13/04/2021
On August 21, Kodak Alaris announced a global alliance with UiPath which will allow each company’s channel partners and customers to leverage the other’s software and solutions. At the same time, the companies introduced the Alaris Capture Pro to UiPath Orchestrator Connector, which provides a connection between UiPath bots and images from Kodak scanners.
DIR sat down with Alaris division of Kodak Alaris’ Vanilda Grando, Director Global Sales Development, and Sue Rodeman, Global Marketing Director.
Grando notes that Kodak Alaris decided to work with UiPath because “we always look to go with complementary solutions and they already had a good relationship with UiPath.” The companies also complement each other in vertical markets and can help each other to expand geographically. It does boil down to the customer, says Grando, “with the large increases in automation requirements, together we can provide a really good automation experience for common customers as well as find new ones together.”
The companies are both strong in government and financial services – and are seeing higher than usual demand in both the logistics and healthcare industries. Grando also noted call centers are increasingly looking for automation.
Rodeman picks up on the complementary nature of the companies and target markets, “I think the real reason those are so important is that they are industries where investing in automation and digital transformation is critical for them to be able to grow and be agile. Both UiPath and us focus much of our energy on this strategic imperative and for these industries.”
Much like everyone else, both Rodeman and Grando see growth opportunities for this industry from the pandemic. There are huge areas of needs for automation for processes like unemployment, job applications, etc. Says Rodeman, “We've definitely seen some increased demand, auto loans and small business loans are two examples. Our solutions play very well in pockets of industry where we traditionally have a good presence and we’ve seen increased demand.”
One of the reasons Kodak was comfortable with UiPath is the mutual focus on the customer. Grando pointed out that the companies are sharing experiences and knowledge with each other as they work with customers to generate demand and understand customer needs. They are working together to identify new opportunities, especially for customers that really need to stop paper processes.
Image quality is always crucial in any automation effort. Both Grando and Rodeman emphasized that this is a great thing about this collaboration as it plays to the strength of both companies -- superior image capture quality from Alaris and top-notch RPA from UiPath. When asked how they are trying to get the esoteric idea of information quality across to end users, they pointed out that Kodak Alaris and UiPath have been jointly working on webinars and other marketing efforts.
To illustrate the importance of image capture quality – an Alaris Perfect Page Technology strength – they shared an example of poor image quality of a customer name “Bob.” If the original capture of the customer form is poor and the “B” is read as an “8”, this quickly proliferates across different apps. When Bob calls in to ask a question about an invoice, customer service reps can’t find his account and Bob isn’t happy.
It’s an over-simplified example, but one they both said does a good job of quickly getting the point across that clean, accurate document capture is essential to the start of RPA.
Grando noted joint opportunities around the world, such as Mexico and Chile in South/Central America and Southeast Asia as well as early stage efforts in Europe.
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