Articles about Automation

Retail, wholesale and manufacturing companies are turning to Internet of Things (IoT), Automation and Virtual Reality (VR) to drive sales and improve customer experiences.

This is according to a new report by global ecommerce consultancy firm Salmon, which says almost two thirds (61 percent) of European companies in above mentioned industries are investing and believing in IoT.

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So far, it's safe to say that the predominant trend in 21st-century business has been digitalization. Every industry, organization and individual has been touched by it one way or another.

As we head towards 2020, we are moving to the next level of digitalization. Now, what has already been digitalized will increasingly be automated -- whether it's the way we work, trade or connect with each other. Automation is becoming increasingly prevalent as computers gain in processing speed and power, and as the amount of data available for computation continues to grow exponentially. At the start of the Internet age, very few things were connected and available for analysis. But with the rise of the Internet of Things and the implantation of computers into all walks of life, from driving to warehousing, more and more facets of our world can now be mapped from within dedicated software.

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Automation tools like IFTTT continue to be popular, and as if to prove this, Apple has just bought the iOS app Workflow. Working in a similar way to Automator for macOS, Workflow brings task-oriented automation to iPhone and iPad users.

There's good news to top off the acquisition revelation. Apple is not only keeping Workflow up and running rather than shutting it down, it's also hanging onto the original team of developers behind the app. Even better, Apple is making Workflow available free of charge, dropping the previous $2.99 price tag.

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While businesses are focused on digital transformation to deliver greater efficiency and higher profits, IT teams themselves are falling behind the curve according to a new report.

The survey from IT services and solutions provider Dimension Data shows that IT staff only spend 14.5 percent of their time on innovation and new projects. Automation is seen as a key enabler for optimized IT operations, but only 20 percent of surveyed companies say their IT operations are fully automated.

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Did you know that many world renowned marketers use marketing automation to reach out to their audience? The statistics further claim that 63 percent of companies successful in Marketing Automation plan to increase their Marketing Automation budget.

However, there is always the question of whether companies are making the best use of marketing automation technology for the best results. For instance, as a small and medium-based business, you can employ an ideal automation tool like GetResponse  that will ensure the desired ROI.

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One of the largest independent software companies in the world, CA Technologies, has announced it is acquiring enterprise automation company Automic. The parties signed a definitive acquisition agreement last Thursday, for a transaction that’s worth approximately €600 million (roughly £507m).

The deal has been unanimously approved by both boards of directors, and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of CA’s fiscal 2017. Automic is an enterprise automation company selling ONE -- it’s automation platform.

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Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and automation are technology trends dominating discussions in many different industries at the moment and cyber security is no exception.

As cyber criminals become more advanced and the threat landscape continues to develop, businesses are looking to new technologies that can help secure their organization in a more proactive way.

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Automation means many different things, in the context of business it usually involves streamlining processes in order to reduce costs. Applied across the whole organization it means restructuring resources and integrating the applications used across the enterprise to save time and money.

Business process automation (BPA) automation is aimed at those tasks that involve a series of processes which follow a predictable pattern with a series of repeated operations. As research specialist Gartner puts it, "It focuses on 'run the business' as opposed to 'count the business' types of automation efforts and often deals with event-driven, mission-critical, core processes. BPA usually supports an enterprise’s knowledge workers in satisfying the needs of its many constituencies".

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When businesses think of automation, they probably conjure up images of simplicity, efficiency, lower costs and increased productivity. Of course, this is something of an oversimplification and there are certainly challenges to adopting workplace automation.

However, it is not hard to see why more and more industries are automating their business processes. Whether it’s via robots or software, automation can eliminate the repetitive, manual tasks that, while essential, are a huge drain on employee time. Automation lets members of staff direct their energies into more productive areas, such as coming up with innovative new ideas.

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Automated software delivery specialist Puppet is launching a new Docker Image Build tool, which automates the container build process to help organizations as they define, build, and deploy containers into production environments.

It adds to existing Puppet functionality for installing and managing container infrastructure, providing a standard, consistent way to install Docker operating environments as well as building and deploying containers.

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The Henn-na hotel opened its doors to the public last year, and is yet to pay its receptionist staff a single penny in salary. How have they gotten away with this? Well, as it turns out, velociraptors dressed in bow ties and bellhop hats will work for you for free. More accurately, though, it’s because 90 percent of the hotel staff are robots.

As automation technology continues to proliferate almost all areas of work, concerns have begun to surface over the security of human jobs. The Henn-na hotel is a prime example of this -- rooms cost just £36 per night, making it a low-cost automated alternative that could take away hundreds of jobs if the idea spreads.

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About a year ago, Wink released its first home automation hub and it came out of the box with a great deal of compatibility, working with a good many of the products already on the market, along with Amazon Echo for voice control of the home.

Since then the list of supported products has grown and Wink has added many new ones, but it seemed increasingly clear that the hub could eventually get overwhelmed. So now the company is introducing a new model known simply as Wink Hub 2.

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Whether it says more about their work lives or home lives is unclear, but it seems that more than 1 in 3 working Americans would prefer having a better way to automate all their routine work tasks, such as booking meetings, than have a better sex life. What's also interesting is that 44 percent of those were women and 30 percent were men.

This is among the findings of a survey by automation specialist Built.io carried out in conjunction with Wakefield Research. It also finds that Americans are willing to give up some personal information in exchange for a more automated life.

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Business IT is undergoing a major shift as many organizations get closer to adopting a fully cloud-based approach. But this means that IT departments inevitably give up some degree of control over data governance, security and overall data management.

Security automation specialist BetterCloud is launching a new automation engine called Workflows that orchestrates critical, complex processes to ensure accuracy, precision, and compliance across SaaS applications.

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You have started down the road to DevOps. You have re-structured your teams and you are experimenting with DevOps tools and processes. You now understand that DevOps is a continuum that starts with planning and development and ends with deployment into operations. So where do you start your DevOps initiative?

DevOps projects tend to start in only one part of the continuum. Often, DevOps teams start with application build automation (development) or they start with automating the deployment of apps into operations. When the driver for DevOps is in the test organization, it is called Continuous Integration. However, it is also important to work to continuously expand automation across the continuum because for DevOps to pay off, there needs to be continuous automation from development all the way through to operations.

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