AI’s not new. It’s just urgent now. Every roadmap, every board update — it’s in there. Leadership wants results, yesterday. So teams scramble, launching an AI assistant here, a predictive model there. Tack on a chatbot. Maybe a workflow or two. But the minute someone asks, “Is this actually working?” it all gets quiet.
That’s because most systems and teams just aren’t built for AI yet. The hype is running ahead of the architecture. According to Redwood Software’s “Enterprise automation index 2025,” nearly 40% of organizations admit they’re not ready to adopt or implement AI-driven automation.
This isn’t about getting access to a model. It’s not even about building one. Readiness is the boring stuff under the hood: data quality, process consistency, orchestration, exception handling. That’s what makes AI useful (or useless).
Redwood’s data shows that fewer than 6% of companies have reached autonomous automation in any major business process. Most are still crawling, even in high-stakes areas like quote-to-cash. So when an AI tool misfires — maybe it reorders the wrong part, flags a non-issue or misroutes a service ticket — the real problem isn’t the AI. It’s everything feeding into it.
You invested in automation, but did you stabilize it?
More than 73% of companies say they increased automation spending last year. Only 36.6% feel ready to apply AI. That should tell you something. A lot of teams bought the tools, but the groundwork isn’t there.
If your workflows are still rule-based and brittle, your exception handling is half-human, half-spreadsheet and your APIs are duct-taped together from three systems ago, using AI won’t solve that. It’ll just scale the mess instead. This is what stalls pilots: not bad models — broken environments.
About your workflows…
You’ve got platforms everywhere. CRM, ERP, maybe a ticketing system for customer support or field service. They work (sort of), but they’re not exactly talking to each other.
You’ve got automation, but it’s scattered across tools. And it’s hard to know what’s actually happening when something goes wrong. Now imagine dropping AI into that mix and asking it to make decisions, in real time and with real impact.
We’ve seen this movie. The pilot works, and the chatbot answers a few questions. The predictive model makes a recommendation. But there’s no feedback loop, no clean handoff, no way to measure if the output actually helped. So the pilot ends, and nobody wants to own it anymore.
Here’s what you’re skipping — and shouldn’t
Most AI efforts start with the use case.
Let’s automate onboarding
Let’s forecast demand
Let’s personalize support
Fine goals. But what about:
Who owns the outcome when AI makes a choice?
Can you see — and explain — how it got to that choice?
What happens when something breaks at 3 AM?
Can the system ask for help? Does it even know it needs to?
Governance. Data orchestration. Exception flows. Alignment with actual business outcomes.
These are boring, but when you skip them, you end up with a demo, not a system.
What the mature teams are doing
They’re not chasing shiny tools; they’re tuning the engine. Here’s what we see from the AI-ready crowd:
Clean, version-controlled datasets that support real-time decision-making
Clear governance rules that define what AI can (and can’t) do
Exception handling that doesn’t depend on someone checking their inbox
Redwood customers who follow this approach are:
2x as likely to cut manual workloads by 50%
1.6x as likely to improve operational efficiency
More likely to reduce costs by over 50%
These teams aren’t more enthusiastic about AI-powered solutions. They’re just more prepared.
Are you actually ready for AI?
It’s a fair question. Before you deploy another chatbot or predictive model, take a hard look at what’s underneath:
Are your business processes clearly mapped and automated?
Can your systems handle complex tasks — or just repetitive ones?
Are your AI models getting data they can actually trust?
Do your outputs link back to measurable outcomes?
AI won’t magically fix disorganized operations. But it will accelerate what’s already there — good or bad. If you haven’t mapped your exceptions, validated your inputs or built real-time visibility across systems, you’re not ready yet. And that’s okay. That’s fixable.
But don’t plug in AI and expect it to clean things up. Clean first, then scale. Want to know how your automation foundation stacks up? Download the full report and benchmark your AI readiness.
The Service Orchestration and Automation Platform (SOAP) market has expanded fast. In parallel with that growth, vendors have been vying for Leader positions in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for SOAP since 2024. But with feature lists that sound nearly identical, it can be hard to tell which solutions truly enable end-to-end orchestration across complex enterprise environments.
One way to tell is to look at integration. The best SOAPs aren’t just job schedulers with APIs. They truly connect every system and application you need, below the surface.
“SOAPs empower infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders to streamline and accelerate the delivery of business services. These platforms integrate workflow orchestration, workload automation and resource provisioning across an organization’s hybrid IT landscape.”
According to Gartner, two of the mandatory features for a SOAP speak directly to extensibility:
Management of workflows spanning the operating environment: This includes request management, integration between IT software platforms and end-user enablement, data pipelines, citizen developer enablement and DevOps pipeline integration.
Broad integration capabilities: This includes the ability to integrate with and incorporate software and infrastructure technology landscapes that span from the cloud to enterprise applications.
If integration is limited, orchestration is limited — and so is your business.
Beyond features: What can a SOAP connect?
In hybrid enterprises, orchestration must cover the entire IT landscape, from on-premises systems and private and public cloud applications to team collaboration. Gartner analysts’ focus has evolved accordingly. They don’t just score platforms on job throughput or UI polish, but on their ability to:
Span hybrid infrastructure
Enable real-time event triggers
Extend orchestration to non-technical users
That shift mirrors what I’ve seen in the field. Over the years, I’ve worked with organizations that started with a basic scheduler and quickly hit a wall. When a new SaaS tool or cloud platform entered the mix, the scheduler couldn’t keep up. It usually had no connectors, no agentless support — no way to adapt without workarounds. So, it wasn’t truly extensible.
