Automation Anywhere Reviews

Our primary use of this product as a solution is developing bots to automate tasks and processing. For example, we have financial bots and we have IT bots. We have been involved in developing and monitoring the bots for about one and a half years, mostly for finance and IT. A majority of the tasks were done by other teams.

We have automated mainframe applications and integrated the tool with web-based applications and SAP. We have automated many SAP processes, including posting the entries and POs to SAP.

We are currently planning to migrate those bots into the current version (11.3.2) to make the bots more stable.

We are using the on-premise deployment model. We have multiple processes getting automated through this tool.

The major benefit for using Automation Anywhere is that it has provided a lot of FA (Finance Automation) benefits. That is a major plus point for using an RPA (Robotic Process Automation) tool. Any automation tool, for that matter, has its benefits. But because Automation Anywhere is easier to implement and learn, it is possible to move the bots to production faster. Speeding up that process helps in simplifying our workflow and productivity, and allows our people to do the most useful work we can do.

The basic Taskbot itself is the most valuable part of the product for what I do. The use of IQ Bot is still in a development stage. We are looking forward to August 2019 when we should be migrating to a newer version. That seems very promising. For now, we use Taskbot and Metabot with a variety of applications.

The ease of use is good. We had someone join the company who had no understanding of RPA. He was trained on it, getting his hands dirty, then he was able to develop and start automating processes quickly within a month. 

Resources are available online. A person can get certified and start automating right away.

The Bot Store is good. Although, we have not used the Bot Store much, there are some useful bots already built in it. We can just use them in our processes if feasible.

There are several things that would improve the product. I would like to see them include a group chatbot and make the IQ Bot more stable. Just those things would be great. Adding those kinds of features improves what we can do with the product. Using a client control room concept to ensure that everything is based on the web login, would also be great. Obviously we know that the development of new features will take some time.

We are expecting those kinds of features in the future. We expect more AI integration in our technology.

Automation Anywhere could use to be more stabilized. The product is becoming more stabilized with newer versions, but there are various things that still need to be stabilized. In the current version that we are using, we have a Control Room where the client will sometimes get disconnected. This will result in downtime. Therefore, we need some stabilization from the tool perspective. We don't have any other option than to raise a ticket to Automation Anywhere or get in touch with their support to get the issue resolved. So, we are having downtime. This can be improved.

We are not completely okay with the IQ Bot. We previously used version 5. The newest version does have more accurate results.

Technical skills are required to use the product. With these tools, technical programming is still required with the guidance of technical people. Business people can go ahead and try building a few smaller processes, then when they gain technical knowledge, they can use this tool to their full advantage.

Most of our processes are attended automation. It would be great if more processes were unattended automation, so we could release more FTEs.

We are currently using third-party Taskbots. We would like Taskbots directly integrated into the tool.

We have been using Automation Anywhere since version 9. Over that time the stability has improved a lot. We are expecting it to be even better in coming versions and this is why we are looking forward to our migration to 11.3.2 in August of 2019.

In program versions 10.3 and 10.7, what we were developing was okay. The stability was fine. In version 11.2, we had basic client login issues and database issues as well. When we have a better foundation as far as the stability, we are hopeful of getting better updates.

As far as being able to scale our usage of the product, until now, we have been doing well in diversifying. In the future, we expect to be able to get more from the tool. Our ultimate goal is to use the tool to automate most of our internal processing and reap the benefits of RPA.

Multiple users are currently using the product.

The technical support has been really good. Honestly, it is very good. We have been getting good support from the correct technical people quickly. One thing we would like to experience is that instead of waiting for a new version of the tool to resolve issues, that we could get immediate patch upgrades to cater to our requirements. That would be great. We are getting patches sometimes, but they do not perform as well as we might hope.

We have taken courses from Automation Anywhere University: version 11 and IQ Bot. We also attended training at the Automation Anywhere office for IQ Bot. The Automation Anywhere University courses are quite good. You can easily learn and get certified, which has some value in the market.

We were looking to Automation Anywhere as a solution in a relatively new concept. We believe it was our best choice and, currently, we are hopeful that the stability and the enhancements done to the tool will pay off. We are looking forward to using 11.3.

So far, the initial setup of versions has been straightforward and we expect it to be even smoother in the future.

Bot creation process: 

1. We identify the process.
2. That process will be well-documented along with the operations people, who will develop the BRDs. 
3. After the BRD creation, we'll come to know whether the process is feasible to automate.
4. Concurrently, a solution design document will be developed.
5. Developers will create the bot. 
6. Once the Bot is developed, UAT will be given to the operations people telling them whether the bot is performing as per their requirements.
7. Once finalized, we'll get a UAT sign off and the code will be moved to production where the bot will go live.

Scaling bots to production depends on the process and how complicated it is. For a simple process, it will take two to three weeks. If the process is a bit complex, it may take close to one to two months. It also depends on how your internal compliance is organized in the company. We have a compliance check done at every phases of automation, so it will take us more time to get the process live even for a simpler process since we have to get compliance sign off during every phase.

We did not use an external resource for the implementation, but I was there when the initial setup was in progress.

As I am currently part of a team of developers and people who perform functions, we are not directly involved in the deliberation of assets or ROIs. However, it is apparent that there is a return on investment, and we are noticing it.

We have many benefits reaped from the automation work we have done. So, I don't have the exact information about the cost and what our return on investment is, but it is benefiting the organization in a much bigger way by channeling efforts away from wasting manual time on processing.

