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With the pandemic forcing a dramatic shift in the predominantly white-collar labor market, investors may want to adjust their stocks to buy to accommodate the future of work. As McKinsey & Company pointed out, innovations such as artificial intelligence and automation may bolster productivity. At the same time, people have also encountered difficulties associated with AI-driven protocols. For instance, CNET attracted criticism for its AI-generated content. As well, automation sometimes represents a dirty word for redundancies and thus layoffs. Therefore, significant vagaries exist regarding which stocks to buy.

Nevertheless, it’s becoming clear that whether productivity occurs in the office or at home, digitalization represents a recurring motif. Therefore, the below stocks to buy may be appropriate for forward-thinking investors.

Coursera (COUR)

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A U.S.-based massive open online course provider, Coursera (NYSE:COUR) may be one of the most important stocks to buy for the future of work. With digitalization, knowledge has never been more accessible. For instance, people can learn to do just about anything on various video-sharing platforms. However, both prospective clients and employers will need some way to sift through substance from empty rhetoric.

Enter Coursera. Offering a wide curriculum of relevant courses, students can pick up degrees and professional certificates. Further, reviewers claim that Coursera certificates command respect and recognition among universities and workplaces. To be fair, COUR represents one of the riskier names among stocks to buy for the future of work. Although it’s up over 19% since the January opener, in the trailing year, it gave up 30% of equity value. Still, for the contrarians, a sole covering analyst rates COUR as a buy. Further, hedge funds have been inching their exposure higher.

Adobe (ADBE)

Source: Vova Shevchuk / Shutterstock.com

At first glance, Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) might not seem the ideal candidate for stocks to buy for the future of work. As you probably know, the broader political ecosystem focuses on STEM education for a reason. Technology is where Americans will compete as various nations wrangle for top ranking in innovation. Still, when it comes to the workforce, not everyone will be directly involved in tech. Further, with the burgeoning gig economy, the rise of independent contractors cover every conceivable industry, boding well for the creatives. In turn, Adobe should have a bright future.

Plus, programs such as Adobe Photoshop feature extensive relevancies. For instance, even tech startups need brand logos to get their name out into the marketing ecosystem. Again, this should bode very well for Adobe. Turning to Wall Street, analysts peg ADBE as a consensus moderate buy. Admittedly, their average price target of $380.17 implies only upside potential of 1%. However, as the digitalization (and independence) of the workforce continues, ADBE will be a name to watch.

Microsoft (MSFT)

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As I’ve previously stated, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) neatly fits into several themes associated with stocks to buy. Featuring a massive software and hardware library, it’s difficult to find where Microsoft isn’t relevant. Naturally, as a leader in digitalization solutions, MSFT represents a critical cog in the future of work.

Recently, the company announced a major upgrade to its Bing search engine. Undergirded by the popular chatbot ChatGPT, Bing now features a more intuitive interface. Quite possibly, this development could lead to greater productivity for content creators and other independent professionals. Thus, it’s a potential boon for the gig economy. Aside from that, Microsoft delivers various business programs and communication protocols. Therefore, whether the future of work stays in the living room or ends back at the office, Microsoft offers a compelling solution.

Currently, Wall Street analysts peg MSFT as a consensus strong buy. Further, their average price target stands at $291.07, implying upside potential of 10.41%.

Meta Platforms (META)

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To be sure, tech and social media stalwart Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) suffered a massive beatdown last year. Therefore, META might seem unusually risky for inclusion among stocks to buy for the future of work. However, shares gained nearly 43% of equity value since the January opener, a stunning performance. While it doesn’t erase 2022’s losses – it’s still down 22% in the trailing year – it’s a great start.

Fundamentally, as the world’s biggest social media network, Meta commands serious clout for the future of work. While it might lack the direct business protocols of say Microsoft’s Office suite, it more than holds its own regarding the networking potential. As the adage goes, it’s not what you know but who you know that matters. Further, independent contractors or gig workers can use Meta’s Facebook network to build brand awareness and engagement. Therefore, in the long run, I’m not as concerned about the digital advertising slowdown. At some point, enterprises will have to advertise. Presently, Wall Street analysts peg META as a consensus strong buy with an implied upside potential of 20%.

PayPal (PYPL)

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As with Meta Platforms above, PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) didn’t enjoy a good outing in 2022. In the trailing year, shares stumbled a bit over 34%. What’s more conspicuous is that PYPL only gained 5% since the January opener. Obviously, such a lackluster performance raises alarm bells. Nevertheless, contrarians may want to target PYPL as one of the stocks to buy for the future of work.

Notably, Truist Securities analyst Andrew Jeffrey stated earlier this year that investors maintain too bleak a view for the digital payment processor. Instead, Jeffrey sees resurgent growth potential in e-commerce. From the work component’s side, PayPal offers gig workers an excellent business application solution. Utilizing its trusted platform, independent professionals can invoice their clients for their products and services. As well, PayPal keeps tabs on all transactions in an intuitive format – excellent for tax-filing purposes. Despite criticisms, overall, PayPal enjoys a consensus moderate buy view. Also, covering analysts anticipate PYPL hitting $100.33, implying upside potential of nearly 28%.

Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL)

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While it’s always difficult to bank on the future of anything, when it comes to work, it’s foolish not to consider Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) as one of the stocks to buy. Sure, no one can reliably predict the daily ins and outs of GOOG. And to be completely transparent, shares stunk up the field in 2022. During the trailing year, GOOG remains down 31%.

However, Alphabet’s Google ecosystem will likely keep the overall enterprise relevant for decades, perhaps centuries. While Google’s search engine business may experience some modest pressure from ChatGPT-enabled platforms, I wouldn’t sweat it too much. ChatGPT still has kinks to work out. More importantly, Google search and ChatGPT focus on different target objectives, with the former representing an indexing of information while the latter attempts a true AI-based interfacing.

Plus, Google’s ubiquity and connectivity enables anyone to share information from anywhere in the world. Gig workers can attest to its utilitarian offerings. Finally, Wall Street analysts peg GOOG as a consensus strong buy with an implied upside target of 30.53%.

Upwork (UPWK)

Source: Funstock / Shutterstock.com

Formerly known as Elance-oDesk, Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) made the critical decision to change its name. As an online freelancing platform connecting companies with independent professionals, Upwork represents direct cog of the gig economy. With white-collar employees receiving a taste of the gig worker’s lifestyle, Upwork may rise significantly over the next several years.

Let’s be clear about something, though – UPWK represents a massive risk. True, shares gained over 21% on a year-to-date basis from where I stand now. However, during the trailing year, UPWK gave up nearly 54% of equity value. It’s not just about the technicals either. Frankly, Upwork currently rates as fiscally underpowered and thus overvalued (despite the aforementioned 54% loss).

Nevertheless, the gig economy might reach a valuation of $873 billion by 2028. That’s more than Turkey’s economy right now. As long as Upwork keeps chugging, it should play a relevant role. Finally, Wall Street analysts peg UPWK as a consensus strong buy. As well, their average price target stands at $17.67, implying over 35% upside potential. Thus, it’s a great speculative candidate for stocks to buy.

On the date of publication, Josh Enomoto did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

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 Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma and The Innovator’s Prescription, has shown that failure results from being slow to react and embrace new opportunities in the market in a way that addresses the disruptive impact of rapid changes in technology. 

The healthcare industry ecosystem is changing –with potentially radical implications for your products. The distinctions between medical devices and information systems are blurring, with devices increasingly managing more data and information systems increasingly connecting directly with medical devices. Value is shifting from standalone devices and information systems to integrated, interoperable information exchange capable solutions that directly contribute to better care outcomes.

How can you make sure that your product development efforts are focused in those areas that provide the greatest value? It all starts by adopting a “systems thinking” approach to your product and the environment in which it operates.

Why Use Systems Thinking?

Systems thinking is fundamentally different from other analysis and solution construction techniques. It is an approach in which the goal is the synthesis of a whole product solution as opposed to a focus on a system decomposed into solution components. Where other techniques focus on breaking down a problem into smaller constituent parts, systems thinking takes an expanded view to understand the set of relationships and interactions needed to create a complete solution – or to fix longstanding problems.

A vendor of hospital and clinical information systems encountered tremendous problems when trying to move a mature client-server product to the cloud. They needed to rethink security, data integrity, customization, software upgrade, and a raft of other needs. Stepping back and taking a systems thinking approach allowed them to more quickly see how all these challenges were connected and to more quickly and comprehensively understand the impact of each solution decision on the whole.

Systems thinking provides a rigorous way of aligning stakeholders, purpose, process, and expected behaviors to drive solution development, resulting in the following benefits:

• Solves complex problems, by bringing a consistent, big-picture view to all stakeholders that focuses on the prioritized value needs of the complete solution.

• Addresses recurring problems such as those that arise from ever increasing technical debt and changing expectations.

• Ensures higher quality early-stage product conception and design.

• Integrating multiple stakeholder perspectives in the process.

• Creating a shared understanding of the overall problem and the solution purpose.

• Establishing value-driven priorities to guide architecture, design, and development.

• Identifies where you may need to partner to address capability or core competency challenges.

• Identifies additional (often hidden) business value and opportunity.

Systems Thinking – Basic Principles

The principles of systems thinking address:

1.) Purposefulness – capturing not only what your product does or intends to do, but understanding why the users and other stakeholders do what they do with your product within the context of completing their tasks and activities.

2.) Composition – the ability to reach the right compromise among seemingly contradictory needs and interdependencies. Some of these opposing needs are well known: security vs. performance, customization vs. standardization, and others. Some are more subtle – but the point is always to achieve the right balance among the full set of these needs. This requires a holistic view, for this balance cannot be managed by any individual component of a system alone. In addition, the relationship of your product with other products and systems within the ecosystem will change over time, and this evolution needs to be anticipated.

