We use UiPath to automate business processes such as certain types of reporting that have to be repeated on a month-to-month basis. Another example is invoicing processes, which can be automated. Generally, it applies to different business cases for enterprise automation.
Senior RPA Developer at a mining and metals company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Straightforward to set up, flexible, secure, centralized control through web-based portal
Pros and Cons
- "The fact that we have the opportunity to access all of our services without any requirements from our side suits us very well."
- "We have mixed reviews for the technical support and depending on the topic, they will answer faster or slower, more personalized or not."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
An example of how UiPath has improved the organization stems from a cyberattack in 2018. We already had an RPA team and during that cyber attack, all of our systems went down. Our SAP provider cut our access to it, leaving us with a limited number of users. It was not a big enough team to deliver on to our clients all of the orders that were being received.
What we did with UiPath in that crisis scenario in a couple of weeks was that we created a process for order automation. We already had a proof of concept, and we were able to scale it quickly. It was not perfect but rather, done in an emergency situation.
With that couple of users and limited access to SAP, a couple of robot users were capable of working 24 hours, seven days a week, and we started to process all of the orders that were coming from the rest of the company. This is probably something that you could not have done with more classical solutions.
This was, of course, an emergency order automation and it was a topic that we were already working with. Prior to this, it was already a benefit for the company, but the fact that we had this flexibility showcases how powerful this tool is, or what its potential is.
What is most valuable?
Having the cloud-based version allows us to be at the latest version of UiPath Orchestrator and different products without having to take care of the upgrade process.
UiPath's portal for enabling business users to trigger and monitor jobs is a big deal for me because it's something that we have been trying to do for a long time. We have been asking for it. With the previous solution, which was the orchestration platform alone, it was not a good approach because the business users would have a lot of information on their hands and you have to either split your licenses so that they could not access everything, or create your own web portals for them to access specific parts.
The fact that they now have an intermediate portal where they see only their processes, which they can monitor for themselves without getting too much information that is not relevant for them, is a big deal. Something as simple as triggering your own process, which in the past would require dedicating a full license to, can now be done through the portal. It might be a task like checking emails for customers or creating your own application with their API. It's a huge increment in quality.
The portal can also be used for administrators and although we have the Action Center, we don't use it that often. From the point of view of administrators, I can say that the recent improvements make our life much easier. It also enables us to think of more complex setups. In the past, I would never allow certain configurations because they would either be a security risk or it would just create more problems than solutions. Now with the current interface, especially with what they will be adding in the future in terms of more governance from the platform, they just enable you to do more complex things. It allows you to go a little bit beyond what the normal scope would be.
That applies to the platform as well as the orchestrator in the new modern setup. They have the option to split within the same tenant and different companies, or different company departments. Also, the fact that you can dynamically allocate the licenses so that you don't have to worry or have to split them, brings us to another level.
It offers more granular and role-based access control and management. We now have more complex scenarios that in the past we would not even consider because it would be a problem if someone were able to see something that they should not see.
The fact that this is a SaaS solution is important to us and it is clear to me that they want to push a SaaS solution, more than the on-premises deployment. It means that we have the latest version without having to upgrade the systems. We always have the latest version of the studio, for example, and there's no disruption to our services. Furthermore, we are able to follow all of the previews that they come out with. We can try all of their new products, which is something that in the past, we would not have been able to do. It would have required, for example, upgrading our system twice a year. Certainly, we wouldn't be able to do it at the speed we can now.
Being able to minimize our on-premises deployment is really important. It was almost a given for us because we lost some of our interfaces during the cyberattack. From that point on, the company has had a clear policy of cloud and SaaS as a priority. The fact that we have the opportunity to access all of our services without any requirements from our side suits us very well.
The vendor continues to add services to the portal and we are connected through their insider program. This is something that we are really happy with.
It is helpful for us that new services being added to the portal are all managed from the same place because it simplifies our work, makes it cohesive, and makes sense from a philosophical point of view. Definitely, if they had it on different platforms, it would take away from the ease of management. The fact that they have it in a single place makes everything a little bit more interconnected. What they are doing seems to make sense and for me, it is good because we only have to take care of one single platform. This also speeds up our processes, which is a plus.
