Automation Anywhere Reviews

I'm currently using Automation Anywhere for automating Excel, database, and document automation. The use cases are mostly related to the accounts and finance department.

The infrastructure that Automation Anywhere has created is really simple. Compared to other tools such as Power Automate, it is more user-friendly and faster. The benefits of Automation Anywhere, along with my experience automating with Python, make it easier to automate Excel and UI-based automation tasks.

They can provide more features for desktop application automation. They don't have extensive capabilities for automating desktop applications. While we can automate desktop applications using paths, it is not very accurate. I haven't used AARI extensively, but I have created one or two processes that have AARI infrastructure. I have used forms for those processes.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for 4.5 years.

Besides Automation Anywhere, I have used Power Automate. The cost of Power Automate is significantly lower compared to Automation Anywhere, which is one advantage. However, regarding proficiency and overall functionality, Automation Anywhere is much better.

The setup process in Automation Anywhere is really easy. While I haven't worked extensively on moving from development to production in Power Automate, with Automation Anywhere, we just need to import the bot and export it into the production environment. The process typically takes 10 to 15 minutes.

While I don't know the exact figures, Automation Anywhere is approximately 10 times more expensive than Power Automate, possibly even more. I have a general idea of the cost for one runner machine, but I don't have exact information about their charging structure.

They have comprehensive videos related to each action in Automation Anywhere. They have created entire videos and classes on the Automation Anywhere University website, which serves as a direct learning resource. Performance with Automation Anywhere is really good and much better than Power Automate. On a scale of 1-10, I rate Automation Anywhere an 8.

We have used Automation Anywhere across industries such as banking, finance, health care, and manufacturing, mainly for back office automation. We have used it for traditional reconciliations, invoice processing, purchase order processing, currency exchange, data scraping from a portal, and pulling and pushing data between multiple applications, including integrations such as SAP, Navision, and Oracle. On the front office side, customer service engagements where the customer agent is on call and takes a query are another use case, allowing agents to submit queries into the system and receive responses based on a generative AI model.

We've utilized Automation Anywhere in some front office use cases as well as in certain agent tasks. For users who have processes with numerous manual interventions, Automation Anywhere has introduced the Co-Pilot feature, which provides a chat-like interface for interaction between user queries and backend systems. For instance, in a PO processing scenario where invoice data has been extracted, you can place a form in the process to view the extracted data. If you need to make any changes, you can easily update it on the front end. After that, the data can be sent for approval or posted in a system like SAP or Oracle. This feature brings significant advantages to attended automation.

Previously, before the full implementation of Co-Pilot, we relied on unattended automation. In that situation, the bot would send us an Excel file, asking us to check the PO details, which we would then update and send back to the bot. However, if I weren't available at that time, the file could get overlooked. There were often delays of one to two hours before I checked the file and sent it back. With the integration of the Co-Pilot feature for attended automation, data appears directly on our screen, eliminating the need to wait for an email or worry about missed emails. This integration has significantly saved us time within the operations team.

Additionally, by streamlining these manual processes, we were able to redirect our efforts toward more effective brainstorming sessions. We could discuss what the bot could do and explore further applications of attended or unattended automation. By saving one or two hours, we were able to engage in these discussions with business users—who are responsible for the initial automation—allowing us to gain insight into how the technology and processes work. As a result, more use cases emerged during this brainstorming, as users recognized the capabilities of the attended feature and how it could facilitate additional automation. Overall, this approach has enhanced our efficiency, as automation handles data quickly and accurately, minimizing errors in our processes.

Before Automation Anywhere, clerical errors were quite prevalent, particularly during the finance team’s year-end or quarter-end book closings. While some team members took longer to complete their tasks, others made mistakes, especially with calculations. To address this, we implemented a bot to handle manual reconciliation and book closing processes, significantly reducing errors and saving time. The bot follows its own logic, which minimizes mistakes unless the logic itself is altered.

It's much easier to integrate with applications using this low-code platform. For example, if you want to connect to an SAP application, you simply need to drag and drop the Automation Anywhere SAP Connect action, enter the credentials, and you’re all set. On the other hand, while Power Automate has an SAP integration, it is still in preview mode, and its functionality is not as extensive. In UiPath, some operations within SAP still require coding knowledge to understand how the actions work and how to retrieve data. In Automation Anywhere, the process is straightforward: just get it set up and go. 

Additionally, they have integrated document automation into their control room, which previously was part of a separate suite called IQ Bot. Now, you simply need to purchase licenses for document automation, and it’s available directly in the control room. In contrast, Power Automate does have a native AI builder, but it tends to be more expensive, and many documents are not easily processable. For UiPath, you need a separate tenant to access document understanding and AI capabilities.

The latest feature I want to highlight is the integration of an agentic component with traditional automation, and I believe it's the best one yet. Unlike Power Automate, which currently lacks this feature, Automation Anywhere has successfully incorporated it. They provide a dedicated portal for creating your own agents using a simple drag-and-drop functionality. Users are guided through prompts to select the agent, formulate their question, provide an answer, and determine the scope of the agent. Once that's done, connecting to the control room is straightforward; you can simply drag in and link your agent. This means that any business user, even those without a strong technology background, can create an AI agent and seamlessly integrate it into their existing business processes to automate tasks. Overall, this recent update is incredibly significant—it’s the best feature I’ve seen compared to other tools, making automation both effective and accessible.

