UiPath Reviews

UiPath is a software tool used in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) that allows you to build automated workflows to handle repetitive manual tasks in your daily work. It can automate tasks across various environments including Windows, Citrix, and using image recognition. Additionally, UiPath is incorporating artificial intelligence and machine learning, with generative AI specifically enabling you to develop automation in a wider range of fields like healthcare, telecommunication, and manufacturing.

UiPath offers deployment flexibility: we can install it on our servers on-premises or choose their cloud service, UiPath Automation Cloud. While they provide their option, UiPath is also compatible with other cloud platforms for deployment.

Building automation is easier with UiPath than with Automation Anywhere or Blue Prism. UiPath's centralized platform offers a more intuitive user experience, and its extensive online community provides readily available answers to your questions.

It allows for the creation of end-to-end automation workflows, even for tasks with imperfect results. For instance, if an AI extracts data from a PDF with a low confidence level, UiPath can trigger the creation of a ticket in an action center. This ticket would then be assigned to a human for review, who can confirm the data's accuracy or return the document to the AI model for improvement.

Over the past nine years as a UiPath user, I've witnessed a wealth of new features emerge. The UiPath user community has been an invaluable resource throughout this journey, providing both learning opportunities and solutions to our automation challenges.

UiPath has been a game-changer for us, reducing costs, improving scalability, minimizing human error, and saving significant time. Their user-friendly platform allows us to automate processes in as little as 15 days, and with the free UiPath Academy courses and community edition, we have everything we need to learn and practice at no cost.

UiPath Academy offers beginner-friendly courses with step-by-step instructions and video tutorials, making it a great resource for those new to the world of UiPath and automation.

UiPath speeds up and reduces the cost of digital transformation andreduces human errors by automating repetitive tasks where errors can be caused due to fatigue or illness.

UiPath helps free up our staff time to work on other tasks. What would take a human, for example, ten minutes to complete, takes the robot seconds. Ithelps save our organization money.

It is easy to learn.

UiPath takes the complexity out of automation by using a low-code approach. Instead of writing intricate macro scripts, we simply drag and drop pre-built elements to create our automation, making it accessible even for those without extensive coding experience.

UiPath's extensive built-in features, like communication mining, can be overwhelming to learn due to the sheer volume. This learning curve applies across platforms; switching to another company would require mastering new skills like business analysis and product management. Additionally, the modern analysis process demands deep dives into code and solution levels, making it a complex task to achieve.

There's a need for greater emphasis on applying AI and machine learning to enhance technologies like Optical Character Recognition, fingerprint scanners, and facial recognition systems.

I have been using UiPath for almost nine years.

If one of our machines goes down, UiPath will resolve the issue within 24 hours.

The technical support is good.

Positive

While we've experimented with Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, and Microsoft Power Automate, they lacked UiPath's ability to centralize all our automation initiatives. Choosing the right RPA tool requires careful consideration of cost, functionalities, and the specific features each platform offers.

The cloud deployment is straightforward. The logs are all maintained in the orchestrator. 

The return on investment from automation grows with the number of processes automated. This translates to greater cost and time savings, freeing up resources to tackle new projects that can generate additional revenue.

UiPath is expensive. The license types depend on the deployment method and the number of bots required.

I would rate UiPath eight out of ten. UiPath is user-friendly, easy to learn, and manage.

UiPath introduced communication mining in the last two years. We do use it but the use cases are primarily for the health sector and insurance sector but they have been steadily declining.

UiPath's cloud deployment offers a hassle-free experience – they manage the infrastructure and maintenance, so we don't need to worry about any hardware or upkeep on our side.

Six people in our organization use UiPath.

While running UiPath on-premises with a high volume of bots might involve some minor maintenance tasks for us, the cloud-based option takes care of everything – UiPath handles all the maintenance on their end.

UiPath offers a multifaceted platform, requiring users to learn distinct aspects based on their roles. Developers will delve into coding and automation creation, IT business analysts will focus on process design and optimization, product managers will manage the automation lifecycle, and salespeople will highlight the product's capabilities to potential clients.

UiPath is a business automation platform that allows us to design and implement rule-based automation across various applications. In essence, we define the rules and conditions e.g., for processing data in a CRM system, and UiPath automates the entire workflow. Beyond processing, UiPath can also automate tasks like document reading, data entry, and system updates e.g., price changes. In our specific role within the telecom domain, we might use UiPath for design integration, network optimization, and other tasks defined by our business rules. It's important to remember that successful automation requires well-defined rules, test data, and an evaluation of scalability and return on investment. UiPath's strength lies in its ability to integrate with various applications, including Office 365, CRM systems, and HR applications, as long as these applications have a user interface with identifiable elements or objects.

Building automation with UiPath is user-friendly, especially for beginners. Even without prior coding experience, newcomers can learn the ropes quickly. UiPath offers foundational code and training sessions that make creating robots achievable in just one or two sessions. The concepts align well with the product, making it easy to follow along during training. Additionally, UiPath Academy provides free online courses for further learning. This open approach contrasts with other tools like Blue Prism, which has a closed community, and Automation Anywhere, which requires more time investment to grasp due to limited resources. Unlike these other tools, UiPath offers extensive online resources and a supportive community, making it easier to find solutions. With this accessibility, even non-technical users can be trained within one or two weeks to build automation – the key is understanding the logic behind them.

UiPath facilitates end-to-end automation, eliminating manual intervention for repetitive tasks. This frees up employees for more strategic work. Data processing, server configuration updates, and many other processes can be fully automated using robots. Even tasks requiring some human oversight benefit from UiPath's Document Understanding tool, which accurately extracts data from documents. While automation won't eliminate all human jobs, it can significantly reduce repetitive tasks. Instead of cutting jobs, organizations can redeploy employees to higher-value activities. However, the decision to automate depends on the specific business needs and process criticality. Overall, end-to-end automation with UiPath saves time and resources for organizations.

The timeframe for seeing UiPath's benefits depends on the specific task being automated. For simpler tasks, like generating reports, we might see results within a month or two. For complex tasks involving large datasets, like updating hundreds of server parameters, it could take three to six months to calculate a clear return on investment. Before implementing automation, it's crucial to evaluate the potential benefits. This includes factors like cost savings, operational efficiency, and even intangible benefits like improved customer satisfaction leading to brand value. Organizations should analyze these factors alongside the volume of data involved to determine if automation is worthwhile. Ultimately, a successful automation project hinges on a thorough upfront evaluation tailored to the specific use case.