On the topic of security, especially coming from a cyber attack, having SOC 2 certification is important because it is a requirement for us. We probably would have tried to find an intermediate or an agreement, but the fact that UiPath is now SOC 2 certified means that we have complied with requirements.
What needs improvement?
The licensing system is something that needs to be improved. I think that if they are trying to push for a SaaS solution, with respect to the way they license their individual products. The robot licenses and the Studio licenses should be something closer to a pay-per-use, rather than a year-to-year license. Right now, the licensing model and the pricing are the only stoppers for us, in terms of escalating our use. The bottom line is that the licensing system is not as modern as the tool that we're trying to implement.
Buyer's Guide
UiPath
December 2024
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For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the UiPath Automation Cloud since January 2020, and prior to that, we had an on-premises solution from UiPath.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Four to six months ago, this was not the most stable solution. We had a lot of issues, especially during the summer and early autumn. The system would fail, or would not be accessible, or we had lost some of our logs.
Right now, the tool is working and is much more stable. It shows that they have put an effort into making it more robust.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
With respect to scalability, the licensing system is the limitation.
The platform itself is scalable, although not infinitely, but to a couple of orders of magnitude of what we have now. However, you still have to go through the procurement processes, which always makes it a little bit more limiting. Ultimately, it means that we cannot utilize the full power of what this tool offers in escalation.
Currently, we have five people who are working on UiPath. There are three developers, I am the technical lead, and we have a manager that operates as a product owner for the projects. The three developers are also responsible for maintenance. We also have a business analyst who works through the documentation and is the point of contact for some of our business.
We have other non-official roles, who are people that know and use the tool or perform business analyst functions, but there are only five people in dedicated roles.
At this point, we are using the tool to the full extent of what our licenses allow us to do. We could scale it to be much bigger but in the current situation, I don't think that we will do so. We negotiated the last contract to be a five-year deal and I hope we can move beyond that, but for now, there's no plan to a scale.
How are customer service and support?
We have mixed reviews for the technical support and depending on the topic, they will answer faster or slower, more personalized or not.
They have a ticketing system and the webpage is normally broken, depending on the browser. The response time may vary from topic to topic, so I don't have a consistent impression of the support system. They do answer our questions, but it is not always within the proper time or with the solution that we were hoping for.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
What we are using now is the same thing as the previous product from UiPath, without the cost of having to host it yourself.
I have some experience with other products, but not at the professional level. My impression is that with UiPath, you can get started more quickly when compared to other RPA products. Also, the licensing costs are not as high.
How was the initial setup?
Migrating from our on-premises solution to the cloud was not a typical case because we lost our on-premises deployment during the cyberattack. We had at least a few months without the Orchestration solution. When it comes to execution runtimes, where we run our processes, we used the same machines.
Basically, we had to set things up from scratch on the cloud. The process was pretty straightforward, and the fact that we didn't have to set up the Orchestration tool saved us from a lot of the complexity in the setup process. Normally, this is the complex part, including setting it up with the databases. We just had to connect our runtime with the Orchestration platform, which made it much easier.
With respect to the setup costs, the cloud setup balanced out because you don't pay for the orchestration platform, but you pay a little more for the individual licenses.
What about the implementation team?
Having this product has reduced the amount of maintenance work related to our automation operations because it is a managed solution. The fact that we don't have to host it ourselves is very important.
With respect to maintenance costs, we are a relatively small project, so I wouldn't say that we had a huge overhead. It would certainly be higher if we tried to do what we are doing now, which is being at the latest version all of the time. To do that, we would have needed somebody in a role who was taking care of it. As it is now, from a development or project management point of view, we can take care of these things without needing an architect involved all of the time.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We chose Automation Cloud because it was, at that point, the most flexible option.
What other advice do I have?
UiPath is known for a certain number of products, and the role of our team is to use all of them. On the topic of the UiPath Cloud, the new products that they have come out with, like the possibility to create your own applications for your internal customers, or host certain data services from the same platform, were things that were not available in the past. These capabilities are useful. In general, all of their products are pretty important for us.
