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reviewer2298924 - PeerSpot reviewer
Program Manager RPA at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
We have a centralized location and end-to-end view of a use case, and their support has been excellent
Pros and Cons
  • "In my particular job function, Automation Hub has been invaluable. We have set up an Automation Hub specific to what we need within our team to be able to solicit automation ideas from our business users. It helps us to be able to review those ideas, meet with our functions and ask them more questions, and build our value case as well, so Automation Hub has been huge for us."
  • "We are new to the tool. Currently, we do not have any cons. There is still a lot left for us to explore. We have heard of a lot of features at the conference today, and we will certainly build upon that. As we are exploring, some of the improvements could be in the pipeline within Automation Hub and insights, but so far, we have had a great experience with UiPath."

What is our primary use case?

We are an animal health company. We work to provide various products for companion animals, such as swine and equine. We are a global company.

The business objective that we are trying to achieve with its AI-powered automation is to reduce the effort for our business users. There are certainly a lot of tasks that take them away from some more high-value opportunities within their function and improve the overall customer experience. We would like to be able to look at the data differently and to be able to ultimately improve our customers. That is our ultimate goal.

The great thing about our function within the company is that we explore automation throughout the company and all different business functions. A lot of our use cases are for replicating some of the mundane manual tasks that users do. A lot of them are data reconciliations involving extracting and comparing data from different sources. We are also exploring opportunities to be able to understand and process data better by using some of the UiPath task mining capabilities. That is what we have at the forefront right now.

How has it helped my organization?

It has fundamentally changed what our organization is able to achieve. There is such a global interest in automation. Being able to be at the center of that for our company and allow them not only the opportunity to automate their tasks but also be a centralized location for answering questions and helping people learn has been great.

We have very limited use cases with which we have explored some of the AI-specific features. We have done some proof of concepts with some smaller use cases, and we certainly could see the value on that small scale. We are looking forward to much larger opportunities going forward.

Even in the proof of concept, it cuts down on our time in exploring some of the processes. There is ultimately value for our team internally while doing some of the investigative pieces on some of these processes. There is also the added benefit for the users. We are able to help them faster. It has certainly been very helpful. It is hard to quantify time savings because we are just getting started with some of the tools. For the proof of concept, it saved us about a week. It was a small use case involving looking into the process and deep diving into it. Being able to allow the mining tools to do some of that analysis saved us a lot of time. It did cut down at least a week's worth of research for sure. 

This proof of concept was a task-mining proof of concept. The valuable piece that we had from task mining was being able to look under the hood in some processes. In this particular proof of concept, it was a process that the team had done for years and years and years but never took a deep dive into what all the handoffs were. Being able to record and then get that insight and that dashboard view at the end showed us a lot. It showed us where the time was spent in each part of the process and allowed our business users to focus on what within that process could be improved, fixed, or standardized. It was certainly very helpful because it was a passive way of looking at the process. Being able to see the dashboard was certainly helpful for us to communicate or to improve.

What is most valuable?

In my particular job function, Automation Hub has been invaluable. We have set up an Automation Hub specific to what we need within our team to be able to solicit automation ideas from our business users. It helps us to be able to review those ideas, meet with our functions and ask them more questions, and build our value case as well, so Automation Hub has been huge for us. We are working on setting up the insights tool as well. 

We see a lot of opportunity there for recognizing the actual value once our use cases are live in production. We have not yet used UiPath's AI Center, but we are certainly looking to do that in the future once we are more established with the tool.

What needs improvement?

We are new to the tool. Currently, we do not have any cons. There is still a lot left for us to explore. We have heard of a lot of features at the conference today, and we will certainly build upon that. As we are exploring, some of the improvements could be in the pipeline within Automation Hub and insights, but so far, we have had a great experience with UiPath. 

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.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

My company is new to UiPath. We procured the software in quarter one of this year, and we are currently working on getting acclimated to the tool. We are doing some data migrations and exploring the ins and outs of the software.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

So far, so good. In terms of stability, there are no issues or concerns.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is absolutely scalable. We have no issues or concerns. There are a lot of opportunities for sure.

How are customer service and support?

Their support has been tremendous. Anytime we have a question or anytime we want to learn something more about the tool, there is no shortage of answers. They have been very helpful. I would rate their support a ten out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

Our company does utilize another RPA solution. Our reason for getting UiPath was the fact that it is an automation platform, so having that full end-to-end view of the use case from ingestion to implementation to gathering actual insights and having it all in one centralized location was a big selling point for us. Its task mining, plug-ins, and SAP integration capabilities made it very interesting for us.

I have a little bit of experience with Power Automate. UiPath has orchestration, whereas Power Automate does not. It is another way through which we can bring value to our business areas with our automations. Having everything centralized in one place is a very big feature there.

How was the initial setup?

I worked very heavily in setting up our Automation Hub, designing our questionnaire forms, setting up our users there, and rolling that out to our company. It was very straightforward. Our UiPath account managers have been super helpful and supportive in that. Whenever we have a question, everyone is very responsive and very easy to talk to. They have been very helpful, whether that be in person or in a meeting, or pointing us towards documentation to help us guide us through. It has been great.

In terms of implementation strategy, we logically started in the way so that we understand a process. We started with setting up our Automation Hub within our entire organization and making sure we established governance and the right security. We made sure that our asset was set up correctly within our organization. In terms of the software, we got our Automation Hub set up and we got our environments set up from a maintenance standpoint, and now, we are working on getting our insights set up for us.

What about the implementation team?

We have a partnership within our organization for our team. In collaboration with them, we worked on setting up UiPath. We have partnered with Persistent, and our experience with them has been great.

