#Citizen Developers

[jcmarchi]

The rise of intelligent automation as a strategic differentiator - AI News

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/the-rise-of-intelligent-automation-as-a-strategic-differentiator-ai-news/

The rise of intelligent automation as a strategic differentiator - AI News

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Intelligent automation (IA) technologies are graduating from being operational to highly strategic. In terms of the bottom line, it’s even more impressive.

A study from SS&C Blue Prism, conducted by Forrester Consulting and published in April, put together a composite organisation representative of five customers interviewed. The conclusion was that, over three years, there were key gains in IA from greater productivity to compliance cost avoidance, to improved employee experience and retention. This represented an overall net present value of $53.4 million (£42.5m) per customer.

Yet this may just be the tip of the iceberg. Dan Segura, enterprise sales manager at SS&C Blue Prism, notes one healthcare client who, in what is described as a conservative estimate, delivered savings of more than $140m overall on cost avoidance and recoup. Another healthcare client delivered a use case with a claimed $43m benefit on its own; a bot which recouped overtime pay for nurses and staff during the pandemic.

“They built it in an afternoon,” Segura explains. “It’s a perfect example of being in the right place at the right time; and having the right skills and technology being ready.”

Many of the technologies which comprise intelligent automation have been around for a long time, such as classic RPA (robotic process automation) or OCR (optical character recognition). SS&C Blue Prism’s document automation, which forms part of the latter, is described as a ‘game-changer’ by Segura. “There’s a lot of these processes, whether it’s going to be executed by a robot or a human,” he says. “First things first, we’ve got to get data off documents.

“Automation is not just doing simple tasks anymore thanks to the introduction of AI and generative AI” he adds. “There’s now more understanding, whether it’s assessing information from documents, information from a message, structuring things that are semi-structured or unstructured, to drive the process or complete the process.”

Segura describes wider business process management (BPM) and process orchestration tool Chorus, meanwhile, as ‘one of the world’s best kept secrets.’ Or, at least, it was; in November analyst Everest Group named the tool as a leader and star performer in its Process Orchestration Products PEAK Matrix.

The tool is now getting leverage outside the traditional finance and insurance fields. “It is how millions and millions of transactions and pieces of work are getting done every day,” says Segura. “We’re now seeing adoption [elsewhere] alongside automation to orchestrate their work and give them that end-to-end work orchestration, visibility, and efficiency gains with whatever they have going on.”

So how does a use case come to life? It is often a mixture of inspiration and perspiration. Where SS&C Blue Prism comes in is to ‘help customers catch lightning’, as Segura puts it. “We’ve all been in that situation where it’s like ‘oh if I were running this place, here’s what I would do’,” he says. “Intelligent automation gives you the opportunity to reimagine your processes and transform how you get work done. Once that light switch turns on, and the initial use case is built, that’s really the secret sauce of SS&C Blue Prism; it’s that realisation and awareness of what intelligent automation can deliver.

“We’re always learning from our customers,” adds Segura. “It’s at their direction because they know their business and processes better than anybody. Combine their business expertise with the transformational power of intelligent automation and its digital workforce, then that’s where the magic happens.”

Any organisation, argues Segura, regardless of the industry, has change agents and citizen builders in waiting. Don’t think that’s a misnomer; the term is definitely ‘builder’.

“I hear about these citizen developer programmes, and they’ll say, ‘here we have 500, 1000 citizen developers.’ What I don’t hear is, ‘and with this army of citizen developers we’ve achieved this’,” says Segura. “Whereas I have customers where two people have basically become citizen builders with more of a robust type of approach.” The $43m healthcare single use case is a case in point. “It is the whole mantra of SS&C Blue Prism,” adds Segura. “We’re designed to go after those higher value chain automations that can have a tangible impact on some of the company’s key objectives.”

So, you have the idea, the value proposition, and the capability to build it out. How do you make it stick?  Every organisation is different; though if your company has a continuous process improvement department then that can be a good place to start. Segura likens it to offshoring processes. “You don’t just wave it goodbye and never think about it again,” he explains. “At the end of the day, it still has to function.

“You’re not just ‘digital-shoring’ [automation] and it will essentially be taken care of by digital. Someone has to continuously improve the process; someone has to mind when something changes with the business rules or regulatory compliance; somebody has to be responsible for making sure that those changes are kept up in an agile way.”

