Automation Anywhere vs SAP Intelligent RPA comparison

Automation Anywhere and SAP are both solutions in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category. Automation Anywhere is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.3, while SAP is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.0. Automation Anywhere holds a 10.8% mindshare in RPA, compared to SAP’s 1.6% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Automation Anywhere users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of SAP users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 2024

Automation Anywhere and SAP Intelligent RPA are competitors in robotic process automation. Based on data comparisons, SAP Intelligent RPA has the upper hand in feature set and functionality, making it appealing to users who value its comprehensive offerings within the SAP ecosystem.

Features: Automation Anywhere boasts advanced analytics, seamless third-party integrations, and intuitive interface, making it versatile for a wide range of tasks. SAP Intelligent RPA excels in its native integration with SAP applications, robust orchestration capabilities, and customizable workflows, enhancing its appeal for businesses heavily embedded in SAP systems.

Room for Improvement: Automation Anywhere could enhance its modular functionality and streamline complexity in code maintenance. Additionally, improving support for non-standard environments and reducing manual interaction in setup processes would be beneficial. SAP Intelligent RPA might improve by simplifying integration in non-SAP environments, offering more flexible pricing structures, and expanding its support for custom features integration beyond the SAP suite.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Automation Anywhere is noted for its straightforward deployment model and exceptional customer support, offering a smooth transition and continuous assistance. SAP Intelligent RPA benefits from its ease of deployment in SAP environments but may present more challenges in non-SAP contexts. It provides robust customer support but could enhance its guidance for users new to RPA.

Pricing and ROI: Automation Anywhere offers competitive pricing with flexible subscription models, ensuring a promising ROI for diverse business scales. SAP Intelligent RPA incurs higher initial costs associated with its deep integration into SAP systems but delivers significant efficiencies that justify its expense for SAP-centric organizations, promising a strong ROI through long-term operational improvements.

To learn more, read our detailed Automation Anywhere vs. SAP Intelligent RPA Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Automation Anywhere vs. SAP Intelligent RPA

January 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Fortra's Automate

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category, the mindshare of Fortra's Automate is 1.3%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Automation Anywhere is 10.8%, down from 15.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Intelligent RPA is 1.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Featured Reviews

Anabel Marco

Account Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Automates processes efficiently with cost-effective scaling and robust customer support

Web scraping is quite good since it offers a lot of possibilities. Another important feature for me is its compatibility with MBI, the Power that is ISEQUADO Centers. I appreciate the ability to scale and increase the number of bots or studios without additional expense. Automate's non-reliance on additional orchestrators makes it quite cost-effective.

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Vatsal Mehta

Co-Founder & CEO at HEDEHI Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Accommodates diverse use cases and effectively meets customer requirements

AI agents need further improvements. AI agent technology in agentic process automation is still evolving. We have only scratched the surface, and there are many potential use cases yet to be explored. As technology advances, I believe it will enable us to implement more comprehensive automation solutions. Document Automation has issues related to speed. When I compare Document Automation with IQ Bot, IQ Bot is faster than Document Automation. My understanding is that they are still evolving Document Automation, and this issue of slowness will be resolved in the upcoming .35 version, so we are good with that. They are working on signature identification and validations for handwritten documents. Currently, we are able to extract data out of scanned but digital images, but there is still scope for improvement for handwritten documents.

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Keerthana Jayathran

SAP BTP Developer at Wipro Limited

Offers integration of the document extraction service into SAP ALC, enabling the direct upload and extraction of details

I found that SAP Intelligent RPA can be somewhat unstable when using SAP GUI. When we upgraded from SAP GUI version 7.50 to version 7.70, we had to update our SAP Intelligent RPA screens even though the screens were the same. This was difficult and time-consuming. The one I would like to see is in context with the screens, if they are using the same SAP UI, and if it updates, it should not be changed. At least it should be able to identify the screen. There should be more of an error, like a proper error feature, in future releases. Sometimes, we don't understand why that automation is not learning what, like, where it is stuck, what the reason is, or what the criteria we are missing to add. A proper error message would be helpful.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Fortra's Automate performs the job effectively and has the capability to alert us of any issues."

"I like the interface; it makes managing automation easy. We can set different schedules and templates for each task."

"The ability to connect to websites and pull data is the solution's most valuable feature."

"I would rate the technical support as a nine out of ten because it is quite fast and courteous."

"We are still in the process of rolling it to production and tweaking it (our AD groups are a mess), but the improvements are priceless. Having users ID's created the same way every time without human error is the best part. We don't need to worry about why groups were not added, user rights not set to folders or missing a private folder being created, typos or just even knowing when things are done and logged."

