Automation Anywhere Reviews

Any repeated user steps would be a good use case for Automation Anywhere. There are also many other use cases that are proactively using the cognitive solution.

We are mostly using it for audit, finance, quality assurance, procurement, and the reconciliation of various reports. All of these use cases helped to improve the business team efficiency and they are now effectively involved in the analytics of the data prepared by the RPA process.

Automation Anywhere is the first RPA solution we have taken and suggested implementing it to our customers. It has helped tremendously in assisting our customers in achieving their goals.

We have seen consistent improvement in how new use cases are coming with various domains and it efficiently takes care of all of the different domain processes.

The most advanced command options with a wide range of variants are really good to use and they cover almost all of the information silos. 

Every command has its own purpose and usage, which helps with any use case that comes as a process. We are able to achieve the same without any hindrance or impediment. 

With Discovery Bot, we can even have our business people enabled with process finding and do an evaluation on whether it can be converted into an opportunity.

A wide range of variable data types in A2019 is a good feature to have.

A2019 should have more improvement for developers, as it was in v11.x. For example, copying of specific lines between Bots, and Metabots (Calibrate option). All this will make A2019 even more unique in its own way.

We have been using Automation Anywhere for almost four years.

We have not used any other RPA solutions. We have been able to see how Automation Anywhere is improving in every aspect of the product from version 10.x to A2019.

Our customers are effectively using more solutions on this with a good ROI.

It's an ideal pricing model to customize the components based on everyone's needs.

We evaluated Blue Prism and UiPath.

With the recent version of A2019, Automation Anywhere has stepped into a new era of RPA development. We can see a lot of functions coming up with Automation Anywhere as a bundle like AARI, Bot Analytics, and Discovery Bot.

Excellent growth in product improvisation over the period. Keep Going!

Batch JOB processing and Monitoring which was a manual activity earlier.

We've done a lot of automation with the product in the last two years. We started with accounts receivable processes in finance. I would say the AR function is one of the most mature functions in the product right now because we almost automated all the aspects of accounts receivable. 

We have also started looking at automating the accounts payable process as well. I've only mentioned finance at this point, but we also have done a lot of automation with IT, as well as with procurement. Right now, the penetration is higher with the support functions but we are also looking at different ways to automate. For example, we would like to use automation technology in core engineering. We also want to be expansive and do projects beyond our current boundaries — outside of just India. We've already done a small PoC (proof of concept) with a company in China and we also automated three small processes with a U.S. entity. 

We use it daily and have done projects with support functions, such as financial services, IT, and procurement support. We have 50 to 60 processes that have been automated using RPA in all three areas put together. This is the breadth and extent of what we have automated. We are using the on-premise deployment model.

Automation Anywhere helps to automate much of the manual activity. There are already a few inbuild use case builds which we have used and expands for our convenience.

We use it to automate all kinds of business processes. The primary use case is the RPA platform, even though they have the cognitive platform and the analytics platform. We use it for so many different things it's hard to focus on one, but it's automating business processes in our banking system. We're interfacing a lot with Excel, our ERP systems, some legacy systems, the databases, file folders, text files, CSVs. It's hard to pin down one.

• Intelligent automation for business and IT tasks.
• Uses SMART Automation Technology

Bot Creator- Developers use desktop-based applications to create bots. Their dev licenses are checked with that configured in the control room. On authentication, the code of the bots they create is stored in the control room. Different developers may create individual tasks/bots. These bots could be merged and executed at once.

Bot Runner - The Bot Runner is the machine where you run the bot. You could have multiple bots running in parallel. You only need the Run License to run the bots. The bots report back the execution logs/pass/fail status back to the control room.

Autosuggestion of existing use cases based on the problem statement could use improvement. 

My primary use cases are where I'm dealing with a lot of raw data extraction and transformation so that the data can be used by other systems. An example would be getting the data out of PDF files, transforming it from semi-structured to structured, and putting it into an extra-stable system like Excel or a CSV so that it can be used by other systems. Listed are low hanging fruits and will boost the confidence of the stakeholders in the RPA deployment, recommend to look at such use cases when looking at Automation Anywhere and its implementation.

