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Senior RPA Architect/Developer at CED
Real User
Easy to build automations with great accuracy and good cost savings
Pros and Cons
  • "We’ve improved our efficiency. Even just our cost analysis has been great. As we do new contracts, we know what it's going to cost exactly."
  • "I don't know if it's UiPath as much as just what we do which is really complicated. Even the consultants that we've used with UiPath had said, "wow, this is very difficult what you guys do." There are a lot of moving parts. It's not as much of a UiPath issue. It's just our own processes."

What is our primary use case?

We're a revenue cycle management company for medical billing. What we've done is we've replaced or reallocated our charge entry employees. We're using bots now to do the charge entry on medical claims and then also payment posting along with eligibility and AR. So we've been able to reallocate just within this last year, probably about eight employees. They've been reassigned to more valuable work, for example, things that the bot can't do and actually requires a human to do. We've been understaffed, therefore, it's actually worked out great.

What is most valuable?

The ease of building automation using UiPath isn't a problem; it seems to be very easy to do to a point. Our challenge is we work in a live environment. Therefore, we’re not able to use a test environment when we build things out. That’s why we have to go very slowly.

I'm not that familiar with the product, with the solution, however, the UiPath apps feature is great, although we're not using any of the apps currently.

The biggest benefit we've seen would be the accuracy. Even just with employees calling in sick, not having enough staff, we’ve been able to fill those roles.

The robotics piece has been a huge thing. We're doing medical claims. We're always worried about claims not getting paid. This solution has allowed us to been able to capture those claims so that we get paid the first time.

We also now can track how many times we touch a claim. For example, how many clicks. We couldn't do that before. That's been very valuable to us.

We’ve improved our efficiency. Even just our cost analysis has been great. As we do new contracts, we know what it's going to cost exactly.

UiPath has saved costs for our organization. We’ve re-allocated six employees and, for what they do, they're somewhere around $40,000 a year. We've implemented six bots to do those same functions and they're about $8,000 a year. We've almost tripled our ROI.

What needs improvement?

I don't know if it's UiPath as much as just what we do which is really complicated. Even the consultants that we've used with UiPath had said, "wow, this is very difficult what you guys do." There are a lot of moving parts. It's not as much of a UiPath issue. It's just our own processes.

I cannot recall the solution missing any features. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using UiPath for about maybe a year and a half tops.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I don't have any problems or concerns about the stability right now. The biggest concern I did have at the time was the fact that we've already invested six people in this in terms of the robotic piece and we're going to have a lot more. Since we've re-allocated these resources, and I have potentially 100 people where I could also reallocate resources, I worry about if something does happen or it doesn't work or there's no backup. If something goes wrong, I don't have employees to backfill as they won't exist. That's my concern. That hasn't happened yet, and I hope it doesn't.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability has been great. It hasn't been a problem at all. We will just continue to add bots every time we need them. So far, it's been easy. We started with two. Three months later, we added another two. Another three months went by and we added another two. From our standpoint, it's great. My UiPath rep was shocked that I keep adding more.

How are customer service and support?

I have not used technical support. 

We have a partner and they take care of it if something comes up. 

We had one issue with UiPath where something didn't work. We talked to them and it was taken care of within a couple of days.

We're working on something that may be called UiPath Insights. It's still not functional and there are some sources that we need. My vendor's working on that. I'm not quite sure what he means by it, however, he's working on it.

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

We did not use a different solution previous to UiPath.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was pretty easy. Yeah. We didn't face any challenges with it.

I contacted one of the vendors and they ran with it. As far as I'm concerned, we didn't have issues at all.

The deployment took us about 30 days. After that, in terms of implementing the bots, the first bot took us about three months. As soon as we did the first one, it just went really quick after that. That's due to the fact that it was a lot of reuse. It was just us internally understanding what information was needed and how it works. In terms of requirements, it was all new to us. Even with the acronyms they use, I'm still learning as we're not IT-based at all.

What about the implementation team?

We had a vendor that helped us implement it. We didn't have any challenges as far as that goes.

It was good. They didn't realize how challenging it was going to be or the person who integrated the solution for us, at last, didn't. At the same time, they know almost everything about my business now, however, I'm a little concerned about having to bring on more people as they're not in this industry. We're going to have to start them over from the kind of the ground up, which takes time.

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

We had a problem before with the pricing, however, for the most part, it's fine where it is now. My ROI is fine and it works great. I have no complaints.

The issue is you have to do a package at a time. That's my only challenge. Sometimes I don't need that much. I don't need that many licenses. The first time you sign up, it's a package of five every year. I don't necessarily need that.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We chose UiPath based on a referral. Somebody we heard speaking at a neurological healthcare conference about four years ago, who was not from  UiPath suggested that we needed to talk with UiPath.

I actually didn't know of any other company until after we were on UiPath.

This person was in our same space and he said it's fantastic. He had actually used two other solutions, however, he told us to go with UiPath and I trusted him. I've talked to other people since and they have said the same thing. We've made the right choice.

What other advice do I have?

We started using the on-premise deployment for the first six months and then we actually moved to the cloud.

We're mostly using unattended bots. 

We haven't really reduced human error for sure. We haven't calculated that. We're just moving on to our Insights app. We're just getting ready to launch that. Therefore, we’re not there yet. We don't know what that turnaround is going to look like.

We do not yet use UiPath's AI functionality in our automation program.

We have not yet used any UiPath Academy courses.