The UiPath user community is a valuable online resource accessible through their website. It offers a one-stop shop for troubleshooting, discussions, and product updates. The forum is active with core users, UiPath employees, and even developers providing solutions and feedback. This collaborative environment allows UiPath to test and refine features before public release, ensuring a more polished final product. Users can ask questions, participate in discussions, and stay informed on all things UiPath, not just through the forum but also through other online platforms.

UiPath Academy provides a comprehensive learning platform for anyone interested in Robotic Process Automation. With over 25 courses and multiple certifications ranging from 6 to 7, we can gain the skills we need to automate tasks. The Academy is easy to access - simply sign in with our Gmail account and start learning. Courses include video lectures, text documents, and even hands-on simulations using dedicated UiPath Academy websites. To get started with the Academy, we'll need a laptop with internet access. Overall, UiPath Academy offers a user-friendly platform with a clear learning path to kickstart our RPA journey.

UiPath helps reduce human error in automation, but thorough planning is crucial. First, clearly define all valid data formats and business rules for the robot to follow. This includes specifying what information can be processed, and what validations need to be performed before updates, approvals, or rejections. These rules should be established by the business and rigorously tested by both developers and users. Remember, the robot is a machine that executes what it's programmed to do. It won't take any actions beyond its defined instructions. While humans can make mistakes, the robot itself won't. However, the quality of its work depends on the quality of the data it receives. This is why a well-defined software development lifecycle is essential. Each stage should be carefully verified to ensure the robot follows the intended steps. Before starting automation, identify and address all potential issues. Unlike humans, robots can't adapt to unexpected situations. They rely on clear instructions and clean data. While humans might prepare the data like an Excel sheet. Any errors they introduce will be carried out by the robot. To minimize errors, establish clear conditions for updates, approvals, and rejections. These conditions will guide the robot's actions and reduce potential mistakes. Careful planning before robot creation is key. While robots themselves won't make errors, unforeseen circumstances can arise. For example, application upgrades might require the robot to be adjusted. The robot won't recognize these changes on its own and will continue following its original instructions. This is why humans play a crucial role in supervising robots. A 3-6 month training period allows human oversight to ensure the robot performs as expected and can handle different situations. Any errors can be identified and corrected during this period, allowing the robot to function effectively beyond the training phase. In conclusion, while UiPath offers significant benefits, human involvement remains essential for successful automation.

UiPath helps reduce costs, but there will always be some operational and marginal expenses. However, the real benefit comes from automating tasks currently done by employees. Let's say one person completes a specific transaction. A robot can complete many more transactions per hour, freeing up the employee for other tasks. This creates a dual benefit: cost savings from the employee's saved hours and increased productivity from the robot. We can calculate these benefits by tracking saved hours and their resulting cost savings, as well as the robot's impact on productivity. There are also intangible benefits like improved brand value, faster response times, and quicker error recovery. Overall, UiPath helps companies save money and improve efficiency in both tangible and intangible ways.

UiPath is user-friendly, meaning even without coding knowledge, we only need basic logic understanding. Knowing how conditions and loops work is sufficient. This allows anyone to develop automation quickly. That's the beauty of UiPath compared to tools like Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere. While Automation Anywhere offers single sign-on with object access, it requires memorizing methods and libraries. UiPath simplifies this with a search bar for activities, like building a sentence with relevant keywords. This feature is absent in other tools, making UiPath more developer-friendly. Additionally, UiPath offers products like Document Understanding and Action Center, along with various integrations, catering to different departments within an organization. It empowers citizen developers, or business users, to automate tasks through easy-to-use functionalities. With good exception handling, clear libraries, and a wide range of activities, UiPath makes automation development easy to learn and adapt to, as long as we understand the desired outcome.

UiPath has matured and offers a wide range of packages. However, some users feel these packages aren't easily adaptable or customizable. Ideally, UiPath could provide more open models for users to modify and tailor to specific needs. Additionally, users would appreciate more activities and features related to Microsoft Office applications, given their wide use. While UiPath acknowledges this need with some activities for OneDrive and SharePoint, there's a gap compared to other platforms.

UiPath's licensing costs are a major consideration. While the platform offers valuable features and user-friendly tools, its pricing can be a barrier for some customers seeking more affordable options. This high cost is a key reason users switch to Power Automate, which integrates well with Office applications but lacks UiPath's breadth of automation capabilities.

UiPath's extensive features come at a premium price, leading some customers to explore alternatives like Power Automate or open-source solutions. While these alternatives have limitations, UiPath's recent 30 percent license cost increase has prompted even established users to re-evaluate their options.

I have been using UiPath for seven years.

While Selenium offers web automation capabilities, open-source solutions may not always be ideal. As a result, clients are increasingly looking towards RPA tools like Power Automate, which is a more affordable option compared to UiPath, but with fewer features. Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere, and UiPath are all RPA tools with similar core functionalities. However, they differ in the number and variety of activities they offer. UiPath boasts the most features, while Automation Anywhere excels in document understanding, a key area where UiPath is catching up. Ultimately, the choice between these tools depends on specific needs. For cost-conscious clients, Power Automate is a viable alternative, while UiPath offers a comprehensive feature set and Automation Anywhere shines in document processing.

UiPath Orchestrator, a web-based application for managing deployments, simplifies the process. While primarily click-based, Orchestrator ensures a smooth and efficient rollout.

UiPath's licensing costs can be high, and to maximize their value, customers need a clear plan for utilization. The mistake many make is buying licenses without considering workload. Effective utilization comes from proper training and knowledge of UiPath's capabilities. With this knowledge, the high price may not seem so daunting. From a user's perspective, a well-defined plan is crucial. Don't buy one license for one process if you have 50! Having a full pipeline of automation justifies the cost. While UiPath may be pricier than other tools, its power is worth it – but only if you know how to leverage it.

UiPath is a strong contender, earning a rating of nine out of ten. However, its high price tag prevents it from achieving a perfect score.