I see extensibility as the real test of future-readiness and a core marker of the long-term value of your investment in a SOAP. Deep integration capabilities aren’t just nice to have. A SOAP’s ability to integrate with new systems quickly impacts how fast your team can innovate.
Signs your automation platform isn’t built for extensibility
These red flags often point to poor integration maturity:
⚠️ Connector sprawl and/or a lack of mission-critical integrations
⚠️ Inflexible APIs and poorly documented endpoints
⚠️ No support for event-based triggers
⚠️ Custom integrations that are hard to maintain
⚠️ Manual upgrade paths for plugins and connectors
3 dimensions of integration readiness
Think of integration as a multi-layer capability, not as a yes/no checkbox. A mature SOAP handles three levels of integration. When all three are supported, you gain the flexibility to scale orchestration across teams and technologies without constant rewrites or custom workarounds.
Infrastructure
At the infrastructure level, a mature SOAP platform should connect flawlessly to both modern and legacy systems without relying on fragile, agent-based setups. It must support a variety of hybrid environments, including virtual machines (VMs), containers, on-premises systems and multi-cloud deployments. It should also offer centralized orchestration that doesn’t compromise on control or security. This level lays the technical foundation for stability and reach.
Application and service
At the application and service level, extensibility means being able to orchestrate workflows across critical business platforms: ERP, CRM, ETL, analytics, ITSM, iPaaS, MFT and more. Integration, in this way, goes beyond surface-level connectivity. The strongest platforms offer certified or pre-built connectors that are actively maintained, scalable and designed to handle the nuances of enterprise-grade data and complex processes.
Developer
Finally, at the developer level, extensibility should empower both IT teams and business technologists. That means it provides rich APIs, SDKs, scripting support and webhook capabilities for creating programmable workflows that interact with modern CI/CD toolchains. It also means allowing teams to compose automations using templates, scripts and event-based triggers, without being boxed into rigid frameworks. This layer ensures that orchestration can adapt and evolve as teams innovate.
What extensibility looks like in practice
A SOAP with mature extensibility will contribute to outcomes across many functions of your business.
Connectivity and integrations: Expand with a library of pre-built connectors while empowering users to create their own integrations with intuitive, low-code tools.
Custom application development: Support scripting languages and integrate with modern development environments, enabling developers to build custom automation and applications on top of the platform.
API and data integrations: Provide robust inbound and outbound APIs for custom interactions and seamless data exchange with third-party systems, such as observability platforms.
Event-driven architecture: Power real-time, dynamic automation with a flexible architecture that triggers workflows based on events across the hybrid enterprise.
5 questions that reveal SOAP extensibility
Cut through the marketing gloss and expose the platform’s integration maturity.
What systems are supported out of the box?
How are new connectors delivered and updated?
Can we create our own reusable templates and workflows?
How do you support real-time orchestration triggers?
What CI/CD and iPaaS integrations are available?
The trap: Automation tools that don’t scale
Many automation tools start strong with slick UIs, low-code builders or decent job scheduling, but then a new system is introduced, a use case shifts or a citizen developer needs access. And suddenly, you’re blocked with no connector — thus, no agility.
The most telling sign of SOAP maturity isn’t what the platform can do out of the box, but how well it adapts when your tech landscape changes.
SOAP Leaders stand out
The best SOAP isn’t the one with the longest feature list; it’s the one that plays well with others. I believe the Leaders recognized in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for SOAP report demonstrate:
Broad integration with cloud-native and enterprise systems
Rich APIs and partner ecosystems
Support for diverse roles, from DevOps to business users
Proven hybrid-readiness and extensibility
Gartner research continues to show that extensibility separates platforms that automate from those that truly orchestrate. The SOAP that will best serve your enterprise will be the one that grows with your tech stack, your users and your business.
Redwood Software’s SOAP solution, RunMyJobs, is built for deep, future-ready integration with SaaS-native, agentless delivery and a growing connector library. It’s also the only workload automation solution that’s an SAP Endorsed App, Premium certified, which indicates deep integration with SAP systems, apps and technologies.
Make integration your organization’s superpower. Download the full analyst report to see why Redwood was named a Leader two years in a row.
Press release: 7.10.2025, 8:30 – Digital Workforce continues as the City of Helsinki’s partner in process automation
The City of Helsinki has chosen Digital Workforce as its partner in process automation. This procurement comprises a comprehensive service supporting close and wide-ranging collaboration together with flexible use of the required automation technologies. The technologies will be delivered to the City as a cloud service according to its needs.
The aim of the cooperation is to improve the City of Helsinki’s productivity and to ensure a modern, secure, and cost-effective operating model that meets the rapidly growing demand for automation services.
The City of Helsinki’s Department of Financial Management Services (Talpa) first began working with Digital Workforce in 2017 to develop its internal capabilities in robotic process automation. In 2023, the City centralized all its RPA-related tasks with Talpa. It currently operates more than 80 automated workflows, and in recent years has implemented around 20–30 new automations annually.
The City’s automation needs have expanded and diversified significantly since 2024, prompting the engagement of an expert partner for solution development and maintenance. Ensuring the availability of flexible and diverse resources is of paramount importance for the City to meet these needs efficiently.
“A substantial share of the City’s work continues to entail manual, repetitive, rule-based information processing. Our cooperation with Digital Workforce enables the implementation of automations with high quality and cost-effectiveness. It also ensures flexible access to expert services, particularly for automation needs related to the Apotti system used by the City’s social, health and rescue services”, says Petri Böhm, Director of Development and Digitalization Services at Talpa.