I find Automation Anywhere pretty easy to use for business users without tech skills. I have experience with various automation tools, and when it comes to Automation Anywhere, I find that its user interface is quite straightforward. Every automation tool typically includes drag-and-drop functionality, but Automation Anywhere takes it a step further by being more user-friendly. It operates more as a no-code platform rather than a low-code one. In a low-code setup, users might need to drag and integrate components, like dragging in an Excel command to work with an Excel file. For example, if you're creating a pivot table, you can easily select a pivot action. Similarly, sorting or resizing a column is simplified. What Automation Anywhere does exceptionally well is allowing users—especially those without a technical background—to navigate easily. If you know how to work with Excel or Word, you can simply type commands in plain English. For instance, typing "save Excel" will bring up the corresponding action. If you want to "open Excel" or sort a column, you can easily find those commands. Compared to other platforms like UiPath or Power Automate, which may require some scripting and include more technical terminology for their actions, Automation Anywhere is much more accessible for business users lacking a strong tech background.

As for the learning curve with Automation Anywhere, they offer a structured learning platform, akin to a university model. Their educational content is organized into playlists, specifically tailored for different user types. For instance, there are playlists designed for business users and others for developers. These resources are well-categorized, making it easier for users to find relevant information. If you’re a developer interested in admin controls or support services, you can sign up for the developer track to access this specific content. This organized approach simplifies the learning process and makes it easier to understand how to use the tool effectively.

There is still room for improvement in document automation because sometimes it goes into validation unnecessarily. When inputting the field names for extraction, it occasionally misdirects into validation loops, which should be addressed for better efficiency. Nonetheless, the recent updates have made it more stable than in the past.

I would love to see a native integration of GenAI capability within the Co-Pilot itself in future releases. Currently, we must retrieve details from Co-Pilot, send them to the LLM for a response, and then return the information. I would really appreciate it if this integration happened. It would be a significant enhancement, similar to how Microsoft Power Automate functions as a traditional virtual assistant. Such an integration would be very beneficial because clients often request use cases that are closely related to chatbot functionality. Currently, this aspect is somewhat lacking in Co-Pilot. If it gets integrated, it would offer a considerable advantage.

I have been working with Automation Anywhere for around about five and a half years.

I have not experienced any downtimes, crashes, or stability issues with Automation Anywhere.

Automation Anywhere is indeed scalable; you can add as many licenses and bots as needed. The only consideration is to avoid running multiple bots simultaneously on a single machine, as this would cause them to queue until the first one completes.

We had a lot of questions during our initial phase. For non-fatal issues, such as development problems related to actions or agents, they typically respond within a day. At first, when you create a support case, the portal recommends relevant articles that address similar issues. If you find a solution in those articles, you won’t need to wait for a support ticket response, as the information is already available. If it is indeed a development issue, a response is expected within a day. For fatal production issues, you can expect a response within an hour.

Positive

I have worked with UiPath and Power Automate. As compared to UiPath, the implementation is very easy with Automation Anywhere. In terms of going into production, it is much simpler compared to Power Automate and UiPath. With UiPath, you need to transfer it to an environment and handle various moving parts, pushing it to a pipeline, and so on. However, with Automation Anywhere, you simply deploy it to a public workspace, and it runs very efficiently.

I also find that workload management in Automation Anywhere is superior to Power Automate. While Power Automate does have its workflows, they are not as efficient as those in Automation Anywhere. The three major advantages of Automation Anywhere are its workflows, deployment process, and the overall ease of use and user interface it offers.

When we talk about RPA automation, the terms "no-code" and "low-code" come to mind. With Automation Anywhere, it truly is a no-code solution. In contrast, with UiPath and Power Automate, you need at least some understanding of coding. For instance, with UiPath, familiarity with C# or VB is essential, as their layout depends on that knowledge. Similarly, with Power Automate, a foundational understanding of logical programming is necessary. However, with Automation Anywhere, you only need to learn how the tool works to create your automation bots. 

On the downside, UiPath is a more stable tool, mainly due to its recording functionality, which includes both web and desktop recorders. Sometimes, in Automation Anywhere, the recording process takes longer when capturing tasks on websites or applications, and there can be internal errors. In contrast, UI Path provides a fast and smooth recording experience. Power Automate also boasts a good web and desktop recorder, an area where Automation Anywhere needs improvement. Aside from the recording challenges, Automation Anywhere has been working quite well for me compared to other tools.

I have worked with both the cloud as well as on-prem versions. In Automation Anywhere, setting up an on-premise environment is quite straightforward, similar to installing MS Office or MS Excel on your system. You simply need to specify the location where the software will reside and configure the database connection. The installation process takes care of everything else, including registry keys, making it quite simple to set up. In contrast, if you're opting for a cloud-based solution, there’s no setup required on your part. Automation Anywhere provides a URL that allows you to access the control panel. All the enterprise-level configurations are managed on their side. You only need to connect to a bot agent, which is also available for on-premise setups, from your local machine. Overall, the cloud option is much easier to manage, as everything is handled by Automation Anywhere.

After setup, Automation Anywhere's cloud version does not require any maintenance. Upgrades and patches are managed on their side, only notifying us beforehand of any scheduled downtimes. However, if you use the on-premise version, you need to uninstall the older version and reinstall the new release yourself. 

