Automation Anywhere Reviews

In our company, if you look at the SAP security area, there are a lot of user requests. There's a confusion around the rules. With Automation Anywhere, we can increase the automation capabilities and automate all the user-provisioning in that area.

It's definitely useful. I went through the enterprise client and the Control Room and using it, a lot of processes can be automated. The SAP integrations look to be very useful. We have a big SAP shop, so a lot of processes can be automated using that integration.

There are three parts to the savings: 

1. the number of hours saved
2. the dollar amount saved
3. how streamlined the process is.

A manual process can be one where an email is sent and then another email is sent to get the approval, and they have to wait one or two weeks until that email comes back. That full manual process can take three weeks while the automated task takes about 30 minutes.

Ease of use is one thing that definitely first comes to mind when I think of Automation Anywhere. The tools are built in a fairly straightforward way. The documentation is really good and a Knowledge Base is available on every topic.

The bot creation process is very straightforward compared to other tools I have used. ServiceNow has a workflow which is a drag-and-drop activity itself, and then you configure it. Here they are going in that direction too: flow, design. It's really good.

The number of activities available to automate is amazing. There are 500-plus so there are a lot of possibilities with that. I can automate a lot of processes.

I would like to see more bots available right out-of-the-box in the SAP area. For example, if you take the overall OTC in our organization, we have to contact 15 teams. Even if we provide one big bot for the OTC, it won't work. It will not be used by one person. So if there could be more specific bots out-of-the-box, that would be really helpful. 

An example would be a credit check. There might be one there but I'm just giving an example where it would be specifically targeting a single process. 

More Meta Bots would also be good because they are reusable. If we had more of them that would make it faster for whomever is working on them and make the process more seamless. They would be able to build the bots very fast.

As of now, we have one or two instances of Automation Anywhere, so I'm not yet able to comment on its stability. Once we install it in production, with multiple processes running, multiple bots running, we'll have to see how it performs overall, how scalable it is.

To scale from pilot to the number of bots we're currently using went pretty quickly. I have talked to other teammates who are working on Automation Anywhere and developing the bots. I've heard really good feedback on that. It's within weeks, and sometimes days, depending on the complexity.

Doing a simple password reset went really fast. If they are doing something on an OTC process or a P2P process or integrating with SAP, it will be a long process. First, you have to get approval from all the business owners and understand the process. That takes time. But the technical aspect - once you have everything in place and you know what you are going to do - the coding itself, is pretty fast.

I have not yet had to contact technical support.

In terms of switching to a new solution, as a company, if we grow out of a solution or it's not at a level that will help us with all scenarios within the company, then they will usually look to change.

There are many factors they look at, such as return on investment and cost. They will look at all the parameters, but the main parameter will be that it should be very useful to all the different teams. It also needs to be scalable since we have about 50,000 employees.

The setup was straightforward.

We managed it ourselves.

You will usually see return on investment easily see because of the depth of things you can automate with it is huge.

My way measuring ROI of an automated process is that first, even before starting any automation, I will see what the input is for the process, how the process works, what the output from the process is, and I'll measure how much time it takes, end-to-end in the manual process.

There will be some initial investment ahead of time and, after that, everything is a return on investment. Based on the number of minutes it takes manually, versus automation, the reduced amount of time will be the savings that I calculate, per request. I'll put a dollar amount to it based on who the user is. If they are, for example, paid $50 per hour, and the automation saves 40 minutes, that's a savings of $33 per request.

Every time we do an automation, we definitely note how many requests it processes. For example, in ServiceNow we count every automation request that goes through, without manual intervention. It writes to a table and we go there and run a report on the table. Straight away, I know my return on investment from that part of the automation.

As you understand more and apply the tool to the processes, you will start to leverage the tool more quickly. 

I have looked at other tools, like UiPath. While I have not completely tested them, Automation Anywhere definitely has ease of use and a strong community available.