Automated processes require maintenance every three to six months. Additionally, training a robot using hypercapnia elevated CO2 may take three to six months. To ensure successful implementation, we need to identify potential robot failure points and mistakes. We'll simulate these scenarios during training to refine their character responses and behaviors. Following the training period, we'll transition to periodic monitoring. This monitoring will gradually decrease as we analyze data logs and the overall system performance through the central management tool.

The use cases for UiPath are mostly based on SAP products, web applications, and APIs.

UiPath is a tool which is mostly used for process automation. It's not like a normal automation tool. We have different kinds of process automation tools in the market. UiPath provides the best integration between multiple applications. It has supportive technology for all kinds of applications. It supports all kinds of products like desktop products and web applications.

So, integration is the best feature of UiPath. UiPath provides attended and unattended robots to do automation. It provides a use case for scanning invoice processing. So, these are some of the useful features provided by UiPath.

UiPath is currently lacking a Citrix environment, mostly on remote desktop applications. The banking sector is more concerned about security. To open an application, we need to enter some token authorization. Such kinds of processes or technologies need to improve in UiPath.

I have been using UiPath for three to four years.

When we face technical or product issues, we raise a ticket to UiPath support and get technical assistance from Uipath regarding the products and services.

Positive

Before UiPath, I used an automation tool called QTP/UFT tool.

The solution's initial deployment is easy, and it's not that difficult.

For the solution's on-prem initial deployment, we need the license and installation of the Orchestrator and the robotics machine.

Since it's a single-contribution project, I did the solution's development, deployment, and post-deployment support all by myself.

UiPath has helped streamline most standard processes, and it has also made the rule-based decision-making process stable. The solution helps us save a lot of time and manual effort. It has improved the accuracy and speed of processes like approving tasks, processing tickets, or the expenses of the employees. Most things that were very slow when done manually have become very fast nowadays with UiPath.

Comparatively, UiPath's pricing is higher than other tools. Since it provides the best services compared to other tools, UiPath's pricing is reasonable. Nowadays, they also provide cloud robots that don't require any infrastructure in our organization.

UiPath is a very easy-to-use and scriptless tool. Since it doesn't have any code involved in it, any nontechnical person can also use it for their professional work. They can automate any kind of workflow as per the business knowledge. UiPath doesn't require much technical knowledge and is very easy to use.

In most service-based or manufacturing organizations, UiPath can be used for processes that deal with a good cause. In the service-based organization, it provides employee benefit services like the recruiting process and retirement process. The solution also does monitoring tasks like license validation.

If you talk about social services, the solution also helps with passport scanning, which mostly happens in the airport. With the help of UiPath, we can immediately scan the passport and get the required information from a security point of view. So, it provides all kinds of the most relevant use cases in real life.

In UiPath, multiple stages are involved, like requirement gathering, business analysis, preparation of the process design documents, implementation of the perfect automation, and then deployment of that automation. After the deployment, we provide post-deployment support to the end users. This end-to-end process involves all kinds of stages, from requirement gathering to production and deployment. So, UiPath provides end-to-end automation.

UiPath provides a trial version of 60 days, which is the community edition and is completely free to use to learn. They have their own academies to learn the courses, which are also completely free. It also provides a certification of UiPath as a developer. UiPath has the best forum community edition where you can raise your questions and immediately get support or answers from the community. UiPath's user community is very user-friendly.

With UiPath, we have reduced a lot of manual work and saved a lot of time. It helped us reduce the most complex activities involved in the finance and HR departments.

I have used UiPath Academy courses and completed my certification program as a UiPath developer. Since UiPath is a scriptless tool, any user can learn the tool very easily by using the UiPath Academy courses. UiPath Academy courses are completely free. They don't have any charges and provide all the practical sessions and environment.

The UiPath Studio is also available for a 60-day trial version. You can install this tool on your machine, practice, and become an RPA or UiPath developer. So, UiPath Academy is the best tool to learn the UiPath tool.

Currently, UiPath has a lot of things like machine learning, artificial intelligence, and natural language processing. We have integrated all these things with UiPath. We also have AI Fabric in UiPath. By using AI, we can automate the more complex processes where decision-making is involved. The solution's AI functionality is mostly used in invoice processing or approving budgets.

UiPath's AI functionality has enabled us to automate more processes overall. AI gives us more leverage on process automation by reducing manual work and saving a lot of time in complex situations where decision-making is more complex. Based on historical data and previous experience, our UiPath bots can learn many things and give the best solution in AI.

UiPath gives more features to digitize your current business from manual to automation. It also saves lots of manual costs and real-time employee costs.

Although not 100%, UiPath reduces human error and provides more accurate results. It is very fast in terms of processing, and we can automate any kind of process. It works 24/7, even on weekends and holidays.

UiPath helps us to reduce or avoid some manual, repetitive tasks that most of our employees do on a daily basis. We have automated such tasks, and it saves a lot of employee time. So, employees can contribute their time to new innovations, new tasks, or new projects.

Nowadays, time is money. With UiPath, we save a lot of time and money in real-time employees.

RPA has multiple automation tools like Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere, and UiPath. We chose UiPath in our organization because it has more features than other tools.

I was involved in setting up the infrastructure for my current project. I was involved in the installation of the robots, the installation of the Studio, the connection between the Orchestrator and the Studio, and the deployment of the robots on the machine. I was involved in such activities, apart from the development.

Overall, I rate UiPath a nine out of ten.

My main use case for this product is process automation. For example, we use UiPath to make quick and easy applications for our internal office use.

It has reduced repetitive tasks. We now have more efficient processes. Manual testing was one of the time-consuming tasks that we used to do. Our testing team used to spend days and nights testing. UiPath has completely boosted the process. For example, previously, if we needed three employees to do a particular manual test, now, because of the automation that is available, we require just one employee. It has saved a lot of time, and it has also enabled us to deliver better-quality products. With automation, less manual work is involved, and the quality of the product that we deliver is very good. We have also been able to automate a lot of tasks, such as compliance tracking.

It's very easy to build automations using UiPath. Most of the things are just drag-and-drop. People with zero to minimal coding knowledge can build applications using UiPath. It's straightforward. One thing that facilitates this is that a lot of in-app guides or inbuilt tutorials are available, which makes UiPath very easy for a beginner who is starting out with UiPath. With such a good knowledge base, it becomes very easy for them to get a grasp of everything and start building applications.

