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The global Business Process Automation (BPA) market size is expected to grow from USD 9.8 billion in 2020 to USD 19.6 billion by 2026, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12.2% during the forecast period. The BPA market will continue to grow post-COVID-19 as more enterprises across the globe plan to migrate its IT infrastrutcre to cloud, boost business continuity, and improvise busiess operations operations. While technology spending in APAC has increased, the setback due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic is imminent. Fractors such as increased need for optimized resource utilization through automated business processes, growing demand for streamlining communication across varied business functions in organizations, benefits gained due to automated IT systems, and increased demand of BPA solutions to continue business oerations during COVID 19 crisis are driving the growth of BPA solutions and services wordwide. 

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COVID-19 Impact BPA  Market

The outbreak of the COVID-19 has globally changed the dynamics of business operations. Though the COVID-19 outbreak has thrown light on weaknesses in business models across sectors, it has also offered several opportunities for BPA solution vendors to expand their businesses across enterprises with the adoption of cloud in the lockdown. Now that social distancing is the norm, businesses are relying on digital platforms to reach  people who are staying home and are on their mobile phones, tablets, and/or laptops. Automation solutions are gaining traction due to need of improving business processes and save time and cost. Furthermore, according to IBM’s COVID 19 and the Future of Business report, The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation at 59% of surveyed organizations. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation at 59% of surveyed organizations. The company continues to offer innovative solutions during the COVID 19 pandemic to enable businesses continue the operations. Market leader Appian has taken initiatives in response to COVID 19 crisis. It has created a free COVID-19 Response Management application for enterprises and government agencies. It tracks health status, location, travel history and any COVID-19 incident details. The company has also designed Workforce Safety solution, which enables compliance with corporate policies and government COVID-related regulations, while maintaining the privacy and security of employee health information.

BPA market Dynamics

Drivers: Increased need for optimized resource utilization through automated business processes

With the implementation of BPA solutions, processes that earlier required human intervention are automated, and workforce can focus on core competencies. This leads to the optimum utilization of resources; optimized resource utilization refers to a set of processes and practices that manage a balance between the available resources and the need of enterprises to achieve desired business goals. Optimization aims at achieving desired results within the allocated timeframe and budget with the minimum consumption of the resources. The need for resource optimization is more when demand tends to exceed the existing resources. BPA solutions help in integrating various systems in organizations and reduce the overhead time by automating various processes. The automation of business processes eliminates manual quality assurance and execution steps, and enhances business resource utilization. According to a report by Smartsheet, 69% of the employees have reported that automation reduces the wastage of time and 59% of the employees believe that they would have more than six spare hours per week if repetitive jobs were automated. Organizations operating in the global market have offices located in different regions of the world. Thus, making it difficult to onboard employees, track employee performance, maintain employees’ time and attendance, and benefit administration. The availability of BPA technology and collaboration tools is helping distributed teams and employees in managing multiple projects. The use of BPA solutions helps automate and streamline HR functions. As per Wynhurst Group, having a structured onboarding program helps employers to retain 58% of employees for at least three years. An adequate BPA system not only saves money but also sets the stage for the continuous improvement of different business functions and companies. Automated business processes make tasks quicker and easier, and help employees to be more productive, motivated, and engaged with their work.

Restraints: Persistent growth in cyber-attacks and security issues

Digital transformation has led to the generation of an ample amount of data in organizations. At present, the globalization of businesses has made business processes and flow of data utmost important in organizations. Companies are concerned about sharing their critical business data, and this concern is significantly rising in the market. Security hazards such as malware, hacker attacks, or data thefts pose major threats to the reliable execution of business processes. Any such attack or malware can have negative effects on the companies’ profit, shareholder value, or reputation. According to the Breach Level Index 2018 report, there were 945 reported data breaches and almost 4.5 billion compromised data records worldwide in the first half of 2018. Industries such as social media and healthcare where BPA has applicability were affected. This data represents the existing barriers to the adoption of BPA, especially in the industries mentioned above.

Challenges: Growing cultural barrier to adopt advanced solutions over traditional systems

Business processes involved in varied business functions have been dramatically changing and adopting various technology advancements. BPA has been gaining tremendous popularity across industries to simplify their workflows for better and more efficient operational processes. However, there are several organizations that stick to manual process planning, such as manually addressing inquires of potential customers, marketing and sales engagement for generating leads, tracking packages, payroll calculations, and tactical recruitment process outsourcing due to the lack of knowledge about emerging automated solutions. Several companies still consider advanced solutions as risky, complex, and costly, which are major factors for the low adoption of BPA solutions by organizations. Some organizations are still unaware of BPA solution and service benefits, and are quite reluctant to adopt BPA technologies in their daily operations and functioning. The misconception among organizations is that the adoption of automation is going to pose a threat to the job security of their workforce, as many manual processes performed by workers or employees would be automated. Thus, the resistance to change is a major challenging factor that restricts the adoption of BPA solutions in organizations.

Opportunities: Integration of AI and ML technologies

The integration of AI technology makes BPA smarter by offering the ability to digitalize, formalize, optimize, and automate a wide variety of tasks currently performed by skilled human experts. With Machine Learning (ML), BPA continually evaluates data to predict the future and suggest data-driven improvements to enhance operational performance. Most of the organizations around the world run their business with data-driven strategies derived through the data acquired through customer-faced applications. Hence, the organizations are expected to spend more on business intelligence and analytics in the coming years. The changing landscape of business intelligence is backed by the new generation of analytics deployed to understand the business process and define it according to set parameters. More organizations would be insisting on using analytics to provide insights. They will anticipate and predict outcomes based on both historical references and current operations. These companies would effectively plan and allocate resources, becoming more agile and efficient.

