50 percent of our business involves Digital Integration Automation, specifically in the banking and finance sectors. In this domain, we automate various processes, primarily focusing on banking processes such as lending and loan administration. Our operations primarily revolve around the core banking systems of the banks. Essentially, we maintain complex systems and infrastructure utilizing over 20 automation robots through UiPath.
We deploy on-premises, in the cloud, and also utilize hybrid models.
UiPath is one of the most straightforward tools when it comes to starting and modeling processes. Most of us here are experienced programmers who are also using UiPath. However, I have also noticed that people from our sales department or accounting department are beginning to automate their own processes.
We use UiPath to automate processes in healthcare, where we manage the patient's programming for medical systems and other related tasks. By determining the appropriate waiting time to access the necessary data, we aim to minimize delays and fulfill our social responsibility for a good cause.
In the past two years, our customers have shown a preference for comprehensive digital transformation rather than simply being informed about our RPA activities. This necessitates expanding our scope to achieve a more holistic view and address end-to-end automation. This can be accomplished using UiPath alone, if applicable, or by combining UiPath with another BPMN or local platform's console. An open-source file like Camunda can be utilized for this purpose. We have projects where Camunda effectively controls UiPath robots within a browser-based process, regardless of whether it is a bank or a smaller company. Camunda enables the modeling of complex processes that may span days or weeks, but eventually, RPA automation is required to deliver the desired outcomes. This has been the prevailing trend in the last two years. We are not solely relying on RPA components but also integrating them into a broader system, be it a BPMN or a local no-call system.
We derive great value from UiPath's user community. We are one of three Gold partners in Romania. I always find the information I am seeking within the UiPath user community. The user community offers a comprehensive documentation system, community forums, and other resources, allowing us to obtain what we need.
Now, engaging in automation forces us to standardize our work to a certain extent. Perhaps we should consider documenting our processes and adopting a mindset that prioritizes automation. While this doesn't necessarily mean being overly strict or inflexible, it does compel us to become more organized, and efficient, and encourages critical thinking. We find ourselves questioning why we are performing certain tasks and exploring ways to improve them. UiPath introduces us to concepts like lean management, providing further benefits from this perspective.
The UiPath implementers made significant efforts to educate us on working more in the cloud and fewer on-premises, transitioning from on-premises infrastructure to cloud ecosystems. There are several advantages that we may want to consider when deciding to do this, such as minimizing maintenance costs and scaling in seconds. Just to provide an example, we currently do not have any deployed infrastructure on-premises.
UiPath Academy courses drive us to approach and think in a way that helps increase the feasibility of automation and develop a mindset oriented toward automation. Additionally, they provide education in various technological aspects found in different fields such as business analysis, infrastructure engineering, software development, advanced development, solution architecture, and more. Therefore, apart from the technical knowledge, these courses also cultivate a mindset focused on automation and digital transformation.
We utilize AI functionality in our automation and integrate with Microsoft Cognitive Services for compatibility with Google and AWS installations.
UiPath helps us accelerate digital transformation and decrease the cost associated with it. This is one of the reasons why we are continuing to adopt this solution for our partners. Moreover, when we engage in such endeavors, we often need to demonstrate a valid return on investment or the value added to our services, including the tangible benefits we obtain through the use of this technology. This approach ensures that people are interested in not only witnessing the advantages but also the specific, concrete benefits we derive from utilizing this technology.
UiPath has helped reduce human errors to zero, which can be tracked through the dashboard.
UiPath assists in freeing up employees' time by automating manual tasks.
It has saved our organization costs.
RPA is a valuable feature for interacting with GUI interfaces. We utilize it when there is no available API or alternative automation method, such as the previous automation stage using Java or any other means. In such cases, we rely on the interface we have been using for the past few months. The robotic process automation component proves to be powerful.
The design process and organization are powerful. When we design the workflows, we have what is called a framework that is essentially based on transactions that can be used. In case of failure, the group offers a complex and comprehensive system of logging and UI programming that is useful for debugging and so on. UiPath Studio and Designer are powerful components of UiPath, as well as the entire ecosystem that has evolved from a solution based on the Orchestrator and Studio. This ecosystem now includes the Automation Hub, machine learning, AI, and process mining, as well as tools for task discovery, and so on. It has grown from something smaller to a complete ecosystem.
AI machine learning has room for improvement. We use Google and Microsoft services. In some ways, Microsoft is more straightforward when we need to train a model compared to UiPath. There comes a point when we integrate UiPath with Microsoft Cognitive Services. For instance, we will also pay for these Microsoft Cognitive Services, not only for the UiPath license. It has an additional cost. However, in terms of usability, my impression is that Microsoft Cognitive Services are faster to configure and provide quicker results than UiPath document understanding, for example.
I have been using UiPath for five years.
UiPath is generally stable, although occasional issues may arise during upgrades.
Scaling UiPath is easy. We can scale within minutes or hours, depending on the requirements. We simply need to provision additional machines, obtain the necessary licenses, and we are good to go.
We are also partners with Automation Anywhere, and we utilized Camunda and FlowX AI as well. In our consulting company, my line of business comprises ten percent of the organization's operations, with a specific focus on automation utilizing UiPath.
The initial setup is moderate. We require knowledge specific to each cloud provider, databases, iOS servers, Windows administration, and so on when deploying in the cloud.
UiPath is more affordable than Automation Anywhere and Blue Prism, which is the most expensive.
I rate UiPath an eight out of ten.
We deploy UiPath in multiple locations.
The maintenance level depends on the criticality of the process and the Service Level Agreement for each client. Some clients may require 24/7 maintenance, while others may only need it during their work hours each week.
I recommend familiarizing oneself with UiPath and then moving to an integration partner when ready.