

business process automation. Grooper helps companies

The platform combines patented and sophisticated

understand and develop a practical working relationship

image processing, capture technology, machine learning,

with their unstructured data because when that data is

natural language processing, and optical character

no longer a mystery, it becomes useful for achieving

recognition to enrich and embed human comprehension

efficiency and innovation to drive revenue growth and

into data. By tackling tough challenges that other

competitive advantage.

systems cannot resolve, Grooper has become the

Dr. Chris Dearner, Product Manager of Grooper says

foundation for many industry-first solutions in

that the company has steadily evolved since version 2.5

healthcare, financial services, oil and gas, education, and

was released in 2015. Its newest release, Grooper 2021,

government.

provides the best intelligent automation capabilities in the market, and it shows; customers process over 100

A Leading Technology and Software Company

million document pages a year and billions of data

Dan Rotelli, CEO of Grooper says that its vision is a world

extractions daily.

35

“ The future of intelligent automation and AI is a world where data seamlessly becomes information that provides valuable insight. We tend to get things done when data informs our decisions and inspires us to make a difference.

“

- Dan Rotelli CEO Grooper

w w w. b i s o k . c o m

36

Bigger Risks Leads to Bigger Rewards

Grooper.

According to Rotelli, industry analyst firms have taken

Dan believes that it is possible to have data without

note of Grooper. Deep Analysis ranked Grooper one of

information, but impossible to have information without

the 2020s sixteen most innovative solutions in their

data. Having data that can be turned into information,

2020 Innovation Index. And for the second year in a row,

gives insight. Grooper tends to get things done if the data

Everest Group has ranked Grooper a Major Contender in

obtained can inform and inspire it to make a difference.

their annual Intelligent Document Processing PEAK

Depending on how the data is managed, it could take one

Matrix® Assessment.

step forward in his/her business. It can also protect one's

Erin Girton, Database Administrator/Content

organization from sleeping liabilities.

Management & Capture Administrator, Oklahoma State University has revealed that Grooper has saved OSU

Using Strategic Innovation to Accelerate Digital

hundreds of thousands of dollars and the ROI was seen in

Transformation

less than six months after going live. This product has

Grooper's main competitive differentiator is the ability

taken data processing, document scanning, and import

to automate the integration of data from unstructured

automation to a whole new level. It's now in virtually

sources and documents with changing formats. This is

every department including its President's office.

something that most data automation solutions are

Ryan Freeman-Smith, Manager, Oklahoma Health Care

unable to do without complex and fragile templates.

Authority has mentioned that Grooper has cut down on

Because Grooper was built as a platform, data from

its indexing time by 70 percent.

external sources are imported during data extraction to

Grooper gave Change Healthcare the ability to process

create a more accurate view and interpretation of the

huge diverse client print files and extract the data into a

data. Data is then exported or integrated into any CMIS

normalized data stream for processing.

compliant repository, any databases, or in any file format.

According to Todd S, one of the key features of Grooper is

Since Grooper was built with a layered AI approach, its

the ability to identify, interpret, enhance, and extract

machine learning is not only effective but also

data from a large number of media types (TIF, JPG, PDF,

transparent. Its users iteratively test and build models

Word, Excel, etc). Another key decision point was that

with an understanding of how it is achieving results.

there wasn't a requirement for a software developer to

There are no “black box” APIs or external algorithms in

write code, a business analyst can use a GUI-based

place. This creates a robust ecosystem of trustworthy

application to configure 98% of the exact jobs.

and actionable information.

An Innovative and Successful Leader

The Effect of Disruptive Technologies in Today's

CEO Dan Rotelli has been involved in the design of

Workplace

thousands of content management, document capture,

Machine learning and natural language processing are

and information management projects during his tenure

enabling an entirely new way of looking at data. Not only

at BIS since 1989. Recognized as a Most Admired CEO,

is Grooper gaining more insight than ever before, but the

he has received numerous awards including multiple

value it places on the accuracy and organization of data is

personal recognitions by COMPTIA and various trade

also at an all-time high. Organizations adopting these

organizations. He has successfully guided BIS into one of

technologies are enjoying massive transformation.

the country's most successful information automation

Workflow automation and intelligent data integration

companies through the innovation and creation of

technologies that empower human workers are causing

37

wide-scale innovation because new ways of working

Overcoming the Barriers

change the way organizations approach problem-

Rotelli feels that building intelligent automation from

solving.

the ground up with no acquisitions and no outside technology balances a challenging development cycle

Distinctive Characteristics of the Company

with the experience to know what should be built.

“Grooper represents one of the most remarkable

Not giving development work to outside firms may lead

corporate and technology pivots we have seen. A

to slow development cycles, but it creates a stronger

company that was well-known and long-established in

product with a direct path to more meaningful results.

the capture/scanning market reinvents itself as a data integration platform vendor”, says Alan Pelz-Sharpe, an

Path to the Future

analyst with Deep Analysis.

According to Rotelli, the intelligent automation market

“Whatever the company has done so far and the seven

will continue to see massive growth but also continued

years it has taken for development work has rewarded

buyer's remorse as customers begin to learn how all the

them well. The vision and recognition of the need for a

pieces fit together. There is no single-platform approach

system such as Grooper that embraces rather than tries

to automation and what works well for one organization

to ignore the tricky topic of unstructured information are

will likely not be an exact fit for another.

well-founded.

While many of the bigger offerings in intelligent

“Where traditional data integration platforms focus on

automation and robotic process automation claim to

structured data, Grooper's approach is to recognize,

have broad solution sets, the reality will be that many

capture, and analyze both structured, and unstructured

complementary technologies from different vendors,

data in documents and forms. That is ambitious, and

and even niche providers will ultimately prevail in the

positions it, in theory at least, into some of the most

overall ecosystem of solution design.

complex data collection and integration challenges imaginable.”

38

LEVERAGING INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

A STRIVE TO SUCCESS FOR

GLOBAL COMPANIES

I

ntelligent Automation (IA), has inescapably arrived

said, reputed companies and start-ups across the world

in the year 2021. By blending Artificial Intelligence

have started embracing Intelligent Automation over the

and Automation it is now a new cutting-edge

RPA for the following reasons:

disruptive technology of much importance. Beyond the routine domains, it manoeuvres and synthesizes

Enhanced Customer Experience-

information in the entirety of processes and workflows.

