Bain invests in Ashling to meet the enterprise need for holistic automation expertise

Former HFS Hot Vendor Ashling Partners (Q4, 2020) has partnered with Bain & Company in a strategic alliance in which Bain is directly investing in Ashling. The intent is to combine Bain’s strategy consulting and operational strengths with Ashling’s technical know-how and managed services to help enterprises scale their automation initiatives.

The combination of strategic, operational, and technical know-how is a timely response to HFS Research’s findings that, despite booming enterprise demand for automation, most leaders recognize they need help to mature their approach to automation initiatives (see Exhibit 1).

Exhibit 1: Two-thirds of enterprises see themselves as beginners on the automation journey and are in clear need of expert partner support

Sample: 511 Global 2000 enterprises, HFS Research in partnership with Infosys, 2022
Source: HFS Research, 2023

Stake formalizes ecosystem partnership with a little skin in the game

Before announcing this partnership, Bain and Ashling worked on many shared accounts. The investment—a minority stake worth less than 5% of the Ashling business—is intended to deepen collaboration between Ashling and Bain’s “Vector” digital practices. It formalizes an ecosystem partnership with a little skin in the game. While not exclusive, Ashling does get preferred status in its areas of expertise.

HFS recently recognized Bain as a Horizon 2 provider of automation services in our HFS Horizons: Automation Service Providers, 2022 report. Since our report, interest in and excitement about automation have only grown, thanks to the mainstream emergence of generative AI. Generative AI only adds to the pressures of what HFS has called “the digital dichotomy”—the Great Hurry to innovate with automation amid the Great Slowdown of inflation, job cuts, supply chain challenges, and war in Europe. As ChatGPT 3.5 became 4, and 4 becomes 4.5, leaders face wider automation possibilities, and with those possibilities, greater risks of placing the wrong bets.

Enterprises need expert guidance on viable generative AI approaches

Ashling has already found itself butting against circumstances where generative AI has proven a spanner in the works, raising governance and security concerns. Now, when the brakes get slammed on in nascent automation programs, Ashling can turn to Bain to cut through the fear and hype with trustworthy, credible, and enterprise-wide advisory to identify and ameliorate the risks and generate blueprints for success. Ashling will ride shotgun as the preferred delivery partner with a mutually shared responsibility with Bain to deliver outcomes.

The Bain-Ashling double act will suit enterprises prepared to invest in premium strategy and risk reduction but which are also determined not to be profligate in delivery mode. Ashling’s price list is significantly more affordable than Bain’s. And there is little incentive for Bain to come after Ashling’s slice of the pie since, like other premium strategy organizations, Bain remains dedicated to protecting its margins.

Chicago-based Hot Vendor’s growth story continues at pace in India

PE-backed Ashling was founded in 2017 with an RPA (robotic process automation) focus. It had developed a tight connection with UiPath and, recently, Celonis while building out capabilities in process intelligence, analytics, and advisory. It also delivers machine learning and intelligent document processing. It has built expertise in healthcare, manufacturing and distribution, insurance, banking, energy, consumer goods, and real estate. The Chicago-based business received an undisclosed capital investment from Thomas H. Lee Partners in February 2021 with the intention of geographic growth and boosting industry sector expertise.

In August 2021, it acquired 50 additional resources with the purchase of fellow former HFS Hot Vendor (Q3 2019) Machina. Machina provided depth in the energy sector. In December last year, Minnesota-based low-code business fourTENS was merged in, bringing expertise and relationships with Microsoft. Today the business stands at around 250 employees, with recent headcount growth mainly attributable to its new presence in Hyderabad, India.

The Bottom Line: Risk-reducing credibility, combined with affordable automation delivery, could prove tempting for leaders facing the twin demands of the digital dichotomy.

The twin demands of the digital dichotomy place “between a rock and a hard place” demands on leaders. You need to innovate at pace, but you need expert reassurance on the right bets to place. To meet these twin goals, you need high-quality advisory and reliable but affordable delivery. Bain and Ashling offer one such combination, potentially free of the bias inherent in offerings that combine advisory and delivery under the same brand.