I have taken the developer courses and done certification in the Automation Anywhere University. It's really good and helpful and I was able to grasp things quickly by using it. I installed the Community Edition on my laptop and started using it straight away. It's very good.

I would rate the product at nine out of ten because of the number of uses. We have automated 30 to 40 processes. Those kinds of things have been very easy to automate using Automation Anywhere. We didn't need any other platforms. We were able to straight-out build all the bots. 

As I said, there could be more on the SAP integration side. Also, knowledge of the actual process of automating is not readily available outside. If they could build up their Knowledge Base more that would be helpful. That's where the real investment for the company is, not in automating the IT team's requirements. For example, if I automate an application for my IT team, that's one thing, but if I automate a business process and I'm able to provide them analysis and provide a report on something that the business really needs, that will help to deliver on the business side. There's a difference.

We use it to augment our staff and remove some of the manual processes in our business.

Our team, consists of two college kids who are doing almost all the work, along with a couple of business people to help teach them what is going on. The ease of use has been pretty simple, or they would not have been able to catch onto it so quickly.

With the new regulation on China tariffs, we were hit with a regulation that we weren't prepared to take on. By using a few bots, we were able to satisfy the requirements for that regulation without going into programs and making changes.

We have automated our China tariffs, some invoicing stuff, a lot of processes for finance, and some mundane closing tasks.

We have had a lot of great success with attended automation. The business has taken a hold and embraced it. So, we're very excited about it.

I would like more with OCR and data capture. We are partnering with IBM to help bridge this gap, but Automation Anywhere should continue to expand on their product line and provide these capabilities, as well.

The installation and setup for the bot runners and bot creators need improvement. The installation and setup for the control room is also a difficult task. Therefore, improving the ease of implementation would help out a lot.

We've not had any problems with the platform going down. Right now, it's been very stable.

We're still pretty small, so we haven't had a need to scale out too much. 

We have seen the roadmap for scaling out, and it doesn't look to be too difficult. So, we should& have a problem with it.

We have only had the tool for about eight months. From start to finish, we have put over a dozen bots in place, some of which are highly complex and took a lot of weeks to properly deploy.

The tech support for Automation Anywhere has been really good, so far. We haven't had to call them very much, but when we have, we have received a good response.

This was our first bot solution. We did do our research and looked to our partners to see what they were using, then created a shortlist. This product was on everyone's shortlist. Also, they partner well with IBM, and we have partnered with IBM for years. This made it very attractive and was the key selling point.

The initial setup was pretty complex. Everyone who offers this platform is still trying to find the right tools which go with it. Without an integrator, we would have had a lot of difficulty getting it set up ourselves. 

As this product matures, it will continue to get easier to set up.

We used an integrator (BP3) for the deployment. They've been tremendous to work with, satisfying all of our needs.

We measure our ROI mostly by time saved, from a real person doing a task versus a bot. In some cases, we have been able to recoup revenue because processes weren't being followed correctly. Because the bot was doing the task the same way every time, we have recouped some revenue that we had lost in the past.

We save 34,000 hours of time per year and have recouped up to $6000 in lost revenue.

We have a three-year contract with Automation Anywhere.

UiPath was also on our shortlist.

Every piece of software has its goods and bads. For your organization, you have to ensure that the goods outweigh the bads for your use case. This solution has been great for our company in almost every way possible. Obviously, we made a good choice. Therefore, I would recommend taking a good, hard look at Automation Anywhere as your bot platform.

With the latest version, I know they have improved the UI. That will already be a big help,

Return of investment has been pretty easy, so it has not been a problem with getting funding for this solution. Our executive team was immediately involved, where I know with most IT projects, they really don't care until they see the output. They had done their research, as well. So, they were really excited for us to take on this endeavor.

Our primary use case is the insurance of clients.

The solution has improved our organization through its integration with other products. We can integrate multiple platforms through the use of Automation Anywhere via the use of third-party APIs, so there is no human intervention at all. Everything happens on the back-end.