Bot maintenance in Automation Anywhere is minimal because the packages can be easily selected and handled within the bot creator. Once in production, changes in logic or UI are the only things requiring attention, which typically involves checking components rather than extensive maintenance effort. If you undergo the upgrade phase, you need to check the packages to ensure they are all set to default. This process takes around 10 to 15 minutes. If any packages are not set to default, you must adjust them accordingly before running the upgrade. Overall, it doesn’t take much time.

In Automation Anywhere, upgrading is similar to reinstalling the Control Room. You need to stop the services, then uninstall and reinstall the software. Since the database is already established, when you install a newer version, it automatically creates new tables in the SQL database, which then run smoothly on their own. Therefore, the upgrade process is essentially just a reinstallation.

Initially, we experienced a small amount of savings due to high licensing costs and streamlined processes. However, as we entered an accelerated phase with more use cases, we realized greater efficiencies. For instance, we had four people performing a repetitive task every day. With the bot taking over this task, we were able to reassign those four employees to different departments where human skills were still necessary. We trained them to adapt to their new roles, engaging them in tasks that required brainstorming, idea generation, and collaboration—activities that contribute to their growth. As a result of this transition, we have significantly reduced salaries and payouts in the affected department. Now, 50-60% of our costs go toward licenses, while the remainder contributes to savings. We no longer need to hire externally for new roles; instead, we are training our existing employees and placing them into new departments.

We started with just three or four use cases, which is typical for any company embarking on automation. After successfully implementing these cases and demonstrating reliable output, the return on investment (ROI) began to materialize. Initially, the ROI was modest, but as confidence in the automation system grew, we expanded our use cases, leading to more substantial ROI.

On average, it takes about five to six months to see significant results. The first one to three months are dedicated to setting up the initial infrastructure and developing the bots. By the fourth and fifth months, we typically start to see the ROI.

Our organization's strategy regarding automation focuses on leveraging existing case studies from Automation Anywhere to educate clients on AI's impact and advantages. We demonstrate use cases already implemented to provide a framework for understanding before conducting process discovery exercises for potential new implementations.

My advice for other users looking to implement Automation Anywhere is to prioritize finding a tool that is easy to deploy and works well for business users. Automation Anywhere offers a user-friendly design that allows actions to be executed using layman's terminology, making it accessible for everyone.

I would rate Automation Anywhere a nine out of ten.

In the financial industry, Automation Anywhere helps us streamline tasks by automating processes like invoice entry and employee onboarding, along with many other functions.

Businesses leverage Automation Anywhere to streamline their workflows and minimize operational problems.

Automation Anywhere has empowered our clients to achieve greater accuracy, enhanced control over their processes, and liberated employee time for more strategic endeavors.

Automation Anywhere is easy to use even for non-technical people once they receive the training.

Automation Anywhere is considered user-friendly, with the learning curve manageable for beginners. The available resources provide a solid foundation for new users to get started.

It seamlessly integrates with our daily applications, providing a valuable human-like interaction that enhances the automation process.

Co-Pilot improves productivity by automating tasks like reviewing purchase requisitions, which previously required multiple people. It also allows individuals to manage workloads that once demanded multiple people, allowing them to focus on more valuable tasks.

Generative AI stands out in automation, especially for crucial tasks like invoice processing, where it can extract information, or for tasks requiring web research, going beyond simple rule-based automation.

Automation Anywhere offers integration with various Large Language Model applications, and for connecting these external systems, utilizing their API is the best approach.

Automation Anywhere's document automation, powered by IQ Bots and now enhanced with AI, stands out as a particularly valuable feature. This combination allows for seamless integration of a wider range of document types, streamlining our workflows.

Automation Anywhere's current requirement for upfront annual payments limits flexibility for customers. Offering a wider range of payment options, such as monthly installments, would be a welcome improvement.

While Automation Anywhere's current learning materials cater to junior and new users, senior developers require more in-depth content to effectively utilize the platform's full potential.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for six years.

Automation Anywhere's technical support has a prompt response time, with Portuguese-speaking representatives in Brazil. For complex issues, they efficiently escalate tickets to a global team of engineers for further assistance.

Positive

I would rate Automation Anywhere ten out of ten.

I'm a developer supporting my clients with Automation Anywhere. I work at McKarthy Labs. We use Automation Anywhere to provide automated processing to our clients. For example, we might get paid to do automated invoice processing. The bot can extract all the information, complaints, or remarks in that invoice. All of these details will go into an Excel spreadsheet. 

Any repetitive, rule-based task will be appropriate for Automation Anywhere, but a judgment-based task will require some AI to implement. For example, if a user needs to send an email once an invoice is ready, we can check automatically to determine when the invoice is available in the appropriate folder and send the email to the user.   

The developer gathers the requirements, and we prepare our business equipment once approved or assigned. First, we will see which applications are being used and how they could be automated. For example, we might need to automate logging into a Gmail account multiple times.  We'll create it in three phases: 30 percent, 30 percent, and 40 percent. The process can be completed in about a week. Sometimes, it may take longer due to data scalability issues or some required changes in the back end. Some minor changes in the domain may take a little more time. 

Since we started using Automation, we have automated more and more tasks. We are gradually expanding the capacity. It has helped them save time and money. The automation copilot has helped our workers save time, freeing them up for other work. I have a co-pilot based on SQL database connectivity. It pulls the required information tables. Automation Anywhere's AI is excellent for automating any process. 

It's easy for non-technical users to work with Automation Anywhere. There are many options and methods they can use if they want to run a bot. The Automation Copilot is helpful. It will automatically give you all the solutions your bot requires. It's like a dictionary. 