• Native cognitive automation for unstructured data
• Bot Store—Jumpstart your RPA with verified, ready to use bots
• 24/7 global support
• Business users can build bots to automate their processes
• 1 bot—20,000 bots
  From pilot to enterprise-scale, at your pace
• Embedded real-time analytics—
  No integration, No delays
  
• Better customer support

It's a great product, timely support, and guidance.

IBM Robotic Process Automation.

We automate mundane and repetitive tasks for our clients, like invoice processing, purchase order creation, sales order creation, refund processing, transaction chargeback, and many more.

These tasks are basic and require no special skillset, hence are an extra cost to the company. By automating them, the company saves a lot of manpower, leaving them to better utilize their resources for a more value-added task. This ultimately leads to a better return on investment.

Automation Anywhere has provided the capability to automate repetitive tasks for the organization, which in turn has lead to a lot of cost-savings. It has also helped in removing the robots out of humans, by investing their time in more value-added activities.

Humans can work approximately eight to ten hours, whereas if the same activities are done by the bots, they can keep on working round the clock. Therefore, improving the productivity of the organization.

The percentage of human error in such cases has become little-to-none when processed by the bot.

The universal recorder along with the Excel basic and advanced packages has been highly valuable. With Excel basic, we can perform basic Excel activities even if Excel is not installed in the system. The Excel advanced package has a lot of features added, which were initially not there in Version 11 and we had to rely on external scripting for the same.

Earlier in Version 11, we had different sets of recordings, which often made things confusing but with the universal recorder, the situation is not the same anymore.

The UI could be made better because the UI in Version 11 was better and easier as compared to a2019. We were able to fit in more lines of code on the screen at a time, whereas in a2019, we can see much less. This means that the developer has to scroll again and again to view his/her code.

An option should be provided to disable the flow and dual-mode since those are not used often by the developers, and hence take up extra space on the screen.

The IQ bot should also have a feature to process documents with multiple invoices, as currently, we need to split the document according to invoices beforehand.

I have been working as an RPA Developer for the past three years. For the first three and a half years, I was using Version 10 and 11 of Automation Anywhere, and for the last six months, I have been using A2019.

The solution is quite stable.

The solution is easily scalable. We can add more bot runners or creators as per our need when the requirements increases.

The technical support was great. The support team response is quite prompt and they will provide you the solution to your issues most of the time.

Automation anywhere was my first RPA tool.

The initial setup is straightforward and if there is any difficulty, the AA support team will come to your rescue.

Our in-house team automates processes for our clients. The expertise level was good.

From my experience, I can say that the initial setup cost is easily recovered over a period of time once the bots start running in production. We develop bots for our clients and as per their information, most of the time, the automation of a single process has returned their original investment amount.

We did evaluate other RPA tools but we found Automation Anywhere to be more user-friendly and easy to use. 

When we started using Automation Anywhere, it was the elimination of mundane tasks, to free up employees who were doing repetitive tasks, and to ensure they could do better quality work. So, we started off with the finance department, where we permitted our accounts payable, as in the billing process. Now, we have slowly moved on to other departments, like HR, quality, and projects.

Since our implementation, I can vouch for the fact that it is very easy to use. You do not need to know a lot of coding, even the business users, who have virtually no idea of coding, can easily operate it. They can run their bots and have the analysis ready for higher management. This is something which provides a great ease of use, and also in part why it is scalable.

Initially, once you have set up the solution and the implementation is done, then it doesn't take too long to scale up bots from one to a 100. Other than that, the professional services team (the customer support team and customer service manager) is committed to your success. This is a good sign, as they help us to achieve our business goals.

If it is in the cloud, then you have a lot of scope of doing it even faster because you spend a lot of time in installation of virtual machines (VMs) alone. So, they are coming out with that, which is good. 

I believe that if there is some functional expertise within the organization, this helps in improving the process timelines even more because our current architects are totally IT-based. If they have some functionalities, that would help in automating processes faster. If we want automate some Automation Anywhere processes, we have to do it from scratch. If they are already there, we can use and scale them, then when can customize them. This is something worth thinking about.