Automation Anywhere is excellent for integrating with other solutions. It provides the ability to leverage the APIs of third-party solutions. We use some of the already built-in MetaBots to then scrape the data and manipulate independent data that we need in order to integrate with other third-party solutions.

• IQ Bot
• Cognitive automation: The ability for the product to learn based on corrections made, such as exceptions and the way those exceptions are handled. Then, these are taken into consideration for future exceptions of similar type (autocorrecting).

I would like to have a bot as a service platform on AA Cloud. This would minimize the installation process, and we wouldn't need to have all the hardware to support the platform in-house.

We have worked on several different projects, so far. From prototypes to production, on average, scaling our bots takes somewhere from three to six weeks.

The technical support is great.

The Automation Anywhere University is very good. I liked the courses and the videos, which were included. I found it to be very intuitive and educational. 

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. The videos on the Automation Anywhere University are extremely helpful during this process.

We used a consultant for the deployment.

We are currently measuring ROI based on cost, labor and time to market metrics.

UiPath and WorkFusion were also on our shortlist. We selected Automation Anywhere based on the product's ease of use, functionality, development environment, and workbench. This product surpassed what these other competitors had to offer.

In addition, we have a market which allows us to get products developed in timely fashion. This is beneficial to partners and clients, alike.

Automation Anywhere is one of the products which allows you to leverage the power of RPA digital workforce technology is a timely and scaled approach. Compared to other RPA solutions on the market I have worked with, AA surpasses its competitors by far.

The growth of Automation Anywhere product's stability, functionality, and technical advancements demonstrates the company is dedicated to its product, clients, and partners. It is evident that the product will only get better.

The ease of use for developers utilizing this solution is excellent. I’ve abandoned the use of WorkFusion from our practice due to its limitations. Automation Anywhere, in particular, allows us to extend the functionality of the platform by writing our own DLLs, so we are able to easily integrate it into any RPA process that we may be developing. At the same time, the ability for us to use other users' bots downloaded from the Bot Store has added a huge amount of value to the product and our ability to get to market quickly.

I don't use Citrix.

We used Automation Anywhere to automate three SAP projects.

We implemented Automation Anywhere to update company code levels with a new general ledger and profit and loss accounts. This update was based on conditions involving multiple P codes and SAP instances.

Previously, updating the general ledgers across multiple SAP instances was a manual process, but it has since been automated.

Automation Anywhere is easy to learn, with a dedicated certification that takes one month to complete. However, to gain sufficient practical experience, users typically require at least six months to work on automation projects.

Automation Anywhere has helped save costs by, for example, doing the job of two full-time employees.

We have integrated SAP desktop automation, Web applications, and ServiceNow with Automation Anywhere.

We use ServiceNow APIs to manage tickets, not the application itself. All actions, including updating ticket details, processing, and adding comments, are performed through the APIs. If processing is successful, we update the ticket comments via the API. For any issues, we attach logs and update the comments with the error message before closing the ticket, all through the ServiceNow API.

Automation Anywhere has helped save costs and time and has reduced the number of human errors.

The Automation Anywhere interface is user-friendly, allowing even new users to grasp the basics within a few hours. While I haven't used Blue Prism, its interface appears more complex. Other automation tools also present a steeper learning curve than Automation Anywhere.

The most valuable feature is the user-friendly interface. When updated packages are available, we receive demos and can practice the automation in the portal.

Automation Anywhere's frequent updates are unnecessary and disruptive. Updates are often pushed for no apparent reason, even for perfectly functional packages. This excessive update frequency is undesirable and should be reduced.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for two and a half years.

I would rate the stability of Automation Anywhere eight out of ten.

I would rate the scalability of Automation Anywhere seven out of ten.

The initial deployment is straightforward. We move code from private to public in a zip file and provide it to the developers. It takes approximately ten minutes.

I have heard that Automation Anywhere is expensive.

I would rate Automation Anywhere eight out of ten.

Our client is an enterprise business.

