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Madison McMahon - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior RPA Dev at Aeyon
Real User
Gives many options to do things, and saves a lot of time and money
Pros and Cons
  • "A lot of the prebuilt models that are on an AI Center are valuable. Being able to go in there and train your data, give sample data, label the fields, and different OCR methods are also valuable."
  • "UiPath is very stable. I have not had any issues in terms of that. The only issue we used to have was if a website were to change or an application were to change, but we have found ways to work around that and deal with those types of situations."

What is our primary use case?

At Aeyon, we use UiPath to develop custom solutions for our clients that drive innovation and digital transformation within the public sector. We work closely with the US Marine Corps, Army, Navy, Coast Guard, NASA and several other Federal agencies. We have built 50+ automations for a wide range of use cases, but the ones we see most often include financial reconciliation, data extraction using AI/ML Models, data entry, data manipulation/consolidation, downloading/moving files in bulk, data validation, and interacting with various web applications.

The business objective that our organization is trying to achieve with its AI-powered automation initiative is to greatly reduce the time spent on repetitive/clerical tasks and allow the employees more time to focus on the important tasks that grow their business such as collaboration and innovation. Aeyon successfully helps our client achieve this objective by using UiPath to develop solutions that increase efficiency, reduce operating costs, and drive ROI.

How has it helped my organization?

Our AI-powered automation initiative has fundamentally changed what our organization is able to achieve. It has made a huge impact on the way we process documents for not only ourselves but our clients as well. It saved a lot of time and money.

We use AI Center for data extraction on structured and unstructured document types. The pre-built models are very versatile and efficient, and the ability to train custom models makes it a great solution for almost any use case. I feel that AI Center and UiPath Document Understanding were pretty easy to learn. It only took me about a week to learn. There are tons of helpful tutorials and other resources online. I like how it has the prebuilt models as well as the option to be able to go and train your own data, so I would give it a ten out of ten.

It has definitely increased the accuracy of our operations. It has reduced the risk of clerical errors. Document processing has allowed us to be able to compare data for that extra layer of making sure that everything is extracted correctly.

It has freed up a lot of time because instead of having to manually go through and find ways to track data or manually look at it, we are able to use different AI technologies to fit pretty much any use case. For most of our clients, it saves them an average of about 100 hours annually on the smaller processes, and then we have some larger ones where they are even saving about 15,000 hours annually, which is a lot of extra free time for them to focus on collaboration and those kinds of things.

What is most valuable?

A lot of the prebuilt models that are on an AI Center are valuable. Being able to go in there and train your data, give sample data, label the fields, and different OCR methods are also valuable.

What needs improvement?

The improvement is not necessarily in the product itself. The main difficulty we have usually has to do with pricing and identifying the best solution for each specific use case on a long-term scale. If there was an easier way to track the AI unit usage and determine which pricing plan would best fit the need for each use case, then that would be extremely valuable.

UiPath is very stable. I have not had any issues in terms of that. The only issue we used to have was if a website were to change or an application were to change, but we have found ways to work around that and deal with those types of situations.

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?

I have been using UiPath for about four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Overall, it is very stable. There is low technical debt and monitoring. After a process has been deployed, for the most part, it is stable after testing and everything.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is very scalable. I have had no issues in that department, and I know that they continue to make it more and more scalable, which is awesome to see with each new release.

How are customer service and support?

Their support is great. There are so many resources available online. There is UiPath Academy, and there is the ability to chat with them 24/7. I have never had an issue getting in touch with their representative quickly when I needed help with something. I would rate them 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?

I started off using UiPath, and then I got a job a few years back where I used a software called Kofax. I was able to see a lot of similarities, but I still felt that it was very limited in its ability to integrate with third-party software. I remember several use cases where I thought that if this was UiPath, I would know how to do it. I noticed a lot of limitations with Kofax. It was a bit of a learning curve going from UiPath to Kofax, and then I realized that there were a lot of things that Kofax was not able to integrate with in terms of third-party software. Based on my experience with Kofax, I definitely feel that UiPath is superior.

I have used Microsoft Power Automate for a few processes. We use that for some of our smaller projects. We just started looking into that as an option as well for certain use cases. It is important to us that UiPath has orchestration whereas Microsoft Power Automate does not because orchestration gives you a way to run processes in the background rather than on your local machine. You can also do event triggering and time schedules. UiPath definitely gives a lot more options and freedom to be able to do things without having to manually run the process.

How was the initial setup?

I was involved in its initial setup. I pretty much came in when it was coming from the ground up. I have helped install it. I have helped customers set their licensing plans and install everything on their local machines so that they can run the automation and get set up with orchestration and all that.

Its initial setup was pretty straightforward. You need to have UiPath Studio installed. They now offer automation. They have UiPath Cloud. You just sign into that, and you have access to Orchestrator and all of those services just right off the web. It is pretty easy to set up.

Our implementation strategy includes getting on a Teams call with the client so that we are able to look at their screen and walk them step by step through various aspects, such as:

  • Where to save specific folders?
  • How to get signed in to the appropriate account?
  • How to access Orchestrator and the logs in there to see if there are any issues with the process?
  • How to monitor it?

We look at their screen and walk them through various things. We keep that communication line open if they ever have issues or questions in the future.

What about the implementation team?

