We are a factory and supplier corporation, e.g. we focus on the financial and automation niche, but mostly financial. Our service is implementing automation, e.g. we implement Automation Anywhere (AA) for customers. It's a tool for automating processes.
Business Development at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
RPA software that's easy to use and understand, even for first-time users
Pros and Cons
- "This RPA software has good scalability and stability, is easy to understand and easy to use, even for users who have no experience with automation software."
- "Setup and deployment of this product could be difficult for those without experience. These processes should be made easier."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
Automation Anywhere (AA) is easy to use and understand, even if the user didn't have previous experience with RPA (robotic process automation) software before. This solution has many tools for automation. It's good even if you're just starting with RPA software, e.g. we don't have to decide on the whole productivity process, so we can put in the costs step by step first, then put in the details after.
Other solutions require you to know the codes first and make decisions on the whole process. This means that with other RPA solutions, if the user doesn't have the experience, it will be difficult for them to use and decide on those automation programs, which is not the case with Automation Anywhere (AA).
What needs improvement?
An area for improvement for Automation Anywhere (AA) is its organization or utilization, because if it's your first time to initiate automation, you have to convert it properly, and you have to develop the amendment path through the automation path, but you have to pay a subscription for it first. The first part is difficult because if you buy the full package without having much experience with the product, it could be difficult to utilize the process from manual to automation.
There are some limitations in the migration from the manual process to automation, because currently, Automation Anywhere (AA) is trying to develop transfer from on-premises to cloud. There's a limitation in migration.
The setup and deployment processes for this product also need to be improved, e.g. made easier.
For how long have I used the solution?
I worked with Automation Anywhere (AA) before, and I helped a developer team provide it to the customer, and that was last year. We implemented it. I've been dealing with the solution in the last two years, but changed my focus to analytic solutions for a year.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Automation Anywhere (AA) is a stable tool.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability for this tool is good.
How was the initial setup?
It's difficult to set up Automation Anywhere (AA) on the on-premises environment. It's also difficult to make preparations for it. You have to be ready so it can support the automation process. That was what people experienced in the on-premises deployment, but I'm unsure how it is when it's set up on cloud. Setup could be easier if it's done on the Cloud.
If you have a person who knows the utilities of this solution, setup will take one to two weeks.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Our clients are paying for a yearly subscription of Automation Anywhere (AA).
What other advice do I have?
Automation Anywhere (AA) is very easy to understand, but automation is something new here in Thailand.
We have 20 clients using this solution. For deployment and maintenance, we have a technical team made up of 10 people, with one vision analyst.
We have an automation hypercare team responsible for supporting customers after we've deployed Automation Anywhere (AA).
I would recommend this tool to others who want to start using it, because it's a good tool.
I'm giving Automation Anywhere (AA) a score of eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
RPA Engineer at Fournxt
Bot Creator allows developers to create bots to automate their desktop-based applications
Pros and Cons
- "Automation Anywhere is one of the most popular RPA vendors offering powerful and user-friendly RPA capabilities to automate the business processes that are performed by humans. AA is a web-based management system that includes a control to run end-to-end automated business tasks for companies."
- "I would like for AA to add an inbuilt debug log that has functionalities to view the values of variables during run time in order to have a point-to-point debugging in case of an error."
What is our primary use case?
- Automating frond end and back end office jobs.
- Automating tiring jobs - Automation Anywhere is used to Automate many jobs that are repetitive.
- To deploy a digital workforce and optimize productivity.
- Report generation.
- Revenue forecasting.
- Beneficial to QA processes.
- Data validation and auditing.
- Data replication and migration.
- Customer Relationship Management and other operational sales activities
RPA helps to Automate these jobs perfectly.
How has it helped my organization?
With better technologies and research at its disposal, we will see a decrease in the cost of RPA tools.
With it, the other processes on work, the automation cost will dramatically reduce in the upcoming years.
Moreover, as the number of robotic vendors grows, the RPA licensing will see a significant decline rate in RPA licensing and with more space for changes.
RPA Security:
With more significant responsibilities on the robots’ shoulders, the bigger are the possibilities of a breach and system failure.
There will be an improvement in protection measures from the new types of cyber threats or any internal faults will see an increase due to a constant rise in security requirements.
Better Cloud-Based RPA Platform:
According to “Robotics Process Automation (RPA) – 2018 Annual Report,” Everest Group, 2018; currently over half of all RPA processes (~57%) are attended.
