Process Excellence news – Celonis, Nintex, AWS, BMW, Iron Mountain & more

ABBYY boss urges CEOs to embrace purpose-built AI, ZEDEDA appoints accomplished operations leader Lisa Edwards to board of directors

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Michael Hill
03/29/2024

PEX Network brings you the latest news in process and operational excellence (OPEX), business process management (BPM), digital transformation, process mining/intelligence, low-code technology, intelligent document processing (IDP), Lean Six Sigma, Kaizen and more.

Week of 03/25, 2024, includes:

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Celonis and BMW Group strengthen strategic partnership

Process mining company Celonis and the BMW Group announced a “significantly expanded” strategic partnership to optimize BMW’s processes and increase its efficiency, productivity and sustainability. The two Munich-based firms also agreed to cooperate closely in the further development of future process mining innovations. The enhanced collaboration is a significant milestone in the development and application of process mining and process intelligence for the automotive industry and companies worldwide, according to a press release.

“The BMW Group aims to be a pioneer in the quality and efficiency of corporate processes,” said Alexander Buresch, CIO of the BMW Group. “This goal applies especially during our current transformation, the largest in the history of the BMW Group, towards electromobility, digitalization and circularity. Continuous analysis and optimization of our end-to-end processes with Celonis is a decisive factor in increasing productivity, minimizing resource consumption and making supply chains more resilient.”

Researchers propose quantum algorithm to solve combinatorial optimization problems

Researchers at Waseda University in Japan proposed an innovative quantum algorithm that solves combinatorial optimization problems (COPs) with constraints in a short time. COPs have applications in many different fields such as logistics, supply chain management, machine learning, material design and drug discovery for finding the optimal solution to complex problems. These problems are usually very computationally intensive using classical computers and thus solving COPs using quantum computers has attracted significant attention from both academia and industry.

Conventional quantum algorithms are not feasible for solving COPs with constraints in the operation time of quantum computers. To address this issue, researchers have developed a novel algorithm called post-processing variationally scheduled quantum algorithm. The algorithm uses a post-processing technique combined with variational scheduling to achieve high-quality solutions to COPs in a short time, according to the researchers.

Highlighting the potential applications of the algorithm, assistant professor Tatsuhiko Shirai said. “Drastic social transformations are urgently needed to address various social issues. Examples include the realization of a carbon-neutral society to solve climate change issues and the realization of sustainable development goals to address issues such as increased energy demand and food shortage. Efficiently solving combinatorial optimization problems is at the heart of achieving these transformations.”

Iron Mountain Government Solutions’ Melissa Carson champions cloud-based IDP

Cloud-based IDP systems could help federal agencies meet the requirement of the National Archives and Records Administration to digitize government records by June, according to Melissa Carson of Iron Mountain Government Solutions (IMGS). IMGS is a division of Iron Mountain Inc. and provides information management solutions to government and educational entities across the US.

“Cloud-based IDP solutions can help extract both structured and unstructured data faster and with better accuracy than traditional methods,” said Carson, VP and general manager of IMGS. “This provides a quick and cost-effective way to digitize data trapped on paper, microfiche, tapes and more.”

Carson shared her thoughts on the traditional scanning process, stating that most organizations perform digitization on an ad hoc basis. She called on agencies to develop an order for how and when they would digitize older documents.

READ: Intelligent document processing 2023 industry report

Lisa Edwards joins ZEDEDA board to strengthen operational excellence

Edge management and orchestration company ZEDEDA announced the addition of accomplished operations leader Lisa Edwards to its board of directors. The appointment comes amid significant growth for ZEDEDA, which just reported increases of 250 percent in ARR and over 300 percent in nodes under management. Edwards currently sits on the boards of Colgate-Palmolive, LogicMonitor and Qualtrics and serves as executive chair of the Diligent Institute, a global think tank focused on governance. She previously held executive positions at Salesforce, focusing on operational excellence and growth strategies.

“We’re heading into the next era of computing, and Lisa brings deep expertise and a wide breadth of experience to help us get there,” said Said Ouissal, ZEDEDA’s CEO and founder. “It’s an exciting new step for all of us, and I’m looking forward to her support as ZEDEDA grows.”