SS&C Blue Prism has a longstanding, large US retail customer that combines that lightning capture with the right internal culture around automation. This is a company that has 72,000 employees, as well as 60 ‘digital workers’ executing more than 150 automations. One such automation, through using OCR technology, lets the company automate the processing of inbound customer orders received by digital fax.

The overall result is 6.2 million transactions processed to date, and 250,000 hours of work returned to the business. But there is one extra ingredient required, particularly for a big company: discipline.

“It took them a while to get to that point in maturity,” explains Segura. “They do have a very central function when it comes to the intelligent automation team, [but] keep in mind one of those processes is in supply chain. That process is regularly reviewing 4.2 million purchase orders; it’s minding 50 million inventory case volume; it’s going through two million SKUs for 8000 suppliers.

“This is highly iterative, but it’s that process of having that lightning rod to capture the requirements and give people who are not necessarily technical a platform and a methodology to iterate very closely with the intelligent automation team,” adds Segura.

Think of what SS&C Blue Prism does therefore as providing a superhero cape for those who don’t otherwise get the chance to step into the limelight. It is a message the company will look to broadcast at the Intelligent Automation event in Santa Clara on 5-6 June.

“SS&C Blue Prism opens up that door to enable your citizen builders really make an impact and deliver strategic benefits to the company,” says Segura. “You’re not just playing with a pilot, not just fooling around with something; you’re really getting into the strategic objectives of the company.”

Photo by Tara Winstead

Want to learn more about AI and big data from industry leaders? Check out AI & Big Data Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. The comprehensive event is co-located with other leading events including Intelligent Automation Conference, BlockX, Digital Transformation Week, and Cyber Security & Cloud Expo.

Tags: ai, artificial intelligence, Blue Prism, IA, intelligent automation

[home-of-renn]

Surprisingly enough, I think Sam and the Addams family would be at odds quite a bit. But Sam wants them to like her, and to some extent, she wants to be like them and fit in with them - which is a very weird first for her. So, she does her best to hold it all in - which is another very weird first. It ends up with her feeling somewhat self-conscious around them. They're more macabre than she is and a hell of a lot more extreme. Sam finds herself not wanting to argue - both for her own sake and Danny's - and for the first time ever, she hesitates over how she expresses her views.

Sam ends up having to reassess how she goes about conveying her beliefs to other people and is forced to take a different approach with the Addamses - one that's less pushy and condescending and actually broaches the topic in a somewhat open-minded manner.

Just imagine the trio getting back from a particularly long stay with the Addams family and the entirety of Amity Park is convinced they've been overshadowed.

Danny's chilled out and still running on the good vibes he picked up from the Addamses and now that inexplicable, foreboding sense of dread that seeps into the room whenever he's present has noticeably reduced.

Tucker, who'd been taken under the gracious wing of Mr Gomez Addams - who just so happened to be the smoothest man Tucker had ever met - had sworn off his creepy attempts at picking up every girl in Casper High. Suddenly he's opening doors in a completely polite and friendly manner, without a single uncalled-for pickup line. He's finally keeping a respectful distance from the girl's changing rooms, and worst of all he managed to make a tasteful joke that actually got a genuine round of laughter from the unsuspecting cheer squad.

Sam had had four separate opportunities to rise up and berate her classmates on various "controversial" topics but chose to remain quiet. And when Paulina had decided to poke the bear and jokingly asked if she was sick, she had replied with a polite, non-sarcastic, measured response that had asserted that she was in perfect health and had gone on to outline her stance in a logical, but firm and almost open-minded series of dot points that she delivered without a single scathing remark about Paulina's recently whitened teeth or 'superficial' personality.

It's safe to say that the entire student body of Casper High had been too afraid to comment on the situation and the Fenton's had been alerted to a code red situation.

[37q]

did yall hear the surgeon general wants social media to have a mental health warnings on them like cigarettes for addiction

[superiorsuicide]

really lost the plot here but How is he going to ‘disprove’ Camus when he firmly believes that the ten commandments are universally applicable + should be law + provide an objective moral code and meaning for everyone. hello??