What was our ROI?

We are still a little bit early with our journey, but it is certainly saving time and effort for the small number of use cases that we do have on the platform.

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

I do not know the specifics within my role, but from what I do know, everything has been very fair. Especially with the licensing that we have for our team, we have been able to accommodate everybody on our team with the roles and access that they require. So far, so good.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did evaluate other solutions, but I do not know the specifics within my role. I do know that UiPath was one of the leading ones out there and the capabilities that we have seen were what we were looking for.

What other advice do I have?

To those evaluating the solution, I would advise appreciating the fact that it is a platform. You can track the automation idea from intake through implementation, and then you can gather the insights once it is live or in production. Being able to have everything all centralized in one place is a great way to keep your team organized and truly measure the value of your automations.

I would rate UiPath a ten out of ten. I am enjoying the tool. At the UiPath Conference, I got to know about a lot of opportunities to look forward to. I enjoyed it.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Hariramesh D. - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Specialist at LTIMINDTREE
Real User
Saves time, reduces errors, and assists with digital transformation
Pros and Cons
  • "UiPath Academy courses are great."
  • "Sometimes we get some disconnection issues. This happens maybe 10% of the time."

What is our primary use case?

We have many use cases, including 50 or more in the finance domain. This solution supports Robotic Process Automation, RPA, and I work with it for website automation. We use it with SAP and use it for Excel automation.

For example, we use it to download an EML file, and using a UiPath application, we extract PDFs using OCR activities and convert them to digital files. Once we've accepted all data from the PDF, we update all of the details digitally and send the particular data to the business via a consolidated business sheet.

How has it helped my organization?

The success rate is 80% to 90% using UiPath. 

What is most valuable?

It's easy to build automation. It's a drag-and-drop activity. You don't need to code or write. All activities are available in the activity planner. We can build a bot and deploy it to VMs to use in production.

Even a person who has no coding knowledge can deploy a UiPath automation. 

This solution enables us to implement end-to-end automation. It's a big part of the process. In UiPath, some setup of validation is there. It can get technical. Not each and every process needs to have automation. We use the validation to discover if it is zero, semi, or full automation. We'd look at the applications involved in the business process, like SAP. We'd mark it as what percentage is actually needing automation. The solution helps by selecting logical tasks. Some areas are only able to be done by humans. In that case, it's only semi-automated. 

The user community is good. If you search for an answer, it's a way to find solutions. 

UiPath Academy courses are great. I used them to complete my certification. The courses and videos make it easy to understand. There are Studio, Orchestrator, and Robot courses. There are courses from basic to advanced. Everyone can jump in and learn very easily.

The solution helps us speed up our digital transformation. We used to need seven to eight people for some processes like processing invoices and we were able to reduce it by two to three people. 

Human input is prone to error, however, UiPath helps reduce human error. While UiPath does sometimes make errors, it would be due to errors in the creation or logic. That said, if created properly, it removes the need for human intervention and removes errors in general.

It's freed up employee time. If I need to check something every day or do validation, it would typically take two hours of my time. Now, I can use a bot to do that work. I no longer have to worry. It flags only what I need to action and I don't have to look at everything. 

UiPath has saved us money. We reduced two to three full-time employees by automating tasks, we save that money in salary. 

What needs improvement?

Sometimes we get some disconnection issues. This happens maybe 10% of the time. 

We have trouble sometimes finding answers in the UiPath user community. Using the community portal can be difficult. However, how they give training is very good.

We've had an issue with the selector. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for four to five years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. There is no lagging application-wise. There might be unexpected pop-ups or Windows upgrades that may affect UiPath, otherwise, it is very reliable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable and has a good scaling framework. You can scale your process at any time. In-house, we were able to build our own scaling framework without issues. 

How are customer service and support?

We've contacted technical support twice. We were migrating from classic to modern architecture. Our team is pretty technical and capable, so we haven't needed much help. When we reached out, they were good. However, sometimes they took a while to respond. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

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

We also use Blue Prism. I'm also aware of Power Automate. The simplicity, ease of development, and consistency made us move to UiPath. However, now the market is changing, and our company is considering moving to Power Automate as it is cheaper. Still, at this time, UiPath is better than Power Automate. 

How was the initial setup?

We use the solution on VMs and Azure. We are also using continuous deployment, CI/CD. 

I was involved in the deployment and we started the process for the company. We take care of the deployment, development, and maintenance. Now, everything is stabilized. 

It's easy to deploy. We can easily publish through UiPath Studio or get a packet and deploy it where we want. We have one release manager that handles the process deployment. 

Without maintenance, a UiPath bot cannot run well. You need to handle updates, et cetera, to make sure bots don't fail. 

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

The pricing and licensing costs differ depending on what you use. Comparatively, Power Automate is cheaper. However, UiPath is cheaper than Blue Prism or Automation Anywhere. 

What other advice do I have?

We're an official UiPath partner.

I have no experience with their AI functionality. 

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. If the pricing was less, it would be ideal. Other than that, it's a great product. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
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: Partner
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.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Malte Horstmann - PeerSpot reviewer
Co-Founder & Managing Partner at OMM Solutions GmbH
Real User
Has AI fabric capabilities, can reduce on-prem footprints, and has a vast academic catalog for training
Pros and Cons
  • "The simplicity of creating automation from a low code level is the most valuable feature of the solution."
  • "There has been a huge improvement in Linux, Microsoft, and Mac support recently. However, we still struggle with the implementation in Citrix environments. The solution works with Citrix, but there is room for improvement."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case for UiPath is robotic process automation and automation fabric with document understanding AI.

How has it helped my organization?

