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reviewer990828 - PeerSpot reviewer
Delivering Digital Workforce at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Real User
We have automated our critical functions, like supply chain management and purchase orders
Pros and Cons
  • "We have seen more efficient processing and less number of errors due to quality control."
  • "We have staff who have been moved out of the mundane tasks and are now doing value-added activities."
  • "We have a few issues which have persisted. These end up restarting the machine. We are hoping in version 11.3 of Automation Anywhere, our compatibility and infrastructure issues will be resolved."
  • "If you work with image recognition and custom objects, there are stability issues."

What is our primary use case?

Most of our use cases are for primary supply chain management. We have a lot of business processes and back office automation that we do primarily for our product people and our finance team. Most of the work is automation done in supply chain management, product setup, and product administration. 

I have been using this solution for almost four years and one year at my current company.

How has it helped my organization?

We have automated our critical functions, like supply chain management and purchase orders. Overall, there's been a direct benefit from it so far. We just completed our Phase I project this year. We have staff who have been moved out of the mundane tasks and are now doing value-added activities. 

What is most valuable?

Object cloning is the primary way of capturing inputs from screen scraping or mimicking the user flow, and it is 70 percent of the work that we do using Automation Anywhere.

What needs improvement?

We have a few issues which have persisted. These end up restarting the machine. We are hoping in version 11.3 of Automation Anywhere, our compatibility and infrastructure issues will be resolved. 

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Automation Anywhere
March 2025
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For how long have I used the solution?

Three to five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

If you are using object cloning, it is stable. However, if you work with image recognition and custom objects, there are stability issues. 

We are on version 10.5.7. We have upgraded bits of it to 11.3, but it is still not operational on 11.3. We are currently working on migrating our infrastructure to version 11.3.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We are still small from a robotics implementation standpoint. We are just about 20 bots right now with no issues. If we scale up to 500 bots, I am not sure how the infrastructure and systems will behave, but I have had a good experience from a scalability standpoint on the tool so far.

I have a team of about 25 people with six people in support with the rest in development. At any given time, we have more than 50 people running Automation Anywhere.

How are customer service and support?

This particular ticket management system works well. It's a reliable. If we need to a raise ticket for any issue, there is an escalation mechanism. Though, I have not used it. I try to utilize our customer success manager to be able to right person from Automation Anywhere. My experience has been good, though not excellent, from a support standpoint.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were not using a solution before Automation Anywhere.

How was the initial setup?

In version 11.3, the setup changed. So far, it has been simpler. Also, in version 11, they have changed the design into a Java Jetty architecture, which is more stable. However, we were not familiar with it, so we had some issues with it. Thankfully, Automation Anywhere diligently answered our calls and helped us through the installation. It wasn't easy to install on our own using the guide. We needed support from a technical entity from the support site to be able to do it.

It needs a lot of coordination between the DBAs, which is a separate team within our organization, the infrastructure team, our team, and the Automation Anywhere teams to execute the deployment. Getting them all together was a good three hours exercise just to install.

Two people from my team worked on the deployment, one of them being a DBA.

What about the implementation team?

I have a technical team of support members who know our internal infrastructure. We built it in-house and the support is not outsourced to any IT vendors. We take care of the infrastructure provisioning, support, etc. We do everything ourselves, along with the help of Automation Anywhere.

I have a deployed team of six people for maintenance. 

What was our ROI?

We have seen more efficient processing and less number of errors due to quality control.

Savings have not been able to catch it that much. I believe there is huge potential here. This year, we are focusing a lot on the indirect benefits of speeding up the process. For example, we want our key customers to benefit, or buyers and suppliers boost up their business to receive benefits indirectly by freeing up their time.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

They give us a good deal on the licensing because we bundle and customize things. If you ask to get a bulk business deal, you will receive more benefit. If you take other products from the suite, like IQ Bot, you can also receive a deal on the licensing. 

We have also worked with them for so long now that we have developed a relationship.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

My current company looked at UiPath. We decided to go with Automation Anywhere vs UiPath, because of cost, reliability, and scalability.