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Based on service, support and maintenance segment to be a larger contributor to the BPA market growth during the forecast period

Maintenance and support services are crucial as they directly deal with customer issues that impact customer satisfaction. Every software vendor has a dedicated support team to cater to its customers. Support, software maintenance, customer portal, post-deployment assistance, and client testimonials are some of the services provided under the maintenance and support services. To ensure consistent customer satisfaction, service providers focus on enhancing their product knowledge base by receiving feedback through interviews and surveys. The support and maintenance services provide a single point of contact for resolving customer issues. Customer portals, customer forums, technical tips, and software updates are some of the other helping aids made available for customers.

Based on deployment model, the on premises segment to be a larger contributor to the BPA growth during the forecast period

In the on-premises delivery model, software or platforms are installed and operated from customers’ in-house server and computing infrastructure. The cost of installing on-premises platforms is included in the Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) of companies. This approach is mostly adopted for applications that involve the processing of sensitive and confidential data. Nowadays, every organization generates vast amounts of data due to the use of ML, IT devices, sensors, clickstreams, and many other devices. The on-premises deployment type enables organizations to ingest data into their own databases, thereby maintaining data security. In the on-premises deployment type, companies must install the required hardware as well as software. In addition, they must maintain hardware, implement cybersecurity applications, train staff, update new versions, and arrange backup for data or damaged parts. Due to huge initial upfront costs and the need for manual intervention, the on-premises deployment type can be afforded by large enterprises. SMEs, on the other hand, lack budget and skillsets. Therefore, it is not practical for them to install on-premises BPA platforms. Large enterprises deploy the on-premises BPA platforms due to privacy and security concerns related to confidential data. This is expected to contribute to the segment’s larger market size.

Asia Pacific (APAC) to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period

APAC has witnessed the advanced and dynamic adoption of new technologies and is projected to record the highest CAGR during the forecast period. In addition, IT spending across organizations in the region is gradually increasing, which is projected to lead to a surge in the adoption of BPA Business Functions. China, India, Japan, and ANZ are the leading countries in terms of the adoption of BPA Business Functions and services in the region. BPA Business Functions automate building, tracking, and analyzing marketing campaigns and provide the assignment and management of quotas that enable markets to focus on strategy building tasks, due to which many organizations in APAC are implementing BPA platforms. The wastage of resources due to the manual management of administrative tasks, lack of visibility into incentive compensations, and rise in attrition encourages organizations in this region to invest in advanced BPA Business Functions. Due to these factors, the region is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

The BPA market is dominated by companies such as IBM (US), Pegasystems (US), Appian (US), Kissflow(India), Laserfiche (US), Nintex (US), Oracle (US),  Software AG (Germany), Salesforce (US) Microsoft (US) , Bizagi (UK), OpenText (Canada), TIBCO (US), Creatio (US), Genpact (US), DXC Technology (UK), Newgen Software (India), Bonitasoft (France), Kofax (US), FlowForma (Ireland), AuraQuantic (US), AgilePoint (US), Automation Hero (US), Quickbase (US), and, Cortex (UK). These vendors have a large customer base and strong geographic footprint along with organized distribution channels, which helps them to increase revenues.

Scope of Report

This research report categorizes the BPA market to forecast revenue and analyze trends in each of the following submarkets:

Based on the component:

• Platforms
• Services

Based on the ser vices:

• Consulting
• Deployment and integration
• Support and maintenance

Based on business function

• Human Resource Automation
• Supply Chain Automation
• Sales and Marketing Automation
• Accounting and Finance Automation
• Customer Service Support Automation
• Others (legal and compliance and R&D activities)

Based on the Deployment Type:

• Cloud
• On premises

Based on organization size:

• Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)
• Large Enterprises

Based on verticals:

•  BFSI
• Manufacturing
• IT
• Telecommunications
• Retail and Consumer Goods
• Healthcare
• Others (social media and entertainment, government, and transport and logistic)

Based on Regions:

• North America
  • US
  • Canada
• Europe
  • UK
  • Germany
  • Rest of Europe
• APAC
  • China
  • Japan
  • Australia
  • Rest of APAC
• MEA
  • Saudi Arabia
  • UAE
  • South Africa
  • Rest of MEA
• Latin America
  • Brazil
  • Mexico
  • Rest of Latin America

Recent Developments

• In May 2021, Appian released the latest version of Appian Low Code Automation  Platform. The new version has features such as AI-driven Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), new design guidance and developer collaboration features, and enhanced DevSecOps capabilities.
• In May 2021, Pegasystems launched the new version of Pega Infinity. The new version includes feature such as enhnaced low-code, intelligent automation, and AI capabilities.
• In March 2020, Kissflow partnered with Redington, an IT distribution and supply chain firm. The partnership ims towards expanding  the reach of Kissflow’s  flagship product No-Code Platform in India.
• In December 2020, IBM launched new capabilities to infuse intelligence into workflows. The capabilities are designed to improve the automation of AI, provide a higher degree of precision in natural language processing, and foster greater trust in outcomes derived from AI predictions.
• In December 2020, Appian cpllaborated with Accenture. The new collaboration would accelerate acquisition modernization for government and defense organizations with BPA.