It enables us to implement end-to-end automation. It also improves the employee experience. In software development, especially in the field of testing, there are many repetitive tasks, and they are prone to many manual errors as well. Automation through UiPath boosted employee morale, and it also improved the customer experience. We have been able to deliver better products on time to customers with UiPath.

It's a cloud-based solution, and it has helped to minimize our on-premises footprint.

With the AI functionality, we have been able to identify areas where automation can be implemented. We are trying to identify where process automation can be brought in and efficiency can be improved. The AI functionality is good, but there's a lot of initial work that needs to be done for this. It has enabled us to automate more processes. Within a month, we have been able to automate around 40 to 45 processes that were pending for a long time. It has definitely speeded up the entire process.

It speeds up digital transformation and also reduces the cost of digital transformation. Less manual intervention is needed, and less manpower is needed. It definitely reduces the overall cost for the company. Also, when something is automated, it's very quick. Redundant or repetitive tasks are completely reduced, and a lot of time is saved. So, it definitely saves time and cost.

This digital transformation didn't require expensive or complex application upgrades, or IT application support. Everything was inside UiPath. We just took some additional training from UiPath to get it implemented. Other than that, we did not use anything.

It has reduced a lot of human error. With manual testing, there were a lot of errors. With automation, that has been completely eradicated, and a lot of time and effort has been saved. It has reduced human errors by 100%.

It has improved our customer experience as well. We provide services to our clients or customers. Any human error leads to a delay in delivering the application. With automation, we have completely removed human errors, and we are able to satisfy our customers. It has impacted the retention of our customers.

It has freed up employees' time as well. A task that previously required three or four employees just requires one employee now. We do not spend all our time on a process. Once we implement and start an automation process, everything happens automatically. We can concentrate on other aspects of software development. It has saved 20 hours per week or 4 hours per day. 

It has saved a lot of costs for us in terms of employee reduction. We now need just one employee for a task rather than four employees. So, there are savings in terms of employee salary. We are also able to retain customers better, which has improved our revenue. Overall, about 25% of our cost has been saved. We were losing revenue and customers because they were not satisfied. With UiPath, our efficiency has improved, and the time to market has reduced. 

There are two features that I like a lot in UiPath: one is the Orchestrator option, and the other one is the Studio option. I especially like Orchestrator because it's very insightful for us. It's like a centralized hub to manage and maintain all of our process automation and task-mining. It systematically organizes each and every folder so that it's easy for us whenever we need to know, set, or take something. Studio is where we primarily do most of our designing. It's a very good tool. Most of it is drag-and-drop. These are the two main useful features for us.

The dashboard view could be more visually appealing. Dashboards in any software should stand out with colors, numbers, and other things, but in UiPath, the dashboard is not that visually appealing. The UiPath team could make it more visually appealing for us to get more insights.

Another improvement area is related to product updates. Earlier, we used to get monthly updates about the product, but that has stopped now. If they could bring that back, it'll be very good.

We have recently tried the AI functionality. There is a lot of learning that we need to do with regard to AI. It's good, but it's not as smooth as Orchestrator or Studio. The AI aspect of the product could be better. We're currently working on allowing the AI to automatically detect areas where automation can be brought in and efficiency can be improved. That needs some more refinement. It's currently not straightforward. Sometimes, it just repeats whatever it said previously, so nothing new comes out of it. The AI aspect of the product can be much more refined. Apart from that, I don't have anything else. It's a well-thought-out and complete product. It's very easy to use and easy to understand.

I've been using UiPath for around a year.

It's a cloud-based solution. It's very stable, and we just need to make sure that it's up to date. Personally, I have not seen any bugs, errors, or performance issues with this. We are not using an on-premise model. It's cloud-based. So, the service is always available, and it's always quick. It's very stable, and I have no complaints.

The applications that we develop with UiPath are also very reliable. They don't crash or have any performance issues. They are very stable and reliable.

When we started with UiPath, our main use case was to be able to quickly and easily make applications for internal purposes, but now, we are doing a lot more with UiPath. We are doing compliance, and we are doing AI-related process automation. It's definitely a scalable solution.

It's deployed across multiple departments. Each department has its own RPA functionality and RPA usage. In my department, 20 of us use UiPath, but I'm not sure about its users in other departments. 

Their support team is very knowledgeable. Whatever issues we have, they try to explain them to us in a better way. The SLA or response time is pretty quick. It's 24 hours for us. I have no complaints. I would rate them a nine out of ten.

In addition to the support team that UiPath has, I depend on the user community for all my queries. I see the UiPath Community as the main support tool. It's my go-to space for anything related to UiPath, and I am very satisfied with the quality of the community.

Positive

I am not aware of any other solution that we used to use.

It didn't take a lot of time to implement, which is a very good thing about UiPath. In about two to three weeks, we got the entire setup done. That was very quick.

It's a cloud solution. We have deployed it on AWS. Being a cloud solution, it requires very less maintenance from our side. That's one of the very good things about UiPath. We just need to make sure it's up to date.

We have definitely seen an ROI. Customer satisfaction has improved a lot. We have been able to retain customers better, and we have been able to reduce manual errors by 100%. 

Its pricing is straightforward. There are two editions: one is the community edition and one is the enterprise edition, which is a paid one. The paid edition is priced reasonably.

They charge extra for additional training and implementation, but that should be bundled up with the enterprise edition itself. All in all, it's reasonably priced.

To anyone considering UiPath, I would advise checking out the trial version of UiPath before going on to the actual version. Before you start using UiPath, there are a lot of things you need to get your head around. People who generally use UiPath have zero or minimal coding skills. This is something that you definitely need to know.

You can try out the UiPath Academy as well. They provide certification courses. I have not used UiPath Academy, but I have seen my team using it for the certification program they offer. I have heard that it's very good.

I would rate it a nine out of ten because I have not faced any issues with the product. Whatever we wanted to achieve with this product, we have been able to achieve.