As our team size increases, we may get some more licenses for the tool.

We checked on Blue Prism and UiPath. UiPath was still developing. 

We opted for Automation Anywhere. The pricing was okay for us. Also, It was easier to learn the tool and implement within the team. It is easier to learn, implement, and get things done with Automation Anywhere compared to other tools on market right now. 

Before automating, understand the process:

• How big is the process?
• Is it of use to the organization?
• How repetitive or complex is the process?

This is important because automating tasks requires resources.

On a scale of one to ten with one being the worst and ten being the best, I would rate Automation Anywhere a seven. So far it has been good, but obviously there are opportunities to be so much better.

We expect more from Automation Anywhere based on the new technologies that we know exist concerning AI and also unstructured learning. There's a lot of room for improvement, so that's why I would not rate it higher. Other than that, for data structure, it has been good — apart from a few stability issues.

Ease of integration is good. We have automated a process in the current version. Automation Anywhere will tell us if it won't support this version anymore at this particular time, so we'll have to migrate that code to the currently released new version. At that time, we may face some challenges after moving the code. We may have to do some tweaks to the code. We can't directly run it as is, so we'll have to do some minor tweaks so that it is stabilized more, then it'll be better.

As far as recommending the software, that depends on what use case and what work requirements an organization has. For structured data and for simpler processes, it is fine. For unstructured data — which should be addressed by IQ Bot and additional features — I may not recommend it yet. But for dealing with automation of straightforward processes, Automation Anywhere is good.

RPA solutions are continuously improvement due to competition. Sometimes, it is worth waiting for the next version which is more stabilized to be released.

Our company is an implementation partner for Automation Anywhere, and XLNC Technologies is a consulting organization for whom I work. I am the head of delivery operations.

We are working with around 14 clients who are on Automation Anywhere. We have been able to recommend and further resell starter and enterprise packs. Implementations performed by us scale up from one bot to 10 bot runners

My primary use case for Automation Anywhere would be the one which yields higher ROI , has repetitive tasks to be performed and doesnt involve fuzzy logic for sure . Cases that we have achieved success are extraction of data from PDF's , SAP automation, AD Integration, Integration with CRM and Payment links, KYC documents and web scrapping. Listed are low hanging fruits and will boost confidence of the stakeholders in the RPA deployment , recommend to look at such use cases when looking at Automation Anywhere and its implementation.

I have worked in Dubai, and we implemented RPA for one of the major retail giants. We started out with one process (bank reconciliation) and scaled up to almost 200 bots in six months. Sales was improved by at least by 80 percent. 

During the Dubai shopping festival, there were big launches that happened on the sales/retail domains. Bots compared products with other competitors, looking at the pricing ranges then locating the price for your own product, then bringing them to the home page for easy access. All these sort of changes were managed by bots. It had a direct impact on the customer lifecycle. 

In my current implementation, which is happening in India, with the poker companies, if you played poker, then you would have observed when you are trying to make out a cash-out if you don't get your cash-out in four to eight hours that you tend to get worried about the poker game in which you were playing. One of the use case that we received was to go ahead and make cash-outs almost on a real-time basis along with the tax deduction. Because in India, there are tax deductions which happen. Before, it used to take almost a day to go ahead and get the tax deducted. Then, the cash-outs were being made in eight hours. Now, it is happening in one to two hours. This boosts the customer confidence and experience. When the customer experience increases, obviously sales will increase. 

Automation Anywhere has multiple features in it. If you could look at the agnostic tools that are available on the market, almost everybody has a similar features, but Automation Anywhere has quite a secure platform. It is highly encrypted.

It is highly scalable on cloud and virtual machines. 

Automation Anywhere is a tool. It is not able to go ahead and extract the hand-written documents. Most of the automation tools that we have in the market are not able to get an accuracy of close to 80 to 90 percent on hand-written documents. So, I'm eagerly looking at a release from Automation Anywhere, wherein they could plug in an LP or look at some sort of a platform which could convert hand-written documents into a readable format. If they could bring in they own platform, this would make a big in-roads for the entire automation industry.

If it is able to integrate with any plug-ins available on the market which could read hand-written documents, that would be good. IQ BOT is one cognitive bot that they have launched, and if they could extend this particular cognitive bot to hand-written documents, then they would have an edge over other automation giants already in existence.

Recently, they launched the business analytical dashboard, which is cutting-edge. We can see in real-time the business dynamics and the way the metrics are behaving when the bots are being run. If we could have a ready-made application allowing for input processes and metrics into it. Then, it provides the approach that you should take to start the automation and when the process should expect to be completed. 

Automation Anywhere already has bots stores and digital workers being enabled on the website. Instead of putting it on the website, if a couple of digital workers could be made inherent in the tool itself, then the customer who is buying the package gets an edge over other partners or other vendors. E.g., if Automation Anywhere could package a digital worker along with my existing tool, as sort of an add-on, then that would add value to my package. Similarly, if I am from SCN, maybe an SAT module digital worker could add value.

There are hundreds of codes or utilities available. 60 percent just go down the drain and are never used, because there is no utility towards them. If they did something like Amazon, a pay-as-you-go, to get a digital worker, it would be cutting-edge technology. This would save costs for me and would optimize my implementations. The same benefits could then be shared with my customers. 