As of now, we have not seen any major problems. It's quite a stable product. It's reliable also because we have seen quite good straight-through processing. 

We quickly moved from one bot to 15 to 20 bots in about two or three months. I've seen other companies do even better and go to around 500 to 600 bots. So, scalability is something which is pro for Automation Anywhere always.

I would break it down to two separate departments:

1. The Professional Services, who help us in automating the processes, have been quite phenomenal. The support that has been given, not only automating, but also re-engineering of the processes for the better has been great. 
2. Technical support is quite proactive. They have bettered their customer support portal. They made it better.

So, we have not faced any issues as of now in this regard.

The initial setup was quite complex. We have faced an issue. During the initial implementation stages, it took longer than we expected. It affected our timelines to a certain extent. Once that was done, it was quite seamless. I think now that they are coming out with a cloud solution, this will help a lot in reducing the implementation duration. It will help future clients get results even sooner.

As it has been a good experience until now. The product is good and helps in solving business problems. Because of the ease of use, I would definitely give it around an eight point five (out of 10). So, eight point five (out of 10) would be my number.

In our own company, we are using it for own employees. They are building bots for our own employees.

In an organization that you join, there are so many things. Today, you have different type of requests for laptops or any type of service that you want from the team. There are different sort of things. We have created a bot (use case) where your bot will do everything for you.

Once you join our company, you can ask your bot to create different types of tickets, whatever you require. Also, in our organization, you have to fill out timesheets on a daily basis. For that, we have also created a used case, where you have to order your bot to fill out your timesheet. So, it will automatically fill it out. You don't need to do it manually.

The automation does the basic things needed in our day-to-day work. We have implemented Automation Anywhere, and our bots are doing all this work.

For your daily work, if you are investing three to four hours doing your repetitive work, e.g., you are taking data from SAP and some warehouse, analyzing all the data, then manually doing all the formulas of Excel and checking the output. It takes three to four hours on a daily basis. With automation, you can reduce that effort to half an hour or an hour. So, it will improve your efficiency and save you a lot of time, so you can improve your time in other work. Therefore, you can be faster than the previous way.

Automation Anywhere has many functionalities. The newest version of Automation Anywhere, A2019, has improved a lot. So, it has many functionalities for Excel, such as, Excel automation. Throughout the entire organization, we have different types of work-related Excel, which you can easily automate to Automation Anywhere.

Also, Automation Anywhere includes IQ Bots. So, IQ Bots is the key part of Automation Anywhere. You can work on any type of PDF, images, invoices, or billing things in any company. You can just upload it and extract the data, then use it as you require. It is a key part of Automation Anywhere: the best part.

There is a small thing from a development point of view. There should be a static site box for finding any command if I am writing a code. If there are hundreds of functions, you can only scroll up and down to find one each one. There should be a site box where we can find the commands and easily use them.

In the new version, they have included a flow chart instruction. This should be easily removed by mouse cursor. It's basically no problem; like we have to always use keyboard or mouse. This should be independent since we are either using a mouse or keyboard. This should be running smoothly.

These are very small things which need to be improved.

Stability is good. It is improving. Even with the newest version, they have improved a lot. Earlier, we used to face some blockages. Now, with the newest version launch, there will be so many new functions.

Previously, there were very few functions for Excel automation. We had to put in logic for everything, like in other coding languages. Now, they have included so many functions in Excel. You can easily automate your Excel work to the function without writing a script. Hardly, a script is required.

We have the option of handling exceptions. They have given us so many options to handle exceptions. If your bot crashes, you are trying to find some page, or you're trying to find some file and it is not found, we have alternatives. We can handle the exception, like coding in Java or Python. We can handle the error because we have the functionalities. Also, we can write a small code for handling all these exceptions. So, it is easy to use without any fuss.

We have IQ bots. In IQ Bots, they have the option of uploading around a maximum of 150 documents at once. So, if your organization is generating some PDFs or images on a daily basis, maybe it's hundreds of documents, you can upload them at once. You have to train IQ Bot for one of these documents, then it will automatically take for the rest of these documents. It will easily map all the keywords and extract all the exact information that you want. That is important.

