Automation Anywhere Reviews

We have been using Robotic Process Automation for the configuration of newly issued cloud environments and building cloud IT solutions.

Automation Anywhere Taskbots are being used to build Oracle Cloud environments by leveraging Excel files containing the configuration details. The Automation Anywhere Taskbots will scrape the Excel files in a dynamic way to configure the product using the most appropriate method for the data provided.

The Taskbots effectively match equivalent human inputs, rather than configuring from the backend.

AA has helped to accelerate the initial delivery stage of projects, wherein repetitive tasks were originally completed by consultants. This was an unnecessarily costly exercise, as this did not require the level of skill of a consultant.

The skillset of the consultant lies within gathering the correct requirements and providing the configuration details of these requirements in the predefined Excel files. Having the consultant also perform the arduous and repetitive configuration exercise was not efficient.

The code history functionality is the most valuable feature, although this could be improved upon with better tracing abilities and UI changes.

Overall, the commands provided have enough range to complete almost any task, with creative out-of-the-box thinking required sometimes for workarounds.

The simplicity and base nature of the commands are where the value lies; in combination, the variables, error handling, if/else, loop, etc, can produce significantly variable codes.

None of the commands are unique to Automation Anywhere, which allows beginners to leverage external knowledge.

Where minor but widespread changes are made to the cloud product being operated upon (e.g. a banner was added, or dropping all DIVs down 1), changing the cloned search values (Taskbot) individually was incredibly time consuming, and it shut down the RPA service until it was fixed.

To counter this, it would be valuable to have a 'mass update' of search values for cloned objects, in a similar way to Metabots.

Better tracing of 'if' and 'else' statements and their corresponding 'end' statements would be helpful.

Vertical connecting lines would be appropriate within the code, and a collapse/expand feature for code blocks would be ideal.

We have been using Automation Anywhere for 16 months.

Stability-wise, this product is good.

The scalability is reasonable.

No previous RPA solution was used before this one.

Other options may have been considered, but am unaware of which.

We are working on implementing automation for a financial use case. Every time somebody travels they have a lot of receipts and they come in different formats. We would like to automate the processing of these receipts. We have a team in the US who have implemented this, and we would like to do the same thing here in India.

The most valuable feature of this solution is the automation of manual tasks, which save us time.

I really like the Automation Anywhere University website because it has a lot of good documents that you can read to learn about the solution.

I would like this solution to be supported on a Mac. Right now, we are using a VM with Automation Anywhere installed inside it, but it would be nice if the solution could be used on macOS.

I would like to see instructional videos on how to use this solution.

We still only have a small group working with this solution, but until now, everything is working fine.

This solution is scalable.

We have not used technical support for this solution.

We did not use another solution prior to this one.

Our US company does a lot of traveling and they are always dealing with receipts. It is a small finance group, yet they were doing a lot of manual work. They have to check for things like a matching date and the correct amount. From there, we understood that we need to do something automated. One of our colleagues from the US attended an Automation Anywhere conference and then they implemented this solution after that.

The initial setup of this solution is very easy.

We have an in-house team who took care of the implementation.

We have a developer license for this solution.

We have tried UiPath but this solution was selected.

This solution did not take us long to learn how to use. We found the guidelines at automationanywhereuniversity.com and started using it.

At this time we use the MetaBot but not the IQ Bot.

This is a solution that I recommended to a friend of mine at another company. They are using Blue Prism, but after telling them about the Automation Anywhere University they started viewing the documents. They are now doing a POC with this solution.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We are currently doing automation on the ground level. There are a lot of unexplored areas of RPA (different scenarios) that we have not captured yet. 

On a daily basis, we had to update a few things on SAP where we had slight challenges. With the help of scripts and DLL, we could solve these problems.

The main things that we give to our clients are its Excel functions and the terminal emulator.

The main problem that we see is migrating data from one system to other system. This is where a human comes into the picture. While we can do Excel crude data going into an ERP system, we would like it going forward if the Excel to SAP integration had a higher focus in the coming features. 

The Excel functions that we see are currently very limited. While I have not tested it, I have seen these functions expanded in version A2019.

I would like more detailed activity logging of what the client does. Currently, it just shows that a task started, then a task has ended. We want more detail around this for our clients, especially for error logging. E.g., we had to create an encrypted log for our clients to see what happens every second for every step. We made this in a CSV, and that CSV can be accessed by anyone who can change it. If Automation Anywhere could integrate this into the Control, that would be great.

You cannot expect an ERP system or any third-party system to remain constant. You have to stay on top of those. You spend about 20 percent of your rebuilding or changing something.

I have no issues with the scalability. For a current client, we have deployed easily around 100 to 120 bots which are running in production.

It would be really good if they could give more priority to tickets which are raised by partners. Right now, Automation Anywhere customers and employees have higher priority.

As a partner, we usually use whatever is online or the Automation Anywhere website. We search that to see if anyone else has already faced this issue and provided a resolution on the site. 80 percent of the time it is there. If it is not there, then I raise a ticket or call a hotline number.

With our current knowledge, the initial setup process is fine. The setup was easy for me.

With the Community Edition, a new user to RPA can utilize the tool and start learning how to use it.