“We are very pleased to deepen our collaboration with the City of Helsinki and support the City’s journey toward an even more comprehensive use of automation. Our specialized expertise in developing and automating social and healthcare processes, together with a broad technology portfolio that can be utilized flexibly via our cloud platform, provides a strong foundation for agile implementation and rapid results. As the technologies used in process automation—such as AI agents—are evolving quickly, it is increasingly important for many organizations to work closely with an expert partner. Such cooperation also provides the readiness to identify and adopt new, innovative solutions in a controlled way”, says Juha Nieminen, Head of Healthcare Nordics, Digital Workforce.
About Digital Workforce Digital Workforce Services Plc (Nasdaq First North: DWF) is a leader in business automation and technology solutions. With the Digital Workforce Outsmart platform and services—including Enterprise AI agents—organizations transform knowledge work, reduce costs, accelerate digitization, grow revenue, and improve customer experience. More than 200 large customers use our services to drive transformation of work through automation and Agentic AI. Digital Workforce has particularly strong experience in healthcare, automating care pathways across clinical and administrative workflows to reduce burden, enhance patient safety, and return time to patient care. Following the acquisition of e18 Innovation, the company has further strengthened its position in the UK healthcare pathway automation. We focus on repeatable, outcome-based use cases, and we operate with high integrity and close customer collaboration. Founded in 2015, Digital Workforce employs more than 200 automation professionals in the US, UK, Ireland, and Northern and Central Europe. Our vision: Transforming Work. Beyond Productivity. digitalworkforce.com
Press release: 7.10.2025, 8:30 – Digital Workforce continues as the City of Helsinki’s partner in process automation
Every unmanaged SSH key is a potential backdoor for unauthorized access. In most enterprises, there are thousands—and sometimes millions—of keys no one is actively tracking. That’s why AppViewX is announcing the general availability of AVX ONE SSH, a purpose-built product that closes one of security’s most overlooked gaps: SSH key sprawl and lifecycle management across hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructures.
The Enterprise SSH Key Challenge
SSH is foundational to secure enterprise operations, enabling everything from server administration to DevOps automation. But, because keys are easy to create and don’t expire by default, they proliferate rapidly and quietly. Over time, organizations accumulate keys scattered across the infrastructure—with limited visibility into who can access what.
The security implications are significant. Every unmanaged key can become an unmonitored access path, resulting in a compliance gap or an audit failure. Recent research indicates that up to 90% of organizations lack a complete inventory of active SSH keys, and 54% still rely on manual processes, like spreadsheets, for key management—clear signals that automation and governance are overdue.
Left unchecked, SSH key sprawl drives three primary enterprise risks:
Security exposure: Persistent access paths that bypass traditional access controls and monitoring.
Compliance failures: Regulations require complete access records, including SSH keys and certificates, and gaps can lead to penalties.
Operational inefficiency: Manual key management does not scale and consumes significant team resources while delivering incomplete coverage.
Meet AVX ONE SSH
Built on AppViewX’s certificate lifecycle management platform, AVX ONE SSH delivers comprehensive SSH key lifecycle management through three core capabilities: visibility, automation, and policy control.
Visibility
Effective security starts with clear visibility. AVX ONE SSH discovers and inventories every key and certificate across the enterprise, eliminating blind spots and providing the intelligence needed to manage risk proactively.
Comprehensive Discovery: Automatically scan and discover all SSH keys and certificates (both user and host) across hybrid, multi-cloud, and DevOps environments to eliminate blind spots.
Centralized Inventory Management: Maintain a single, central inventory of SSH keys and certificates to simplify monitoring and management across a distributed infrastructure.
Trust Relationship Mapping: Visualize trust relationships between users, hosts, servers, and service accounts to enable successful key rotations and maintain operational continuity.
Risk Intelligence: Perform SSH risk assessments and trend analysis using the Risk Dashboard to monitor the status of keys and configurations, enabling proactive security management.
Automation
Managing SSH keys at scale can become overwhelming. AVX ONE SSH automates the entire lifecycle and reduces manual effort to ensure consistent, secure operations.
Complete Lifecycle Automation: Generate, provision, rotate, and delete keys automatically to eliminate manual effort and promote crypto-agility.
One-Click Risk Remediation: Instantly delete or rotate suspicious, shared, orphaned, or weak keys with single-click remediation to contain security threats and enforce security policies.
Automated Workflows: Leverage custom or out-of-the-box workflows to streamline complex rotations and deletions that align with compliance controls or change windows.
Seamless Integration and Self-Service: Automate SSH key and access onboarding via native integrations with IAM and DevOps tools. Allow users to securely request/generate keys and manage access through a self-service UI, so teams manage SSH access the way they prefer to work.
Automate SSH lifecycle management and secure privileged remote access with AVX ONE SSH
Governance is essential for long-term security. AVX ONE SSH automatically enforces policies, streamlines reporting, and enables access controls to maintain oversight while supporting operational agility.
Zero-Touch Policy Enforcement: Enforce organizational policies for SSH key generation to ensure every key meets standards without manual intervention.
Rotation Policy Management: Define rotation intervals and automate enforcement to maintain a continuous security posture.
Risk Assessment and Compliance: Generate audit-ready reports and maintain detailed logs and trails to demonstrate adherence to regulatory frameworks and security audits.
Granular Access Controls: Apply role-based access control (RBAC) and host grouping to delegate SSH access at scale while retaining centralized oversight and guardrails.
Integrations Built for Your IT Stack
AVX ONE SSH integrates with the existing enterprise systems you’re already using:
Cloud Platforms: Native integration with AWS for seamless key management across hybrid environments.
Identity Systems: Connects with CyberArk and leading PAM solutions to align SSH access with enterprise identity governance.
DevOps Tools: Supports SSH capabilities through APIs, which can be seamlessly integrated with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps tools such as Ansible and Puppet.