For UiPath as a company, we like the availability that they have and the fact that we can try and test all of their products beforehand, without paying. For a relatively small project such as ours, or even for a big company, it's pretty useful to be able to access this type of information and not be burdened with extra budget requirements.
This is a product that I recommend because the starting point is completely free. That's one of the great points of UiPath. My advice is that when it comes to scaling the project, it's really important to clearly set up goals and expectations. Otherwise, there will be an eternal loop of PoCs and non-viable products.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Analyst at Capgemini
RE framework is helpful and the image-based automation works well
Pros and Cons
- "We are using the RE framework and it's very helpful for delivering the product on time."
- "OCR-based activities should be improved to handle larger amounts of text."
What is our primary use case?
One of my primary use cases is invoice processing.
In this process, there are two applications including one for data and the other for the main application. The main application needs to take invoice data from the data process and match it with invoice details that it has. After this, the status needs to be recorded in the data process.
How has it helped my organization?
UiPath is growing day by day. We began with one unattended bot and we now have approximately 20 bots in production.
What is most valuable?
We are using the RE framework and it's very helpful for delivering the product on time.
The image-based automation is working as expected, using different levels of accuracy.
What needs improvement?
OCR-based activities should be improved to handle larger amounts of text.
UiPath does not recognize Google and Microsoft OCRs.
Sometimes UiPath will not work properly, even though it worked the previous day. Also, it may suddenly not work when we switch environments from development to QA. This happens approximately one out of ten times.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using UiPath for the past two years.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support has been helpful for debugging and fixing issues that we have had in production.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I did not use another solution prior to this one.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I began looking at Automation Anywhere, but when I saw how user-friendly the interface in UiPath was, I started learning it instead. I find it very comfortable to work with and develop processes.
What other advice do I have?
I am proud to have UiPath on my resume as it is valuable for career growth. I plan to continue as a UiPath developer.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
UiPath
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about UiPath. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
830,526 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior RPA Consultant at Ernst & Young
Good community and an intuitive interface that makes it easy to develop workflows and save us money
Pros and Cons
- "The community is what I like most in UiPath and I think that without it, the solution would be hard to learn like Blue Prism was in its earlier years."
- "There are some limitations like the UiPath Executor becoming stuck when running 10GB text files, which is something that really needs to be fixed."
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution to automate business processes and save millions of dollars in operational efficiency. We are developing new automated solutions for our clients and partners, and also training new developers to use this tool to deliver great results by the end of the year.
How has it helped my organization?
The business has saved million worth of dollars in cost savings.
What is most valuable?
The user interface is intuitive and it is easy to develop workflows.
The community is what I like most in UiPath and I think that without it, the solution would be hard to learn like Blue Prism was in its earlier years.
What needs improvement?
There could be improvements made in in terms of debugging. Troubleshooting is hard.
I hope there can be more major improvements in Orchestrator, such as the ability to have session variables other than assets.
Being able to filter work queues, just like what Blue Prism has, would be a helpful addition.
There are some limitations like the UiPath Executor becoming stuck when running 10GB text files, which is something that really needs to be fixed.
The training is difficult and should be made better.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using UiPath for almost two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
UiPath is a very stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is very scalable. Our UiPath team has grown from 10 to more than 50 developers, including business analysts, process analysts, developers, senior developers, and solution architects. Hoping to grow our organization more as new clients are coming in.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer support is great but not that fast.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Prior to UiPath, I used Blue Prism. I switched because my company switched.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is not straightforward but also not complex.
What about the implementation team?
I set up UiPath on my own.
What was our ROI?
More than a million dollars.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
UiPath is more cost-effective than any other tool.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I did not evaluate other options. Aside from Blue Prism, UiPath is the best.
Overall, UiPath is the best in providing a community for all developers.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Automation Delivery Lead at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees
Good training, helps to reduce errors, and the technical support is good
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is Studio, which allows developers to specifically focus on development."
- "I would like to see some use cases and additional information on the process mining and the OCR features that are being released."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Studio, Orchestrator, attended and unattended robots.