Intelligent Automation, has a high ability to optimise

The present and future of IA are firmly secured with

marketing information and action that ease the

increasing market demand for AI applications. IA

customer identification process for multiple

expands its scope by offering efficiency, quality up-

organisations. This mechanism helps to enhance the

gradation, customer satisfaction and pioneering product

customer experience in the cut-throat competitive

offerings. Not that its predecessor Robotic Process

market through its spectacular speed in the classification

Automation (RPA) had nothing to offer. But RPA was

of voluminous sets of real-time data to generate simple

capable of performing high volume routine tasks in a

and smart solutions. These actionable insights assist

structured manner. Its limitations would be exposed

companies in delivering brand value to customers as well

when confronted with natural language text, images and

as attract potential customers. Companies can analyse

cases requiring informed and dynamic judgment. IA can

t h e m a r ke t t r e n d s a n d p a t t e r n s f o r a b e t t e r

effortlessly negotiate with both structured and non-

understanding of consumer behaviour and can onboard

structured tasks in a way the human brain can. That being

potential clients faster. IPA works 24*7 for companies, especially during the peak hours of high demand.

Improved Workforce ProductivityCompanies are utilising IA for its greater processing efficiency that in turn, improves workforce productivity.

IA can seamlessly respond to social media comments, messages, emails and other communication modes by processing both structured and unstructured data.

Employees can focus more on other front-end duties that are on the priority list and let IA work on the back-end duties. The machine learning algorithms can perform

42

Intelligence and machine learning algorithms help to perform high-volume workflows within a short span of time without human intervention. It reduces the need for outsourced work for companies as well as performs the duties of a full-time employee at a much lower rate. Thus, companies are embracing Intelligent Automation to gain higher ROI at the back of increased productivity.

Accurate Forecast with InsightsIA involves processing large sets of complex data that are prone to multiple human errors. The machine learning algorithms can collect, monitor and track these real-time more intelligently to cover the frequent mundane tasks

data efficiently. This whole process provides better

of human employees without any error and human

quality of in-depth insights without any error. Thus,

intervention. IA not only makes work faster and

companies have the chance to accurately forecast the

smoother but also unleashes the workforce from the

upcoming scenario in the global market. This will help

bindings of routine and boring jobs to focus more on

business leaders to make better decisions for the nearby

creative ones. This helps to boost productivity efficiently

future or any current issue to enhance customer

and effectively.

engagement.

That being said, tech-savvy companies are highly

Appropriate Fraud Detection-

motivated to leverage Intelligent Automation system

Intelligent Automation, has proved that it appropriately

along with these disruptive technologies like Artificial

detects any fraudulent activity in the existing system. It is

Intelligence and machine learning. It is the best practice

impossible for human employees to detect any fraud or

to enhance revenue while reducing the operating costs in

scam amidst the fast-paced busy schedule. IA helps these

this cut-throat competitive market.

companies to detect any unusual activity in the system caused by malicious hackers. The machine learning algorithms contribute to the cybersecurity in the companies to protect confidential data. Intelligent Automation software can process large sets of transactions and stop immediately after recognising sophisticated fraud patterns to alert the employees.

Deloitte claimed that Automation is the future of fraud risk management.

Reduced Operating CostCompanies are instigated to seek new ways to reduce operating costs to stay ahead in the cut-throat competitive market. IA provides the best solution to drive high revenue with lower operating cost. Artificial

43

Javier Grau Co-Founder and COO Kenmei

44

An Innovative Leader Driving Big Data Analytics Powered Automation Across Enterprises

K

enmei is a European company founded by

multiple data sources could be stored to be used by

telecom and software experts, specialized in

multiple internal entities. To solve the problem of

data analysis and mobile network automation

managing, operating and analysing this huge volume of

through artificial intelligence. The company is known for

data, Kenmei's software solution was envisioned back in

®

its ADELE solution, which stands for Autonomous

mid-2018. It is a transversal, big-data native and

Decisions and Learning. It is a platform natively

analytics solution delivering actionable insights.

developed for big data environments and features advanced AI algorithms for automating network

Meet the Transformational Leaders

processes. It is also a multi-cloud solution supporting and

The Founders of Kenmei, Vicent Soler, Javier Grau and

integrating several data sources, implementing an

Javier López have been working together as a team for

advanced and unified data model that allows clients to

over 15 years in mobile network technologies, from 2G

evolve with their digital transformation towards a data-

to 5G. They have always nurtured the innovation spirit in

driven business model.

their company. They are fully convinced that innovation is the only way to properly compete globally in the

The Journey So Far

always-changing technological market. Kenmei's usage

Kenmei was founded in Valencia, Spain, in mid-2018. At

of AI-based algorithms and Big Data solutions will help

that time, it was seen that, despite most of the companies

CSPs to tackle current needs and challenges.

had a goldmine of data, there was a lack of software solutions that would process and analyse the existing

Bringing Benefits to the Clients Since 2018

data to convert it into valuable information and to

Kenmei is one of the listed companies of the Spanish

provide actionable insights. Several Communication

Government, which contributes to the national strategy

Service Providers (CSPs) have been executing

of Artificial Intelligence. Their contribution in the AI

remarkable investments in their Big Data and Cloud

domain is related to its core expertise in the Telco

infrastructures. One of the main objectives of that

market. The intense usage of AI-based algorithms in their

investment has been the creation of a data lake where

ADELE® use cases make the company fully aligned with 45

“ The future awaits, are you ready?

“ Javier Grau Co-Founder and COO Kenmei

w w w. ke n m e i . a i

46

the said national interest. In addition to AI, its software is

proved a challenge while approaching some CSPs that

completely based on Big Data architecture thus enabling

were not ready yet. Nevertheless, the added value of the

large data volume processing, robustness and scalability.

use cases and the alignment with the long term goals of the customers allowed the company to deliver those use

Solution for CSP's Ocean of Data

cases at present in alternative ways, via professional

CSPs have billions of records per day from multiple data

services or SaaS models. Having a big data native

sources. The cardinality of records when combining data

platform in the background can be used as soon as the

sources require advanced software capabilities that

mobile operator becomes ready.

process and correlate them. There is no other way to

Even in big data ready CSPs, another important

obtain actionable insights from the available data than

challenge has been the availability of historical data with

implementing a consistent and unified Data Model to

high temporal granularity. “This is a very important issue

proper implement trustable AI and Machine Learning.

