For the past three years, research and advisory company Gartner has been releasing its RPA Magic Quadrant, providing a visual representation of the vendors making waves in the industry and how they fare against key evaluation criteria.

As the name suggests, Gartner’s Magic Quadrant divides RPA technology providers into four categories: 

• Leaders – These companies execute exceptionally well on their current vision and have an eye for changing market rules, but they do still face some challenges.
• Visionaries – These providers have a vision for the future of RPA and an understanding of changing market rules, but they do not yet execute as well as they could.
• Challengers – These players are currently executing well and may even be dominating a significant segment of the industry, but they do not appear to have a sufficient understanding of market direction and changing market rules.
• Niche Players – These companies may have successfully honed in on a small segment of the market but appear to be unfocused and unable to outperform other RPA providers or match their level of innovation.

Three iterations of the RPA Magic Quadrant have revealed just how rapidly this industry is changing and how high vendors raise their own bar each year in terms of growth, relevance, innovation, viability, and vision for the future of RPA software.

How Gartner’s Magic Quadrant Assesses RPA Providers

To get an accurate snapshot of such a dynamic market, Gartner focuses only on RPA providers, not on Value-Added Resellers (VARs) or Managed Service Providers (MSPs). Gartner also adjusts the inclusion and evaluation criteria each year to suit the changing market, making it all the more impressive that Automation Anywhere and UiPath have both held their positions as industry leaders across all three years.

2021 RPA Magic Quadrant

Source: Gartner (July 2021)

At a minimum, Gartner suggests that RPA software should give all users the ability to build and deploy automation scripts without extensive coding experience. These scripts should integrate seamlessly with enterprise applications and feature orchestration and administration capabilities that include monitoring and security, among other features. 

Machine learning, intelligent document processing, natural language processing libraries, and process mining are all good-to-have features, while some of the most exciting emerging capabilities include API connectors, headless automation, and a low-code or no-code user experience.

The Power of Partnership: UiPath, Automation Anywhere and Alphalaki AI

As Alphalake AI’s CEO, Olly Cogan, says, “We believe strongly in offering the right tool for the right job in automation, which is a key aspect of Alphalake’s Hybrid Automation methodology and approach.” As consistent industry leaders in robotic process automation, UiPath and Automation Anywhere are important parts of the highly selective toolkit that allows us to do this. UiPath connects seamlessly with our API partner, Workato, and we firmly agree with Gartner that this is one of the most exciting emerging capabilities in RPA. 

These partnerships are the driving force behind the customised solutions and measurable outcomes Alphalake AI is able to provide to our customers. Industry leaders like UiPath and Automation Anywhere are invaluable in helping us create positive change for our hardworking healthcare professionals and the patients they treat. Freeing up doctors, nurses, and other staff members to focus on human-centred care has a raft of positive flow-on effects, impacting everything from record-keeping, profitability, and analytics to employee satisfaction, patient experiences, and patient outcomes.

With our partners making strides on both the “completeness of vision” and “ability to execute” axes, we are on a clear path to providing ever more seamless and intuitive hybrid automation for our clients.