Stability is an important part of the product. It has accolades across the globe. If it did not, stable companies in the tech and finance industries wouldn't have gone for it. It's stable because it's highly scalable on cloud and virtual machines. The codes developed in Automation Anywhere don't tend to go back, skip, or miss out. 

The current version launched is 11.3. We are more comfortable with 11.3 now. However, the earlier version, 10.7 was good to work with, but since there even newer version coming, we work with 11.3 for now. Version 11.3 does have some bugs, but they are manageable because there is a good technical support team provided by the Automation Anywhere. We haven't had any major hiccups.

The moment that you start having access levels missing or security is being quite stringent about not opening a couple of bots, they are not providing admin access rights nor providing accesses to VPNs, that's when the stability issues come in. Then, we start blaming that the application stability, which in fact is wrong, because you are not meeting the prerequisites.

Other tools tend to give me exceptions when I am scaling them on the cloud. While the infrastructure might be available, systems won't be able to talk to each other. The codes tend to miss paths, and sometimes codes are not getting applied in the application. However, with Automation Anywhere, we haven't seen any such issues until now, wherein large scale developments are being found to be unstable. 

The good thing about Automation Anywhere is the website has a detailed architecture which talks about having a load balancer and how you can scale up. 

Currently, I have been working with clients in the US and Dubai through remote support. I have been developing bots remotely where I have been able to access their virtual machines. The virtual machines are separate for creators and runners. I have around six creators on virtual machines, which is good enough to start off. There are around 25 runners which are deployed on 25 VMs. This is in US. That's how we are operating them, and it's the largest setup that we work on.

In India, clients start small. They start with a starter pack, which is only allowed to be issued by an implementation partner. If you go onto the Automation Anywhere website, there is nothing called a starter pack. So, organizations will tend to start small with a starter pack, which may come in a bundle of two or three creators, one runner, and one controller. They want to test how it is functions in their organization. If they can pick up low hanging fruit, which means if they're picking processes which are smaller but high in volume, then they will have higher ROI. Then, these organizations tend to jump onto an enterprise level deployment in a maximum of six months. That is the trend that we have seen. 

However, the moment the client starts going big and is not able to get the right ROI in place, that's where they tend to start dropping the ball. Then, they start looking for another RPA software or decide RPA is not for them.

I have been receiving good technical support them, and hence I'm sitting on the sidelines. This is because if I didn't get the right support along with the right documentation and KMS, then I would not be able to fix issues first on my own. If I'm not able to do this, then relying on the technical support would be the last thing that I would do. The technical support that Automation Anywhere provides is fantastic, especially their acknowledgment and response times. Their knowledge base articles are quite descriptive. You will be able to fix issues on your own if you are quite tech savvy. Even if you are not, then they're quite detailed enough to follow.

If you don't get the right support, then there is an escalation channel available which you can reach out to. There is a community, where get solutions. There doesn't seem to be any issues with the support currently being provided by Automation Anywhere. I find them quite responsible and available whenever I have issues.

It is quite straightforward doing an initial setup of Automation Anywhere. This is because it has a well-defined installation guide which talks about how to install Automation Anywhere software. However, automation only works when IT support is quite adequate. So, if the IT and infrastructure teams at the client site are not supportive, for example, then I'm not able to provide admin rights or open security ports. That is when the entire installation moves into a messy state. There is a way to cater to such issues. Because this is a new technology coming, if you meet with the IT support team along with the CISO of that particular organization and set the right context and objective that company wants to achieve with automation, this roadblock can be fixed.

Otherwise, I haven't faced any issues with the setup.

We start off with the planning phase. Then, we go into the asset process gathering phase. We map it along with data gathering, wherein we gather data about the collaterals, the documents which are required in the process, standard operating procedures (SOPs), user login credentials, access rights, and business logics. Once that is done, we recommend a target operating model. Once approved by the business, that's when we start development. We start doing regression testing when post development is over. Finally, we do the handover the new app to the customer operations and can deploy the bot.

If I have to do a process discovery, which includes understanding the data gathering and creating an address process map, it takes a maximum five to ten business days (simple process). It takes this amount of time because the SME has to give me their time, and I never get all the information that I need in one shot since there are a lot of business and technical exceptions that I have to cater to. I have to be quite inquisitive in asking in the process, then the process gaps and the exceptions. I have to make a map, follow up with a sign off, then get it close.

A medium level complexity project can take 25 man days and a complex process could take a least a month and a half.

If I am deploying eight to ten processes in a span of six months, I need maximum three developers. If I'm developing out 50 bots in six months, then I need 20 developers.

Once the bots are deployed, I need a support team which works in three shifts. My support team would consist of a solution architect and three developers spread across three shifts. The monitoring team would consist of a solution architect and one or two IT support people. This is for a large scale bot development. If it is a smaller scale deployment, a smaller support team is needed for monitoring.

We have saved customers 400% in terms of time saved by implementing this product.

We implemented automation in an HR domain. We had 60 percent reduced error rates, 25 percent freed working hours, and the response time from the HR department was faster than before. We automated candidate screening, payroll automation and expense management. In finance and accounting, they had a reduction in 70 percent error rates, 35 percent working hours were freed, and there was improved satisfaction for the internal customers after the automation implementation. Finally, in IT, there was 90 percent is the reduced error rate, because in IT everything is binary.

The pricing and licensing of Automation Anywhere plays an important rule in the Indian market because in the Indian market $10,000 USD is too much. Hence, the pricing tends to go down depending on the customer relationship with the partner: A starter pack is $10,000 and an enterprise pack is $100,000. If you go through an implementation partner, you can get good deals. They can save some money. 