ITSM: Connects to ServiceNow, BMC Remedy, and similar platforms to incorporate SSH key requests and approvals into established service management processes.
Flexible Deployment: Choose SaaS for rapid time-to-value or on-premises to meet specific regulatory or security requirements.
Why SSH Lifecycle Management is Critical Now
SSH key sprawl represents a significant and growing security risk that traditional tools and processes cannot address at an enterprise scale. The proliferation of unmanaged keys creates persistent access paths that bypass conventional security controls, while manual management processes can’t keep up with hybrid infrastructure and increased regulatory scrutiny.
To close this gap, organizations need automated discovery to understand their current exposure, policy-driven controls to prevent future sprawl, and integrated workflows that align with existing security operations.
AVX ONE SSH addresses these requirements by transforming SSH lifecycle management from a manual, error-prone process into an automated, policy-driven capability. The result: stronger security posture, lower operational overhead, and faster paths to compliance across environments.
For security teams managing complex, distributed infrastructure, comprehensive SSH lifecycle management is no longer optional—it’s essential for maintaining resilience in today’s threat landscape.
Visit AVX ONE SSH for more information about SSH (Secure Shell) Lifecycle Management
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Will AVX ONE SSH break access during rotation? A: No. Rotations are staged with preflight checks, trust-mapping, and canary batches, with automatic rollback on validation failure. You can start in read-only discovery, then roll out changes by host group or business unit to avoid disruption. As long as your infrastructure is fully discovered by AppViewX, rotations will not break. However, for any key instance not discovered by AppViewX, rotations may cause disruption.
Q: Is discovery agentless or agent-based? A: Agentless by default. AVX ONE SSH enumerates keys and trust relationships via credentialed connections and integrations (e.g., config management/CMDB). For constrained zones, lightweight connectors are supported.
Q: Do you support SSH certificates (OpenSSH CA) and migrations from keys? A: Yes. AVX ONE SSH manages both traditional keys and OpenSSH certificates, enabling policy-issued, short-lived certs. Many teams use it to phase out long-lived keys and reduce standing access.
Q: How is this different from PAM or a secrets manager (e.g., CyberArk, Vault)? A: PAM governs privileged sessions; secrets managers store/broker secrets. AVX ONE SSH governs the lifecycle of SSH identities (keys & certs): discovery, mapping, rotation, and policy enforcement—while integrating with PAM/IAM/secrets tools.
Q: Can we enforce policy (algorithms, lifetimes, rotation) and prove compliance? A: Yes. Define cryptographic and rotation policies; AVX ONE SSH enforces them automatically and produces audit-ready reports and trails (with RBAC and host grouping) to demonstrate control to regulators and auditors.
See AVX ONE SSH in Action
If you don’t know how many SSH keys you have—or who can access them—you already have a problem. If you’re ready to take control, we can help. Get the full breakdown of the solution, integrations, and deployment options in the AVX ONE SSH datasheet, or book a tailored demo to see it in action.
Gartner® publishes two complementary reports on Service Orchestration and Automation Platforms (SOAPs): the Magic Quadrant™ for SOAP and the Critical Capabilities for SOAP. The Magic Quadrant™ evaluates vendors at the organizational level, scoring their Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision. In my view, the companion Critical Capabilities report takes the analysis deeper, focusing on the features and capabilities of the products themselves and mapping them to five key Use Cases.
Together, the two reports give a comprehensive view of the SOAP market landscape, but they remain market-level research, not an assessment of your specific business priorities.
Here, we offer a practical framework for how to translate Gartner’s approach into your own scorecard to evaluate SOAP platforms against your organization’s needs and goals.
Why capability-based evaluation matters
The Magic Quadrant™ is invaluable for seeing which vendors are positioned strongly in the market. It shows who’s executing effectively today and who has the vision and roadmap to meet tomorrow’s demands. But it’s not a detailed interrogation of product features or a guarantee of fit for your particular requirements.
That’s why the Gartner Critical Capabilities companion report is so useful. It zooms in on differentiators — why the SOAP software providers were recognized in particular areas. It asks: How well does this platform execute real-world tasks? How usable is it? What outcomes does it enable?
In the report, Gartner recommends, “When selecting a SOAP vendor, conduct thorough due diligence to understand their specific strengths in innovation, integration and responsiveness to emerging trends, rather than assuming parity in a mature market.”
Inspired by this approach, we’ve built a scorecard you can use to evaluate vendors for your particular purposes, for both functionality and fit, based on the five SOAP Use Cases.
Key capability domains to score
Each domain aligns with a Use Case from the Gartner report. Below, you’ll find:
What the domain measures
Traits to look for
A 1–5 scoring rubric
Operational resilience and IT workload execution
Inspired by the IT Workload Automation Use Case
Can the platform orchestrate and safeguard large volumes of complex, time-sensitive IT workloads?
What to evaluate:
SLA monitoring and escalation dashboards
Automated failover, retry and recovery mechanisms
Volume throughput and performance under stress
System auditability and job history tracking
How to score:
1
Minimal support; manual monitoring and recovery; no remote job monitoring; unreliable performance
2
Basic monitoring dashboards; manual recovery with some remote job monitoring
3
Real-time monitoring tools and alerts; basic recovery options; moderate reliability
4
SLA monitoring aligned with business requirements; intelligent recovery based on thresholds; strong dependency and decision-making features
5
Full observability features for monitoring and problem management with system and job performance; automated rollback/recovery; extensive dependency management and resilient job execution; high SLA integrity
Hybrid orchestration and workflow flexibility
Inspired by the IT Workflow Orchestration Use Case
How well does the platform support both business and technical workflows across hybrid environments (on-prem, multi- cloud, SaaS)?
