Blue Prism, one of the world's leaders in robotic process automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning, is saving over £1 million in cloud costs at a time of phenomenal growth. This follows expert analysis from cloud architects at Bytes, armed with the latest in-house optimisation tools. 

Headquartered in London and operating globally, Blue Prism is breaking new ground in intelligent automation. Typically, its clients - which include many of the world's largest brands - are boosting productivity and able to free up over 30% of their workforce within just 12 months and with no changes to any existing systems, tools or processes.

The company's tech works alongside human employees, absorbing the drudgery of repetitive tasks with ultra-fast and accurate processes. Recent successes have included virtual assistants that handle the payroll for councils, digital helpers that compile policies for insurance companies, and virtual workers that enable clinics to see more patients. 

Blue Prism was growing fast and driving into new industries. The company was named as Growth Champion of the Year at the Growth Investor Awards at the end of 2018. Its HQ and regional offices in the UK and US were now working with a network of strategic partners offering skilled resources in over 25 countries. But the success of its always-on software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform meant Blue Prism faced a significant challenge managing its growing cloud spend. The company needed specialist expertise to help control operational costs as its Microsoft Azure estate was increasing continually and the bill was now exceeding £1m per year. 

Put simply, Blue Prism needed a new tech partner with the ability to go deep with its cloud operations and find answers. The company found the expertise it needed with Bytes, which manages in excess of £350 million in Azure business for companies that operate the world over. 

Cloud architects from Bytes got to work - first by understanding Blue Prism's SaaS platform, then by exploring its cloud strategy and its spend commitment levels. The team used the advanced Bytes Cloud Platform Management (CPM) tool, Quantum, to analyse consumption data, build forecasting projections and identify the best commercial model. This involved Bytes' cloud architects right-sizing and re-classifying virtual machines from a technical perspective to ensure their long-term optimisation. 

Having shaped and fine-tuned the technology, Bytes then looked at cost efficiency using its Cloud Investment Management Service (CIMS) - which helps businesses to stay on top of cloud consumption, where costs can be dynamic and often unpredictable. Bytes CIMS can prove a game-changer. It provides proactive 360-degree monitoring and management of cloud spend, identification of new workloads with on-going recommendations for consumption models - and it's been key to Bytes saving £400,000 on average for customers with each engagement. 

The move paid off for Blue Prism. The Bytes CIMS analysis revealed that the company could save a staggering £1 million-plus in its Azure cloud costs over three years by switching to a smarter commercial structure. Allowing Blue Prism to continuously re-invest in new cutting edge advances in their technology. Bytes enabled Blue Prism to make the switch, migrating from a traditional transactional Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) to a managed Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) model. The move was fully funded and replaced a capital cost every three years with a monthly subscription. Bytes provide monthly finance for pre-purchased compute and capacity (via reserved instances) to enable a smooth transition and continuous management of their cloud investments.

With leading cloud expertise from Bytes, Blue Prism now enjoys clear business advantages:

• Significant savings: Bytes' experts were able to reduce Blue Prism's future cloud costs on Azure by 30%.
• Perfect platform for growth: Blue Prism can continue to thrive and grow, safe in the knowledge that costs won't spiral out of control. The new CSP commercial model also provides huge benefits around flexibility and support.
• Continuous improvement: Bytes provides 24/7 monitoring and management, using consumption data to drive continuous improvement as Blue Prism's business continues to develop and expand.

The partnership between the two companies is blossoming in other ways too. Blue Prism has joined the Bytes ISV (Independent Software Vendor) Partner Program. This means that Bytes' Microsoft cloud team can now introduce intelligent automation solutions from Blue Prism to thousands of Bytes customers in the UK.

"It's a true win-win and testament to a great working relationship for both businesses," says Steven Harris, ISV Manager at Bytes.