3.) Connectedness – understanding the behavior and value of your product within the context of the ecosystem within which it operates, and to understand the influences and implications of that ecosystem on your product. The concept of “connected” here addresses the inter-connected, inter-operable nature of your product or system in the overall delivery of healthcare.

4.) Perspective – the ability to see that actions intended to produce one outcome actually cause the opposite results. For example, an hospital information systems (HIS) vendor added capabilities to allow the end user to self-customize and self-configure the product, ostensibly to reduce support and development costs. The result – customers were so confused by the complexity that the vendor ultimately had to add support staff (and cost) to train and help configure the system for each customer.

5.) Emergence – the result of the set of interactions within your product that can yield additional capabilities and values that are not always apparent on first consideration. For example, one radiology information system / picture archiving and communication system (RIS/PACS) vendor added remote diagnostics and monitoring to reduce customer and field support costs. While this achieved its immediate goal, it unexpectedly led to the ability to inform customers of work queue challenges and patterns of use among radiologists and technicians in a way that provided great value to the customers.

When to Use Systems Thinking

Systems thinking intervention is most appropriate in these situations:

• Conceptualization or “ideation” of a new or next generation product.

• Ongoing chronic problems with reliability, support, upgrades, and/or maintainability.

• Challenges in cost of goods or development brought on by hardware/software obsolescence or third-party changes that require value engineering to realign the product with business goals.

• Need to shift or add focus and context – such as solutions that need to address patients and payers as well as providers.

• Inclusion of or movement to “disruptive” technologies – cloud, mobile, social media, and so on.

• Need for higher level interoperability with other systems than previously provided – the difference between merely sharing data and exchanging semantically rich information.

• A desire to realize additional sources of revenue or a new/improved business model – such as predictive and advanced analytics, business intelligence and reporting, quality compliance, and other possibilities.

Systems thinking does not replace good software or systems architecture and engineering. In fact, it directly feeds into these disciplines by providing a stronger foundation to integrate and align stakeholder interests, technology, and leverages existing assets while helping to manage uncertainty, risk, priority, and opportunity.

Healthcare continues to move to an outcomes-based, cost-conscious ecosystem with ever-increasing patient empowerment and greater payer influence, marked by the growing use and influence of emerging/disruptive technologies – cloud, mobile devices, big data, advanced analytics and others.

The key for real, value based growth – and maybe for survival – is to embrace innovation. While continuous iterative development based on learning from your customers and the market may have served you well so far, the shift to patient-centric and payer-savvy outcomes driven world will disrupt this business model. Ignore this at your peril; the same forces you are facing now have rocked other industries before -with scores of mature companies unable to hold on, despite their best efforts.

Avoid these failures by focusing your future development investment strategically on how you can create value in these changing times. Adopting a systems thinking approach will allow you to achieve value driven solutions with innovative, “big step” changes to cost and capabilities beyond what your current products and development approaches are able to offer.

Over 80 automations save Granite Telecommunications' workforce thousands of hours completing mundane, manual processing tasks

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 16, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --  Automation Anywhere, the #1 leader in cloud-native intelligent automation, announced that Granite Telecommunications saves over $635,000 monthly on manual work, the equivalent to 15,000 worker hours, after deploying the Automation Success Platform, the world's first cloud-native, AI-powered enterprise automation platform.

Granite Telecommunications, a leading provider of advanced communications and technology solutions to businesses throughout the United States and Canada, turned to automation to reduce the manual burden its disparate systems were placing on employees. The company selected Automation Anywhere for its superior learning curve compared to other tools.

Within the first nine months of using automation technology, Granite Telecommunications deployed over 80 automations, 10 of which were created by citizen developers at the company using the Automation 360 platform. Employees have since embraced these 'digital coworkers', giving their new bot sidekicks names like Betty, Barbara and Billy.

"Automation has empowered Granite's team to focus on more strategic and engaging initiatives," said Paul Kostas, vice president of strategic infrastructure management at Granite Telecommunications. "We are not replacing employees with automation, but are instead fostering an environment where knowledge workers can save time on manual tasks and ultimately, pursue more lucrative positions."

Automations Granite Telecommunications currently has digital workers in production that perform document processing for the business quoting team, accounts receivable reconciling for the collections team, soliciting field technicians around the country, and customizing billing reports for customers. In one particularly time-saving workflow, Automation Anywhere's Document Automation bot and Google Cloud DocAI batch ingest invoices overnight, reading, extracting and populating data into a spreadsheet. A human worker simply reviews the output in the morning.

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"In today's turbulent business climate, we're seeing companies deploy intelligent automation to completely transform their business processes, reimagine how work gets done and tackle increasingly complex challenges," said Prince Kohli, Chief Technology Officer at Automation Anywhere. "Granite Telecommunications uses Automation Anywhere as the foundation for their automation across the company, lowering operating costs and saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in manual work."