What to evaluate:
Breadth of pre-built integrations across legacy and modern systems
Ease of orchestration across teams and technologies (e.g., low-code)
Flexibility to design, trigger and adapt complex workflows
Support for both technical and non-technical users
How to score:
1
Limited integrations; code-heavy; inflexible for cross-system workflows
2
Some inflexible connectors and code-heavy for customization; no low-code; moderate flexibility
3
Manual install for connectors; no library; limited reusability
4
Moderate connector library; community-supported connectors; some low-code options
5
Broad integration library; powerful no-code connector customization and reusable templates; non-technical user support
Data movement and pipeline governance
Inspired by the Data Orchestration Use Case
Can the platform reliably orchestrate large-scale, rule-based data flows across warehouses, lakes and BI systems?
What to evaluate:
Availability of connectors for major data platforms (e.g., Snowflake, SAP Datasphere)
Orchestration of rule-based, event-driven data flows
SLA tracking for data jobs and throughput performance
Guardrails like validations, retries and logging
How to score:
1
Integrated with legacy data management solutions and databases; manual or scripted data transfers; low throughput; poor visibility
2
Core data management with very limited third-party integrations; some file management capabilities
3
Basic data management integrations; minimal guardrails; requires customization for downstream and upstream dependency management
4
Data pipeline (SaaS, iPaaS and MF) integrations; downstream dependency management and upstream management for reporting and analytics
5
High throughput; supports dynamic event-based orchestration; data governance; proactive SLA monitoring
Can non-technical users safely create, edit and trigger automations with the right controls?
What to evaluate:
Guided self-service tools for workflow design and execution
Guardrails and governance features (e.g., approval workflows, role-based access)
Training resources and onboarding ease
Audit logs and rollback capabilities for business-created workflows
How to score:
1
Designed only for developers/IT; no guardrails
2
Business users can get scheduled reports via email for the success or failure of reports
3
Business users can consume information in the UI about workflows but cannot influence them
4
Basic human-in-the-loop capabilities — business users can input simply into workflows to manage certain stages; some support for forms or reports in the UI
5
Full customization of user experience, dashboards, forms and interfaces for visibility and management of workflows, safety checks and governance policies
DevOps readiness and automation agility
Inspired by the DevOps Automation Use Case
Does the platform integrate with DevOps toolchains and support agile release cycles?
What to evaluate:
Native plugin availability for CI/CD tools
API maturity and extensibility
Support for version control, branching, rollback and parallel pipeline execution
Ability to deploy and manage automation as code
How to score:
1
No DevOps or versioning; manual management of versioning; no way to move workflows between environments or systems for promotion of new workflows and other objects
2
Disconnected environments provide automation developers with ways to manage change, manual export and import
3
Basic support for versioning and change management between environments; rigid and inflexible promotion and versioning
4
Integrated versioning and promotion of new workflows between environments; simple integrations with DevOps ecosystems
5
Comprehensive DevOps ecosystem integrations to automate and deploy new workflows from CI/CD pipeline management tools; low-code options to integrate with new environments; extensive in-product version and deployment control
Constructing your SOAP scorecard
You don’t need a complex spreadsheet to evaluate SOAPs. Just build a simple table:
Capability domain
Score (1-5)
Weight (%)
Weighted score
IT workload execution
4
25
1.0
Workflow flexibility
5
20
1.0
Data orchestration
3
20
0.6
Citizen automation
4
15
0.6
DevOps readiness
2
20
0.4
3.6
Adjust weights based on your priorities. If you’re focused on business agility, you might weigh citizen automation more heavily. If uptime is paramount, prioritize IT workload execution.
This approach doesn’t just tell you which provider offers what you want but the depth to which that capability goes.
Interpreting your results
4.5-5.0: Top-tier platform fit, capabilities with depth
3.5-4.4: Strong candidate, likely meets core needs with some tradeoffs
2.5-3.4: Mid-tier and may require customization or compromise
<2.5: Unlikely to meet enterprise orchestration needs
Practical evaluation prompts
Use these conversation starters with vendors to dig into real-world capabilities.
“Show me how a business user can edit this workflow safely.”
“How many systems can I orchestrate without writing custom code?”
“What happens if a data transfer job fails at 2 AM?”
“Can this platform trigger deployments based on real-time events?”
“How does the SLA dashboard escalate delays or job failures?”
Where Redwood leads — and what that signals for you
Redwood Software ranked #1 in all five Use Cases in the 2025 Gartner Critical Capabilities for SOAP report. We believe that reflects more than just functional breadth and confirms Redwood’s ability to deliver real-world orchestration across IT workloads, business workflows, citizen development, data movement and DevOps. This aligns with our mission to unleash human potential through automation fabric solutions.
Digital Workforce strengthens long-term automation partnership with one of the largest utility companies in the United States.
Digital Workforce Services Plc has secured a new order valued at approximately €2.6 million from a long-standing client in the United States. The new engagement continues a successful multi-year partnership focused on scaling intelligent automation across the client’s operations.
The publicly listed utility company serves over 9 million private, public, and enterprise customers and employs over 28,000 professionals nationwide. Under the new order, Digital Workforce will continue to provide business process analysis and automation development services that support the client’s multi-platform automation strategy, driving results while optimizing technology investments and minimizing licensing costs.
A key focus of the collaboration is leveraging Microsoft Power Platform alongside SS&C Blue Prism and other technologies to identify automation opportunities, streamline operations, and deliver tangible business value. With deep expertise in Microsoft-based automation, Digital Workforce helps clients unlock agility and cost-efficiency, especially in large, federated enterprise environments.