READ: 5 operational excellence trends for 2024

S&P Global Commodity Insights partners with AWS to empower digital transformation in upstream oil and gas industry

S&P Global Commodity Insights, a provider of data, analysis and workflow solutions for the commodities, energy, metals and energy transition markets, announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide access to upstream data for the energy industry. This data will help energy companies accelerate their digital transformation and facilitate S&P Global Commodity Insights development of cloud-based AI and machine learning tools in the oil and gas industry, the company said.

Under the new agreement, AWS Data Exchange (ADX) will feature a comprehensive data offering from S&P Global Commodity Insights’ Upstream Solutions that includes information on more than seven million oil and gas wells. “Our collaboration with S&P Global Commodity Insights will unlock innovative, data-driven possibilities for our joint customers,” stated Howard Gefen, general manager of energy and utilities at AWS. “By integrating with AWS's Energy Data Insights solution, based on AWS’s cloud technologies, we will together act as a catalyst for global energy companies’ decision-making and elevate their analytical capabilities, enabling informed, strategic investment decisions for sustainable energy sector growth.”

ABBYY boss urges CEOs to embrace purpose-built AI

The CEO of IDP and process intelligence company ABBYY has called for CEOs to embrace purpose-built AI to drive value for their employees and customers. In an article for CEOWORLD Magazine, Ulf Persson wrote: “By using specialized AI models in contexts that leverage your organization’s data, business leaders can more effectively and accurately describe how clients’ data is put to work to ultimately return greater value.”

Using small language models, a component of purpose-built AI, also reduces the risk of non-compliance with regulations, as organizations are less likely to use more consumer data than necessary, he added.

A failure to effectively implement AI for intelligent automation is typically resultant of an unclear purpose or innovation strategy, Persson continued. “Leaders cannot afford to incur technical debt like many did during 2020-2021 when robotic process automation was the newest tool on the market. It’s not enough for the tools themselves to specialize in certain areas – as a leader, you must have a deep understanding of the challenges that exist within your organization’s processes and workflows and where AI can be used to identify automation opportunities and augment employees to empower them to do their work better and provide customers greater experiences.”

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Klippa partners with Make to unlock automation possibilities

IDP vendor Klippa announced a new partnership with no-code automation platform Make to help organizations reduce manual data entry, improve accuracy and speed up processes that involve any form of document management. The two companies aim to make it easier for organizations to access Klippa’s advanced document automation solutions within the no-code environment of Make’s automation platform, they said.

“This partnership lowers the barrier for organizations to start making use of our document scanning technologies,” commented Tom Oudhuis, head of partnerships at Klippa. “By joining forces with Make, we are not just integrating two platforms; we are opening up a big world of possibilities for further automation.”

Nintex intros generative AI automation capabilities to improve organizational efficiency

Process intelligence and automation vendor Nintex announced new generative AI-powered product capabilities designed to simplify how customers build and translate content as part of automated workflows. It also introduced Nintex Assistant, an intelligent chatbot that provides customers with information based on their natural language questions. The latest features showcase the role of generative AI in powering process automation and making it much easier for customers to design on Nintex Process Platform, the firm said.

“Every business is on a mission to eliminate manual, repetitive tasks and streamline organizational processes,” commented Niranjan Vijayaragavan, chief product officer at Nintex. “For every business, adopting generative AI into its workflow will be an ongoing, staged effort. Automation, fundamentally an AI-driven effort, is essential to deriving value from these generative AI initiatives. It creates the foundation for our customers to leverage generative AI for increased organizational efficiency.”

Clear need for digital transformation in private client legal services

There is a clear need and demand for more streamlined and accessible communication solutions along with intuitive digital experiences in the private client legal sector. That’s according to a new report from Legado, which found that, despite the prevalence of digital communication tools, 60 percent of consumers encountered obstacles when interacting with solicitors. While email remains the primary mode of client interaction, 50 percent find managing client communications challenging. The research also highlighted a discrepancy between the recognition of digitalization’s importance and its actual implementation among solicitors.

What’s more, 90 percent of clients would prefer a secure digital portal, with only a small percentage of solicitors utilizing client digital portals. “As we navigate through the digital age, the legal sector must embrace the changes that come with it. This report not only highlights the gaps in our current systems but also presents a clear opportunity for growth and improvement,” said Josif Grace, founder and CEO of Legado.

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