Since establishing an automation Center of Excellence (CoE) in 2021, Granite Telecommunications has seen enthusiasm for automation spread across the company, with employees recommending additional automation use cases. The company intends to scale its automation capabilities by training more employees outside the CoE to become citizen developers.

Automation Anywhere, Automation Success Platform, and Automation 360, are trademarks/service marks or registered trademarks/service marks of Automation Anywhere, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

About Automation Anywhere

Automation Anywhere is the No. 1 cloud automation platform, delivering automation and process intelligence solutions across all industries to automate end-to-end business processes for the fastest path to enterprise transformation. The company offers the world's only cloud-native platform combining RPA, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and analytics to automate repetitive tasks and build enterprise agility, freeing up humans to pivot to the next big idea and build deeper customer relationships that drive business growth. For additional information, visit www.automationanywhere.com. Automation Anywhere is a registered trademark/service mark of Automation Anywhere, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/granite-telecommunications-saves-over-635-000month-with-automation-anywheres-cloud-native-intelligent-automation-platform-301748890.html

SOURCE Automation Anywhere, Inc.

On a mission to make work more human, 95% of Automation Anywhere's employees say it is a great place to work

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Automation Anywhere, the #1 leader in cloud-native intelligent automation, today announced that it has been recognized as a Certified™ Great Place to Work® for the second year in a row.

The prestigious award is based entirely on current employee feedback. This year, 95% of Automation Anywhere's 600 US employees reported that it is a great place to work – which is 38 points higher than the average U.S. company.

"We define a successful culture as one where everyone is empowered to unleash their full human potential," said Nancy Hauge, Chief People Experience Officer at Automation Anywhere. "One reason teammates love our company is because we drink our own champagne by using our own technology – intelligent automation – to liberate people from mundane tasks to focus on more meaningful work, so they can pivot to the next big idea, build deeper customer relationships and drive business success."

Great Place to Work® is the global authority on workplace culture, employee experience, and the leadership behaviors proven to deliver market-leading revenue, employee retention and increased innovation.

"Great Place to Work Certification™ isn't something that comes easily – it takes ongoing dedication to the employee experience," said Sarah Lewis-Kulin, Vice President of global recognition at Great Place to Work. "It's the only official recognition determined by employees' real-time reports of their company culture. Earning this designation means that Automation Anywhere is one of the best companies to work for in the country."

This award is not the first time Automation Anywhere has been recognized for its company culture and follows a multitude of accolades, including Newsweek ranking Automation Anywhere No. 16 among the top 100 US companies in its Most Loved Workplaces for 2022.

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According to Great Place to Work research, job seekers are 4.5 times more likely to find a great boss at a Certified Great Workplace. Additionally, employees are 93% more likely to look forward to coming to work, and are twice as likely to be paid fairly, earn a fair share of the company's profits, and have a fair chance at promotion.

To learn more about Automation Anywhere as a Great Place to Work, visit: https://www.greatplacetowork.com/certified-company/7010141

Looking to grow your career at a company that puts its people first? Visit our careers page at https://www.automationanywhere.com/company/careers

Interact with Automation Anywhere:

About Automation Anywhere
Automation Anywhere is the No. 1 cloud automation platform, delivering automation and process intelligence solutions across all industries to automate end-to-end business processes for the fastest path to enterprise transformation. The company offers the world's only cloud-native platform combining RPA, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and analytics to automate repetitive tasks and build enterprise agility, freeing up humans to pivot to the next big idea and build deeper customer relationships that drive business growth. For additional information, visit www.automationanywhere.com. Automation Anywhere is a registered trademark/service mark of Automation Anywhere, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

About Great Place to Work Certification™

Great Place to Work® Certification™ is the most definitive "employer-of-choice" recognition that companies aspire to achieve. It is the only recognition based entirely on what employees report about their workplace experience – specifically, how consistently they experience a high-trust workplace. Great Place to Work Certification is recognized worldwide by employees and employers alike and is the global benchmark for identifying and recognizing outstanding employee experience. Every year, more than 10,000 companies across 60 countries apply to get Great Place to Work-Certified.

About Great Place to Work®

Great Place to Work® is the global authority on workplace culture. Since 1992, they have surveyed more than 100 million employees worldwide and used those deep insights to define what makes a great workplace: trust. Their employee survey platform empowers leaders with the feedback, real-time reporting and insights they need to make data-driven people decisions. Everything they do is driven by the mission to build a better world by helping every organization become a great place to work For All™.

Learn more at greatplacetowork.com and on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/automation-anywhere-recognized-as-2023-great-place-to-work-for-second-consecutive-year-301737239.html

SOURCE Automation Anywhere, Inc.

The dictionary defines automation as “the technique of making an apparatus, a process, or a system operate automatically.”

We define automation as "the creation and application of technology to monitor and control the production and delivery of products and services.”