We are creating bots, as of now, for different areas and use cases that we have. Once, that is completed and pushed to production, then the support team will come in. We have lifetime support for production, which is for the partnership.

We are currently developing the bots. Once, we are done with our development, then production will finally start.

I am a developer on the development side. I am not a business person.

For the current version, I will give them an eight out of 10.  The future version will get more one plus one.

I lead the automation team in UI. In the UI, we automate mostly PDF and shared devices, then most web applications. For large volumes, we mostly automate PDFs.

I have enjoyed using all the features of this tool, not just one feature, e.g., object cloning, Excel automation, and the web recorder. 

The tool is very easy to use and mostly user-friendly. I like that when using it I don't need much expertise.

With the IQ Bots that use AI, I want to see more features using that type of machine learning and artificial intelligence in their products.

It is a very scalable product. With the market, every time and every day, we can scale it.

It is very easy to interact with the support team for Automation Anywhere whenever it's required. Sometimes, if the training is required, they would visit our premises. We can also visit their premises. In terms of training and product support, if you have any challenges as a developer, they help all the time. It is very easy to connect with them.

It is very straightforward.

I have seen a huge difference in how it is improving products.

I use them mostly. I would recommend it to all my friends and team. I encourage team member to use it, even those who are not from a technical background. They can also move to Automation Anywhere, use, and can learn from it. If they go to use Automation Anywhere University and other training tools, the training materials are available for them. So, it's very easy to learn as well. Different platforms and technology members have also moved to use the RPA platform, and are now using the Automation Anywhere tool.

I'd give it a nine point two out of 10. There is still a way to go for Automation Anywhere where we can see improvement. Mostly, we want to see more artificial intelligence and machine learning. Now, I can see only this mostly in the IQ Bot where we construct the data from PDFs. I also want to see more features where we can use the artificial intelligence in automating tasks as well.

Our primary use for this solution is mainly to support our email vertical, so it helps automate the management of financial, commercial and operations between our multiple domains using logistics and libraries and data points.

We just use it to get data from different sources and massage some data with some specific protocol. After that, we simply have to put back the data. It is a system for data treatment and to notify the proper business handler.

The product has helped our organization tool-wise to expand capabilities and offerings. To keep it short and simple, I'd say there are useful features that will definitely help us as we do more development in the near future.

The most valuable feature is that we can automate data manipulations. We can save IP's, we can save time, we can use manual reports. The main benefit of this tool is that it is a robust solution.

The feature I think that helps most is the ability to integrate. There is SAP integrations, SAP application integration, web application integrations, and email integrations. We have multiple features — there are a lot of features. They are also very good features which enable us to do many things.

What may be able to be improved is that sometimes there'll be a connection that is not from our clients and servers and that's a situation they may want to address. The solution for that may need to be built differently based on the needs from organization to organization. In that case, it is not particularly or specifically about the tool. It is just something I could see they might help enable.

That the product is now available as a cloud-based solution is a good feature that they added. So with that and new features already coming out, I don't have a lot of suggestions. I will have to work on this new version, then let's see if there's something I think they need to add.

There are a number of current tools which can be improved because they have many limitations. Like some better controls in emails, and better support for features in Excel and PDF. Especially things like that which I need more than new features.

I'll be enabling the current features, but I'll have to see them and what they do before I can feedback more.

The product is not totally stable. I feel like it could be improved on in that way. It's just stable, not very stable, and that's the difference.

The problem is mainly handling enterprise data. There can be connections which are not the nature you would expect. It is not from the client or the server but something else. There can be performance issues.

Scalability is a trend we are experiencing in IT. We have to have a scope for a project and we have to create a scope again in the future millennia. So I'm waiting just to see the functionality of the additional features in this package.

We have never had to use the technical support as we were able to work with and implement the product. We act as consultants and supply technical support to clients.

I do not think it is straightforward to start working with this product. It's a little complex to start out working in the database. After this when you gain a little experience with the product, then you will understand it and be able to smooth out your processes and how you approach development and it will be easier.