We did not take any external help. Our company did it through our own team members.

What was our ROI?

We try to calculate ROI for all of our clients for projects that we deploy. We usually calculate it in terms of total cost savings annually and also in terms of how many hours of labor are being saved annually. It is cool to see those numbers continuing to grow.

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

The licensing is very affordable, especially when you compare its benefits. However, I know that AI units are purchased separately and can be costly depending on the specific use case. We are still trying to figure out how to track our usage and which tier or plan to go with, but overall, it is affordable in comparison to other options.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I evaluated Automation Anywhere as well as Blue Prism. At my last company, we were trying to figure out between those two and UiPath. After comparing everything on a wider scale, we realized that UiPath was going to be the better solution for us.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate UiPath a ten out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Praveen Pallapothu - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Consultant
Great user community and Academy courses but the AI functionality is still immature
Pros and Cons
  • "One of the reasons UiPath is so successful is the UiPath community. We have tremendous people in the community supporting each other in terms of development or community events."
  • "We've used AI functionality. On a real-time basis, we haven't seen many benefits from the AI center. It's not cost-effective to run models on it as of now."

What is our primary use case?

Most of my use cases are spread across all the business units. It's used in accounts payable or for receiving reconciliations. It is also used in directory management and the banking finance sector. 

What is most valuable?

UiPath has a lot of features and they have added a lot of things. The apps and document understanding are good. We use document understanding a lot, even though they may not be common for day-to-day processes.

The Orchestrator is amazing. It provides a huge benefit including data security and data storage.

We can add a huge number of activities and can input code right into the platform.

While there might be companies that use the product to do automation for good cause, however, so far, in my experience, I have yet to do much of those use cases. I’m more on the business process side.

The product enables us to implement end-to-end automation. When they first launched, people used to have some sort of hiccups, however, now you don’t need different tools to manage your entire automation journey. With UiPath, from the discovery phase on, you have everything you need. We can understand the ROI clearly and can see what we’ve invested and what we’ve received.

The user community is valuable. It has the biggest community. Everyone knows it. One of the reasons UiPath is so successful is the UiPath community. We have tremendous people in the community supporting each other in terms of development or community events. People from different organizations can explain different pain point areas or explain good use cases and share learning and feedback.

We use both cloud and on-prem services. Most companies prefer on-prem over the cloud. From our perspective, we’re working to convert users to the cloud to reduce the footprint. Still, many want to maintain that on-prem segment.

We use the UiPath Academy courses. Since the beginning of my career, I’ve used it. Whenever there are new products that are launched, they will release certain courses for training purposes. I've gone through training at the Academy. I found a certified trainer also to provide training. Overall, having the training available really helps new people who want to kick-start their careers using the app.

They've also implemented community collaboration. If someone from the community has developed something, they will add training based on the community. The user has larger visual data now, compared to what happened previously.

The solution has allowed us to manage digital transformation and reduce the cost around it. Automation really helps boost digital transformation. We've seen cost reduction around resource use and the cost of operations as well. 

We've been able to reduce human error using UiPath. Of course, it depends on the people developing it. However, as long as the people have good implementation experience, we can really minimize errors.

It's helped free up employee time. However, it is not a major amount across every project. Comparatively, it can save a number of hours versus manual labor. 

We have saved money and that's calculated on the number of hours saved in terms of man hours. We haven't cut staff; they are now working on different tasks instead.  

What needs improvement?

We've used AI functionality. On a real-time basis, we haven't seen many benefits from the AI center. It's not cost-effective to run models on it as of now. We haven't been able to automate more processes. Some projects don't require AI at all. If it gets more cost-effective and has more use cases, that might change. 

The tool continuously redefines itself. They release three major versions every year and target one major feature once a year, like AI, et cetera. However, there are a few features at an early stage and not quite mature yet.

The initial tools are good enough compared to other vendors, however, they are still refining and need to change a lot of things, especially in the AI center, which is not that flexible when it comes to deployment. This is the same for UiPath apps. In most cases, nobody wants to invest a lot of money in attended bots. They need to work on that.

We'd like to see them work towards more stable outcomes to minimize hiccups. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for more than six years. I started in 2017.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Previously, we haven't noticed stability issues. In the past year, we have noted issues with stability. There have been some hiccups. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability depends on the way a company implements it. From a cloud perspective, the scalability is good. That said, the flexibility is there to scale.

How are customer service and support?

We've had issues in the past where products were not working as expected and we've reached out to support. The experience has been mixed. Sometimes it is good. Sometimes solutions are delayed. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

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

I did not use a different solution previously. However, I have used Automation Anywhere, Power Automate, recently, and also Intellibot and Blue Prism.

Power Automate is still quite young. There are still items missing as it's new. 

UiPath excels in the Orchestrator. The flexibility is great as well.

How was the initial setup?

We've worked with both cloud and on-prem deployments. However, people seem to prefer on-prem. Almost all of our clients are maintaining their own cloud and then running UiPath into the cloud from on-prem.

I was involved with the deployment. The setup is straightforward. For the governance and audit security principles, we do need to add in a bit more. We might add, for example, a CI/CD pipeline. 

We tend to have three to five people, part of the support team, to help with the deployment.

There is some maintenance required. We need to monitor our VMs and understand if the robot is failing and if so what is the root cause. We have an interior support team for maintenance services.  

