Ultima's new RPA unit will 'become the core business' - software boss
Head of reseller’s new software development arm opens up on how its products will complement its business solutions
Reseller Ultima's new software development arm is expected to eventually become the "core of the business", according to the new unit's head Amyn Jaffer.
Jaffer heads up Ultima Labs, which is an independent arm of Ultima but will operate like an independent software vendor (ISV) selling its software to other vendors like Blue Prism.
"Ultima Labs is really focused on looking at where the pain points are with adopting automation and addressing those pain points through developing software solutions," Jaffer explained to CRN.
"Previously, we would be out doing delivery of RPA and developing automation processes for customers. Now we are developing our own IP; Ultima Labs is purely a software development arm concerned with creating commercial products that we can take to market."
Ultima Labs will concentrate on creating products that will bring recurring revenue through licensing and managed services to the organisation, Jaffer said, adding that in the long term he expects it to be the main revenue driver for the business.
"The way we see Ultima Labs pushing the revenue going forward will almost flip from a professional services organisation to more of a software product and managed service organisation," he elaborated.
"I think Ultima will eventually become Ultima Labs and that will be the core of the business."
The ISV is already working on several products around cloud automation and end-user compute automation, including its flagship product IA-Connect, which allows for fast and secure automation of processes over the likes of Microsoft RDS and Citrix Cloud, and will provide a route into other automation tools in the future.
Any software or product developed by the new unit will align with Ultima's overall business strategy and will not conflict with its vendor partners' portfolios, Jaffer added.
"Everything that we're developing is to complement what the vendors are doing," he stated.
"For example, we're working closely with Blue Prism - one of the largest RPA companies in the world - developing our solutions alongside them so that we're not treading on any toes and we're producing something that complements what they're doing.
"They're actually putting us in front of their customers because they know that the solution helps them to sell their products."
Competitors will be allowed to resell products created by Ultima Labs. Beyond its flagship product, the ISV is building a platform that helps its global customers adopt automation.
"Our customers are looking for more subscription models, they're looking for innovation and how they can change the way they're doing things and how they are partnering with organisations such as ours, so we're adapting our business model to facilitate that," Jaffer said.
"We're evolving Ultima to align with what our customers want because we - along with anyone else out there in business - are susceptible to disruption; we're almost disrupting ourselves with Ultima Labs."
However, though Ultima is branching out with its Labs unit, it will not be abandoning its core professional services business.
Last year saw it took on outside investment for the first time in its 30-year history, from private equity house Apse Capital. Jaffer said that the new owner has been supportive of this new venture while anchoring Ultima to its core professional services business, which will remain its main revenue driver.
"While we might have gone through this if we hadn't been under new ownership, they're really good at supporting us in the decisions that we want to make and the way we want the business to go, provided business and financial governance is honoured," he stated.
"While we're setting up this division, they're making sure that we're not forgetting about our core business - that we're not throwing all our money down the Ultima Labs route and forgetting about where the real revenue comes from in the short term."