for the predictive use cases that require machine

AI-based algorithms such as Root Cause Analysis (RCA)

learning algorithms with seasonal patterns. Therefore,

provide high value in terms of automation because they

the accuracy of the predictions can be impacted due to

identify hidden issues while providing actionable

the challenges related to the availability of historical

insights to solve them. Machine learning algorithms

data,” he added.

bring accurate pattern behaviors that help to predict and anticipate issues before they have an impact on

Moments of Recognition

customers' experience. Therefore, intelligent

Kenmei has been named the winner of the Entrepreneur

automation solutions based on data analytics are a must

XXI Award driven by CaixaBank, through DayOne, the

for CSPs.

specialised division in technological and innovative companies and the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Trade

Forging Collaborative Strategies

and Tourism, through Enisa. The initiative aims to

Kenmei has recently announced a partnership with

contribute to the development of young innovative firms

Vodafone Group aligned with its "Digital Network

with high growth potential. The company has recently

Program", to reduce operational costs, improve

closed a series of funding rounds to raise €1.5 million led

customer experience and increased revenues. As part of

by GoHub Ventures. It is a Global Omnium investment

Vodafone's Digital Network Program strategy, Kenmei

vehicle that was already a shareholder, joined by

will deliver Network Intelligence and Automation use

MASventures, an accelerator of the MASMOVIL GROUP

®

cases by integrating its ADELE platform with

and Wayra, Telefónica's open innovation hub. The new

Vodafone's analytics platform running on the Cloud. The

transaction is a continuation of the one completed in

combination of Telco and Big Data knowledge allows

August 2019, which raised €1 million.

Kenmei to deliver innovative use cases in areas such as network automation, network intelligence and data

The Future Looks Bright

monetization. Such integration of expert Telco Logic

Playing a market in its early stages, Kenmei is hopeful to

ensures the final quality and explainability of the

follow a continuous growth of AI solutions for

generated outputs.

automating more tasks within mobile operators, even more taking into account the short-term deployment of

Challenges on the Way

5G networks and the growth of the IoT market.

According to Javier, having a native big data solution

47

48

Chaz Perera

John Cottongim

Co-Founder and CEO

Co-Founder & CTO

Roots Automation Inc.

Roots Automation Inc.

The Next Generation Expert Offering Digital Coworkers as a Service

R

oots Automation is a Digital Coworkers as a

along with qualities of bots being highly efficient,

Service company established in Oct 2018,

accurate, scaling automatically to complete higher

offering pre-trained bots ('Digital Coworkers').

volumes of work.

These bots come pre-programmed with the knowledge,

Roots Automation offers a five-month payback on

skills, and experiences required to perform a variety of

investment and requires no changes or investments in

roles commonly found in Insurance, Healthcare and

new tech. The Digital Coworkers are compatible with

Financial Services (e.g., Underwriting Assistants, Claims

existing technology, operate safely and securely in the

Adjusters, Patient Intake Specialists, Billing & AR Clerks,

cloud, and VPN into a company's network much like their

HR Associates). The bots learn from their human

human colleagues would when working from home. With

counterparts through interactions and as a result

its Digital Coworkers service offering, Roots Automation

become more efficient and gain a better understanding

offers its customers a 250% ROI, and focuses on creating

of the business they support. Their training period is

a more capable and enjoyable digital workforce.

short and they can support a new customer in just a few

The company offers a monthly subscription-based

weeks. The company offers Digital Coworkers who bring

business model, a free consultation and proof of concept.

the best of bots and humans together. These Digital Coworkers integrate human qualities of learning by

Empowering Companies to Free their 'Roots'

interaction, adapting to changing environments, keeping

Roots Automation aims to empower companies to free

communication open, and sharing learnings with others

their 'roots'-their people which will enable them to focus

49

“ We provide a platform that creates an ecosystem where humans and bots not only enjoy working together but depend on each other for success.

“ w w w. r o o t s a u t o m a t i o n . c o m

50

on meaningful and impactful work. The company

John is the Co-Founder & CTO, responsible for product

believes this allows bots to complete high-volume and

development and customer implementation at Roots

low decision-making tasks so that the people can focus

Automation. Before Roots Automation, John led the

on the work that excites and stimulates them;

enterprise automation hub of Mars, Inc. and had a 15+

relationship building, problem solving and growth

years career in large-scale global transformation

opportunities.

programs. John has also helped two Fortune 500

The company was established by Chaz Perera and John

companies build cognitive automation programs and

Cottongim who ran shared service operations &

scaled out the companies' process automation

Automation Centers of Excellence at large corporations,

capabilities.

such as AIG and Mars before founding Roots Automation. They were some of the earliest adopters of

Delivering Disruptive Solutions across Industries

RPA and Machine Learning technologies. They worked

Roots Automation provides an end-to-end automation

alongside one another at AIG and discovered that they

solution performing full business processes across a

had a similar vision for the partnership between

variety of disciplines within the Healthcare, Insurance

technology and humans. They partnered two years ago

and Finance verticals. Its solutions have combined RPA,

to start Roots Automation, and since then they have

AI, OCR, NLP, Workflow, Process Improvement

acquired clients in Healthcare, Insurance, Finance who

capabilities that enable rapid digital transformation

occupy the mid-market and early enterprise space. In a

while eliminating integration, cost and long timelines.

short time, they have shown strong and continued

These solutions are delivered on the vision of the future

growth of the product to those sectors.

of work where humans and bots collaborate actively within the office environment. Roots Automation's

Leadership that Thinks Ahead

Digital Coworkers actively learn and improve over time

Roots Automation's Co-founders Chaz Perera, and John

through interactions with its customers.

Cottongim have a synergetic combination of skills. Chaz is the Co-Founder & CEO. He is responsible for business

Accelerating Innovation Strategies

development, finance, and customer success and holds

Roots Automation's web application- the 'Cockpit'

nearly 20 years' experience. Since graduating from

allows real time communication between human and bot

Villanova University, Chaz has launched new products,

and is an innovative and unique solution, as other

grown global businesses, and helped companies save

companies do not offer this or provide visibility of the

money by leveraging data science, robotics, and AI.

work at hand.

51

Speaking on the current scenario of the RPA industry,

where speed and accuracy are paramount. Roots

Chaz asserts that many of today's RPA solutions fail at

Automation's Digital Coworkers are a great addition

delivering the promise of a citizen developer and as a

to our team. Besides completing the work, we assign

result companies are not getting to ROI. Why? Building a

promptly, they've eased the administrative burden

bot that is as capable as a human in a process minimally

and provided insights that have helped us to improve

requires ML, OCR, as well as workflow expertise and

our processes.”

technologies. Most companies do not have these skills in

Ÿ

Kevin Mahoney, President & COO, Carisk Partners:

house and acquiring them from the outside is often

“The Digital Coworkers Roots Automation provides

expensive with no guarantee of success. Roots

work in conjunction with our Team to optimize our

Automation was built to solve these failings and focus on

medical claims process. By leveraging these bots, it

the future of work – a hybrid work environment in which

provides the simplicity and scalability necessary to

Digital Coworkers engage with and support their human

deliver best-in-class productivity to our clients.

colleagues.

Additionally, we value the insights from the Roots Automation Team about our processes, of which, we

Valuable Customer Feedbacks Inspiring Growth

integrate into our continuous improvement plans for

As a recognition of its exemplary services, Roots

our business practices in order to provide industry

Automation has received many valuable feedbacks,

leading solutions.”

some of them include: Ÿ

Ÿ

Lea Lundquist, VP, Claims Administration, Protective

Insights into the Future

Insurance: “Everything happened fast, our digital

Roots Automation envisage the future by leading the

coworker 'Roxy' was trained and ready on time as

way and providing pre-trained Digital Coworkers using

promised! The team at Roots Automation have been

Intelligent Automation to improve business efficiencies,

a pleasure to work with! They've anticipated our

processes, and support growth for the Insurance,

questions and respond quickly to our asks and

Healthcare, and Financial Services industries. In the

changes.”

upcoming times, the company will aspire to focus on

David Emmer, CIO Anchin Block & Anchin LLP: “We

creating a more capable and enjoyable digital workforce

wanted a way to reduce our reliance on seasonal staff

for global enterprises.

during the most challenging parts of the tax season,

52

36

37

Eduardo Valdelomar Founder and CEO Santa Marta AB

56

Making Digitization and Automation a Simpler Affair for Dedicated Businesses

F

or a company to thrive in this tech world and

During his years as a consultant and IT manager, the

become successful, the mantra is digitization.

company's Founder, Eduardo Valdelomar, realized that

Digital transformation will help companies get a

many companies oriented their digitalization as a long

competitive edge and sustain in the industry with rapid

and complex project, frequently too ambitious to be

innovations that will benefit its users and the company, in

successful. In 2020, the COVID pandemic showed the

generating greater ROI. Santa Marta AB is a company

importance of a flexible and quick reaction, and many

that does just that. For effective automation for real

companies were not prepared for that, so he decided to

businesses, Santa Marta AB works for various industries.

create a platform which is able to provide that flexibility in the very short term. In April 2021, Laura was already

With a Solid Purpose

prepared to be productive.

Santa Marta AB is a Swedish company created in 2020 with the purpose of providing business process

Achieving the Targets

automation from the cloud. Its main product is Laura, a

Two of the most significant projects valuable as

platform able to digitalize any process by flexibly

foundations for Santa Marta AB, were the automation of

communicating with other applications as well as with

intercompany invoices in a worldwide organization and

human beings.

the complete automation of the recruiting process in a European organization. In the first case, 40 companies

Merits of a Good Foresight

exchange approximately 300 invoices involving roughly

Santa Marta's mission is to help companies automate

8500 postings per month, applying about 5700

their processes in a short time and at a reduced cost.

calculation rules. In the second case, the automation

57

“ From Santa Marta AB's perspective, “the success key of a digitalization project is the process design and the technology is just a means to achieve the end.

“

- Eduardo Valdelomar Founder and CEO Santa Marta AB

w w w. s a n t a m a r t a . s e

58

platform leads the entire recruiting process managing

absolutely necessary to get maximum advantage of the

the flow through 5 different applications; the process

project.

involves approximately 200 candidates per day in 16

From a wider perspective, Santa Marta AB is in the

countries.

process of becoming a partner of AI Sweden, the Swedish National Center for applied artificial

Charged with Real-World Experience

intelligence. Within that scenario, the company expects

Eduardo, the Founder and CEO of Santa Marta AB is a

to help in accelerating applied AI in Sweden,

Spanish Electrical Engineer specialized in automation,

strengthening Swedish competitiveness and welfare.

with a strong background in machine learning and data science and 25 years of experience in digitalization of

Overcoming Obstacles for a Clear Vision

business processes for international companies, both as

We live in a challenging time when some technologies are

a consultant and occupying internal management

becoming popular but are still immature or not well

positions.

understood. And there is a risk of discredit if some

Based on his background in artificial intelligence and his

initiatives, due to excessive ambition or insufficient

understanding of the real needs of the companies,

preparation, don't give the expected results. From Santa

Eduardo decided to create a business process

Marta AB's perspective, the success key of a

automation platform, Laura, that's able to implement

digitalization project is the process design and the

smooth and user-friendly workflows, integrating

technology is just a means to achieve the end. It is not

different systems and applying intelligent algorithms

rare to hear companies willing to use machine learning or

wherever they can be useful.

RPA, but maybe they just need some improvements in the ERP or in their web portal. The company's advice to

Using Technology for the Better

its clients is to describe what they do as realistically as

Santa Marta AB gives its clients the opportunity to

possible and to picture what they would like to do with an

digitalize their business processes in a quick, inexpensive

open mind, without pre-assumptions. Once that is clear,

and rational way. The company's motto “Effective

it will be easy to know what technologies should be used

Automation for Real Business” summarizes its mission

to reach the objective.

a n d v i s i o n : S a n t a M a r t a A B g ra n t s p r o fi t a b l e digitalization for its clients and to make that possible, the

Innovating for a Purpose

company ensures results in a reduced timeframe and

Laura includes several innovative elements. A very

cost. Being realistic with regards to the process design is

relevant one is the architecture itself, based on several

59

bots that are autonomous and interconnected, each

Euforia cooperates closely with Santa Marta in the

one optimized to execute a specific mission. This

cybersecurity agenda, and their bot euGenie is

architecture ensures an unlimited capacity to grow

empowered by Laura. Another example of a close

without disturbing the existing functionalities.

collaborator is Scrive, a leader in document management

Another key element in Laura is the graph data model,

and electronic signature, who strongly supported some

Yggdrasil, that is compatible with many different

of its best video-demos and use cases.

databases, like Cassandra or SAP HANA. Yggdrasil allows Laura to learn dynamically and to automatically establish

The Toughest Nut to Crack

links between data from different sources.