Usually, after six to twelve months, our customers start implementing end-to-end processing with UiPath but they often start off with small tasks.

There is a clear value in being part of the UiPath community. We get money from UiPath for discounted licenses. Our customers hire us to implement their professional visions, and we're paid by the hour.

UiPath improves our customers' organizations. The effects of this growth usually start small. For example, we may notice that specific records are transferred in less time or with less manpower. Then, as the growth continues, those people become more involved in all aspects of the company.

The solution has a large impact on minimizing the on-premises footprint for our customers.

The Academic courses are vast. It provides our clients with the opportunity to start on their own and become somewhat independent. We use the courses as a huge resource to train our customers.

Usually, after six to 12 months, we start introducing our clients to more complex processes where the document understanding or AI fabric capabilities of UiPath are useful.

UiPath speeds up the digital transformation for our clients.

It helps reduce human error. This is mostly seen after UiPath has been implemented because people are not usually willing to admit their mistakes.

UiPath definitely frees up on average three to five percent of employee time per month. We have had small instances where the solution replaced a full SE with only one process.

The solution can reduce costs in retraining people on old or mundane processes, and it can also reduce costs by automating certain processes. This in turn can free up resources so that we don't have to invest in retraining people to do those same processes again. Automation eliminates the need to hire new people to do the job or carry out the process. After 18 to 24 months, many of our clients find that they don't need to hire more people to keep up with their growing business.

What is most valuable?

The simplicity of creating automation from a low code level is the most valuable feature of the solution.

UiPath's built-in automation is very easy to use. Our organization educates and provides lessons on how to use its automation and the feedback is that UiPath is easy once the introduction is complete. The solution is comparable to other software in this market.

What needs improvement?

There has been a huge improvement in Linux, Microsoft, and Mac support recently. However, we still struggle with the implementation in Citrix environments. The solution works with Citrix, but there is room for improvement. 

UiPath releases a lot of new features multiple times throughout the year causing our customers to fall behind. It would be fine if there was only one release a year.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using UiPath for six years.

How are customer service and support?

We are a technical partner, so we have direct support. If we post the questions well formed to the support team, we get a quick answer from them.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We use Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, Power Automate, and our own products during the typical analysis quadrants. UiPath is the solution we use 95 percent of the time.

The main difference between UiPath and other RPA tools is the vision. While other tools focus on automating tasks, UiPath focuses on developing citizens who can automate tasks. This means that UiPath is the best tool for organizations that want to invest in their employees' skills.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. I give the ease of deployment a ten out of ten.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation is completed in-house.

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

UiPath is not the cheapest solution, it's more or less the most expensive one, but we get what we pay for. I give the pricing an eight out of ten for its competitiveness.

What other advice do I have?

I give the solution a ten out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Issac Paul - PeerSpot reviewer
Automation Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Provides proper metrics and logs, saves a huge amount of time, and significantly improves accuracy
Pros and Cons
  • "Excel automation is extremely reliable. Excel integration is one of the top features that I have been using. We also have a feature called Document Understanding for processing the PDF format of an invoice by a bot. It has the capability to scan an invoice and then pick out the required fields, such as the name of the vendor, the details of the products being sent, or the cost of the product."
  • "Sometimes, we do find that the bots misbehave or there are bugs that prevent the bot from executing even when the business cases are completely listed out. It could be that the cloud Orchestrator doesn't send the trigger to the runner systems to start the process because of small internet fluctuation. Sometimes, we find that the processes are killing the execution themselves and going into a halt state without any errors in the program. So, we do see some reliability issues, but these happen once in 20 or 30 instances. They are not on a regular basis. However, when that happens, it does create panic, and we have to immediately rectify it. If they can focus on that, it would be good."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for handling processes that involve human effort savings. We are currently focusing on processes and problems that our users are facing in their day-to-day activities. It is used for the automation of business problems that are repetitive and error-oriented with a huge number of users working on them. We list down a set of processes where users are spending a lot of time, then we verify whether the use case is valid for automation using RPA. Once that is complete, we start programming the bot based on the requirements given by the user. We try to mimic each and every action performed by a human being by using UiPath Studio. It replicates what a human being does.

In terms of setup, the development happens in Studio that's on-premise, but the deployment of the robots is done on the cloud. They have their own cloud service called Orchestrator. UiPath hosts that, and it is available at cloud.uipath.com. It is basically the UiPath Cloud. The interface is completely handled by UiPath.

How has it helped my organization?

The biggest benefit is that before implementing automation, the users were spending a lot of time doing mundane and manual activities. Implementing the robotic process automation for processes that they were involved in helped them to avoid doing these manual activities and focus on more value-added processes. On the whole, it has helped the users to spend their time more wisely and also get more benefits for the same time spent. It helps us to improve user satisfaction by improving their working methodology because they are only doing things that are value-adding.

We are automating all the manual activities that can be successfully handled by the robots. So, the users are really happy, and we are getting good feedback from the users in terms of time savings. We are also achieving 100% accuracy in the output, which was not the case when the users were performing these actions. When they were performing the actions, the users had to validate the outputs, and the outputs were not as per the requirement. There used to be an error rate of at least 10% to 15%, but with automation, the error rate has been reduced to zero. So, the removal of manual activity and the reduction of the error rate to zero are two of the main benefits.

We are using it in our finance operations for our accounts payable process to process invoices. For this process, we were receiving invoices at a rate of more than 50 per day, and having humans perform those actions was not sustainable in the long run. So, we developed a robot that would automatically process invoices that we received through email. It extracts and updates the data into our ERP, and then, it sends an email to the users telling them that the invoice has been received, verified, and uploaded into our ERP. Now, we have a process that saves approximately two hours for five or more users on a daily basis. At an annual rate, we can save approximately 10,000 hours. We develop the bot in UiPath Studio and then deploy it in cloud Orchestrator via an unattended bot, which is a bot that runs on a predefined schedule. We have a particular time when invoices arrive in our inboxes. We set the robot to run at that particular time, and then the robot is able to process those invoices and proceed to the next action.

