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Supervisor Automation Development at ConocoPhillips
Real User
Helps free up employee time but governance needs improvement
Pros and Cons
  • "The ability to do citizen development is the most valuable feature. That initiative has helped us to expand it because that gives folks that are closer to the business the ability to develop their own solutions that are tailored to what they need to do, as opposed to waiting for someone in IT to contact them to build it out. Or to wait for a business analyst to provide some type of value metric, but they can actually go and build it themselves."
  • "Governance has room for improvement but that's more of a cultural thing. It depends on your company. We have the reference architecture that we have in place, but it's easy for someone to say, "Okay, I need to make an adjustment here outside of that reference architecture." Because it's so easy for them to do that, they leave the company now that a non-compliant bot is out there running a production process, we need to be able to rank that in. There needs to be footwork that we have to do as an organization for my team as opposed to a true problem with the platform."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use cases are in our financial department. We had a bit of a downturn, but we still had work that needed to be completed. So we developed several automations to manage a lot of the financial work and a lot of our payment processing systems. We expanded that out to include more of our traders' work processes, just because we saw there were a lot of workloads coming in and a lot of repetitive work. So we used UiPath to eliminate a lot of that for our commercial traders, then we did the same thing for our operations and production teams so that they have their own automated processes.

We plan on scaling it and using it in more functions.

How has it helped my organization?

Our biggest metrics are in our financial org, they have more of a cost avoidance where we don't have to backfill those positions. It's around $2 million a year because we don't have to bring in personnel to complete the processes.

It has helped solve certain human errors but that's an unintended bonus because we're automating a process as it is that a machine is going to repeat. We don't really have a person to do it.

UiPath has helped to free up employee time. The additional time enabled us to focus on higher-value work. By removing a lot of the repetitive work, it's given them the ability to do more analytics and to dive into the data science realms of their job to do more data-driven analysis of what they're doing.

What is most valuable?

The ability to do citizen development is the most valuable feature. That initiative has helped us to expand it because that gives folks that are closer to the business the ability to develop their own solutions that are tailored to what they need to do, as opposed to waiting for someone in IT to contact them to build it out. Or to wait for a business analyst to provide some type of value metric, but they can actually go and build it themselves.

My job is to actually be the evangelist to these groups. I'd say we've been pretty successful. My developers are working with the citizen developers who help to guide them and to teach them how to build their own automations for their business process.

It's pretty easy to build automation. The no-code process has really driven the adoption by the business people so that they don't have to skill up and learn how to code anything. They only need to know how to click a button and build it out. That's the best component.

We used the UiPath Academy course. It's our training regimen for our business users. We have to introduce them first to the platform and understand how to work through the platform. It's a pretty straightforward and easy course. With our citizen development program, we also have the Academy where they can either do hands-on learning or use the Academy to get some video training as well.

The biggest value of the Academy is the ease of being able to access the training. 

What needs improvement?

Governance has room for improvement but that's more of a cultural thing. It depends on your company. We have the reference architecture that we have in place, but it's easy for someone to say, "Okay, I need to make an adjustment here outside of that reference architecture." Because it's so easy for them to do that, they leave the company now that a non-compliant bot is out there running a production process, we need to be able to rank that in. There needs to be footwork that we have to do as an organization for my team as opposed to a true problem with the platform.

Buyer's Guide
UiPath
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about UiPath. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
816,562 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using UiPath for around five years now. It's the on-prem version, but we have it deployed in the cloud in our Azure tenant. We started on-prem then we migrated it about three years ago.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's pretty stable. It's more of the architecture and how it runs because it has to leverage VDIs and as Microsoft releases an update, we have to be watching that process because it'll make the box really brittle. Any change to the UI anywhere will break and that's where we have to step in and fix it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Every corner of the business except for folks out in the field uses UiPath. It's around 200 people or so.

How are customer service and support?

We've had a little bit of back and forth whenever we have an issue and some of the solutions we got back were pretty boilerplate-type answers. We had an issue with a Microsoft update. They said, "Well, could you potentially reach out to Microsoft and have them let you know." 

They're just going to release the update. We need to be a little bit more proactive on the software side. Our account executive took care of it for us. He stepped in and enabled us to not have that response again. 

How was the initial setup?

I wasn't there for the initial setup but I heard about it. It was complex, but that was more of a cultural thing.

The deployment took around a year to get that through planning, discovery, and implementation.

What was our ROI?

Our biggest return is our cost avoidance and not having to backfill personnel.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I think the pricing is comparable. It's fair pricing for the size that we're deploying.

What other advice do I have?

My advice would be to make sure that you have a really good understanding and a really good culture in your company that understands and wants to get on board with automation because it will require that type of mindset of understanding what you're doing before you do it.

I would rate it a seven out of ten. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Sr. Analyst at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Automation monitoring feature notifies us of any problems, reducing the amount of maintenance work involved
Pros and Cons
  • "The speed is much better because we're doing it on the cloud. With other solutions there were network problems, but in UiPath I have found that network connectivity is much stronger when transferring data from the back end to the front end. It is much faster."
  • "They should include new machine learning and AI algorithms for better forecasting and analytics."

What is our primary use case?

We use it with ServiceNow for maintaining tickets. Our task works to automate some scenarios such as software updates. In that scenario, there are some repeated steps. We use UiPath with Python scripting to automate those repetitive steps.

