Blue Prism, a provider of robotic process automation (RPA) solutions, has been acquired by Vista Equity Partners, the venture capital firm that also owns TIBCO Software. Once that transaction is completed Blue Prism will become part of TIBCO, which is bringing together all the platforms required to drive digital business transformation initiatives under a single roof as part of an effort to reduce costs.
TIBCO, during TIBCO NOW 2021 online conference, also revealed it has expanded its existing portfolio to data analytics and integration platforms to include a TIBCO Spotfire Mods framework that makes it easier to create visualizations for its Spotfire analytics tool.
There is also now a Spotfire Data Functions capability that extends the Mods framework that integrates Spotfire with other data sources. TIBCO is also promising to integrate Spotfire with TIBCO ModelOps, a no-code tool it provides for building models that infuse processes with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.
Meanwhile, the TIBCO WebFOCUS business intelligence (BI) tool can now be deployed as a containerized application. The company is also making available an instance of TIBCO WebFocus available as a managed service through which it manages the BI application on behalf of customers. There are also now enhanced authoring and assembly capabilities such as filtering, styling, reporting, and app development that end users can employ to augment data preparation, content creation, and collaboration.
Adding Data Sources
TIBCO is also adding support for additional data sources such as Spofire, Apache Spark, and AutoML frameworks along with integration with TIBCO Data Virtualization to the TIBCO Data Science platform in addition to adding a Dynamic Learning capability to the TIBCO Streaming platform that enable real-time analytics.
The TIBCO Data Virtualization platform, now part of the TIBCO Data Quality (DQ) series of offerings, has been updated to add a search capability to its catalog along with making available low-code tools to data engineers. TIBCO EBX master data management platform, part of the same family of tools, now also supports low-code scripting, simplified configuration, smart match and merge of data processes, and integration with additional application programming interfaces (APIs).
The company has also updated TIBCO Cloud to add lifecycle management capabilities for APIs enabled by its Mashery platform, support for messages sent from platforms such as Apache Kafka and Apache Pulsar, and additional automated workflows.
Finally, TIBCO has added additional projects to a TIBCO LABS initiative through which it collaboratively develops intellectual property with partners and customers. TIBCO Cloud Discover is a process mining tool that will become part of TIBCO Cloud, while TIBCO Cloud Composer is a rapid application development platform. There’s also TIBCO LABS Gallery, a portal for accessing these projects.
Also read: Top Data Science Tools 2021
Driving Digital Transformation
The overall goal is to make it easier for organizations to drive digital transformation initiatives using platforms that are provided by a single vendor, says TIBCO COO Matt Quinn. Rather than having to navigate multiple silos, Quinn notes that as digital transformation continues to gain momentum there will be more convergence across disparate IT platforms that today are typically acquired and managed in isolation from one another.
At present, that level of complexity tends to provide larger organizations with a strategic advantage because they have the expertise required to master all the platforms needed to digitally transform a process, adds Quinn. However, as more technologies start to converge it should become easier for small companies to take advantage of the same capabilities, he notes. “There is still a digital divide,” says Quinn.
It may be a while before that digital divide is bridged. However, once it is, many larger companies may soon find themselves competing with smaller agile companies that can employ the same rich mix of platforms to compete more aggressively than ever.