"It gives us a central place to schedule tasks and run them distributed."

"This tool has machine learning and voice recognition and computer vision, which are both quite useful aspects. These aren't available in other tools. It's a good addition to this tool and it gives the solution an edge on the market."

"The best feature of Automate is its ease of use, which is a major selling point."

More Fortra's Automate pros

"Simple processes such as tracking, logging, and data consolidation are now automated, which helps us focus more on doing tasks that are impactful and more important."

"Implementation of Automation Anywhere (AA) allows us to automate business processes and has brought productivity gains, error reduction, and speed of execution in multiple HR and Finance operations."

"With Automation Anywhere, what used to take us two days now takes us twenty minutes."

"The overall UI of the tool is so user-friendly that even a beginner can use it easily."

"With Automation Anywhere you can read and extract CSV data easily. You don't need multiple commands to read it."

"It has helped us look at how our processes are organized."

"When our organization switched to Automation Anywhere, the accuracy rate improved and consequently, there has not been much data loss."

"The ability to create automation itself is a benefit that reduces human error and enhances efficiency. Technical support is unsurpassed."

More Automation Anywhere pros

"Most of the details are already in the help portal and SAP notes are available. It is well documented as part of the product support."

"It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."

"The initial setup of SAP Contextor is easy."

"It is remarkably easy to configure and code, and it doesn't require an extensive technical background or coding expertise."

"The most valuable feature of SAP Contextor is that everyone is in one place in the program that I need."

"Contextor is a good solution for a Citrix environment. It's the first with this tool. Other tools provide the same functionality, but not with the Citrix environment."

"Scalability is fine. It is pretty nice."

"The standout features of SAP Intelligent RPA are its flexibility and integration capabilities."

Cons

"They do not encrypt passwords, so this is an issue with HIPAA compliance."

"Some companies have asked for voice integration. This is likely part of the roadmap."

"The solution has a very weak knowledge base."

"I would prefer not having to log in to update a ticket; being able to respond via email would be beneficial."

"I find that most important features are strong, however, there is a lack of good development for artificial intelligence, such as machine learning."

"The workflow for variables could be better. The input and output of task-level variables could be made a little clearer in terms of passing those around from one task to another upon success, etc. Things like that could be a little easier potentially."

"Sometimes when we communicate with the ERP system and there is an issue, we are not always aware of the specifics of Automate and the source of the problem."

"The OCR for Hebrew text needs to be improved."

More Fortra's Automate cons

"We have used the technical support. I am quite unhappy with the support part. The higher priority tickets are not getting resolved within the SLA. Higher priority tickets for production issues should be looked into immediately. However, until they get escalated, tickets are not receiving higher priority. I would like to see this improve."

"Their license model needs to be improved. The biggest issue for me is that the license is tied to a person, and it is not something that I can pass if I want to use it for the first five hours and pass it on to you for the next five hours and so on. When we automate, the license is tied to me, and if you or somebody else needs to use that license, as a COE administrator, I need to transfer the license from person A to person B. This is something that I have always told them that should not be this way because you want to utilize your licenses effectively."

"Now, it is a big complex to download the product and install it, then again to install the patches. So, it takes a lot of time to download it."

"When it comes to reading email, this solution is unstable and improvements need to be made."

"We have had some quirkiness happen when integrating the Automation Anywhere with other solutions, such as weird Excel issues or temperamental legacy system issues."

"We have a lot of use cases that depend on certain Java applets, and currently we're not able to leverage the Object Cloning that would speed up our automation designing. So we have to revert to more image recognition-type of designing, and it just takes a long time to get that bot built."

"The vendor should increase the training and other engagements with users before they acquire the platform, as this will simplify its usage further and ensure that there no hindrances in using the platform."

"Extracting customer addresses from Google that are not in a standard URL format is a challenge for Automation Anywhere."

More Automation Anywhere cons

"I found that the SAP scripting of a program is easier than SAP Contextor."

"One way SAP Intelligent RPA could improve is by integrating built-in DI services for document processing."

"I would like to see a better capacity for unstructured data, for example, PDF, or text within images."

"For potential features or improvements, one aspect I would suggest enhancing is the flexibility of the extraction process."

"There should be more of an error, like a proper error feature, in future releases. Sometimes, we don't understand why that automation is not learning what, like, where it is stuck, or what is the reason like, or what is the criteria we are missing to add. So a proper error message would be helpful."

"The tool's licensing has been kind of a challenge...At the moment, the tool does not offer different licensing models to users."

"SAP Contextor could improve by automating some processes."