Including cloud-based, unattended RPA represents the remaining 43% (33% on-prem, 10% cloud-based).
The growth of IoT and improved cloud services gives more flexibility and security to Robotic Process Automation.
The cloud supplies unlimited, off-site storage, and on-demand access to data.
Automation at its best:
About 70% to 80% of rule-based processes in a business can be automated. RPA has a good hold in both the back- and front-office with advancements in AI, big data, speech recognition technologies, machine learning, and deep neural networks.
As a consequence of predicted growth in the field of Cloud-based tech and natural learning processes, RPA tech is positioned to be even more integrated, automated, and independent.
What is most valuable?
Workload management is a cool feature of Automation anywhere.
Automation Anywhere is one of the most popular RPA vendors offering powerful and user-friendly RPA capabilities to automate the business processes that are performed by humans. AA is a web-based management system that includes a control to run end-to-end automated business tasks for companies. Over 500 leading brands across the world use this tool to handle and scale their business processes with near-zero error rates and minimizing operational costs. AA allows building scripts to perform repetitive tasks instead of writing code. They can automate a broad range of chores from basic level Windows configuration steps to the ultimate networking and remote database processes. The three core components in the AA architecture are:
Bot Creator – It allows the developers to create bots to automate their desktop-based applications.
Control room- An application that works as a controller and handles the entire execution and management of clients, scripts, credentials, roles, security, etc.
Bot Runner – A machine that allows us to run the bot. The status of bot execution is reported back to the control room.
The company offers various products to support enterprises in their journey of digital transformation. They are as follows:
Automation Anywhere Enterprise RPA
The product is dedicated for the business user and comprises advanced capabilities to offer an intuitive interface for the business user, bot developer, and automation administrator. This platform is easiest to use, supports to avoid complexity, and ensures fast adoption & rapid deployment. It not only fulfills the requirement of the digital workforce but also be flexible to evolve with the business needs.
2. IQBots
IQBot is a cognitive bot designed to support as well as learn from business users and enable the business user to experience the power of advanced artificial intelligence technologies. Integrated with the automation anywhere enterprise RPA, the IQBot offers enterprise massive gains in productivity, as it includes competence of automating complex tasks involving unstructured data. The table below explains the different types of bots in automation anywhere: Task bot, Meta bot, and IQ bot.
Image1-28
3. Bot Insights
The platform displays statistics and graphs to analyze bot performance in the system. It also allows calculating the time saved in the automation process. It is the first analytics solutions build for bots. Bot Insights tightly integrates the real-time business insights with the digital workforce performance.
4. BotFarm
It is an on-demand enterprise-grade platform for RPA bot. The platform scales the capacity of the digital workforce by deploying bots anytime, anywhere with a single click. It can create, deploy and handle thousands of software bots and can ensure resilience, elasticity, and scalability.
5. Bot Store
The first marketplace for plug and play bots dedicated to business automation initiatives. It enables enterprises to discover, deploy, and mobilize bots, including process bots, application bots, and cognitive bots in a fraction of seconds.
What needs improvement?
I would like for AA to add an inbuilt debug log that has functionalities to view the values of variables during run time in order to have a point-to-point debugging in case of an error.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Automation Anywhere for one year.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: My company is a partner.
Buyer's Guide
Automation Anywhere
October 2024
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We have been able to reduce the amount of repetitive tasks, but the pricing is expensive
Pros and Cons
- "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."
- "I would like to see more stability around scheduling a bot to run headless."
What is our primary use case?
This solution was originally introduced to help operations reduce manual tasks. After seeing positive results, we have now implemented this RPA solution in IT.
How has it helped my organization?
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.
What is most valuable?
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.
What needs improvement?
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.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
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.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
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.
How are customer service and technical support?
The tech support has improved over the years. I believe the tech support to be sufficient right now.
How was the initial setup?
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.
What about the implementation team?
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.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I wasn't part of the initial conversations, though I believe we proceeded with the number product in the market.
What other advice do I have?
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.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Data Science Consultant (Intern) at WNS Global Services
Easy to learn, minimal scripting, and multiple developers can work with a single repository
Pros and Cons
- "On the server-side, multiple developers working on a single project can save their individual works and have them stored in a single repository."
- "Custom models with advanced features can be included in the IQ Bot models for unstructured and semi-structured data."
What is our primary use case?
We are using this product for the development, running, and monitoring of automated processes. We are using IQ Bot for advanced tasks using cognitive technology.