An annual contract is really beneficial for support.

I have been working in RPA for almost two to three years now. We started off with Softomotive. Then, we began working with UiPath and Automation Anywhere.

We have (or are currently working on) PoCs with WinAutomation, WorkFusion and Blue Prism.

The biggest difference between Automation Anywhere and their competitors are the spread that they have. You don't need to look out for testimonials on why to use Automation Anywhere. There are big giants who are already using it. The feature list that they carry with them makes them stand out. Their industry first bot, IQ Bot (a cognitive bot), has already won an award for the best technology deployed in 2018. It goes in and extracts data from invoices and applies machine learning if the data is not set to the right columns, putting it back to the right columns, then goes ahead and extracts data from purchase invoices. 

It's the best product that we have at this moment.

Start small. Don't take big steps if you are automating.

I use Automation Anywhere for a range of automation tasks, including desktop, web, and SAP automation, as well as handling PDF exceptions and facilitating application-to-application automation. Additionally, I establish database connections to perform database automation.

Automation Anywhere is easy to learn and use, even for individuals without technical skills, due to its user-friendly interface.

The learning curve for non-technical users of Automation Anywhere is relatively gentle, allowing them to grasp the basic functionalities and build simple automation quickly.  

Our goal is to reduce manual labor by 200,000 to 300,000 hours over the next five years. We are currently saving approximately 20,000 hours each year through automation, which will result in a total of 100,000 hours saved over five years. The benefits of using Automation Anywhere can be observed within two weeks of implementation.

Generative AI is used in some of our automation processes to eliminate paperwork within a three-hour timeframe.

I have integrated Automation Anywhere with various applications, including SAP, MySQL, and numerous desktop and web-based applications. My experience spans desktop applications, web-based applications like SAP Ariba and other portals, and automation of buying processes. I am confident that I have worked with the full spectrum of applications available in the current market, from desktop-based to cloud-based solutions.

Automation Anywhere can be easily integrated into our automation workflows.

Automation Anywhere saved directors five to seven hours of manual work daily and, from a business structure perspective, more than five times the savings.

Automation Anywhere is easy to use and user-friendly due to its intuitive interface and straightforward implementation architecture, making it accessible even for those without a technical background. Its community edition and clear process workflow make it easier to learn and develop on compared to UiPath or Power Automate, requiring less technical knowledge overall.

The AISense recorder in Automation Anywhere needs improvement in resilience and OCR capabilities, particularly in comparison to UiPath's superior OCR functionality. Furthermore, expanding the Automation Anywhere packages to include a wider range of desktop-based applications would enhance its utility.

Automation Anywhere needs to expand its reach across more industries by strengthening its sales team and increasing its market presence in India and globally. This broader approach will allow them to capture diverse sectors, increasing demand and creating more job opportunities within the company. This expansion is crucial, especially since the current client base utilizing Automation Anywhere remains limited.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for approximately five years.

Automation Anywhere is highly stable, and I rate its stability a ten out of ten.

Automation Anywhere allows for automation at scale, and I rate its scalability as a nine out of ten.

Automation Anywhere has good support features.

Positive

Before using Automation Anywhere, manual methods were used.

The initial setup was easy and took about a week. Two to three people were involved in the deployment.

The deployment was handled by the IT department which involved two to three people.

Automation Anywhere offers competitive and affordable pricing. However, a slight adjustment to align more closely with Power Automate's pricing structure could help them capture a larger share of the market.

I would rate the price of Automation Anywhere a six out of ten, with ten being the most expensive.

Other solutions evaluated include UiPath and Power Automate. UiPath provides better OCR and capture capabilities.

I would rate Automation Anywhere nine out of ten.

When I first became interested in the automation market, Automation Anywhere held a significant presence, especially during its expansion into India. While they continue to grow in the Indian market, they need to increase their market share compared to UiPath. From a developer's perspective, UiPath offers far more job opportunities. To be more competitive, Automation Anywhere should proactively expand its presence in industries like healthcare, telecom, and energy. This would lead to increased adoption of their product and create more job opportunities within the Automation Anywhere sector, ultimately benefiting the entire automation industry.

We have over 25 users of Automation Anywhere in our company.

The maintenance is done automatically by Automation Anywhere.

I would recommend using Automation Anywhere to others. It is a user-friendly tool, and developers can learn it quickly. Implementing automation often requires proof of concept, and Automation Anywhere is a viable option.

We set up a bot that works on the billing system. It uses RPA and general AI to analyze contracts of our B2B customers and check information in the IT systems, CRM, billing, etc. We compare and correct an invoice before it's automated to avoid wrong entries for our customers.

We run 14 projects in parallel, generating revenue efficiency, improving customer experience, and saving millions of dollars. Automation Anywhere affects the center of the business. 

In one case, we reduced the time spent on a task from 30 minutes to one minute. Before Automation Anywhere, we used to perform the tasks manually. These tasks account for 20 to 30 percent of the total. We can perform all these tasks in Automation Anywhere much faster than the old process. The tasks are fully automated. It's critical. We don't have more customer complaints about the wrong invoice in the B2B market.

Automation Anywhere's Pathfinder program has supported us to evaluate the maturity of our Center of Excellence.