When we first got involved, we just wanted to know if it would work. We just decided on a certain budget and decided to try it. Once it worked, we realized we actually had to step back. We started really looking at where we could implement it. We should have done that earlier. That's what I would tell people. It's an automation hub. You need to go through and find your best scenarios, your best ROI. I would definitely tell people to look at that first.

I'd rate the solution at an eight 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
reviewer1642950 - PeerSpot reviewer
Application Development Specialist at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Easy to use, quick to build automations, saves us time, and facilitates better use of resources
Pros and Cons
  • "UiPath has good recording features that help to create automations."
  • "Better support for databases should be included. For example, interacting with SQL Server and SQL Developer would be beneficial features."

What is our primary use case?

I am a software developer and I am a full-time RPA developer for my company. We create automation for internal purposes as well as for our clients.

I have implemented 15 to 16 processes end-to-end that cover use cases including Excel, front-end web-based applications, backend Windows applications, and sometimes Citrix. I have also done some Adobe Flash Player automation.

The REFramework (Enhanced Robotic Enterprise Framework) is what we use for most of our use cases.

We are using Studio for development on-premises and we use Orchestrator in the cloud.

How has it helped my organization?

UiPath has helped to improve our organization in several ways. Prior to UiPath, the company was using legacy methods of automation. These were time-consuming and required that more code be written. With the ease of use and speed at which automations can be developed using UiPath, the company is bringing on new clients and therefore, more business.

UiPath and the automations that we create help us to better utilize our resources. For example, a manual task that used to take between seven and eight days can be completed in one or two days with automation.

This product is bringing new clients to the business and nowadays, all of our clients require something to be done in the domain of robotic process automation. 

With respect to ease of use and building automations, UiPath is very good. I would rate them at least a four out of five in that regard, especially when compared to other products on the market. The ease of building automations makes them quick to create and it can be accomplished by people in the business sector.

UiPath enables and helps us to create end-to-end automations, and it divides all of the subtasks up in a good way. For example, monitoring processes is different from developing code, and each of these is separated such that they are independent, but we can link them together for the benefit of the process. This is important because I am a complete process developer, so having all of the different subtasks available in one tool allows me to best develop automation for our clients.

This solution has helped to decrease our time to value, which is something that is evident when you look at the automation we were doing previously. Our technologies included Python, VBScript, and other ways. These approaches took more time to develop and are a little bit more complex. With the help of this tool, it takes less time to build the same automation. It allows us to focus on building the logic and algorithms, without having to deep-dive into things like syntax. By allowing us to focus on the business logic for each process, it leads to significant time savings.

We use the attended automation feature and it helps us when it comes to tasks that require interaction between user and application, such as the necessity to enter credentials. It is quite helpful, in particular for BPM processes, and this is something that is important to us. The typical case is when somebody is doing repetitive work as part of their task. In other words, they are working on one task, and the bot is working beside them but needs the occasional input from the user. In these processes, the bot is doing 80% of the work and the user is doing the remaining 20%.

We use the AI functionality because it makes it feasible to automate processes that are quite complex. For example, Document Understanding and NLP from the UiPath Cloud are things that we use. 

The AI features enhance UiPath's capabilities and allow us to automate more processes overall. Previously, when we were doing a specific task, we may not have been able to fully automate it. With the help of AI, we can do more.

In previous iterations of our bots, before the AI features were used, we were not able to get all of the information that we needed from PDF files. This is specific to certain use cases, to present an example. The AI functionality generally gives us more data, whether from document understanding, computer vision, or otherwise.

UiPath has helped to reduce human error because the bot is doing everything and eliminates the opportunity for people to make mistakes in the process. UiPath has had a positive impact in this regard, although we have had successes with other similar tools as well.

UiPath and automation have helped to free up employee time and nowadays, they are more creative because of it. With many of their tasks automated, they have time to work on things that are more creative and have a higher value.

For example, for a task that used to take an employee 10 hours, they are now spending between three and four hours on it. In the remaining six hours, they can be more productive and work on more important tasks. This not only helps the employee but adds value to the company as well.

What is most valuable?

The selectors work to help automate at the front-end or backend of applications, and they are quite useful. If you use selectors correctly then the automation can be done in a systematic way. For example, selectors can be used for clicking tabs in an application, and what we do is create an algorithm with the correct logic to go with them.

UiPath has good recording features that help to create automations.

We use the REFramework as a template, which divides things such as the opening of applications, applying the business logic, using the queues, and closing applications. As part of this framework, UiPath provides a systematic architecture to us. We just have to understand and work with it by applying our business logic and coordinating effectively to create end-to-end automations.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see more AI-related features added. Improvements could be made to the models so that they are more compatible with data science and machine learning.

Better support for databases should be included. For example, interacting with SQL Server and SQL Developer would be beneficial features.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with UiPath for more than three years. The company started using it before that.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability is something that UiPath is working on. The new versions have added more stability and important features like test suites and the workflow analyzer. Adding features and improving stability is a continuous process.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In my previous company, which is a large MNC, there were between 700 and 800 people working regularly with UiPath. In my current company, we have between 400 and 500 people working with RPA using UiPath. As we continue to take on more clients, we will expand our usage.

There are a variety of roles for the people that work with UiPath. Some are developers, whereas others are set up or support teams. Our company is very heavily focused on this domain.

