Automation Anywhere Reviews

My primary use cases consist of the following:

1. Filtering and manipulating multiple Excel, CSV, XLS files to gather relevant data as per the business requirements.
2. Extracting text from searchable and non-searchable PDF files and uploading the data to separate output files or web-based forms.
3. Scheduling tasks to run on a daily basis or implementing trigger-based process execution.
4. Implementing email automation in various modules.
5. Working with external macros and JScript files, depending on the given business logic. 

Automation Anywhere has by far, provided one of the best and easiest solutions to implement RPA. It has helped increase our productivity in the following ways:

1. The scheduling and trigger-based solutions provided by Automation Anywhere have saved the effort of manually checking the conditions and executing tasks.
2. The OCR commands have made document processing efficient to a certain extent.
3. Working with external scripts has been very useful; I have used JScript and VBScripts in my processes.
   

The features I found most valuable are:

1. PDF Integration Commands: It is easy to extract text from PDF files in two ways, plain text and structured text. Automated password protected files, as well.
2. FTP Commands: I found it very easy to automate processes where I have to extract, upload, and rename files on the SFTP server for my process.
3. Error Handler: One of the most valuable features is the error handler, as this command has helped me design bots that can handle multiple errors and exceptions.
4. Object Cloning Features: This is one of the most reliable features provided by Automation Anywhere.
   

The product is amazing, nevertheless, it would be really great to see the following points being implemented:

1. Better OCR Extraction: The OCR extraction is good to some extent, but I have seen some cases where it has failed to extract text from a few documents, and this was quite unexpected.
2. More Excel Commands: The set of Excel commands I am currently using in Automation Anywhere V11.3 are limited. Most of the Excel commands such as filtering and removing duplicates are not available.
3. Options to edit Document and PPT files: The scope of projects could be expanded if we have such commands. 

I have been using Automation Anywhere for more than a year.

Automation Anywhere is an RPA tool that is used to Automate any repeated simple/complex tasks with ease. Automation Anywhere is not perfect but it is still the best tool available in today's market.

It is one of the simplest RPA tools, having a simple user interface, and it is very easy to get hands-on with this platform. It has vast learning resources available, too.

Use Cases:

1. Extracting data from scanned PDFs: Using Automation Anywhere made it much simpler to scrape data from scanned PDFs and convert it into standard Excel format, as per requirements.
2. Portal Automation: AA makes web automation simple and our manual tasks have now been automated. Our portal is for making client bookings of the client. The Bot reads the Excel file shared by the user and accordingly, makes the booking in the portal with minimum time and with high accuracy.

Automation Anywhere is known for its high performance, reliability, and simplicity. Using Automation Anywhere has been a boon for my organization. It saves time and does not require human intervention, depending on the task or process that is automated.

As data scraping from scanned PDFs was a huge task for our organization, and with other tools, the accuracy was around 50-60%, we were facing a huge data loss. When our organization switched to Automation Anywhere, the accuracy rate improved and consequently, there has not been much data loss.

Automation Anywhere has great features and I have found Object Cloning and SAP integration to be the most valuable among them.

Object Cloning: Using Object Cloning, any web-based process or task that has fixed steps to be followed can be automated with ease. Object Cloning captures the object, DOMXPath, Inner text, etc. The drop-down menus can also be automated easily.

SAP Integration: Automation anywhere has added one more feature to this command in v11.3.5, which is SAP GUI. Using this feature/command, SAP Automation has become simpler than before, as it required using Metabot, DLL, etc. Everything can now be done in the task bot itself.

Automation Anywhere should improve its OCR command, as it's my observation that I have faced data loss or improper data being extracted. If the image quality is low then the data extraction with 100% accuracy is a huge task that I have been facing.

If the scheduling of the bot were much simpler, also allowing us to schedule bots prior to the start time, it would be an improvement. 

We have been using Automation Anywhere for two years.

The stability is good.

The scalability is very good, and I would rate it an eight out of ten.

Excellent support.