How has it helped my organization?

One of our use cases is for our insurance team where we have built a prototype which has helped the insurance team cut pricing. That is one of the automations that has made a difference.

Also, the fact that this is a SaaS solution means we are able to innovate much faster when it comes to automation. We have been able to complete use cases in as little as one month. There can be problems with the on-premises version because there are certain restrictions for accessing that database. But because this is on the cloud, we can access the data from anywhere in the world. That is very beneficial.

UiPath has also helped to reduce the amount of maintenance work related to our automation operations. It has a feature to keep the different automatic tasks monitored. That monitoring helps us if there's any problem in an automation. We get notification that there is a problem. If we don't know about those problems then, after some time, maintenance on them will be harder. It does help us to maintain things.

Before, we were using the on-premises service for our automation activity. By using UiPath Automation Cloud, we don't need to go anywhere. There is a single tool where we can keep track of the maintenance. Doing so with the on-prem solution was much more time consuming and slow. With UiPath it's so much faster so it helps us cut costs.

And in terms of overall cost savings, before we implemented one of our automations there were around 100 people taking care of the task. Using UiPath, we have automated that task and we have saved the fees of 100 people.

What is most valuable?

The speed is much better because we're doing it on the cloud. With other solutions there were network problems, but in UiPath I have found that network connectivity is much stronger when transferring data from the back end to the front end. It is much faster.

The Portal for enabling business users to trigger jobs with business input and for monitoring those jobs is great.

There is also the granular, role-based access control and management which is very important in our organization because we have different roles. Our manager has a much higher role, so that if there are some changes in an automated step, there are permissions from that higher authority. Otherwise, low-level employees could make changes without informing the higher levels and there could be a lot of conflicts. This way, we don't allow the lower-level employee to make any changes without proper permission from the higher authority.

The solution's single sign-on is also important because without it, a user ID and password could be compromised by a third-party or hacker. Single sign-on gives us another level of security when logging in to UiPath. It's very important and a good security feature.

UiPath also continues to add services to the Portal. There are proper updates that come out monthly or quarterly. They update different features or any problems with features, so the updates are very useful for us. It's very important that all the services are managed from the same place because no matter where a team is, if there is a glitch and we raise a question with customer support, and they do some fixing, that fix is available for all the users who are using UiPath. It comes from the centralized location, which is a very good thing. It is available for all our users around the world.

What needs improvement?

They should include new machine learning and AI algorithms for better forecasting and analytics.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using UiPath Automation Cloud for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable. In most software, we find that when we increase the data size, there is some kind of decrease in network connectivity, a delay or lag. But UiPath is very stable because they release updates very frequently.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We use it for day-to-day purposes. The tools are working on different jobs, daily. We have plans to automate more scenarios and we are working on a PoC for them. If they go well they will be implemented in UiPath as well.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their support is very proactive. When we reach out to them, they fix our problem within a day. We can also use the Portal to have a chat about any issues that come up. Customer support is good and the community support is also great.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

The fact that we don't have to worry about future installations and upgrades of Orchestrator, was important in our decision to go with UiPath, because those things are already built in. We don't need to worry about the infrastructure part. It is maintained by the UiPath team. They also have better community support to help us if we face any problems. That is one of the great things about UiPath.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was very easy. The vendor was very active and the community is very active so there was no delay in communication. It was very straightforward.

We started UiPath as a desktop application and then we slowly moved to the cloud.

And in terms of the setup costs of our automation operations, UiPath doesn't have a lot of dependencies, so it is quick. We don't need to contact another party to maintain things because the UiPath community helps us with every aspect. It works. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing is good compared to other software. Based on the features that UiPath is providing, and the community support, the price is reasonable.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have used different tools like Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere. When comparing all three, when it comes to cost, UiPath is great. It is also easy to use. Anyone can learn to use it within a couple of weeks. It is very useful and user-friendly.

The user interface and the usability of the other solutions is not as user-friendly. We also found some glitches in those solutions, things like network delays.

What other advice do I have?

We haven't found any problems with UiPath. It is working great. It's a great tool. I would suggest that everyone go with a UiPath because it has helped us a lot.

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.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
UiPath
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about UiPath. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
816,562 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Lead Consultant at Konexo
Consultant
Enables us to shift activity nobody enjoys onto a robot and lets staff focus on the stuff they've been trained to do
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable aspect of UiPath is the fact that it's a low-code platform. Being able to use a low-code platform really lowers the barrier entry of introducing automation. Normally, you fill in a request to go to IT to get a development resource allocated, and then you spend six months trying to do a project. Because UiPath is a bit of a platform, you can quickly, within weeks, start to knock off automation and get it checked and then successfully deployed. The low-code development environment is key for us."
  • "As things become more and more data-heavy and accessing other people's products and managing things, like obtaining the data through APIs, it feels like there could be a lot more for them to do, to make interacting with data or manipulating simple things like text strings. You need quite a strong development background or a reasonable level of understanding to achieve that. I think that could be made a little bit more achievable."

What is our primary use case?

Originally, we were using UiPath to draft documents and send emails on mass to where we had large communication exercises. We used a robot instead of a small army of paralegals to generate the documentation and draft up the emails where we had to communicate with 2,000 to 3,000 people. It was a little bit more involved than just doing a standard mail merge, but we were able to use UiPath to create a number of documents and email it to an individual customer, all through a central email address.