[july-19th-club]

thing katniss has never heard of and thinks is insane: CPR. dude dude dude what are you doing that for fucking stop that Right Now ... oh wait. keep going actually

thing finnick has never heard of and thinks is insane: 'tapping a tree with a little spigot can make water come out,' im sorry what? water of course comes out of the sky and into nature's big bowl by the beach

[fruitsyrups]

What is it about PB that makes me have so many thoughts about her that are so hard to articulate... all the PB analysis I see is about her morality and stuff which is cool (except when people are WRONG. Hah.) but also I wanna see more analysis of her relationships and stuff. Like, to friends to family to her citizens to marcy (marcy is her own category). Because that's the part I like thinking about the most but I can't put those thinks into words so I want someone else to do it for me. It's bedtime-o-clock I might be a little incoherent

[afterlife-2004]

THE 🔥FLAMES🔥OF DISASTER⁉️⁉️‼️

Here’s a link to the original tweet by @//FurabioOtoMAD on Twitter :D!

They also uploaded the video onto YouTube! XDDDDDDD

Go check it out!

[crunchycrystals]

god i fucking hate the united states of america

[basically-fabulous]

u "don't vote" motherfuckers r stupid as shit

[jcmarchi]

Overcoming the Top Security Challenges of AI-Driven Low-Code/No Code Development

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/overcoming-the-top-security-challenges-of-ai-driven-low-code-no-code-development/

Overcoming the Top Security Challenges of AI-Driven Low-Code/No Code Development

Low-code development platforms have changed the way people create custom business solutions, including apps, workflows, and copilots. These tools empower citizen developers and create a more agile environment for app development. Adding AI to the mix has only enhanced this capability. The fact that there aren’t enough people at an organization that have the skills (and time) to build the number of apps, automations and so on that are needed to drive innovation forward has given rise to the low-code/no-code paradigm. Now, without needing formal technical training, citizen developers can leverage user-friendly platforms and Generative AI to create, innovate and deploy AI-driven solutions.

But how secure is this practice? The reality is that it’s introducing a host of new risks. Here’s the good news: you don’t have to choose between security and the efficiency that business-led innovation provides.

A shift beyond the traditional purview

IT and security teams are used to focusing their efforts on scanning and looking for vulnerabilities written into code. They’ve centered on making sure developers are building secure software, assuring the software is secure and then – once it’s in production – monitoring it for deviations or for anything suspicious after the fact.

With the rise of low code and no code, more people than ever are building applications and using automation to create applications – outside the traditional development process. These are often employees with little to no software development background, and these apps are being created outside of security’s purview.

This creates a situation where IT is no longer building everything for the organization, and the security team lacks visibility. In a large organization, you might get a few hundred apps built in a year through professional development; with low/no code, you could get far more than that. That’s a lot of potential apps that could go unnoticed or unmonitored by security teams.

A wealth of new risks

 Some of the potential security concerns associated with low-code/no-code development include:

Not in IT’s purview – as just mentioned, citizen developers work outside the lines of IT professionals, creating a lack of visibility and shadow app development. Additionally, these tools enable an infinite number of people to create apps and automations quickly, with just a few clicks. That means there’s an untold number of apps being created at breakneck pace by an untold number of people all without IT having the full picture.

No software development lifecycle (SDLC) – Developing software in this way means there’s no SDLC in place, which can lead to inconsistency, confusion and lack of accountability in addition to risk.

Novice developers – These apps are often being built by people with less technical skill and experience, opening the door to mistakes and security threats. They don’t necessarily think about the security or development ramifications in the way that a professional developer or someone with more technical experience would. And if a vulnerability is found in a specific component that is embedded into a large number of apps, it has the potential to be exploited across multiple instances

Bad identity practices – Identity management can also be an issue. If you want to empower a business user to build an application, the number one thing that might stop them is a lack of permissions. Often, this can be circumvented, and what happens is that you might have a user using someone else’s identity. In this case, there is no way to figure out if they’ve done something wrong. If you access something you are not allowed to or you tried to do something malicious, security will come looking for the borrowed user’s identity because there’s no way to distinguish between the two.

No code to scan – This causes a lack of transparency that can hinder troubleshooting, debugging and security analysis, as well as possible compliance and regulatory concerns.