Our primary use for this solution started with automating processes in finance, procurement, and HR. Now, we are researching various directions in logistics.
We do not run our automations in a virtual environment. This is something that we are trying to avoid.
With respect to how easy it is to automate our company's processes, on a scale of one to five, I would rate this solution a four. I'm an IT-based person, and for IT people it is easy to learn. UiPath claims that it is easy to learn and it's for everybody, but it's not true. For business people, it is hard to learn and hard to understand how to code to make things work. They need a lot of help with things like exception handling. If somebody lacks technical or programming skills then it makes it much more difficult to use. Although UiPath is getting closer to business users, there are still some basic skills that they need to have to make it work.
On a scale of one to five, judging how beneficial it is, I would rate the training a five. When I get new hires it doesn't matter whether they have previous experience in RPA or development, they have to go through all of the basic training from the Academy. This includes the Orchestrator and I've been recommending SAP training because we are experiencing growth in the use of SAP. Going to my team, this is the base, and then we have created our internal framework and standards that also require training. Some people may already have experience with UiPath or Blue Prism, but they still need to take the training from the Academy.
Before I arrived at the company, there were already some automations running. However, fifteen months ago we shut down a couple of robots because they were failing terribly. From that time, it took us five months to create the first robot.
How has it helped my organization?
We have a project that combines UiPath with OCR and our integration tool. This allows us to automate processes we use in different projects that are coming from different vendors in different countries. Apart from gathering the information, we are template invoicing. The robots take invoice information and post the results into our SAP and other systems. It is much faster than our original process. This has been implemented in Spain, and we are now releasing it to other countries, one by one.
Using this solution is not just about saving time or reducing the number of staff. It is also for improving stability and decreasing the number of errors that we have. In Spain, where we were implementing a pilot project for purchase orders, we saw a decrease in the number of human errors. When they started, there was an error rate of ten percent. After three months in production, the error rate decreased to five or six percent, and after six months it was one or two percent. Also, even though there was still an error rate, it was consistent and it is something that we can account for.
In terms of money savings, we are talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is Studio, which allows developers to specifically focus on development. Orchestrator allows us to connect those things together.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see some use cases and additional information on the process mining and the OCR features that are being released. There are other products that offer OCR features, and at this point, it is hard for me to determine the benefit of using UiPath for OCR rather than integrating it with another solution. This is not just from a business perspective, but from a development perspective as well. For example, I would like to see how you can connect UiPath to all of the applications to collect the logs and the data. Then, how we can put that information together. If there is a thirty-minute delay then how do you identify whether it was because the person went to lunch, or rather that they were working and thinking.
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 three.
The stability of this solution really depends on the developer or the execution. It's not always a UiPath issue. If the process is unstable, it's the issue of the business case and not the actual execution of any development. So it really depends on how you use the platform and how you understand it. We will use a more stable technology, such as alerting through an API, before we go to the UI path.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have about one hundred licenses for production and four Orchestrators.
How are customer service and technical support?
Both customer support and technical support are really good. Whenever I have a question, whether it is business, Studio, or Orchestrator related, I usually get an answer. We have our own customer success manager who helps us on a daily basis. I also have connections to the lab and to the production team so I can ask questions there as well.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
At this company, they did not have an RPA solution in place before this one.
Personally, I have also used Automation Anywhere and Blue Prism. From my perspective, it's about how you use the tool, and not about which tool you use. Personally, I don't like Automation Anywhere, and I used to be a Blue Prism guy.
I feel that Blue Prism is easier to learn because you can do things in terms of processes or objects. Logically, it is easier. In UiPath there are more options, but it's also harder to learn because you need to create a logical structure on your own. It doesn't show you how to do that in an easier way. UiPath has more connections and more inbuilt stuff than Blue Prism, but on the other hand, the navigation between the types of variables is slightly different. It's not a disadvantage, but it is something that takes time to learn.
I find that Automation Anywhere is not that user-friendly. For example, in Blue Prism you have loops that you can put a component into. In Automation Anywhere, you have to copy all of those stages, one-by-one. You cannot create a loop, which is basic.