Fast forward to where we are now, we have a few of these things focusing in on what we call post-completion activity, like the things you do after you sign a contract. So, it may be you're uploading it to the client's contract management system, applying stamps, or registering the contracts in an official register. The robot is able to do that for us post-completion. Those are our primary use cases at the moment. We're looking at more data integrity type stuff, like comparing our internal data sources against public record.

How has it helped my organization?

The ability to displace some activity that was traditionally on our paralegal team has improved my organization. We're an outsourced managed legal services provider. We're primarily a people-based business and UiPath displaces some activity off those paralegals and brings in automation. For me, it becomes an additional type of resource. The long and short of it is that we are able to move work that was traditionally done by people and would be charged at a rate, off to automation where we can bring the costs down. It enables us to reduce our running costs of our clients. A single bot running post-completion has saved as two FTEs.

UiPath has helped to speed up case resolutions in a couple of ways. It's focused on doing particular jobs, so it achieves the job faster. People don't need to complete an entire task end to end. They can stop at a certain point and the robot takes over. That allows a person to get through more work. Also, the fact that the robots are able to do this stuff overnight 24/7, means that we have more capacity to do stuff.

It gives us the ability to respond to clients. It gives us an option in how we're going to automate work for clients. It's hard to say if it has reduced the cost of our digital transformation because we deal with all the people. I suspect it hasn't done it internally, but suspect that has made some things cheaper for our clients. It enables us to deliver digital services cheaper for our clients. 

UiPath had an effect on our legal staff. It takes work that people don't want to do at the moment, having to download the document, take some details off the top and the bottom of the document, apply a stamp, and then re-upload, it's not what our paralegals and new trainees want to be doing on a day-to-day basis. So we are able to shift activity nobody enjoys onto a robot and let them focus on the stuff they've been trained to do.

In terms of how much it has reduced the processing times, the task itself still takes as long but we've got a robot doing it instead of a human. I don't think that the impact isn't that dramatic on-site processing times. At the moment, humans are only involved in 80% of the transaction and 20% has been held by robots.

These automations have decreased errors but it's hard to quantify by how much. They've inserted 20,000 transactions a year. I have no doubt that the error rates improved. It's just a hard thing to quantify.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable aspect of UiPath is the fact that it's a low-code platform. Being able to use a low-code platform really lowers the barrier entry of introducing automation. Normally, you fill in a request to go to IT to get a development resource allocated, and then you spend six months trying to do a project. Because UiPath is a bit of a platform, you can quickly, within weeks, start to knock off automation and get it checked and then successfully deployed. The low-code development environment is key for us.

Now that we're scaling up and taking advantage of Cloud stuff, it's become a lot easier to use. When we started our journey, we just bought a couple of bots and had them sit around on machines. It was a bit chaotic and we thought that if we take advantage of their wider platform, the orchestrator environment, it would make life a lot easier because we have all the monitoring and management. We have access to that in one platform rather than having to watch the individual robots, which is where we started.

We're going to use the solution's AI-enhanced document understanding feature. It's something we're looking at to help us with invoices and incoming bills that come in. It's on the backlog. We haven't got to it yet.

UiPath enables me to free up capacity for people to work on new work because they are involved, they're less accessible. At the moment, the majority of our staff is focused towards the end time making sure that things are filed correctly. It's more about focusing resources rather than being more responsive.

What needs improvement?

As things become more and more data-heavy and accessing other people's products and managing things, like obtaining the data through APIs, it feels like there could be a lot more for them to do, to make interacting with data or manipulating simple things like text strings. You need quite a strong development background or a reasonable level of understanding to achieve that. I think that could be made a little bit more achievable.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three years ago we started using UiPath relatively small and we are looking to scale up significantly this year. Originally we started on-prem and as we're scaling up, we're going to move towards the cloud instance.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

So far the stability has been good. With all of the low code platforms, it's actually more of a problem of what we've developed and deployed. It's how well we make our own software so that the platform will provide. It seems to stand up very, very well. I have not really had an issue. Anytime we have encountered a bug or whatnot, it's something we've introduced to ourselves, but thankfully there's a strong community where we can post questions and queries to get a response within a couple of hours.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I don't see scalability as being too much of a challenge. If we need more capacity on the robots, we're able to buy more licenses and additional VMs on the machine. If we need to expand or scale, it's just about deploying more machines. I don't feel it's that complicated. I suspect there are some constraints on how you build your applications, but that's more of an internal decision rather than UiPath's.

There are three people who are responsible for how to put a source of business analysis as well as development. Their role is to work with SMEs or people within our business units to understand a customer's process, get them deployed, and work with them to do it. The stuff we've taken on tends to be the easier, quick wins. We have three internal developers who were able to break down processes. We're a large organization. We have a large IT function that helped us with virtual machines and data centers, etc. We're not directly involved with them.

It's very easy to build an automation and just let it run. One of the key lessons we learned is the fact that you have to keep an eye on these things and that things change in the environment. Passwords run out and expire, folders may move as people move things around the network and a robot is just as susceptible to everything else that our user is. In terms of when you're designing any solutions, you have to pay a little extra attention to things that may cause you problems in six months' time. The simple fact that a password that you were using has been reset or is expired or something else, could cause the robot to failover. While the robot can tell you it's got a problem, you still have maintenance effort to keep an eye on. There is a maintenance commitment that you need for everything that is put on it. You need to spend a bit of extra time detailing exactly how you are going to respond to those things. Just because it's easy to deploy stuff, it doesn't do away with the fact that you have to keep an eye on it.