Two leads and three support people are required to maintain Automation Anywhere. Once we develop the bot, we hand it to the support team.

We have approximately 2,000 users of Automation Anywhere.

Automation Anywhere helps automate routine tasks, freeing employees to focus on other areas, and can even automate processes with underdeveloped back-end systems.

We are using Automation Anywhere to automate our reports. We are an insurance firm, so we need to ensure that we send out notifications to our customers day to day to announce when premiums are due and so on. We're automating the process so that, rather than sending out manual messages to customers, we can automate these messages. 

We were manually tracking all the premiums and all payments that are due from customers and so on. Now, with Automation Anywhere, at least every month, on a certain date, we have the pre-trained notifications being sent out to customers. It's saving us time.

Before the installation, we had a manual process for notifying customers. We'd have to get an excerpt out of the system, get a CSV file, then have someone look at it, and manually filter, for example, what are the due amounts, et cetera. So all these processes have been automated now from our side.

Automating the entire process for us has been extremely beneficial. Earlier there had to be proper dedicated resources who had to take a report and so on, and it would take a lot of time. Our resource utilization has gone down drastically for this activity now.

It is kind of difficult for business users to use the product. In our case, we didn't really have any in house team who were able to process the mapping and everything. Now this is done by Automation Anywhere.

Being the end user, we didn't really have to get into a learning curve as such since our vendor partners were able to map everything for us as per our requirements. There was not much training that we had to do.

We have Oracle Finance incorporated with the solution. It's pulling our data directly for us. We do not have many use cases are in the inline environment. 

Automation Anywhere helped save time and costs. In our scenario, it has drastically helped us as there used to be a proper dedicated team who had to do these manual activities. That has been cut down, and the system is taking care of everything for us. 

Applications like Microsoft Power Automate do have zero-code systems. I've not done much research on Automtin Anywhere in comparison. However, if Automation Anywhere could also have something of that sort, that would be a game changer. I see that Microsoft has already added all sorts of AI capabilities that can support users who are trying to automate any process—including building reports. That will eventually help a lot. 

We've been using the solution for over three years now.

So far, we have not faced any issues. 

We only use the solution in our finance department. For us, the solution is scalable enough. I'd rate scalability seven or eight out of ten.

I'm not really raising any tickets with technical support.

We did not previously use a different solution.

I wasn't involved in the deployment of the solution. 

We do not really have any maintenance. 

The pricing is still pretty high. If I have to consider Power Automate from Microsoft, I have to consider that that application is covered in my Microsoft licenses, and that would still save me a good amount of money.

We didn't evaluate other options. 

We don't use any AI yet. Generative AI is something that management is still not really keen on focusing Automation Anywhere on. As AI advances, there might be some initiatives that might be pushed down from the CEO side. So far it's tough to pick up as AI is still at a very early stage from a use case standpoint for insurance. If there are some tools that are coming into play, we will then consider investing in them and maybe try to incorporate them in our current setup.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

Gping with Automation Anywhere was an organizational decision. However, Power Automate would also do the job for most companies. If cost is a concern, users can still go with Power Automate under a Microsoft license. 

We work with partners to implement the application on several customer sites, typically banking, financial security, and insurance. We work as a service provider. It's used, for example, in the banking sector to handle processes and tasks. It helps automate. 

We've implemented more than 3,000 business processes for customers. 

It helps improve performance and helps companies save time and money. Customers have been very happy with the experience so far. We've saved about 10% to 15% of time and costs. One robot can help replace a portion of the workforce. 

The security on offer is very good. 

AI has big potential right now. We're trying to support organizations that want to integrate it. We're trying to increase AI capabilities.

It's a pretty easy solution to use for business users that are not technical. They can learn the tool very fast. In maybe six weeks, even with no previous experience, they can go to the market to implement the service for the client. After a while, they can become very proficient in using it. 

It's easy to integrate with other applications. We can integrate automation into workflow APIs, business applications, et cetera. 