We focus only on processes that can be automated end-to-end, completely eliminating human activity. UiPath is flexible, and it allows us to build robots that prevent human intervention right from the start and all the way to the end. Then, we are able to deploy it on the cloud by using the Orchestrator solution. From start to finish, we have completely eliminated human effort, supporting our mission of end-to-end automation. For process analysis, we use a UiPath tool called Task Capture to understand the business case and draw a flow diagram for the steps involved in a process. UiPath has all the solutions required to implement end-to-end automation, and we are successfully using them for all our business problems.

This end-to-end coverage is important. Basically, we select processes where we can avoid human intervention. End-to-end automation is one of the key KPIs that we check before we even start automating a process. It is the first thing that we look for because we prefer no human intervention at all, be it for any kind of input, validating the output, or checking the logs of a process. All of these are predetermined and handled by the robot.

It is cloud-based. So, we do not have any infrastructure costs for maintaining the servers, etc. That is a big advantage. Also, Studio updates for development are pushed automatically. We receive the updates and just click on them, and Studio is updated. Overall, it saves a lot of time for the IT team because there isn't any involvement from IT resources after we deploy or install Studio on our system. From there on, there is literally no involvement of the IT department. That is how beautifully they have designed the tool for the updates as well as overall maintenance.

We went for the cloud to avoid any on-premises server costs that we might need to take care of on a recurring basis. The cloud was a big advantage for us. We are able to save approximately 15 lakh Indian Rupees, which would be $10,000 to $15,000, by not going for the on-premises setup. We were able to save that sort of investment in server costs by going for a cloud-based tool.

We were able to synthesize the value of this solution right from the inception. As soon as we deployed the bots, we were getting actual analytics for the run rate of the process and the total time of bot execution. Indirectly, the time during which the bot executes is literally the time that is saved from human effort. We get proper metrics of the time being saved by using Orchestrator. The other important thing is logs. In case a process fails, from the logs, we are able to derive insights about when exactly a process is failing. We are then able to develop a solution to handle these failures and re-implement them. So, overall the cloud solution gives us insights. It adds value to even developers' time by giving us an overall metric of the time saved as well as utilizing the logs for insights about the process runtime, et cetera. Overall, the cloud functionality is a great value addition.

It affects our ability to scale up automation. When we develop and deploy a process, other users in different departments take a look at the processes, and they are getting confident about the fact that this can solve their problems. We have been receiving requirements, and in that way, we are able to scale up the automation. On top of that, we develop the robots in a way that is modular in nature so that when we implement a process, we have reusable components that can be plugged and played into the new process. This improves the speed at which we can automate processes.

It has indirectly brought innovation from the users' perspective and developers' perspective. The users are saving time, and they are getting innovative in their day-to-day activities. In terms of development, we are on a constant learning path. When the vendor releases new software updates, we are able to effectively utilize those and implement them into our processes on an immediate basis, which improves the speed of delivering a process and the quality of output.

We can scale automation without having to pay attention to the infrastructure for doing so. We don't have to be worried about the cost involved with the on-premises setup. It is a cloud-based solution. So, when a requirement comes up and a bot is developed, only then we need to apply for the license and procure a bot. It has been beneficial because we don't need to pay any upfront cost until the bot is developed and ready to be deployed, and because the bots are delivered completely through the software service, that also indirectly proved very beneficial for global deployments and scaling of processes.

Its AI functionality is helpful to learn from the existing use cases and then implement the learnings on the new and upcoming test cases. As a developer, we need not spend any time developing templates for the extraction, etc. The AI module in itself has the capability to understand new forms of data. It can then accordingly extract and plug in the data to our templates without much effort. So, AI functionality has saved a lot of our time in developing a solution as compared to doing it the manual way.

We had one process where we had to use AI functionality, and we were able to eliminate any manual efforts. Previously, we had somebody who was verifying the output of the bot and after that only processing went to the next step, but with AI, we got the confidence that the bot has the ability to complete the action without manual intervention. That is one great example where AI helped to eliminate manual effort and improve the quality of the output.

It has significantly reduced human errors. Bots have quite a high performance rate with minimal or zero errors. The errors only occur because we haven't updated the business case in the bot. Once the business cases are updated in the robot, we do not see any errors. The bots follow all the steps as programmed and do not deviate from the set of rules defined while developing them. This reduction in human error has had a positive impact on users. The users had been feeling more comfortable using the robot output rather than relying on their own output, which sometimes had errors. So, overall the confidence level has improved and the lead time in delivering the output has also improved. The time they were earlier spending on the validation of their output has reduced. 

It has freed a lot of time. We only automate processes where we find huge time savings. We count it as full-time (FT) employee benefits. We only pick processes that have three or four cumulated FT benefits. With automation, we are saving at least three or four hours on a daily basis. This time is being utilized by business users in completing any other backlog work, focusing on other important things, improving their own work skills, etc.

What is most valuable?

Excel automation is extremely reliable. Excel integration is one of the top features that I have been using. We also have a feature called Document Understanding for processing the PDF format of an invoice by a bot. It has the capability to scan an invoice and then pick out the required fields, such as the name of the vendor, the details of the products being sent, or the cost of the product. There is an AI functionality that allows a user to program the required fields to be extracted, and the bot automatically follows those rules and extracts the data. Therefore, the AI functionality of Document Understanding is another important attribute that I personally like about UiPath.

