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Project Manager and RPA(Robotics Process Automation) Lead at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Video Review
Real User
There's a 100% reduction in human errors. The bot doesn't make any errors

What is our primary use case?

I work in finance functions, so typically implementing it within our finance accounting hub that we have out in Manila when most of our processes are stabilized and globalized experts. So, it's a very good fit to have our processes automated out in Manila.

How has it helped my organization?

We are in the early stages of implementing our robots, but at this stage, you already see things like our customer satisfaction, so we're supporting your finest teams, so they are already getting benefiting it, and very much tedious tasks that sitting with the team, they're actually find they don't need to do the tedious tasks. 

Funny enough, that out in the Philippines, they are actually welcoming robotics because it creates capacity for them in order to bring more work into our accounting hub, so that would be where I can see a real benefit in our organization already. 

I think we very much focus on traditional development opportunities, so API to API connectivity and those type of things are very much the way that we're doing things. We have development teams out around the world that develop, and I specifically work with financial functions and develop our finance systems, typically more of a traditional development focus rather than using robotics opportunities, but we are starting to see robotics becoming a bit more prominent. People are more interested in it, and people are starting to engage a bit more with the robotic side of things. I think the benefit of using robots is actually becoming a bit more visible within the organization.

We are making use of attended bots. Unattended bots are of course a huge benefit. I can see the future if I use the 80/20 rule; I can see probably 80% of our bots will be unattended when we will implement 20% into attended bots for our organization at the moment. I don't know how that will look like if we say everybody in organization using bots, then of course attended bots will become very prominent, but where we are right now, I can see unattended bots will become very attractive for us right now, so probably seeing the bigger opportunities at the moment, and those big opportunities, unattended bots will be well suited for.

It is difficult to get your head around attended and unattended bots, but once you get to understand the differences, I think yeah. I can see benefits and pros and cons on both sides, but typically where we are now, we use attended bots. I can see us moving with our big opportunities into unattended bots, and where the future takes, I don't know. I'll let you know then.

What is most valuable?

I think it's the ease of use for the developer, so we can actually make use of people within subject matter experts rather than having fully fledged developers, so that's one of the main features. And, I think, based on that, it is actually the speed in which we can deliver some of these automations, so the delivery and the build of the box is actually much quicker than your conventional development, so those will be my two top points at this stage.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We've created a bot within our collections team. We are doing a reconciliation, and since implementing the bot, which was at the beginning of this year, we hadn't needed any changes onto the bot. 

Buyer's Guide
UiPath
August 2024
Learn what your peers think about UiPath. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2024.
800,688 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability very much so, so exactly that reconciliation bot we were able to apply to different reconciliations within our collections team, and they fall. Yes, it's very much scalable as well, so we are running four different bots at this stage for our collections reconciliation process.

How are customer service and support?

I think we will probably make use of the community more, so asking questions within the community forum. I've not really had to engage with technical support directly apart from our sales person that we could ask questions from, etc., but generally, the technical questions are more posted onto the discussion forum and answers being given and taken from there.

Our proof of concept was done using PwC, and they've helped us build our proof of concept. The reason for that is they've delivered a piece of work where we wanted to see whether this has already been delivering a piece of work where this really fell into, so we engage with them often to help us deliver a proof of concept, and that was very successful, and of course that helped us roll up more into the business and taking a little bit more on internally rather than continuous support from PwC.

How was the initial setup?

Coming from a person that doesn't' know much of robotics or anything of that, as it's a new technology. I think it was quite difficult to get your head around that first. Setting it up, installing the software's very easy on occasion, but getting a grasp and understanding of the difference between the studio and the difference between the robots in that regard was quite difficult to get your head around not only for us who's been setting up the center of excellence but also for explaining to the business the different components and then just understanding what the different components does, and I think it's maybe more around terminology. We're building a bot that's running on a bot, but the building of the bot is in studio.

It's a very easy concept, but it makes it difficult for the business to understand what you're talking about and what we're working in and what actually runs the bot and those type of things.

What was our ROI?