Jussi Vasama, CEO of Digital Workforce, said: “Our collaboration with this client dates back to 2020, and this latest order reflects the trust we’ve built through consistent, high-quality service delivery. Together, we’ve successfully automated over 120 business processes across various functions. Our hybrid delivery model – combining a dedicated U.S. on-site team with global automation experts, ensures rapid implementation and scalable support, all while keeping operational overhead low.”
Digital Workforce’s business process automation services are designed to help enterprises move fast, reduce complexity, and accelerate value creation. Through close collaboration, clients can build automation capabilities internally and realize long-term benefits across their organizations.
For further information, please contact:
Jussi Vasama, CEO, Digital Workforce Services Plc, Tel. +358 50 380 9893
About Digital Workforce Services Plc Digital Workforce Services Plc is a leader in business automation and technology solutions. Its Outsmart platform and services, including Enterprise AI Agent solutions, empower organizations to transform knowledge work, reduce costs, accelerate digitalization, enhance customer experiences, and strengthen their competitive edge. Over 200 large international organizations rely on the company’s services to drive transformation through automation. Digital Workforce has particular expertise in automating healthcare and social care pathways, advancing long-term condition follow-up, improving patient safety, and enhancing the productivity of healthcare professionals. Founded in 2015, Digital Workforce employs over 200 business automation specialists across the US, UK & Ireland, and Northern and Central Europe. The company is listed on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market Finland.
Join us for our live webinar, featuring Hugh Pelling (Sales Director UK&I at Digital Workforce) and Kieran Watts (Industry Lead, Claims & Service Innovation at Digital Workforce), as they explore how AI agents, such as the Agent Workforce’s Agents, can reduce friction, boost efficiency, and enhance the experience for both customers and claims teams when working alongside human experts.
They’ll share practical insights from the world of Private Medical Insurance (PMI), where clarity, responsiveness, and accuracy are essential.
Press Release: 4.7.2025, 8:00am – Kanta Transfer Success: The Wellbeing Services County of Central Uusimaa Retires Legacy Systems, Saving Nearly €1M Annually
The Wellbeing Services County of Central Uusimaa procured a centralized client and patient information system in 2020 to replace the various legacy systems previously used across its organization. However, the introduction of the new system did not lead to the immediate retirement of the old ones — legacy systems had to remain operational until all data stored in them had been successfully transferred to the national Kanta services or the county’s own archives. Maintaining multiple systems in parallel resulted in significant costs and additional administrative burden for the county.
To retire the legacy systems as quickly as possible, the Wellbeing Services County launched an archiving project in spring 2024, supported by an automation-driven solution. Digital Workforce was selected as the implementation partner through an open tendering process, and the project was delivered in collaboration with subcontractor Atostek.
The data transfer project covered the county’s Pegasos- and Mukana -healthcare systems and ProConsona social care system. The entire archiving effort was completed within 15 months, with the project timeline calculated from the first steering group meeting.
Through the archiving project, the county was able to decommission its legacy systems in a controlled manner, securely transfer all data under statutory retention obligations to national or regional archives, and reduce the costs and risks associated with maintaining old systems.
“All project objectives were achieved, and the extensive implementation was completed on schedule. We were particularly pleased with the clear project governance, smooth communication, and our partners’ solution-oriented approach—even in challenging situations. The project benefited greatly from their deep understanding of the Kanta transfer requirements and ability to support decision-making with well-reasoned solution options”, says Hanna Downton, ICT Area Manager at The Wellbeing Services County of Central Uusimaa, and continues:
“The use of automation was essential for the rapid completion of the project. Thanks to this, we were able to exit our legacy systems on schedule, bringing us annual savings of approximately one million euros and freeing expert resources for other tasks.”
“We’re proud to serve as a trusted partner to wellbeing services counties in completing the critical system transitions. Our collaboration with the specialists at Central Uusimaa was flexible and positive throughout the project. We’re pleased that our automation solution could support their success”, says Juha Nieminen, Head of Healthcare Nordics, Digital Workforce.
“We have implemented Kanta transfers together with Digital Workforce for nearly half of Finland’s wellbeing services counties. In every joint project, the division of responsibilities and execution have run seamlessly. Our solution is based on Digital Workforce’s robotic process automation (RPA) and Atostek’s ERA platform. The data extraction is performed using RPA, which enables agile and system-independent implementation. The conversion and transfer to the Kanta archive are carried out via the ERA platform, which is designed for managing social and healthcare data”, explains Miika Parvio, Director of ERA Services at Atostek.
For more information:
Marja Heikkinen, Key Account Manager, Digital Workforce
Email: marja.heikkinen@digitalworkforce.com
About Digital Workforce Services Plc
Digital Workforce Services Plc is a leader in business automation and technology solutions. Its Outsmart platform and services, including Enterprise AI Agent solutions, empower organizations to transform knowledge work, reduce costs, accelerate digitalization, enhance customer experiences, and strengthen their competitive edge. Over 200 large international organizations rely on the company’s services to drive transformation through automation. Digital Workforce has particular expertise in automating healthcare and social care pathways, advancing long-term condition follow-up, improving patient safety, and enhancing the productivity of healthcare professionals. Founded in 2015, Digital Workforce employs over 200 business automation specialists across the US, UK & Ireland, and Northern and Central Europe. The company is listed on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market Finland. https://digitalworkforce.com
Press Release: 4.7.2025, 8:00am – Kanta Transfer Success: The Wellbeing Services County of Central Uusimaa Retires Legacy Systems, Saving Nearly €1M Annually
Healthcare organizations are facing millions in revenue loss due to complex claim denials, high-value procedures that require in-depth knowledge and analysis, have tight timelines, and are labor-intensive to appeal. Traditional denial workflows are no match for today’s volume and complexity.
