Name: Unlocking the Full Potential of SS&C Blue Prism: Stay Ahead of the Automation Curve - Lunch and Learn Session 3
Uploaded: 2026-02-26T01:53:04.045Z
Duration: 37 min 8 s
Description: Unlocking the Full Potential of SS&C Blue Prism: Stay Ahead of the Automation Curve - Lunch and Learn Session 3

Transcript for "Unlocking the Full Potential of SS&C Blue Prism: Stay Ahead of the Automation Curve - Lunch and Learn Session 3": Hello, everyone, and thank you all for joining us for today's Lunch in Learn session. I am Niti Grover and I am a Senior Customer Success Director at Blue Prism and I work very closely with many of you to help you drive meaningful outcomes from your automation programs. For the session today, I'm genuinely thrilled to be moderating today's discussion, and for which I am joined by two fantastic people James Kelly, our Head of Product Marketing JK is someone who brings in powerful market and customer lens to how automation space is evolving. And I'm also delighted to have Tom Sadler, our Director of Product Management, who is deeply focused on product strategy and how do we continue to deliver innovation across the platform. Just to set some expectations for today, since we have got Tom also and for the ones who already know him, a quick disclaimer from me that this session is intentionally not a product update. Instead, in this session, we want it to be an open conversational session. So think like a chance to be able to step back with us and reflect on what's really happening across the automation landscape. Let me start by setting some context here. So we all know automation innovation is accelerating at an unprecedented pace. There are new capabilities, architectures, new possibilities, new ways of working that are emerging faster than ever before. And yet, what we consistently see is that many organizations struggle to keep up with introducing these innovations without disruption. So the big question for today that we would like to explore together is why it is more important than ever before to be able to stay ahead of the automation curve. So with that, I'd like to invite JK for his perspective and his thoughts first. JK? Well, thank you so much, Niti. And just reiterate what you said, is an incredibly exciting time in the automation world right now. AI has really opened up new doors for what's possible. Is there opportunity to reinvent what we've already done with automation? Is there opportunity to expand into areas we previously haven't touched because we didn't feel like we had the capability? So there's this redefinition of what is included under automation at the moment. So we're not just in the RPA world now, we are in this world of automation, which is in a number of different technologies, which ultimately help you deliver an outcome. So for us, that's a really, really exciting transition and something we're trying to really focus on and implement with our products, which Tom will cover later on. So, I mean, automation is this evolving strategic capability within organizations right now. And as I said, with these new technologies that are coming into the landscape, so AI agents are obviously top of mind for everybody, but AI agents come in various styles and personalities. Some are good at certain things, some are good at other things. And it's almost trying to look at the landscape like these are just human resources in just another guise in another form. So automation is less just about, okay, I have a very good tool in RPA and let me find ways to use that tool. Now we need to think broader and try and think about all of the different automation tools that we have available to us. And how can we attack business problems in a very considered right sized way? So it's not just finding a solution for our one tool, it's about thinking more broadly and bigger picture than that. And that's really this gonna be this next stage, think 2026 is about learning about all of these technologies, learning where they fit best and how to integrate them all together to ultimately deliver the best outcome. So this isn't about trying to say RPA is dead. That's so, so far from the truth. RPA is great and will continue to deliver exceptional outcomes for businesses, but it's trying to think, well, how can we expand off what we've already done and how can we venture into completely different new areas. And so for us, that's really where we put the focus in is how can we help more organizations do more with automation with the lots of different technologies that we'll, I'm sure, get into a little bit later on. I absolutely loved it, how you've articulated it, JK, and particularly in connection with the outcomes and how these new technologies that we're just talking about are going to help us unleash more capabilities and will be able to deliver more value. So, absolutely love that. So, that brings me to you, Tom. So, in your opinion, what typically would happen when automation platforms do not evolve? Yes, I think this is obviously one of the biggest threats for the organisations we work with is not staying with the times and not staying competitive within their own industries, losing out on those advantages they've been building up over the years. Now RPA has been a cornerstone for so many of our customers and our partners to date and remains a fantastic part of their arsenal. But at the same time, the industry is moving on and there are additional capabilities that they can start to layer in. So how they bring AI into the loop obviously is a big hot topic, but it goes beyond that. It's also around things like connectivity. So RPA has been fantastic for connecting applications together, especially UI driven applications together. But increasingly we're seeing greater drive towards API driven systems. And so how do we best leverage these systems and bring them into the mix as well, direct connect rather than just doing everything through RPA. RPA, as we know is a fantastic Swiss Army knife for all manner of different systems, but not always the right tool the job or the best tool for the job. And then really the other trend that we're seeing is around the need to orchestrate work more effectively across these different types of systems and these different types