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Monday, 27 August 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
As regional businesses continue to make incremental progress in their augmentation of technology into operational and strategic business processes, a subsidiary of one of Sri Lanka’s largest and oldest conglomerates, SAKS Analytics, announced a breakthrough partnership with global artificial intelligence (AI) and intelligent automation company, AntWorks, in a bid to introduce disruptive innovation in automation, in Sri Lanka.
Leveraging AntWorks’ global automation expertise, the two companies are now working to introduce hybrid technological solutions in Sri Lanka that seamlessly blend multi-format intelligent data ingestion with cognitive capabilities and code free Robotic Process Automation powered by artificial intelligence to automate the back office and middle office seamlessly.
“Sri Lanka’s tech industry continues to develop at a commendable pace, but unfortunately we are yet to see the same kind of disruptive innovation on the same scale as advancements in most developed and emerging economies – particularly in relation to analytics and research capabilities. This is why SAKS Analytics is now working to establish global partnerships that will serve to introduce such disruptive technologies to the domestic market. Today’s agreement with AntWorks represents a bold and vital step forward in this vision that promises to usher in the same kind of hard-nosed, data-driven approach to business that we see taking hold across the region,” SAKS Analytics Managing Director Jeevan Gnanam stated.
In addressing unstructured data, AntWorks has redefined the current landscape of the automation industry. Its proprietary platform, ANTstein is the first and only, intelligent, integrated, end-to-end automation platform available in the market today. It is the only data ingestion technology that does not use OCR and is built on the principles of fractal science. In comparison with other current players in the RPA domain, AntWorks has integrated Cognitive Machine Reading for multi-format data ingestion, RPA for data transport, and Machine Learning coupled with Natural Language Modelling for advanced data insights, all under its single sign on the ANTstein platform.
“Companies today are constantly in search of new avenues to increase efficiency and expand margins and we are confident that our partnership with AntWorks will deliver on this promise for Sri Lankan enterprises, and over time, even to clients across the region,” Gnanam added.
“Part of the real attraction with the services that SAKS is now able to offer is the unprecedented level of flexibility and adaptability that are the hallmarks of what AntWorks is doing with its cognitive and AI tools. Whether it is a large multinational or a micro-enterprise, we provide the capability to process large volumes of documents and perform advanced analytics that are usually very difficult to tease out of raw data. This is information that will support intelligent and agile decision-making that provides optimised returns to the enterprise. The platform would be easily capable of adapting to the varying needs of businesses across industry verticals – providing base returns of between 10% to 25% on a given organisation’s bottom line, if not more,” Hariharan Padmanaban explained.
SAKS and AntWorks will also be placing special emphasis on solutions geared to support Sri Lanka’s sizeable healthcare sector.
“While the Sri Lankan healthcare system continues to face serious challenges, particularly in terms of facilities and infrastructure, the overall quality of service in the country is actually quite high. There is a lot of interest in what relatively smaller investments into technology can do to further enhance the quality and delivery of healthcare services nationally.
“Here too, AntWorks has some very robust capabilities in documentation automation and analytics that we believe could spark a wave of innovation across the public and private sectors, with the ultimate beneficiary being the Sri Lankan people,” Gnanam stated.
The relationship between AntWorks and SAKS Analytics has been a long-standing one with preliminary discussions on their partnership having commenced in 2016. A start-up that is headquartered out of Singapore, AntWorks is now present in four continents with development centers in India and in the United States of America with plans to open delivery centres in Singapore, London, and the Philippines shortly.
“Driven by the principle of ‘customer first’, we strive to be at Zero Distance to our customers to enable fast and fearless delivery of fresh technologies, this partnership with SAKS Analytics enables rapid adoption of our solutions in Sri Lanka, while maintaining Zero Distance from our customers,” said AntWorks Co-Founder and Group CEO Asheesh Mehra.
“Autonomous operations are a vital part of how AntWorks approaches new markets and so in Sri Lanka, SAKS Analytics will utilise their knowledge of local dynamics, in creating unique products and solutions to address the needs of enterprises in Sri Lanka to enhance productivity, reduce time to market and increase customer delight. I am excited at the potential that lies ahead with this partnership,” said Mehra. He also noted that both companies would look to collaborate on the development of specialised products and solutions for the Sri Lankan market over the medium-long term.