I also like the Computer Vision functionality, where UiPath provides image processing abilities for robotic process automation. This provides a big advantage because images can be automatically processed without involving any additional tools. With an API, we can automatically link the Computer Vision engine and start extracting and processing images at a quick rate.

UiPath is a low-code platform, or mostly no-code platform, where coding is minimal. We can drag and drop all the required steps and then develop a bot in very less time. I am good at programming, but even a user who doesn't know programming can easily pick up the tool. The ease at which anybody can learn it is quite high. Overall, it is a 10 out of 10 in terms of usability. It is really easy to use with the tutorials that they have in place. Everything about it is quite simple.

We use Orchestrator to keep a track of all the robots that are deployed, monitor the logs, and deploy the robots on the runner machines. We use Orchestrator to upload the bots from Studio to the cloud and then deploy them to runner machines across our virtual machines. Once a bot executes, we get the logs, and if needed, we can monitor them to check that the processes are coming in smoothly. In case of any failures, Orchestrator also has the functionality to re-execute the process. So, we are utilizing the cloud to a greater extent for managing our robots.

The UiPath community is wonderful. It is one of the best communities where we can get a solution for any question that we post in a matter of minutes or hours. Whenever we post a question about any doubt or a bug, someone from the UiPath support team or community replies. Their knowledge is useful for other users who might face the same problem in the future. They have an MVP promotion where if I answer more than 100 questions, they provide us freebies or maybe certification vouchers. That's a good thing that they're doing to grow the community. I'm really enjoying the community members' involvement as well as their support shown during any problems that we face. I have also used Power Automate, and the community support of Power Automate is not that great, but the community of UiPath is very responsive.

What needs improvement?

It is expensive. Its licensing structure should be improved. They can introduce a license structure where they charge you on a per-minute basis rather than a full upfront payment. 

In UiPath Academy, the certification that they provide at the end of every course can serve as a good motivating factor for somebody who's learning it. That is a good thing, but one of the negatives is that previously, the certification program was free of cost, which helped a lot of developers to become certified developers, but recently, they introduced a paid certification course. I wasn't expecting that move from them. I would like them to go back to their initial certification method which was free of cost.

Sometimes, we do find that the bots misbehave or there are bugs that prevent the bot from executing even when the business cases are completely listed out. It could be that the cloud Orchestrator doesn't send the trigger to the runner systems to start the process because of small internet fluctuation. Sometimes, we find that the processes are killing the execution themselves and going into a halt state without any errors in the program. So, we do see some reliability issues, but these happen once in 20 or 30 instances. They are not on a regular basis. However, when that happens, it does create panic, and we have to immediately rectify it. If they can focus on that, it would be good.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using UiPath for three years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is great. We are able to scale at a rate faster than what we had thought of because of the way we are able to develop our processes. UiPath literally automates most of the processes that business users are doing. So far, we haven't had any use cases that cannot be handled with UiPath, which helps in scaling implementation at a faster pace.

We have about a four-member team with analysts as well as developers who work with it, but the developers basically handle all the IT-related tasks. 

We are a manufacturing company, and we have deployed our solutions in almost every department. We have finance, planning, control, human resources, sales, and supply chain. We have 15 to 20 in each of the departments, and they are saving close to three hours individually. Overall, our estimated time savings are upwards of 100,000 hours annually. 

Our current usage of it is 30% to 40%. We still have a lot more potential to tap. We are still on the journey to reach 100% of user involvement where everybody is aware of the process. We are yet to hold the discovery workshops with all the users so that they're aware of the process. Right now, it is limited to a few people within the departments, but its usage will increase with time as we continue to automate processes at this rate.

How are customer service and support?

We use UiPath Academy for the certification or onboarding of new members. When we onboard new members, we tell them to go through the UiPath Academy to get an understanding of the tool. It is free of cost, and it covers all the required modules for becoming an RPA developer. We use it extensively during the initial days as a developer, and over time and with experience, we learn directly from the tool.

They have a very responsive community. Sometimes, within minutes, we get a response to our query. We are quickly able to understand the solution that they provided and implement it. If it is a complicated problem, sometimes, the UiPath moderator from the UiPath company responds to the query and resolves it. If it is not resolved, we can directly contact their customer support. We are enterprise users, and we get quick responses to the queries that we raise. I would rate their support a 9 out of 10.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

In between, we used Power Automate just to see the functionality, but we did not find it as intuitive as UiPath. We gave up on Power Automate, and we are now full-time users of UiPath.

How was the initial setup?

I was around when it was set up. I had personally taken care of the installation. I found it easy and not at all time-consuming. I was done with the process in a couple of hours. In about four or five hours, I was done with the installation and setup of Studio and Orchestrator, listing the licensed accounts, and deployment of the random bots. Everything was completed in a matter of no time. I am not directly related to the IT department. I am just a developer, but I was able to handle it with no external support.

What about the implementation team?

We did it in-house. We only contacted UiPath. They delivered the license keys, and we just keyed in the license keys, and it started working. That's it. Nothing else.

It is lightweight in terms of maintenance. There's no maintenance at all. It automatically handles all the upgrades via the cloud. There are no issues. It requires zero effort from IT.

What was our ROI?

Overall, you don't have a lot of savings because of expensive licenses. The licenses are quite expensive, and they are not cheap. It saves money but not significantly. However, we are not focusing so much on the monetary benefits. We are focusing more on the quality of output and time savings.

It does reduce the cost of digital transformation, but that happens after a year or two from deployment. Immediate benefits are not evident, but within a period of one to three years, we are able to make a huge amount of savings in terms of time. 