What about the implementation team?

We did not use an outside vendor for the setup. Only people in the department are allowed to handle the deployments due to compliance. 

What was our ROI?

We cannot calculate an overall ROI. However, if something isn't getting 150% or more, people tend to not want to implement it. So far, we've seen a very good ROI. 

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

The costs have gone up recently. The pricing seems to be a bit higher for the end user. 

What other advice do I have?

We are UiPath partners. 

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. The most recent tools are not as impressive compared to what is happening in the market. 

As long as others don't need additional tools like Apps or document understanding, I'd recommend it. There are a lot of features and functionality to try. However, if you need document understanding and apps, I'd advise users to look at their use case, do a POC, and figure out if it's a perfect fit. 

From the perspective of pure automation, UiPath is excellent. However, if a company is looking for AI functionality, they really need to see what else is out there and what is best for them. 

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: 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.
Navinkumar Sadasivam. - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Reduces the cost of digital transformation and helps our client reduce their on-premises footprint
Pros and Cons
  • "The ease of integration is a valuable feature."
  • "Some of the APA integrations are complicated and have room for improvement."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily work with banking clients at a high level, automating solution points, nodes, and bot processes to reduce demand. For example, if a task was previously performed by a hundred people, we have now limited it to around five to ten people by implementing automation to closely monitor the bots in real-time to ensure their effectiveness.

How has it helped my organization?

Building automation using UiPath is easy and in most cases can be done with a single click. There is no need to write coding. We can insert and delete columns or remove duplicate frames easily. 

We have already implemented a couple of solutions, one of which is a maintenance automation database. The users of the database want to send emails with attached files and other artifacts, and previously this was done manually. Each day, up to 300-500 items were manually processed by 50-60 people who would navigate to a separate application, search for the file, upload it, and send the email. This was a tedious task and accuracy and reliability were questionable, requiring manual verification. This process was repeated monthly for around 10,000-12,000 items, taking around 25-30 days to complete. We automated this process and provided a high-level solution initially, which was later built, bought, and deployed. The bot we created is capable of processing 900-950 items per day, meaning that all 10,000 items can be processed within eight to ten days. This reduces the processing time by one-third and the cost from 100 to around 12 months, as we only need three to four rotational shifts to monitor the bot. Sometimes the bot may disconnect or encounter issues beyond our control, but we address these promptly to reinstate the process. This is the work we are doing in our organization.

End-to-end automation is a crucial aspect of completing tasks within the specified time frame. Clients do not want to wait for extended periods, such as a month or two, and prefer to see progress at least one-third or one-fourth of the way through. This ensures that clients are not preoccupied with a single task and can focus on improving their business while also increasing accuracy. UiPath aims to provide clients with a high return on investment from both the software build and business development perspectives. This is achieved by delivering effective solutions that meet clients' needs.

We are satisfied with UiPath's community. Occasionally, we encounter some queries or doubts, such as whether we should use a particular feature or MAC code, or whether we can use a certain file. While we cannot always rely on direct support for such minor issues, we found that the UiPath community can be a helpful resource. We search for similar issues that other users may have faced and posted about, and we often find solutions to our questions in a timely manner. Overall, we find the UiPath community to be effective and useful.

UiPath has helped our client reduce their on-premises footprint. This decision is purely based on the client's interests and has nothing to do with our personal or company interests. Generally, clients prefer cloud integration as they want their systems to be up and running 99.9 percent of the time. However, sometimes they may opt for on-premises solutions based on the CDRT of a particular application, which refers to the sensitivity of the data involved. We have some limited automation that deals with sensitive information, such as credit-related automation, which the client cannot access. In such cases, clients may prefer an on-premises solution, but overall, cloud integration is becoming more important.

With the implementation of AI, we can utilize UiPath for automation, which is more dependable.

UiPath reduces the cost of digital transformation.

Our clients are highly satisfied with the nearly 99 percent reduction in human error achieved through the use of UiPath. This includes both individual and team errors. However, during the development phase, some human input was necessary to create rules for the bot to follow. Any potential issues were identified and resolved during testing by our IT and testing teams. Overall, our clients are pleased with the system's reliability and performance.

What is most valuable?

The architecture of UiPath is a unique feature compared to other solutions. 

The ease of integration is a valuable feature.

Debugging files is easy to do using UiPath.

What needs improvement?

Some of our customers have experienced performance issues after the latest update.

The licensing cost is high and has room for improvement.

Some of the APA integrations are complicated and have room for improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using UiPath for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In general, UiPath is a stable platform. However, the performance tends to slow down frequently after updates.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

UiPath is scalable.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support and documentation are good.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

In 2017 and 2018, we utilized Blue Prism in the preliminary stage. However, we subsequently discovered that it was not appropriate for our clients due to its intricate architecture and high cost compared to UiPath. UiPath, on the other hand, offers a more user-friendly experience by integrating everything into a single platform.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup can be described as neither straightforward nor complex. I give the initial setup a five out of ten. We experience smooth operation once we finish setting up and deploying. If a person has three to four years of experience and is familiar with all the necessary processes for deployment, I believe that only one or two people, excluding the developer and tester, are needed to deploy the entire package to the host. Sometimes even just one person can handle the task, but we can assume two people will be sufficient. They will be deploying the product on the cloud, as there is a single package that has been moved from the latest enrollment.