The number of people required for deployment and maintenance depends on the size of the process. A larger and more complex process requires a larger support team to maintain it. For example, a simple process can be deployed and maintained with a two-person team, whereas four people are required for a medium-sized process, and a six-person team would be used to handle a complex process.

How are customer service and technical support?

I would rate the technical support between seven and eight out of ten.

In general, we express whatever concerns we have and then within a few days, we get updates from them. However, sometimes we have to elaborate a lot before we receive an answer. The documents and repository that they use for analyzing and improving our processes could be organized in a more systematic fashion.

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

We were using a variety of legacy tools that were more time-consuming and needed code development to a greater degree. These included things like Python code and Visual Basic scripting. There are still other tools that are being used, in addition to UiPath.

Prior to UiPath, approximately 80% of our costs were spent on developing automations. With the benefits that come with UiPath, the RPA costs are now only 45%. As the costs have decreased and the volume of automations increased, it improves company profit.

I have worked with Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere, and I find that UiPath is easier to use. However, to capture more market share, UiPath has to continue expanding its machine learning and AI features.

Automation Anywhere and Blue Prism are still being used for some processes in the company. We have switched away from them in some cases, opting instead for UiPath, because in general, it is easier to implement automation tasks using UiPath.

What about the implementation team?

We have a setup and deployment team in-house that is responsible for implementation. They take care of the deployment for our clients and bring things into their production environment. 

The team does their best to keep updated on what UiPath features are available and what the current version is. If updates are pending then they will be aware of them.

What was our ROI?

The company is experiencing quite a good return on its investment in UiPath.

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

I began learning UiPath with the Community version, which is available free of charge.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Before choosing UiPath for any particular job, the company examines the process to see how complex it is. Based on the time that it will take to implement it, as well as the number of resources, whether in UiPath, Blue Prism, or something else, the decision is made. Different tools are used for different processes based on these assessments.

What other advice do I have?

I started my UiPath journey using the Community Edition, version 2018.4. After I spent some time learning UiPath personally, I began using it full-time in my company.

We have several different teams that use UiPath in different ways. First, we have the developers, who do the coding and create the bots. Then, we have the testing team, who ensure that the bots perform correctly. Next, we have the deployment team and after that, there is the support team.

My advice for anybody who is implementing UiPath is that they need developers who are good with logic. They should come from a coding background with experience in logic, algorithms, have some knowledge of C#, and have some knowledge of HTML tags.

The biggest lesson that I have learned from using UiPath is that technology can be made more efficient by using these tools.

UiPath has all of the features that are required to make automation successful. It is currently just ahead of other similar tools on the market and if they continue to add features then it could be the market leader.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private 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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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.
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Associate Consultant at Capgemini
Real User
Orchestrator saves us time by enabling us to create a bot once and connect it to many machines
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features are some of the panels in UiPath Studio. For example, there is a debugging panel and a Designer panel. The debugging panel is useful because without it we could not solve any problems. The debugging panel provides functionality such as Step Into and Step Out, and we have highlight buttons. It helps us to analyze our code, what is wrong in a solution, and debug from the start to the end, to make the solution better. The Designer panel is where we create a workflow or step-by-step process, the place where a developer develops the code."
  • "One area for improvement is connected to the fact that it's completely based on Visual Basic .NET and C# languages. I would like to see some more basic activities that are particular to the VB.NET code, as well as activities based on LINQ queries because that is one of the fastest and most integrated languages. I would like to see pre-written activities so that we could simply drag and drop them into place and use them frequently."

What is our primary use case?

We mostly use UiPath in the healthcare and banking/finance sectors. Our use cases depend on the different sectors we use it for. A typical use case would be an Excel file with lakhs (hundreds of thousands) of records that we need to filter and apply some business rules to. We may have to check whether numbers are in integer or alphanumeric format so that they can be accepted by a particular application, or whether date data is formatted correctly.

We use it for end-to-end automation. We take all the input from users, regarding the full life cycle of a process, and use UiPath to create a business solution. An end-to-end project can include taking an Excel file and putting the data into a data table. Based on that, we create some business rules, check things with validations, and then create some templates. We upload the templates for different legacy applications so that they can be automated. A bot will run these scenarios in the backend, in either attended or unattended mode.

How has it helped my organization?

We may take student records and place those records into a particular template which we then upload to an application, whether a web application or a desktop application. If a human was involved in doing this, it would take days to filter the Excel and create a template based on a particular record. But by setting up some business rules through UiPath coding, it automatically applies those rules to create the template and upload it to the application. We can then send a notification to the user by email, because we have connectivity with Gmail, Outlook, and SMTP.

A human being can work eight hours or nine hours per day on average, but a robot can run 24/7. With automation, we can save time and money by continuously running things on the same machine without any errors. The accuracy can be 90 or even 100 percent, depending on the logic of the code. It also helps the communication between clients, users, and our organization, improving the partnership. It definitely reduces human error because it's automated and well-tested. It increases work volume because it's very fast. In terms of the amount of time it saves, for repetitive tasks it can save 90 percent of an employee's time. Employee satisfaction has definitely increased.

UiPath is also helping us to increase the number of tasks we can do. For example, if a human being is reading an Excel, doing some operations and validations within it, it will take hours or days to complete. But using a UiPath robot, we can simply create the set of necessary instructions in our code so that it will run within minutes or even seconds sometimes. It is very fast.