How has it helped my organization?
Automation Anywhere has helped in automating business processes for simple to complex business cases. It also helped in understanding, learning, and discovering new automation ideas.
What is most valuable?
The features that I find most valuable are:
- There isn't much scripting.
- It is easy to learn and implement.
- No prior programming knowledge required to learn and develop.
- On the server-side, multiple developers working on a single project can save their individual works and have them stored in a single repository.
What needs improvement?
Custom models with advanced features can be included in the IQ Bot models for unstructured and semi-structured data.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Automation Anywhere for between eight and nine months.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
RPA Developer at Alzone Software Pvt. Ltd.
A flexible and adaptive tool that significantly improves operations, but Java application support needs improvement
Pros and Cons
- "Automation Anywhere is one of the leading RPA tool vendors and they have done splendid work on improving their tool."
- "I feel that document extraction like IQ Bot can be made more refined so that it may reach its full potential."
What is our primary use case?
For us, the primary use of Automation Anywhere bots is to automate the business, administrative, and financial aspects of businesses. We have automated many tax reconciliations and also automated the monthly salary slip generation for all the employees.
In business processes, the purchase order and invoice generation scenarios have been automated. Automation of Salesforce entries has also been done with Automation Anywhere, which has significantly reduced the burden for employees and made their day more productive.
How has it helped my organization?
Automation Anywhere can have a significant impact on any company's operation, as it can automate a wide variety of tasks that are mundane, time-consuming, and the least productive.
The Automation of salary slip generation for all employees in the organization has helped the HR spend less time manually preparing excel sheets and reconciling with other data and more time in improving the quality and working experience for employees by addressing their issues.
Other administrative functions like keeping a record of employee attendance and work hours have also been automated
What is most valuable?
The Automation Anywhere (2019) is now a SAAS product, hence I feel it's more fluid to use in any environment compared to the AA11.3x versions.
Automation Anywhere used to have a three-layer architecture with a Control Room, Runner, and Workbench but now it has combined the Control Room and Workbench into One. This made it easy to create bots and administer them.
The document Processing tool called IQ Bot has had several new updates, like a logic field, where you can include Python scripts. I feel it makes the tool more adaptive and flexible.
What needs improvement?
Automation Anywhere is one of the leading RPA tool vendors and they have done splendid work on improving their tool. The places where I still see scope for improvement is in their background automation are, and also their ability to handle Java applications.
I feel that document extraction like IQ Bot can be made more refined so that it may reach its full potential.
Another area I feel that needs improvement is the variances caused in extraction results when using the tool with third-party OCRs. This is something that needs to be addressed. I believe rather than giving more third-party options, a single good OCR solution must be added to prevent variations in extraction results.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Automation Anywhere both A11.3x and A2019 for more than two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There is brittleness in UI Automation but this can be circumvented by using REST APIs if they are available. Also, the Java Applications still seem a herculean task to automate for many RPA tool vendors.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The bots are scalable and the only thing one has to ensure for better scalability is proper architecture at the beginning with a long-term approach in mind.
How are customer service and technical support?
The customer service of AA has been good. Many of our queries were addressed with the raising of tickets as quickly as possible.
How was the initial setup?
The set up was easy and straightforward, and the support was also good.
What other advice do I have?
I have automated and released at least a thousand bots by now. I have also used Automation Anywhere's Intelligent document extraction solution called IQ Bot, both the 11.3 version and the 2019 version.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Automation Lead at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Good manageability and a simple interface, but the license cost needs to be improved
Pros and Cons
- "From a manageability perspective, this solution is very good."
- "The cost of this solution can be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We are a solution provider and we use this solution to help our customers with internal processes. For example, we help them with the automation of information processing tools.
How has it helped my organization?
From a manageability perspective, this solution is very good. It's just understandable, and this has helped a lot.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of this solution is drag-and-drop. You don't need to be a coding genius to create a bot. It has a simple interface.
From what I have seen with the IQ Bot, it is very impressive and I think it is going to solve a lot of problems that we face right now.
What needs improvement?
The cost of this solution can be improved. We have written applications that do the same thing as Automation Anywhere, but for less cost.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
When it comes to stability, there are a lot of dependencies. The bot, itself, I would say has always been good for us. The only problems that we have had are when the tools change, the bot has to be enhanced. That is something that is unavoidable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Compared to other RPA tools, I think Automation Anywhere is very scalable.