We do look at companies like Microsoft Azure to do unstructured data processing for us.

What other advice do I have?

It is a good with a good support app, but I would like it to work 100 percent of the time.

We are looking to increase our usage in the future. First, we need to locate the opportunities to automate within our organization to automate which are good contenders for RPA engines. We are also trying to standardize our processes to push more processes into the automation pipeline, leading to expansion. We are getting Automation Anywhere to assist with this as part of our Phase II project, and increase our bot usage by the end of the year.

If you are implementing it, you should have a good business case. Know what you're using it for: Is it for your direct or indirect benefits and what is the business value that you're going to bring in on the tool. Providing the tools for your business are important before onboarding it. Once you have onboarded it, you will need a good, capable team in-house to be able to keep the infrastructure maintained. 

Start slow. Don't start with a huge approach, then you decide that you failed. Do some proof on concepts. Ensure there is work for your organization. Gain the trust of your stakeholders. Then, take baby steps to move forward.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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reviewer1368093 - PeerSpot reviewer
RPA Business Developer & Solution Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Strong in the unattended space but not good in the attended space
Pros and Cons
  • "It is quite strong in the unattended space."
  • "The benefits include a reduction in tedious tasks and manual handling of tasks and time savings."
  • "I never use Automation Anywhere in the attended space because they are bad at that, at least compared to other players like us or UiPath."
  • "I never use Automation Anywhere in the attended space because they are bad at that, at least compared to other players like us or UiPath."

What is our primary use case?

There are two main use cases. We are working to complement their RPA capabilities. They have quite a strong position in the RPA market. Instead of trying to face them on the RPA market, we complete what they do. They are especially not good in the attended space. They are good in unattended but not in the attended space, so we kind of complement them.

The second thing we are working on with them is FortressIQ. Automation Anywhere has a task mining solution. We have a process mining solution, so it is a good completion. We have a product that is doing all the process mining stuff. When we need to investigate further into one precise process, dive a little bit into the details, and understand the number of clicks, the number of screens, and basically all the details of the process, we need a task-mining solution. That is where we have integrated with FortressIQ from Automation Anywhere.

How has it helped my organization?

The benefits include a reduction in tedious tasks and manual handling of tasks and time savings. This transition moves processes from several hours to a few minutes or even seconds, ensuring that money is saved. Furthermore, it secures the process, facilitates better execution, eliminates errors, and establishes a standard process, which is much more than just saving money.

The ease of use depends on what you want to do. What we do is quite simple because we are mainly using it from an unattended perspective, so we do not have any human interaction. With humans, you need to do a lot of error management. Automation is precise and simple. If the use case is A, B, and C, and you know how to treat A, B, and C, it will always be that, which is simple. If it is not A, B, or C, then you park it aside and do error handling. In the end, 98% of what you have done is good, and the remaining 2% will be manually handled. You still save about 98% of the time. It is quite easy to use as long as we stay in the unattended space. 

We mainly integrated it with non-SAP applications. It is not difficult to integrate Automation Anywhere in the workflow.

What is most valuable?

It is quite strong in the unattended space. 

What needs improvement?

I never use Automation Anywhere in the attended space because they are bad at that, at least compared to other players like us or UiPath.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with them for about four years.

How are customer service and support?

I have not contacted them, so I cannot judge them.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We are working with UiPath, Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere, and Power Automate. These are the four ones we are working with.

Automation Anywhere and Blue Prism are very close in terms of market perception, and they are very unattended-oriented. They are quite strong in the unattended space and are more IT-oriented than others, especially UiPath. They are strong in terms of integration.

In terms of ease of use, it is probably one of the best because they are doing a lot of screen scraping. It is more based on the screens and less on APIs, which makes sense from an unattended perspective. However, when you want to have human interaction, it could become a bit more difficult. It is a more techie product than others but also deeper in terms of what you can do with it in terms of integration, etc.

What other advice do I have?