"The initial setup is of medium complexity. It is neither too hard nor too simple. You need some background in SAP and an understanding of it."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I believe the price falls within a reasonable range, which significantly influenced our decision regarding the product. This aspect is crucial for any technological solution, especially in our country where enterprises might be hesitant to invest heavily in something untested or uncertain about its practicality and potential returns."

"The cost is a bit high for a small business like ours, but we manage with Fortra's Automate."

"Once you buy the software, you just pay for the support for backend help."

"From a distributor's side, one of the biggest selling points is its price point. Without going into any numbers, compared to UiPath, Automation Anywhere, and Blue Prism, we're significantly cheaper. The main difference is that other competitors usually charge you per process. However, in Automate's case, it's priced per bot. So, a bot can run multiple processes at the same time, but you are only priced for a single bot."

"I like the way this solution is priced because you can buy a license, or you can buy the software outright."

"The pricing is quite reasonable. We can run the process with one bot. The limitation is at the server level because they have some resources, and sometimes that is enough. It isn't too expensive, so you can get a good return off of one, and you can also have a pack of five bots that is quite competitive."

"Compared to other products, the pricing model for this solution is much more convenient, flexible, and adaptable to the Portuguese reality."

"I'm only involved in running the product and maintaining the systems, so I can't speak to the cost."

More Fortra's Automate pricing and cost advice

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

"My understanding is that the license cost of Automation Anywhere is more reasonable than UiPath and Blue Prism."

"We have established a CoE and we take our bot opportunities based on their ROIs. The best ROI opportunity goes to development first. Our ROI opportunities are compliance, profitable growth, productivity enhancements, productivity gains, number of hours the productivity saved, and resources not available that the work can be done by the bot. However, the single most important criteria that we use to measure ROI is how much time does the bot cut down from an analyst's work, as this has the best ROI. E.g., if an analyst is spending a 100 hours of work that a bot can do in one hour, we calculate the 99 hours saved as ROI."

"Price is where I'm least satisfied. Other vendors are more willing to offer discounts."

"In most of the cases, the product value is very good. If the infrastructure, implementation, and framework are good, then generally, the client can get a good return on investment."

"In terms of pricing, this is a good product."

"There is a free trial so that they can get an overview, and there are different licenses that are very affordable and can suit every business model."

"In terms of monetary savings, we automated a bot in three days that has saved us $30,000 in costs."

More Automation Anywhere pricing and cost advice

"The initial cost might seem higher, but over time, with continued use over five or ten years, the cost tends to decrease, making it a more economical choice."

"The pricing is not that expensive. It is manageable."

"It all comes with a bundle right now. Having advanced features, it is competitively priced."

"This is not a tool or software with a license as others are. The SaaS model is based on the usage of the tool."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

14%

Healthcare Company

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Energy/Utilities Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about HelpSystems AutoMate?

We use it for specific cases, mainly secure file transfers, which are vital for us. And it works for us.

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What is your primary use case for HelpSystems AutoMate?

We used the platform primarily for task automation, including transmitting EDR files. Additionally, we've utilized it...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortra Automate?

The starter pack was all we needed and was reasonable. Others were either more expensive or didn't do all that I want...

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How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

It depends on your use case. Is it simply to automate a couple of processes? Is it to augment a human team? AA is ver...

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How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

From my experience using AA tool, it depends on the applications that you want to automate, because there some applic...

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How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

It is a highly preferred RPA tool. You can check my Automation Anywhere Review to know more.

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What do you like most about SAP Contextor?

The standout features of SAP Intelligent RPA are its flexibility and integration capabilities.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Contextor?

The pricing for SAP Intelligent RPA operates on a model that considers power usage and transactions per job. It is ad...

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What needs improvement with SAP Contextor?

The tool's licensing has been kind of a challenge. If the tool can bring up a usage-based licensing model, it would b...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Power Automate vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 50% of the time

UiPath vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 37% of the time

Blue Prism vs Fortra's Automate

Compared 4% of the time

More Fortra's Automate Competitors

Microsoft Power Automate vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 32% of the time

UiPath vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 22% of the time

Blue Prism vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 11% of the time

Tricentis Tosca vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 4% of the time

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 3% of the time

More Automation Anywhere Competitors

UiPath vs SAP Intelligent RPA

Compared 42% of the time

Microsoft Power Automate vs SAP Intelligent RPA

Compared 13% of the time

Blue Prism Cloud vs SAP Intelligent RPA

Compared 10% of the time

SAP Build Process Automation vs SAP Intelligent RPA

Compared 5% of the time

Blue Prism vs SAP Intelligent RPA

Compared 4% of the time

More SAP Intelligent RPA Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortra's Automate

February 2025

Download Fortra's Automate product report

Buyer's Guide

Automation Anywhere

February 2025

Download Automation Anywhere product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP Intelligent RPA

January 2025

Download SAP Intelligent RPA product report

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise

SAP Contextor, Contextor

Overview

Fortra's Automate is predominantly used in HR and operational departments for automating reports, file manipulation, and data processing. Key uses include automating repetitive tasks, integrating PDFs and emails, running scripts, processing large data sets, transforming file formats, synchronizing databases, managing job schedules, and transferring files.