We use every component of UiPath, from Studio to Orchestrator. It's very helpful and it is very fast. Orchestrator is very beneficial because we only need to create a particular robot once and then we can simply connect it to machines. It definitely saves time because we only need to maintain the versions of a package and the code, and that can be done locally or via Studio. Because there is a chance code could be deleted on a local machine, the fact that Orchestrator is in the cloud means we can definitely retrieve it from there.

Orchestrator also helps save time because there are scenarios where we have multiple stages of input, where something depends on a value. As developers, we don't need to provide the particular input and again publish the same package. We just go to the cloud, check the process, check the assets, change the value, and it will automatically update. It's a robust solution. Like its name, Orchestrator really does help us orchestrate things.

Also, non-technical people, the users, can see what is happening in their jobs. They can check the status of particular scheduled jobs and see whether they are running or busy, and how many bots there are.

Attended robots are also helpful because sometimes we have a scenario where a user cannot share credentials because everything must be secure. In that type of situation, we need attended automation that can be run on a particular machine in front of the user. While it's running, they can do other work on the same machine. That kind of implementation enables us to automate while keeping things more secure. This is important to us because security is a main concern. It allows users to keep their information safe, rather than making it available on other machines. It's their intellectual property and we respect that.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are some of the panels in UiPath Studio. For example, there is a debugging panel and a Designer panel. The debugging panel is useful because without it we could not solve any problems. The debugging panel provides functionality such as Step Into and Step Out, and we have highlight buttons. It helps us to analyze our code, what is wrong in a solution, and debug from the start to the end, to make the solution better.

The Designer panel is where we create a workflow or step-by-step process, the place where a developer develops the code.

Within UiPath Automation Cloud, we are using Orchestrator in which we can

  • deploy the bots and maintain services
  • create attended and unattended robots for different versions of machines and manage which robot runs in a particular environment
  • use the queue to manually configure the times that bots repeatedly run. Using Orchestrator, we can simply schedule the target application. The queue also has a retry mechanism so that it will automatically take input, and we can specify the number of retries
  • store a user's ID and password credentials in the Orchestrator database
  • check the Orchestrator home page for what processes and jobs are running, and see any feedback on them, as well as the output
  • see the logs in Orchestrator.

What needs improvement?

They are currently working on most of the things I have thought about that need improvement, such as connectivity with other software and AI/ML capabilities.

But one area for improvement is connected to the fact that it's completely based on Visual Basic .NET and C#. I would like to see some more basic activities that are particular to the VB.NET code, as well as activities based on LINQ queries because that is one of the fastest and most integrated languages. I would like to see pre-written activities so that we could simply drag and drop them into place and use them frequently. It would be better to not have to go into the syntax for that particular language code. I would prefer if we could use activities from the Activities panel, and just provide the input and output, and they would work in the backend.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using UiPath for the past two years. I have very good experience in this particular tool, as an RPA developer. I have created enterprise solutions and business solutions from end-to-end.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable because it has been developed precisely and it's already optimized. It depends on the user's input and on the architecture and the environments. We have very good stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

UiPath is very scalable. It depends on the user's requirements and on the approach we follow. A modular approach makes it more scalable. For example, if we have different VMs, different accounts, or different licenses for the machines on which we are running, we can simply create one package and we can deploy it on the various machines, if we have the licenses for those robots. 

You can create one set of code or a package and run it anywhere, if it is suitable and the requirements are met. That's one reason the scalability is very good. 

We have a huge market and a huge environment. We can continuously run with a multi-bot architecture. If the code is developed that way, it will definitely increase the scalability.

UiPath is used by many users in our company. Their roles are varied. They could be in data analytics or they could just be doing some tedious task.

The business side is happy with the solution because it is decreasing tedious and repetitive tasks. They are happy with the time and money savings. As a result, they want to do other things via UiPath robots. They want to find other processes where the work can be done more productively.

How are customer service and technical support?

UiPath support enables us to manage issues by creating non-production and production tickets. We can discuss issues in calls and show them examples of the particular issue or activity under discussion. They provide us with support. Sometimes, when activities are not working, we can upgrade and downgrade the version of that particular activity. We can even send logs to them so that they can analyze and troubleshoot issues. It definitely helps.

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

I have only used UiPath for RPA. I have read about tools like Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere,  but I cannot compare them. They all have their own advantages and disadvantages. I like UiPath because it's user-friendly and it has a very big community in the forums. We can learn from the community. And the UiPath Academy provides training, certification, and diplomas so that a person can learn and develop the ability to create a solution.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is a little complex. You need high-end knowledge. You need to create the Studio setup on the different VM environments, deal with the licenses, and the Orchestrator setup. All of that requires good knowledge. You need to understand infrastructure and how things are set up. It's complex for regular users. The installation itself is relatively easy, but understanding the infrastructure is challenging. With guidance and training, it definitely becomes easier.

What was our ROI?

Licenses are costly, but, in the long run, UiPath will definitely help the business. Developing a solution is a one-time investment, which can be completed in a couple of days. But that work will be done next month, and again and again for the next 10 years. It definitely helps with digital transformation because it can connect solutions and create better opportunities.

UiPath is a good investment and return on that investment is very good. We can create robust solutions with UiPath.

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

Some licenses might be costly but it depends on the type of work involved and the turnaround time required. If you want to include AI/ML bots, it will definitely cost you more. If you want to use some of the latest features, like UiPath Insights, that will cost more.

But for low-level bots and automation and normal use of Orchestrator, the cost is per-bot.