What about the implementation team?

We implement UiPath for our customers.

What was our ROI?

UiPath has been instrumental in saving our customers money, which is the primary reason why they have adopted it. Instead of using the traditional method, UiPath's automation has streamlined processes for over 10,000 products, leading to a reduction in manpower by almost 90 percent. This has significantly decreased the turnaround time from 28 days to 12 days, making clients exceedingly satisfied and unwilling to risk their business due to potential delays. As a result, UiPath has provided us with a tenfold return on investment.

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

The licensing cost is high.

What other advice do I have?

I give UiPath a nine out of ten.

UiPath does not require maintenance, however, it does require a person to monitor the bot and ensure that it is functioning properly.

UiPath's architecture is simple and straightforward. I recommend the solution.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Shared Services Projects Leader at a construction company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Saves time on data entry projects, offers helpful training courses, and is easily scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "I've been pretty impressed with the stability."
  • "The on-prem orchestrator was an issue for us."

What is our primary use case?

I own the robotics process automation program for our life safety segment. I also own the mergers and acquisitions project management for our life safety segment. We've started out by using UiPath specifically for mergers and acquisitions when migrating customer data from the acquired companies to our standard ERP. We're also implementing sales and use tax, filings, and things like that as well.

How has it helped my organization?

With our most recent robot, we transfer information from acquired companies to our ERP. Typically, it would take about six temp associates for about four to six weeks to clean the data and move it into the ERP. About three weeks of that would be actual data entry. With this product, we took that three weeks of data entry, times six people, and rolled it down to 12 hours of robot running. It was a pretty significant amount of savings for us.

What is most valuable?

Citizen development is great. With it, it's easy to develop or have self-developed robot intelligence. For example, instead of having to hire a developer, you can make the robots do what you need using the UAPs studio tool. This has been the most valuable aspect. StudioX specifically for our newer citizen developer is useful and I really like using Studio for myself.

We have seen a reduction in, for example, time, and not necessarily in human error. For example, we did an interesting analysis. We wanted to see what the human error rate was for entering data, and, due to the fact that our ERP is Microsoft Dynamics 2012, capturing some of that data is a little bit harder. We structured error rates based on entry. What we did was we created a robot to go back and check all their entries to see if they were missing anything. Oddly, the errors that people were making were nominal. I don't see any data that showed that we necessarily reduced error rates. It was really the people aspect of the process where there were time-savings based on the needed amount of human input. We've been able to reassign workers to more valuable tasks where we can't assign robots yet.

We do about four to five acquisitions a year and those are typically six-week processes for each one of them. We could say that we save about 25 weeks of labor in a year, and that robot will be about a week's worth of labor. Therefore, we save about 24 weeks of labor.

We've been taking some UiPath Academy courses. We've actually found it more helpful if we chose UiPath South American Developers to teach us to build as we're building. For my team specifically, it's been really helpful to have an expert involved to say "this is the use case that we want to do" and have them walk us through building a specific robot. That way, it's real-life experience versus a video-based session. While the academy is helpful, hands-on experience is just much more valuable.

UiPath Academy courses affected the process of getting employees up to speed. It affected it a little bit. It probably more affected our decision to use UiPath over Automation Anywhere, or even the Microsoft RPA program. Just the fact that there was so much available content that we could lean on if we needed to was huge. The others had content, however, not anything close to UiPath's capacity.

What needs improvement?

The on-prem orchestrator was an issue for us. When we bought it, it was a mistake. Our IT team thought it would be the best option for us, however, it's way more complicated to use. Out of the box, it feels more complicated. That said, once you get to know it, it's fine, however, it was incredibly hard to set up on our enterprise systems. Whereas, with the cloud deployment, we were live and up and running in an hour.  The initial setup took us about two weeks. That was a little bit of heartburn. It would be helpful if UiPath could offer some sort of support outside of a ticketing system.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for about three months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I've been pretty impressed with the stability. We've had a couple of minor issues that our developers helped us figure out. It's programming and nobody on my team are programmers. Some of it could be just user error, however, overall it seems like a very stable platform.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is really unlimited. It boils down to the organization's ability to implement a governance model quickly and successfully. I know UiPath has a governance tool or some kind of a framework, however, it is one of those pieces where it's way more expensive than us using our regular service channel tool that we already have implemented to do those submissions and approvals, et cetera.

In our organization, the users include two developers - me and then one of my assistants.

How are customer service and support?

The only interaction we've had with technical support was during installation. The ticketing system and not being able to physically talk to somebody were difficult to deal with during the implementation process.

How was the initial setup?

The on-premises implementation was a bit difficult. We knew that we were going to have to pay developers to help us develop the robots, however, getting stuff installed, our only method of support was submitting a ticket and the turnaround time on that took a while. Our UiPath rep helped escalate what she could. It would be ideal if there was a setup hotline or something that we could call right away. Sometimes it's just easier to talk to somebody than emailing back and forth. That's probably the biggest area for improvement.

What about the implementation team?