Using our definition, the automation profession includes “everyone involved in the creation and application of technology to monitor and control the production and delivery of products and services”; and the automation professional is “any individual involved in the creation and application of technology to monitor and control the production and delivery of products and services.”

Automation encompasses many vital elements, systems, and job functions.

Automation provides benefits to virtually all of industry. Here are some examples:

•  Manufacturing, including food and pharmaceutical, chemical and petroleum, pulp and paper
•  Transportation, including automotive, aerospace, and rail
•  Utilities, including water and wastewater, oil and gas, electric power, and telecommunications
•  Defense
•  Facility operations, including security, environmental control, energy management, safety, and other building automation
• And many others

Automation crosses all functions within industry from installation, integration, and maintenance to design, procurement, and management. Automation even reaches into the marketing and sales functions of these industries.

Automation involves a very broad range of technologies including robotics and expert systems, telemetry and communications, electro-optics, Cybersecurity, process measurement and control, sensors, wireless applications, systems integration, test measurement, and many, many more.

Why is the automation professional so important?

Think about the cell phone and computer you use every day to do your job. Think about the car you drive to take to work. Think about the food you eat; water you drink; clothes you wear; and appliances you use to store, prepare, and clean them. Think about the television you watch, video games you play, or music system you listen to. Think about the buildings you visit. Think about any modern convenience or necessity. Just about anything you can think of is the result of complex processes. Without talented individuals to design, build, improve, and maintain these processes, these technological advances would never have occurred and future innovations would be impossible. Without automation professionals, our world and our future would be very different.

Automation professionals are responsible for solving complex problems in many vital aspects of industry and its processes. The work of automation professionals is critically important to the preservation of the health, safety, and welfare of the public and to the sustainability and enhancement of our quality of life.

The U.S. government, among many others, recognizes the unsung value of automation professionals. Support for the importance of automation to industry comes from the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations. On 30 June 2009, the committee submitted report language (including the excerpt shown below) to accompany the bill: H. R. 2847 (Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010) emphasizing the importance of automation to industry:

“Supporting the Nation's manufacturers, especially small businesses, is critical to keeping America innovative in a global marketplace…MEP, NIST, and its partners are directed to consider the importance automation plays in accelerating and integrating manufacturing processes. The subject of automation cuts across all levels of industry, rather than serving as a stand-alone technology, and particularly affects the fields of control systems cyber security, industrial wireless sensors, systems interoperability, and other basic automation technologies necessary for the success of industrial enterprises. NIST is encouraged to consult and collaborate with independent experts in the field of automation to support the agency's efforts in working with industry to increase innovation, trade, security, and jobs."

Automation professionals do and will continue to play a crucial role in protecting us from cyber-attack; enhancing our quality of life; and ensuring the reliability, efficiency, safety, constant improvement, and competitiveness of our electric power systems, transportation systems, manufacturing operations, and industry as a whole. Without these individuals, we cannot advance into the future.

The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.

Feb 12, 2023 (The Expresswire) -- "Professional Services Automation Software Market" Report covers specified competitive outlook consisting of the market proportion and company profiles of the Important thing individuals working within the international market. Key players Profiled in the Report are [Atera, FinancialForce.com, Compuware Corporation, Promys, Clarizen, Projector PSA, Tenrox, ConnectWise, Appirio, Deltek, Accelo, Autotask, HarmonyPSA, NetSuite OpenAir, Tigerpaw Software, ChangePoint] and others. Company profile consists of assign including Organization summary, Financial Summary, Business Strategy and Planning, SWOT analysis and current developments.

The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.

Released today on the App Store, Launch Center Pro 2.3 is a major update to Contrast’s app launcher and automation tool for iOS that further enhances integration with online services, improves how actions are built and triggered, and that refines several aspects of an app that’s become a key piece of my workflow.

I’ve been covering Launch Center Pro since its humble Pro-less beginnings, and the app has changed dramatically over the years. What started as a simple launcher for apps graduated into a full-blown automation utility for URL schemes and native iOS features, which allowed us to create a complete guide to get started with the app on your iPhone and iPad.¹

Launch Center Pro 2.3 brings important improvements that make the app an even better companion for common tasks and advanced workflows. The update is packed with features – David Barnard wasn’t joking when he said that it feels like a 3.0 release – and I believe that Contrast did a great job in integrating them with the rest of the app.

IFTTT Actions

The first big addition is IFTTT support: Launch Center Pro is now a channel with triggers and actions to connect the app with web services supported by IFTTT.

With IFTTT, Contrast managed to combine the app’s text entry mechanisms and URL schemes with the feature set offered by the popular web service. Instead of simply providing ways for Launch Center Pro to trigger recipes on IFTTT or display alerts, Contrast built a system to send custom values to recipes and run custom URLs from push notifications received from IFTTT.