Overall, pricing of the Enterprise Edition is pretty good. And for practice, we have the Community Edition, which is free. They also provide trial robots for two months so that we can use them for learning.

What other advice do I have?

When it comes to implementation, we think about how to make a solution robust so that it can be controlled and configurable. That way, if something changes in the future, we can work on it accordingly. It should be a modular approach.

You need to focus on requirements-gathering so that you can focus on exactly what the user wants, how the application behaves, and what kinds of errors might happen. You need to check all the environmental factors. Those are all lessons I have learned from creating UiPath automations. You also need to analyze things from the business perspective and think about how much money and time is being invested and what the ROI will be in the end.

End-to-end automation, starting with process analysis, then robot building, and finally monitoring of the automation, is a very important aspect of UiPath. Rather than starting directly with the coding, we analyze the business process so that we know how the business is manually doing something and understand their problems and how much effort they are putting into it. We then start to think about how we can use a bot to save time and money. Each phase of the process life cycle is important because, phase-by-phase, things need to be passed from one to the other as input. After delivering the automation to production, we need to provide monitoring services so that if there is an error or downtime, we can make changes. That is why each phase is important in the life cycle of RPA.

From the business perspective, we check what kind of automation is involved and how much time and money we can save by automating, as these kinds of projects are high-budget. The main goal is to run the business as fast as we can. We analyze whether it is suitable for the business and how it can be profitable. We look for processes where we can save 85 to 95 percent of the time or money involved. We also consider how much human error is involved in the process as it is.

Currently, we are not using the AI/ML functionality. But because I use the Community Edition of UiPath in my personal work, and it has the latest features, I have attended the training for AI Center provided by the UiPath Academy. I tried some analysis with these models, as well as the checking of words by AI/ML, in the Community Edition, and it is one of the excellent features. It's very useful. ML models are amazing. They are using APIs which are connected to Orchestrator and they are running those kinds of models. We can also deploy our own custom models if we know the AI/ML tools.

UiPath is one of the best tools available in RPA and it's currently booming. It's the perfect tool because the UI is very friendly. It is widely used. I believe pretty much everybody in the IT industry is working on an RPA solution, many with the help of UiPath. It depends on the particular business and whether they have the capacity, but everybody wants to increase use of UiPath because it provides cloud-based automation and it's a robust solution. Everybody is happy with the solution. They want to create more automated processes so that they can decrease that time and costs in their overall projects.

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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RPA Engineer at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Saves time, integrates well with Microsoft applications, fast and high-quality technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "UiPath has the simplest low-code user interface that I've seen in my professional life."
  • "If you don't change the name of the activity manually then you will lose some information during logging. It would be useful to put a simple incremental ID on each activity, so even if you don't change the activity name, you will know where the process becomes stuck."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case is the automation of many reports, dashboards, and tables that were created manually by some of my colleagues. The tasks involve collecting information from SAP Solution Manager, manipulating some of the data based on business rules that have been implemented, and then storing the data in a specific way that can be used in the next part of the workflow. This includes using Excel and the aim is to create a PDF report that is sent to the top business line managers.

UiPath is the perfect tool to implement a solution like this, with continuous operative tasks between Microsoft native applications such as Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

How has it helped my organization?

Before our UiPath implementation, the organization spent approximately two junior FTE on these tasks, and another 0.2 senior-level FTE in order to guide junior resources.

This process runs every day and if these tasks are executed manually, it means that two resources need to be staffed forever. At the end of the project, the organization gained a boost of two FTE saved and released, able to move on to other projects. This produced real value for the organization.

The efficiency of the process was the key success factor.

What is most valuable?

UiPath has the simplest low-code user interface that I've seen in my professional life. You simply drag and drop the activity on the flow, in a clear way, with clear names, and manipulating clear variables/arguments based on parameters. These are the key points in my humble opinion.

The library creation platform is really simple to use. Basically, it works like a normal flowchart application and once you've published packages, you can use and re-use these packages like activities in another workflow.

Last but not least, official Microsoft office integration is really useful, although all of the official integrations are very easy to use.

The UiPath Connect! and UiPath Go! communities come to our support every time we need to implement something challenging.

What needs improvement?

There are features that could be implemented on the coding side; for example, automatically assigning a unique ID for the "activity" used during the flow. As of now, if you use an activity via simple drag and drop, the activity keeps the original name. If you don't change the name of the activity manually then you will lose some information during logging. It would be useful to put a simple incremental ID on each activity, so even if you don't change the activity name, you will know where the process becomes stuck.

During the last update, the connection between robots and the Orchestrator (cloud) changed a lot. It would be a good idea to provide an easy way to use a single type of robot, regardless if it is a standard robot, floating robot, connected user, etc. Basically, have a simpler way to deploy robots in development, testing, and production environments.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with UiPath since 2017, and I plan to continue.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This product is really stable, and this is true for the on-premises deployment as well as the cloud version.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This solution is really scalable. It can be used in other organizational departments or on other robots in order to boost your automated tasks.

How are customer service and technical support?

The vendor provides really good support; fast response time and great quality!

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

UiPath was my first RPA solution.

How was the initial setup?

During the initial setup, care should be taken when configuring the robot connection. If you choose the "modern folder" setup then you could be struggling.

What about the implementation team?

I am part of the vendor team, implementing RPA for other clients.

What was our ROI?

We have a 300% return on investment.

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

The price and setup costs need to be supported by a strong business case.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere, WorkFusion, and Selenium (for web automation).