We handled the initial setup ourselves. We do almost everything internally. We have our own IT team, including myself. Our solutions architects set it up with us. What we ran into in terms of problems was that the instructions were really not very good. We weren't able to appropriately install it as the instructions that came with it just weren't comprehensive enough. In terms of the instructions that were published online, we found a couple of instances where they were saying to use functions that didn't exist. These might have been a little out of date. Eventually, the ticket team was able to help identify that. I would grade the setup probably a C-minus, and everything else an A-plus.

What was our ROI?

We're so early into the implementation, the ROI is a wash right now. That said, our one robot has paid for our development time, and then someone will be able to use it on future acquisitions. We will likely see ROI within a year.

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

You can buy enhanced support, however, it's an additional $30,000 USD a year or thereabouts. That's just too expensive, honestly. The competition didn't charge for that. We also felt pretty confident in our IT team's ability to be able to dissect the instructions and install it. However, the instructions just weren't that good. We had one of our top engineers working on it and it took a lot of effort to get it installed correctly.

The pricing, in general, is fair. It's a little bit more than some of the competitors, however, it's a little bit more flexible than some of the others. There's value there. The OCR pricing is out of market. We need it, however, we're actually going to use some third-party bolt-ons due to the fact that UiPath is way too expensive.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at Microsoft and Automation Anywhere. We also looked at help systems and Brick is one that we currently use and one of our segments, however, they're only a five-person company, which is pretty small. I wouldn't even put them on the same level. We were looking for shared services. We were looking for the best in class so we could take a solution enterprise-wide. In the end, we boiled the options down to Automation Anywhere, UiPath, and Microsoft, and UiPath was the winner.

In terms of Brick, they don't have a citizen developer model at all, so their developers have to do it. They are less expensive and they're a little bit more turnkey where they do it for you, however, they're really novice. The methodology that we've really bought into it was the community developer, as we want to empower our associates to figure out what works for them to improve their work-life balance. Using a service like theirs takes that away as we have to do the due diligence and figure out what fits in the bucket, what doesn't, as opposed to just empowering the person to do it. That was the key to why we chose UiPath.

The sales process was way better with UiPath. Our UiPath rep was far more knowledgeable about the product than the other options in that we ultimately had more confidence, knowing that whatever we needed, UiPath would help take care of, which was huge. My organization's a little bit disjointed. We try to go after what we feel is going to be impactful without a whole lot of due diligence. That's why, with UiPath, having that resource to lean on was helpful.

What other advice do I have?

We use attended automation right now. Primarily this is due to the fact that the ERP system that we have really can't function unintended. It's a Citrix space environment and it has some odd security protocols where it'll shut down or refresh out for so many hours and it's not planned refreshes. It's hard for us. It's almost random. It's hard for us to build an unattended robot to deal with that. I'm sure we could, however, right now, we want to start with attended robots as we know what functions we need. We decided to go that route and eventually we'll add unattended.

I'd advise new users to make sure they have team buy-in for the concept. That doesn't mean necessarily getting the team to know exactly what they're going to be automating. You just need to make sure that they understand it's not about replacing people. Rather, it's about making their jobs easier. That was key for us. That said, most of my team was overworked, and they were glad to take on the project of lightening their load. Most organizations would benefit from making sure the communication is solid in that regard, however. 

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. With better technical support, I would give them a perfect 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
Software Engineer at Tech Mahindra
Real User
Minimized our on-premise footprint and has helped with quality control
Pros and Cons
  • "I've contacted technical support many times and they are very helpful."
  • "While UiPath Studio helps speed up the cost of digital transformation, in a way, it requires expensive or complex application upgrades or IT support, as it needs an entire setup. That setup requires support from different departments, and that comes with a cost."

What is our primary use case?

For a current client, we have around 22 to 25 use cases, and it's all based on the financial side of things. The client is in finance, and we have use cases all of which are comprised of different tools, including SAP and their in-house CRMs. It's about automating the process where we take some data from the CRM tool and upload it to SAP. It also involves uploading the files to the FTP server. 

For example, one use case is where the applications used are Oracle, and SAP, and STP. We just download the data from Oracle. There are different files that we download from Oracle and upload to the FTP server. From that FTP server, there is a different team that takes those files and creates a Tableau dashboard. 

How has it helped my organization?

UiPath Studio helped us automate many processes that have helped us save money. Even though the tool price is there and the license costs are there, it has given good ROI. For example, automating a process can reduce the work to half or maybe 60%. We divert efforts to different work. Therefore, it has been pretty useful in terms of savings and quality control.

For example, one client had a focus on quality control. There are instances where employees make some minor errors that could lead to major losses to the organization from the department's point of view. We automated that process and it gave us more return in terms of quality control. Fewer errors ultimately were made which saved the company from losses.

What is most valuable?

UiPath has a full suite of capabilities. It has, for example, an end-to-end automation suite. From a development point of view, it is pretty helpful to have access to all of the activities on offer that anyone can understand. 

The Studio as well as the process mining are great. Document understanding is another useful feature. It has eliminated the business analyst side where you have to go through each department and find out which processes are there, and take a different tool to get those all processes in one place and create a process workflow. All of this can be done with process mining. 

With document understanding, we have the capabilities of having UiPath understand and create documents, which previously was quite a lengthy endeavor. You just have to install it and follow the steps. It will automatically take a screenshot and create a document for you and then create a brief description of it. 