Join us and our partners at Elliott Health Information Pros, Inc. (EHIP), for a practical and eye-opening session on how leading healthcare systems are modernizing denial workflows using targeted, cost-effective automation & AI to amplify the impact of existing denial teams — especially for high-cost, complex procedures.
Key Takeaways:
AI-powered automation enhances your complex denial team, it doesn’t replace them
– Bots and AI Agents streamline tasks so subject matter experts can focus on strategic decisions and the complexities of these denials.
Automation boosts performance across the board- faster resolution times, higher appeal success rates, leading to increased revenue for the organization
Root Cause Analysis helps guide process improvements and mitigation strategies to prevent denials from happening in the first place
Your data holds the answers – Leveraging EMR, billing, and coding data through automation unlocks actionable insights that were previously out of reach.
Who Should Attend?
This session is designed for:
Revenue Cycle Leaders
Denials and Appeals Teams
Patient Access Directors
CIOs and IT Stakeholders
CFOs
Anyone struggling with high-dollar, high-complexity denials
18.7.2025 07:30 EEST | Digital Workforce Services Plc Inside Information
Digital Workforce Services Plc Company Announcement
18.7.2025 07:30 EEST
Inside Information: Digital Workforce acquires e18 Consulting Ltd and becomes a leading provider in the UK healthcare automation market
Digital Workforce has today, 18 July 2025, signed an agreement to acquire the entire share capital of the UK-based e18 Consulting Ltd. The completion of this complementary and strategic acquisition enhances profitable international growth in the healthcare sector.
Highlights of the arrangement
Digital Workforce has today signed an agreement to acquire the entire share capital of e18 Consulting Ltd. The acquisition is expected to be completed on 1 October 2025 at the latest.
The enterprise value (EV) of the acquisition is 5 million pounds (5.8 million euros).
The estimated equity value is around 5.7 – 5.9 million pounds (6.6 – 6.8 million euros) depending on the balance sheet at the time of the transaction, based on which adjustments are made for net debt and net working capital.
Additional consideration is tied to the development of e18’s EBITDA and can be a maximum of 6.3 million pounds (7.3 million euros) depending on the EBITDA levels of the next two financial years, and it will be paid annually after each fiscal year.
20% of the purchase price and additional consideration will be paid in shares through a directed share issue to the sellers and 80% as cash consideration. The payments will be made in British pounds. The Board of Directors of Digital Workforce will decide on the directed share issue with the authorization of the Annual General Meeting 2025 before its implementation.
The strategic acquisition expands Digital Workforce’s international growth opportunities and market potential, makes the company a leading provider in the automation of social and healthcare care pathways in the UK, and improves cross-selling and upselling opportunities in all current target markets.
e18 Consulting Ltd’s revenue in 2024 was EUR 4.91 million euros , its operating margin (EBITDA) was EUR 0.65 million euros and its operating profit was EUR 0.65 million, representing 13.2% of net sales.
e18’s clients include dozens of NHS organizations across numerous Integrated Care Systems (ICS), from acute trusts, to community & mental health providers, and primary care networks. The NHS (National Health Service) is the UK’s national and tax-funded healthcare system. It consists of more than 200 NHS Trusts, which are organizations providing healthcare services.
The acquisition does not affect the guidance for the year 2025.
The acquisition executes Digital Workforce’s strategy to grow through M&A and is one of the cornerstones of the strategy journey in growing the healthcare business globally and achieving a market leader position in social and healthcare care pathway solutions. With the acquisition, Digital Workforce will become one of the UK’s largest providers of intelligent automation solutions. The acquisition of e18 Consulting Ltd will bring Digital Workforce the strongest local NHS automation expertise on the market, a proven delivery model, and long-term customer contracts.
Jussi Vasama, CEO of Digital Workforce:
“Our goals for the strategy period are to use AI to revolutionize the way large organizations do knowledge work, to become the market leader in social and healthcare care pathway solutions, and to achieve a turnover of EUR 50 million in 2026. Organic growth is expected to generate a turnover of approximately EUR 40 million, and inorganic growth of approximately EUR 10 million. The acquisition of e18 supports our strategy in many ways. With the acquisition, healthcare will clearly become our largest vertical, enabling synergy benefits in repeatable care pathway automation solutions and significant new growth opportunities for sales. By joining forces with fast-growing and profitable e18 Consulting Ltd, we will gain the strongest NHS automation expertise on the market, a proven Digital Workforce delivery team, continuous Outsmart automation services, and deep-rooted trust in customers. Together, we offer the best, most innovative, and most reliable automation and AI solutions on the market to help healthcare organizations meet growing demand, improve patient care, and optimize resources. I warmly welcome the entire e18 team to Digital Workforce.”
Louise Wall, CEO of e18 Consulting Ltd:
“Joining forces with Digital Workforce is a defining moment for e18. After years of successful collaboration, this next step accelerates our mission to transform healthcare delivery through intelligent automation. With the UK government committing £10 billion to digital transformation, we’re now ideally positioned to help NHS organizations unlock funding and deliver meaningful outcomes—across both clinical and corporate services. Our focus remains entirely on the NHS. With greater scale and deeper technical capability behind us, we can go further and faster—bringing innovative, vendor-agnostic solutions that deliver measurable impact and long-term value. For our NHS partners, this means continuity, expanded expertise, and even greater delivery strength. For our team, it opens up new opportunities to lead at scale while staying grounded in the values that define us. And for our new colleagues and investors at Digital Workforce, we bring deep NHS knowledge, a proven operating model, and long-standing, trusted relationships.”
Implementation of the acquisition
The owners of Digital Workforce and e18 Consulting Ltd have signed the share purchase agreement today, 18 July 2025. The transaction is expected to be completed on 1 October 2025 at the latest.