I do not think a perfect RPA tool exists. Overall, I would rate Automation Anywhere as a six out of ten. I would rate UiPath higher.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
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Buyer's Guide
Automation Anywhere
March 2025
Learn what your peers think about Automation Anywhere. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Prabu Baskaran. - PeerSpot reviewer
RPA Specialist at Expleogroup
Real User
Top 5
A stable and reasonably priced tool that has easy-to-understand drag-and-drop features and a responsive support team
Pros and Cons
  • "The support team responds quickly."
  • "Automation Anywhere has to improve its technical features."

What is our primary use case?

I use Automation Anywhere for the reconciliation process in the finance sectors, telecom industry, and banking and insurance sectors. Mostly, I use it for reconciliation and data feeding for SAP and Oracles applications. Sometimes, I use APIs, too.

How has it helped my organization?

Automation Anywhere has improved the way our organization functions. With every release, the tool improves its standards and technical aspects. They have also improved a lot from the security point of view. IQ Bot structures the unstructured document. It is very important to our organization. The time taken to realize the benefits of the solution depends upon the process. If it is a simple process, we would need one month.

What is most valuable?

Document understanding,Bot Store, AARI ie co-pilot are very useful.

What needs improvement?

The product has to improve document understanding. It must also provide more training.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for more than eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the tool’s stability a nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product is deployed across multiple departments and teams. More than 200 people are using the solution in our organization. I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten. We faced some problems while scaling the tool. Once we upgrade the package, it doesn’t work. When we update the package again, the issue gets resolved.

How are customer service and support?

It is very easy to contact the support team. The team responds to our queries within a day. The product provides different levels like Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. If we enroll in the Bronze level, the support team will help us, but the time will be delayed. They'll reply within a day.

If we choose Silver, the team replies within two working hours. However, we get a response from the team within a day. The team reaches out to the customers who have raised tickets. The support team responds quickly. The team shares the documentation with us. If it doesn't work, they will immediately set up a meeting, look into the issue, and try to help us with the steps to follow.

The support team follows certain steps. If we raise a ticket, they provide some steps in a document containing the solution to our issues. We can immediately connect with the right person if it doesn't resolve our issues. To save time, if we raise a request to connect with the support team member, instead of sending a document, they should immediately connect with us to provide support.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

It's very easy to deploy the tool. We just have to export it from the development control room and import it to another control room. We can select the files we need and export or import them. It is very simple, like a file upload or download.

The time taken for deployment depends upon the number of files or packages since we use multiple workflows and tasks. It depends on the file size. However, it should not take more than three minutes. Even if it is complex, the deployment is completed within three minutes. If it is simple or moderately complex, depending on the file size, it uploads within 30 seconds. While deploying the product, we can see the progress in the control room.

What about the implementation team?

I have experience in deploying the solution. Whoever has the right to deploy can deploy the product. We can deploy it parallelly. The number of people required for the deployment depends upon the process. If it is five to six processes, one support team and one deployment team member is enough. We have five administrators. We also have 15 members in the support team.

The infrastructure team has some upgrade or patch activity every month. The team informs us about it. Usually, it happens only on weekends. Most of the bots will be idle on Sunday. It will run only for a few cases. Maintenance takes three hours monthly.

What was our ROI?

I have seen an ROI on the solution. The ROI depends on the use case. Some use cases have more documents we have to read, and we need to feed them into some applications. We check the FTE benefits and calculate the ROI based on it.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The product’s pricing is reasonable. The pricing depends upon the partner. We can get Runner, Attended, Unattended, IQ Bot, and Bot Insight licenses. The price is reasonable if we can get whatever the organization needs. There are no additional costs.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

The product fails in some environments. In some applications, the product behaves weirdly. UiPath is mostly accurate, and we are able to automate it. Automation Anywhere has to improve its technical features. It doesn’t work in some applications without any workaround. UiPath has better stability than Automation Anywhere. Everything works perfectly in UiPath. Sometimes, some controls don’t work after an upgrade in Automation Anywhere. We must update the package again to make it work. Compared to Automation Anywhere, we might have to wait longer for UiPath’s support team.