It’s easy to build automation using UiPath Studio. From a developer's point of view, it is easy due to the fact that you don't need much of a coding language or coding background. You just should have a clear logic behind it. If you're clear with the logic, a layman can handle the task. They do have Studio X features, which is for the layman who doesn't have any background, who doesn't have any coding or developer's background. They can automate their own work. Even an SME who doesn't know anything about automation could automate small tasks.

It’s great that we can scale automation without having to pay attention to infrastructure. That is very important actually. For example, scaling automation plus giving attention to the infrastructure can be a little hectic and time-consuming. If there is any way where we could reduce this work or optimize it, it would be great from the implementation point of view.

UiPath enables us to implement end-to-end automation. Right from the start, you have document understanding and process mining as well as the Orchestrator, which helps you with getting an overall view of the bots in our organization.

End-to-end coverage is the most important thing, due to the fact that, if it is end-to-end, we don't need to go to the market and look for any other application. If you can get end-to-end, you don't need to go for other products which simplifies everything. It's easy for us to maintain and work with it instead of having to integrate and manage multiple systems, multiple products, and multiple applications.

UiPath has helped minimize our on-premise footprint. It has helped us with quality control savings. We have saved many efforts previously requiring full-time employees. It’s one of the most important factors when we work for clients. If a client is hiring us to automate many processes, there are different intentions of doing it. If we are able to help them reduce cost, reduce and do some quality control, it is important for them. For example, previously, if work required ten employees, we have been able to reduce that down to six or sometimes four personnel maybe.

The UiPath Studio has reduced human error. It has helped us with quality control very often. In the past, mistakes have cost us. It has saved costs as well as saving us money related to fines or penalties.

The solution has freed up employee time. Instead of doing the same mundane work every day, we have just automated that part and now the employees have more free time to do more meaningful work. In terms of hours, from a department's point of view, we have saved around half, that is four hours per day, maybe about 80 hours per month. The additional time enabled employees to focus on more important work.

We have found that the product has reduced the costs of our client’s automation operations. With my previous client, we calculated an average of 40% in reduction of personnel and 40% in cost savings. UiPath has saved us money across the organization. The average saving is likely around 40% to 45%.

What needs improvement?

I'm pretty much happy with all of those tools. I don't have anything in mind that I could see improvement.

While UiPath Studio helps speed up the cost of digital transformation, in a way, it requires expensive or complex application upgrades or IT support, as it needs an entire setup. That setup requires support from different departments, and that comes with a cost.

I came across one problem while upgrading. We were upgrading from the 2019 version to the 2020. There was one thing that was not mentioned either on the website or documentation, and we had to take support from UiPath. The documentation needs to contain each of the scenarios which could occur while upgrading the solutions. As it is now, this is not the case. That said, when we ran into issues, UiPath Support helped us through it.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using UiPath for five years now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We've had outages once or twice. For that, they have a workaround. If a server goes down, we should have a backup server for it. If that's the case, it is just a few steps needed to migrate or we can take the setup from another server. That's it. It's pretty good in general. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is fine. For example, if the bot count is about zero to 100, we have the capacity. And if it goes beyond that, then we have to increase the features of the systems and servers. It could take time if we scale beyond the limits, however, it's still possible. It just requires an upgrade. 

What's required is managing all the infrastructure and getting all the permissions from the client which is what could take time. Scalability can be an issue when it goes beyond the mentioned limit.

In the current organization we're working with, it's totally unattended bots where no user is actually using this tool. That said, the bots are in production, which works 24/7. No user is having this access to the tool. It is all unattended bots.

In the previous organization, there were 58 to 70 users as we had attended bots. They were using bots in their daily routine.

It's a routine for us to use this product every day and deploy this solution. We are definitely looking at increasing it and scaling. We have a lot of work in the pipeline.

How are customer service and technical support?

I've contacted technical support many times and they are very helpful. Based on the severity and priority, they do help us on priority and they are very helpful in terms of responding, supporting, and maintaining. If they can't help us by email, even after giving clear instructions, they'll bump you to a different level and help. It can be just like spoon-feeding us. They are very patient and try to be very clear.

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

We were doing automation, however, it was just .com and .net. We used to write five lines of code just to click on one button, which is just an activity right now we have in UiPath. We switched to UiPath to do end-to-end processes which would require large amounts of code if we kept doing what we were doing.  

How was the initial setup?

I've implemented UiPath from scratch many times. 

The process is quite straightforward. You just have to have the installer and just click install, and then after a few steps, it is done.

Setting up just UiPath Studio hardly takes ten to 20 minutes or maybe one hour if you're facing some complexity. Setting up an Orchestrator with all the robots could take a while.

Our implementation strategy is based on whatever the customer's requirements are. Different clients have different requirements. My previous client, for example, didn't want the cloud as they were pretty concerned about the security as they deal with financial data and they don't want the data to go to the cloud at all.

Clients have the option of on-premises or cloud. Based on that, we just go with the requirements. Some clients want attended bots due to the cost, and some want unattended bots due to the features. 

In terms of maintenance and deployment, how many people you need depends on how many processes you have with the client. Right now, with the current client, we have 22 to 25 processes that we have automated. We are just three users who are developing, testing, maintaining, and supporting this project. However, it varies and often depends on the process and client and how many bots.

For maintenance and support, you don't need many people. For development, if they're at 10 people, five or four could do the work in terms of support and maintenance.