The integration is not always seamless. Sometimes, it takes a while to get everything to communicate and be ready to go into production.

I have used Automation Anywhere for five years.

I rate Automation Anywhere eight out of 10 for scalability. 

I rate Automation Anywhere support 10 out of 10.

Positive

We have used UiPath and Power Automate. It depends on the client's requirements. We use Automation Anywhere if the clients prefer that. 

Automation Anywhere is a little expensive, but it's a good value. I've seen many companies use Power Automate, and the subscription is very low. 

I rate Automation Anywhere eight out of 10. 

I have built multiple solutions. Many times we have used Automation Anywhere for data entry. At times, we have used it for Excel Automation tasks. We have also used it to create a virtual assistant agent to improve employee productivity and remove manual tasks.

We built a solution for an airline client where they had to scrub more than 5,000 PNRs on a daily basis, which was not possible with manual tasks, so we deployed a bot there. The bot is doing the scrubbing on behalf of the agent and sending the report at an interval of one hour. Because of this, we could achieve 100% more productivity. Previously, such tasks were done manually. After automation, there is no need for any person to sit for this task.

We are not only using it to automate manual tasks. We are also using it to overcome other challenges.

We are using Automation Anywhere with other applications. We have Python scripts and Java scripts. We do face multiple challenges while automating. Sometimes, Automation Anywhere does not have the required compatibility, so we have to go with another application. For example, if we want to do some kind of highlighting in an Excel file, it is not possible with Automation Anywhere. In such cases, we have to go with some third-party tools, VBA script, PowerShell script, etc.

Automation Anywhere has been helpful for tasks that are repetitive or do not require human intervention. If human intervention or decision-making is required, that task is not possible with Automation Anywhere. Also, if a task is using multiple applications, it becomes complex for Automation Anywhere or any RPA solution.

Automation Anywhere is not very hard to learn for business users. Like any tool, it requires some learning. It takes one to three months for a business user to use Automation Anywhere. There are many learning resources available at Automation Anywhere University. There are complete or end-to-end courses available about Automation Anywhere. You can also do certification in Automation Anywhere.

Automation Co-pilot has been helpful when any human intervention is required in the RPA process. If I need human intervention, I can use Automation Co-pilot where a human can intervene and make a decision on the basis of the data. Based on the decision, we can go ahead with the remaining processes. This is now possible. It is a very useful feature.

It improves productivity. Previously, there were many manual tasks that people had to do on a daily basis. Those tasks are now taken care of by bots, and people can focus on other tasks. It has improved productivity by 30%. We have deployed Automation Co-pilot for 700 users, and there is about a 30% increase in productivity.

We have more accuracy. Bots are more accurate than humans. Previously, there were high chances of human errors. With automation, errors have been reduced. There is more productivity and accuracy.

We have integrated Automation Anywhere with multiple applications. We have integrated it with Salesforce. We have integrated it with Windows services for Windows-based automation. We have also integrated it with other applications based on the requirements.

We have seen time savings, but it is hard to measure time savings. The time savings vary from process to process. For example, it takes a person three to four hours on a daily basis to download the reports, do the scrubbing, and generate the report. With automation, such repetitive tasks can be performed by a bot, and the person can do more productive tasks.

Similarly, the cost savings also vary. Sometimes, we are able to save more. It depends on the data and volume.

It is easy to learn and easy to deploy. That is the best part compared to the other RPA solutions available in the market. Automation Anywhere is easier than UiPath and Blue Prism.

In terms of cost, Automation Anywhere is cheaper than UiPath and Blue Prism. These are the advantages of Automation Anywhere, but other solutions have their own advantages.

There is a limitation with Automation Anywhere where if you want to build your own packages and deploy them, it is very difficult.

Integration with other applications can also be difficult at times.

Except for Automation Anywhere University, there are not a lot of education resources available for Automation Anywhere. They need to build a strong community for Automation Anywhere where any user or developer can post questions and get answers. That would make things very easy for us.

Its stability and support also need improvement.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for close to five years.

Since the last two updates, we are having issues with Automation Anywhere. Our automation is not working properly on the Chrome application. They are saying that it is because of Chrome. From the stability point of view, I have a little bit of doubt.

I would rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten for stability.

It is scalable. I would rate it a nine out of ten for scalability.

We have about 26 people in our RPA team. In my organization, there are about a thousand people who are impacted by Automation Anywhere's automation on a daily basis.

We have raised multiple tickets with Automation Anywhere, but we were not able to find a proper solution from them. I am not very satisfied with their support.

Their support needs improvement. They do not have a proper answer or justification about why we are facing certain issues. When we raise a ticket, we want an RCA so that we do not face the same issue the next time. They are not able to provide an RCA. That is the main issue. I would rate their support a seven out of ten.

Neutral

I have a lot of exposure to UiPath and Blue Prism. As compared to UiPath, Automation Anywhere has many limitations. Queue-based workload is not very feasible with Automation Anywhere. It is very difficult to use for that. I do not see many users using queue-based automation. That is a limitation that we have right now. UiPath and Blue Prism are good in this aspect. The queue implementation is very easy, and there are multiple things that we can achieve from the queue.

It took about four weeks to deploy Automation Anywhere on-prem, do the basic settings, and do all kinds of installation.

Currently, we have to upgrade our license. Previously, we had the enterprise version with a limited license. We are now expanding the license. 

For deploying it on-prem and doing the installation, we have our IT team with about seven people.