Once, I was facing an issue so I raised a ticket. The Automation Anywhere support team helped me to resolve it quickly, with proper follow up via email as well as calls.

We did not use another RPA product prior to Automation Anywhere.

The initial setup is straightforward. The Control Room and client are simple to set up, too.

We have an in-house team with a high level of expertise.

Considering the cost, it is a bit high, but worth the price because the output accuracy is high.

Automation Anywhere is a tool that I love! I am quite happy using this tool and there are no features or commands that I have found to be missing that should be added.

Its advantages are performance, simplicity, and excellent support!

Please go for Automation Anywhere. I am sure that you won't regret it!

Our primary use case is for building RPA automations on this platform to automate and execute business processes. There are various use cases implemented for various end-users by our firm and the environment infrastructure is complex and stretched across multiple systems. Financial processes such as journal posting, invoice processing, PO and non-PO order processing are automated with the help of Automation Anywhere across a spectrum of applications such as SAP, PeopleSoft, and many other financial applications and across various domains.

Business process automation has improved the efficiency and accuracy of processes and reduced manual efforts which can be utilized in value addition for the firm. Basically, when mechanical processes are automated with the help of the RPA platform Automation Anywhere, then users are able to reduce FTE hours spent on doing that work and instead can focus on driving the business growth and value addition to self and the firm. Automation Anywhere has been instrumental in helping our organization achieve this for our clients.

SAP GUI Integration commands are highly useful while working with SAP applications and facilitate easy use of the software. This feature has been recently incorporated within the software and we have been using it to interface with SAP systems in development as well as production. The Meta Bot feature is also highly useful where the Automation Anywhere platform is able to create scripts with inbuilt error handling capability and can perform the same function over and over without room for technical errors.

Excel functionalities, the macro interface can be improved in the next release of RPA platform Automation Anywhere. Functionalities such as maneuvering on the excel worksheets, increased capability to manipulate formulae, and other Excel functionalities will give Automation Anywhere and edge in the RPA platform category since most financial applications use a lot of Excel and macro sheets for their calculations and postings. This will not only help the developer in saving time to develop simple keystrokes but also make the final bot much more stable and robust. 

I have been using AA for two years.

It is very stable and robust with the latest version.

This solution is scalable.

We have had reasonable good experience with technical support team who regularly assist us with any product issues in a timely manner and professionally.

I have always been using Automation Anywhere.

Straightforward.

In-house.

This information is with project senior leadership.

Licensing is pretty straightforward with Automation Anywhere since creator licenses are unlimited and free if we select a certain package. Setup cost and pricing is also very reasonable which helped us in making all client projects economically viable

We evaluated options such as UiPath and Blue Prism.

My primary use case is the automation of manual tasks involved in Order to Cash and Procure to Pay.

During the digital transformation of a company, the number of internal portals and applications increases leading to an increased number of data silos.

TCPL has successfully implemented a bot to synchronize data flow (including document files viz. docs, pdfs, images) between its in-house developed install portal and Microsoft Navision ERP.

TCPL has automated the AWB tracking of all outbound shipments to get latest updates on all our shipment movements, take timely corrective measures to ensure our customers receive shipments on time. This helps in ensuring timely order deliveries which results in higher customer satisfaction and lower DSO as we can collect on time only if we deliver on time.

Other bots are:

Vendor Invoice Processing and Data Entry

Accounts Receivables Data Entry

• AA RPA has drastically reduced speed of execution and thus turn around time of processes, ensuring all service level agreements are met and our customers get a great experience.
• Savings of fives Full-time Equivalent or 160 manhours.
• Lower Daily Sales Outstanding as we now meet SLAs and can collect all payments in time.
• Reduction in errors as bots never do wrong calculations or get distracted
• Higher Employee productivity as they are now free from the repetitive mundane work
• Important financial decisions based on updated and accurate information in-hand.

I find the graphic user interface and ease of usability to be the most valuable feature.