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Developer at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Saves time and reduces errors for manual tasks, and the community forums are helpful
Pros and Cons
  • "With the help of the library and with the help of the forums, developers can focus and it is easy to learn."
  • "The testing and release schedule for Studio should be improved because we find that with two releases per year, one of the versions is stable and the other one is not."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use UiPath for end-to-end automation. We develop both attended and unattended bots and we use the Orchestrator module, hosted in Azure.

Some of our typical use cases involve automating operations like downloading files online, analyzing and capturing details, saving them in another location, transferring them, and uploading them in other forms.

How has it helped my organization?

The app studio feature has increased the number of automations that we create while reducing the time it takes to create them. For example, we have a limitation when it comes to transferring files from one server to another server. However, we were able to resolve it by using a remote desktop on the UiPath server. I don't need to log into another system or another server; instead, I log in and use the remote desktop from my PC. It's really cost-efficient and it saves me a lot of time. It's superb.

UiPath helps us to implement end-to-end process automation starting with process analysis through to monitoring, and this is very important to us. Whether we are automating processes for external customers or internal purposes, there is an automation lifecycle that we follow. The end-users do not have much knowledge about automation, so we have to complete it from end-to-end.

It starts with analyzing the process to see if automation will work. We then develop it by trying to replicate what the user does manually. Once it has been developed and the functionality replicated, we test and tweak it for approximately two weeks. If everything goes well during this time, the process moves to production. In production, processes are continuously monitored.

The testing is a detailed process that involves finding the problems, then implementing error handling using try/catch statements and other methods. It is done in a continuous, agile fashion where we develop, publish, trial, error handling, monitoring, and then it starts again. When a process is pushed to production, when a change is made, it does through this lifecycle again.

How UiPath has improved the way our organization functions is clear when we look at one of our use cases. We need to have notifications about documents that describe the release of products. Our bot will start by filtering documents online using keywords, download the appropriate documents, then check to make sure that each is complete. If there is a problem then emails are automatically sent to the appropriate department.

From this point, we transfer the file into another folder and upload the current version to the release team. They will only receive what they need, rather than having to go through the document themselves. Prior to this, they needed to check it on their own and analyze everything. With this work being done by the robot, it relieves us of two person's workloads. What used to take three people to complete, is now done with one.

In terms of saving time, for our use case that involves the release documents, we save between 80 and 100 hours per week, so monthly, you can multiply that by four.

The time saved by our employees sometimes allows them to focus on higher-value work or in other cases, when we don't need the persons, we can reduce the workforce and then hire people in different roles, such as new developers. Overall, this helps us to improve our workforce. For example, we can branch into more areas, rather than do the same thing for many different customers.

With respect to employee satisfaction, if somebody loses their position then they may not be happy. However, it is important to remember at the same time that we may open a new position because of this opportunity. This allows the person to move, find new opportunities, focus on new things, and develop themselves. To me, this is a win-win because we are more focused on generating new types of business.

UiPath has definitely helped us to reduce human errors. This is a benefit to us because, before this, we used to get customers complaining quite often. However, we have reduced the complaints. We still need to have the customer complaints section but now, we have reduced it from five people to one. The robot is not 100% error-free, but it's between 90% and 99.9% error-free. With so few complaints, we don't need as many people to deal with them.

Overall, UiPath's process analysis and optimization have increased our productivity.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature for me is the UiPath Studio.

It helps a lot. I wouldn't really say it's code-free; however, I would say that it's 90% code-free. It's very easy to use, with most of the actions performed using the drag-and-drop interface. When you do write code, it's a very small amount of the time.

The library activities are really helpful. With the help of the library and with the help of the forums, developers can focus and it is easy to learn. It helps in terms of time-to-value.

I also find Orchestrator to be helpful. The Studio and the Orchestrator together are like your body and your soul. Without both parts, it won't function. You need to have Orchestrator to run the Studio. Right now, today, we have a problem with our Orchestrator and it's not working. I can't use Studio because it's connected and without access to my Orchestrator, I can't do anything.

The academy courses help in the process of getting employees up to speed with the solution by providing them with the fundamental knowledge and the opportunity to practice. When you start doing it, you may face errors and again, with the docs, you may gain more knowledge. When you start to use the forums, you get more knowledge, and it all helps. But, if you only rely on the forums, I would say that it would help only 60% or 70% of what you get compared to taking the academy courses. In the end, you will only get better by doing it, and then going to the forums when you have problems.

What needs improvement?

The testing and release schedule for Studio should be improved because we find that with two releases per year, one of the versions is stable and the other one is not. It would be better to focus on a single release, but make sure that it is stable. We have had problems in the past with this and we don't need any unstable versions. For example, version 20.4.2 was not stable but version 20.10.2 was very good.

Technical support and customer care are areas in need of improvement. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using UiPath for between six and seven months.

How are customer service and technical support?

We are in Switzerland and normally, we use local support. When they cannot resolve an issue then it is transferred to the US team and we get support from them directly. In our experience, the support in Europe is not sufficient and we prefer to speak directly with the UiPath headquarters. We find that here, the people do not have enough knowledge.

We have had a lot of problems and for example, we have an issue right now where our Orchestrator doesn't work. We have had to wait about a week for the ticket to be escalated to headquarters, and because of delays like this, we are not always happy with customer care. The product is good but the technical support can improve.