We also have seven people to support us if there is any issue with the Automation Anywhere service or any difficulty with the VM on which we have deployed Automation Anywhere.

Over the five years, we have seen 50% to 60% ROI.

Automation Anywhere is cheaper than UiPath and Blue Prism. From a market point of view, Automation Anywhere is reasonable. Any organization can adopt Automation Anywhere.

If you are looking for an RPA solution and have cost restrictions, I would recommend Automation Anywhere. It is easy to use.

We are still evolving in terms of RPA. We have a roadmap. We have not yet used the AI capabilities of Automation Anywhere. With the help of AI and other technologies, we will be able to achieve more productivity. We are looking into GenAI and RPA AI. There are so many things where we can implement AI, but as of now, we do not have the right project for that. We have to figure out where we can use it.

Overall, I would rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten. There is a lot of scope for improvement.

We mainly use Automation Anywhere to automate or mimic manual business processes. We use Automation Anywhere to develop bots that mimic human interventions in business applications such as SAP and web report applications. We use Automation Anywhere to automate human actions in the applications.

By implementing Automation Anywhere, we mainly wanted to automate business processes.

I am a developer, and I am using Automation Anywhere to develop automated tasks for business users. I am not a business user. Before automation, business users were manually updating the data into the portals or desktop applications. The business required more time and resources.

Automation Anywhere helps save time and resources for the business. For example, an e-commerce website wants to create purchase orders for its client orders. They get the information regarding the clients in an Excel form, and the bot picks up the data one by one and updates it in the desktop or web application. They get hundreds of records daily, so updating the data manually can take more than a week. The business would require at least two to four resources. To save time and resources, we automate such tasks. With a bot, the process is done within minutes.

We are a service provider for business people. So far, our business people are very satisfied with our bots. They are getting huge outputs as per their expectations. It is beneficial for our clients.

There are multiple features. About three to four years ago, they introduced IQ Bot which helps to get data from documents with different structures. We receive bills, invoices, or purchase orders from different vendors in multiple formats. Each vendor uses a different format. IQ Bot automatically scans all the documents, extracts the required data from all unstructured documents or PDF files, and provides it to the business user. It is a very helpful feature of Automation Anywhere. They have recently introduced Automation Co-pilot which is very helpful for developers doing automation or automating the business process. Automation Co-pilot is very useful to create tasks.

Its user interface is very understandable. Even a non-technical person can understand it. Everything in the user interface is self-explanatory. It is quite good.

To use Automation Anywhere, no technical knowledge is required because it is simply a drag-and-drop type of tool. Each and every action is available in the tool, and we can easily automate a task. Business people can also easily run the created bot and monitor a particular task. They can easily monitor the results based on their business criteria. Automation Anywhere is a very good tool. It is easier than UiPath. A non-technical person can learn it very quickly.

I have experienced the issues of UI getting stuck. There seems to be an issue with server stability. This is something that can be better.

At times, the created tasks start failing randomly or intermittently which affects the business. They are failing at the runtime because of the bot launch crash issue. Business people are impacted a lot because of these failures at the run time.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for four years.

We sometimes have issues with server stability. There are also run-time failures of bots. I would rate it an eight out of ten for stability.

For scalability, I would rate it a ten out of ten. Automation Anywhere is moving with the current technologies. It is scaling day by day. 

We are a large organization.

We have used UiPath. It needs technical knowledge. You must know the C programming language to automate with UiPath. As compared to UiPath, Automation Anywhere is better. A non-technical person can easily understand Automation Anywhere.

We are also learning Power Automate. As a service provider, we need to learn the latest technology. We are looking into Power Automate. Our business people are interested in Power Automate because it comes along with Microsoft Office.

Automation Anywhere also keeps on introducing the latest technologies. In the future, there will be good competition between Automation Anywhere and Power Automate.

Previously, it was on-premises, but now, everything is on the cloud.

Its deployment is very easy. Because it is a cloud platform, you just need to install a single file. It does not take more than two minutes to download. Within two minutes, the cloud license will appear. One person is enough for the deployment.

It gets updated automatically because it is a cloud version. There is no need to update it manually. Everything is done automatically. If auto-update is not working, we can update it manually, but that also does not take more than five minutes.

In terms of maintenance, regular maintenance is required because there are issues related to stability and tasks failing at the runtime because of unknown reasons. These things need to be fixed, so regular management is required for Automation Anywhere at the backend.

I am a service provider for business people. Business people will have a better idea about the ROI. From what I understand, there are time savings. 

My understanding is that the license cost of Automation Anywhere is more reasonable than UiPath and Blue Prism.

I would recommend Automation Anywhere for all business people. Automating a business process is easy with Automation Anywhere.

We have not yet used Automation Co-pilot. From what I know, if we are reading from an Excel file, it helps to generate each and every action for a task. What usually developers do is done by Automation Co-pilot automatically based on the information that we give it. Automation Co-pilot will improve productivity for a repetitive task. It will save 40% to 50% work for developers. We are currently not using the AI capabilities of Automation Anywhere.

I would rate Automation Anywhere a ten out of ten.

My company uses Automation Anywhere to automate tedious processes involving large amounts of data. My job is to monitor the processes for errors and see what caused them. I address those errors and run the automation again. We only started using the solution a few months ago, so we're still exploring some potential candidates for automation. We are discussing and trying to build and define those automations based on our business requirements and existing processes. So far, we have integrated it with our ERP and other SAP solutions. 

