Within a week of signing an agreement to acquire Metaswitch Networks aimed at expanding Azure 5G strategy, Microsoft announced another acquisition. This time in the growing Robotic Process Acquisition space.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Softmotive is a leading provider of low-code RPA dev environments. Announcing the acquisition on its blog, the technology powerhouse revealed bringing low-code RPA technology into Power Automate.
Founded in 2005, the London-headquartered creator of WinAutomation which boasts over 9000 customers worldwide has been a part of the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Robotic Desktop Automation (RDA) sector since 2005.
Softomotive launched the WinAutomation RDA Platform in 2008.
We are extremely excited and proud to announce that Softomotive has been acquired by Microsoft and that our products will become part of Microsoft Power Automate.
Marios Stavropoulos
Co-Founder & CEO, Softomotive Ltd
“Together with Power Automate, WinAutomation will provide customers additional options for RPA desktop authoring so anyone can build a bot and automate Windows-based tasks”, said Charles Lamanna, CVP, Citizen Application Platform on Microsoft blog.
“The combined offering will also enable RPA connectivity to many new apps and services including SAP and traditional green-screen terminal applications”
Microsoft estimates new possibilities this acquisition opens for customers, including:
- Delivering a comprehensive low-code desktop automation solution with WinAutomation – Providing customers with additional choices for creating workflows in Power Automate.
- Expanding the out-of-the-box UI automation drivers for commonly used apps and services – Microsoft is now expanding the existing desktop automation experience with the addition of Softomotive’s robust set of connectors and applications, such as SAP, legacy terminal screens, Java, Citrix, and more.
- Enabling parallel execution and multitasking – Customers can now execute multiple workflows and automation in parallel and on the same machine to reduce latency and improve the efficiency of their bots.
Together with the existing RPA Power Automate offering, which is part of the Power platform aimed at helping folks without technical skills automate removing the dependency on the technical teams.
Aimed at potentially increasing Azure consumption, the acquisition could bring Microsoft additional revenues with the expanded RPA offering and Azure strategy. The low-code approach to RPA could help in the democratisation of automation.
Microsoft’s Softmotive acquisition is the latest in a series of acquisitions aimed at expanding Azure strategy and strengthening its value proposition further.
