Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (BOAT)

Definition

Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (BOAT) is a class of software technology that helps enterprises automate, orchestrate, and facilitate end-to-end business processes.

BOAT is also a strategic framework used to manage and scale business processes.

BOAT platforms include technologies with overlapping capabilities, like:

Robotic process automation (RPA)
Machine learning (ML)
Low-code development
Business process automation (BPA)
Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)

Why has Gartner introduced the term BOAT?

Gartner created the concept of BOAT to explain the concurrent capabilities of RPA, BPA, and other process automation tools.

It’s common for businesses to have a dizzying number of tools with similar capabilities. Gartner’s introduction of the BOAT concept allows companies to consolidate technologies for better user experiences and higher efficiency.

How does BOAT differ from traditional automation tools?

Traditional automation tools are often standalone products that operate in silos. Integrating these tools with other business systems can be a challenge that impacts scalability and efficiency.

BOAT differs from traditional automation tools because it integrates various tools under a single platform. This helps businesses deploy solutions faster with more efficiency and less complexity.

What are the key components of a BOAT platform?

According to Gartner, a BOAT platform has a combination of the following capabilities:

BPA
RPA
iPaaS
Generative AI
Low-code development
Diverse automation tools
Process and task mining

A BOAT platform that merges these capabilities gives businesses the components necessary for unified automation, integration, and user experience.

What business challenges does BOAT address?

BOAT stresses the importance of unified technologies, from automation to workflows. If businesses have a different tool for each specific need, there is likely a lack of cohesion across IT.

BOAT tackles challenges like:

Too many disparate tools: As technology has evolved, enterprises have acquired a collection of various tools, like RPA, BPA, and low-code platforms. This has often led to challenges with integrations, implementations, and automation.
Increased overhead: Managing and maintaining complex systems and technologies takes IT’s focus away from strategic priorities.
Integration issues: Not all tools play nicely together. Integration complexities are often the reason why businesses struggle to implement end-to-end processes.

What are the potential ROI benefits of BOAT?

BOAT prioritizes consolidation, which gives businesses many potential ROI and cost-saving benefits. With process and automation tools under one platform, teams don’t waste time managing disparate systems.

By unifying all tools under one platform, enterprises can:

Lower/eliminate licensing costs
Reduce operational overhead
Improve efficiency and user experiences
Minimize their software footprint

Related Terms

Automation

Automation improves processes that are already being offered. It leverages devices or software and relies on a series of rules written by business subject matter experts to accomplish tasks without any human intervention.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

RPA is the use of technology to automate repetitive business tasks that would otherwise be done manually. You can program virtual bots to perform the same repetitive actions that your human workers do, like filtering information, migrating data, or completing forms.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

A general term that encompasses all autonomous technologies which generate outputs based on computer-generated pattern recognition. AI is the system of collecting and cleaning data sets, as well as the algorithmic processing and synthesis of that data. What is artificial intelligence in easy words?