There are three analysts who are respondents to book fixes, etc. We have people in the business who we work with to automate these processes. They take a level of responsibility and keeping an eye on anything we try to automate. They're the first line of support. If anything's going wrong or something they can keep an eye on it and then if it is a technical book fix or something that needs to be resolved, that's then escalated to one of those three developers.

How are customer service and technical support?

I only had one issue which was to do with the proxy setting when deploying some of the software. I raised the ticket on the website, got a response within half a day and it explained what I needed to do to fix it. That's my only experience of having to deal with them. I raised a ticket, I got the answer, and it worked. My experience so far has been fairly good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We decided to use UiPath three years ago when RPA was starting to become a bit of a buzzword. We took a look at it and realized that it would be a very, very good solution for the right project by allowing us to automate mass activity all at once. One of those projects came around and we had to communicate it to a large audience. The process once agreed upon and nailed down could be very heavily scripted. We looked at a way that we would communicate it to the 30,000 people, all with documents that are pretty much the same but with a slight variation. We knew we wanted to try an RPA solution. UiPath was a very strong contender in those days and it was easy to access. That's why we ended up with it. We're able to achieve something with a single bot. All of those things make the software easy to test out. And then from there, you're able to make a decision.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was really straightforward. In such a large law firm that has high data security obligations, we set these things up, appoint the orchestrator, and it just works. I have not encountered too many problems. 

It doesn't feel like a heavyweight ERP system or some larger workflow tool. These things are deployed onto a desktop and they speak to a server. It's not heavy. It doesn't feel like a piece of software with a heavy footprint.

The deployment took a week. It took us longer to end-to-end to get the invoice approved.

We've taken advantage of the architecture. Our IT team set some ground rules about where the virtual machines need to be hosted and deployed, but it's not that heavyweight. We increase some standards with IT and then install the software on those machines. We're using the Cloud version so there's not a lot to worry about.

What about the implementation team?

We were able to do the deployment internally. 

What was our ROI?

Some of our ROI is quite dramatic. We have to email lots of stuff out to different people and our projector will require this to have a team of six or seven staff working solidly for a couple of weeks. The robot was able to get it done after a couple of weeks of configuration. This thing was able to pay for itself in a matter of hours once it was done. One of our post-completion robots took a week or two to develop and get stable enough to deploy. It's able to offset seven or eight hours a day. If we target the use cases correctly, we are able to get a return on the automation we deploy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Take advantage of the Cloud-based implementation. You'll have to handle the Orchestrator licensing costs. It's obviously different for every organization. It's beneficial to get away from the on-premise installation. Also make sure that your business case justifies whatever the license cost is for an unattended or attended bot. 

Show your business case and that the automation will help you to exceed the license cost. You want to look at things that are going to give you a return on investment in about six months' time. Take advantage of the Cloud-hosted version so as not to pay the cost for Orchestrator. Then for your bots, make sure you will see a six months ROI in terms of how much automation you've gotten and how much you can get the robot to get done.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We also looked at BluePrism and Automation Anywhere. We took a quick look over the top three solutions at the time. UiPath seemed to be one of the leaders in the area.

We partnered with an organization to help us deliver it. We got some consultants in and sorted out what they were comfortable with using and what they recommended. For us, it was the size of the platform. We were looking at Automation Anywhere or BluePrism. It just felt like it would be a bigger project to implement when in reality all we wanted was one robot to do one job for us at the start of the project. It was more about the barriers of entry to getting started.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate UiPath an eight out of ten. It feels like nothing deserves a 10, and I highly recommend every organization has a handle on RPA. There are still a huge amount of features we're still yet to explore.

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.
PeerSpot user
Tax Systems Manager at QuikTrip
Real User
Anything you can do on a computer with enough effort, you can get the robot to do it
Pros and Cons
  • "UiPath Academy RPA training is well put together. It paces well, not too fast nor too slow. You are constantly given new things to experiment with and things to learn which keep you interested, engaged, and moving forward."
  • "I have interacted with the community a whole lot, and if the amount of responses that they give in the community is any indication about how fast they would be with the enterprise technical support, then I can only imagine that it would be top-notch."
  • "The robots work where you can scale additional servers. They just need a place to work and a process to perform, then you can add-on. Ten bots can easily turn into a hundred bots, then those can turn into a thousand bots. From a scalability aspect, it's great."
  • "Anything you can do on a computer with enough effort, you can get the robot to do it."
  • "We should receive a list every time transactions are performed, and it would be nice if we wouldn't have to format it every time the robot sent us a spreadsheet."
  • "It's a complex environment with all its moving pieces."

What is our primary use case?

We are automating back office business processes focusing on business finance and tax, specifically. We are just recently starting our implementation, but we have been doing a proof of concept for the last year or so on the community edition. We recently signed the license agreement will be moving forward with implementing it full-time.

I am functioning as a lead developer. 

How has it helped my organization?

We just started the implementation. 

I foresee as we automated mundane tasks, it will free up time for the existing workforce that we already have to do more tasks where they can use their brain to make decisions. Then, they can think things through and work on the more complex processes that we currently can't automate.

