SAP announces that it is taking over Contextor SAS. This party has Robotic Process Automation knowledge, a technology in which software robots are used to take over repetitive tasks. SAP will use this specialism for its Leonardo AI engine, of which RPA is also a part.
Contextor knows how to appeal to a niche with its RPA. This is done by building solutions that are compatible with Microsoft’s Remote Desktop setups, XenDesktop workstations and XenApp application servers. In addition to boosting Leonardo, the technology should simplify the interface interactions of its software with third-party applications and environments.
Aiming around RPA
SAP recently announced that it would be investing heavily in RPA in order to automate repetitive processes in its portfolio. Intelligent RPA capabilities will appear in S/4HANA in the first half of 2019, followed by other SAP applications.
The German company wants to use Contextor’s technology to add to this. The aim is that in three years’ time at least half of all processes in the ERP software will be automated. According to SAP, companies need a lot of automation to become an intelligent enterprise.
Unknown price
It is not known what SAP pays for Contextor SAS. The ERP giant does indicate that its customers use more than 100,000 Contextor bots to automate their business processes. This is a remarkable statistic, as investments in the company have so far been limited to an early investment round of $680,000 (€593,000).
Other RPA specialists are also in the news this month. They make millions in acquisitions. For example, UiPath received a $265 million investment last week, while Automation Anywhere raised $300 million in the same week. However, these parties are larger than Contextor SAS.
The step follows shortly after a major takeover of SAP. Last week, for example, it was announced that the ERP giant is taking over Qualtrics, a creator of survey software, for 8 billion dollars.
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.