Knowledge
Celonis acquires Make and takes the next step towards an all-in-one process solution. What exactly this means and what we can expect from Celonis, Make and the world of automation in the future - you can find out.
Celonis already announced the good news last autumn: the software giant was buying the Czech company Make. The goal? To complement and complete its own software for process mining (Celonis calls it Execution Management System) with connected process automation. But let's start again: What is Celonis anyway and who exactly is this Make?
Celonis is a German software company. Founded in 2011, it achieved unicorn status in 2016 - a company valuation for young companies of more than $1 billion. Wow. Celonis has developed software based on so-called process mining. This means that digital business processes are analysed and evaluated. This sometimes requires huge amounts of data to break down cross-departmental processes. So it is no wonder that Celonis is closely linked with SAP and other large ERP manufacturers. The goal is to uncover inefficiencies and potential for improvement.
So, short version: Celonis' software analyses your processes, visualises them and shows you what's wrong. So far so good, but what follows?
And this is where Make comes in. Make is a Czech company that has created a platform for automation. You can think of it as an interface where you plug together all your different software: Outlook, One Drive, Hubspot, maybe Slack or your Wordpress website. Data that is needed or processed in all these applications is automatically transferred through the links. The goal here is to let digital processes run independently. Of course, this is especially true for standardised, recurring processes.
This is exactly why the symbiosis of Celonis & Make works so well: Make finishes what Celonis started.
Celonis has created powerful software that gives medium-sized and large companies in particular an overview of their own processes. Because especially in huge companies with cross-departmental processes, at a certain point it is almost impossible to know the entire process, let alone understand it. Once the weak points have been identified, Make comes into play. Because: Celonis also issues recommendations on how these inefficiencies can be eliminated. Make does exactly that: By linking the applications used, an automated data flow and efficient processes are created.
Celonis has succeeded in becoming a real market power in just a few years. While process mining has already arrived at many companies, automation is still in its infancy. With the acquisition of Make, Celonis is sending a clear signal: process automation is the future. This is worth a lot of money to Celonis. The takeover sum is said to be in the three-digit million range.
This is how Celonis & Make create a comprehensive solution for processes: From analysis and visualisation to optimisation and automation, Celonis' customers now receive the complete package. A complete control of business processes is thus possible. However, there is still one hurdle to overcome: Bringing together the two target groups of the tech companies. Celonis is particularly committed to the large and largest companies: Customers like Deutsche Telekom, Lufthansa, Siemens or Uber trust in Celonis Execution Management System. Make, on the other hand, has built up a strong community of IT enthusiasts, developers and small and medium-sized enterprises. However, these companies have very different software requirements than large corporations.
Cloud automation is reaching for new stars. This is because the relatively young technology is still missing the final step in the direction of large companies. This can be achieved by Celonis, which has already won over this very target group. In addition, Make is based on so-called cloud automation, which means that only software that is cloud-based can be connected there. This is a clear declaration of war in the direction of RPA, the competing technology. RPA or Robotic Process Automation enables individually developed automations for on-premise software.
On the other hand, Celonis also sends a message to medium-sized companies: process mining is not only useful for large corporations. Medium-sized companies can also benefit from it and receive a comprehensive solution for optimising their own processes with Celonis & Make. However, it is currently more realistic that Make will approach the large companies than Celonis the smaller ones.
Celonis has succeeded in what every takeover wants to achieve: improving the market position of both companies. Celonis and Make are not competitors, on the contrary. One technology cannot do without the other. This results in even more comprehensive possibilities to fully improve business processes and the growing industry of automation gains a major player.
Psst, stay tuned for more. We might have something big planned.
Cloud Integration, iPaaS, SaaS, BPA… Ough, hard to keep track of all these terms. They are currently used frequently (and increasingly) in the context of automation, and it is sometimes difficult to make a clear distinction and distinction. We have already written blog posts on the terms iPaaS, SaaS and BPA, but we’ll take them up again here to make the difference.
But let’s start with cloud integration, because that’s the central umbrella term in which we embed all the other technologies in this blog post.
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To illustrate these advantages, an example is suitable that we know well from our everyday work as an automation agency:
The central data to be used here is the data of a major customer. This can be the simplest information, such as the address. This address is required in numerous but completely different processes in the company: on the one hand, for correct invoicing in accounting. On the other hand, in the CRM system, where all the data of the large customer is also stored. But the address is also important in sales, for example, when employees go to the sales meeting on site.
Now the customer announces that the address of the company has changed after a move. This information will reach you by e-mail. There are now two options:
01. The e-mail is forwarded to all affected departments, accounting, sales, customer service, marketing… All persons open their corresponding program, CRM, accounting software, marketing tools (such as newsletter marketing) and change the data already stored there of the customer. This means that in multiple applications, different people do exactly the same thing: change one address.
02. But there is also an alternative: By connecting your applications, thus by integrizing them, the customer’s e-mail, or rather the information it contains about the address change, is automatically passed on to all affected applications: CRM, accounting, marketing, ERP. This does not require any clicks, because the cloud integration detects a trigger, i.e. address change, and thus automatically starts the process.
What sounds unimpressive in a single process becomes more effective when such a process occurs several times a day or weekly. Because there is a lot of data that is available in different applications and should always be correct. If these applications are cloud applications they are suitable for cloud integration.
But cloud integration doesn’t just happen. There are now a variety of applications that enable and implement this. Such tools usually allow us to link the relevant cloud applications on a central platform and define clear rules on when, how, where, how much data should be passed on and what happens to them.
To realize cloud integration, there are various applications and technologies that are sometimes used interchangeably.
We have made a first distinction between iPaaS and BPA here.
We explain the term SaaS in more detail here.
Cloud integration is rather an umbrella term that includes numerous technologies, such as SaaS, iPaaS and BPA, and this is also absolutely necessary. Cloud integration is a concept that is made possible by appropriate technologies.
However, all terms share the commonality that they are cloud-based and thus offer enormous potential for growth and scaling. In addition, they are often cheaper to implement and maintain because changed requirements are easy to implement.
As an independent automation agency, we implement cloud integration according to your requirements. We use a variety of SaaS tools and iPaas (strictly speaking BPA) software. Together we find individual solutions that are flexible and scalable.
