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.

Leveraging Satellite Communications in Business

 

During last week’s Satellite 2022 conference, panellists discussed the possibilities for AI-powered satellite connectivity such as accelerating digital transformation, edge computing, and the enterprise IoT market. Satellite communications are intersecting with cloud services and other technologies which increase the data analytics and infrastructure possibilities in the future. For example, low orbit micro-satellites could provide a cost-efficient way to move data across the globe, and AWS are working with satellite developers to provide ground stations to downlink its growing data.

Through artificial intelligence and dynamic bandwidth allocation, satellite services may become more rapidly utilised by enterprises to increase their customer reach and accelerate their digital transformation. Nokia has started to provide consulting services in this sector and argues there are 3 pillars that organisations should focus on to enable this transformation. The first is obviously having a high-performance network layer via satellite, wireless, or wireline. The other 2 include analytics with AI and ML to analyse the factors that matter, and using digital devices to properly collect the data in the first place.

In order to digitise for transformation, everything must be digitised via an IoT sensing layer because collecting this data is useless if intelligence isn’t applied to it. In other applications, enterprises can connect to remote offices and locations using satellite technology. This is especially true for the mining, oil, and gas industries where locations may be quite disparate. Growth in IoT could significantly impact those industries wishing to harness the power of satellite communications by providing control and a visualisation of the enterprise’s operations.

The service should become more user-friendly as more data flows through these satellite networks, and the agriculture and healthcare sectors have also been seen as areas where this transformation could be highly beneficial. The use of AI will be critical to the success of IoT and thus the market for satellite communications moving forward.