This digital transformation doesn't require expensive or complex application upgrades or IT application support. We didn't have any issues, and we never needed IT to support the UiPath tool. We have been directly using it as it is without making any changes. The impact of this digital transformation on our infrastructure was zero. There were no costs involved. It was used as it is without any changes in the infrastructure.

During the initial two years, we hadn't reached a breakeven point. When the development was going on, we had both costs. On one side, the manual effort was going on, and on the other, there was the licensing cost. So, we didn't have cost savings. After the bot was implemented or after about one and a half years, we were able to receive proper monetary benefits or what we call a breakeven point. So, when we started eliminating human activity, that got converted to cost savings. The accuracy of the process also indirectly improved our customer satisfaction. All in all, we were at a breakeven point, after a two-year period. That would be the general thumb rule for most organizations. So, at an immediate level, we did not receive monetary benefits, but after a period of about two years, we received monetary benefits or savings.

We rely on UiPath Academy for knowledge during the initial days, and it saves a lot of time. We don't have any monetary spending for setting up training because it is available for free. So, we have made some savings. It has saved us time and money, and it has been helpful in getting employees up to speed on the solution.

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

It is expensive. Every product or component is built separately. All the components have a separate fee. UiPath Studio has a license cost. The cloud has a license cost, and bots have a license cost. These costs are recurring on a yearly basis. So, every product or component has to be licensed for a year, and on expiry, you have to renew it.

Their licensing structure should be improved. The cost of a bot is a lot. It is more expensive as compared to some of the competitors. It is probably $8,000 for an unattended bot. When I did a search on the internet, I found that other vendors offer much better plans. I would like UiPath to introduce some flexibility in the licenses. Instead of a full license, they can maybe introduce a license structure where they charge you on a per-minute basis rather than a full $8,000 upfront payment. If I'm just spending eight hours on the bot, the bot should only be charged for that time. There could be a per-hour rate. A plan like that would be beneficial.

Initially, it will be expensive, and it also won't be as per the initial thoughts that it is going to be a quick solution that saves a lot of time. With time, you can achieve cost savings but not immediately.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We had our eyes on UiPath from the beginning. We did not focus on others.

What other advice do I have?

My advice would be to not use RPA as the only solution. You also have to use other complementing features, such as optical character recognition, so that the overall solution is usable. Just RPA can't solve all the problems.

There should be proper change management to bring awareness about the impact of RPA. A lot of time, people misunderstand and take it in the wrong sense that they might lose their jobs. The fact is that RPA can't automate everything, and skilled people will still be required for doing activities. We can only automate a certain set of manual activities.

I would also advise taking one step at a time. Automate a few solutions, check the user feedback, and then start scaling up rather than immediately scaling up without getting the user feedback.

I would rate UiPath an 8 out of 10. Overall, I have no complaints. Studio, Orchestrator, and all the other tools are top-notch. They are being updated with new features on a daily basis. The product is extremely good, and I have no complaints regarding that, but the license is something they can focus on. They can introduce some innovative plans for procuring the license.

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
Brody Semelroth - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at Wells Enterprises, Inc.
Real User
A broad solution that effectively uses machine learning to automate processes and save time
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution's AI technology and machine learning models are the biggest contributor to saving time."
  • "The solution's OCR engine is lagging behind Power Automate a bit."

What is our primary use case?

Our company is in the dairy industry and uses the solution for automating 25 processes. 

We started with financial items such as utility invoices, vendor invoices, accounts payable, and accounts receivable. 

We are also simplifying the processes for creating recipes and food manufacturing. 

For example, we were able to use machine learning to read invoices for utilities at all of our factories and from 50 dairy vendors. All the invoices look different and AI is able to recognize where important data is located. The AI technology is amazing and we use it for three of our biggest processes. 

How has it helped my organization?

We estimate that the solution has saved us 10,000 hours per year. We only have three developers who are dedicated to the solution but have netted huge time savings. 

In total, since implementing the solution we have saved 19,000 hours across 25 processes. We are very happy with the results and will continue to expand. 

What is most valuable?

The solution's AI technology and machine learning models are huge for our company and the biggest contributor to saving time because we teach the model to read invoices. 

We are above a 97% success rate on all transactions. Our company is growing, but we are not increasing staff because robotics allow us to keep up with work flow.  

We use the solution to keep up with demand. Our staff is relieved and happy because robotics handles small but tedious items, allowing staff to free up their schedules and focus on more important things. We used to have to beg for projects but now staff ask us to help. 

What needs improvement?

The solution's OCR engine is lagging behind Power Automate a bit. 

It would be nice to have a knowledge base for C# that includes scenarios specific to the solution. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for one year. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable with no problems. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable and depends on the speed of development. 

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is good and has been able to solve issues any time I contact them. There might be a bit of back and forth with support emails, but all problems get resolved. 

The solution's community and forums are important and very helpful. I can reach out at any time to get answers. Everyone I have communicated with in the forums has been great. 

I rate technical support an eight out of ten. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

I was an intern on the company's data management team and was looking for ways to automate my own job out of curiosity.

I started with Power Automate and created a process to show my boss. He indicated that the company was already exploring AI and asked me to create the process again using the solution so I could compare the two. 

The solution was code based and more complicated than Power Automate so I took advanced and fundamentals courses on my own time. There is a learning curve because the solution uses DB strings and C#. But in a few months, I was building automations and ERFs on the citizen developer platform.

The advantage of Power Automate is its ease and simplicity but it is mostly meant for their Office software. 

The solution is more difficult to learn but is extensive and capable of more because it is able to interact with websites and UI elements themselves.

How was the initial setup?