The wide range of functions and drag and drop workflow designer makes it easy to learn and work on, for both developers and business users. Being completely web-based makes it even easier and more comfortable to work on, for everyone. From a personal experience, I could learn and start building RPA bots using automation anywhere community edition in less than one month due to the good quality training material available at AA university and the use of usability.

Though IQ Bot is the most powerful and effective cognitive OCR platform for data extraction in the market, still, there is a lot of scope for improvement as there are a lot of non-standard documents which do not give a high straight-through processing rate and accuracy.

Additional features to be included in the next release should be the option to develop basic web portals through which business users can view and run required bots on demand. Secondly, some features of BPM should also be included in the RPA platform itself so that business workflows can be defined and automated easily.

I have been using AA for eight months.

We are proposing a documentation solution like archived files, payroll, and integrating data between Excel forms and CRM/SAP.

We have a solution for how to digitize archived files into PDFs and distribute them to a dedicated folder. We use Excel forms to manipulate data, then the physical data will be scanned and contains the date, which will be input by the user manually. After that, the bot will execute the process for distributing the file, and finally, will send a report to the user.

We use analytics as part of the result.

We are not the end-user. Rather, we are helping users to get the best solution out of their business process. Mostly, we are learning from webinars or the AA YouTube channel.

We know that many things can be solved by using RPA, but the con is that the branding image of AA in Indonesia is low. We have to compete with UiPath on a line per line basis, so it will be not easy to persuade users to use AA.

I hope we can get more support for AA to expand in the Indonesian Market.

There are many features that are valuable including Whatsapp messages, OCR, and image recognization, but I have not tried all of them.

My opinion is that we need to have a video or tutorial on how to implement these features, as well as seeing what results to expect. We are having difficulty explaining RPA to users if we have to. The competitors can present the features more interactively using video, which is better than a PowerPoint presentation. Having this would make it easier to sell to the user, because the market in Indonesia prefers to see the demo/result, as opposed to learning the technical aspects first.

Similarly, they would prefer to see a success story and case study, instead of listening to a text presentation. I think we need to create an interactive presentation that is more creative and gives more proof of results for the process, and lesser in terms of technical description.

We have been using Automation Anywhere for seven months.

I have experience with traditional RPA.

IQ Bot is useful but the price is not friendly. Many users are interested to try it, but the cost is not a good deal when you consider ROI.

The price between distributor and partner is different, especially in terms of the discount. We cannot lock the discount from partner to distribution, so we still have a different price. 

We have evaluated other products but we need more time to see the results of our automated processes.

I would love Automation Anywhere to expand the market in Indonesia but I need more support. This is not only from a technical perspective, but business development assistance is needed to grow the market in this region.

My primary use case is to minimize the manual, repeated work done across the organizations and putting Bots in place for more accuracy, fastened process timings, and employee satisfaction.

Our major reason for implementing the solution is to reduce the FTE count and allow them to realize the benefits over a period of time. The primary use of this tool is automating areas like HR and admin.

It is easy to implement and most of the shared service areas are getting relieved by implementing Bots as part of the process.

From the organizational level, Automation Anywhere helped us in getting more business. Each client comes with their own standards, wherein it helps us in understanding their business altogether.

We can provide them the solutions in various ways, helping them with implementing the Bots, which requires us to enter into their core businesses and provide solutions to different areas.

The tool feature I found the most valuable is Metabot, as we can include the DLLs that are proprietary written code in .NET or other technologies.

Apart from the functionality, their working model and support are good.

Most of the tool's capabilities and features are very good in terms of architecture. It is easily understandable and very well structured. It is the most promising tool in the market, so it is helpful in attracting customers by demoing the already implemented Bots.

It would be great if they provide installation documents that are easier to understand, place more focus on capturing the fields, and most importantly, concentrate more on the OCR capability. Lots of customers come with scanned PDFs, wherein we find that area is more challenging. If a constant solution can be provided to read the non-editable documents, then that would be the highest milestone of the Automation Anywhere.

Lots of companies do not follow the LEAN method, so most of the processes are still with the old models. AA can focus on those areas and introduce some techniques to address those issues within the processes.