According to Eduardo, automatic translation is probably

Additionally, Laura has an ad-hoc NLP algorithm that is

the most challenging functionality to implement and

able to understand people in many different languages.

some local specific issues required a relevant effort in the

Eduardo's experience in international companies made it

ad-hoc NLP algorithm, in order to ensure good quality in

clear to him that Laura should be natively multilingual,

dialogs, especially when using chatbots.

and so she is at any level of interaction.

The Future of the Industry Key Partnerships that Drive Innovation

There is a clear agenda for digitalization in all sectors.

Santa Marta AB is proud of its partners, who share its

Therefore, Eduardo believes that process automation

commitment to integration and digitalization. A

will require flexible and powerful platforms able to

partnership is essential to prepare native integrations

integrate multiple pieces while keeping the information

with different solutions, as well as to ensure a quick

under control, as well as ensuring a good user

reaction to the requirements of the clients.

experience. Laura is a pioneer in this area and has been

The company is an official member of the SAP®

created with a huge potential to grow and extend her

PartnerEdge® open ecosystem, being part of the Build

capabilities, so we are very optimistic about the future.

specialization. Also related to the SAP world, Novis

60

About the Author My name is Uday Birajdar, co-founder and CEO at AutomationEdge.

I have been passionate about technology being a paradigm-shifting agent of change for enterprises in the short term and for society in the long run.

Very quickly, it became evident to me, that automation is important and the scope of automation went far beyond IT automation to business process automation. This epiphany led to the founding of AutomationEdge (www.automationedge.com), which started by addressing the foundations of IT process automation.

Uniquely, today analyst firms recognize the leadership of AutomationEdge in AI, RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and ITPA (IT Process Automation).

62

PAINTING THE

DIGITAL FUTURE OF ENTERPRISES WITH

R

RPA

PA has undoubtedly become the kingpin of

the on-premise platforms, making the service flexible,

global digitization initiatives, bringing in

scalable, and bite-sized. In addition, the convenience-

mammoth business transformation and success

centric RPAaaS solution assures zero infrastructural

over the last five years.

costs without restrictive licenses and lock-ins, making it a must-have choice to complete the enterprise

RPA was the untrodden path for businesses. But, it is

automation strategy.

seamlessly functioning outside the enterprise mission control systems like Mainframes, HRMS, and ERPs,

RPAaaS at Work

smoothly automating the legacy processes in the back-

Earlier RPAaaS services gave away free bots like confetti,

end to magnify productivity and returns. And, all it asked

creating misconceptions of a bot being adequate to

for was access to the system of record to create the

design and run an automated process. Moreover, such

magic!

offerings forgot to highlight the complexities faced by

RPA vendors worked towards cementing the RPA goals

the developers while creating new business services

with a wholesome buffet of over-offerings and

from scratch. Any transformative business service forms

unnecessarily confusing choices.

the epicenter of the enterprise's IT landscape,

But, magic tricks seem impossible to believe in the mere

seamlessly managing and routing data across related

blink of an eye. Especially with the boot-strap fund

systems.

during the current pandemic-stuck market scenario, offering a full suite of bells and whistles will not work.

A stout process needs to be adequately supported by

Instead, it's best to target the bite-sized appetite for the

technologies like machine learning to be human-like and

change.

natural language processing capabilities to crack the associated nuances.

RPA Powering the Next-Gen

To enable the process scripts to be drafted in multiple

Such topical problems call for prompt solutions, where

languages, accessing alternatives like SSH and

RPA as a Service (RPAaaS) plays the hero. This cloud-first

Powershell is necessary to complete the toolkit. Simple

resource eliminates all transition issues introduced by 63

“drag and drop” functionalities pinned in a typical

assures maintaining the planned total cost of ownership

environment, driven by a single subscription platform,

(TCO) for seamless implementation. RPA customers

powering the required technologies in varied scripting

have been surprised by the not-so-predicted costs of

languages is necessary to drive the digital

consulting, integration, maintenance, and training

transformation goals.

compiled to reach an aggregate TCO.

Processes Don't Survive in Seclusion

No Unused Shelfware Created

“Volatility over complexity” is what defines today's era;

Earlier, no one had a real clue of the number of bot

still, technological adoption is slower than expectation

licenses required, so early RPA customers ended up

and imagination. Though business leaders need not

over-investing in them. Some firms dedicatedly invested

spend time decoding the scripts that underline

in one bot license for each user, while others purchased

automation, knowledge is essential to make future-proof

one for each automated process.

decisions. And RPAaaS can help secure business value by

Topped up with its pondering license costs, each bot has

allowing teams to experiment and prioritize candidate

multiplied the investment beyond expectation and

clusters. It gets easy to identify the processes that yield

actual need. A substantial part of these bills included

maximum business value without committing to hefty

unutilized bots or those that were just forgotten for a

infrastructural costs and operating licenses.

while.

With a lack of tracking systems, the customer was left

The mantra to RPA adoption success is - Start Small but

holding the bag on unutilized shelfware. A target-

Dream Big.

oriented, quality RPAaaS solution should effectively monitor and track all operations without human

Prioritizing the day-to-day robotic tasks should be the

intervention or worries.

first step of action. For example, at AutomationEdge, we have seen 40% of help desk queries are repetitive

Conclusion

requests for a password reset, this could be a POC (Proof

RPAaaS has vivified the RPA market, galvanizing its

of Concept) worthy use case.

brighter future with more customers readily investing in

Typically, processes span across many systems,

RPAaaS due to the low-risk nature involved. Also, the

comprising of records maintained by numerous

flexibility of trying it out in their environments is what

departments. Therefore, selecting a perfect RPA

creates the magic.

platform that can integrate with such systems — both

Consider the pro-tips outlined above before investing in

current and predicted future — would surely expand the

an RPAaaS solution to assure RPA is becoming the

scope of automating the business processes.

required golden feather in your enterprise's digital hat.

An intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) can critically eliminate the underlying need for training. In addition, it

64

Kurt Busch CEO and Co-founder Syntiant

66

Optimizing Silicon and Deep Learning Models to Customize Voice Experiences at Edge

S

yntiant is enabling customized voice experiences

The company's highly accurate, ready-to-use, always-on

at the edge, across multiple products and use

voice solution adds wake word and speech control (in

cases including wake word, command control,

multiple languages) to any smart device, with ultra-low-

and event detection, free from cloud connectivity,

power and greater efficiency. Other applications include

ensuring privacy and security.

sensors, event detection, and speaker recognition.

Headquartered in Irvine, California, Syntiant Corp. is

Custom built to run AI workloads, the Syntiant®

moving artificial intelligence (AI) from the cloud to edge

NDP100™ and Syntiant® NDP101™ microwatt-power

devices. The company's advanced chip solutions merge

Neural Decision Processors™ (NDPs) improve efficiency

deep learning with semiconductor design to produce

by 100x and throughput by 10x vs. traditional

ultra-low-power, high performance, deep neural

microcontroller units (MCUs).

network processors for always-on applications in

The company also protects user privacy and security by

battery-powered devices, such as hearing aids, earbuds,

deploying deep learning at the edge, while lowering costs

smart speakers, mobile phones and laptops.

due to die size, as well as enabling implementation into

Backed by some of the world's strongest strategic

the smallest devices. Syntiant also collects and trains its

investors, including Intel Capital, Microsoft M12, Bosch

own data. Technical specs on the company's NDPs can be

Ventures, and the Amazon Alexa Fund, Syntiant's deep

found by clicking on the following links:

learning “intelligent voice” solution opens new markets

h t t p s : // w w w. s y n t i a n t . c o m /n d p 1 0 0 a n d

and business opportunities for customers as demand for

https://www.syntiant.com/ndp101

speech grows globally.

67

“

Syntiant is focused on the wide adoption of AI-powered smart devices. At first, the keyboard was used to interface with MS-DOS, then the mouse enabled Windows, and the touchscreen controller brought us the smartphone. Using edge-based artificial intelligence, Syntiant is enabling the next generation interface of voice to recognize and react to sounds and speech, rather than touch.

“

- Kurt Busch CEO and Co-founder Syntiant

w w w. s y n t i a n t . c o m

68

A Mission to Succeed in Disruptive Market

graduates find success after college. Kurt is a member of

Founded in late 2017, Syntiant is driven by a global

the UCI CEO Roundtable and an inductee of the UCI

mission of bringing AI voice solutions to edge devices,

School of Engineering Hall of Fame. He recently was

free from touch and cloud connectivity, and that are

recognized by UCI's School of Engineering with the

more useful, more efficient, and more safe and secure.

school's Lauds & Laurels Distinguished Alumni Award.

The company's deep learning voice technology is leading

Also, a member of the Global Semiconductor Alliance,

the way toward universal hands-free functionality,

Kurt earned Bachelor of Science degrees in electrical

changing the way people interact with their devices.

engineering and biological science at UCI and holds a

Syntiant has moved very fast, from closing its Series A

Master of Business Administration from Santa Clara

round in October 2017, to sampling its first products in

University.

June 2018, to closing its Series B round in October 2018.

In September 2019, the company started shipping its

Extending Quintessential Innovations for Industry-

Syntiant Neural Decision Processors (NDPs) to

Demands

customers across the globe.

Using a co-design methodology that optimizes silicon

Designed into a wide range of battery-powered devices,

and deep learning models together, Syntiant's

Syntiant expects the first of these NDP-embedded

architecture achieves breakthrough performance by

consumer products to be available this year.

slashing power consumption while increasing throughput. The result is an inference solution capable of

A Leadership with Futuristic Vision

intelligent processing with months of always-on life from

Tech veteran and CEO of Syntiant, Kurt Busch is quickly

a coin-cell battery, providing consumers a smart device

building Orange County's next great chip company. He

experience in battery-powered edge devices.

along with Jeremy Holleman, Ph.D., Chief Scientist;

With over 500k parameters, far more than available on

Pieter Vorenkamp, COO; and Stephen Bailey, Ph.D., CTO,

typical microcontroller-based neural solutions,

and Chief Architect; founded Syntiant using a clean-

Syntiant's NDP100 and NDP101 microwatt-power

sheet design for AI processors to make voice the new

processors provide the neural capability for accurate

user interface of the future.

inference on challenging tasks, supporting up to 64

Kurt has extensive experience in product development,

different events that could include words, audio events

having driven the successful launch of new products,

such as breaking glass or gunshots, or other sensor

ranging from SAS and semiconductors for telecom and

inputs such as gas or vibration.

broadcast video to consumer electronics and data center

Syntiant's NDPs also can serve as an always-on gate-

systems. Prior to Syntiant, he was President, CEO, and a

keeper, providing a significant classification of events,

member of the Board of Directors at Lantronix

allowing larger systems to remain dormant until

(NASDAQ: LTRX), a global provider of secure data access

absolutely needed. With support for multiple

and management solutions for the Internet of Things

programmable words, Syntiant's technology expands

(IoT) and information technology (IT).

the voice interface from simple wake words to a

Kurt has also served as a Senior Vice President and

command language model, enabling a local speech

General Manager of a high-performance analog business

control interface that does not require a cloud

unit at Mindspeed Technologies, acquired by MACOM.

connection, increasing security and ensuring privacy.

He served at the University of California at Irvine's (UCI)

Syntiant's NDPs are now available for use with the

alumni board for six years, dedicating his time to help

Amazon Alexa Voice Service (AVS). As a low-power

69

processor for close-talk voice-enabled devices, the

improving safety and privacy, Syntiant's technology is

company's neural network technology allows customers

impacting innovation, making AI at the edge a reality.

to offer a built-in Alexa experience to even the most power-sensitive battery-powered devices.

Advancing with New-Age Technologies and Significant Partnerships

Moving Towards an AI-Driven Reality

Deep learning has provided a toolset that yields vastly

Kurt believes that “As our world becomes increasingly

superior decisions to traditional methods based on

interconnected through data and technology, we are

human intuition, essentially making devices smarter

inching closer to a reality that's driven by artificial

through the use of AI voice solutions.

intelligence, the merging of our physical and digital lives.”

