Emerging Vendors

October 20, 2009

Company: Network Automation

Headquarters: Los Angeles

Technology Sector: Software

Key Product: BPA Server 7

Year Founded: 2004

Number of Channel Partners: 10 in North America; 50 worldwide

Ideal Channel Partner: Midmarket-focused solution providers

Why You Should Care: Network Automation has removed the complexity of business process automation software to the point where midmarket customers can easily deploy it and enjoy its benefits.

The Lowdown: The cost and complexity of business process automation software once kept all but the largest enterprises from deploying it. But the economic turmoil has focused greater attention on the cost savings and general business efficiency that business process automation can bring to smaller companies.

For Network Automation, a software vendor in the business process automation space, the economic uncertainty has opened ample opportunities in the midmarket. For the past five years, Los Angeles-based Network Automation has been fine-tuning its proprietary technology that automates processes over the network that previously required a considerable amount of coding batch files, scripts and other forms of custom application development.

Network Automation BPA Server 7

One key selling point of Network Automation's flagship product, BPA Server 7, is that it lets companies design automated workflows to execute on multiple machines in different geographies, said Marty Gadzinowski, vice president of sales and marketing. The company now has a growing base of midmarket customers that have been using business process automation to increase efficiency and shave operational costs, said Gadzinowski.

"We allow midmarket customers to deploy and manage processes across multiple machines without any coding," said Gadzinowski. "Previously, administrators would have to write scripts and batch files, but now they can implement these in an automated fashion and add workflow events through a drag-and-drop interface."

Network Automation has 10 resellers in the U.S., including CDW and Software Spectrum, and has 40 international partners. Gadzinowski said Network Automation is in the process of recruiting more strategic U.S. channel partners.