What is most valuable?

  • Its flexibility
  • Anything you can do on a computer with enough effort, you can get the robot to do it.
  • It is ease to use and user-friendly.
  • The Academy training is well put together.

What needs improvement?

Once we've taken the data that the robot has done something with, we want to send it over to a human a lot of times. However, they need it formatted in a fashion that makes it a little more readable. It would be nice to have some activities without the developer having to do a lot of effort to make the spreadsheet look prettier. 

Instead, we should receive a list every time transactions are performed, and it would be nice if we wouldn't have to format it every time the robot sent us a spreadsheet.

For how long have I used the solution?

Still implementing.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This one area is lacking, but I attribute this to the constantly evolving platform. However, while there is some stability issues, they are quick to respond to them with updates. They are also very receptive to listening to feedback from the community, which is great.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The robots work where you can scale additional servers. They just need a place to work and process to perform, then you can add-on. 10 bots can easily turn into a 100 bots, then those can turn into a 1000 bots. From a scalability aspect, it's great.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have not yet used customer or technical support.

I have interacted with the community a whole lot, and if the amount of responses that they give in the community is any indication about how fast they would be with the enterprise technical support, then I can only imagine that it would be top-notch.

UiPath Academy RPA training is well put together. It paces well, not too fast nor too slow. You are constantly given new things to experiment with and things to learn which keep you interested, engaged, and moving forward.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Our Director of Tax heard from word of mouth about RPA and decided with tax being what it is, we have a lot of areas of mundane, monotonous, repetitive tasks, return filings, etc.

How was the initial setup?

It's a complex environment with all its moving pieces. However, it is well-documented, everything is, and as long as you're willing to spend a bit of time reviewing the documentation, it's not so complex that you can't figure it out. It's clearly there documented, and it tells you what to do, you have to take the time to read through it.

What about the implementation team?

My supervisor and I were the implementation team. We were heavily involved with figuring out Orchestrator, how to connect the robots, how to build the process, then put all those pieces together. Eventually, we figured it out.

With the current implementation, we are a skeleton crew. My group consists of four people, who are in the financial systems group within the business, not in IT.  I hope that that will grow as the implementation grows, if for no other reason than the more bodies that we can throw at it within reason, the more benefit we can get out of it. To maximize gains, we are going to need to be more than four people, sooner rather than later. However, I am not the decision-maker, so I can only cross my fingers and hope. Right now, we have a laundry list of things that could be automated. We have to prioritize those, then figure out where the bodies are who can do the automating

What was our ROI?

One of the processes that we first implemented was simply monitoring an e-mail mailbox and pulling out the invoices from there that needed to be manipulated. The robot is not actually doing anything with the invoices yet, as much as just pulling them out and handing them off to the human. Because previously, there was a group of people who were spending quite a lot of time just looking through that mailbox trying to make sure that they caught everything and items still get missed and overlooked. 

I've been told that quite a large amount of savings has happened in the discounts from paying those invoices on time, because someone didn't just overlook something and forget to send it on. As long as it meets the criteria, the robot always catches it. So, that's great. We've definitely seen a return already, and we're just scratching the surface.

I don't see any end in sight for opportunities to leverage it, increasing our efficiency and revenues. It may not necessarily reduce headcounts, but it should cap growing headcounts. Because, as our markets expand, we traditionally increase headcounts in the back office, but we are trying to move away from that.

I would rate the performance benefits as a nine out of ten. The robots can move faster than you can keep track of what you are doing. It's astronomical the levels of magnitude the increase in efficiency that you can get. We have had humans who were taking, according to best estimates, eight hours to accomplish something that the robot can do in minutes.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

They give it away in the community edition for free, so I use it at home.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I've only dabbled with the other products, but the UiPath software is easier to dive into and start working with.

We looked a bit at Automation Anywhere. I tried a trial of it. 

We looked into Blue Prism, but I've not interacted with it firsthand.

I have the most experience with UiPath. 

We did do our due diligence in investigating, if not firsthand, by at least reading about what the other offerings were from Pega to some of the other competitors.

What helped us make the decision to choose UiPath was how available the community edition is and how engaged the actual community is. I don't know for certain that some of the competitors don't have something similar, but I was blown away because they got us hooked on it. They gave it to us for free, then we used it, tried it, and fell in love with it seeing what it could do.

As long as upper management says it's okay, we're going to keep buying more of it and utilizing it until something else comes along that replaces what it can do, which I don't see happening anytime soon.

What other advice do I have?

Try it out for yourself. Just go and download the community edition, install it on a computer, and within a few minutes you can have simple automation up and running using the recording tools, etc. Anyone really can do something just to see what it's capable of and see what RPA is. Try it out for yourself.

It has exceeded my expectations. Early on, I didn't have high of hopes for anything I could do which is rule based and have the robot to do it. Yet, I keep trying to come up with anything can't be done with a little bit of effort or through some other activities, especially with the availability of the community, which can leverage someone else smarter than me, who has figured out how to get it done.