We had issues where the first person tells us one thing, but a second person says that it's wrong and it needs to be done another way. Then, a third person speaks and presents another idea. This all takes a lot of time before a fourth person explains that everything is wrong and it has to be done another way. A lot of the time when you have these kinds of problems, you just have to start from scratch.

It can be frustrating because we had spent almost three weeks upgrading our system to the 20.10.2 version and now, we face the same problem. We have not been able to properly run our system for between three and four weeks.

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

I have not personally used another RPA solution but I have colleagues who have experience with Automation Anywhere. We primarily use UiPath but there are some developers in the company who regularly work with Automation Anywhere.

We did not switch from one product to another. Rather, they are used for different reasons. For example, I have heard that when it comes to performing file transfers, Automation Anywhere makes it quite easy and they do not have the limitations that UiPath does.

On the other hand, I feel that the AI in UiPath is doing better. We have lots of workflows and activities in UiPath and I strongly prefer it as a product.

How was the initial setup?

I wouldn't say that the initial setup is complex, although when you are just beginning with a new environment, it is not that easy, either. Because it is a new thing, you will need to learn in the beginning.

We followed the guide and found that the installation was not very tough.

What was our ROI?

UiPath saves us costs, but there is more to it than that. It saves us in terms of time spent on manual tasks, but on the other hand, we pay UiPath. On yet another hand, with the money we save, we are open to new opportunities and new business.

Overall, I am very happy with the ROI.

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

The price of UiPath is a little bit high, although there are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees. Overall, it is not too costly, but slightly high.

What other advice do I have?

We have not yet used the AI functionality but we are trying to. We have not developed any uses cases yet but it is something that we are working on. We will be taking some courses on it first and after that, we may try some internal use cases.

We have advanced our technical knowledge by using this product. For example, we now use JSON config files, rather than using Excel.

One of the biggest lessons that we have learned is that it is nice to have a good solution design before starting development. There were times where we tried to do something one way but a problem occurred, so we had to solve it by trying different features, then testing and running it again. A lot of time is spent during this process. Now, we have learned to focus more during the design, then start to develop it.

My advice for anybody who is implementing UiPath is that it works really well in Windows, so they have to have a Windows machine if they want to start developing.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
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
RPA Lead at Slalom Consulting
Real User
Human and robot interaction happen seamlessly with Attended bots
Pros and Cons
  • "They've got the bolt on the market, so even with the new launches that happen with some of the new tools that came in, I think Connect really speaks to an overall automation strategy. I think that sets it apart."
  • "I talked to the product team. They are very passionate about this. In my opinion, all the different components that they have now released should be integrated under a single umbrella, available through a single landing page. That way, everything integrates with each other and they are able to communicate data back and forth. To me, that would be the ultimate solution."

What is our primary use case?

We're a consultant, so we help customers use this solution to develop automation and help set up COE. We provide the means for an entire organization to build its use cases. That's how we use Orchestrator both attended and unattended.

How has it helped my organization?

The solution has helped eliminate human errors. The amount varies by specific use case, but it is sometimes 50% to 60%.

It has also saved organizations time. Internally, we're not at a stage where we've measured it. I would say right now it's not that great, but maybe 15 or 20 hours per person.

What is most valuable?

Orchestrator's value really comes from scheduling and jobs, where robots can trigger other robots. I can't speak to the new versions yet, but they all seem great. Attended is where the human and robot interaction can happen seamlessly. With unattended, some of the processes that were earlier so mundane are all being done without any human interaction, so that provides true end-to-end uninterrupted automation.

I would rate the ease of use for this solution as five out of five.

The UiPath Academy RPA training is awesome. It's top of the line, so I would also say that it should get a five out of five rating.

What needs improvement?

I talked to the product team. They are very passionate about this. In my opinion, all the different components that they have now released should be integrated under a single umbrella, available through a single landing page. That way, everything integrates with each other and they are able to communicate data back and forth. To me, that would be the ultimate solution.

I get it. There is a roadmap and it's a journey. Still, I would like to get to a place where everything integrates with each other. Now that we have all these different means that can help us enable a customer in their journey, making sure that they're integrated would truly add value. That removes the overhead of combining data from all these different sources.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate its stability as five out of five. With any tool, there have been occasions when a job did not trigger or aborted, but that's been very rare in my experience.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would say we have more than 20 users. There may even be around 50 users, if not more.

How was the initial setup?

It was very easy to install this solution.

It does not take long from the time one purchases the UiPath license until they have a real bot in production. We do this mostly for our customers, but also for our own internal use case. We were able to get it done and up and running in weeks.

What was our ROI?

We have absolutely seen an ROI. The time to get an ROI varies from case to case. 

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

Attended is fairly cheap. Anytime you bring in Orchestrator, that starts to become a little more expensive. I'm a little concerned about all the new SKUs that are coming in and the products associated with them. I am really interested in finding out if someone wanted a full product suite, what kind of money are they looking at annually.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate UiPath as ten out of ten. I've done implementations across tools, so I'm familiar with some of the other market leaders too. Honestly, though, UiPath is very good at keeping up with the times. It's easy to implement. Its ease of use and how quickly you can get set up and going stands out, in my view. They've got the bolt on the market, so even with the new launches that happen with some of the new tools that came in, I think Connect really speaks to an overall automation strategy. I think that sets it apart.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
PeerSpot user
Senior Systems Analyst at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Robots work on-demand to complete tasks quicker, but there is a learning curve
Pros and Cons
  • "The robots that I have developed can take a process that is normally very complicated and simplify it."
  • "The licensing process is complicated and needs to be improved."