What other advice do I have?

Currently, I am using Automation 36O. The solution has added Google, Microsoft, and forms recently. We can easily integrate them. We can build a custom form for an Attended bot. The user can feed data, and the bot can pick it up and run it. Most of the tools have integrated this form. Instead of creating custom forms, the product provides an in-built forms section.

The solution has drag-and-drop features. There is no coding. If a person is well versed in coding like Java, Python, and VBScript, they can integrate the product. Even if we have no technical skills, it is very easy to drag and drop. It will work. We just need logical thinking.

The time taken to train non-technical employees depends upon the employees. Within two weeks, the employees would be able to understand the tool. They would also be able to develop simple processes. It is easy to expand the product across an entire company.

Integrating RPA bots, APIs, business applications, and documents into the solution is not hard. It is user-friendly. Integrating any web application or third-party application like Salesforce is very easy. I have used Salesforce API and some third-party web applications. The tool also provides some in-built APIs developed by the web application team. When I face some restrictions, the team provides me with APIs, which are easy to integrate. If something is not possible to automate in GUI, we choose a different solution for API building. Everything can be done within Automation Anywhere. It is easy to integrate the solution with third-party products.

We haven't explored more opportunities. We are using only simple processes. I would choose an RPA solution over an API integration. We need to have some security controls and approvals before we can integrate APIs. In RPA, we can not only integrate API but also have other in-built action items.

People can definitely choose Automation Anywhere. We will see a lot of changes and improvements in the upcoming versions. Based on these updates, organizations will get more benefits from the tool.

Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Adithya-Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder at N10 tech
Real User
Top 20
Helps streamline processes, boosts accuracy, and eliminates downtime
Pros and Cons
  • "The simplicity and ease of use is the most valuable part of Automation Anywhere."
  • "Automation Anywhere could benefit from a more technical focus."

What is our primary use case?

We use Automation Anywhere to automate processes for our clients and have hundreds of use cases. 

We implemented Automation Anywhere for redundant and manual tasks that are data-heavy and do not require a lot of logical reasoning in the process.

We offer cloud-based deployment of Automation Anywhere for our clients. The specific type of deployment depends on each client's needs and preferences. Larger organizations may opt for their private cloud for security and control, while smaller ones might favor the public cloud's lower costs and simpler setup. Ultimately, the ideal deployment model depends on the individual organization's priorities.

How has it helped my organization?

Before Automation Anywhere, all of our processes were manual, time-consuming, and prone to inaccuracies due to human error. Automation Anywhere has transformed our operations by streamlining processes, boosting accuracy, and eliminating downtime.

Business users who have decent logical and problem-solving skills can easily use Automation Anywhere.

The learning curve is linear.

Training non-technical employees to use Automation Anywhere takes around one month.

Integration of automation into our workflows, APIs, business applications, and documents in Automation Anywhere is easy.

The simpler the process and the larger the volume of data involved, the greater the potential for time and cost savings with Automation Anywhere. This is in contrast to more complex processes that require data manipulation and advanced reasoning or decision-making skills, where the benefits might be less pronounced.

What is most valuable?

The simplicity and ease of use is the most valuable part of Automation Anywhere.

What needs improvement?

Automation Anywhere could benefit from a more technical focus. As a developer, comparing it to UiPath, I find UiPath offers greater customization and integration capabilities, particularly with core languages like C#. Automation Anywhere currently seems geared more towards business users, while UiPath caters to technical users. Additionally, UiPath's free community edition appears significantly more robust than Automation Anywhere's.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Automation Anywhere for almost 13 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The cloud versions of Automation Anywhere are a significant improvement over the earlier desktop versions. I've been using Automation Anywhere since version five, and while the desktop versions were initially unstable, the cloud versions have been much more reliable. I commend the Automation Engineering team for their thorough testing before deployments.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Automation Anywhere's ability to provide automation at scale is good, especially with the control room and the workload management features.

How was the initial setup?