We have about 500 users at the company, but most of them are not building automations in the solution. They are indirectly benefiting from activities that are automated. Only about two or three employees are supporting the processes, but the rest are benefitting from the results. Automation Anywhere covers about three work streams. 

Automation Anywhere is cost-effective and significantly reduces the risk of errors that can cost the company lots of money. The solution improves our time and cost efficiency. Automation can cut the time spent on these tasks in half or more in some cases. Sometimes, it might take a day to do something that automation can complete in a few minutes. 

Before we implemented Automation Anywhere, we performed these tasks manually. It took a long time, and there were many errors. Now, everything is efficient, and there are fewer errors. If there's an issue, it tells you exactly where to find the problem and goes straight to it, so you don't need to investigate the whole process. 

There are several use cases where we can leverage AI. One example is purchase orders that are there for maybe 100 or 120 days, but there is nothing happening with the order, so we need to close them. When we go into the system, there are thousands of purchase orders that are still open after years. Normally, we would need to close them all manually. We can use Automation Anywhere to close all the purchase orders that have been open past a certain date. 

Automation Anywhere's error handling is its most valuable feature. It sends you an email when there's an error and helps you find the cause quickly. It walks you through exactly how you should handle it.

If you don't have a technical background, it's somewhat complex, but you don't need to have coding or software development experience, so it is easy in that sense.  I am not technically inclined, and it involves many steps for a process to function properly. It requires a lot of work initially to design and develop a process. I find it somewhat challenging.  If you take time to understand it, it's not too difficult, but it seems complicated at the beginning if you're not a technical person.  

The time needed to learn the solution varies. Some of the processes are complex, involving four or five activities from start to finish. It's a lot of steps and can get quite technical. It might take a month or two to learn. 

I have used Automation Anywhere for six months.

Automation Anywhere is highly stable. 

I'm impressed with Automation Anywhere's scalability. 

I found the setup process to be somewhat complex because I don't come from a technical background. 

I rate Automation Anywhere eight out of ten. We recommend adopting Automation Anywhere. Using digital platforms to automate is efficient and cost-effective. Many tasks that might normally take a day or two can be done in a few hours. You also reduce the risk of human error. It's highly efficient and accurate. 

We use it for P2P, AP, O2C, AR, inventory management, finance and general ledger, and HR.

Moving forward, we see opportunities to operationalize AI within our organization for loss cash discounts, payment term mismatch, credit blocks for vendors, duplicate invoices, accounting entries, and invoicing in SAP.

By implementing Automation Anywhere, we wanted to achieve productivity and decrease the complexity of the processes. The key issue has been the complexity. RPA is not meant for complex processes. When a process becomes complex, we face a lot of errors. That creates slowness of processing, some interactions at critical moments, and frustration in the business because the job is not done. As an alternative, we have to work manually.

We built many complex bots, and that was not the best strategy. It is better to simplify and then automate, and not automate to avoid simplification. When you take this wrong approach, you have to deal with many technical issues, and you are not able to leverage and benefit from the other tools as part of the automation itself. In the business roadmap of an RPA project, there should be some reporting or dashboards of bots' portfolio so that you can see the percentage of successful processing, the rate of failures per bot, and the rate of exceptions. There should also be something to measure the return on investment to be able to say that this bot is meeting expectations and productivity. It was worth it to invest in this bot, and it costs less than manual work. If the bot is always facing issues, it will be better to come back to manual processing. We should not move from manual to automation without thinking about simplification. We need to simplify first and then automate.

We have a centralized infrastructure, but we have a decentralized business strategy. We gained 60% productivity, which is at a high level.

Automation Anywhere is easy to use for business users who do not have tech skills, but first, they need to be able to play the role of business analyst. You should not have many points of contact. You should have a single point of contact, which we call SPOC, and this person should be a business analyst. This single point of contact should collect all the requirements and needs and be able to communicate them in a structured way in order to enable the solution team to tackle the points. It is easy if the person who is supposed to do it follows the learning of the business analyst and is able to speak English. We have English speakers because we are in a multinational group. They should also have a minimum level of experience in IT or in general business. If the training is intensive, it takes three months to train non-technical employees on Automation Anywhere usage.

The RPA automation itself is valuable. We are not using the other components that are part of the platform much because we want to first stabilize the platform, the environment, and the infra.

It could be improved in terms of the global analysis of all the issues caused by the dependency components. For example, if bots are running on virtual machines on Microsoft Windows 2019, sometimes an issue might come from the virtual machine. Automation Anywhere should work closely with Microsoft or any other editor with which there are some issues occurring and stopping the bots from running properly. They need to collaborate together to enhance and improve the platform and the dependencies. It should not be that because the problem comes from Microsoft, Automation Anywhere does not tackle the issue. They should tackle the issue even when they are not responsible 100%. Microsoft or any other editor should work with Automation Anywhere.

I would like them to include process mining.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for three years, and I have been using UiPath for two years.

I would rate it a five out of ten in terms of stability because of the issue of dependency components, such as Microsoft components.

I would rate it a seven out of ten in terms of scalability.

Their support can be improved in terms of understanding the issue more deeply and involving enough resources based on the criticality or urgency of the issue. They should involve the right resources and the right number of resources. If we need an architect, they should bring us an architect. If we need an engineer, we should have an engineer in front of us. They should provide the right person at the right time.

Neutral

I have worked with UiPath. The move to Automation Anywhere was not my choice. It was a group choice.