They can conduct more regular sessions with partners about their ability and new developments, which will help us in bringing new businesses.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for six years.

Their support in case of any tickets raised is more helpful for us in resolving the issues at the earliest.

We use it to develop bots. 

Use cases: We do Excel operations if we have to download any file from a portal to do any Excel operations. We send these outputs to our business customers. 

Bots are specific for each customer.

Most of the tasks that our organization used to do were manual. We automated our internal processes so it would give us FTE benefits and work would be done in less time. This also saves us time and FTE benefits.

The most valuable feature is the Excel operations because the most repetitive task which we used to do was Excel operations. Automation Anywhere has the Excel commands feature where we can run Excel Macros, which is very valuable. It's saving so much time for us.

We have our limitations. We can run only VBScripts and one more thing. If we want to run Python scripts or batch files, we cannot do it. So, if they would add these extra things in there then that would be beneficial.

I have to add in Excel commands because it is a limited feature, as we only have five to six commands. Suppose we have a spreadsheet and we have to get the counts for how many rows were filled, we have to do it through a Macro or VB. We have to write a separate code and call through Automation Anywhere. If they added in this inbuilt feature into Automation Anywhere that would be helpful for us.

Stability is pretty good. If we want the code to be stable, then we have to handle it in a particular way. We have to utilize the tool in the best way. An example is if there is a web page, and it gets refreshed every time, then the odd properties will get refreshed. If it is the UI making changes, then the properties will get refreshed. So, we can utilize error handling in the best way and make use of it. Instead of failing, we can make it run, making it more robust.

We have so many use cases. When customers come to us, they'll ask for a very simple use case, they will not know the features of Automation Anywhere and what we can automate. Once they get to know it after we automate one process, they will want more features which they'll ask for. They'll give us more use cases for us to do.

We have done many bigger tasks. If the customers are doing it manually, it will take them 12 to 24 hours. But, if they're doing it through Automation Anywhere, it will done in half an hour to an hour.

Automation Anywhere gives quick responses to any request when we used to reach out to them. Then, they will response and work with us to get it fixed. I have multiple experience like that.

I was partially involved, not fully involved, when they were doing the IT Bot setup and migrating to latest version. It went well because the Automation Anywhere team was there. They helped us migrate from the older version to the latest version. Whatever code that we had written in the older version, that needed to be migrated to latest version. With all these things, they helped us out.

Automation Anywhere helped us if our bots should be in their Control Room, if they were migrating or adding extra features. Then, they would take care of it. I don't know much about what would be in the background.

They asked me to use Automation Anywhere and I went through studying the others, UiPath and Blue Prism. Automation Anywhere is user-friendly, and if you're automating, then it's good for developers.

I'll give Automation Anywhere an eight (out of 10). They lost two points for the Excel commands. We have so many things to do in Excel, but we have very limited commands for it. We need to use Macros. We also have to know extra coding languages, like VBScripts.

We have many use cases for this solution including invoice processing, email processing, Excel file manipulation, and text file manipulation.

Using automation, we have been able to reduce a lot of time spent on processes.

We have also been able to automate statement processing.

The most valuable feature of this solution is the MetaBot, which gives you the power to add many DLLs and customize them for the automation.

We have had issues with stability in the past, and there should be a function that helps you to find out what is wrong with your environment that is causing the automation to fail.

We would like to have more information on how Python integration works, and how easily it can be done.

This solution is stable but sometimes it doesn't work due to various issues with the environment, like your service doesn't work or your sign-in gets disconnected.

This solution is scalable and works fine. I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten.

Technical support for this solution is quite good and they are very responsive. They also give you a solution very quickly.

When we first started with this solution it took about ten days to learn how it works. Afterward, it was quite straightforward to work with it.

We looked at UiPath but it was not as capable as Automation Anywhere when it comes to large scale.

The 2019 version of this solution looks quite exciting. It will include many features for web integration. It will also include support for Python, which is something that we are looking forward to.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.