UiPath can do pretty much everything another tool can do plus a whole bunch of extra things.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Technical Product Manager I at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Real User
Top 20
Enables our employees to focus more on servicing our members rather than being bogged down by mundane tasks
Pros and Cons
  • "I primarily work with task capture, which has been valuable. We have created a template for ourselves and reused it for all these processes. Other departments also use it for their procedures, even if the process is not automated."
  • "We struggle to demo our processes. For whatever reason, we can't get the bot to run so that someone can watch it simultaneously. We press the button, and it shows that it's done rather than showing how the bot works."

What is our primary use case?

We're a financial institution, and we started using UiPath for small, simple processes and day-to-day tasks, such as adding and removing users and updating information, but we're also exploring opportunities to automate lending processes.

We typically evaluate a process first to see if it's appropriate for automation. Sometimes, we've identified bad processes and needed to update documentation before we can implement them.

How has it helped my organization?

UiPath has allowed our employees to focus more on servicing our members rather than being bogged down by mundane tasks. In the last year, we have saved about 6,500 hours for our users, equating to the time of two full-time employees.

With UiPath, we've saved costs, increased productivity, and reduced stress on our employees. It has saved our employees time. They're thinking more about their processes instead of just doing what they're told. It places more onus on employee creativity.

What is most valuable?

I primarily work with task capture, which has been valuable. We have created a template for ourselves and reused it for all these processes. Other departments also use it for their procedures, even if the process is not automated.

What needs improvement?

We struggle to demo our processes. For whatever reason, we can't get the bot to run so that someone can watch it simultaneously. We press the button, and it shows that it's done rather than showing how the bot works. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We started using UiPath with a partner two years ago and transitioned to handling everything in-house last year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of UiPath is good. We do not encounter issues with logging in or frequent service failures.

How are customer service and support?

I rate UiPath support nine out of 10. Their customer service is good. They are always willing to help us and address our concerns. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

What about the implementation team?

We initially used a UiPath partner but have since moved operations in-house. Our in-house experience has been better.

What was our ROI?

We have seen a return on investment. The 6,500 hundred hours we saved using UiPath translates to a savings of about $56,000 per year.

What other advice do I have?

I rate UiPath 10 out of 10.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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PeerSpot user
Shivendra Pratap - PeerSpot reviewer
RPA Developer at Signity Software Solutions
Real User
If you implement the correct logic and exception handling in your code, it seldom makes mistakes
Pros and Cons
  • "I like the Orchestrator and the AI Center. The AI Center has many pre-trained trained models you can adapt to your requirements."
  • "UiPath's processing speed is a little slow. That's its only drawback compared to other tools."

What is our primary use case?

My company delivers projects to clients based on their requirements. We use the tool for web and UI automation.

How has it helped my organization?

UiPath reduces human error. If you implement the correct logic and exception handling in your code, it's seldom wrong. The solution saves time compared to other tools, especially when you are trying to automate something that's complicated. It simplifies complex processes and makes my work easier. 

What is most valuable?

I like the Orchestrator and the AI Center. The AI Center has many pre-trained models you can adapt to your requirements. You can train your AI or upload your own model as well. You can use the AI to extract the information from structured or unstructured documents.

UiPath is easy to use and implement. The tool has so many capabilities that we can use without using any code. Everything is there, and it's a low-code solution. We only need to drag and drop the elements and apply the logic.

The UiPath community is helpful. Most of the questions have already been answered on the forum, and you can easily solve your issues there. I've done the UiPath Academy courses. I took the fundamental course and the advanced developer course. I also received an associate developer certification. You can develop a complete understanding of the tool and its capabilities using the Academy. 

What needs improvement?

UiPath's processing speed is a little slow. That's its only drawback compared to other tools. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used UiPath for about two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

UiPath is highly stable. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used Microsoft Power Automate and OpenRPA. I believe UiPath is the best because of its capabilities, but I also think Power Automate is nice. Power Automate has robust integration with Microsoft platforms. That's one thing I like about it. 

How was the initial setup?

I found the initial deployment to be difficult, but it became easier once I gained some experience. UiPath doesn't require any maintenance unless there are changes on the website that cause the bot to not work properly. You can find the issue in the error log. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

UiPath is a costly solution. Many of the clients choose another solution after hearing the price. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate UiPath ten out of ten. UiPath is the best tool on the market, but the licensing cost is high and many clients don't have the budget. They prefer other tools like Power Automate, OpenRPA, and Automation Anywhere and all that. Otherwise, it's a great product with more capabilities than the other tools.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
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.
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Saket Pandey - PeerSpot reviewer
Product Manager at a hospitality company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
AI has given us accurate results from some complex automation scenarios
Pros and Cons
  • "The automation-creation process is quite easy and the accuracy is quite good. That last aspect is critically important... and we have been getting that so far."
  • "The only concern is it's a bit tough to understand the first time, and you have to invest in the technical improvement of your team in general."

What is our primary use case?

We are using this product to develop automation in the billing section of our website. We are integrating bots so that they can do the basic listing and then our salesperson can take it from there.

How has it helped my organization?

The biggest improvement has been in cost. We have been operating it for about eight months for about $8,000. Earlier, it was taking us somewhere around $30,000 to $40,000, so that is a big improvement.

The other part has been accuracy. Before, when we had employees for the same process, there were some minor errors, as well as some time issues. But with this system, I believe the accuracy has been at par, although there are several times when we have had to reframe or do some minor modifications in the AI to make the model work for a new set or variety of clients.

The reduction in human error means we get more leads into the hands of the right salespeople who can work on them. Fewer errors means time savings.