What was our ROI?
We have not been tracking ROI yet, although we are working on it. It is difficult to calculate because to collect the information for each process it requires a logging system. Each project will require a specific logging system so that we can collect the same information to compare and evaluate it. We have to consider our development costs, maintenance costs, licensing costs, etc. At this point, we do not have enough people to work on this, so it is a work in progress.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
They ran a selection process here and my understanding is that Blue Prism was not able to provide a free Studio license, unlike the policy they now have in place. This is the reason that UiPath was selected.
What other advice do I have?
The majority of our use cases are unattended, and that is the way that you should go. We do use attended bots as digital assistants, where you have small automations that are triggered by the users on their own to direct the robot. These are two separate products.
My advice to anybody who is researching this solution is not to be scared to use it. Play with it as much as possible and see if it brings value. There are different applications that can bring more value in certain cases.
Overall, this is a good solution, but there are always ways to improve a product.
I would rate this solution 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.
Digital Workforce Analyst at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Gives you a technology or ability to build a solution on any legacy system
Pros and Cons
- "It gives you a technology or ability to build a solution on any legacy system."
- "VM was on the service for high density. It is finicky at times. The latest release is a lot more stable. However, I've had a two week production outage where DLLs weren't registered and someone from Vegas had to login for eight hours onto the fraud service to work it out. Even though they uninstalled and re-installed it, all the different apps still wasn't working. So, I have lost a bit of faith in it to be honest."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case is IP invoice automation.
We are currently using Orchestrator and bots.
How has it helped my organization?
It gives you a technology or ability to build a solution on any legacy system.
What is most valuable?
I love Orchestrator:
- The configuration part
- The amount of keys
- Transaction reporting
- Logs
- Accessibility on the iPhone.
What needs improvement?
VM was on the service for high density. It is finicky at times. The latest release is a lot more stable. However, I've had a two week production outage where DLLs weren't registered and someone from Vegas had to login for eight hours onto the fraud service to work it out. Even though they uninstalled and re-installed it, all the different apps still wasn't working. So, I have lost a bit of faith in it to be honest.
I would like to have cloud stuff back in Australia and hosted there. I want everything in SaaS, bots included.
While it has eliminated human errors, it has created other errors.
I would like something that better identifies the processes. If it could watch the computer, then work it out for me, that would be good.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it since 2016.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Now that I've done an upgrade, it seems to be a lot better. Because I was running high density on the 2016.2 or 2016.3. I had a lot of problems, but I couldn't work out whether or not it was just UiPath or our client app that was timing out. But, we noticed that if you login as console, you have far less issues than if you run high density.
These days, the stability is a four out of five. Back in the day, it wasn't.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In my old organization, 50 to 100 people were involved.
I have a bit of a different issue because at my old company that I just left, I was only paying $3,600 USD per bot. I turned up at my new company, and because of our size, we are paying $8,000 per bot.
How are customer service and technical support?
The support is not good. I had a two week production outage.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
There was a business problem, and we needed to work at how to solve it. The partner was a big driver in this process.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was pretty straightforward.
It took two weeks from the time we purchased our UiPath license until we had our first robot in production.
What about the implementation team?
We used Blackbook.ai, and our experience with them was awesome.
What was our ROI?
We have seen ROI. The last company that I work for was trying to get 1000 FTEs out the door, and I think that they are already at 60. In Australia, at my current company, we are already at 10 FTEs. Just in Australia, we have save a million dollars, and maybe five million in India.
The reduction of 10 FTEs has saved us time.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
At the last place that I worked, it was $700,000 USD.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Everything that I read about Blue Prism suggest that it is too heavy and takes too much development to ramp up.
I looked at Automation Anywhere for the price point, especially for a PoC. Between Blackbook.ai and what I saw already with UiPath, I just thought UiPath was the better option.
What other advice do I have?
Scout it out. I am going to try to work with this company a different way than what I did than last time, e.g., federated.
I would rate the overall product as a nine out of 10. It's an enabler. It seems pretty good. There is a lot of investment and new things.