The solution was already in place when I joined the team. 

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

I do not know pricing but the solution uses a licensing model. We have three licenses to manage 25 processes. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

The solution is the only one our company has ever used.

The solution has been in place for five years and has expanded across seven different departments. Three licenses are in place to manage 25 processes.

The Academy's courses are used when onboarding new staff to ensure self-sufficiency with the solution.

What other advice do I have?

There are many packages available that are extensive, including the community package. Look at the functionality because it is possible to automate any process that is repeatable. 

You can interact with any broker not just Excel or SQL. The options are wide open. 

I rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
James Freeman - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Specialist at Morgan standard bank
Real User
Top 10
User-friendly with a good community and helpful support
Pros and Cons
  • "It's very user-friendly."
  • "You need to have access to the internet. If you get disconnected, there will be downtime."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution for automation purposes in our various departments, including ticketing customer service and operations concerning numbers, such as statistics.

How has it helped my organization?

We've been able to expand our customer base and gain more clients. We're able to serve them all profitably since we're able to use fewer resources and spend less money on the resources. We've witnessed a growth in productivity.

What is most valuable?

The solution comes with a very good interface. We can deploy it in Spanish and use it in Spanish as well. 

It's very user-friendly.

If we get stuck somewhere, we can turn to the Academy. It helps guide us when we have questions about usage. It's helped our staff improve their knowledge of the platform.

The solution has excellent customer service and good follow-up.

It's helped us streamline our operations. It helps us automate the human work for repetitive tasks. There's a lot of automation on our website and platforms as well. 

UiPath has enhanced our business processes. It makes serving our customers easy and fast. The number of customers we are able to serve has doubled. It's also reduced human error. The flows that had more human input previously (maybe due to fatigue) had more errors. We've reduced human error by at least 5%.

The solution helps us analyze data, and it's quite useful in the decision-making process.

The automation creation process is good. It sometimes proves to be a bit tricky; however, as you become used to it, it gets easier. 

We use it to create effective end-to-end automation. It has really good capabilities. We've been able to consolidate tasks and manage our employee shifts better all while reducing human error and handling more business processes.

The user community is excellent. We can get referrals and troubleshoot issues. Having a community that can come together reduces user difficulties. It's a community that really supports users.

Our productivity has improved by about 60%.

It has allowed us to decrease our on-site footprint. We used to have a human workforce working full-time. Now, we can have remote workers and have reduced on-premises work and have employees simply monitor operations.

We've saved on costs. It's reduced our costs by around 7%.

We do use the AI capabilities. We deal with a lot of numbers, and it helps drive our reports and ingest numbers. It helps us with our analytics and statistics. 

What needs improvement?

The cost can be high for SMEs. It can get a bit expensive.

You need to have access to the internet. If you get disconnected, there will be downtime. It would be ideal if there was a way to work offline on the platform.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for about two and a half to three years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a stable solution; I'd rate stability nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I'd rate the scalability nine out of ten. It's quite scalable. We have about 200 users spread across our various locations.

How are customer service and support?

Support is good. You can reach them via email and they offer other modes of contact.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We did not use a different solution previously.

How was the initial setup?

The deployment was straightforward. From contacting the company to deployment, it took 1.5 months. We had a team of around 20 people from our end handling the implementation process. We have the solution in multiple locations. There is some maintenance needed and we have to constantly upgrade our servers and various environments.

What about the implementation team?

We did have assistance deploying the platform.

What was our ROI?

We've witnessed a 20% ROI. 

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

The cost is a bit high. It's good for a medium-sized corporation or bigger. It's a bit expensive for a small business.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did compare other solutions. However, we liked UiPath and, based on its community and reviews, found it to be the best.

What other advice do I have?

I'm an end user.

We didn't have too many challenges integrating the solution into our existing systems. It does require some training.

I'd recommend the solution to others. I'd rate it eight out of ten. If it had an offline mode, I'd rate it higher. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
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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PeerSpot user
Allah Bukhsh - PeerSpot reviewer
RPA Developer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Top 20
A fast, user-friendly solution that gives 100% results
Pros and Cons
  • "UiPath is efficient and fast. There are multiple RPA solutions, but UiPath is very user-friendly. It is very easy and fast to learn."
  • "If we want to learn something new about UiPath, we sometimes cannot learn it directly from the UiPath Academy. We have to go and search on the web. It takes a few searches to find the solution. We do find it, but it takes time. UiPath should give the solution in one area."

What is our primary use case?

We are using UiPath for office automation for our clients. We use many activities of UiPath. We are using CV, RegEx, Excel automation, and email automation.

We are working on a project for a billing company in the US that takes care of patient records for a hospital and saves them on a website. We are handling the patient billing system. We have an email as input at the start of the automation. The bot reads the input. In the input, we have the patient's name and date of birth. The bot searches the patient's name in the EMR hospital application and gets the PDF from the application. We have put some filters on the application. In the PDF, we have a patient's details and a record of their visits and the issues they are having. The bot then uploads the PDF on a website.

We process multiple records. There could be 2,000 pages or 500 pages. It varies based on the patient. For example, an 80-year-old might visit the hospital once or twice a week and will have a bigger file with notes and pictures of their visits. We follow HIPAA regulations for extracting patient information.

How has it helped my organization?

It is very fast and convenient. Bots give you 100% results and work 24/7. Humans work eight hours a day, but bots can work 24/7 for you. They save time and bring efficiency.

UiPath brings accuracy. It gives you 100% results. When we do things manually, there can be human errors, but bots do not make any errors.

In the last two to three years, we have done millions of processes. If we give this work to a person, it will take that person ten years to process. For automation, we are using multiple instances and virtual machines. If we need more processing, we can use more VMs. It saves time, and it works 24/7.

