UiPath has strong relationships with most of the global system integrators, and will be announcing more extensions of these partnerships going forward, but the Deloitte one involves so many joint customers that it is being announced now.
Chris Morgan, Global Vice President, Partners and Alliances at UiPath
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software vendor UiPath has announced a formal alliance with Global Systems Integrator [GSI] Deloitte. For Deloitte customers, it means more UiPath technology being available in more parts of Deloitte’s business. For UiPath, the market validation is just as important as the enhanced business opportunities. While Deloitte is not a new partner for them – and they have a vast ecosystem of GSI partners – they see this alliance as an important shout-out to the market, which draws attention to the large amount of business they are already doing with Deloitte.
While UiPath, like the rest of the PSA industry, started out direct, and a majority of their sales are still that way, their channel has been growing in importance, and the GSIs are a key part of that.
“We now have almost 1000 partners globally, from very specific RPA-focused boutiques, to large SAP and Oracle partners, to the GSIs,” said Chris Morgan, Global Vice President, Partners and Alliances at UiPath.
The GSIs do play a key role, however. Last fall’s #UiPathForward Americas had a who’s-who of GSIs there as sponsor partners, something that Morgan said will be equalled or exceeded at this fall’s event.
“This October will see every GSI participate and be a major sponsor,” he stated. “There is something the big GSIs see in us that they like.”
Morgan says that UiPath slots GSIs into three particular roles.
“We have delivery partners like Cognizant and CapGemini, advisory partners like EY and Deloitte, and ones like Accenture who do both,” he stated, “Our customers engage these partners for different reasons. We see them all as part of a community of peers and work with them based on the needs.”
Deloitte is already a highly significant partner for UiPath. The two companies have over 100 projects deployed globally, across a broad range of industries and sectors. Thousands of Deloitte consultants have already been trained on UiPath. Morgan said that the importance of the alliance being announced just the new business it will bring in, but also the message it sends to the market.
That market is a robust one, and while approximately 20 players are identified and ranked by both Forrester and Gartner, UiPath, together with competitors Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere, are classified by both as the clear leaders in the space. While UiPath was slightly ahead in the most recent ranking from both, the kind of validation this partnership provides is important to the company.
“Everybody wants to partner with a company like Deloitte,” Morgan stated. “It’s a validation of our market leadership position. It shows the value that they attach to us, to expand our RPA into more of their business lines.”
Morgan noted that even though the companies already have an established relationship, from Deloitte’s end, the extension of the partnership was a major project.
“They have a very arduous vetting process, and this took over a year,” he indicated. “They are very serious about who they partner with, as are we.”
Morgan pointed out that this new relationship does not make Deloitte a first among equals among UiPath’s GSI partners.
“We already have this level of relationship with Cognizant,” he said. “At #UiPathForward this fall we will have a partner day where we will make more announcements around our tech partnerships. We are holding that payload at this point. But with Deloitte, we have hundreds of projects with them, and it’s important for the market to know that we are closely aligned.”
There will be other important channel news at the fall event as well, Morgan indicated.
“We will be making some announcements with Oracle and SAP partners there too,” he said.