I would rate the ease of use of the platform as a four out of five. It is pretty easy to use but it is not doing everything for me. I still have to do stuff.
I would rate the UiPath Academy as a four out of five.
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.
Lead Process Analyst at ACT
The bots help us utilize our staff better
Pros and Cons
- "It has a really good turnaround time for our operations department to start working on claims, because all the information has already been pulled upfront with the bots. Instead of having to go into an account and request medical records or a certain type of document, it's normally already been pulled on the front-end as soon as the account loads because we run everything through the bots."
- "The implementations or integrations through Citrix are really good. The only problem that we are coming across is just maintenance. If the Citrix platform gets updated and we're not notified, it breaks. So, we have to reconfigure our bot to the new updates. Unfortunately, that's just the name of the game, and that would be true if we were pulling them manually versus a bot."
What is our primary use case?
Right now, the primary use case is document retrieval from our client system. We are a healthcare billing company, so we have to pull things like medical records and different documents from hospital stays. So, we used the robots to pull those versus an FTE.
We have both unintended and attended robotics that we use. We haven't really delved into Studio a lot yet. That's going to be part of our staging and going into the next phase. We built all of our basic bots, so now we're going into the more complex bots.
We are on-premise. We were looking at moving to the cloud, so that will be something in our next steps.
How has it helped my organization?
It has a really good turnaround time for our operations department to start working on claims, because all the information has already been pulled upfront with the bots. Instead of having to go into an account and request medical records or a certain type of document, it's normally already been pulled on the front-end as soon as the account loads because we run everything through the bots.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature right now is we have been able to utilize our staff better with the bots. We can put them on more high priority items. That was the one thing that everyone was afraid of: The bots would replace them. What we did is retrain them to do other tasks that we needed, as that was more of a priority for us.
What needs improvement?
We do deal somewhat with Citrix. It depends on the client and how the bot has to be set up. We have some clients who do run through Citrix, then we have some who use a VPN tunnel to get in. So, we have it on both.
The implementations or integrations through Citrix are really good. The only problem that we are coming across is just maintenance. If the Citrix platform gets updated and we're not notified, it breaks. So, we have to reconfigure our bot to the new updates. Unfortunately, that's just the name of the game, and that would be true if we were pulling them manually versus a bot. We would still run into that with the Citrix platforms.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate stability as a five (out of five). We have not actually had any issues with UiPath. Most of our issues have been with just platforms changing, breaking, and the regular maintenance.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have about 40 bots right now with 30 ready to be made.
Our team is really small. We have roughly six people who are working with the developers and actually running the bots. We're the only department using the solution. Our department was asked to lead this on, so we've been very fortunate to be able to lead it and be able to help our own department first. Now, we're starting to look at other areas of the company to deploy RPA.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have not used UiPath technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was a little complex, but that was because we really didn't even know what we were getting into. We were told by upper management (our CFO) that automation was the next frontier and we had to go that route. We were sort of the pioneers going through this for our company,
It probably took about six to eight weeks for us to talk with development and for them to get the context of what we wanted. It took them about five weeks to actually build the bot. Then, once they built the bot, it was in production. Of course, we had to go back and do some maintenance because it did not work first time. After we got the hang of it, it's been great.
What about the implementation team?
We got some consulting from UiPath. We do use their developers. Other than that, we do not go through a third-party. We did everything else ourselves.
Our experience with UiPath services was good. There were some bumps along the way. It's just trying to understand the process and RPA from what we've seen.
What was our ROI?
It took us about six months to really see what the bots could do. We then started tracking financial savings and how it's helping the company. We set out a bit differently. Our CFO came out, and said, "Automation is where we're going," but on top of that, "This is X amount of money that you have to save in the process."
We have spent the last 18 months tracking how much we are spending and how much we're saving. We hit the goal with no problems because we were able to shift staff. We did eliminate some staff, but this solution really brought out the skill level of our employees. Those employees with the higher skills were able to transfer to more important projects.
Within the first year, we saved a little over $600,000. That totaled to almost 19 FTEs which we ended up saving.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We haven't used any other vendors.
What other advice do I have?