of resources. So again, making sure that from our customers and partners perspective, they can stay with the times, orchestrate work effectively and easily and leverage the right type of resources. The risk of not staying current is the risk of falling behind the pack ultimately on all that. Yeah, and what I'm hearing there is that evolving today or evolution today isn't optional anymore. What I'm seeing, and rightly pointed, right, that industry is moving on really quickly and we've got to continue to evolve. And there is one such observation, having worked with just a lot of customers, what I generally observe is that upgrades, for example, are usually seen as heavy technical events and rightfully so, right, because these are not easy, as you can imagine, especially if you've got such a huge estate. But then I think what is now important as of today is that we've got to shift our perception a little bit around that and look at these upgrades as an opportunity to be able to unlock these new capabilities, these smarter ways of working so that we are able to deliver those relevant and better outcomes and we are able to move ahead with less or no disruptions, right, so that we are not losing on from an industry's perspective and we continue to maintain the competitive edge that you just alluded to. Very true. And I think a lot of that is how easy it is for customers to leverage those updates and upgrades too. So historically, it's not always been the easiest thing to move between different kind of key systems and upgrade those systems. They can be more of a project and extended period of time. And in fact, some of the changes that we've been introducing both in our WorkHQ product line, the coming next generation product line, as well as our current generation sets, like Blue Prism Enterprise and so on, is to reduce the points of friction in how easy it is to adopt these new technologies, which is a key point. So from our customer's perspective in the most recent versions, for example, of our current generation product, Blue Prism Enterprise, we're looking at how we introduce a better backwards compatibility for earlier versions to smooth out the challenges that the customers see in upgrading a larger state all in one go. And similarly in the WorkHQ portfolio to this point named NextGen, we've had a process of continuous upgrades. So actually not as scary as it sounds because the way that it works is the whole platform lifts up and we don't break any existing integration. So there minimal change between each of the things from a customer's perspective, you get the new features, the new functionality, the new capabilities, but you retain the stability of the processes you've already got running within your business. So we're making it as easy as possible now to stay with the times and keep current. I think the last thing I would say there, just again, in reflection on our product portfolio is how we're looking to blend the two worlds together. So we did this last year with what we call our automation orchestrator product, which allows you to connect your Blue Prism enterprise to the cloud based control center within WorkHQ. And that allows you to benefit from many of the new and advancing capabilities in digital worker orchestration that extend your on premise investments as well. So there's lots of stuff we're doing to help our customers stay current. Yeah, mean, that's quite fascinating, isn't it? So that brings me to another question again for you, Tom, really, and just out of curiosity. So let's talk about this whole ambition of to be able to continuously innovate. How do we make it in a reality from a platform perspective, given that you've already shared a lot of stuff on what we have already been thinking about making things easier and better? So, yeah, are you able to shed some light that how do we make this reality on our platform today? Yes, new features are always exciting, but stability is what customers want above and beyond anything else. So we have to find a way to bring innovation, but make that something that can be experimented with and opted into as opposed to something changes the way that you work. So if we look at some of the functionality we've been introducing over time, better instant management and detection, we've got increasing range of applications we can work with. Even our new agentic workflows functionality coming in April, will be a wonderful example of how something can supplement and augment what you've got today. So you can continue to leverage the existing automations you have and have them stable. But it's important that you can then easily hook in and start to benefit from these advancements as they come on board. Now, the way that we make it easy for you to do this stuff is that as the new features come in, don't have to leverage or change the way you work, they're additional. And in fact, you can even stage the rollout updates across your estate. So if you want to experiment in a small part of your estate or with a small process to begin with in the labs, then move into one or two parts of your business, you can start to roll out new features progressively within your organization, roll out updates progressively rather than this big bang. I think that's what's super important for us. And then the other thing is not having things certainly within our WorkHQ portfolio hidden behind an upgrade or locked behind an upgrade if you like. So again, many of these shared or these cloud components are auto upgraded available to you. So it's just then the case of when you leverage it, not, oh, well, I look forward to leveraging that once I've completed a broader upgrade process. So we're trying to again, reduce points of friction leveraging these things and make the innovation something that customers can opt into an experiment with and really work at how they're gonna leverage these things before they roll it out progressively within their organization. This makes the innovation a continuous process, always staying on top of the latest technology that we're delivering rather than big bang or giant leaps that it might have otherwise feel like. Yeah, think you made a great point there, right? Which is like you reduce the point of friction while you