The initial deployment is simple, especially for the cloud version. Just create an account, log in, and install the local connector or bot. Then, connect it to our device and access the website. One technical person can complete the deployment in five minutes.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten.

While everyone seems eager to jump on the AI bandwagon, I believe it's not a mandatory element for every situation. The need for true, cutting-edge AI currently lies in research and development, not in everyday business processes. Current AI implementations tend to be overhyped and unnecessary for many applications.

Upgrading Automation Anywhere is simple in the cloud.

There is no maintenance for the cloud version of Automation Anywhere.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1464537 - PeerSpot reviewer
Enterprise Manager of Automation at Envision Healthcare
Real User
Easy to use for developers with a well laid out UI and many canned tools
Pros and Cons
  • "I don't think one feature is more valuable than any other. In my opinion, the value is in the totality of the platform. It is easy to use for our developers with a well laid out UI and many canned tools. The Control Room is very easy to navigate and mostly intuitive to use."
  • "I am currently on 11.3.4.2 and the analytics feature of AA, Bot Insights, needs improvement. It is not easy to implement. It is not intuitive for the developer as you have to mark variables for analytics."

What is our primary use case?

Currently, our primary use cases are for the automation of medical appeals and charge processing. 

We are currently on the 11.3.4.2 version in our production environment in a HA configuration. We use bare-metal servers for our production Control Room. All of our bot runners are Windows 10 virtual machines. We are in the process of adding A2019 IQ Bot and Control Room servers into our production environment. 

In our Dev/UAT environments, we have added A2019 Control Room and IQ Bot servers in addition to our v11.3.4.2 servers.  

How has it helped my organization?

It has allowed us to generate additional revenue without having to hire additional people. Our fleet of bots is able to complete the work of roughly 40 FTEs. Without automating these tasks we would have had to hire additional staff or offshore this workload. 

We have largely targeted processes performed by offshore contractors in order to reduce our reliance on overseas workers. Where we have automated processes performed by onshore workers we have been able to reassign impacted users to more productive work. 

What is most valuable?

I don't think one feature is more valuable than any other. In my opinion, the value is in the totality of the platform. It is easy to use for our developers with a well laid out UI and many canned tools. The Control Room is very easy to navigate and mostly intuitive to use. 

The AA Client is easy to install and configure. I have found it very easy to integrate into our environment. And with the right vision and direction can be used to automate very complex tasks with plus 95% reliability and uptime. 

What needs improvement?

I am currently on 11.3.4.2 and the analytics feature of AA, Bot Insights, needs improvement. It is not easy to implement. It is not intuitive for the developer as you have to mark variables for analytics. Because it is very clunky you either have to build "helper" bots to display your bot analytics or use another platform like Tableau. 

I would also like to see improvement in the segregation of roles. I still do not understand the login in not allowing the Control Room Administrator to also be a Bot Insights Administrator. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using AA for 15 months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have found no stability issues with Automation Anywhere.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have found the platform to be very scalable. We have seen no limitations thus far.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer service and tech support have always been responsive, knowledgeable and quick with a solution.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

This is our first RPA platform.

How was the initial setup?

I found the initial setup to straight forward. Automation Anywhere has been a great partner through the entire process.

What about the implementation team?

In-house implementation

What was our ROI?

Our ROI was roughly 10 months.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

RPA solutions are not cheap. There will be a large cost to implement any RPA solution but ROI can be huge and very quick if you are not timid. Do not go slow. Embrace the platform and it's huge potential and your RPA program will be a cash cow for your organization. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did evaluate UI Path and Blue Prism before choosing Automation Anywhere.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Gajanan Shalgar - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at OMFYS Technologies India Pvt.Ltd
Real User
Top 10
Enables us to automate many processes and increase productivity
Pros and Cons
  • "V.11 has three different recorders but A2019 Automation Anywhere created an all-in-one recorder called Universal recorder which more reliable to use."
  • "Automation Anywhere changed OCR features in A2019. My suggestion is to improve the OCR command scope and usability. We use OCR for PDF data extraction as we use in V. 11.x product."

What is our primary use case?