It was easy to use Automation Anywhere's RPA through API connections, and it works well. It's easy for non-technical users to learn to use Automation Anywhere. We just finished teaching our telecom company last week with Automation Anywhere to democratize the solution. We made a bot for the company to give them the power of RPA and artificial intelligence. They love the tool. It's easy and low-code. I think it will be easy to do citizen development.

Our developers find Automation Anywhere's learning curve to be extremely short. We have good developers who can learn automation anywhere quickly. We have integrated AA with CRM, billing systems, external databases, and websites. It's easy to integrate because there are so many ready-made automations that you don't need to build. It's easy and fast.

Automation Anywhere could improve its integration with Python and other programming languages.

We started using Automation Anywhere last year and, from August to September, created a center of excellence in automation and AI. 

I rate Automation Anywhere nine out of 10 for stability. It's highly stable compared to other automation platforms. 

I work for a global enterprise, so they innovate fast. Automation and generative AI scales up incredibly quickly.

I rate Automation Anywhere support nine out of 10. They respond quickly and know what they're doing. We have a close relationship with our account manager and technical support. This relationship makes the difference.

Positive

We tried UiPath and Blue Prism before deciding on Automation Anywhere. We chose Automation Aware because of its support, which was better than that of other enterprises.

It's easy to deploy, install, and learn Automation Anywhere. We deployed it ourselves without the help of any integrators.

The pricing is comparable to other enterprise solutions in Brazil, such as UiPath and Blue Prism. The setup cost is nothing because we deploy it in the cloud. The licensing model isn't too difficult to understand like other solutions. 

I rate Automation Anywhere 10 out of 10. My favorite part of the Imagine Conference is the hands-on labs. They were impressive. Using generative AI and automation, I made a bot in three minutes. It's my first time here at Imagine, and it's a well-organized event with good information for automation customers. 

I would encourage people to come to the conference to build good relationships and network with peers. The technology you acquire here is crucial. 

We have implemented Automation Anywhere for 2 finance use cases: recurring collections and payment forms processing. To achieve this, we leveraged the platform's invoice-tracking capability and built our bots around it.

We implemented Automation Anywhere to explore more automation possibilities.

We are happy with Automation Anywhere and the good experience it has provided. Automation Anywhere has successfully allowed us to implement our use cases.

We have identified several areas where we could potentially optimize the AI within our automation processes. However, the ultimate decision depends on the cost-effectiveness of automation. While we have a couple of significant use cases that seem well-suited for automation, others involve lower volumes that may not justify the investment. Currently, we're considering Microsoft's automation solutions due to their existing integration with our other Microsoft products. However, we might also explore Automation Anywhere for specific, complementary automation needs.

Someone with little automation experience can still create a bot using Automation Anywhere.

The learning curve of Automation Anywhere is adequate.

The time it takes to train someone to create a bot with Automation Anywhere depends on their existing technical background. For individuals with no prior technical experience, the learning process can take two to three months. However, if someone simply needs to become a casual user of a pre-built bot, a few weeks of training might be enough to get them comfortable navigating its features.

Automation Anywhere has significantly reduced our error rates, particularly in areas like allocating payment receipts and collections. Before implementing it, human error was a major issue. Automation Anywhere has effectively addressed this problem. Of course, reducing human involvement is a natural consequence of automation. However, a surprising benefit we've observed over the past two and a half years is that data quality has also improved significantly. Allocations have become much more accurate, which is an incredible advantage. Initially, the existing data was riddled with errors. Consequently, the automation rate was far lower than anticipated. However, as we progressively corrected the database, the automation rate steadily climbed, and error rates began to decline. It took roughly six to eight months to see the benefits.

Our organization has a defined AI automation strategy. We recognize its importance and have prioritized its development over the next two to three years. This focus on AI, particularly in customer service, will help us gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Automation Anywhere is integrated with our ERP, human portals, supplier portal, and CRM.

Automation Anywhere has been instrumental in saving us both time and money. It serves as a core strategy in our efforts to streamline operations and reduce our reliance on manual labor. This has allowed us to handle multiple workloads with increased stability. We are committed to continuing on this path of automation to further optimize our processes.

While we initially implemented Automation Anywhere due to its inherent strengths, the software landscape has evolved significantly in the past two and a half years. Several competing products now offer superior functionality compared to Automation Anywhere's current capabilities. Microsoft's automation solutions are particularly compelling. They integrate seamlessly with the wider Microsoft product suite, which is often the core software environment for many businesses. This integration advantage isn't present with Automation Anywhere, which operates independently of Microsoft products.

The price has room for improvement.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for 2.5 years.

Automation Anywhere is a stable product.

Automation Anywhere is known for its scalability. This means that financial institutions can leverage it to automate large processes without worrying about the platform's ability to handle the increased workload. In simpler terms, Automation Anywhere can grow alongside our automation needs.

In the past, we relied on other automation applications. However, these applications lacked the flexibility and adaptability of a bot.

The deployment process was successful thanks to the contributions of the third-party implementation team.

The full deployment took eight months to complete.

For the implementation, we leveraged a third-party vendor with expertise in Automation Anywhere.

The positive return on investment for Automation Anywhere is clear after two years of successfully automating a few business processes.

Automation Anywhere, once a competitively priced option in the RPA market, has seen a shift in its pricing strategy. Currently, it stands as one of the more expensive RPA tools available.

In our evaluation of RPA tools, we've considered Microsoft Power Automate and UiPath. Automation Anywhere, while a strong contender, appears to have a steeper technical learning curve compared to the other two options.

I would rate Automation Anywhere six out of ten.