Users commend Fortra's Automate for its ease of implementation and user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, which requires minimal technical skills for efficient bot deployment. The software is appreciated for its effective scheduling tools, reliable integration capabilities, and a wide range of functions such as file interaction, secure file transfers, and extensive automation without the need for coding. Businesses achieve significant time savings and simplified processes, bolstered by continuous updates and robust customer support.

What are the key features?

Scheduling Tools: Enables precise control and timing for automation tasks
Integration Capabilities: Seamlessly connects with various systems and software
File Interaction: Comprehensive functions for file manipulation and transfer
Secure Transfers: Ensures data safety during file transfers
User-Friendly: Minimal technical skills needed for deployment and use

What benefits should you look for in reviews?

Ease of Implementation: Fast and simple setup process
Time Savings: Reduces time spent on repetitive tasks
Process Simplification: Streamlines complex workflows
Customer Support: Access to continuous support and updates

In various industries such as healthcare, transportation, and payroll, Fortra's Automate automates workflows like invoice generation, data retrieval, data uploading, and insurance eligibility checks, enhancing efficiency and accuracy for HR and operational tasks.

Fortra

Automation Anywhere offers a robust automation platform known for its user-friendly interface, flexible scalability, and advanced automation capabilities. It's designed to streamline operations across industries by automating manual and repetitive tasks.

Automation Anywhere empowers organizations with its easy-to-use platform that simplifies automation processes through its drag-and-drop functionality. With features like MetaBot and IQ Bot, it provides advanced automation solutions. The platform seamlessly integrates with business applications, ensuring efficient operation and data protection through security features like the credential vault. Despite its strengths, there is room for improvement in integration with source control systems and third-party applications. Enhancing UI friendliness, IDE capabilities, and licensing flexibility, along with improved support in the Citrix environment, are needed. Better OCR accuracy, AI functionalities, and Excel integration would enhance user experiences.

What are Automation Anywhere's key features?

Ease of Use: Offers a user-friendly platform that allows straightforward automation of processes for non-technical users.
Advanced Bots: Includes MetaBot and IQ Bot for complex automation tasks.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with business applications for smooth operations.
Security: Features like credential vault ensure robust data protection.
Scalability: Provides flexibility and scalability for expanding automation needs.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Efficiency: Automates repetitive tasks, enhancing process efficiency.
Accuracy: Improves accuracy in operations like finance and HR.
Scalability: Offers scalable solutions for growing enterprises.
Cost Reduction: Reduces operational costs by streamlining processes.
Flexibility: Adapts to various industry requirements allowing broad implementation.

In the finance sector, Automation Anywhere is used for tasks like accounts payable, accounts receivable, and invoice processing. In HR, it's implemented for onboarding, payroll, and attendance verification. Its deployment also extends to supply chain, compliance, and customer service, providing streamlined operations by automating complex business processes.

Automation Anywhere

SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation lets you automate enterprise business processes. Design process automations within the Cloud Studio by creating end-to-end workflows. Generate packages from these automations into the Cloud Factory powered by SAP BTP to configure and execute these packages with Agents. Agents running on workstations can work as a digital assistant (attended automation) or as a digital worker (unattended automation).

SAP Intelligent RPA enables business users and technologists to become citizen developers. With powerful yet intuitive low-code and no-code capabilities, the solution supports you in driving automation by tapping into the expertise of citizen developers.

SAP

Sample Customers

Aldergrove Financial Group, Preferred Health Professionals, Mindbeam Technologies, First Credit Union in British Columbia, Vestcom International, Prime Liberty Benefits, University of Tampa, CNLBancshares, World Precision Instruments, BJ's Restaurants, Globe Pequot Press, Accudata Technologies, Norton Healthcare, Pacific Toxicology Laboratories

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics

BNP Paribas, Societe Generale, Kabel Deutschland, Orange, Carrefour

Buyer's Guide

Automation Anywhere vs. SAP Intelligent RPA

January 2025

Free Report: Automation Anywhere vs. SAP Intelligent RPA

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