Automation Anywhere provides a tool for RPA. We can create software bots that mimic humans. The RPA solution is created to work for repetitive tasks and to use human resources for a creative perspective. Automation Anywhere provides the best feature to make a software bot for processes. We use it for SAP, HRMS, SQL, etc.

Environment: we have a V11.x environment and A2019 cloud-deployed environment on AWS Cloud. Right now we are doing a migration process from V11.x to A2019.

How has it helped my organization?

Automation Anywhere provides an RPA solution for my organization. We automated many processes through Automation Anywhere in which productivity increased. We also implemented the IQ Bot by extracting invoice data to CSV format and uploaded it to Oracle E-Business Suite. We implemented Automation Anywhere in many department processes. We have two unattended bot runners. We implemented more then 40 processes until now. I used both V11.x and A2019 and I like more A2019 than V.11.

What is most valuable?

Automation Anywhere provides many features for automating processes.

1. V.11 has three different recorders but A2019 Automation Anywhere created an all-in-one recorder called Universal recorder which more reliable to use.

2. One of Automation Anywhere's best features is the IQ Bot. In V.11 we created many instances & train many groups. In A2019 Automation Anywhere updated IQ Bot to provide more accuracy. They included Python scripting for validation. Before that, we used Macro for validation.

3. Automation Anywhere provides more commands in A2019 and also provides a feature called Packages through which we can update commands that we need.

What needs improvement?

Automation Anywhere changed OCR features in A2019. My suggestion is to improve the OCR command scope and usability. We use OCR for PDF data extraction as we use in V. 11.x product.

Automation Anywhere has a perfect structure of working. Automation Anywhere has the best product structure. It also provides support for customers and they respond in 24 hours.

They still provide updates on packages to get more accuracy in process creation. The automation has already improved very much.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using AA for 1.5 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Through Automation Anywhere, we can create stable bots for processes.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Through Automation Anywherl, we create bost for process and it very scalable & secure. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I only use Automation Anywhere tools V 11.x &A2019

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easier than the migration. We have to follow the steps given by Automation Anywhere for the initial setup. If we have any issues with the setup, Automation Anywhere provides support.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented in customer environment. 

What was our ROI?

We have to calculate ROI before the process creation to get clarification and to understand the benefits of automation. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Automation Anywhere provided the best quality for products like iPhones. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Before using Automation Anywhere I checked Blue Prism & Ui Path but I preferred Automation Anywhere because it is best in quality. It also has IQ Bot for unstructured data converting in structure.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
IT Analyst at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Very fast in execution time, it requires less support time, and it is a good value for the money
Pros and Cons
  • "The company continues with research and development to expand the capabilities of the product to meet market needs."
  • "There are occasional bugs in the system but technical support is quick to address them and deliver solutions, patches, and upgrades."

What is our primary use case?

My day-to-day activity was to take data from invoices and put it into an Oracle DB. I have already automated banking uses, which deal with some of the invoices. The second case solution which I had worked with was multi-bot architecture.

We have certain kinds of applications spread across our organization and the data coming into that organization is common. We made a solution as a multiBot: one Bot is working on one application and we have hundreds of applications. So a hundred Bots work together on the same set of data to integrate it.

The applications are different. Say one is Oracle, one is SAP (System Analysis and Program Development) and one is Salesforce. In the way we implemented this, we segregated the workload into parts: part as a master Bot, part as a worker Bot and part as the closure Bot. The master Bot will work on the input part of the data set, the worker Bot will work with the individual (designated) applications, and the closure Bot will consolidate all the data and feed it back to the designated user. This was the plan for our architecture.

How has it helped my organization?

The Automation Anywhere product has improved our organization with the speed of processing. It is very fast in execution time, it requires less support time, and it is a good value for the money.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features I see right now pertain to dealing with the servers. That has become a distant concern. Because data is already on the cloud, I can use a controller and my client as one unit. That is the best thing. I can use Automation Anywhere in my mobile, I can run my Bot through an Android app. This flexibility and centralization without worrying about availability is a good thing.

