In this episode of the ISG Smartalks™ podcast, we look back at ISG’s Automation Summit London (11-12 September). Barry Matthews catches up with four leading automation experts at the conference to find out their thoughts on the current state of technology and how they see automation impacting business over the next decade.
Barry speaks with Professor Leslie Willcocks of the London School of Economics, who has co-authored 65 books on automation. Willcocks believes we’ll see exponential growth in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA) businesses, leading to mergers and consolidations in the sector. He dismisses the idea that RPA will merely patch up the old world of business tech and instead sees it as foundational for a new way of doing business, allowing enterprises that focus on technological convergence to separate themselves from their competitors.
Next, Barry finds Craig Jones, Partner – Advisor Relations, of Wipro with whom he explores how RPA has become more strategic and transformative. Jones predicts we will see more businesses move to cognitive AI in the next ten years, believing it will lead to huge efficiencies, but only if businesses have the right data and the right structure in place.
When Barry sits down with Sajesh Gopinath, General Manager, of UST Global they discuss how businesses are evolving in their relationships with automation – moving from proofs of concept to demanding clear results on what the technology can deliver. Gopinath believes those enterprises that have automated systems to orchestrate processes and information across the enterprise will become market leaders.
Finally, Barry tracks down Serkan Ibrahim, Sales Director, of IPSoft who predicts a convergence of capabilities and vendors in the automation market over the next ten years. Despite some disappointment in RPA, Ibrahim still sees it as the best gateway to digital transformation – and believes we’re only just starting to see its true capabilities.
Tune in to hear an honest conversation with four of the field’s experts about automation, cryptocurrencies and the power of change in the market today.
About the guests
Professor Leslie P. Willcocks has an international reputation for his work on automation, global management, outsourcing, e-business, information management, IT evaluation, strategic IT and organisational change. He is Professor in Technology Work and Globalisation at the Department of Management at London School of Economics and Political Science. He also heads the LSE’s Outsourcing Unit, and, for the last 28 years, has been Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Information Technology. Leslie has delivered company executive programmes worldwide, is a regular keynote speaker at international practitioner and academic conferences, and has been retained as adviser and expert witness by major corporations and government institutions.
Craig Jones is Partner – Adviser Relations at Wipro. He is a business development professional with a strong background in client relationship management, solution sales and outsourcing over 30 years. He has extensive experience across multiple sectors in helping clients transition and transform IT with a proven record of working with Clients and Strategic Partners to bring positive change to their organisation.
With close to two decades of experience specializing in business process transformation, intelligent automation and technology services, Sajesh Gopinath is General Manager at UST Global. He is responsible for driving the growth of UST’s cognitive automation platform called UST SmartOps™, as its go-to-market leader.
Serkan Ibrahim is Sales Director at IPSoft, focused on helping customers transform business performance through the employment of digital labor.