continue to maintain stability and that's what all of our customers would like to have as well. No, that's brilliant. So JK, I'll probably come to you now and if in your opinion, JK, what do you think are the biggest misconceptions that you see when it comes to adopting new features and new innovations? Sure. Well, just to come off what Tom had just said there, it's about reducing friction to adopting features for a start. We're doing a lot in that area to make it easier to access these new features. We understand every transition, even if that transition is small rather than massive, is an investment an organization has to make. So this move towards backwards compatibility in the BPE world is massive. And that should really help a lot of customers ultimately access more features. I think in general though, I think of the features, we need to kind of reframe kind of what happens when a new feature comes in. I guess it's like when you, I'm in full on DIY mode at the moment, at home, I've got to go and attack stuff at home this weekend. So it's like getting a new spanner or a new hammer, right? It enables you to do something slightly differently. But I don't go round the house with my new hammer and figure out things to go and do with it, right? I still think about it in the context of what problem am I trying to solve, right? You don't go, I've got a broken sink, I've got a hammer, great. You've got to think about it in the context of the feature set that you've got. So, and it's about learning what that feature enables you to do differently. So, might, again, unlock a different type of use case that you were able to do before. It might smoothen out some of the experience. It might make whatever the case may be, it's just finding the right use for that. So it's most important to understand what is coming in the most recent releases after you've had the ability to get on it and figuring out what it can do for you in the grander sense of the transition, right? But at the end of the day, we in automation, as in general, we're trying to deliver value back to the business. So all of these features coming together, as Tom said, we want to make this a continuous innovation that people can slowly develop with, understand the tools, get educated on it, understand where it works best and where it doesn't, rather than taking these seismic leaps every two years, for example, and asking everybody to retrain and rethink and remodel what they've already done. So at the end of the day, we want to be in the business of operating business use cases and delivering value back to the business. So having this continuous innovation helps with that, but also we're really invested in trying to help people understand and our users understand the technology that's coming, particularly with this next leap towards WorkHQ, which gets launched towards the April. That's really exciting for us because it's an opportunity for us to help our RPA base learn new different technologies that we've been working on behind the scenes, making sure it's also easier to access that new technology from wherever our customers are starting from. So at the end of the day, when it comes to features, it's all about adding to your toolbox and understanding what each of them does well, because that will ultimately help you deliver the value back to the business. If I can just add one little thing on top of that, Jamie, I think that's very true. What I think we're finding, especially with this new toolbox that you're talking about here is what is the right tool for the job and how and when should you use those tools? And for many of our customers, this is a new science. So we've been dabbling with AI agents, but we've been dabbling with these systems integrations, whatever it might be, but how and when should we use that? And that's very much an individual answer on a per customer, per industry, per regional basis for what is the appropriate use of those tools within their organization. So I think that's, as we go forwards and kind of talk about features and functionality, which is great, then the big question is how and when do you use them back to your hammer and the plumbing example, sometimes just because you've got a tool doesn't mean it's the right tool for the job. And what is the right time and the right situation which to use that. So this is something that we are obviously continuing to push from a thought leadership perspective and listening to and understanding and learning from our customers and partners and how they're using these things. But it's also a journey I know that all of our customers and partners are going on themselves internally. Okay, great, I've got these set of capabilities now, how, when do I apply them? And just to come back on that, it just takes it away from being just solely a technology argument as well. This is about understanding the best ways to do things and learning and building that expertise. I'm going to continue this analogy because I'm having fun with it. But there are times when I will call my uncle to come and, you know, do some carpentry for me because he's better at it, you know, and it's having that understanding of how and when you can bring in experts in particular areas, particularly in this, as Tom says, completely new way of working with the GenTick automation. It just completely redefines the way we actually think about implementing automation. So leveraging the expertise in the wider automation community will ultimately help as well. It's not just the technology argument when you're speaking about upgrading. Yeah, absolutely. And what I'm hearing from both of you is that it is extremely important to understand that, yes, you've got toolset in your portfolio, great, but it's not just about adopting every single feature that you've got and it is critically important for organizations to start focusing on what are those capabilities that would allow them to solve these problems and at the same time bring in the right expertise which you may not have at that point and then, yeah, so that your way ahead just becomes a lot easier if you had someone to handhold you. Lovely. I think we've covered why innovation matters. We also spoke about how it is delivered. I think the next thing