Lexmark's Kofax Kapow 10 Focuses on Robotic Process Automation

Lexington, Ky.-based Lexmark upgraded its Kofax Kapow robotic process automation (RPA) and integration platform to address customer demand for more options to automate routine activities at scale.

Kofax Kapow 10 increases the number of software robots available to enterprises to automate digital processes. Robots can now be designed to automate legacy mainframe application tasks directly. They can also interact with business applications including applications Windows and Java, as well as common enterprise applications from Oracle and SAP.

Understanding RPA

RPA enables companies to leave mundane, repetitive tasks to software robots and free workers to focus on higher value goals. According to the Institute for Robotic Process Automation, companies can boost their capabilities and save both time and money with RPA software.

Kapow robots automate the acquisition, transformation and processing of information from websites, portals, internal systems, including enterprise software and desktop applications, and a number of other information sources without coding.

Russ Gould, senior director of product marketing at Kofax, told CMSWire Kapow 10 can help companies accomplish digital transformation goals. The software addresses enables them to integrate external and internal information from legacy systems, business applications and external data from web sites and portals.

The upgrade is a response to rapid increases in the volume and variety of information sources in recent years, along with a growth in the number of scattered enterprise data repositories.

“RPA has gained a lot of momentum in the past 18 months. Over the past six months in particular the buzz in the marketplace has really accelerated. RPA started gaining traction in banking and financial services, where organizations traditionally relied on outsourcing back office operations. Now those companies are using intelligent software robots to maximize knowledge worker productivity,” Gould said.

Companies are deploying RPA for competitive advantage to attract and retain employees, he said, adding, “By using robots to perform mundane tasks, people are freed up to do higher quality work.”

Kofax Kapow 10

Kofax Kapow 10’s robots address the wider drive by enterprises to transform their work processes and boost efficiency.

“Digital transformation is at the top of most Fortune 500 corporate strategies today. They insist that a digital business strategy drives customer experience, streamlines operations and reduces costs — and they want it to impact the business immediately, not several years from now,” Gould said.

Gould denied that the move into RPA represents a change in direction for Kofax, calling it instead a continuation of its strategy.

Organizations are using the technology to improve the First Mile of engagement — the initial information-intensive interactions an individual has with an organization that can often be time consuming, manual and error prone. “We believe RPA is digital transformation’s secret weapon,” he said.

While this release is focused on Kapow, RPA is like to become a bigger part of the Lexmark business moving forward.

“We are unique from an RPA competitive position in terms of the technologies we can offer to the marketplace. You can expect to see more solutions and innovative use case scenarios,” Gould added.