What needs improvement?

I think that all the expectations I had for the new release of the product are covered in the coming version A 2019. I'm very happy about what I hear about it. I think once I use this A 2019 release, I'll come to know what the things are that I'll want in the future. We have access now to a community edition version, which I have to download and will be testing out shortly.

The first of the new features that I believe will do me the best is the customization of the commands. I can build my own package as per my convenience. Let's say we have a variable command. We already have the ability to use XML commands and we have some Excel commands that are provided by Automation Anywhere. Now Automation Anywhere is allowing us the opportunity to build something of my own in their environment and deploy that in production. Before I could imagine that component and not build or deploy it. I can build it now and that an important new feature for our progress.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

As far as the stability of the product, it's doing well. My experience over the two years I have worked with it as a developer, going to the cloud has been good for reliability and accessibility.

We have not experienced downtime from the Automation Anywhere setup. When our infrastructure is down it definitely impacts my accessibility to Automation Anywhere. This is not actually the fault of the product as far as I have experienced.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I feel the one thing which I can tap to enhance the scalability of the system is the AI component of Automation Anywhere — that is IQ Bot. I think this is something which can really grow into a massive Bot solution with great advantages. I heard recently that the accuracy of that data reading for invoice processing is something like 70% accurate currently. I think they are trying for 90 or 90 % plus as a goal now.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have definitely had the opportunity to use technical support and I evaluate them as very good. If I have any data stuck somewhere, I query to the Automation Anywhere support guys. If I have some problem with the 11.x version, they'll admit that there's a bug in that version for a particular process or function and they will develop a patch for it in a new upgraded version. We definitely feel confident going accordingly with that and patch the update as a solution.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Our reason for adopting the product and why most of our clients prefer it as a solution is that we talk with them honestly about what capabilities they will need and why this product fills the purpose. Everyone can choose to do their tasks in a different way and other solutions could work to develop automation. What matters for me is the way the product allows users to easily develop the Bots. I do believe that Automation Anywhere is giving me the opportunity to quickly and easily develop stable Bots and it is better at that than other competitors you might want to compare it to.

How was the initial setup?

It is definitely not a simple setup. It is at a medium-complex level. It depends on what actually gets put into the brackets.

When there is a level of complexity, it's all related to the server, where I'm hosting my applications and my client. In the 11.x version, we control one server from another server. When we have to use many servers, the complexity of the setup begins to become more involved.

What about the implementation team?

We developed our architecture on our own by our own, designed to fit with our needs and purposes. We have also done the initial setup now for a number of different customers.

What was our ROI?

In some ways, we have seen a return on investment. For example, we have one customer who is aware of the FTE reduction (Full-Time Employee) on the repeated Bot creation jobs. They have scaled up by having their workers work in a different way. We are actually automating the repetitive Bot creation jobs and reducing the FTE where that human effort is not actually required. The company resources can spend more time focusing on the creative part of the work rather than creating the Bots.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't know exactly what the pricing schemes are for the product as this type of negotiation is not my responsibility, but I think the basic pricing comes to $15,000. We have many employees and perhaps not so many doing Bot development and deployment. The Bots can service a lot of people and I think the rest of the pricing is based on usage.

What other advice do I have?

For people looking for my recommendation for an automation product, I definitely would recommend Automation Anywhere instead of going for a more orthodox or older technology. With older tools, you are just doing the same things and not improving processes. With RPA a digital transformation is actually required for an organization to adopt a better way so they scale up and create an enormous amount of new opportunities for their organization to grow. It is a step to go in the direction where AI is going in. You cannot see the destination yet, but somewhere you have to start up using an RPA that is right for you. That is what I would recommend to my colleagues.

If you start talking about innovation as streamlining day-to-day processes, that is where to start from. It is where we started. We give clients various approaches, but we recommend that RPA is one thing which has stability and which is a good, long-term return on investment.