What about the implementation team?

We handle the deployments for our clients. 

What was our ROI?

While the clients might have released some reports, I don't have much knowledge about ROI. 

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

I do know about the prices of attended and unattended bots as well as Orchestrator. 

There are costs related to Orchestrator, Studio, and attended bots. There are also infrastructure costs, and, while implementing this tool in any organization, there are different costs attached to it.

The price for the attended bot is between $1,800 and $3,000. The unattended bot was $8,000 last year.

Orchestrator is around $20,000.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at Automation Anywhere and Blue Prism, however, about five years back, where UiPath, Blue Prism, and Automation Anywhere were the leaders in the market, at that time, just UiPath had the free training and Intuit training for their tool. The other tools didn't have any training, or if they had, it was paid. That's why we chose UiPath, which ended up being the best out of the three anyway.

What other advice do I have?

The company I work for is a UiPath partner.

There have been multiple companies that I've been working with. Two remain the same. I've been using different tools as well. It's been on and off with UiPath.

We are not using the latest version of UiPath. The latest version is 2021. We are using 2020. This is due to the fact that the client that I'm working with has a stated policy as to using a minus one version. They believe it could not be a more stable version for any product. 

At this time, we don't use the SaaS solution or the AI functionality. However, I have enrolled in AI training to better understand it. We do not yet use the automation cloud or UiPath apps either.

In terms of employee satisfaction, from the experience I had from interacting with the client and different users, they are happy as well as sad. They are happy in terms of moving away from the mundane work that has been taken off from their hands. They are, however, both sad and afraid that they could lose their job.

I'd advise users, if they're a layman, to go with the training. Just start with the training from the UiPath website itself, in the RPA Academy. That is sufficient for anyone to start with. They have all the courses that start right from scratch for every role, be it business analyst, solution or product developer, et cetera. In six months, even starting from scratch, you can excel on this product.

With UiPath, it really is possible to optimize so many things. 

I'd rate the solution at an eight 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: Partner
PeerSpot user
Senior Manager AI at Telenor
Real User
We have started to do tasks more often and faster than we have ever done them before
Pros and Cons
  • "The platform is object-orientated. You can create and reuse objects, which is a great feature."
  • "We tried utilizing the virtual environment, but we had some issues in that area."

What is our primary use case?

We currently have 150 bots in production. It is used the most where there are repetitive, cumbersome tasks. Where we do need to have somewhat of a decision made, we put it into a decision tree. This is our primary use case. 

We are looking into other use cases, such as:

  • How do we use it as a platform for pretotyping?
  • How do we use it as a platform to drive forward machine learning and artificial intelligence usage in our company? 

How has it helped my organization?

We have automated assignments where we previously used employees. The outcome of this has been a greater customer experience achievement. We simply are solving tasks faster, and at the same time, we have been scaling down employees. 

We have started to do tasks more often and faster than we have ever done them before. For instance, some of the things in finance, we only did that once per quarter. Now, we have started doing them once a week. This gives us greater insight into those areas. 

The most important outcome here is the amount of insight which you receive when you put power to a process. It gives you the insight that you wouldn't have had when you had 20 employees working. With two bots doing the work, you suddenly get a data foundation that you didn't have before. Then, you can build upon the bots, instead of thinking you know what is happening.

What is most valuable?

The platform is object-orientated. You can create and reuse objects, which is a great feature. 

UiPath has decided that people who are great at what they do can be invited into the platform and utilize services on the platform. This is another great feature, and one of the reasons that we initially chose the product as our platform.

The solution is easy to use. When you put it together with the UiPath Academy, it's easy to get it going and understand. The drag and drop feature makes it simple and easy to use. The UiPath Academy is great and helpful.

What needs improvement?

We tried utilizing the virtual environment, but we had some issues in that area. It's one of the areas that we haven't revisited over the last half year because our volume is that high for us. Thus, it is one of those things that we have sort of left on the side for now, but I do hear there is some great stuff coming with it.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We haven't had instability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It can scale.

How are customer service and technical support?

The customer and technical support are great. We have received fast, sufficient responses. There is easy access. 

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

We did not have a previous RPA solution.

We were in a place where we needed to do something differently. At the time, RPA was something different. So, we needed to sort of examine, "Could this help us?"

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward.

What was our ROI?

We saw ROI in eight or nine weeks, so it was fairly fast. We have seen a lot of performance benefits, which I would rate as a ten out of ten.

The solution has helped to eliminate many human errors.

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

Our licensing costs are roughly 1.1 million Danish krones a year. 

We see some elements in the license model that we're trying to figure out how to utilize. There have been some elements in the license model where UiPath has helped us solve them commercially, and having a license model which is more focused on scalability would be a great feature.

If UiPath really wants to put Attended Robots out to everyone, there will be a cost issue. We have some that we are testing now and what their effect will be. However, these are the robots where the license model needs to change before we go full throttle in that direction.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We also looked at Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere. We selected UiPath based on its object-oriented approach.

There is something off in UiPath's licensing model. Their competitors have started targeting us now because they know that we have a lot of bots. They have different types of licensing models, and say, "Because you are having so many jobs with so many job bots, you can save money on the platform by using us instead." 

What other advice do I have?