What is our primary use case?

I primary use Studio, but I also use Orchestrator.

I develop robots for reducing tasks for our business users.

We run some of our automations in the Citrix virtual environment. We have found that the Citrix environment tends to present challenges, so it can take a little longer.

With a year and a half of experience, I am still learning with this platform. I find that the ease by which processes can be automated is not as much of an issue with the platform, but rather how it behaves with other applications that the robot controls. The learning curve is mostly how the robot behaves in maybe a Citrix environment, or in how it behaves with the applications that it's controlling. Sometimes they have their own little quirks that you have to learn.

I got started with this solution by using the Academy training. On a scale of one to five, judging how beneficial it is, I would rate the training a three. It is easier to get started because you are learning by experimenting.

From the point that we purchased our UiPath license until we had our first robot was approximately seven or eight weeks. 

How has it helped my organization?

Some of the robots handle high-volume processing, where people would take months but the robots are doing it in weeks. We have probably saved two hundred hours so far, using robots. Timing is a big issue. The tasks can be completed quicker because robots can do it on-demand, rather than having to schedule a person's time. I would say that for the tasks, they are saving forty to fifty percent of the time by using the robot.

Not all of the tasks we have automated were existing in-house processes. In some cases, after using the platform, we thought about ways to create automated tasks that were never being done before.

Human errors have been reduced, if not eliminated by using the solution. When users have to complete a task in a timely fashion they sometimes miss one of the steps, but this is solved using the robots.

What is most valuable?

The robots that I have developed can take a process that is normally very complicated and simplify it. 

What needs improvement?

The licensing process is complicated and needs to be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for a year and a half.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

With respect to the stability, on a scale from one to five, I would rate this solution a four. The tool itself is quite stable and I haven't had any real issues with it. The issues that I have had tend to be with Citrix or the environment that the robots are running in, and not the platform itself.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In the US, we have two developers who are working with this solution.

How was the initial setup?

The installation was straightforward but activating the license was slightly complicated. I'm not sure if it was a UiPath issue or something at the company.

What was our ROI?

We are definitely seeing performance benefits for users and the turnaround time for tests that we have to do.

What other advice do I have?

I have seen a demo with Studio X and it should help with the coding so that we can go live quicker than we do.

Using RPA has given us another tool to offer with respect to business solutions. Automation is something that we're actively looking for places to make use of.

This is a good solution, but there is a learning curve. One you are familiar with it, this solution works well and it is fun to work with.

I would rate this solution a seven 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
Project Delivery Manager at Deloitte
Real User
Consolidates information and eliminates redundant manual tasks
Pros and Cons
  • "I think there's some scalability to UiPath that's going to make everything pretty convenient and easy to use."
  • "I would like a new feature like some sort of generic interface or input where other UiPath users can examine our product or our situations and help us fix them."

What is our primary use case?

We are using UiPath primarily for process automation. We are trying to consolidate information, eliminate redundant manual tasks, and save some money.

What is most valuable?

I'm developing my first bot, so I can't answer that yet. I've just got my UiPath certification, been thrust into a project which I'm pretty excited about. I don't know what our client is going to ask as of yet. Obviously, those parameters are probably going to change weekly, if not daily. I think there's some scalability to UiPath that's going to make everything pretty convenient and easy to use.

The tool is very simple, even for a layman like myself without a coding background. It's a gateway to the process automation industry. I think this is really the simplest and easiest way to do it.

I used the UiPath Academy and got a certification. It was very easy to use, they are very patient, but it's not automatic. They are very diverse and applications are necessary. The steps just take you all the way through. If you reach a stopping point, you can literally just start over. Then you can try again with another series of questions, some more accessibilities, or different paths towards the same outcome. I loved it. I thought it was pretty simple and pretty easy to use. It's very non-stressful.

Regarding automation, we serve the federal government here, so I'm working for a very specific division in my company. We're serving the client, so I don't even know how new and exciting this is going to be. This is going to be huge. I think we're right on the cusp of all of it. The sky's the limit.

What needs improvement?

Due to the sensitivity of my project, I would like a new feature like some sort of generic interface or input where other UiPath users can examine our product or our situations and help us fix them. Some sort of official UiPath community within, where everyone can kind of help each other out.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is fine. The only factor we have is a finicky customer. We need to help them with their choices, changes, reversals, augmentations, but it seems to be pretty simple and intuitive so far.

How was the initial setup?

Our initial setup was pretty straightforward. We used it on a secure client-server, so there was no change from what I'd learned on my own and what I had to use in the work environment. It was pretty simple.

What was our ROI?

In as far as learning the product, it is almost free in its efficiency in teaching people like myself how to use it. With regards to the client, it's a little early yet, but they project incredible savings. One thing I should say about UiPath and process automation is that it's not an attempt to eliminate jobs. This is a huge misconception and stigma. It's an attempt to make working more efficient. In that respect, I think it'll save everyone a lot of money if they're willing to try it and implement it.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I've heard about some alternatives, but I haven't used them yet. UiPath is my first entrance into this. I really don't see the need to use anything else. The client likes it as well, so if they're happy with it, I have absolutely no desire to investigate anything else.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution as a solid nine out of ten, just because I haven't used it very long. I'm probably going to give it a ten. I don't know what else UiPath can do for me, and I'm sure there's more.

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.