Once you invest you don't get the returns immediately. You have to wait some time while you work at creating the solutions by scaling the number of Bots you have and the processes you simplify and improve. After a time, your efforts will improve results. That is what we communicate with our customers. When we have them interested, then we come to a conclusion as to how we will go about implementing it.

On a scale from one to ten where ten is the best. I would rate this product as a ten-out-of-ten because the company and product have done everything to meet my expectations.

We used to expect new things in the A 2019 version and the company delivered on that. So, once I use this release of the product for some time again, I will probably have some new expectations. By 2020, I think we will send them feedback again.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Advisory Council Member at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Reduces turnaround times. Exception and error handling could be much better.
Pros and Cons
  • "We saw a 70 percent decrease in manual steps. If something took 10 steps to do, we are doing it in three steps today."
  • "We would like a better coding interface for developers. We would also like to have a user interface which reduces the time to learn the product so more people in the organization can use software, like Automation Anywhere, quickly automating processes."

What is our primary use case?

We are using it in all departments: management, sales, human resources, IT, and customer service.

How has it helped my organization?

These are some of the benefits that we have seen using RPA:

  • We saw a 70 percent decrease in manual steps. If something took 10 steps to do, we are doing it in three steps today. 
  • We see 100 percent accuracy in whatever we do, which wasn't something we could expect from a human worker. 
  • We see a reduction in turnaround times. Something that used to take two hours to do, today takes 20 minutes to do. There is a 40 to 50 percent reduction in whatever is being automated in comparison with a human doing it. 

What is most valuable?

Three features that came up when we chose the product:

  1. The user interface.
  2. The Bot Store.
  3. IQ Bot, which other RPA don't have.

What needs improvement?

We would like a better coding interface for developers. We would also like to have a user interface which reduces the time to learn the product so more people in the organization can use software, like Automation Anywhere, quickly automating processes.

As an organization, we feel the exception and error handling could be way better.

We would like the software not to change as often. Architectures were radically reinvented without informing the customer. This wasn't something we appreciated. 

Some of the stuff being used internally in the product, like Elasticsearch or open source, did not pass vulnerability ability assessment. This is another issue. 

We hope Automation Anywhere takes internal component security seriously as we are looking forward to the Automation Anyway A2019 launch. We hope it addresses some of these issues with error handling as well as component security.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability works fine. 

One of the key features that we chose, the bot as a service or the BotFarm, when they launched version 11.3, they decided not to have the BotFarm anymore. This put us in a situation because we expected to have bots on demand, just like our cloud software. This would have been cost efficient for us to use. We hope to see this again being realized with A2019. I hope the scalability from an on demand basis improves.

How are customer service and technical support?

A lot of the technical support is done by my teams. I do not have great visibility. As far as what my team has told me, it was a tedious process before. They have relaunched the entire support portal. It seems to be a lot more user-friendly to log tickets and reach out to people there.

Their customer success team are a great bunch of folks who try to support and get things done for you.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have personally used RPA before. It is just the buzzword now. 

At the time, we were looking at or looking at replacing our complex, legacy platform which had a lot of steps. Our multiple, previous software tools that had a lot of Python, Perl-based scripting, and Perl website scrapping plugins.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was extremely complex. Version 11.3 came with multi-forest Active Directory support and version 11.10 did not have that support. We had multi-forest Active Directory and it took us one month to resolve when we started implementing it. Again, this information wasn't communicated to us.

I hope going forward I see Automation Anywhere being faster, more transparent, and communicating more in advance than right now.

What about the implementation team?

We had a terrible experience with a local integrator. I don't think that they were ready for the integration/deployment process. We spoke to Automation Anywhere who has implemented more stringent partner qualification schemes to take care of this issues.

What was our ROI?

We have not seen ROI at the present moment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Our costs are approximately between $5,000 to $10,000 per license.

They have a ridiculously expensive bot licensing structure, especially for the Asian region.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Currently, we use Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, and UiPath in my organization.

What other advice do I have?

Start small. Conduct proof of concepts, then choose a process with a quick return on investment.

There are product issues. They have a reckless product roadmap. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
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Updated: March 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Automation Anywhere Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.