My domain and expertise are in life sciences. In life sciences there is a process called pharmacovigilance, which involves monitoring the effects of medical drugs after they have been licensed for use. I create end-to-end automations, for case processing and full data entry. The customer will store details in an Oracle-based pharmacovigilance platform called Argus, where clinical data from the client and the product are stored. The UiPath bot has to capture the cases from Argus. Once a case has been input into UiPath, a mandatory status check, duplicate search, and case processing have to be done.

It then needs to perform full data entry in Argus. The full data entry consists of more details like patient information, product information, event information, and so on. The bot needs to validate and input those details into Argus and save the case. 

Some days there will be 1k records and on other days, there will be 2k records. On average the bot will process 12k to 13k records.

Pharmacovigilance is a big process. It would take almost 45 minutes for a human to complete a single case. By implementing UiPath robots in the customer's environment, the case processing time has been drastically reduced. The bot processes cases, end-to-end, within 20 to 25 minutes, depending on the case complexity, so that the customer is saving 20 minutes per case. The savings are equivalent to nine or 10 FTEs, which is huge. As a result of those savings, they have requested us to build more bots for them, for other processes.

The most valuable feature in UiPath is the UI interaction with UI Explorer. I have worked with other automation tools and UI Explorer is the standout feature of UiPath. For web-based applications, we can interact with every HTML element, from head to tail. UI Explorer is a valuable addition to UiPath for creating complex, web-based automation.

The AI Computer Vision and Orchestrator are also outstanding features. They make it very easy for developers.

In addition, the introduction of drag-and-drop APIs to UiPath enhances the development processes and decreases the time it takes, as well as the processing time. For example, if you wanted to read an email from Microsoft Outlook using UiPath two years ago, it would take about five steps or activities. Now, with the Graph API within UiPath, you can read an email message from Outlook within a span of five to six seconds, maximum. This API functionality is pretty easy for us to handle.

Along with this, UiPath also introduced Orchestrator access via API. It's not mandatory to log in to Orchestrator to create an asset manually in UiPath. Rather, you can use the Orchestrator API to call a bot process and the assets. This API functionality helps developers to develop components effectively, as well as reduces bot processing time drastically.

I have been into RPA for almost six years and I have worked in the three major tools: UiPath, Automation Anywhere, and Blue Prism. I have been using UiPath for four to five years. I'm an RPA developer and do development for my clients. That includes designing and deploying bots in the clients' environments, and making sure the bots are running well.

It is stable. We are using the 2019 version. The versions are continually upgraded with the latest being the 2021 version. There are frequent updates but the version we are using is stable. We don't have any errors or bot crashes or other unexpected system exceptions during development. The stability is good across all versions.

It's pretty scalable. It can be used across all major providers. If you want to automate Windows, web-based or PDF-based interactions, or do email or Excel automation, you can. We can also do terminal automation, mainframe automation, and Citrix automation. It covers almost every possible scenario for real-time data handling. 

We only have a couple of challenges, when a customer says we need to do this or that and UiPath doesn't have built-in functionality for that. We need to think differently and add some additional .NET components, for example. 

But UiPath is pretty scalable, and we can use it across all technologies for automation.

If you don't find a solution in the Community Forum, you can raise a technical support ticket with UiPath. The support team works 24 hours a day, and we can get a resolution immediately. Both the Community Forum and the technical support play a major role and both help developers.

UiPath also has partners. Cognizant is a high-priority partner and they have their own SLAs for everything. If I raise a ticket regarding UiPath, if something is not working, the response time is very quick and the resolutions they provide are pretty standard. We haven't faced any difficulties in raising a ticket. Everything has met our expectations with respect to the technical support.

Positive

The main thing that could be improved is the cost. I have worked with other tools and the licensing cost of UiPath is slightly higher than the others.

Also, UiPath has a built-in functionality called Computer Vision to extract values from a PDF. If we want to use Computer Vision, UiPath has one drawback. The cost is based on how many documents we are using Computer Vision on. That makes it difficult to estimate ROI. Computer Vision has a dynamic cost. To propose a project to a client, a project that includes Computer Vision, we need to have some kind of standard cost so that they can calculate the ROI effectively. Computer Vision should not be based on usage.

This is one of the main drawbacks that I have seen in real-life situations, when quoting a price for a client. If UiPath improved in this area, they might have many more customers who want to automate PDF interactions based on Computer Vision, because it has huge scope.

The advantage of using UiPath over Automation Anywhere is the UI interaction. Automation Anywhere doesn't have a specialized feature like UI Explorer, or any other options to click on an image or interact with UI elements. Automation Anywhere has a Capture command and we have to work with that one command to interact with all the UI-based elements. But it's completely different in UiPath. UI Explorer enables multiple clicks and interactive activities. You can mimic the HTML per your project's needs. You can't work in the same way in Automation Anywhere. With respect to web-based automation, UiPath stands tall. AA has limited functionality.

The disadvantage of UiPath is in the PDF interaction. Automation Anywhere has a bot called IQ Bot, which is included in the licensing of Automation Anywhere. It's pretty easy to train it for a PDF document within the span of a few seconds. UiPath's Computer Vision has the same functionality as IQ Bot, but Computer Vision is pretty costly.

Other than that, Automation Anywhere is cloud-hosted and it has multiple ways for a developer to code. If you want to code RPA, or you want to code in a flow-based manner, you can do so with Automation Anywhere. But UiPath has only one mode, a flow-based automation. UiPath doesn't have code-based automation.

From the developer's point of view, if you have a code-based structure then what AA offers is as good as UiPath. 

A major advantage of UiPath is that since it is a .NET-based application, you can use all the methods and the properties that are available in .NET. You don't have that functionality in Automation Anywhere. If you want to read or manipulate a string, you need to use separate activities in Automation Anywhere, but with UiPath you can use the built-in .NET methods to read a string in a single line. The complexity of the code is smaller in UiPath.  

Because I have worked in all the major RPA tools, I can say confidently that UiPath is very developer-friendly. If you are coming from a non-technical background, or you don't know coding, they have a separate portal for you to develop in, called StudioX. It's a low-code platform, a "citizen-developer" platform. Anyone who wants to use UiPath can use it without any background.

From the development, design, and testing points of view, I rate UiPath higher than other RPA tools for automation. Go directly to UiPath, rather than trying all the other tools. UiPath is number-one for development and testing.

