SS&C Blue Prism intends expansion within its client base with its complementary suite of automation offerings

The Situation: SS&C has acquired Blue Prism, the original gangster of robotic process automation (RPA) and retains its legacy with name “SS&C Blue Prism”.  The newco has aired its plans for its  combined platform emphasizing a unified workforce proposition across the enterprise. While the proposition and potential are not groundbreaking, what HFS deems ripe with potential is the opportunity to bring Blue Prism technology to SS&C’s almost 20,000 clients, who are all hungry for optimized operations.

SS&C is a public $5 billion provider of ‘software-enabled services’ to financial services and healthcare sectors. Reputationally, it is known as the world’s largest fund administrator for hedge funds and private equity firms. Tucked within its vast portfolio of software products is Chorus, an assembled platform of business process management (BPM), intelligent document processing (IDP) and operational analytics.

The shared vision

SS&C Blue Prism is the moniker for the thrust-together capabilities of SS&C’s Chorus BPM, Document Automation and Operational Analytics products with Blue Prism’s RPA, private labelled process intelligence (ABBYY Timeline), Service Assist (focused on the call center industry), Decision (decision AI), and Decipher (document processing).

The integration roadmap emphasized the merger of intelligent document processing capabilities, a global footprint for SS&C Blue Prism’s unified workforce proposition, and investment in no-code/low-code and process intelligence capabilities.

Those at the reins of SS&C Blue Prism would like us to regard it as one big platform delivering digital transformation through “automation first” operations and a unified workforce (bots and humans in harmony) to run critical operations at scale.

SS&C Blue Prism must catch up on housekeeping before it realizes its transformation vision

While that may be the vision (a far from unique one), there is plenty of housekeeping for SS&C Blue Prism to do before everything smells of roses.

For example, the team describes process intelligence, touted as powering the optimization of operations, as “Blue Prism originated.” But let’s be clear—it originated via a partnership with ABBYY Timeline. Contractually, customers experience that partnership as a direct relationship with Blue Prism (now SS&C Blue Prism), but process intelligence’s stated importance and the highly acquisitive nature of SS&C (60+ acquisitions since 1995) mean it is unlikely that ABBYY Timeline will remain the only show in town.

Carry on, current Blue Prism customers—at least in the short term

SS&C assured current Blue Prism customers that it intends to maintain continuity in its deals and relationships. They can expect to hear more from SS&C as it aligns Blue Prism clients with its account management structure applied across the rest of the portfolio. SS&C happily reports that almost all 20,000 customers buy multiple SS&C products or services.

SS&C intends to reach beyond its financial services and health heartlands to access Blue Prism customers in 70 industries. The bonus for the Blue Prism product is a stronger footprint in North America and many other regions. SS&C boasts 100 offices worldwide.

The roadmap focuses on “no code,” managing a “unified workforce,” and merging IDP capabilities

The SS&C Blue Prism roadmap promises a new no-code app development product this quarter, a no-code database, and a library of no-code connectors to follow by the end of this year, and investments in orchestration for RPA–BPM integration and “unified workforce” management by year end.

The business hopes that one merged area in which 2+2 might = 5 is intelligent document processing (IDP). SS&C Blue Prism argues that SS&C’s Chorus supports low-quality documents (such as faxes) and handwriting. Combined with Blue Prism’s Decipher capabilities in semi-structured and unstructured data and its wide range of available languages, it has the opportunity to deliver a well-rounded major player to the IDP market. However, merging Chorus and Decipher capabilities is not even on the roadmap until Q4 this year.

SS&C Blue Prism Desktop has just been launched, too – targeted at reducing governance and security risks when executing desktop processes.

The Bottom Line: SS&C must deliver many investments and integrations before we see transformative benefits from this deal.

SS&C says it bought Blue Prism for $1.65 billion because it offered transformative technology that it could apply across its whole customer base. But SS&C Blue Prism’s combined ability to transform relies on a range of investments and integrations that are nothing more than plans right now. We are keen to see the ambitions made real, but we must reserve judgment until it implements the roadmap and presents evidence of customer benefit. Waxing slightly optimistic, we think SS&C clients stand to benefit from its latest acquisition. This marriage has the potential to drive Blue Prism farther and wider than it would have ever achieved on its own. UiPath and Automation Anywhere should take note—expanding within clients is how you scale, not simply collecting as many as you can.