I’m not sure that when Bruce Springsteen accepted his Grammy for “Born in the USA” in 1984, he predicted that in 2020 an automation company called Kryon would re-write it as “Full Cycle Automation”, but then again 2020’s been a weird year… But props to Kryon for an entertaining Automation Olympics: HFS approves anything emphasizing how smart doesn’t have to mean boring.

Kryon used the event to highlight its Full-Cycle Automation (FCA) approach: HFS observes it’s moving beyond marketing and multiple clients are buying into the Kryon brand of natively integrated process intelligence plus process automation plus analytics and swearing by it. As shown in Exhibit 1, HFS’ research about the COVID-effect on automation investment shows a clear up-swing in process mining and robotic process automation (RPA) with the underlying theme of enhanced ease of use inherent in low-code/no-code platforms.

Exhibit 1. The COVID-effect on automation investments

What are your most important investments in automation?

Sample: 900 executives across Global 2000 enterprises surveyed in (Mar-Jun 2020)

Source: HFS Research in conjunction with KPMG

HFS has been calling on Kryon to add new frontline case studies to its armory in our Top10 assessments of its RPA and process intelligence (HFS’ recent combination of process mining and discovery) capabilities, but also for Kryon to address a list of customer critiques (despite, in general, very strong customer references). Kryon did exactly this at its Automation Olympics: it’s reaching beyond the early-mover advantage of combining discovery and automation and is bringing in analytics and algorithms to go full-Triple-A (HFS’ Automation, Analytics, and artificial intelligence [AI] trifecta).

There are clear signs that Kryon is listening to all feedback for areas to improve.

Despite the irony of Kryon CEO Harel Tayeb following up “RPA discussion is confusing with so many terminologies” with the announcement of “Full-Cycle Automation” we have to give kudos where it’s due: Kryon has clearly addressed some of the less-positive customer feedback we’ve seen in our ongoing conversations with their enterprise clients and partners – and hasn’t gotten complacent due to overall strong performance.

Scalability and flexibility were top-of-mind for some clients we spoke with, and the firm’s executives claimed “unprecedented scalability and flexibility” at the Automation Olympics, as they did in the pre-event launch of Full-Cycle Automation-as-a-Service (FCAaaS) on AWS, alongside faster setup times and on-demand scale-up of automation.

Addressing the technical barriers to the scalability of data collection and processing, Kryon has been invested heavily (for some time) in R&D – specifically on machine learning (ML), advanced algorithms, and data analysis – underpinned by recent partnerships with Software AG and Virtual AI.

“Reducing noise (that increases exponentially) supports scalability. We wanted to treat it as a “Google for [automating] processes” to get [clients] the next process for automation and eliminate noise for users. Multi-layered AI and ML algorithms give us 10-times better noise reduction.”

Shay Antebi, CTO, Kryon

The need for a more simplified interface for new users also came up in our Process Intelligence Top10. One client told us it wanted a more dynamic interface for business users not as familiar with the product to see and understand what’s available to them. Previously, in our RPA Software Products Top10, Kryon customers had lauded its ease of use, often stemming from its attended automation in which robots can run tasks that complement user work or guide users through tasks. It seems like Kryon has now extended this to FCA:

 “FCAaaS is the only SaaS solution that combines process discovery, RPA, and analytics on one platform that is easy to use, but that is just the beginning.”

Harel Tayeb, CEO, Kryon

Kryon adds Verizon to its mix of clients as FCA finds a sweetspot onboarding and training employees.

Wyndham Hotels has been a named Kryon reference for some time, and although impressive, the next step for it was to keep the big names and success stories coming: Verizon is one such next step, and is another example of how FCA is making a name for itself in onboarding and training employees (similarly to Wyndham’s case).

Verizon has to train near-300,000 employees and contractors on constantly changing business systems. Previously its training environments fell into the same trap as many telcos of frontloading employees with information that they can’t then recall when face-to-face with customers; some sessions took 5 or 6 weeks. Verizon saw Wyndham’s onboarding success with Kryon – specifically the idea of contextual learning in the moment of need.

More seamless access to information means customers spend less time on the phone and their problems are more frequently solved. Employees are far better prepared first time around; Verizon is targeting the first few weeks of employment for the most critical improvements. The telco giant is still scaling the platform, but initial feedback suggests employees are more confident and less anxious during the training process, and more prepared to do the job on the “shop floor”. Employee attrition is hoped to improve dramatically.

Kryon is also helping to onboard contact center employees who’ve moved to home working and now have to train in a totally different way of living, working, and helping customers. Locations with poor last-mile connections posed a particular challenge and would previously have meant onboarding and/or training being paused. However, Verizon took Kryon’s platform and built-out simulations for low-bandwidth connections allowing employees to be confident that when they get into the office, the full platform will assist them in real-time on top of the training. Kryon is also helping to upskill existing employees from home.

“It’s a live performance support tool, letting you recall knowledge in the moment with the customer for a more natural conversation while processing a transaction. It’s like GPS: it won’t teach you how to drive, but it helps you along the route and eventually, you can do it seamlessly from memory.”

Karl Sonta, S.R. Manager, Global Learning and Development Technology, Verizon

The Bottom Line: Kryon is becoming more than just the industry’s first-mover; FCA is delivering tangible business value for some new frontline clients, and many existing clients’ criticisms are being rapidly addressed.