The total purchase price of the e18 Consulting Ltd acquisition consists of both a fixed purchase price and an additional consideration. The enterprise value (EV) of the acquisition is 5.8 million euros. The estimated equity value is around 6.6 – 6.8 million euros depending on the balance sheet at the time of the transaction, based on which adjustments are made for net debt and net working capital. Additional consideration is a maximum of 7.3 million euros depending on the EBITDA levels of the next two financial years, and it will be paid annually after each fiscal year. 20 percent of the purchase price and additional consideration will be paid through a directed share issue and 80 percent as cash consideration. The purchase price will be paid in British pounds.
The entire share capital of e18 Consulting Ltd will be transferred to Digital Workforce’s ownership on or about 1 October 2025 at the latest. In the transaction, the company founder, Louise Wall, will become a significant shareholder in Digital Workforce. In connection with the completion of the transaction, the Board of Directors of Digital Workforce will carry out a directed share issue based on the share issue authorization granted by the Annual General Meeting on 11 April 2025 as part of the payment of the purchase price to the sellers of e18 Consulting Ltd’s shares, on the condition that NSIA approves the transaction. The details of a potential directed share issue will be announced in connection with the completion of the acquisition.
Of the employees of e18 Consulting Ltd, all those involved in operational activities will continue in their current roles. e18 Consulting Ltd will continue as an independent company for the time being, strongly integrated with Digital Workforce’s intelligent automation businesses.
Strategic rationale
This is a complementary acquisition that is well suited to the significant expansion of Digital Workforce’s healthcare vertical business. As a result of the transaction, healthcare will become by far the company’s largest industry. With the acquisition, Digital Workforce will become one of the largest automation providers in healthcare automation solutions in the UK.
This acquisition reinforces Digital Workforce’s growing presence in the UK and supports the company’s strategic focus on profitable and international growth. e18 Consulting Ltd has an excellent reputation as a high-quality provider of automation services and long and stable customer relationships. In addition, their team has a very deep and extensive local knowledge of NHS processes and practices. e18 Consulting Ltd’s clients include dozens of NHS organizations across numerous Integrated Care Systems (ICS), from acute trusts, to community & mental health providers, and primary care networks.
The National Health Service, NHS, is a major healthcare system with more than 63 million registered patients, more than 100 million outpatient clinic visits, and approximately 20 million treatment cycles each year. There are 229 NHS Trusts in the UK.
The NHS’s operating expenses are more than GBP 170 billion annually. The UK government has committed to providing £10 billion in additional funding for digital transformation. Digital Workforce sees that the local process automation market is a few years behind the Nordic market. This provides good opportunities to scale and expand the customer solutions implemented in the Nordics in the UK.
The acquisition combines e18’s award-winning NHS automation history with Digital Workforce’s technical excellence and delivery capacity in Europe and North America. Together, the team will continue to support NHS organizations while accelerating towards Digital Workforce’s strategic goal of becoming a leading provider of automation and AI services globally.
More information on e18 Consulting Ltd
Founded in 2015, e18 Consulting provides market-leading intelligent automation solutions and services to the NHS. e18 Consulting works in strategic partnership with NHS customers and supports all aspects of automation programs, from design and implementation to optimization and scaling. With the help of e18 Consulting Ltd NHS organizations achieve sustainable results, improving workforce productivity, streamlining processes, and providing high-quality care to patients. e18 Consulting Ltd works in close collaboration with NHS teams to expand their skills and promote self-sufficiency over time. As a market leader, e18 drives collaboration and knowledge sharing across the NHS to accelerate ROI, maximize value, and achieve sustainable transformation in healthcare delivery.
e18 Consulting Ltd’s net sales for the financial year ended 31 August 2024 were EUR 4.91 million and EBITDA was EUR 0.65 million.
e18 Consulting Ltd will continue as an independent company for the time being, and the company’s figures will be reported as part of the Digital Workforce Group as of completion (expected October 1, 2025).
e18 Consulting Ltd’s key figures 2023–2024
Income statement
(1000 EUR)
2024
2023
Turnover
4 908
4 172
EBITDA
649
537
Operating profit
646
533
Operating profit %
13,2 %
12,8 %
Balance sheet
(1000 EUR)
2024
2023
Fixed assets
11
11
Short-term receivables
2 807
4 360
Cash equivalents
2 778
2 179
Short-term liabilities
4 249
5 668
Shareholders’ equity
1 347
883
Total balance sheet
5 596
6 550
Note: The company reports in pounds sterling and the figures have been translated into euros at a conversion rate of 1.15221 (the exchange rate confirmed by the ECB on 15 July 2025). The figures concerning the purchase price have also been translated from pounds to euros at the same rate.
For further information, please contact:
Jussi Vasama, CEO, Digital Workforce Services Plc, Tel. +358 50 380 98937
Certified adviser: Aktia Alexander Corporate Finance Oy, Tel. +358 50 520 40988
About Digital Workforce Digital Workforce Services Plc is a leading service provider focused on business automation and technology solutions. With the Digital Workforce Outsmart platform and services, including AI agents, customer organizations can transform knowledge work, save costs, accelerate digitalization, increase revenue, and improve customer experience and competitiveness. More than 200 large international customers use the company’s services to develop their operations through automation. Digital Workforce is particularly strong in automating customer and treatment paths in health and social care, promoting the monitoring of chronic diseases, improving patient safety and increasing the productivity of nursing staff. The company was founded in 2015 and employs more than 200 business automation professionals in the US, UK, Ireland and Northern and Central Europe. Digital Workforce is listed on Nasdaq First North Growth Market. https://digitalworkforce.com