Here’s a few points to keep in mind:

• You can’t create new IFTTT recipes in Launch Center Pro;
• Launch Center Pro can be added as a trigger or action to any IFTTT recipe;
• IFTTT actions in Launch Center Pro can be integrated with other actions, keyboard prompts, lists, snippets, etc;
• The IFTTT iOS app doesn’t have to be installed on your device to use recipes with Launch Center Pro.

The result of this integration is pretty amazing, and it allows Launch Center Pro to have a bigger scope with web services that wouldn’t otherwise be available inside the app. With IFTTT, you can connect² Launch Center Pro to dozens of services and let them become part of workflows and recipes that make the app faster and more versatile.

As usual, practical examples are the best demonstration. I recently bought a Fitbit Flex, and I realized that I wanted a quick and easy way to log my weight every day. While Launch Center Pro doesn’t have Fitbit actions as the Fitbit app doesn’t support URL schemes, IFTTT has a Fitbit channel that lets you create recipes with actions such as “log weight”. This means that you can create a Launch Center Pro action that sends a numeric value – your weight – to IFTTT, which will save it to Fitbit through the web.

Once you’ve activated the Launch Center Pro channel on IFTTT, create a new recipe and set Launch Center Pro as a trigger, assigning a trigger name for the recipe such as “Log Weight”. The trigger name is a fundamental aspect of this, as it’ll let Launch Center Pro run recipes directly on IFTTT.

With a trigger set, add a Fitbit action that will log your weight on your Fitbit account. In the Weight field, open the Ingredients dropdown menu and select “Value 1”, which is the text value that Launch Center Pro will send to IFTTT with a keyboard prompt. Launch Center Pro can send up to ten values at once to IFTTT, which can come in handy for complex recipes.

At the end of the process, your IFTTT recipe will look something like this:

With the IFTTT recipe ready to go, open Launch Center Pro and create an IFTTT Trigger action. You have two options here – you can either just trigger a recipe, or trigger a recipe with values; for our Fitbit example, choose the latter. In the subsequent Options screen, you’ll get fields for action name (can be anything you want), Trigger Name (must be the exact name set up on IFTTT), and values. Because we want to log our weight in Fitbit, the value can be a numeric prompt that will allow us to quickly enter numbers to send to IFTTT.

Now that the Launch Center Pro action is ready and the IFTTT recipe set up to run when Launch Center Pro triggers it, all you need to do is tap the action and enter your weight.

A complex thread of web automations and APIs has been abstracted elegantly by IFTTT, with Launch Center Pro retaining its simple approach to text input and actions. Now, every time I want to log my weight in Fitbit, I just open Launch Center Pro, type out two numbers, and everything else is taken care of by IFTTT.

The Fitbit action is a basic example of a new kind of automation possible by integrating Launch Center Pro with IFTTT: instead of relying on clunky IFTTT triggers such as email messages, the convenient text entry of Launch Center Pro can be combined with the “web glue” service offered by IFTTT to create hybrid web-iOS workflows. It’s a powerful concept, well implemented by Contrast.

With the same idea, I’ve created IFTTT triggers for GroupMe, which allow me to send text from a keyboard prompt to a specific thread. I’m a big GroupMe fan, but it takes a while to launch the app and wait as it refreshes a thread and loads the latest replies – especially for group conversations with many participants. With Launch Center Pro, I can quickly type a message in a prompt and know that “IFTTT Bot” will post in the GroupMe chat on my behalf.

When I want to quickly save a link to Instapaper, IFTTT integration means that I no longer need to jump back and forth between Launch Center Pro and the Instapaper app – I can just tap a button and IFTTT will add it to my studying queue.

I’ve also created IFTTT recipes that append text to Google Drive documents using text sent from Launch Center Pro. Whenever I need to save text to the Drive documents we use for Directional and The Prompt, I can tap a button in Launch Center Pro, type some text, and IFTTT will save it for me in Drive.

So far, I’ve only mentioned IFTTT triggers from Launch Center Pro. In version 2.3, you can also use Launch Center Pro as an endpoint for an IFTTT recipe, which will send a push notification to Launch Center Pro on your device(s). Notifications can have custom text and URLs associated with them: because they are generated from IFTTT channels, any ingredient can be added to a notification.

Here’s an example. Every time a new video is added to Apple’s YouTube channel, I want to get a notification in Launch Center Pro.

In the recipe settings, I can choose which devices connected with my Launch Center Pro account will receive the notification, and I can set the contents of the message that I will receive as well as the notification sound. By using text and a URL for the notification text, I will receive a video’s title and shortened URL as fetched by IFTTT from Apple’s RSS feed on YouTube.

Because this is Launch Center Pro, though, we can create more advanced IFTTT actions that send a push notification and run a custom URL upon tapping the banner alert. In this example, whenever a new episode of The Prompt is available via the show’s RSS feed, I can receive a push notification, tap it, and automatically tweet the new episode with a pre-composed message in Tweetbot.