As a partner, we work with other competitors as well. Most clients prefer Automation Anywhere because it is easy to implement. You don't need to know rocket science to learn this solution. If you know logic, that is sufficient. Automation Anywhere is more user-friendly.

We spend less time preparing data.

I would like to have the ability to schedule bots by whichever one is available.

The stability is good. I haven't had any major issues.

The stability has been good, so far.

It took us four months to scale up to our current number of bots.

The technical support is good. I have only used it once.

This was the first time using an RPA solution. Automation Anywhere was our first choice.

The initial setup was straightforward. We have a center of excellence that does a lot of this stuff.

We have saved time.

Take a look at RPA in general.

We use it for our refund department. We use it to initialize payments and everything else that is a repetitive process. 

We use Automation Anywhere to automate financial processes, invoices, billing, etc. 

Because it reduced the time duration of our processes, our costs went down.

Right now, we have Automation Anywhere integrated with artificial intelligence (AI).

I am certified in the Automation Anywhere University as a developer. It is a good tool. It goes topic-by-topic with real-time examples.

The product has a lot of options and visibility.

I just came to understand that there is a cloud attached to it. I would like to see how the cloud is going to work, because every application is coming out with a cloud version. If you are not on-premise, then you will need to have Citrix automation. 

It took one month to scale to the amount of bots which we are currently using.

Initially, the setup is not complex; it is straightforward.

We used a consultant for the deployment.

This product is really useful for me. I recommend Automation Anywhere as a solution.

The bot creation process is good, though it depends on the use case.

I don't use Citrix.

The primary use case is for optimizing processes.

It helps with the speed on improving processes and the results of those processes.

They could improve the learning curve.

The product is scalable.

We are measuring ROI through quality: Reducing errors, saving time, and saving money.

It is a good product.

it's not as complex as running a new computer language, but it is also not as simple as connecting EPL dots. Therefore, it is a medium level of complexity on the learning curve.

My team has taken course on the Automation Anywhere University. Their feedback was good. I have not taken any courses on it.

This solution was originally introduced to help operations reduce manual tasks. After seeing positive results, we have now implemented this RPA solution in IT.

We have been able to reduce the amount of repetitive tasks completed by operations, allowing individuals to move onto tasks which cannot yet be automated.

Currently, under Automation Anywhere, we only use the Bot Runners and Bot Creators. This ensures we can automate processes without the need for manual interaction.

I would like to see more stability around scheduling a bot to run headless. I believe version 11 may be more stable and have less issues when trying to run headless.

It is more stable now than it was three years ago. So far, I have no major concerns and am looking forward to upgrading to version 11 in Q3.

As we have a small number of bits in production on version 10.5.4, we found it easy to scale. Version 11 will provide a load balancer, making it easier for us to run a pool of VMs to complete a task.

We mostly use it for operations right now. We are looking at possible IT RPA use cases.

The tech support has improved over the years. I believe the tech support to be sufficient right now.

I wasn't part of the original PoC team who completed the initial setup. 

After joining the team, we engaged in two upgrades to deal with stability issues. We found this a painful process as we were early adopters. This meant that the install wasn't stable. To resolve this, we decided on an approach where we would only upgrade to a major release six months after its release.

The deployment is quick. You could complete this in a weekend. Realistically, you need a week to prep and another week to triage unexpected issues.

Our implementation strategy has been to upgrade development, confirm everything functions as expected, and only then upgrade production.

We have a team of six, which consists of developers, a tech lead, and manager. We have set up a run support team to handle maintenance and bot stability issues. Their role is to get the bots back up and running in the event of an issue.

It is expensive. Automation Anywhere has reduced the price slightly, as we have grown. However, the price is still excessive enough that we are engaged in PoCs on other tools.

I wasn't part of the initial conversations, though I believe we proceeded with the number product in the market.

As a total package, this is probably the easiest solution to start with. Even if you add something that you will not need, e.g., Bot Insight won't be required until you have more than 50 bots in production. Even then, see if you can develop this through in-house metrics.

We use it for robotic process automation.

Several manual/repetitive/time-consuming processes were automated, giving back time to the process owner. In addition, for most of them, the process follows a single standard and additional controls were created.

• Easy to learn
• Easy to replicate knowledge

There are general performance issues which are probably being addressed in the latest versions. To clarify, we currently we don’t have any issues, but during our implementation we had cases for which we needed to open tickets with the AA helpdesk.

The stability is very good.

Scaling is a big job, but it is completely scalable. A whole new team/department needs to be created in order to develop and monitor robotic process automation.

Technical support is very good, quick, and effective.

The initial setup was very complex. We had several issues when trying to connect the different components, due to our firewalls. They were eventually solved by our internal IT and the AA technical team.

Deployment took three months.

Our implementation strategy was teamwork among our IT, the end users, and the software provider's technical team.

Pricing is too high for small-scale groups. The Control Room yearly fee is high, making it difficult to break even.

A case study was developed. We evaluated Automation Anywhere vs Blue Prism as an alternative. I wasn't part of the business case, so I did not make the final call as to why we went with AA over Blue Prism.

Put together a solid strategy to develop and maintain automations. Also, work closely with internal controls and internal auditing.

In our organization, we have four developers using it. In terms of how extensively the solution is being used, we have automated 24 macro processes and many more are in the pipeline.