For example, we have written simple applications where they do one thing today, but tomorrow they may add something else to it. They're developing an additional, or expanded version of the bot, and it is always simple. In this way, the scalability is pretty good.
The only problem we've had is when we need to expand the userbase. This is because of the ports attached to it.
How are customer service and technical support?
We do reach out to Automation Anywhere technical support and it definitely helps.
How was the initial setup?
In the beginning, it was a little bit complex and difficult for us to understand how to get things running. We reached out to technical support for help.
Initially, we had planned on going simple. Then, we wanted to be centralized and have a cloud-based environment, which is where we were facing a lot of challenges. One of the challenges was DB connectivity for accessing SAP, which was a security issue. We also had some trouble automating web pages.
What was our ROI?
Initially, we did see ROI. The problem is that we could not re-use those licenses. One license is not going to be running for twenty-four hours. We considered planning and scheduling to make the best of this, but its split across multiple teams, so there are multiple license requirements. Not everything has huge savings attached.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have worked with other RPA solutions, such as UiPath.
What other advice do I have?
We are looking forward to having the capability of building the IQ Bots the way we want, using Python scripts. With our scripting, we can fill in the gaps and improve accuracy.
My advice to anybody who is researching RPA solutions is to consider several things. I can see that the path that Automation Anywhere has right now is going to take it to the highest levels. My suggestion is that if you have a lot of coding or scripting experience then I would recommend UiPath. It has its own plusses and minuses, as with every tool.
Instead, if you're looking for someone that can you you build a bot within a short time, who doesn't know any coding or have a background in programming, then I recommend Automation Anywhere. You cut out the cost of developers, but you add to your cost in terms of licenses.
Also, for manageability, Automation Anywhere is the best choice.
I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
Team Lead at Accenture
Improved the task performance at a team level and improved productivity
Pros and Cons
- "It improved the task performance at a team level and improved productivity."
- "It should be easier to use."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case is for the automation of output reports in Excel.
How has it helped my organization?
It improved the task performance at a team level and improved productivity.
What is most valuable?
MetaBot is one of the most useful features.
What needs improvement?
It should be easier to use.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using AA for five months.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
RPA Developer at Nine A Business Connect
Easy to use with a drag and drop interface, and includes a powerful and versatile Object Cloning feature
Pros and Cons
- "Object Cloning is the most valuable feature I have found for automating a website or a process that includes multiple mouse clicks."
- "The OCR can be a little better because sometimes while scrapping, it leads to data loss."
What is our primary use case?
Automation Anywhere is one of the simplest RPA tools!
We primarily use it for data scraping from PDFs. AA has helped me to get the data from scanned PDFs with a higher accuracy rate, automating multiple formats, and maintaining its data in Excel format.
In this scenario, the user emails a PDF to the Bot email ID, the Bot downloads the attachment & scraps the data from it. As per the format, the data is pulled and maintained in Excel, in a standard format. The Excel file is then emailed back to the respective user.
How has it helped my organization?
When anybody talks about Robotic Process Automation, Automation Anywhere is the first thing that comes to my mind. Automation Anywhere is one of the simplest Robotic Process Automation Tools.
Its drag and drop feature is the best because there is no hard coding required. Even if a person is not from a coding background, they can easily learn and get their hands on this tool quickly. There are a lot of learning resources provided by Automation Anywhere University and AA provides certifications too.
Using AA has helped to reduce time & human error.
What is most valuable?
Object Cloning is the most valuable feature I have found for automating a website or a process that includes multiple mouse clicks. This is something that can easily be done using the Object Cloning command.
Object Cloning can also be used to get the DOMXPath inner text of a specific object. It also helps to automate the dropdown menus and in selecting the desired value from them. It is fun to use and if used with proper technique, a user can automate a website or portal with 100% accuracy.
What needs improvement?
The OCR can be a little better because sometimes while scrapping, it leads to data loss.
In the future, more commands for automating SAP should be included.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Automation Anywhere for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability totally depends on the power of your coding level. In general, AA is highly stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
AA has high scalability.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support from AA is excellent!
The AA support team is just Awesome. Any query or issues we face while using it can be brought to their notice by raising a ticket. They will coordinate with the user until the issue is resolved and without much delay. Automation Anywhere provides the best service.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use another RPA solution prior to this one.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
Our in-house team is responsible for deployment and maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is a bit higher.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated UiPath before choosing AA.
What other advice do I have?
Choose Automation Anywhere over other RPA Tools for better service & accuracy.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Updated: October 2024
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