On IFTTT, I can assign the Tweetbot URL scheme to a Custom URL parameter that Launch Center Pro will open after tapping the notification. The URL scheme contains ingredients that will appear as text in Tweetbot, and any arbitrary string of text can be assigned to this field, too.

Once in Tweetbot, I’ll only need to confirm the tweet that was composed for me. I went from a new item in an RSS feed to a tweet in the Tweetbot app with a single push notification.

Of course, we can take this IFTTT-based iOS automation to the next level by using Custom URLs that use more than two apps and callbacks for inter-app communication through URL schemes.

Here’s a recipe that I use to tweet new articles from MacStories with Tweetbot:

Unlike the previous action, this one doesn’t open Tweetbot directly. Instead, because I don’t like the shortened URLs that IFTTT sends over push³, the notification launches an Editorial workflow that gets the contents of the notification, extracts the URL, revolves its long URL and gets the title with a Python script, and then opens Tweetbot to tweet the article with title and regular link.

You can get the workflow here.

In these few examples, I’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible by combining Launch Center Pro with IFTTT for web automation. The potential for automated actions is vast and up to your imagination: you can create one-tap shortcuts that unlock your door using home automation devices with IFTTT; you can connect your WordPress blog to IFTTT and interact with it from Launch Center Pro; you can integrate the app with Evernote or Dropbox using IFTTT, or even turn off your bedroom’s lights with a single action.

By connecting Launch Center Pro to IFTTT, Contrast is opening up the possible use cases to hundreds of web + iOS combinations. IFTTT is a perfect fit for Launch Center Pro.

In tests based on my rather simple web automation needs, running IFTTT triggers from Launch Center Pro was fast enough for me to consider using IFTTT full-time in this way. Posting text to GroupMe took a few seconds, as did saving articles to Instapaper. Speed may vary on IFTTT’s end, but I was satisfied with the average results. I can’t wait to see what iOS automation geeks create with IFTTT support.

Building complex actions in Launch Center a Pro gets easier in version 2.3 thanks to improvements for encoding and official support for nested tags.

In our Launch Center Pro guide, Alex needed to spend a lot of time explaining the double and triple encoding hacks necessary to create workflows for multiple apps in Launch Center Pro.

The good news is that most of that stuff is no longer necessary. Without getting into technical details (we’ll save those for our updated guide), Launch Center Pro can now automatically detect multiple levels of encoding; you can simply use multiple instances of curly brackets and the app will understand how it needs to encode callbacks and input parameters. The system is not perfect, but it’s dramatically better than old manual workarounds.

The even better news is that you can now use tags inside tags without going insane. Want to display a prompt and then another prompt for each possible choice? Now you can. Need to show a list with each item firing off a keyboard prompt? Same deal. You don’t need to manually encode these nested input tags and everything has been designed to “just work”.

Proper support for nested tags allowed me to group together actions that used to be separate (because I didn’t have time for this), such as a 1Password action with a list for often-used logins and a search option…

…or a Fantastical action set that opens multiple prompts and lists…

…or a full-blown messaging UI that lets me pick multiple options for the contacts I want to send an iMessage to.

Encoding improvements and nested tags are going to make the lives of Launch Center Pro power users easier: building complex actions shouldn’t cause terrible headaches anymore.

Unfortunately, these improvements aren’t backed by a redesign of the Action Composer: as I’ve long argued, I would like to see Contrast abstract the URL scheme part of actions and let users create automated workflows with a visual interface that doesn’t require URLs.

The upside is that Contrast is thinking about this. With a new list builder, you can now create lists without typing square brackets and text manually.

I like the new list builder: it removes a lot of friction from creating lists, and even if it doesn’t let you edit existing actions – thus making it a viable option only if you already know every item you’ll want to include in your list – it’s a good start for a friendlier, visual Action Composer.

GIFs

Powered by Giphy, Launch Center Pro 2.3 comes with a built-in GIF search and preview feature to copy links to animated GIFs or send them as files over iMessage. Using a popup Giphy browser, you’ll be able to view thumbnails and select a GIF you want to use either as links or inline attachments. If you search for GIFs on a daily basis (instead of, say, using something like GIFwrapped), Giphy integration in Launch Center Pro will be extremely convenient.

More importantly, you can bring up the Giphy browser at any point in your actions with [gif] or [gif:search term]. Therefore, you can create an action like this, which prompts you for a GIF search and then display results in the browser; choose a GIF, and its direct Giphy link will be copied in the clipboard.

The same idea can be applied to apps – here’s an action to tweet a GIF’s link with Tweetbot after choosing a GIF from the built-in browser.

And, of course, messaging supports GIFs, too. Just drop &attach=photo:gif in a messaging action (or any other action that supports photo attachments), and you’ll be able to send an inline animated GIF from Launch Center Pro’s iMessage compose panel.

GIF search was a surprise during the Launch Center Pro beta testing and I’ve come to rely on it for all the silly GIFs that I share with my friends every day. Whenever iOS automation helps me partake in faster giggling, I call that a success.