We are on spreadsheets and data. I keep saying we're stuck in 1996. It's been nice to have the vision of being able to be in the 21st century and really be able to use the bots the way we want to use them.
We have not taken part in the UiPath training. That's something that we talked about right before this conference. We really need to start utilizing more of the training that's offered. We want to turn some of our soft coders into people who can really code for us, not always relying on developers to do all of our work. That's definitely something that we're implementing soon.
I would rate it at least a four (out of five) for ease of use. We don't deal so much with UiPath, but from what we do deal with outside of developers, we have not had any problems. It has been very user-friendly, for those of us that don't know coding. We are able to look at things, sort of fix things, etc.
I rated them a four for ease of use, not a five, because we want to see what UiPath can do. We have a lot on the table. We have 30 bots ready to go. A lot of it's more screen scraping, which will be more complex. So, we want to see really if UiPath can do what they say the solution can do. We want to test its scalability.
I definitely would say UiPath is the way, especially with everything that they're coming out with now. It helps you understand more about RPA instead of just being thrown into things. It helps you understand all that on a smaller level. It is what everyone else has said here at the conference too, "Start with a small project. Don't go out with a big thing because it's not going to work." Luckily, we did start small, and we've just grown from there. Those would be my suggestions.
I would rate the solution a 10 out of 10.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Strategy and Analytics Consultant at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
One of the easiest things about the product is you click one link, it downloads, then you are done
Pros and Cons
- "The object cloning in UiPath is a lot more consistent than Automation Anywhere. The consistency with which it captures the information that it's supposed to in order to do the rest of the process is probably the most useful component of the tool package."
- "Navigating the directory of objects needs improvement. I would like to be able to put in keywords that would allow me to figure out what command will allow me to do the task that I am trying to do."
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case is data management.
What is most valuable?
The object cloning in UiPath is a lot more consistent than Automation Anywhere. The consistency with which it captures the information that it's supposed to in order to do the rest of the process is probably the most useful component of the tool package.
What needs improvement?
- Navigating the directory of objects needs improvement. I would like a better way of finding the command which allows you do the thing that you're trying to do. This would help. For example, there was this one command that I was wrongly using for months. Then, someone told me, "You can do that by just using this one command instead of three jerry-rigged together." Therefore, I would like to be able to put in keywords that would allow me to figure out what command will allow me to do the task that I am trying to do.
- The testing could be a bit easier. There are error handling steps in the platform tool, but it's not super robust. It's very user friendly from a development perspective. However, from a testing perspective, it is unclear what I am looking at. Maybe, they could add more commenting.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
When the complexity increases, the bug related issues go up. There are limitations to utilizing RPA software, in general, where sometimes you have business leaders who think something is a good process. Then, they ignore the technical advice to not move forward, or choose to. Thus, you're left in a situation where you're trying to automate a process that isn't great for automation.
How was the initial setup?
One of the easiest things about UiPath is you click one link, it downloads, then you are done. With Automation Anywhere, we have a whole days worth of setting up that needs to be done. This is another component that UiPath is leading the industry in.
What about the implementation team?
UiPath works best when there is a strong understanding of the capabilities and limitations of RPA. I have seen it work best when you have an experienced practitioner who has seen what an implementation looks like. Therefore, they know the right questions to ask as you are determining which process to automate. It is better to have skilled developers, who are more technically capability, to develop solutions using the tools which come with the package to make sure it is working correctly.
There is the upfront work of talking to clients. There is a middle part of developing it, then the maintenance and operations post-implementation. You have to manage the bot after it's built, and it works best when you have someone who comes in and knows all three of the step components are equally important to a quality end product.
What was our ROI?
The ROI on all of our RPA use cases is from a throughput perspective. Processing time improvement is anywhere between 70 percent faster to 300 to 400 percent faster. For the right processes, there is even up to 7X to 10X improvement from a throughput perspective, even though it works through the UI.
The most impressive use case that I've heard of was about saving a year's worth of FTE time in a month's worth of development, testing, and deployment, then doing the processing.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have used all of the major RPA platforms: primarily Automation Anywhere, UiPath, and Kofax.