It is mandatory in our company to use the UiPath Academy to do RPA certification. Almost everyone has completed advanced professional certification in UiPath. The Academy covers every topic extensively, as far as what developers need. I don't come from an IT background but I learned it. UiPath teaches everything from scratch. With a little bit of coding knowledge, it's very easy to learn development using the Academy portal. The major advantage is that, since it is a video-based series, you get a clear idea of the modern-day functionality. They explain everything with an example and they give you use cases for practice. 

If you want to be an architect, they have a course for that. If you want a developer diploma, they have a course for that. And if you want to learn a specific topic, like deployment or testing, they have courses for them.

For anyone with experience in another technology who wants to learn UiPath, or wants to do RPA projects, it's a matter of 10 to 15 days to go through all the videos and you can start working. That's a big advantage of UiPath. The Academy makes learning easy.

They also have a Community Forum. If we have any doubt, we can interact with other developers around the globe. It's very interactive and we can learn what things are intended to do. About 90 percent of the time, you can find a solution using the forum.

Other than the Computer Vision cost model, the features of UiPath are pretty awesome to use. As a developer, there aren't any drawbacks or difficulties when using UiPath.

I work for an international consulting firm and we work with enterprise clients. Our job is to provide them with RPA solutions and ultimately, we would like to provide opportunities for them to have every kind of automation.

We began with use cases in accounting and controlling departments, after which we moved to automate banking, legal, and IT processes. Nowadays, we are reaching out to HR to help automate some of their minor processes.

To this point, our implementations have been in an on-premises environment. At this time, we are in the process of migrating our on-premises UiPath environment to the cloud.

When I joined the RPA team, coming from a DevOps position, I assisted them with IT-related tasks such as implementation, packages, etc. I went on to become an RPA developer and began working on business sue cases. As part of my duties, I search for opportunities, help find internal clients, and improve governance inside of our enterprise. I am involved in all of the steps in the framework.

Our first automation was an on-demand service, used internally for us. We deployed an on-premises orchestrator, also used on an on-demand basis. Once we got this experience, we started building other solutions.

We deployed an internal chatbot named Alex, and our employees can ask whatever they want. For example, you can ask Alex what your salary is. Depending on your privileges, you will get more or less information. Everything is done using robots.

UiPath makes it easy to develop automations and this is the main selling point. I can speak with a client and in the meantime, I can prepare a demo on the fly that captures the client's thoughts at the moment. What it means is that as I'm speaking with you, I can start preparing a small demo. I find the product fun to work with.

An example of how this has improved our business is when dealing with internal clients. For example, if an internal business manager wants to use BI and needs to create a report with a specific set of data, they traditionally had to reach out to the IT department. IT will first examine the needs, then discuss how it is developed. It may need a database instance or other tools, for example. Traditionally, this is how it is done. 

One of the problems with this approach is that our headquarters is in France, and they are used to having internal discussions about everything. For a use case like this, they will consider all of the needs and other points before making a decision. It can be very time-consuming.

However, if we consider the same use case, using UiPath, we are able to create reports on the fly. We can be right in the same meetings with the IT people when we do it. 

If you're from a legal department and your solutions involve HR, as well as other company departments, I can automate several processes in four hours. Then, all of the processes can run during the night. It is an amazing product in this regard.

As we automate processes, another benefit that we receive is the ability to generate internal reports comparing departments and processes. We give these reports to the heads of the company to provide intelligence, helping them to better understand the organization. 

As an example of somewhere that UiPath has saved money, I implemented automation to replace a tool that one of our clients has. It is an internal timesheet tool and although the company uses SAP and SAP HANA for these tasks, this tool handles aspects that are specific to Spain. It is a small tool but is needed for a particular purpose.

The initial development of the tool, handled by an external third party, cost €20,000 (approx $22,500 USD) and there is a monthly maintenance fee of €700 (approx $790 USD). We discussed replacing the tool with our client but they were hesitant to change because they already had the solution.

We offered to replace their tool for free because we are trying to internalize processes, so there was also a benefit for us. We explained that once it was completed, we would be responsible for performing the calculations and analysis to ensure that the replacement was working properly. They agreed and it took me only one day to complete the automation. Now, it takes only a single button click from beginning to end. At the end of the day, it brings in all of the jobs. This automation saves them €700 per month in maintenance costs and it would have saved the initial development and deployment fee had it been implemented using UiPath from the beginning.

It was very easy to see that they were wasting money, and this is happening in a lot of places. We proposed to them that for these tasks, we would charge €600 (approx $675 USD) per day as consultants, and then for maintenance, we would bill them a monthly fee equivalent to 16% of the cost of the robot. For the bot used to replace their tool, it took me one day to develop and two days to plan and design it. The initial cost would have been €1,800 (approx $2,000 USD) and the monthly maintenance fee €200. They switched from their tool to the robot, since it was only costing €200 instead of €700 per month.

After they switched, they realized the power of automation and have since asked us about automating more of their internal processes. They have presented a storm of ideas, and the potential for savings is amazing.

You cannot compare whatever you do with a robot to a traditional software tool, package, or service. This example of the tool that we replaced is only one use case, and there are others but they are all more complex. Overall, it saves a lot in terms of time and cost.

The most valuable feature is the forum, where there is lots of help available. For me, UiPath is the perfect partner to converse with. I have brought four or five topics to the forum and every time that I was stuck, the problem had already been registered. I see the comments from the internal team and they are always tuned to the issue, always looking to fix small problems that have been found. We find that after they have been pointed out, fixes come included in the next release.

The interface is intuitive and very user-friendly.

The UiPath Academy provides courses to help you get up to speed with the solution, and to my thinking, it is crucial to start with this training. Developing a report in UiPath and other RPA solutions is very different from the traditional way to learn. When I studied in university, software development was focused on data structures and optimization. This varies a little bit depending on the programming language but more or less, this is what every framework follows. It's logical and we are always trying to optimize our processes. With RPA, it's different because you base your process on the logic, and then tweak with the tools. It's the difference between painting a picture and shaping an object. For me, the training was crucial and it helps a lot to learn right from the beginning.

The basic course took me four or five days to complete. Just with that, it was enough to become familiar with the framework and quite enough to start making your own automations.