These risks can all contribute to potential data leakage. No matter how an application is built – whether it gets built with drag-and-drop, a text-based prompt, or with code – it has an identity, it has access to data, it can perform operations, and it needs to communicate with users. Data is being moved, often between different places in the organization; this can easily break data boundaries or barriers.

Data privacy and compliance are also at stake. Sensitive data lives within these applications, but it’s being handled by business users who don’t know how (nor even think to) to properly store it. That can lead to a host of additional issues, including compliance violations.

Regaining visibility

As mentioned, one of the big challenges with low/no code is that it’s not under the purview of IT/security, which means data is traversing apps. There’s not always a clear understanding of who is really creating these apps, and there’s an overall lack of visibility into what’s really happening. And not every organization is even fully aware of what’s happening. Or they think citizen development isn’t happening in their organization, but it almost certainly is.

So, how can security leaders gain control and mitigate risk? The first step is to look into the citizen developer initiatives within your organization, find out who (if anyone) is leading these efforts and connect with them. You don’t want these teams to feel penalized or hindered; as a security leader, your goal should be to support their efforts but provide education and guidance on making the process safer.

Security must start with visibility. Key to this is creating an inventory of applications and developing an understanding of who is building what. Having this information will help ensure that if some kind of breach does occur, you’ll be able to trace the steps and figure out what happened.

Establish a framework for what secure development looks like. This includes the necessary policies and technical controls that will ensure users make the right choices. Even professional developers make mistakes when it comes to sensitive data; it’s even harder to control this with business users. But with the right controls in place, you can make it difficult to make a mistake.

Toward more secure low-code/no-code

The traditional process of manual coding has hindered innovation, especially in competitive time-to-market scenarios. With today’s low-code and no code platforms, even people without development experience can create AI-driven solutions. While this has streamlined app development, it can also jeopardize the safety and security of organizations. It doesn’t have to be a choice between citizen development and security, however; security leaders can partner with business users to find a balance for both.

[potahun]

the prostitute house case has genuinely made me cry and feel so much and i love it and im glad they chose a kind ending for it, and i also love qing er and wont even mind if the arranged marriage does happen but also my boy, fang duobing, knowing she's the princess and instantly going back to being so formal and so fucking eager to escape and being so fucking glad when he thought she was gonna "absolve" him from the marriage, god bless

[anduln]

watching a bfa playthrough & i kinda rly loved katherine & jaina's reconciliation & jaina's plotline overall idk

[todayisafridaynight]

I think what anon meant to say is that Mine is the complete opposite of Kiryu, but they have their similarities (both being orphans who became weirdo’s when they grew up) however their paths, the people they surround themselves with, and their worldviews are different.

yeah alright thats fair 😩

[ex-vespidae]

the worst feeling is when you get hyperfixated on something that you KNOW isn't all that good. but you specifically really enjoy the parts that you can see good and POTENTIAL in. and it sucksss because it could be a great thing and it gets to those highs sometimes but its just not consistent.

of course its not the worst thing ever, fandom exists and such and you can enjoy the pros you do like, its just also important to be critical of the media you consume well especially if you want to go into storytelling or a similar field etc.

at least they inspire fans to create and imagine. which is a great thing.

[marshmellowtea]

actually i think it would be funny if damien had a “i can fix them” complex about y.n.

[vespertine-legacy]

My first Tulia let Watcher X go, just because she was my first DS!Agent and most of her choices were driven by being sort of comically evil, but this time around, I am being a little more careful about her choices in terms of her actual motivations (which, to be fair, I didn't really know when I played her the first time around, since all I had in my head for her was tol murder machine hurr durr and then she started simping at Zhorrid)

but anyway

This time she shanked Watcher X. While it was tempting to get Dirt on some folks who had annoyed her, Tulia's loyalty (at the moment, anyway), is primarily to Intelligence and she has a lot of faith in Intelligence as an Agency. 100%, her true loyalty is to herself and to staying alive at all costs, but she did the math on it and decided that the risk that he's a fucking liar far outweighed any possibility of him having good information (especially if his information might lead her to have an Existential Crisis about why she's doing what she's doing).

Also,

He talked to her like he was better than her when, in her mind, he's not, so fuck him.