With necessity being the mother of invention, the acquisition of API integration platform Cloud Elements Inc. by automation company UiPath Inc. was prompted by the need for API to be an excellent structure for UI automation.

This merger was meant to bring forth the first company to seamlessly join UI automation with API integration, according to Mark Geene (pictured, left), general manager at UiPath and former CEO and co-founder of Cloud Elements.

“Integration and RPA have been separate swim lanes, and what we saw together with UiPath was the ability to combine these together,” he explained. “Six months later … we’re introducing our combined offering of UiPath Integration Service that essentially takes what Cloud Elements built and embeds it right into UiPath’s automation.”

Geene and Peter Villeroy (pictured, right), director of the global IT Automation Practice at UiPath, spoke with Dave Vellante and Lisa Martin, co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during UiPath’s Forward IV conference. They discussed how UiPath’s acquisition of Cloud Elements led to the combination of UI automation and API integration. (* Disclosure below.)

Simplifying business processes with UI automation and API integration

UiPath Integration Service is meant to make complex business systems easier, according to Geene.

“A purchase order from NetSuite might take five or six API calls to do … so we’ll chain together those five or six API calls to make that a simple process,” he stated.

To revamp the user interface, Villeroy trusts that combining RPA and API is fundamental.

“The empowerment of end users to automate things for themselves is critical to expanding success,” he noted.

The world of software and large financial services institutions, including U.S. Bancorp, Capital One and American Express, had a common need to have an API-centric approach to connect to customers and partners, according to Geene.  

“So more and more companies are seeing what UiPath saw — that if you’re going to automate every process and every department for every person, you need to connect to every application that they’re using,” he stated.

By bringing the two worlds of API integration and automation together, Geene believes more opportunities will be unlocked.

“The combination of UI-driven automation and API-native integrations is key, especially to the IT leadership that I work with … to show them the power of a hyperautomation platform in delivering value in a number of spaces in IT,” Villeroy concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of UiPath’s Forward IV conference. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the UiPath’s Forward IV conference. Neither UiPath Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE