FEATURE: SAAS
money, but as a software provider, you’re
working against your own pricing model.
This may require a rapid move from a per-
seat pricing model, to one that is more value
– or outcome-based.
‘To succeed in any market, B2B marketing
leaders must pivot from selling products to
delivering outcomes’ according to a recent
Forrester report. ‘The greater the digital
content of your service, the greater the
opportunity to migrate from asset rental to
value-based pricing’ it said.
Ultimately, it’s an advantage for your
business to enhance its technology using
AI and to benefit the end-user’s goals. But
in terms of revenue growth, adapting your
pricing model should be customised to your
value proposition.
One model may charge based on actual
usage of the product, or a sales – or
marketing-focused platform may charge
based on leads or conversions.
“There is no perfect model and each one
has its pluses and minuses,” said Forrester
Analyst, Duncan Jones. “It’s about
understanding the complexity and ROI of
your offering and aligning your pricing to
that end.”
Making use of AI for
enterprise benefit
A leading UK-based Intelligent Automation
platform provider, Thoughtonomy, is
utilising AI to the best of its ability and has
announced the release of fully inclusive
enhanced AI functionality within its SaaS
platform. This will enable organisations to
augment the productivity of their workforces
through the automation and digitisation of
knowledge work, by making advanced AI
functionality accessible to business users.
The new functionality forms a cornerstone
of the ‘Evolution Edition’, the latest iteration
of the Thoughtonomy Virtual Workforce,
which combines the AI enhancements with
additional capabilities which include the
ability to understand, interpret, translate
and structure information, as well as interact
with human workers in natural language.
This underpins the delivery of digital
labour to organisations of all sizes, across
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all industries, who are able to use Virtual
Workers to replicate tasks across all business
departments and functions, with each Virtual
Worker able to deliver the workload of up to
15 human knowledge workers.
The concept of digital labour combines
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) with AI
and cloud to allow organisations to free up
capacity in skilled staff, allowing them to
conduct higher value tasks which deliver
greater value to their customers and citizens,
and improved business value. According
to an Accenture study, the AI market will
add over US$10 trillion of economic value
worldwide by 2035.
Thoughtonomy’s Evolution Edition is
the only intelligent automation platform
delivered via SaaS, with a single license
subscription model. In an industry first,
Thoughtonomy has taken an ‘evergreen’
approach, ensuring that customers
will always have access to the latest
functionality, with continual improvements
made through the non-disruptive addition of
new capabilities over time.
“Thoughtonomy is an innovative company
that offers RPA combined with cognitive
capabilities and analytics, with features
such as smart management of robots and
workload balancing, on a Software-as-a-
Service model,” said Sarah Burnett, Research
Vice President at Everest Group. “With this
release, Thoughtonomy has created a
platform that allows enterprises to use AI as
well as built-in software capabilities.”
As a Microsoft Gold Partner and ISV,
Thoughtonomy’s Virtual Workforce
Evolution Edition is designed and built
to operate on the Microsoft Azure cloud
platform, enabling the service to be
delivered globally at scale. In addition to
proprietary AI algorithms, the platform also
utilises Azure Cognitive Services to underpin
a number of its AI services.
The Thoughtonomy platform has been
designed to support organisations across
the world in delivering improvements in
workforce productivity and the digitisation
of services, and enhanced over time based
on feedback from customers and partners.
The Evolution Edition brings a new paradigm
to the delivery of Intelligent Automation so
that this process of continual improvement
Terry Walby, Chief Executive
at Thoughtonomy
ensures that the latest market-leading
functionality is always available to all users in
a completely frictionless way.
“If you read about AI and robotics, there are
horror stories that they will do away with
everyone’s jobs. But we don’t believe that.
We just believe it dramatically improves
productivity,” said Scott Dodds, CEO, Ultima.
“We are using it to free up employees from
carrying out mundane tasks and focus on
more complex and worthwhile activities.”
“Industry commentators have referred
to the advancement of automation and
Artificial Intelligence as the Fourth Industrial
Revolution,” said Terry Walby, Chief Executive
at Thoughtonomy.
“There is no doubt that this technology will
change the world of knowledge work and
service delivery forever – but our view is that
the future of office work will include a blend
of human and digital labour, and that a
better representation is not of a revolution,
but of an accelerated evolution. Our Virtual
Workforce Platform democratises the
availability of AI-enabled business services
to non-technical users in organisations of
all sizes across the world and the Evolution
Edition underpins our commitment to
continual improvement and ongoing
market leadership.” n
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