would be for us to talk about that how do organizations make it stick. So, Tom, I'll come back to you. Tom, in your opinion, what does good look like for customers who want to do this well and who want to continue to evolve and who want to continue to innovate? So I think good looks like having a strategic approach around all of this, a very deliberate and planned approach. So when we talk about the introductions of, well, actually if many customers go back and think about the first steps of their COE within the organization, what they have to do to bring in automation into their organ in the first place. This is obviously a very planned process. And I think you should look at the expansion of these new technologies, this innovation in a similar way. As you start to grow out these capabilities that you've got, what is your strategy number one for adopting these technologies? And what are your enablers for getting this done? So for example, in keeping us to the SS and C Blue Prism world, at what point do I want to be upgrading my Blue Prism estate? And where do I want to take that to? We've got many customers who've said, for example, I want to stay within the Blue Prism enterprise world for a bit and then move to WorkHQ later and others who want to make the leap. Now that decision is personal to each organization, but it needs to be a deliberate decision. So when you're thinking about your six, twelve, eighteen months roadmap, work out how you start to layer in these upgrades and these plans. Number two, that's gonna be driven by what it is that is going to motivate you. Look, what is it that you're looking to capitalize on? We've mentioned this wonderful world of bringing AI agents into the loop. We've got advancements in areas such as computer vision. We've got technologies such as our AI gateway that gives you better guardrails and governance around your utilization of AI. So when you start thinking about that future state and the capabilities you need, what is going to support you in that journey? And that's going to inform as much as anything, the timing and the destination for where it is you're trying to get to. And a lot of this is going to be about maybe not what you're going to need specifically in six months, twelve months, eighteen months time, but positioning yourself for growth. So finding yourself with a place where you go, okay, I might not leverage all those capabilities on day one, but I know that there are button switch away or so having that as something that you can unlock is incredibly capable. And we've spoken just in this conversation about some customers who are choosing to extend what they do with Blue Prism enterprise, for example, with scheduling and orchestration in the cloud, but others who are choosing to jump into the WorkHQ world as well fully because then they can leverage all of these capabilities. And again, that decision is going to be entirely down to them. It doesn't mean they're gonna leverage it all on day one. So I think make sure you've got a strategic approach planned out how upgrades fit in as part of that path. And you've got a clear idea about what you're moving to. There's also the dis benefits I suppose of staying where you are, which is important for us to recognize too that at the end of the day, the software of a certain age will have a certain lifespan related to it. So there are other considerations about things like end of life, which we regularly communicate and work with customers on to ensure that they're staying on a kind of fully supported and fully capable version. So that's always something you can talk to your customer success lead on as well. Hopefully people are driven there more through the desire to more through a more capable platform and so that's what the conversations we enjoy having. Yeah, I agree with you. Would it be, I don't know, would it be safe to say that staying ahead of the automation curve is fundamentally also about the mindset change and not necessarily just about the technology? Very much so in the way that we've just been describing here, and especially as the needs of the business grow, we're seeing, for example, AI centers of excellence crop up in the organization, maybe in different places to where the RPA centers of excellence are. And in fact, many of the conversations we've been having as customers have been leveraging tools like the AI gateway, looking forward to things like aerogenic workflows is how we start to build that connectivity around the organization. Because today they might not have all the experts in one room quite simply, or they might have indeed an ecosystem of different things they need to work with. Now, as you say, part of that is technology. How do I interface and work with these different technologies? Part of that is mindset and collaboration. So building that organizational connective tissue, understanding your, let's say organizational AI policies and approach and looking at how you leverage those effectively rather than finding that one later down the line when you developed a bunch of RPA processes with a bit of AI around it. It is very much as I said, a strategic play now. And so hopefully our products that gives you the springboard to deliver a lot more, but it is as much about the organisation as it is about the technology. Yeah, I'm also thinking a bit, I mentioned before about the way that organisations are doing this successfully. And we've spoken about some of these kind of one hop versus two hop approaches in terms of how people see their strategy for getting into the future. Do consider what's right for you. And I think that'll be as much as anything colored by where is you're trying to get to things like your choice of deployment model, you more cloud friendly, you wanting something to be running on premise, those sorts of things are going to help you kind of plot out that strategy. Yeah, and I'll just quickly chime in on the back of that. As Tom mentioned about organisational connectivity, it's also about organisational buy in. I think with a lot of these, every team needs to show their wins. And I think when we are adding these new features and trying to make the business case for upgrading, it's trying to align what those new features will enable