It has been a good experience. UiPath is efficient and fast. There are multiple RPA solutions, but UiPath is very user-friendly. It is very easy and fast to learn. We do not need to know how to code for UiPath. It is coding-free. We just have to make a logic. We just need to know the basics but not the advanced things.

UiPath saves a lot of time. Bots are ten times faster than humans.

UiPath APIs were helpful for extracting data from the website and doing the work very quickly. We could get the data directly from the website database. It did not require going to the website, typing the URLs, etc. We could directly send a request to the website and get all the required data.

I have used Document Understanding a little bit for extracting the data from the PDF and images. Document Understanding machine learning capabilities, but I have not used it much. Other teams use it, and the feedback is that it is very effective and fast. They are probably using the Enterprise version for Document Understanding. 

What is most valuable?

There are two things that are very useful. The first one is RegEx, and the second one is LINQ. UiPath is giving us Excel activities, but it is very slow. With LINQ, we are extracting data from Excel in a very quick way. It is very easy and very fast. RegEx is helpful in quickly getting specific data or text from a chunk of text.

We are also using CV. It is very useful because it uses an image for clicking and extracting data.

What needs improvement?

If we want to learn something new about UiPath, we sometimes cannot learn it directly from the UiPath Academy. We have to go and search on the web. It takes a few searches to find the solution. We do find it, but it takes time. UiPath should give the solution in one area.

For how long have I used the solution?

I started in 2020. It has been three years since I have been working with UiPath.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable. They are updating things, but it is stable with the previous code.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is very scalable. The scalability part is very good.

We have a small team working with UiPath. There are five to ten people.

How are customer service and support?

We have not contacted them much. There was an issue one to two years ago, and we contacted their support. They gave us a solution.

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

I have used Automation Anywhere, and I have also used Power Automate a little bit. 

In Automation Anywhere, we cannot use CVs. Maybe in the enterprise version, we can use them, but I did not see CVs and other activities in Automation Anywhere. It is also web-based, which is not a good thing, whereas UiPath is application-based.

Power Automate is a very useful tool for Excel automation or web automation, but UiPath is the best for our needs.

UiPath is very fast and convenient. It gives 100% results. It is very easy. If needed, we can also use Python or JavaScript code to make a logic for automation.

How was the initial setup?

I was not involved in its deployment. For maintenance, we just update the UiPath version. We have not had any issues.

As RPA developers, we use UiPath to create automation and then we hand over the bots to the support engineers. They oversee the processing in Orchestrator. They see the automation logs and the graphs. If a bot is not working properly, they send us a message to fix it. We are using CV. If the image changes, our bot will give a failure, and we have to fix that. We might get an error once or twice a week.

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

I am using the Community version in my office and personally.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend UiPath to others, and I would give it the best rating. I have used other tools, but UiPath is my preferred tool.

I would rate UiPath a nine 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: Integrator
PeerSpot user
reviewer2298912 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution Architect at a retailer with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Top 20
Has extensive community support, enabling organizations to efficiently automate repetitive tasks and enhance productivity
Pros and Cons
  • "It's highly effective in pinpointing areas within the organization where assistance is required."
  • "This is because the platform requires a multitude of building blocks even for the simplest use cases and when dealing with newer clients, this can be challenging."

What is our primary use case?

I use UiPath for a variety of tasks, including automating user interfaces, processing documents, utilizing process mining, performing test automation, and even handling natural language processing.

How has it helped my organization?

It contributed to revenue growth by enabling us to maintain a consistent headcount and resource level while expanding our business.

What is most valuable?

Unattended automation, particularly in the realm of UI automation, is the most valuable aspect. 

Its ability to swiftly create automation in UiPath Studio is highly beneficial. It's highly effective in pinpointing areas within the organization where assistance is required.

What needs improvement?

There are several areas where I see room for improvement in the tool. One of these areas would be a more solutions-oriented pricing structure. This is because the platform requires a multitude of building blocks even for the simplest use cases and when dealing with newer clients, this can be challenging. One area where I'd appreciate additional or new features is in the realm of insights.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using UiPath for seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It offers good stability features with minor bugs from time to time.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

When it comes to scalability, UiPath exhibits a high degree of proficiency.

How are customer service and support?

The customer support is quite commendable and we often make use of TAM when needed. I would rate it around an eight out of ten because there is room for improvement.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

I've previously used a variety of automation tools, including Blue Prism, OpenSpan, Automation Anywhere, WorkFusion, and Microsoft Power Automate.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

I collaborated with my IT teams to establish high-availability virtual machines in Azure, whether on-premises or in a semi-private environment. I also partnered with my security team to formulate our digital worker strategy, which essentially involved managing identities, and I integrated all these components into a cohesive system.

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

It comes with a high cost, but the value it delivers justifies the expense.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We conducted evaluations of various automation platforms, including Automation Anywhere, Kofax, Pega, and Blue Prism. There were several notable distinctions. Firstly, UiPath stood out because it offered a free starting point, which was not the case with the others. Secondly, UiPath's integration with Visual Studio was more seamless compared to the other platforms. Their open and free-for-all community is an enormous advantage.

What other advice do I have?

My advice would be to keep your problem-solving approach simple and avoid the urge to plan every detail. One common issue I've observed is people tend to overcomplicate the deployment, strategy, and overall decision-making process when adopting a new software platform. Instead, I'd recommend that if you can identify one or two use cases where the tool's benefits outweigh its costs, you have a solid starting point. Keep it straightforward, and you'll be on the right track. 

Overall, I would rate it ten out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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.