Between the systems of Market Segments 10.1 and 10.2 sit the people who move work between them:
- the clerk who copies an invoice from an email into the ERP
- the analyst who checks an insurance claim against three different screens
- the manager who approves a request by forwarding an email
Take the fan maker in Coimbatore from Market Segment 10.1, ERP and business accounting software. Its accounts clerk receives 300 supplier invoices a week by email. For each one, the clerk opens the PDF, types the amount and the supplier into the ERP, and forwards it to a manager for approval.
This Market Segment is about the companies that turn that kind of work into software. Their buyers are companies' IT and operations teams. The industry has come at the problem from three directions:
The robot at the keyboard: software that watches what a person does on screen, and then does it instead. The market called this robotic process automation, or RPA.
Seeing the process: tools that read a company's systems and screens to find out how work actually flows, and where it gets stuck, before anyone automates it.
The platform for the process: the older and larger business of building the workflow itself, such as the case, the approval and the application, with as little code as possible.
This Market Segment runs in that order, from the robot to the platform.
This is one of the larger Market Segments in the collection, and one of the most Indian:
- Two of its companies, Skan AI and Soroco, are Indian-founded pioneers of process mining.
- EdgeVerve is the product arm of Infosys.
- Newgen Software is India's oldest workflow company.
- The Chennai centre of Appian, the largest low-code company, has a fifth of this Market Segment's job postings.
Every company named here has posted software engineering jobs in India. Famous companies that don't actively hire software engineers in India are left out.
The robot at the keyboard
Robotic process automation, natural-language automation
Back to the fan maker's accounts clerk from the start of this Market Segment. An RPA robot logs into the same email and the same ERP the clerk uses. It clicks the same buttons and copies the same fields. So a process nobody could afford to redesign can be automated exactly as it stands. This idea is what made the market.
UiPathwith engineers in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, is the company that led RPA. It is the largest company in the world that sells only automation. Its Bengaluru centre is one of its main engineering sites. Its product has grown from the robot into reading documents, process mining and, now, AI agents.
Automation Anywherewith engineers in Bengaluru, is its founding rival. It was started by engineers of Indian origin, and for a long time was run in large part from Bengaluru.
EdgeVervethe product company owned by Infosys, has engineers across Bengaluru and Chennai. Its AssistEdge automation platform and its document-reading products are Infosys's attempt at a product business in this category. (More on Infosys in the services-world collection.)
Kognitoswith engineers in Bengaluru, is the newest idea in this sub-segment. Its automation is written in plain English and run by an AI model. So the robot is told what to do, not programmed.
From the robot to the agent.
The robot copied fields. An AI agent reads the email, works out what the request is, and acts across the systems. UiPath, Automation Anywhere and Kognitos have all rebuilt their products around agents. The word "robotic" is quietly disappearing from the name of this category.
Seeing the process
Process mining, task mining, process intelligence
Back to the fan maker from the start of this Market Segment. Before a process can be automated, someone has to know how it really runs, which is rarely how the manual says. Perhaps invoices wait nine days for approval, because one manager is always travelling. The companies in this sub-segment find that out, in two ways:
Process miningreads the event logs of a company's systems: the time stamps that every order and invoice leaves behind. From them, it rebuilds how the work actually flowed, with its loops, delays and exceptions.
Task miningwatches the screens instead of the logs, to see how work is done at each desk.
Process mining reads the time stamps in the systems and task mining watches the screens, and together they show the process as it really runs, such as invoices waiting nine days at an approval that the manual says takes one.
Celoniswith engineers in Bengaluru, created process mining as a market. It shows a company where money is leaking out of its processes. Its Bengaluru centre is one of its largest.
Skan AIwith engineers in Bengaluru and the second most job postings in this Market Segment, is the Indian-founded company that took the other route. Its computer vision watches how work is done at the desk, and builds the process from what it sees.
Sorocofounded in Bengaluru, with engineers there, was the pioneer of that approach, task mining. It sells the "work graph" that results: a map of how work actually moves between people and applications.
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The platform for the process
Business process management, case management, low-code and no-code application platforms
Back to the fan maker from the start of this Market Segment. Its finance head wants a proper approval app for invoices, with a deadline for each step and a warning when one is missed. The IT team cannot build it in time. The companies in this sub-segment sell the platform on which such an app is built. This is the oldest and largest business in this Market Segment. The terms:
Business process management and case managementsoftware for a piece of work, called a case, that moves from intake to decision, such as a loan application or an insurance claim.
Low-codea platform on which apps are built mostly by dragging and configuring, with a little code.
No-codethe same, with no code at all, for people who are not programmers.
Appianwith engineers in Chennai and the most job postings in this Market Segment, sells the low-code platform on which large companies and governments build their case management. Its Chennai centre is its largest outside its headquarters.
Pegasystemswith engineers in Hyderabad and Bengaluru, is the older rival. Its rules engine and case platform run inside banks and insurers. It has rebuilt its product around what it calls the autonomous enterprise.
Newgen Softwarefrom Noida, with job postings in Delhi, Pune and Mumbai, is India's own workflow and content-management company. For three decades it has run the document flows of banks across India, the Middle East and Africa, including loan origination: taking a loan from application to approval.
OutSystemswith engineers in Bengaluru, is the largest of the low-code companies for large enterprises.
ToolJetis an Indian open-source low-code platform, with teams in Bengaluru and Delhi. It is the version for developers.
OutSystems and ToolJet also appear in Market Segment 6.1, DevOps and CI/CD tools (in Industry Vertical 6, Devtools companies). That is where the app built without code meets the app built with it.
Three small Bengaluru companies serve the no-code end:
Modlix and Clappiasell platforms on which a non-programmer builds a business app from forms and rules.
Wooqersells workflow for the shop floor of retail chains: the checklists, audits and tasks a store manager runs each day.
Some well-known names are not here:
- Microsoft, with its Power Platform, is covered elsewhere. (More on it in Microsoft, in the big-tech collection.)
- ServiceNow's platform does the same job for IT, and more and more for everything else. (More on it in Market Segment 16.1, IT service management (ITSM) and IT operations software, in Industry Vertical 16, IT management and workplace tools.)
- Mendix, Kissflow, Retool, Airtable, Camunda and Nintex are not covered in this Market Segment.
So the fan maker's invoices from the start of this Market Segment can be handled three ways. A robot can copy them into the ERP. Process mining can show where they get stuck. And a low-code platform can turn the approval into a proper app.
The fan maker's invoices can be handled three ways: a robot copies them into the ERP, process mining shows where they get stuck, and a low-code platform turns the approval into a proper app.