you to go and tackle in the business, right? Because that we understand everything's a transaction and a trade off. So making sure you have those new features aligned to potential business problems will help accelerate that journey. The best customers we see, and I'll definitely just speak to one of our internal transformation examples. They're relentlessly focused on what automation will deliver for that end client, whether directly or indirectly. It's a real clear focus on how can we make the customer experience better? How can we save costs so we can pass that along to our potential clients as well? Those things are incredibly important to us. And so I'd always advise customers really try and focus on the end focus. On that, I think what we call our customer zero story, I. E. How we've helped SS and C as our company grow, now up to three, I mean, lose count three and a half thousand at the last count number of digital workers and growing so rapidly. But so now it's not a case of what can I automate because we're in a target rich environment? We can, there's a heck of a lot we can always automate, but now it's like the scope of the use cases we got for automation are growing ever still. Back to that new science point that we're making before, understanding what this new toolkit can help you achieve is more than just brute forcing things through in terms of, say using your hammer analogy before Jamie, but throwing RPA at everything because we've shown that we can drive value, our customers and partners have shown we can drive value with RPA. It's about really understanding how these new technologies are going to drive forwards. To your point though, Niti about how customers see success with this, we've also seen on the flip side where things have been technology led, how that doesn't always translate into success. So we know and Jamie will keep me around the stats, it's around 95% or so of kind of AI like agentic programs that ultimately don't fail to deliver the promises they set out to achieve, don't make it into production in other words. So we're really focused on increasing that 5% to be a far greater number. And again, being deliberate with your use of AI, using it for specific tasks, we're making it as easy as possible to start to bring that in ways that build on top of what you've got rather than completely upending your business. So this therefore supports your operating model and extends it rather than just being too much to deal with in one go. And I think that's especially important when we talk about innovation because you're trying to turn innovation into value and hopefully we can work with you on that. And just to add to that bit about those failed agentic projects, it ultimately comes down to a few things. One is governance, particularly in the AI space and making sure that data is secure and privacy is maintained because hallucinations as good as the models are, will still come in. It's about finding where AI matches the advantage, but also balances out the risk. So AI is not the right tool for everything at this point in time. And the fact that AI tools are being thought of in isolation and being implemented in isolation is probably leading to a lot of that issue. Because if they're not connected to the wider organization, I think that as Tom mentioned, where you have different center of excellence is popping up that introduces that challenge because you get silos in an organization potentially, not always. And that introduces some of those problems. So it's always key to have that in the back of the mind about ultimately where can AI ultimately add value and where can it actually possess a threat when you're looking at it from the big picture. Yeah, and I can't agree with you more. And this is something that we were discussing offline also the other day, isn't it JK? How RPA cannot be an answer to everything, so is not AI an answer to everything. We just need to find that sweet spot. And to your point, Tom, I think this is amazing, right? And I can go on and on, by the way. The fact that innovation means value, like we have to see that what is the value that's been driven based on how you are innovating and yeah, make sure that there are right deliverables, right outcomes, right value that you are going to do. It's just not about heck of doing everything and anything when it comes to new features, etc. So absolutely love the conversation, such a rich conversation. And like I said, I can go on and on talking to you both. But I'm also conscious about time. And hence, before we wrap, I wanted to invite LOEs, who is our Senior Marketing Manager. As many of you would already know that we've got our Customer Excellence Awards that are back. So anyways, there you are. Would you mind giving us a quick update and how our customers can showcase their incredible innovations that have been happening in their own organisations. Yeah, thank you so much, Niti. So as you said, the Customer Excellence Awards are now live and this year is a very special year as it marks our tenth anniversary of celebrating a decade of outstanding customer achievements. We would really implore all of our customers who are driving meaningful impact with automation to take this opportunity to showcase your success by submitting an entry and receiving the recognition you deserve. We have six organisational categories this year and two individual awards, so there are multiple opportunities for you or your team to be recognised. You can use the QR code on the left of your screen now to visit our submissions page and download our submissions guide too. Here you'll find all of the information you need on which categories you should be looking at, but you can also call in your customer success manager also to help you submit your entry. Entries close on the March 29 and our winners will be announced live on the June 23. Thank you, Niti. Lovely. Thank you, Eloise. That's helpful. Yeah, I think we are towards the end of the session. I want to thoroughly thank you, Tom and JK, for such an insightful session today and I also thank you, Eloise. And of course, a big thank you to all of you who spent time with us today and we truly appreciate your partnership and I wish you a great day ahead. Thank you.