I'm always looking for new courses from the Academy. For example, I completed the architect training, as well as the course on governance. The academy is well structured and very useful, although not mandatory because you can start by yourself. That said, I definitely recommend it.

We use the AI-enhanced document understanding capabilities, as well as other related features.

UiPath is based on the .NET framework, which means that we are currently limited to Windows deployment.

The update process has resulted in several small issues for us. Sometimes when you update, there are several lines that are not included in the package. This kind of technical error, even though it's small, has to improve. I understand that they are trying to implement all of the services that they can, and this kind of thing happens when you expand your model. The same thing happens to us. That said, it needs to improve.

The .NET formwork is well known, as is C#, but it requires a lot of computing power. Everything is JSON-based, so it always has to preload all of the information. This means that there is overhead in the performance and if it were only a simple query, it might be slower with UiPath. However, with a cloud-based environment, we don't have to worry about this.

When it comes to migration, it's always painful. We have found several issues that require changes to be made from a coding perspective. In our current migration from on-premises to the cloud, we had a problem that delayed us by approximately a week. However, I don't consider this to be a pain point because it's a normal thing that happens when you try to size up your company by introducing many new services.

From a technical perspective, the migration is straightforward but we haven't completed our migration yet because we have not set up the gateways to access our services.

I have been working with UiPath since 2019, approximately three years ago.

Starting from version 20, UiPath has been very stable. Prior to this, it has not been 100% stable. That said, we have not had any troubles with the platform in general.

The problems that we have encountered were when we tried to upgrade or to migrate by uninstalling and reinstalling the Orchestrator. There were some internal issues where people didn't read the communications that we put out.

Generally speaking, Orchestrator is very well built. We have put a lot of stress on the system and haven't experienced any problems with performance.

Scalability-wise, UiPath is quite good. This is an interesting topic because, in the beginning, I didn't put much thought into scaling. I was used to building solutions, and that's all. UiPath offers special packages that target scaling up. These packages become relevant when you have more than 20 processes.

For example, you can have activities that trigger processes, and you can include one activity inside of another. With these features, you realize that a huge amount of work is already taken care of.

More to how well it scales, they have a very useful package of integration tools.

Personally, I have automated 70 processes and the total for the team is approximately 300. Within the past year, we have delivered more than 200,000 hours of automation.

Since I joined the group, we have brought a lot of RPA clients into the enterprise.

I would rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

The reason for my rating is that I have been waiting since last year for integrations that are coming. With respect to getting support for other things, I have not had any problems.

The support wants to teach us how to build an automation ecosystem inside the enterprise by combining artificial intelligence models, data analysis, and these kinds of things.

During our implementation and afterward, they have given us ideas about how and where things should go. This has been helpful but from my perspective, it is all still a little bit hard to understand. There is a lot of documentation to study. This is, in part, because they are growing and building.

I have done several RPA jobs in telecom when I worked for another company.

We first deployed version 18 of UiPath, and we found the initial setup to be quite straightforward. It was well packaged and easy to install.

The only pain point for us was issues related to implementing the solution inside our ecosystem. It contains VMs, firewalls, and other things that add to the complexity. This, however, belongs to us. From the perspective of UiPath, they gave us a package to install the Orchestrator, and another to install the runtime in every machine that we want it to work with. Things are quite straightforward in this regard.

In our case, we needed a newer version that came with some of our internal tools preinstalled. This is because we used to have access through Citrix. The installation was very easy.

It took approximately a day for each installation and within a week to two weeks, the service was working. There were five of us working on implementation and deployment. Four of us were working on installation and testing, and three people in the team were IT architects.

UiPath has saved us a lot of time. We calculate our benefit by counting hours saved and last year, we saved 200,000 hours. This means that we replaced between 120 and 140 people by using automation. This is our main metric for calculating cost savings.

When we first started with RPA, we compared UiPath with Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere. We chose UiPath right at the beginning.

For me, it was a straightforward choice. UiPath has a lot of help available, and they have a lot of tools. The forum, for me, is the winning factor. For now and in the future, UiPath is the product that I will use.

Another factor in our decision was the ability to use the product before purchasing it. Blue Prism had a demo account so they were a little bit open. However, Automation Anywhere wasn't open at all. They wanted us to pay while we learned how to use it. For me, that was the breaking point because UiPath could be used for free and was open from the beginning.

Coming in as a developer, I very much appreciate that the platform and the code are open. They don't keep everything that they are doing a secret. They have their own business model and they provide the tools. They let you play as much with the solution as you want to.

The interface is also more user-friendly than the other products for creating automations. In fact, I didn't use the other tools very much. In total, we evaluated them for two months, although this time included installation, learning how to use the platform, and trying different automations. Ultimately, based on everything, we chose UiPath.

We tried to compare the products while we were creating simple automations and on every point, we found a huge distance between UiPath and the other tools. For example, the interface was much more intuitive than the other two products.

At the time, UiPath wasn't as big as the other two solutions. However, it had a lot of potential for growth. This was another point that my boss took into consideration when making the decision.

Since the beginning, UiPath has been trying to work out a partnership with Google, including the main tools and main services. For us, and from an enterprise perspective, that is very good. We expect UiPath to grow a lot.

If we have a server and a good investment in machines, virtual or physical, then we don't have anything to worry about. 

As I continue my career in RPA, what I understand is that it's the beginning of a new industry. It's like an industrial revolution, but for automation. When we began with use cases in accounting and banking, it was all related to numbers and we were always using structured data. However, today, we are using things like chatbots. We are also expanding into AI use cases and UiPath continues to grow to include new capabilities and functionality.

In the next ten years, I expect there to be a huge demand for automation. This will be in every kind of enterprise, as well as our day-to-day life. One example is the smart house, with implementations for domestic processes.

My advice for anybody who is implementing UiPath is, firstly, not to panic. It is a new way to develop and understand your business model. Second, do not go too fast. Sometimes, the easiest way to develop robots can lead you to forget about your basics and best practices. Third, bring a strong internal framework, including your business model, best practices, and internal documentation.