The product has helped increase productivity. 

There could be more training provided by Automation Anywhere. 

We've faced some economic problems based on the exchange rate. 

A major impediment to using CoPilot is that many of our users cannot access the cloud. They need to work with the on-premises version. 

I've used the solution for five years, since 2019.

The solution is stable. 

The solution has been scalable. 

Technical support is good. 

Positive

I'm also familiar with UiPath and IBM RPA.

How easy or difficult the setup is depends on the customer's level of knowledge. Most of our clients are in banking and require on-premises deployments. Even government entities cannot use the cloud. We are comfortable with deployments and find the process to be straightforward.  Sometimes it is difficult to upgrade from older versions. 

We have five people out of a team of 13 that can handle any maintenance. Maybe 20% of our team would be involved in maintenance. 

The pricing of the solution is flexible. 

We did compare Automation Anywhere with UiPath. Automation Anywhere could offer more marketing and training. 

I'm aware of the CoPilot feature. However, we do not have clients using it. We're trying to introduce the tool to the market and to the customer. However, it has the potential to be a good application. 

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.

We use Automation Anywhere to automate all back-office manual tasks, including service case management, support cases, and financial reconciliations between multiple spreadsheets and source systems.

We faced challenges because we were running the on-premises version. It was too demanding on our physical system architecture. Last year, we moved to the cloud, which has improved our landscape. It's better now, but it was tough before. Anyone new to Automation Anywhere will find it much better now.

Before we implemented Automation Anywhere, all of our tasks were manual. Automating them has saved us a lot of time and eliminated a lot of risk. As of now, our run rate is around 15,000 manual hours saved per year.

Automation Anywhere helps eliminate our daily manual tasks, allowing our staff to focus on more valuable tasks.

We have integrated AA with Salesforce, our homegrown platform, ServiceNow, and PeopleSoft.

Our workflows, APIs, business applications, and document automation integration with AA are well-integrated and efficient.

AA has helped us save time.

The code automation platform is the most valuable feature.

Recently, Automation Anywhere acquired FortressIQ, a company that specializes in discovery automation. Discovery automation is the process of sitting down with businesses and documenting their processes and all related information. It is a very human-intensive process. Automation Anywhere acquired FortressIQ to do this work, but the two platforms are not yet seamlessly integrated. This is a pain point that we are currently working on.

I hope that Automation Anywhere can improve its capabilities in the areas of sophisticated unstructured data parsing, contextual routing, and long-running process orchestration. These are areas where AI can be especially helpful. For example, AA could use AI to suggest the next best action in a process and to configure everything in one shot. It should also be smart enough to adjust and move on.

The process discovery side needs improvement. Before we can automate, we must document the current process map and create a process design document. This is a time-consuming and painful process. We have to go to the line-of-business people who perform the operations, sometimes multiple times, to get an understanding of the problem. Automation Anywhere is improving in this area, but it's still not perfect. So, we're relying more on other reliable platforms. The platforms they acquired are not yet fully integrated into the core RPA design platform. This is a big gap. If they can close the gap between discovery and bot development, it would eliminate many manual hours of discovery, allowing the automation team, or COA team, to scale faster.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for four and a half years.

At first, we had issues with the stability, but it has significantly improved in the last six months after we migrated to the 360 version.

Automation Anywhere can scale vertically, but not horizontally. This means that it can add more resources to a single machine to handle increased load, but it cannot distribute the workload across multiple machines. This is a limitation for long-running, complex processes that require state maintenance. However, Automation Anywhere has a roadmap item to release a horizontal scaling solution in 2024.

In other words, Automation Anywhere can scale up, but not out. We can add as many small bots as we want to a single machine, but we cannot distribute the workload across multiple machines.

Technical support is decent. We were previously on a lower level of service support but realized we needed better support and were upgraded to top-level service. It's been better since then. We have a dedicated account customer success manager and architect assigned to us, so we can ping them anytime and they'll chase it for us internally.

