Microsoft Acquires Process Mining Vendor

 

Microsoft has acquired Minit, a process mining technology vendor based in Slovakia for an undisclosed sum. Microsoft hopes it will help customers to digitally transform their processes and identify which ones are good candidates for automation. Minit allows organisations to analyse, monitor, and optimise their processes by gaining deep insights into how their processes run and discover the causes of operational challenges posed by such processes.

Microsoft claims this acquisition will allow its customers to better understand their process data and drive process standardisation and improvements across a business, ensuring compliance along the way. The big tech company is committing to a software category that could be worth over $11 billion by 2030 after its 2020 acquisition of Softomotive and the launch of new capabilities in Power Automate. Minit’s customers shouldn’t expect a change in the support they are receiving, but it is still unclear whether their team will merge with Microsoft or if the teams will remain separate.

Process mining is also called task discovery and it involves identifying root causes behind workflow issues and bottlenecks by analysing data from desktop and email apps and other workflows. This is a key technology that facilitates robotic process automation (RPA) which aims to automate repetitive tasks and generate logs to further identify cost savings. This responsibility has traditionally been conducted by system integrators that map out processes after analysing workflows. RPA intends to digitise this process and reduce costs, time, and effort.

Businesses are hungry for more process data as more of them continue their digital transformation and any organisation not providing best-in-class capabilities in process mining may find it hard to offer customers a compelling solution. Process mining seems to be maturing as a market as more acquisitions are starting to be announced in the past year, along with the business process automation industry experiencing general consolidation. Task mining, process mining, and discovery are continuing to be commoditised under other major automation platforms.

HP Acquires Hybrid Work Solutions Company

 

HP is set to acquire Poly for $1.7 billion – a 53% premium over the most recent share closing price. HP hopes this purchase will strengthen its opportunity in hybrid work solutions and provide sustainable growth and value creation into the long term. Previously named Plantronics, the company had both consumer and business market interests until 2018 when it pivoted to focus on in-office gear. A recent report by HP expects 75% of office workers will invest in new hardware to improve their hybrid work setups, and currently less than 10% of meeting rooms have video capability.

Poly had also been in talks with Logitech previously, but that merger had fallen through. HP hopes this acquisition will allow the company to tap into the $110 billion peripherals market. This acquisition is also complementary to last year’s acquisition of Teradici which specialises in high-performance computing in hybrid work environments. Clearly, HP is shifting its focus to hybrid work models.

The closing date of the acquisition is expected before the end of 2022, subject to Poly stockholder approval, regulatory clearance, and other typical closing conditions. HP predicts the deal will provide $500 million in revenue synergies by 2025.