QR and barcode scanning

Launch Center Pro 2.3 features a special camera mode to scan QR codes and barcodes without needing a separate app. I used to keep a dedicated QR app on my iPhone, but now I can live with this action, which will scan a QR code and open its link in Safari.

And just like other tags, you can insert a scan action anywhere in your URLs by using the [scan] tag. For instance, I have an action that displays a list to look for a product’s barcode on eBay, Amazon, or Google and that then launches a search for a scanned barcode.

Like other improvements in this version, QR and barcode support means less switching between apps and better integration with automated actions. My examples are basic, but you can explore more advanced scenarios such as, for instance, building a log of your scanned codes in Evernote using an IFTTT trigger from Launch Center Pro.

Everything Else

There are other additions in Launch Center Pro 2.3 that, while not as big as IFTTT or nested input tags, will enhance existing actions and create possibilities for new ideas.

Location triggers. While I couldn’t find a particular use case for this, Launch Center Pro 2.3 can launch actions based on geofences and iBeacon regions.

I’m sure that this will be a powerful feature for actions that would benefit from location-based activation, and the implementation is well done. You can choose to trigger actions when you leave or arrive at a location (you can set, rename, and manage geofences and iBeacons), add filters for days and time ranges, and even suppress duplicates for x minutes so triggers won’t fire multiple times due to quick location changes. I wish I had a need for location triggers – it’s a great idea, and all I can think of is this.

Direct Dropbox links. You know how Launch Center Pro would always return shortened db.tt links for shared Dropbox files? No more. Using a new directlink=yes parameter in your actions, you’ll be able to get the direct Dropbox link to a file.

Here’s an action to upload a photo from the Camera Roll to Dropbox and gets its direct shareable link back in the clipboard. Here’s one to create a new text file and share it. Here’s another one to get the direct link to any file in your Dropbox account. There are some bugs at the moment (see my actions for how I implemented the parameter), but, overall, it’s a good addition.

LC callback. While x-callback-url has nurtured the creation of an ecosystem of callback-capable apps, not every app supports Greg Pierce’s protocol. As a workaround, Contrast has devised a new lc-callback URL parameter that will open another app after you switch manually back to Launch Center Pro.

Here’s an example: you want to launch Evernote and, after you create a note, Dropbox for iOS, but Evernote doesn’t support x-callback-url. By using the LC callback, you can switch with the multitasking view back to Launch Center Pro and, if the app hasn’t been terminated in the background, it’ll continue your action and open Dropbox. Again, not for me (I don’t have that many workflows that require opening multiple apps in a row, after all), but useful.

Launch actions by ID. Speaking of callbacks, referencing individual actions is now possible too: every Launch Center Pro action has a unique ID that can be called with a new [action] tag in your URL schemes. Whether you’re building action palettes or simply need a way to quickly insert reusable actions, the IDs will save you a lot of time.

Set icons. This is particularly useful for IFTTT actions that work with a web service that needs a corresponding iOS icon. You can add #lc-icon=app_name to your actions, where app_name is the name of the iOS app you want to pick the icon from. For my Instapaper and GroupMe IFTTT actions, I’m using the icons of their iOS apps. This is also useful for Launch Center Pro URL schemes that work with an iOS feature but that can’t use system icons by default – for my messages palette, I’ve added #lc-icon=launchpro-messaging, which lets me use the Launch Center Pro icon for In-App Messaging wherever I want.

New notification sounds. Alongside icons, you can choose among a new set of notification sounds, too. The best part? These sounds are also available from the IFTTT website when setting Launch Center Pro as the endpoint for a recipe.

Contact tags. For actions that require contacts from your device’s address book, a [contact] tag lets you pick contacts each time, which is convenient if you want to avoid hardcoding phone numbers or emails into your actions. The contact ABID parameter is also supported by Launch Center Pro now, making WhatsApp messaging actions properly supported.

Wrap Up

Launch Center Pro 2.3 is a great update to a solid app launcher and automation utility for iOS. With IFTTT, the app’s reach extends beyond the features offered by native integrations and URL schemes, making Launch Center Pro a fantastic solution to trigger automated web recipes with a few taps. Nested tags, encoding improvements, GIFs, and many other enhancements in this version are all about reducing friction and improving the ways Launch Center Pro power users build complex actions.

I don’t know what the future holds for Launch Center Pro, but, considering the Extensibility features coming to iOS 8, I suspect the app will benefit from extensions and new ways to let users perform multiple tasks without switching apps.

While it’s not clear whether extensions will obviate the need for URL schemes completely, Contrast is making a good move in diversifying the automation features of Launch Center Pro, adding support for integrations that Apple isn’t adding or that wouldn’t be possible with extensions (such as callbacks). There’s still plenty of room for improvement, but I’m liking the direction Contrast has taken with Launch Center Pro, and I believe it’ll have a bright future in the iOS 8 world.

Launch Center Pro 2.3 is available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.

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