What does SS&C Blue Prism do?
Blue Prism is a tool used primarily to automate back office functions that would otherwise have to be completed by a human. Blue Prism can be used to create a ‘digital workforce’ that follows rule-based business processes to interact with systems and applications in exactly the same way as human users would. It is generally used to automate clerical and administrative tasks.
What does this look like?
SS&C Blue Prism can be used for almost any task. Existing customer deployments cover a range of use cases including:
- Automating manual customer service actions
- Handling General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) information access requests
- Building back office transaction frameworks
- Fixing quantity mismatches in planning software like SAP
- Data entry, processing and transfer operations
Built on the Microsoft .NET Framework, SS&C Blue Prism automates any application and supports any platform – including legacy mainframes and web-based SaaS services.
SS&C Blue Prism coined the phrase robotic process automation (RPA) to describe this capability. And the system is widely recognised as a pioneer in the field of RPA.
Is the Blue Prism framework free?
No, SS&C Blue Prism is proprietary software. It can be purchased outright or as a Software as a Service (SaaS) subscription according to your company’s needs and preferences.
How difficult is Blue Prism to learn?
SS&C is code-free, allowing non-programmers to begin building and deploying their own Automation – the Blue Prism then performs allocates and executes the ‘digital workers’ required to complete it. According to SS&C, building a new automation is a simple, three-stage process:
- Modelling – Building an object by telling Blue Prism about an application you want it to use. This is as simple as showing Blue Prism the application and clicking on the various fields, buttons, etc. The object can then recognise user interface elements such as the ‘Login’ button..
- Initiating – This is the second stage of building an object. Use the drag-and-drop editor to build a workflow diagram for each elementary, reusable activity you want to carry out in the application, such as completing the ‘logging in’ action with the ‘Login’ button.
- Assembling – Use the same drag-and-drop approach to build the process. Workflow steps can be calculations, decisions, logic activities, or a command to use an action from an object, eg. trigger the ‘Export Website Report’ process using the action ‘Logging in’.
These steps can all be completed without any coding or other technical skills – you simply model the task you want to automate SS&C Blue Prism offers a Center of Excellence and a BP University to deliver training, certifications and exams if required by your organisation.
What are the key features and capabilities of Blue Prism?
- Accelerate common tasks by deploying as many ‘robots’ as required. This allows your business to redeploy or reduce your workforce wherever required.
- Can be used with any application via its user interface. By mimicking a real user, this approach negates the need for APIs and custom development.
- Automate human-like decisions with ML, increasing autonomy and further accelerating operations.
- Automated process capture allows you to build processes as you work for rapid prototyping.
- Document automation to quickly and reliably extract information from documents for capture and re-use in other systems.
- SAP automations to improve data quality and accuracy within your SAP system and to accelerate automations by up to 90%.
- Combine RPA and BPM in one tool to simplify business process automation and improve end-to-end operations.
- Digital Exchange offers pre-built workflows and automations to enable even faster time to deployment and reduce initial overheads.
- Generative AI connector to deliver high quality notes, documents and annotations as part of your processes.
Who uses SS&C Blue Prism?
Notable users of Blue Prism include:
- Coca Cola
- Boeing
- Johnson & Johnson
- Du Pont
- Ericsson
- Telefonica
- Pfizer
- Sony
- Walgreens
- National Health Service (NHS)
- BNP Paribas
- EDF
The toolset is popular across a range of industry verticals including:
- Finance and Accounting
- Human Resources
- Logistics Management
- Healthcare
- Aerospace
- Telecoms
How can I learn more?
This article and infographic are part of a larger series centred around the technologies and themes identified in the edition of the TechRadar by Devoteam. To learn more about SS&C Blue Prism and other technologies you need to know about, please explore the TechRadar by Devoteam.
