Partner profile: Meet Roboyo

Andreas Obermair is the Global Head of Automation at Roboyo, where he leads the global intelligent automation practice. Automation Hero recently caught up with Andreas to hear about his work at Roboyo and to get his thoughts on trends in enterprise automation. 

Automation Hero: Tell us about Roboyo.

Andreas Obermair:  Roboyo is the world’s largest professional services provider dedicated to Hyperautomation. We are laser focused on creating business value and impact through automation and the optimization of processes for our customers. We have a wide range of approaches and technologies to make it happen, and we’re excited to have Automation Hero as part of our partner technology stack.

AH. So, tell us what’s Roboyo’s specialty?

AO: Our years of real-world process and project experience and working with different technologies. Plus, we have the in-depth knowledge of the different geographies and industries that our clients exist in, so we have a broad experience when it comes to digital transformation in general and hyperautomation specifically. 

AH: Roboyo was founded in Europe but has expanded globally. What does this mean for your customers?

AO: It was important for us to create a global footprint and to create sustainability for our clients. Over the past few years, our expansion means we now cover all the world’s time zones. This is great for our customers because they get the same quality of expertise and access to resources wherever they are in the world. We can support global engagement out of every market; and that’s all out of one brand, which is amazing.

AH: And where do you have offices?

AO: We have a presence in the Americas, in Europe, and in the APAC region. We have offices in 24 cities, across 15 countries including in Germany and the UK, Australia, India, the US and so on.

AH: How have views of automation changed in recent years?

AO: In the past—when we started our business—companies came to us saying, “We have a process. We want to automate it.” That’s it. I now believe there’s a shift in thinking. So that means people want to work with more advanced technologies and they want to solve problems in a more intelligent way. It’s more important than ever to work with such technologies to be able to take things to the next level.

AH: What’s an example of this?

AO: What we see with our customers now that’s especially interesting is the automation input. With documents, you get the input via PDF, via analog, via scan, and you can digitize and classify them. You can automate and bring them into your backend environment. This all requires high-level intelligence, and we’ve seen a push for this in recent months.

AH: What technology trends are you seeing?

AO: I see in the market right now a general push for new technologies and innovation, and we’ll see a huge push continue in 2023—that’s my feeling. What I’m seeing in the market is that companies are focused on getting more intelligent solutions into their enterprise environment. They are moving away from solving one-off problems, instead adopting the mindset of “How can we solve problems in a more intelligent way or with more advanced connected technologies?”. That’s where our experience in hyperautomation comes into play. 

AH: In your opinion, why do large-scale IT projects fail?

AO: I love that question to be honest because I think it’s never the technology which fails. It’s more about the people who are in front of the technology. Maybe they don’t understand how to use it, or maybe they’re not aware of how the processes work or how things are structured. 

That’s one reason we often see when it comes to our engagement, and the other part is people often expect the 100% solution. This is, of course, a way forward, but I’m not sure that always makes sense. In many cases 80/20 is a good approach to figuring out the most important things and to digitize them. It’s much more efficient than going for 100% right away.

AH: How do you convince someone of the value of new technologies?

AO:  Typically, companies invest in creating value and in problem-solving first. So they want to get a solution for the problems, and the technologies have to demonstrate how they can, for instance, improve efficiency, reduce costs, or enhance the customer experience. 

At Roboyo, we are experts in that area, so we can help companies understand how they can map their processes to the right technologies, and where they need to invest to make digitalization possible. And what we see is that you need to combine both the value perspective and the tech perspective.

AH: Where are you seeing hesitation?

AO: What we still see quite often is the topic of the cloud. We have many discussions of going on-premise versus cloud services. When it comes to advanced technologies, intelligent technologies, or hyperautomation technologies, you have to think about cloud services. You need training data and other models behind it, so we recommend going with the cloud. It can be painful to set up on-prem and to get the most out of the technology. It’s important to switch the business’s mindset to cloud-based solutions. 

AH: What if there’s a security concern with the cloud?

AO: Typically, we discuss with our clients in detail our own security measures plus that of our partners and the solutions we offer. We reassure their IT and security departments with the security measures we put in place and encourage them not to be afraid anymore – and most importantly to see the opportunities which result from the technology.

AH: You have an event coming up, All Eyes on Automation – Americas. What can we expect from it?

AO: Our All Eyes on Automation event is designed to provide a forum to exchange ideas, talk about new solutions, see how others have solved their digital transformation problems and learn from the best in the business. We’ve invited many of our clients to contribute whether that be a keynote speech, a panel discussion or breakout session – after all, they are the people you want to hear from who are making the technology work for them every day.  And of course, all our partners will be there sharing the latest technology and platforms and helping to understand how to implement digital solutions successfully. We’ve also just announced this year’s European All Eyes on Automation will be heading to Barcelona in September!

Learn more about Roboyo on their website, or you can check out the All Eyes on Automation – Americas event page.