It's crucial to be able to scale up in the future, so be sure to consider your larger processes at an early stage. Don't look at things in a traditional way. For example, you can use Python for automation, which is a very open framework, but Python doesn't let you do all of the things that you can do with UiPath. You need to follow a more structured coding approach. Essentially, you always have to be organized and try to take things step-by-step. Otherwise, you will have an internal fight between robots in your Orchestrator.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

We develop and deploy use cases in the area of the cloud. We have deployed over 100 use cases. Most of our use cases are related to SAP applications, web applications, and mainframe applications.

One use case example is related to mainframe applications. The bot monitors mainframe applications 24/7. If there are any new jobs, they are identified, then the bot changes the status of the job to differentiate it. 

Previously, we are using the 2016 version of Orchestrator, then we upgraded to the 2018 version of Orchestrator. Some clients are deploying the 2020 version. It depends on the client. We suggest using a version back to clients, i.e., the 2019 version. 

We automate retail, sales, and agricultural services.

There are a bunch of candidates being monitored 24x7. Automation Cloud monitors these jobs, and whenever new docs come into the application, it will then change the status manually based upon certain conditions. Once we deploy the automation into the production, our manpower has been reduced so there are only one or two people needed for the backup. The rest will be taken care of by the automation itself. So, there has been a drastic reduction in our workforce.

We schedule different jobs using Orchestrator only. We have a separate team who takes care of jobs that we apply in Orchestrator. So, if there are any failures, it will automatically send email alerts to us. 

Within Orchestrator, there is a tab where we can restrict roles from the admin level to the user level. Developers give only access to the jobs. Whereas, admins have a roles option to restrict access.

There are still some areas that need improvements. Currently, the tool is not 100 percent accurate with hand written notes and image based automation. It is also tedious using it with Word applications. 

We are doing automation to take care of all our processes, but we still need support people 24/7 to monitor these jobs. So, human intervention is still there. We have two people monitoring these automations 24/7 because there are still some challenges with the automation.

I have been working with it for two and a half years.

When new bots are developed, we definitely see some errors in the first few days, which are usually connector issues. Once the bot is moved to production and has a lot of enhancements and patches to the automations, we make sure that the automation is running smoothly. So, during the initial stages, it won't be very stable, but after a few enhancements to adjust to the automation as time goes, then it will become stable.

Once we deploy and release the automation into production, we will monitor production to see if there are any new challenges, different scenarios, or bugs that we need to fix. We have monitored the automation after deployment for around six to seven months, and the automation went smoothly without any issues. Because the automation is performing pretty well, we have deployed it to more of our workforce and their different jobs.

We have separate, dedicated test data in three different environments. Orchestrator has a database and email server, so everything is in Orchestrator. Apart from the servers, products, and services, everything has a separate operations team, which has eight to 10 members, who take care of everything.

Previously, they used on-premises services for the bots. Then, they asked us to migrate more than 20 bots from on-premises to our AWS environment. So, we have created a dedicated AWS environment for them.

The deployment process goes this way: 

1. Developers develop the use case in a development environment. 
2. Once that is done, then they will move the code to the non-cloud environment.
3. They will test the code if the automation is running fine or not. If automation is running fine, they will show the data which is running fine as a code to the client. 
4. Once they have the desired output, then we will move to the production environment. 
5. The operations team will then deploy that process. 

The first time, it is a bit tricky. Going to production, it will take around 20 to 30 minutes to deploy the first time. If there is already existing automation, we only need a patch to implement it in production, then it will take roughly five to 10 minutes to apply.

The process of testing and deploying code takes roughly one to four nights maximum.

For deploying UiPath, we need at least three to four RPA developers. In general, one person can deploy at any time. The other two to three people are just there on support calls. 

Post-production, we have an operations team of eight to 10 members who take care of the automation.

There are some automations that save us thousands of hours monthly. These are automations that we run 24/7 as well as some automations that we run every five minutes for installing backups. Depending upon the amount of time the automation is standing, we will manage the capabilities of the server. 

To some extent, it has reduced the operations:

1. The automation is sending an email whenever there will be an error. Automatically, it is not going to the user. The user just needs to verify their emails. 
2. Whenever an error is noticed in the code, the automation will fit the address and email the operations team members. 

In these ways, it has helped to reduce operation costs, but not completely.

There are three types of licenses: unattended, attended, and developer.

We also use Automation Anywhere (version 10) and Blue Prism automation tools, but I think most clients prefer UiPath. There are more activities available in UiPath versus the Automation Anywhere version that we use. For example, UiPath has database-related activities, but Automation Anywhere, version 10, does not have this feature. I have tried using mainframe appliances in UiPath and Automation Anywhere, and I found that UiPath is more flexible and has more options available.

The solution is single sign-on, so the authentication is done for us, because it is difficult to remember all our passwords.

We have a ServiceNow ticketing tool for reporting issues related to UiPath.

UiPath is very good for developing web-based applications, especially for SAP and the web. For these two applications, you can go with UiPath without any doubts.

I would rate this solution as an eight (out of 10).

Our communications company intends to use UiPath and AI to determine the best fit and time for commercials based on the customer's usage and payment for the spot. We haven't fully deployed AI, yet. It's becoming more critical to leadership, but we're still doing testing and researching

Our goal with AI is to significantly reduce the manual effort needed to determine where to place ads. We don't have enough human resources to place spots around the clock, so we want UiPath to fill in the gaps by augmenting existing staff without hiring people.

Our leaders and stakeholders are pleased with the RPA results and want to expand our usage. We're still waiting to implement AI. 

Orchestrator is the most valuable feature.

UiPath could improve on-prem availability. I would like to see a load-testing feature, but that's coming.

We have been using UiPath for about three years.

We've never had any issues with stability. 

We just keep adding bots and have not encountered any problems expanding.

I rate UiPath customer service nine out of 10. Overall, it's been great, but in a handful of cases, we've dealt with someone at support whose ability wasn't quite where we wanted it to be.

Positive

We previously used Pega, but our leaders decided to switch to UiPath 

I can't quantify the amount of time we've saved with UiPath, but we've reduced our headcount by about 10 percent. We're not laying people off, but we can backfill employee positions with automation as they leave.

UiPath is perceived as more expensive, but it's pretty close when you break down the licensing model and look at how much competitors charge per connection. We've done the analysis.  

I rate UiPath nine out of 10 because we can't use the cloud stuff yet. If we were on the cloud, I would give it a perfect 10.