We have a hybrid cloud. The implementation is easy if you are business-oriented, you first tackle simple use cases, and you involve all the teams. The complexity is always there, but to have less complexity, it is important to ensure these three elements. 

We include people from development, monitoring, management of development and monitoring, central IT management, and central business management.

In terms of upgrades, it is difficult to upgrade Automation Anywhere. The upgrades of Automation Anywhere are sometimes not adapted to the clients. They sometimes choose to upgrade the platform during a critical period, such as accounting month-end closing. It is definitely not the right moment to launch the upgrade. Automation Anywhere sometimes pushes general upgrades during critical periods. The best will be to take into account the constraints of the clients in order to not make it difficult for them.

In terms of maintenance, if the bots are running 24 hours a day, you need three people or at least two people for monitoring. The upgrade of bots requires one developer.

You get a return on investment only after 18 months. You can get 50% savings.

It depends. For example, for my group, we are centralizing the infrastructure in Paris. Our contract is signed with Automation Anywhere in France. The currency and the pricing of Automation Anywhere in France can appear beneficial and interesting for Germany and Scandinavian countries, but when we share our infra and are internally charging other countries such as Poland, Brazil, or some other country with a lower currency value as compared to Euro, it becomes less beneficial. They would prefer to sign the contract directly with Automation Anywhere because they will benefit from a price that is as per their local market.

The price works well for France, but it becomes a bit complex when you centralize it for all the countries or groups. In the international context, you have to propose something a little bit tailored for some countries, such as Romania or Brazil.

When it comes to automation and AI, I always think about being business-oriented. Always start with the needs of the business and do not automate just for automation. You have to think about relevant use cases and also scalable use cases. In a multinational group, it is important to not think individually. This way you can collaborate more and reuse more things. You can reuse the components that have already been built. It is also economical.

Each center of automation should have a governance plan. The governance plan should be very precise, and it should expand the roles. Each stakeholder should know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it at each cycle or phase. After that, you should come to the functional and technical aspects. Without a governance plan, nothing is possible.

Overall, I would rate Automation Anywhere a seven out of ten.

I use it for various IT operations.

Automation Anywhere has significantly improved our organization's efficiency. Across various processes, we have achieved a 90% time savings for each use case, making our workflow much more streamlined and productive.

We used to do things manually, which took a lot of time. Now, with Automation Anywhere, most things are automated, making things faster and better. Sometimes we still need to do things manually, but overall, it has made our work much easier and less prone to mistakes.

To improve Automation Anywhere for the next release, standardization is key. The application should work universally across servers and desktops, without limitations on licenses tied to specific virtual machines. Currently, the one-to-one bot and VM dependency pose restrictions, and a more flexible licensing system would enhance its usability. Additionally, for business users without technical skills, using Automation Anywhere can be challenging. While it is easy to develop automation, deploying and running them requires some technical knowledge. Training is essential to navigate the platform effectively.

Upgrading Automation Anywhere can be challenging. Communication about upgrades is lacking, and an auto-upgrade feature or at least notifications would be beneficial. Currently, there is no automatic check for the latest version, and improvement is needed in providing information to users about updates.

I have been working with Automation Anywhere for a year and a half.

It is a stable solution. I would rate the stability as an eight out of ten.

Automation Anywhere can provide automation at a large scale, but the effectiveness depends on the complexity of the processes, which is common for any ERP system.

I would rate the technical support as an eight out of ten.

Positive

The deployment process is fairly straightforward. Deployment of Automation Anywhere typically requires just one person. If you are familiar with the entire workflow, one person can manage the deployment effectively. Maintenance for Automation Anywhere is minimal. However, due to recent use, aspects like patching and version upgrades are not entirely clear, and occasional manual intervention is needed for tasks like access management.

The price for Automation Anywhere is reasonable compared to others, but there are some feature limitations. Specifically, the ability of one bot to support multiple VMs is an issue, distinguishing it from some other solutions.

In our organization, I see great opportunities to operationalize AI, particularly in the realm of monitoring. Whether it is through comprehensive monitoring tools or leveraging Python for data analysis, there is potential to enhance our operations.

Assessing the learning curve for Automation Anywhere, it takes around a month for non-technical employees to become proficient. While an expert developer might grasp it quicker, providing training is essential for non-technical users to effectively learn and use Automation Anywhere.

Our organization is focused on expanding automation and AI use cases, continually adding more features. Additionally, there is an interest in exploring generative AI to enhance our capabilities further.
We have integrated Automation Anywhere with various solutions, including ITSM, a centralized portal, and several third-party applications.

Integrating Automation Anywhere into our workflows, APIs, and business applications is effective, but it is crucial to ensure a secure network.

Automation Anywhere has been a time and cost-saver for us. Achieving a 90% cost reduction in tasks is a significant boost to resource efficiency and overall cost-effectiveness.

We use Automation Anywhere across multiple departments, but it operates within the same environment and infrastructure, given its public nature.

My advice for those using Automation Anywhere is to start with a less complex use case. It is a good platform overall, but beginning with simpler tasks will help ease into the automation process. Overall, I would rate the solution as a seven out of ten.

Initially, when we started, we were using it for back-office automation. The solution has definitely evolved. We're focusing on implementing customer and experience-facing use cases. Time is the most valuable piece, and that's how we measure the success of automation now. 

The solution is helping our customers save time. 