However, deep learning methods are computationally

According to him, Edge AI is at the heart of this paradigm

intensive. Traditional semiconductor solutions for

shift. More importantly, Syntiant's technology is

advanced deep learning at the edge are severely limited

enabling customers to bring deep learning to battery-

by excessive power dissipation.

powered devices at the edge with significantly less

With a power consumption of less than 140µW and

power consumption than current MCUs and without

package sizes down to 1.4mm X 1.8mm, the company's

cloud connectivity.

neural decision processors provide battery-powered

In remote parts of the world, for example, Syntiant's

consumer products typically 100x more efficiency and

NDPs easily can enable the lowest-cost feature phone to

10x the throughput of the typical low-power MCU

listen to the human voice, enable a voice assistant and

solution.

use the Internet just like a very high-end smartphone.

Similarly, high-performance neural networks at the edge

Here are some of the significant partnerships:

are essential for demanding public safety environments

Amazon Alexa Voice Service (AVS): Syntiant®

and industry operations. According to Scott Mottonen,

NDP100™ and Syntiant NDP101™ microwatt-power

Corporate Vice President, devices at Motorola

Neural Decision Processors™ (NDPs) are available for

Solutions, “Syntiant's deep learning neural decision

use with the Amazon Alexa Voice Service).

processors can provide users working remotely in the field with enhanced safety and efficiency by powering a

Qualcomm: Syntiant is a member of the Qualcomm®

new breed of applications at the edge.”

Extension Program, offering OEMs and ODMs

The company's NDPs incorporates an optimized neural

accelerated integration of its ultra-low-power neural

network architecture supporting more than 500,000

network technology with Qualcomm's audio platforms

weights to bring significant neural processing power to a

and systems on chip (SOCs).

very small energy footprint. This level of neural processing enables voice interfaces in even the harshest

Sensory Inc. – Syntiant has partnered with Sensory Inc.,

environments.

AI, and speech recognition pioneer, to deliver a deep

At the nexus of technology and social reform, lies the

learning, multi-lingual voice interface for battery-

concern over security and privacy. By running inference

powered devices. The combined solution merges

on the local device, the company's neural technology

Sensory's larger, higher-performance TrulyHandsfree™

avoids the privacy risk incurred by transmitting personal

wake word engine and voice control with Syntiant's

data to potentially insecure servers.

microwatt-power Neural Decision Processors™ (NDPs),

From enhanced functionality and better productivity to

bringing low-latency, real-time inference to edge

70

devices, enabling consumers to seamlessly “voice”

latest solutions and were impressed by their ability to

commands in dozens of languages.

support compute-on-edge and wake word detection on low-power devices. We're excited to see developers

Infineon Technologies: Syntiant also has partnered with

begin using this technology in their devices and deliver

Infineon Technologies, a world leader in semiconductor

new Alexa experiences for customers.”

solutions, to service the rising demand for the voice user interface (VUI) in electronic devices. The joint solution

“As a member of our Qualcomm Extension Program,

enables developers to easily create custom, always-on

Syntiant can combine its always-on word recognition

voice user interfaces, allowing exact voice pick-up from

and event detection solution with our ultra-low-power

long-distance, with whispered speech or in noisy

Bluetooth audio platforms,” said Chris Havell, Senior

environments.

Director, Product Marketing, Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd. “Technologies like this enables

MSI: Syntiant has partnered with MSI, the global leading

powerful compute-on-edge processing to be offered in

gaming brand, to develop edge AI computing, giving

headsets, earbuds, and hearables without an Internet

users access to voice command features regardless of

connection and with very low power consumption.”

cloud connectivity.

"Infineon´s best-in-class XENSIV™ MEMS microphones Prestigious Awards and Testimonials

are redefining the acoustic, electric power consumption

Syntiant is the first and only commercial silicon designed

and robustness standards for voice user interfaces," said

to put deep learning processing into almost any

Dr. Roland Helm, Ph.D., Head of Product Line Sensors at

consumer device.

Infineon Technologies. "Together with Syntiant we are

Syntiant's award-winning technology was developed by

facilitating clear voice commands at the edge that

top minds in semiconductors and deep learning,

support audio and keyword classifications, on and off-

receiving numerous accolades, including: Fast

line, in a variety of challenging, power-critical always-on

Company's prestigious list of the World's Most

and battery-driven environments."

Innovative Companies for 2020; The Linley Group's 2019 Analysts' Choice Award in the Best Embedded

A Progressive Roadmap to Prosperity

Processor category; CES® 2020 Best of Innovation

According to Kurt, Syntiant is creating real value with its

Awards Honoree; “Outstanding Emerging Technology

deep learning technology, making edge devices smarter

Company” by OCTANe; Best Deep Learning Company by

with its AI voice solution, as global consumer demand

AI Breakthrough; CB Insights AI 100 List of Most

shifts from touch screens to speech control.

Innovative Startups; and 451 Research's “451

The company believes consumers soon will be

Firestarter” Award; among others.

controlling all kinds of edge devices with its built-in voice technology.

Here's what others have said about Syntiant:

Given the ease-of-use of its solution for putting deep

“Syntiant's neural decision processor technology takes a

learning into battery-powered devices that is a low cost,

unique approach to wake word detection on voice-

cloud-free, low power, and super-efficient, Syntiant is

enabled devices,” said Sanjay Voleti, Senior Manager of

uniquely positioned to address the growing AI voice

device enablement with the Alexa Voice Service. “We

market opportunity.

recently conducted acoustic performance tests of their

71

INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION AND ITS APPLICATIONS

72

I

ntelligent automation is a combination of artificial

IA in Manufacturing

intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation

IA has triggered industrial revolutions bringing drastic

(RPA), where AI enables insight-driven analytics,

changes in processes and environments that rely on

decision-making and personnel management, and RPA

cyber-physical and cognitive systems. These systems are

automates processes and reduces human participation

inspired by recent technological advances, such as AI,

in them. It is a joint implementation of bots and software

ML, IoT, robotics, autonomous vehicles, 3D printing, AR

intelligence in the production process to assist people in

and VR, wearables, additive manufacturing,

creating new products and services. It brings together

nanotechnology, biotechnology, energy storage and

various strategies, skills, tools and techniques that

quantum computing.

eliminate the need for labour, increase the predictability

As a result, physical and digital robots that are driven by

and reliability of services and reduce costs.

cutting-edge intelligent automation technologies and tools can perform many operations, replacing or

Implementation of Intelligent Automation

supplementing humans. The factory floor has evolved

Intelligent automation systems can be implemented in

into dark or lights-out premises where human

nearly every industrial sector. Advanced techniques and

participation is not required.

great computing capacity create a new generation of hardware and software robots that perform both

IA in Insurance

cognitive and physical tasks. They not only process vast

With IA, insurance service providers automate data

amounts of information but also analyze it, spot

management and rate calculations. IA solutions help

inconsistencies, check for correctness, learn in the

insurance companies address problems such as manual

process of work, adapt to changes and make decisions.

entry of bulky data, low scalability of processes and poor

Though the final decision-making is still the

time-effectiveness.

responsibility of a human operator, IA software does much of the work.

