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Blue Prism Group PLC and the rise of the software robot

Published: 08:38 18 Mar 2016 GMT

Blue Prism Group PLC - ‘I have a robot to replace you’
The company has developed software robots that will complete mundane clerical tasks.

Blue Prism Group PLC (LON:PRSM), which made a premium debut on AIM earlier, has joined the junior market with the ambition of creating a ‘big British’ software champion, according to chief executive Alastair Bathgate.

That’s a bold statement of intent, but one that Bathgate reckons is eminently achievable following a listing that values the business at £48.5mln and brought in £10mln of new funds.

The cash will be used to bankroll a major sales and marketing push of its world-leading robotic process automation (RPA).

Robotic process automation is to the clerical function what automation was to the car manufacturers in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

'The robots are coming!' - to learn more about RPA click here.

But instead of relying on physical robots, Blue Prism’s customers receive help from software robots in completing mundane, routine tasks.

The software robot can be trained to do simple tasks, typically those that would be mind-numbingly dull and repetitive to employees, enabling them to concentrate on more interesting, value-adding parts of their job.

The results can be game changing for any business that relies heavily on an army of clerical workers.

So, for example, reporting a lost or stolen credit card requires on average 25 minutes of paperwork. The software robot solution would see the task completed in a fraction of that time.

The applications of Blue Prism’s artificial intelligence are manifold. Mobile phone companies, insurers, banks: they are all potential users of these robots.

And in fact Barclays and the Co-Op Bank already use the services of Blue Prism, which was founded by Bathgate and chief technology officer David Moss, as does O2.

In all, it has 74 customers that helped it generate revenues of £6.1mln last year.

With their robots, Bathgate and Moss are simply applying the rigour that has been integral to manufacturing for years now.

“I went to work for Bradford & Bingley in the late 80s and saw clerical process were not mapped or automated or very efficient,” explained Bathgate.

“What’s more nobody seemed to care. In manufacturing if you could notch it up one widget per thousand in quality it was a really big deal.”

 

Bathgate admits it is possible to reverse engineer the technology. What rivals can’t do is replicate the live testing Blue Prism has carried out over four years, with the Company’s robots having been stress tested in real-world environments so they don’t fall over.

“What they [the competition] don’t have is experiential testing that gives a robust product,” said Bathgate.

The company, based in Newton-le-Willows, in Merseyside, received start-up funding from the Liverpool Seed Fund and the Rising Stars Growth Fund.

The former is exiting, while the latter is sticking with the publicly-quoted Blue Prism.

A number of other big funds have come aboard as part of a share issue that was comfortably covered.

Management and directors, meanwhile, will retain around a third of the company – which means they have plenty of skin in the game.

The Luddites out there will say that progress and technology of this kind will ultimately cost jobs.

But actually the real world experience has been different. “I don’t think I can point to a single P45 that has been generated as the result of a robot going in,” said Bathgate.

“Of course, you don’t get hands going up when you say ‘I have a robot to replace you’.

“But if you go into a business and say, ‘I have some new interns for you. They are called Henry and Poppy, as our customer Xchanging said, and they are here to do the menial chores that would allow you to do something more important’, then suddenly they [the robots] are there to help rather than take over.”

Bathgate admits there has been interest in the business as Blue Prism has developed the technology and the client base and prepared to float.

But he, Moss and the rest of the team are ambitious and are in this for the long haul.

“We are not here to solicit acquisition interest, but to build a big British software company,” he said.

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