We were trying to solve a few different challenges with Automation Anywhere. For example, during the pandemic, gaining bandwidth was huge. Hiring while shifting to remote was challenging. There was such an accelerated use of the technology during the pandemic. Having to integrate with existing and older systems was key. That flexibility to work with other applications and other aspects of the platform really drove our decision to adopt more and more of the solution.

We've noticed time savings. The time saving varies. We look at how much value the customer gets. We've noticed time savings of up to 40 minutes, based on wait time and verification delays. Sometimes, we might only be saving a minute or slightly less. However, this is a slightly higher volume scenario where something needs to get done by the end of the day. It offers a broad range of time savings. For example, if someone calls in for the healthcare side to get benefits verified. Typically, that would take 45 minutes in terms of gathering information and validating information and prep work both before and after. Now, we can do that autonomously in a matter of minutes. 

Within the processes of automation, robots learn differently than humans. They are very interactive and literal. Diving into that tribal knowledge that makes an organization unique was really what we had to do differently. For example, if you tell someone, "Go check your email," they know what that means. With a robot, you have to translate that action into a specific language, and that was the challenging part from the process side.

Copilot is great at bringing agents and humans into the loop. Creating that AI assistant that can almost tell someone the next step, that suggested intelligence, is helpful. Getting the data an organization has over to a customer very quickly is effective with Copilot. Simple queries that may take 15-20 seconds to answer, you still have to, for example, to find the number, make the call, et cetera, and suddenly that 20 seconds if two minutes longer. Having that information ready in a conversational way is where generative AI can really help compress time. 

There's a lot of human involvement in the workflow. Automation Anywhere does a fabulous job of integrating users into the workflow. That's important. You wouldn't be able to automate with just the technology. Teaching users to interact in a relatable way with relatable interfaces has had a big impact on the business users' side.

Understanding the technology is very easy based on the way it is positioned. There are a lot of great resources out there. 

How much time it takes to get comfortable using the automation process varies. You need to gain the knowledge of understanding ways to do things, then have the practical knowledge of how to apply; then, there's a third piece of constantly improving, monitoring, mentoring, and iterating. That piece is ongoing. 

Copilot is helpful for pure-play back-office stuff. From the call center side, it's integrated and becomes available as an option as well. Any document processing is great for Copilot. 

With the new enhancements, it's very easy to integrate. It integrates well with infrastructure solutions and testing products, as well as data and analytics.

The integration with workflows has only been enhanced over time. 

In terms of document processes, there is some uncertainty between structured and unstructured. However, the intelligence applied cut down time by 50% or more. That's in time to do the work, not necessarily accuracy.

In terms of APIs and applications, when automation first came out, they shunned APIs. That was a challenge due to the fact that, when you sold it to an organization, they asked why it would be done a certain way when they already had an API. Now, it's making it easier to use solutions. You can bring in your tool kit and create synergy.

Copilot has helped us increase productivity. It's a new feature, so it's hard to quantify. I do see the established value increasing exponentially. 

The product has helped us free up staff time. The biggest thing we measure is experience. If it's moving towards higher-value projects, it's great. However, so is going home and not taking work home with you.

If we look at the concept of bringing automation to a broader user group in an organization, the focus right now is on how to build it properly. We're building it out with instruction manuals and working to make it more user-friendly. We need to do a lot of work from the perspective of education. The messaging is essential. Also, figuring out the platform so that users know where they need to interact. We're pointing users towards that and giving them the help to do that. The messaging and education around how to leverage the platform need to be more precise. Understanding what the benefits are going to be needs to be very clear. 

When you are implementing it initially, it's challenging as there's a lot of change management. That's where the lessons need to be learned. That curve is hard to overcome.

There are more challenging integrations that should be left to more expert users. 

We've been using the solution since 2015. It's been about eight years now.

Technical support is good. You don't have to reach out to them very often. The new layers are great. The services you get alongside the solution are helpful, and combining that with bug fixes, et cetera, makes it fit for purpose for all uses. 

Positive

I'm familiar with other options. The difference is the people side of things. The team outside of the technology, the people putting it together, is what makes the solution itself better. 

It's important that Automation Anywhere is easy to use. There's an intimidation factor when you present people with a massive ecosystem. It's practical and fit for purpose from the outset, yet very flexible and versatile. 

I was involved in the initial setup. 

If you start out pretty simple, the challenges that cause delays are more from change management and security and clearance. That's outside of the platform itself. That takes 80% of the time.

You can stand it up in a couple of days, however, it can sometimes take a month for reasons outside of the platform.

You can get things going within a week, which you can iterate on pretty quickly. 

Maintenance depends on usage. There are tools where you can build automation to provide alerts. You need someone who's at least slightly dedicated to that. Once you get bigger, you'll need a dedicated team, and then you have to figure out how to prioritize your time, in terms of evangelizing it, making more automation, et cetera. 

The pricing is okay. We've established the value of bringing it into our organization. For scaling, you can't beat the price of adding a robot that provides basically unlimited scale. 

Our strategy when it comes to automation and AI (and generative AI) right now, as with any technology, there's a lot of buzz. Historically, we've had periods of punctuated innovation, like automation in general, that was a real change in how organizations did business. Right now, we're seeing an iteration of that with generative AI. We have the foundation down with these platforms. Our strategy is the same: understand the technology from the people's side. We're the ones using the technology. You can't blame a piece of technology - it's still on us. We need to establish it. At the end of the day, we need to own it. Technology isn't a silver bullet. However, if we approach it right, we'll have all the success in the world.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.