IA in Healthcare Healthcare providers are among major consumers of IA

IA in Commerce

solutions that extensively use both artificial intelligence

IA is an efficient way to boost sales, increase customer

and RPA. With RPA, medical institutions streamline

engagement and reduce costs, which is why retailers

repetitive processes that are connected with accurate,

heavily invest in it. Annual expenses for AI are predicted

patterned data retrieval, processing and decision-

to reach US$7.3 billion by 2022. Indeed, smart

making, which creates a whole new age of evidence-

automation provides a variety of tools and techniques

based, more efficient care. Decisions are based on

that impart considerable benefits. Personalized brand

retrieved facts and figures, and not on a doctor's

experience is more important than ever before. AI

experience and knowledge alone. AI's capability to

enables it by digesting big volumes of data on customer

quickly and effectively process large amounts of data

journeys via chatbots, virtual sales assistants and

helps in the creation of reliable diagnoses that take into

recommendation engines. On the other hand, smart

account symptoms and secondary conditions.

algorithms can detect signs of fraudulent operations, which allows companies to suppress malicious behaviour promptly.

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Stephane Metral

Paul Young

Co-founder

Co-founder

V2R limited

V2R limited

Transforming the Financial Industry with AI-Powered Solutions

A

rtificial Intelligence (AI) is a powerful tool that

The Journey from Inception till Today

is widely deployed in financial services. It has a

Registered by the UK in May 2018, V2R was originally set

great potential for positive impact if companies

up as a business support service in finance and project

deploy it with sufficient diligence, prudence and care. AI

management but the company took an ethical stand to

in financial services enhances efficiency and productivity

support start-ups and SME's globally by developing

through automation; reduces human biases and errors

startup programs and offering one -stop shop into the

caused by psychological or emotional factors and

only digital ecosystem platform any business needs.

improve the quality and conciseness of management information by spotting either anomalies or longer-term

The Visionary Leaders

trends that cannot be easily picked up by current

The new company's vision is co-created by Stephane

reporting methods. V2R Limited is one such company

Metral and Paul Young who are offering a wide array of

delivering financial services powered by AI.

creative innovative solutions crafted together in a

V2R Limited's services include financial accounting,

constant evolving Unified solutions plaform. Stephane is

accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll,

the digital ecosystem architect behind the platforms

procurement processes, management accounting,

made avaialble to enable embryonic and new companies

program project. Its management as a service utilizes

to have the tools all in one place to manage and run their

specialist skills as and when needed toreduce the

business at an easily affordable cost.

delivery costs, turnaround and recovery, support

In addition, the company's business support services give

businesses to stabilize through their approach, enable

assurance in specialist areas such as finance. Paul is a

them to grow back to previous levels and beyond.

talented, value-driven professionalwho is a visionary and strategic leader with the ability to translate business

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“

V2R delivers many solutions among them the only 100% open API platform in 12 languages that encompass the whole business life-cycle that enables seamless communication and collaboration. it also offers a global 80 regions a pre-seed acceleration program with an online business platform & mentoring human-based services from ideation to traction.

“

- Stephane Metral and Paul Young Co-founders V2R

w w w.v 2 r.w o r k

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strategies to realize and maximize outcomes always with

budget drain. For the same activities performed by the

the best interestsof all stakeholders. He is an expert in

HUBspot tools for $2600 per user monlthy, Unified

delivering a positive change through a collaborative

solutions for example, do the equivalent for ten times

program approach,focused on people followed by

less, clients can reallocate budget elsewhere that is most

process and technology. He possesses strong financial

needed (on HR resources for example).

and IT expertise including budgeting, analysis, ERP deliveryand architecture design. He is also very much of a

Facing the Challenges Head On

people person; a qualified Servant Leadership Coach

The major challenge faced by V2R was to get the

ensuring alignment of values with goals and empowering

message out to the world and especially those embarking

people to live their life and enjoy their work. Paul has

on their ventures. It is an interesting dynamic dealing

been a proven deliverer of significant efficiencies whilst

with entrepreneurs and their single-minded focus and

maintaining quality.

the challenge to widen their views. The company had difficulty explaining that it is not developing AI/ML

Paving the Way to Innovation

products (to be replicated or to get inspiration from to

V2R's solutions & services are using AI/ML and RPA at its

develop a variant of its own) it has and one that actually

core, not theoretical but actual application of these tools

uses this tech.

to support businesses to manage and make better decisions.

The Success Quotients

An example would be thhe use of AI/ML in sales lead

V2R is at the early stages of development so far and

generation supports businesses to better identify their

customer feedback has been positive, and it has every

ideal client. Or leave management approvals, any

business tool companies could ever need. It has made

human-made decision that can be modelled & designed.

collaborating and communicating seamlessly within

The platforms & solutions are constantly learning and

their businesses and have eased their workload burden

using flow charts & a mind map tools to convert this

with the underlying AI and ML. As a result, the

mindful thoughts of business models into business logic

adaptability and flexibility of the platform moulds with

and a framework design for business.

their business. Investors and Capital ventures can

The disruptive technologies are core to businesses who

monitor the progress done through strategy to execution

wish to be as efficient and effective in developing

with their investments.

themselves and gaining that competitive advantage.

These technologies are believed to be essential for any

The Future with Artificial Intelligence

business to reduce some of those manual-intensive tasks

Artificial intelligence in finance is transforming the way

fraught with error.

we interact with money. AI is helping the financial

V2R delivers the only available 100% open API platform

industry to streamline and optimize processes ranging

in 12 languages that encompass the whole business life-

from credit decisions to quantitative trading and

cycle that enables seamless communication and

financial risk management. This is only the start for V2R,

collaboration. With over 370 integrations at the moment

as it wants to invite entrepreneurs, start-upsand CEOs of

, it has many tools enterprise need all at a competitive

SMEs across the globe to partner with and help them

monthly subscription for what is on offer to kickstart

succeed.

your business journey. It makes tools available to startups and SME's that previously would be a considerable

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