UiPath is the most open in getting people to use their software. I think they understand that the most successful relationships in sales come from people playing with the solution.
I started out as an Automation Anywhere person and will always be better at Automation Anywhere because of my affinity with it. Where Automation Anywhere might have UiPath beat is the speed at which you can automate simple processes, like being able to create and automate simple processes. Automation Anywhere is a better point of departure because the way you look at the script in it, there is almost like a sentence that you can read. Being able to understand what a process is supposed to do, you can just replicate the steps in your head. A non-technical person can open this web browser, type here, and press enter.
With UiPath, it's more from a process perspective, which is more useful if you're looking at automating a process. Instead of something simple, like for training, we'll have people look up the weather in five, ten, or a 100 cities. From that perspective, it's easier to start up than Automation Anywhere.
UiPath makes up for its steeper learning curve by being a more reliable product.
If you are looking on the spectrum of which is most to least technical and most to least scalable, UiPath is a happy medium compared to Kofax, Automation Anywhere, and Blue Prism. UiPath is less technical and not so hard, but it's also scalable, so it's a happy medium.
What other advice do I have?
UiPath Academy is by far the best online training resource. From an online content training perspective, their videos and training modules are leading the industry.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Business Analyst at Region Syddanmark
It is great for automation and reducing the time needed for a work assignment
Pros and Cons
- "It is great for automation. It can reduce the time needed for the entire work assignment, freeing up time for something more exciting."
- "There is a very steep learning curve for business users."
What is our primary use case?
We are working on trying to optimize some of the current processes which have been selected for review. I have been talking with our business partner to try and find the best way or tool to optimize these processes.
How has it helped my organization?
I have only been with the company a month, so I am only aware of a couple of scenarios/cases where it has already been implemented, such as:
- Transferring data from one system.
- Looking data up on the internet from a browser.
- Performing logins and copying data tables, then putting them into Excel. Afterwards, manipulating and putting them into the right system.
These are our best cases, so far.
What is most valuable?
It is great for automation. It can reduce the time needed for the entire work assignment, freeing up time for something more exciting.
What needs improvement?
There is a very steep learning curve for business users.
From everything that I have seen, we still have stuff that we need to figure out on the inside:
- How to spin up servers.
- How to get compliant.
- How to create A/B uses for the robots.
It would help to have some guidelines, which I haven't found yet. It seems like UiPath is trying to keep out of the guidance part, because they want to leave it open for us to interpret how to use the tool.
I don't even know all the features available yet. I would love to see the roadmap. I love that going forward UiPath is simplifying the roadmap, trying to make it available for development within the business, not only IT.
For how long have I used the solution?
Less than one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability has been good, so far. I haven't had any complaints.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability seems good.
How are customer service and technical support?
I haven't been through to customer support yet. I use our internal tech support (in-house). We have some knowledge, and they have been working in this area for quite some time.
I love UiPath Academy. While it is dull and I can't do more than an hour or two at a time in sequence, I think it is great. It's available to everyone, which is awesome.
How was the initial setup?
The implementation for virtual environments went fine for the cases I've seen. We are using Citrix for some of them and virtual machines for the Unattended Robots, which seems to have been flawless.
What about the implementation team?
We used consultants at some point.
What was our ROI?
It has saved us time. We are still doing the business cases to determine return of investment.
We expect to see ROI and performance benefits. I would rate the performance benefits as a ten out of ten.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I have nothing to do with licensing.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are using multiple solutions for RPA within the whole region. UiPath is doing something right with its open community, sharing and involving users, then providing a platform for us to share our findings and snippets. That's the way to go and why I would recommend UiPath.
What other advice do I have?
We have a huge strategy on digitalization, so automation technology is very important. It's a common goal: Optimizing and putting stuff into categories, which can be optimized.
While I believe it has been helpful in the elimination of reducing human error since it is doing the same task every time, I'm fairly certain we didn't have many error previously.
I am a developer, and I find the product pretty easy to understand since I understand the logic of data containers and data types. However, I have been speaking with a lot of our business partners on the business side, and they are finding it hard to use.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Updated: December 2024
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