A robot for every person. This was the UiPath Together in Munich
The two days at UiPath Together in beautiful Munich were truly memorable. We were fortunate enough to attend the highly anticipated conference on Monday and Tuesday (June 24th and 25th, 2019).
Monday, June 24: Partner Day
Monday was dedicated entirely to the UiPath partners. We enjoyed some extremely engaging presentations about the UiPath ecosystem. Before these presentations began, we focused on the Academy Live session, where we automated our first process – it was very simple (but also very well-guided and prepared)! The Academy experts were helpful and took plenty of time for each participant.
We built two variations of the automated process and became familiar with a good variety of UiPath "Activities"—Activities are elements that can be used to automate process steps. An example of an Activity is the "Screen Scraper," which reads elements from a website and then saves them to a target format (Excel being an example).
The first variation of the process involved reading an Excel file; the robot transferred the data from the Excel file into a web form – and all within seconds! The second variation was more or less the same process, just in the opposite direction: transferring data from a web form into an Excel file – super simple!
Overall, we both had a very good impression of the Academy Live Session (13:00 – 16:30) and were equally impressed by the helpfulness of the UiPath experts.
After a half-hour break, the UiPath team gave us very well-coordinated and impressive presentations. Jan Ursi, Vice President Partnerships, introduced us to the UiPath community with a very apt analogy and then handed the floor to Walter Obermaier, Vice President Sales Central Europe.
Walter presented the incremental stages of automation to us in manageable detail. Before Bobby Patrick, VP of Marketing, took the floor, Walter used a simple calculation example to illustrate UiPath's strategy in relation to its partners – the numbers speak for themselves!
Bobby Patrick presented the different types of human-robot interaction – in our opinion, probably the most important slide of the entire conference. It clearly illustrates how UiPath envisions human-robot collaboration. Following Bobby was Diego Lomanto, VP of Product Marketing. Mr. Lomanto showed us the UiPath product roadmap, and we're already looking forward to the next major release in October 2019!
Finally, Mike Giesler, Technology Alliances, and Boris Krumrey, VP Global Automation Solutions, reported on the different types of partnerships and Immersion Labs respectively.
Conclusion Monday
We absorbed a wealth of information from the very first day and experienced a highly engaged and welcoming partner community. The relaxed and friendly atmosphere of the conference was contagious, and we were eager to learn even more after the first day. Following a packed day, which included a pleasant journey by Flixbus, we enjoyed a delicious dinner on the hotel's sunny terrace, where we engaged in lively discussions with the community.
Tuesday, June 25: Together!
The second day was entirely dedicated to the community. The event began with a relaxed networking session, where participants could, among other things, chat again with the people from the Partner Day. The program then started at 10 a.m., with Walter Obermaier kicking off the day with a short opening speech.
Following this, Bobby Patrick (Marketing) provided further fascinating insights into the world of RPA, focusing on several research papers from Gartner and Forrester. While we had already seen some of Bobby's slides the previous day at the Partner Day, we still found it exciting to experience them again on the "big stage.".
Immediately after Bobby's presentation, Walter Obermaier used an insurance example to further illustrate how RPA can be implemented. The message, packaged in a very vivid story with a charming Bavarian touch, is that RPA doesn't eliminate jobs, but rather eliminates mundane, repetitive tasks with the help of robots. A very clear and simple case study, which, however, certainly presents some challenges at the process and systems engineering levels.
Before the lunch break, UiPath invited three customers to the stage, followed by a panel discussion after their presentations. The three customer implementations were all very compelling, demonstrating that they go beyond simple process automation and encompass much more (e.g., virtual person-days and governance around robots). The customers come from the retail, parcel, mail, and technology sectors. There was also time before lunch for a panel discussion with UiPath's business partners.
After lunch, we explored the numerous information booths and exchanged ideas with colleagues from various departments. Business and technology partners were represented. We had some fascinating conversations and were able to watch several live demos showcasing robots in combination with a BPM engine (from two different manufacturers). The afternoon presentations focused on RPA combined with AI, Immersion Labs, and UiPath Go (and MyGo).
What are we taking with us?
Overall, the two days were very insightful and provided an excellent platform for lively discussions on RPA, BPM, virtual resources, cross-industry challenges of digitalization, and much more! Thanks to the presentations, information from the partner day, and the discussions, we are confident we have plenty of resources in our RPA toolkit and look forward to an exciting journey ahead!
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