With time, the AI automation has improved. Specifically talking about the kind of business that we do, which is putting things into the right sections so that the right people are taking the right leads, even in some complex cases, we have seen accurate results from automation. AI is doing its job.

AI has also enabled us to automate more processes. Earlier, we had different sets of protocols for differentiating among the different kinds of inbound information we were receiving. Since deploying this automation, we have automated a large chunk of the reception. The accuracy has been maintained and the time has been reduced significantly. We are able to convert the leads in a way that gives us more to work with from the leads we get.

What is most valuable?

The automation-creation process is quite easy and the accuracy is quite good. That last aspect is critically important because we have used RPA to replace one of our employees and we are taking on a lot of responsibility. The most important thing that we require is accuracy and we have been getting that so far.

The end-to-end coverage is important because each and every part of the input we are receiving from our customers—and they're highly valued customers—is information that goes into our software via automation, and we do not want to miss out on any types of leads.

The UiPath Academy courses have been great at giving an overview of the solution and allowing employees to learn things at their own pace. Other users out there also helped our technical staff, so they have added value. The biggest benefit was that at the time our technical staff was getting used to the product, they felt that there was a scarcity of people who knew about how to execute things. Having this UiPath course was a little helpful because it gave them the initial confidence they needed to start doing things, whether it was right or wrong, and they kept getting feedback and improving.

What needs improvement?

The only concern is it's a bit tough to understand the first time, and you have to invest in the technical improvement of your team in general.

For how long have I used the solution?

About 6 Months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There's no need to worry about the stability.

The only concern is as we move towards scaling it. What happens if the system goes off? Although it's not a big concern, we have been getting reassurance from UiPath that they have a solid backup of everything.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

With RPA, scaling is not an issue at all. Once a bot has been trained to do a specific thing using ML, multiple bots can be added for the same automation process, as many times as we want. Scaling is not a concern.

How are customer service and support?

We have not used technical support.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

In terms of our decision to go ahead with this product, although we had received a recommendation that we should be moving forward with it, we were severely concerned about whether doing things over and over would take us the same amount of time, in terms of the technical ability and the workforce, or whether it would be easier. After having a technical call with UiPath, we quickly knew that it would be easier. That was a crucial part of our decision.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was easy, but making the AI understand, and using the machine learning algorithms in it, took a long time. It took more than we expected it would take. The UiPath team had us understand that it would be functional after one or two months, but it eventually ended up taking about four months. That was more time than we expected, but the initial setup was easy and straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We used a consulting firm. There were three meetings over the duration of the two-month contract. The advices we received we about our model selection with regards to pricing and data storage capability.

What was our ROI?

We have been using it for eight months. For the first four months, I do not believe we were saving time because we had to intervene a lot of times with help from the vendor as well. But from that moment onwards, once the integration was operating smoothly, we started saving time.

We do a regular analysis each month and we have been seeing constant growth. A month is a good amount of time to see the progress of a newly implemented solution.

Previously, we were not using automation operations. I believe we have now reduced costs significantly, which justifies the cost we are paying for the service.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing is good if your venture is looking for growth in 1-10 million size of customer domain.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

yeah we got in touch with the IBM team for their automation tool.

What other advice do I have?

Building automation takes some time. The first time, it took us a month, but after that, it was easier. The next time we build an automation, it's a kind of reciprocal of what we did the previous time. The first time involved some help from other resources, but from that time and onwards it has been going well.

The innovation did not happen as fast as we thought it would for the first half. We had to recruit some IT guys to our technical team so that our entire team could become familiar with the process. The innovation potential is there. It helps to get very familiarized with the solution. But for the first few months, the innovation part was delayed. The technical level required to handle it smoothly was not there on our team.

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?

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.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Solution architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 20
Efficient and scalable robotic process automation with user-friendly interface, extensive set of pre-built activities and vibrant community support
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable aspect is its simplicity in coding."
  • "It would be beneficial if the system could proactively generate alerts, notifying the client about any delays in the process execution."

What is our primary use case?

Our company is considering UiPath and Automation Anywhere for automating a mainframe application. I have explored UiPath, evaluated its capabilities, and completed a use case.

How has it helped my organization?

Building automation with UiPath is exceptionally straightforward. However, clients need to exercise caution by ensuring that the automation doesn't require intricate human logic. If they seek simple automation without incorporating human elements, UiPath facilitates an easy and automatic implementation, excluding the need for advanced AI features.

We leverage UiPath to automate processes aligned with the good cause our company supports. This includes tasks related to warehouse management and maintaining a clean architecture. For instance, activities like clearing out mailboxes, collecting bills, and optimizing server data storage contribute to reducing running costs for the machines involved.

We employ UiPath for comprehensive end-to-end automation in the client's operations. They have successfully automated around two hundred use cases, forming a critical backbone for their extensive operations. The dependency on automation results is notably high, especially in areas like warehouse management, where the efficiency gains are substantial. Enabling automation to handle these tasks daily liberates the workforce from repetitive manual efforts, allowing them to redirect their focus to other crucial aspects of their operations. This strategic use of automation enhances productivity and expedites the completion of automated tasks.

