Research Note: NICE, RPA
Corporate Overview
NICE, founded in 1986 by Benny Levin and Arie Shen, is a global technology company headquartered in Ra'anana, Israel. The company provides software solutions that enable organizations to improve customer experience, ensure compliance, fight financial crime, and safeguard people and assets. NICE's mission is to empower organizations to provide an exceptional customer experience while ensuring compliance and improving business results. Barak Eilam has been serving as the CEO of NICE since 2014, leading the company's growth and expansion in the RPA market through the acquisition of Automation Anywhere in 2020.
Product Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
NICE's RPA platform, NICE RPA, combines the strengths of its customer experience solutions with the robotic process automation capabilities acquired through Automation Anywhere. The platform offers a user-friendly interface, advanced AI and ML capabilities, and seamless integration with NICE's CXone cloud customer experience platform. NICE RPA's attended automation features allow for close collaboration between human workers and robots, enhancing productivity and efficiency in contact center environments.
In our 12-component assessment, NICE RPA performed well across various aspects of the RPA space. The company achieved high scores in core RPA software (8/10), AI and machine learning integration (9/10), orchestration and management (8/10), security and governance (9/10), intelligent document processing (8/10), and attended automation (9/10). NICE RPA also demonstrated strong capabilities in analytics and reporting (8/10), cloud-based RPA (8/10), and integration with other NICE products (8/10).
Component Assessment:
Core RPA Software: 8/10
AI and Machine Learning Integration: 9/10
Process and Task Mining: 7/10
Orchestration and Management: 8/10
Low-Code/No-Code Development: 7/10
Analytics and Reporting: 8/10
Cloud-Based RPA: 8/10
Industry-Specific Solutions: 8/10
Security and Governance: 9/10
Integration Capabilities: 8/10
Intelligent Document Processing: 8/10
Attended Automation: 9/10
Total Score: 97/120
Weaknesses
While NICE RPA offers strong capabilities in attended automation and integration with customer experience solutions, its low-code/no-code development features may not be as advanced as some competitors. The platform's process and task mining capabilities (7/10) could also be improved to help organizations identify more automation opportunities. Some users have reported challenges with the complexity of the platform, particularly when integrating with third-party applications outside of the NICE ecosystem.
Bottom Line
NICE RPA is a solid choice for organizations looking to combine robotic process automation with customer experience solutions. The platform's strength in attended automation and AI-powered features make it well-suited for contact center and customer service environments. While NICE RPA may have room for improvement in certain areas, such as low-code development and process mining, its overall performance in the 12-component assessment is commendable, with a total score of 97/120. As NICE continues to integrate and enhance the capabilities acquired through Automation Anywhere, the company is well-positioned to help organizations drive efficiency, compliance, and customer satisfaction through automation.