We rely on an external company to handle the maintenance of our Automation Anywhere software.

Companies considering an Automation Anywhere solution should approach it with a long-term perspective. Ideally, they should be prepared for a ten-year commitment. This allows them to understand how the product will evolve and adapt over time. A ten-year timeframe, or at least eight years, provides a significant advantage compared to a two to three-year outlook. By taking a long view, companies can ensure they are well-positioned to benefit from the ongoing development and reshaping of the Automation Anywhere platform.

When I started working with Automation Anywhere, I automated mutual fund statements. Later, I switched to a financial services company, so that involved a lot of monotonous rule-based work that we had to automate. Then, I started working for this oil and gas company. We focus on finance, procurement, IT, legal, and refining processes. 

I've seen business users doing this kind of repetitive work for 20 years, and they feel that there is a better use of their labor, so I wanted to automate things for them. For example, in the oil and gas industry, we need to extract information from purchase orders that we must pay out on invoices to various contractors. It's possible to improve efficiency by as much as 20 to 30 percent by automating those processes. We can do even better by asking the right questions to the business stakeholders. There's potential to automate and improve on things they've done manually in the past. 

We see opportunities to operationalize AI for HR use cases. For example, we need to gather documentation for work travel, including a visa if an employee plans to travel abroad. Instead of having an employee ask HR folks about the process, we can set up something with generative AI. AI would also be helpful in some finance use cases. We still need to do some PoCs for generative AI before moving forward. Our data science team is working with something similar, but I haven't used it yet, so we need to try some smaller PoCs before trying it at a larger scale. 

Automation Anywhere saves money. At my previous employer, we achieved $1.3 million in cost avoidance over two years. I expect to realize that much savings in my current role, but we are still in the enabling phase of our CoE. Next year, we'll complete large-scale automation. That's our goal.

UI and document automation are two features I like. Document automation is helpful because it simplifies extracting and putting data into different ERP systems. I have three or four use cases for document automation. I also like the recorder objects feature, which was called object learning in the previous version, and screen scraping. 

It's easier for business users to work with Automation Anywhere A360. My previous employer used Automation Anywhere version 11, which was sometimes a little difficult. A360 is much more interactive. We have several users in our organization who have a business background, so it takes some time with some of the use cases. A business user might take two months to build more challenging use cases, whereas a developer could do it in three or four weeks. Though it takes longer, we want them to learn and implement Automation Anywhere. 

Automation Anywhere is interactive, and my experience with my coworkers has been positive so far. I'm on the CoE team, and we've been working to enable various functions involving the HR, IT, finance, and refining teams. They are using it. On average, it takes a month or so to train them, build their use cases, and put them into production. 

The solution is currently integrated with PeopleSoft, ServiceNow, and SAP. The document integration gives us about 70-80 percent accuracy. We're mostly working on purchase orders, but I want to implement it for financial use cases, too. I'm trying to determine what the most efficient one is. 

When we need to upgrade the bot version for various applications like SAP, the compatibility issues could be easier to resolve. The financial team is using version 5 or 6, but the automation engineer recommends only version 6 because it is more compatible. I think Automation Anywhere could handle these compatibility issues better. 

I have used Automation Anywhere for nearly seven years now.

Automation Anywhere is scalable, but it depends on what you do during the design phase. You must consider the opportunities for scaling up while you're planning. It's easy to scale if done correctly. 

I rate Automation Anywhere support nine out of 10. It's excellent. We have premium support. Our account manager is very nice. If we raise an issue, it will be resolved the next day. 

Positive

We also have Power Automate, but we do not use it at the enterprise level. We only use Power Automate for two use cases. A different team uses Power Automate, but they are not associated with the CoE. They are only using it for personal automation. 

Deployment is easy, but the testing takes time. It also takes some effort to migrate the bots from version to version, like v11 to the cloud version of A360.   We learned it the hard way, but once we moved to A360, that took care of many of the infrastructure issues we faced with the on-prem version. It was mostly some technical challenges, not infrastructure-related changes. The cloud version is much better than the on-prem. 

Automation Anywhere requires maintenance, but how you develop the processes also matters. We try to implement best practices, like using wildcards instead of URL names. That's why we try to find ways to make API calls instead and get the data from there. We are currently doing a PoC that involves retrieving the data from third-party websites, and they told us that they could build an API that would make it easier to maintain. The APIs work better than redirects. 

I tried UiPath, but I didn't like it as much for our current use case. Automation Anywhere is a better fit, but I have used UiPath at three organizations as a contractor, consultant, and full-time employee. 

I rate Automation Anywhere 10 out of 10. 

We use Automation Anywhere to automate tasks throughout the company, enabling our employees to be more productive and conduct more analysis.

We can save money by implementing automations. Before implementing Automation Anywhere, we had a lot of repetitive tasks that weren't adding value. It improved morale by automating some of the boring, repetitive tasks, allowing our employees to focus on more creative, meaningful work.

I like Automation Anywhere's development interface. Our developers love it because it's easier to learn, and they can pick it up quicker than the other tools. We can integrate Automation Anywhere with Slack to get alerts from our bots. 

It's also integrated with our core banking application and many legacy applications that we could not integrate without the Automation Anywhere platform. Around 70 percent of our environment is integrated with it. The integration is fast and seamless. Integrating tools through the APIs is simple, reliable, and efficient. 