We are a consulting organization, so we have experience with this product now. We have started up administration for the solution for many other clients. We did not use an external reseller or integrator and did everything in-house or ourselves. So we have worked it both ways: we did our own deployment and then we did deployments for other organizations.

Right now we are just mainly focusing on our internal development with our workforce only.

On a scale of one to ten, one being the worst and ten being the best, I would rate Automation Anywhere as an eight.

Now they have a nice tool that is mostly stable with most of the features I could want being covered in the functionality of the product. More features are coming soon with this release so that's why I rated it an eight. The product right now will probably be better with the release.

I think it would be very difficult to consider the product a nine or a ten. To reach that level and to connect with innovations in the technology that are coming is very hard to anticipate and solve. There is always a limitation to what they can develop at once, so they will delay some work.

If I'm talking to a user who is not comfortable with automation tools, I recommend that they try the Automation Anywhere tool only. It's very easy to learn and easy to implement. It is not something you are making a sacrifice to use. It is a good tool.

We have many use cases. We are solving business problems for our clients. E.g., it could be as simple as doing data entry or creating a mashup solution with intelligent automation, which is a buzz word these days. It can also be as complex as having AI integrated with RPA. It depends upon a lot of use cases. This is what we are solving.

We are the partners of Automation Anywhere, so we are solving our client's problems with Automation Anywhere as an enabler. In addition, we are a consumer of Automation Anywhere.

We have digital workers with us who assist us in doing our work in robotic process automation. They solve all the problems where we need to do mundane activities and tasks that users should not be doing. Users should be utilizing their brain part, then the remaining roles and activities should go to the digital workers that we have.

We have automated that complete process of code review. The bot is solving the problem of ensuring the compliance of reviewing code. People used to generally skip the code review process because it was exhaustive. Bots can review the complete standards of the code, whatever is there, ensuring the compliance and eventually saving time.

The most valuable feature of Automation Anywhere is the unattended mode. Switch off your work when you are out of your office. The bot auto logs into your desktop and asks what they should do be doing, then it works. Tomorrow morning, you come back into the office, you have the output on your desk.

We used to face a lot of challenges with older versions, like auto login. 

Nothing is perfect. The tool should always evolve to the better and more efficient.

If we are talking about evolving, then we are talking about intelligent automation. There should be more features included in the package with this type of software. For example, IQ Bot is something that we used to have and was working well. However, there are other use cases of machine learning and complex cognitive solutions. Those should be included in the package, as they will solve major problems which we face today of unstructured data. This is part of the evolution process and these changes won't happen in a day.

The latest version is very stable and reliable. I have a lot of confidence in it as we deploy this bots at the client site. I have confidence that the bot will auto login in the night and do the work.

If you have 500 digital works for an enterprise, then someday you will need to update. Automation Anywhere is not very scalable because the update and upgrade process requires immense effort from the IT organization to do a tool check. 

Automation Anywhere Control Room should update to the newer versions with one click, including the newer features. There should be minimum effort required from the IT organization. The major resistance from any organization is from the IT organization because they have a lot of dependencies and will sometimes resist doing changes because they have  other activities and applications to manage. Future versions should minimizing their work.

I have used the technical support a lot of times. It has improved a lot. The response time has been very good. 

We used to face many problems for auto login and scheduler. It is lot of tickets for these problems, but Automation Anywhere was very responsive at that time. While they didn't have a ready-to-go solution, they ensured in the next release those improvements were there and now it is very stable.

The initial setup is not straightforward, but it's not complex. if somebody knows how to do it with an SOP, they can do it. The setup is tedious, but it's doable. 

We are a consultant for the deployment.

We have seen ROI with this product. With this product, we go for any RPA use case. If it is not solving anything or giving quantifiable benefits, it does not make sense.

I've been involved with my clients in recommending Automation Anywhere.

It is a good tool and one of the market leaders. The ease of implementation is very good in Automation Anywhere compared to other tools. If somebody is just starting out, Automation Anywhere is the best tool to look at to rapidly start because it delivers quickly robotic process automation.

The market is very dynamic. The product needs to be constantly evolving.

They have improved the product a lot since I started working with it.