Play with it and have a playful nature. Acknowledge that you don't know what you're doing with it, then just acknowledge that you're going to make mistakes. The only difference between being good or great at this solution is your ability to learn from your mistakes, because you will be making mistakes. Also, you will be overpromising when working with this solution.

For automation technology, in general, the system landscape is quite wide. We are just starting to put RPA on the shelf for automation. We are pushing a machine-first approach. RPA is the sort of tool on the shelf now helping us become a more efficient customer-oriented company. It is a tool in the landscape with plenty of existing tools, but this is the one that is the most easily accessible for the business people.

We built ourselves some automated documentation, and it was fairly easy to copy. One of the things that people start doing is documenting what they're doing in an organization and updating the documents, then freely sharing them. We would like some sort of automated documentation, as this would be helpful.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Birinder Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
Birinder SinghFounder | RPA Solution Architect at Auxiliobits Technologies
Real User

The purpose of RPA is not to scale down employees but it make them more productive and skilled to outperform decision making. This is a good article on how RPA is disrupting the businesses in the world.

Akshay Gosika - PeerSpot reviewer
RPA Developer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
It's user-friendly and doesn't take long to learn
Pros and Cons
  • "UiPath is user-friendly."
  • "I have fewer issues with the user interface when I'm using Blue Prism or Automation Anywhere. For example, if you want to perform an action in UiPath, it's a little tricky because you must click on a particular icon. When you click on that, some selectors are generated. That will change whenever the application updates, so you must change the selector again after the update. When we are dealing with Automation Anywhere, we'll not get any selectors if we are using that action once."

What is our primary use case?

We are primarily automating business processes from SAP applications and a few from a web-based application. 

How has it helped my organization?

UiPath reduces the number of human employees needed to do repetitive tasks. A person can only work during normal business hours, whereas a bot can work 24/7 without making mistakes.

What is most valuable?

UiPath is user-friendly. Building automations isn't complex, and it doesn't take many days to learn. If you have basic knowledge of any programming language, you can start building small projects in 30 to 45 days. 

If it is a fixed process instead of a dynamic process, we can do end-to-end automation. Automating this kind of process is easier. If it's a dynamic process, we need some kind of external integration. 

UiPath's community forums were helpful in my early stages, when I was learning the product. When I got errors, I was sometimes unsure what they meant, so I could go onto the forum and find answers easily. 

They also have these UiPath Academy courses. I've taken the foundational course and the advanced courses on Document Understanding and data manipulation. I still haven't had a chance to work on Document Understanding, but the data manipulation course has been helpful. I learned to do some queries that simplify the workflow and make it faster. 

What needs improvement?

I have fewer issues with the user interface when I'm using Blue Prism or Automation Anywhere. For example, if you want to perform an action in  UiPath, it's a little tricky because you must click on a particular icon. When you click on that, some selectors are generated. That will change whenever the application updates, so you must change the selector again after the update. When we are dealing with Automation Anywhere, we'll not get any selectors if we are using that action once. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used UiPath for more than two years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I had an activity crash once when the permissions failed. When we were using that activity, it automatically created multiple activities. Even though we dragged it and used it only once, it created multiple activities. That only happened once.

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

I have tried Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere. 

How was the initial setup?

UiPath is deployed on-premises. We only needed to download UiPath Studio off the website and install it. It took about 30 minutes. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate UiPath eight out of ten. I recommend taking the UiPath Academy courses first. Take the foundational course. It has some hands-on exercises with small automation processes. Later, they can complete the advanced course. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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PeerSpot user
Ryne Heck - PeerSpot reviewer
Transformation leader at Total Quality Logistics
Real User
Works for tracking purposes and comes with features like attended and unattended robots
Pros and Cons
  • "We leverage the whole platform. The tool's most valuable features are unattended and attended robots."
  • "We have to change our account representative every year, which is frustrating. We have to re-explain our business every year."

What is our primary use case?

We use UiPath primarily for tracking purposes. We are a logistics provider and have external portals and websites. The tool aggregates information from these systems to our core application. 

What is most valuable?

We leverage the whole platform. The tool's most valuable features are unattended and attended robots. 

What needs improvement?

We have to change our account representative every year, which is frustrating. We have to re-explain our business every year. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the product since 2020. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

UiPath is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product is scalable. 

How are customer service and support?

Support becomes frustrating when the team asks about the cloud and organizational details. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

Our implementation strategy involved choosing a small use case first, improving the value, and accelerating. 

What about the implementation team?

Two to three partners helped us with the implementation. 

What was our ROI?

The product is worth its money. We have seen an ROI of 274 percent. 

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

UiPath is not cheap. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Automation Anywhere and Blue Prism. We chose UiPath because I was familiar with it, and the local representative didn't have a sales pitch tone. 

What other advice do I have?

There is a gap in the marketplace for tracking specialized services. UiPath was the only way to achieve it quickly. 

AI-powered automation has fundamentally changed our organization. We have repurposed the hundreds of headcounts and enabled them to focus on more meaningful work. 

UiPath AI Center has grown and evolved from what it was. We are looking at more opportunities since the person who managed it has left the company. 

We are still trying to figure out AI's use in our operations. It brings in efficiency, but we are in the process of validating it. 

AI use has sped up our time to about 256,000 hours a year.

We have only started to use process mining.  

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
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.