We have a robust user community within UiPath, and I have actively participated in it. Although I wasn't as engaged this year due to a significant impact on the client caused by a cyber attack on their network, the community support has been exceptional. Despite my increased workload in addressing the aftermath of the incident, the UiPath user community has proven to be like a supportive family. Whenever I've raised queries or sought assistance, the responses have been prompt and helpful.

The advantages of using UiPath are evident in the efficiency gains achieved by minimizing human efforts. For instance, when uploading a report to SAP or executing a job in Insight SAP, these processes can often take several hours. Without automation, users may be tied up in monitoring these tasks, risking potential human errors due to prolonged attention. However, implementing UiPath effectively liberates users from this prolonged monitoring. Automation ensures that tasks run seamlessly according to protocol, allowing users to easily obtain results and simultaneously engage in other important activities. The goal is not to overcomplicate processes but rather to streamline and optimize them for enhanced productivity throughout the day.

UiPath has played a crucial role in reducing our on-premises footprint and enhancing the solution's capacity. The company we're currently assisting primarily focuses on order management, dealing with a significant influx of orders. By leveraging UiPath, we've effectively streamlined the order management process, optimizing the solution's capacity to handle a large volume of orders.

Our team actively engages with the academy courses provided by UiPath. As UiPath continuously expands and introduces new features, the courses serve as an invaluable resource. We find that the admin courses are particularly beneficial for us. When we come across new elements or features, we go through the courses to understand them thoroughly. This allows us to assess their compatibility with our solutions and implement them at our own pace. Additionally, if there are issues with older automation, the admin courses assist us in applying updated solutions to enhance performance. It not only helps with incorporating new automation but also in maintaining and improving existing ones, making it an excellent resource for managed support.

It accelerates digital transformation and significantly lowers IT costs. This is achieved without the need for expensive or complex application upgrades or extensive IT support. Currently, we are reducing the number of active machines and servers in operation. Although there might be an initial investment in bringing up users, the efficiency gains result in substantial savings. As we streamline processes through automation, we not only reduce the number of calls and machines but also realize long-term ROI by saving on infrastructure costs. In essence, the more automation implemented, the greater the cost savings and efficiency improvements over time.

UiPath has been instrumental in minimizing human errors, particularly in the process of uploading orders into the system. With automation, validation, and auditing integrated into our workflows, potential errors are identified at the initial stage. This allows us to promptly notify users of any issues, providing details based on the preset parameters. Through these efforts, we have observed a substantial reduction, estimated at around twenty to thirty percent, in errors that could potentially lead to future problems.

It has effectively liberated employee time by automating around two hundred processes within our sizable company. Based on my estimates, we have saved approximately three to four months' worth of workdays. This translates into significant time savings for our team and contributes to improved efficiency and productivity for our client.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable aspect is its simplicity in coding. All that's required is a fundamental grasp of coding principles and a bit of logical thinking. Once you've acquired these skills, you can effortlessly write a substantial amount of code and easily upgrade it as needed.

The integration is seamless and streamlines our workload.

What needs improvement?

It would be beneficial to enhance application insights, and I've shared this suggestion with the UiPath committee as well. Occasionally, clients expect a process to run at a specific time, but due to various factors, it might get delayed by half an hour or more. Currently, we only become aware of such delays by actively checking within the application. It would be beneficial if the system could proactively generate alerts, notifying the client about any delays in the process execution. This would provide transparency and enable clients, as well as our team, to be informed and take necessary actions, such as considering a migration if needed.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with it for approximately six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It exhibits high stability. With a robust security department in place, we conduct thorough code reviews, contributing to a secure and stable process. On a scale from one to ten, I would rate it at nine.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Our clients are a massive enterprise with approximately two hundred automations in place. Scalability is dependent on the process level. If you have independent processes that can be executed, scaling up is straightforward.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is readily accessible to us always. I would rate it ten out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

When comparing Automation Anywhere to UiPath, it's important to mention that Automation Anywhere has undergone numerous updates in recent years. In my assessment around 2020, it lacked features such as the concept of attended and unattended bots, as well as multi-bot automation. However, I believe they have since introduced these features, though I haven't personally explored them. In terms of features, Automation Anywhere lagged behind UiPath.

What about the implementation team?

The deployment process took approximately three months for us due to various IT issues. This involved obtaining clearance from the IT, firewall, and security teams. In the current client setting, which has about five to six internal auditors, securing approvals was a meticulous process. Once all the necessary clearances were obtained, the actual implementation only took around fifteen days. Additionally, we received direct support from the UiPath team during the integration process. From our side, only three individuals were involved in the implementation process.

It has been deployed across multiple departments and various regions, including APAC, Europe, and Australia.

Maintenance is not a major concern. System-level maintenance is required, but if your automation is rigid and doesn't necessitate frequent changes, it's easy for us to manage and monitor. For maintenance, our current approach involves regular database cleanups and similar tasks since we are on-premises. However, once we migrate to the cloud, I believe such procedures won't be necessary anymore.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I believe that the price is on the higher side. From an ROI perspective, I would give it a rating of five out of ten. However, if we exclude the ROI considerations from the overall assessment, I would rate it at seven.

What other advice do I have?

From my perspective, it's a strongly recommended tool. However, from the client's viewpoint, especially since they are venturing into RPA implementation for the first time, they prefer a proof of concept before proceeding. Overall, I would rate it ten out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
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. The reviewer's company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free UiPath Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: October 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free UiPath Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.