Positive

The initial deployment was straightforward. It took six months to deploy ten bots.

The pricing of AA is similar to UiPath.

We evaluated UiPath but AA is more resource friendly and has a shorter learning curve.

I would rate Automation Anywhere eight out of ten.

Our organization's approach and strategy will be to accelerate cross-cutting capability across all technology solutions, including automation. We expect vendors like Automation Anywhere to step up their game to compete. If they cannot compete in the United States, they will not be able to compete in the rest of the world and will be left behind.

We tried to get business users to build bots. We have reports of business users who have built bots. It is easy to get them started, but it is very difficult to get them to build production-quality bots. I am sure that this is a common challenge with any tool or platform. All the solution developers and concepts are theoretical. In reality, they do not work. Business users can build whatever they want, but their bots will not withstand the production infrastructure. Therefore, we need to step in and do the job properly. I do not believe in the concept of business users building bots. It just creates more problems down the line.

The learning curve is around two weeks.

We are starting a POC for Co-Pilot which was formally ARI. At the time when it was ARI, it was not a good feature.

Runners in our local landscape require maintenance.

I use Automation Anywhere to automate multiple desktop applications for data filling, data collection, and information downloading.

Automation Anywhere assists customers in building automation to streamline workflows where they require multiple tools, thereby saving valuable time.

The learning curve to train semi-technical people is around one month.

Automation Anywhere saves us costs. To have a human perform the same job would cost four times as much. The solution also replaces humans in repetitive, tedious tasks, thereby enhancing employee satisfaction. We observed the benefits within the initial four months of usage.

Automation Anywhere's capability to automate critical scenarios for delivering scalable automation is absolutely solid.

The integration of RPA bots, APIs, business applications, and documents in Automation Anywhere are integral components.

Automation Anywhere has helped our organization increase its automation utilization. Prior to using Automation Anywhere, we needed four employees to accomplish the work that can now be done by just one with the help of Automation Anywhere.

Automation Anywhere's image reader is the most valuable feature.

AI would enable improved automation and faster training times that would be reduced from one month to one week.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for almost six years.

The stability of Automation Anywhere is the best among all these automation solutions.

Automation Anywhere excels at scalability. We can effortlessly deploy thousands of machines. I give the scalability of Automation Anywhere a nine out of ten.

We provide our own support and do not depend on Automation Anywhere's support.

Neutral

The initial setup is complex, primarily because of the time required for the first deployment. The deployment takes one hour. First, we need to ensure that the infrastructure is correct, install the automation workflow, and then implement each of the workflows on them. Afterward, it should be run for one to two days before handing it over to the employees. Two DevOps administrators are needed for the deployment.

We implement Automation Anywhere in-house.

Our organization has seen up to four times the return on investment.

Automation Anywhere is expensive, making it suitable only for enterprise organizations. Although there are more affordable solutions available, they lack the comprehensive features of Automation Anywhere and cannot scale to meet the demands of large organizations.

I rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten.

It is challenging for non-technical individuals to utilize Automation Anywhere. Automation flows are authored by humans, making it impossible for non-technical individuals to directly program Automation Anywhere.

I also use Blue Prism and UiPath alongside Automation Anywhere.

For someone who wants to use API integration instead of robotic process automation, it is important to note that APIs cannot be utilized in all desktop integrations. As more individuals transition to the cloud, it is recommended to employ a combination of both APIs and robotic processes.

Automation Anywhere is deployed on 100 hosts, each with 100 users.

We offer a periodic maintenance review for the individuals utilizing the solution to ensure the functionality of the workflows we have implemented. The maintenance process requires the involvement of three individuals.

Five percent of the time is spent on maintaining bots.

There are several scenarios that function well when we design the workflow, but they do not function properly in the production environment due to intermittent issues that may occur with the specific host. Consequently, it is essential to always take into account the type of host and ensure that it can handle special cases automatically, relieving the burden from the workflow creators.