We have a lot of ideas for leveraging Automation Anywhere's AI capabilities. For example, we use it to conduct analysis for our clients. We can use it to check a lot of documents. It can not only read but write documents. Using AI, we can run checks to see if a customer has been approved for credit. 

It can help this process go faster, and we can enhance our employee's potential by augmenting their analysis with AI. We are already using generative AI. It has been a huge success because we are using it like a copilot to improve our employees' potential. We can scale it faster with another process in the automation manager. 

We have developers, so all of our team has technical knowledge. However, Automation Anywhere's learning platform is comprehensive and it's easy to learn things on your own. Many of our developers didn't know anything about the platform, but it was easy for them to learn and become fully productive. 

I think there are some opportunities to improve integration with monitoring tools already on the market to make this even faster. We struggle a little when applying the upgrades because the control room has some flaws. That's one advantage of migrating to the cloud. If we do that, then we don't have to upgrade manually. There is a SaaS option, but we decided to opt for on-prem and perform the upgrades ourselves. We're thinking of choosing the cloud options in the next version to make it easier. 

We have used Automation Anywhere since 2022.

Automation Anywhere is highly scalable. That's one of its advantages. It's easier to scale than other solutions. We are a financial institution serving around 26 million clients with only 3,000 employees. We need automation to attend to our operational tasks. Otherwise, it would be challenging to manage all of our clients

I rate Automation Anywhere support nine out of 10. The local support in Brazil could improve. While it has gotten better in the last few months, we've struggled as a global company trying to contact them sometimes. 

Positive

The initial deployment took three months, but it took a year to change the legacy bots to Automation Anywhere. We decided to automate new projects that would yield more ROI before finishing the migration of our legacy bots. 

We get a significant ROI even though the licensing cost is higher than average. The gains we realize from the initial development make up for it. In the last three years, I estimate we have saved around 2,200 hours of labor. To date, we've saved almost $6 million. 

The cost of Automation Anywhere is fine. 

We looked at two other solutions before making the decision to choose Automation Anywhere. One reason was reliability. When we implemented it, Automation Anywhere was already a widely used and popular tool. It has high availability, which is one requirement for a banking solution. It's also easy to learn, use, and implement. We looked at the leaders in Gartner's, such as Blue Prism and UiPath. Automation Anywhere stood out for its development interface. 

I rate Automation Anywhere nine out of 10. 

I work for a healthcare company in the pharmacovigilance sector, where we are automating business processes. One key process is case processing, which involves identifying adverse events from drugs, vaccines, or medical devices. These adverse events are reported through various channels like call centers and emails. Currently, data from these sources is manually entered into a drug safety database. We are automating this data entry and the subsequent quality and medical reviews. This automation aims to reduce the workforce from approximately 5,000 to 1,000 employees, primarily by streamlining these processes using Automation Anywhere software.

To reduce maintenance and streamline operations, we have transitioned to a cloud-based subscription model. We are utilizing Automation 360, a subscription-based automation solution, and have also adopted RPA as a service, leveraging pre-built bots offered by Automation Anywhere, some of which are free while others require payment.

Implementing Automation Anywhere has brought significant improvements by automating repetitive processes previously handled by a large team. This automation has reduced the workforce requirement and allowed for attended and unattended bot implementation. Consequently, human errors have decreased, the quality of deliverables has improved, and timelines have been accelerated. Previously, delays in task completion resulted in penalties for the company, but this issue has been resolved. Automation Anywhere has enabled faster processing of cases, marking a significant positive change in the company's operations.

AI is being used to automate the case intake process, which involves analyzing structured and unstructured documents like emails, articles, and scientific papers. Previously, this task was time-consuming, requiring staff to manually search documents for key information. The process has been significantly accelerated by implementing Automation Anywhere's IQ Bot, with its cognitive automation, AI integration, and natural language processing capabilities. The software automatically highlights crucial details like patient information, product specifics, and adverse events, enabling reviewers to assess document relevance quickly. This automation has reduced review time from 30 minutes per document to five to ten seconds, allowing a greater volume of literature to be processed. Furthermore, the NLP feature automatically identifies and justifies the presence of specific criteria within the documents. By integrating Automation Anywhere into their internal tool, the organization has reduced the workforce needed for this process from over 100 people to 12-15, resulting in increased efficiency, faster turnaround times, and a more manageable workload.

Automation Anywhere offers a user-friendly platform with a drag-and-drop interface, making it easy for business users with limited technical skills to implement RPA solutions. The platform provides a complete suite of tools, including task automation, cognitive automation using IQ Bot, and bot insights and analytics. While embedded with AI capabilities, the platform remains accessible to users without deep technical knowledge. Users should familiarize themselves with the available features, including built-in AI capabilities for handling various document types, and explore the Bot Store marketplace for pre-built bots that can accelerate development. Automation Anywhere enables rapid scaling with cloud-hosted architecture and prioritizes security with GDPR compliance, audit trails, and role-based access.

Initially, integrating Automation Copilot with our daily applications proved challenging. However, subsequent updates have simplified the process. While it previously functioned with attended bots but not unattended ones, expanded API capabilities now allow for greater compatibility with third-party applications. This enhanced functionality enables us to emulate various tasks and seamlessly integrate with systems like Salesforce, SAP, and Oracle. We have successfully implemented Automation Copilot for data entry, updates, and, most significantly, report generation, resulting in improved efficiency and productivity.

Automation Copilot has significantly increased our productivity. Integrating our systems will allow for seamless data transfer, eliminating the need for manual intervention and preventing quality issues. Tasks will be completed automatically and in real-time, increasing productivity and reducing the time spent on manual work. This eliminates the need for batch processing and ensures that everything happens instantly.

Over time, we have integrated numerous products with Automation Anywhere, leveraging their REST API for seamless data flow. This has enabled successful integrations with Salesforce, SAP, Oracle's Argus, and five of our seven internal products, particularly with Automation Anywhere's cognitive automation capabilities. As long as Automation Anywhere provides the REST API, we can integrate any application or third-party service, facilitating effortless data transfer between various tools.

The time savings are valuable.

The learning curve for Automation Anywhere is steep, especially for advanced features like IQ Bot and API automation, which require technical expertise. While basic automation is relatively easy, the platform's documentation and training materials are not comprehensive, making it challenging to master the more complex functionalities. Compared to UiPath, which offers extensive resources and support, Automation Anywhere's limited resources contribute to a steeper learning curve for those seeking to utilize its advanced capabilities.

From a business perspective, Automation Anywhere is expensive compared to other tools like UiPath, making it unsuitable for small or medium-sized businesses. It requires robust systems to run efficiently and previously had limitations integrating with legacy systems, though they are improving this with REST API support. Additionally, community support is slow and unhelpful for critical issues. While they offer IQ Bot for unstructured data, it can only automate around 50 percent of such processes, requiring manual intervention. Although Automation Anywhere supports customization, it is limited. These are key areas where Automation Anywhere could improve.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for four years.

Despite Automation Anywhere being resource-intensive, in my four years of experience using it, I have found it to be a highly stable system that has never crashed.

Automation Anywhere offers impressive automation capabilities at scale. From a product standpoint, it is highly effective and achieves its purpose well. Automation Anywhere is a strong choice for enterprise applications due to its robust functionality and cloud-based version. While the portal could be improved, the product itself is excellent and, if chosen strategically, can streamline numerous processes.

Technical support response times are slow. While we can escalate critical issues, their carelessness with other matters, especially those impacting business priorities, is a concern. Their slow pace and occasional irresponsibility demonstrate a lack of respect for our time.

Neutral

As a UiPath certified architect and business analyst with extensive experience in UiPath and Automation Anywhere, I find UiPath to be the superior solution for most companies. While both offer cloud-native capabilities, UiPath boasts a more user-friendly interface, requiring less coding knowledge. Its AI Fabric platform provides extensive machine learning capabilities, surpassing Automation Anywhere's limited AI integration. UiPath also excels in bot management and orchestration, offering a user-friendly approach and robust capabilities. Furthermore, UiPath provides stronger security and compliance features, superior third-party integration, and greater pricing flexibility, making it accessible to companies of all sizes, unlike Automation Anywhere, which is often only affordable for mid to large companies. Although Automation Anywhere offers decent cognitive automation, UiPath's ease of use, AI capabilities, and flexible pricing make it the more versatile and comprehensive choice.

The initial deployment was complex, requiring determining the bot type, attended or unattended and bundle handling strategies for multiple bot deployments. This process, driven mainly by configuration and orchestration, can be time-consuming for those without a technical background. Familiarity with the system streamlines deployment, while newcomers or those with limited technical expertise may find it more challenging.

Automation Anywhere is expensive, making it more suitable for enterprise organizations.

I would rate Automation Anywhere eight out of ten.

The benefits of Automation Anywhere projects aren't immediate. Building and implementing a successful automation system involves several stages: proof of concept, pilot process, and finally, production rollout. This process typically takes two to three months due to the necessary development, testing, and refinement. However, once automation is in production, the improvements will be significant and immediately apparent.

In a highly regulated industry with over 10,000 employees, traditional RPA faced strong resistance due to concerns about headcount reduction. To overcome this, we adopted a cognitive automation approach, integrating machine learning capabilities from Automation Anywhere into existing applications. This minimized disruption and ensured a smoother transition. By embedding cognitive automation within familiar and validated systems, we achieved production with minimal resistance. This strategy also allows the system to learn user input through reinforcement learning, adapting to expectations based on feedback and a reward/penalty system. Therefore, we prioritize cognitive automation integrated within our existing products rather than relying solely on a separate RPA suite, especially given the challenges of implementing RPA in a large organization within a highly regulated industry.

Because we use Automation Anywhere in the cloud, they manage all upgrades and provide a defined schedule. We receive regular emails about upcoming upgrades, including the specific date and time. We can communicate any concerns about potential business impacts, and they provide clarity and assurance that upgrades will not disrupt deployed bots. This ensures our work remains unaffected during the upgrade process, which they handle very efficiently.

The bots require maintenance on our end to ensure smooth operation. This includes monitoring their uptime, examining audit trails for failures, and periodically checking their performance. While Automation Anywhere handles regular software updates and maintenance, we are responsible for maintaining the business processes the bots support. This involves ongoing support and ensuring the bots function correctly. If a bot fails, we are responsible for investigating the cause and restoring it to functionality, as we understand the critical role each bot plays in our operations.

To successfully implement Automation Anywhere, prioritize hiring an experienced consultant to provide initial training and guidance. This expert can efficiently onboard other team members, ensuring a smooth transition and maximizing the software's potential. Their expertise will be invaluable in identifying suitable bots from the bot store, even if they require some customization to align with the company's unique processes. This approach saves time and resources compared to developing bots from scratch and leverages existing solutions for faster and more effective automation.