We are starting to see a return on investment. I won't be able to answer that right now, probably only be able to answer once I start analyzing it, but we are starting to see a return on investment. I think it will probably take a good few months before I can analyze how well we're doing. I think fairly soon we see a return on investment.

Does it fit in with the business, what they expect? I don't know. That's a given that the solution absolutely does, so if I come back to our original example of the reconciliation bot within our collections area. I think there's almost 100% human errors reduced. The bot doesn't make any errors, so we've seen it running smoothly for the last since the beginning of the year, so last nine, 10, 11 months.

What other advice do I have?

Citrix environments are quite difficult. It takes more time to develop the bot itself. Accuracy's maybe a bit of an issue there, so from a Citrix type of environment, I'd probably try to avoid it from my side, but it's just because I don't like to work with the images. I'd rather work directly within hotkeys or whatever.

I think I would rate the product probably at about an eight, which is coming down to the usability. It's really easy to use. It is easy to implement and roll out getting people involved. I think there is drawbacks in terms of the understanding of where the process is, so it's maybe on our side, understanding the process and which processes are suitable for the bot and what the bot will be able to do then with those. I think taking a subject matter expert and giving them the expertise to build bots limits your ability to understand the full capacity of the product. I think there's a lot of things changing within the product very quickly and to keep up with all of the enhancements that you're making makes it a little bit difficult, but over all, it is very good, and if you apply correctly to your processes, you will definitely seen an improvement in your process and return on your investment.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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PeerSpot user
Robotic Sales Specialist at T-Impact
Video Review
Reseller
The man-hour cost for deduplicating the database was 11 man-years. We got that down to 30 days with a saving of 3.89 million pounds

What is our primary use case?

We're specializing in law and local government, so that's our target market at the moment. Obviously it's usable everywhere, but that's our market, and we find that that's where there's a lot of opportunity for sale.

How has it helped my organization?

In one of our legal scenarios, we had a situation where they were trying to deduplicate their database. They worked out that the man-hour cost for deduplicating that database was 11 man-years. We got that down to 30 days with a saving of 3.89 million pounds in what they would've expected their cost of that process to be.

As a sales-based operation, we get a lot of inquiries through our own website. We were finding that we were extrapolating that information, putting it into an email, I think into a spreadsheet, putting it into Salesforce, whatever. We've now got our own robot, which we've built, which opens up the backend of Wix, which is our website building tool. It receives all those inbound inquiries. It then goes out and looks at the public domain. We'll use that email address, or use a name against LinkedIn, against Facebook, against Twitter, to find out any more information we can find about job titles, maybe phone numbers or email addresses if they're missing. Get all that data out, build up a real case for that client, then the robot would enter that data into Salesforce, it will send them a welcome email to say, "Thanks for you inquiry, please find attached the information you've requested." Bring them straight into Salesforce, set up a reminder, and then send me an email to say, "Follow up this client, they've downloaded some information from our website." We've automated that whole process, and we can then use that for events, and seminars, and webinars, everything else that we hold, because they're genuinely interested clients, and we get around that GDPR issue.

What is most valuable?

For us, it's the ability to offer as a subscription model. We looked at the other competitors to UiPath, and we found that the way of delivery that we offer is a subscription model. It's a very, very small upfront fee and a monthly cost, and UiPath gives us the flexibility to do that. Some of the other vendors don't do that because they sign you up for ten licenses over three years, and it's just not practical for us.

From a cost perspective, it's not really relevant. It's really about the processes they're trying to automate. A lot of people are doing data deduplication and data onboarding, so an attended robot is absolutely fine. Whereas when we're trying to do things like answering an email, an inbound email, set up a process, respond to that client, then a 24/7 unattended robot is the way to go. We use a mix of that with our client base.

What needs improvement?

We've had some serious issues with clients that are running in Citrix environments, and we've got a couple clients that have moved away from other competitors to UiPath and to us because they just cannot do that screen scraping technology. Yeah, we're finding a lot of it in a Citrix environment, and a Citrix environment, on an Azure cloud, on a virtual machine. So there's various steps, and UiPath's the only one we've found at the moment that will actually enable us to deliver that.

I think the AI question is being raised everywhere, and there certainly needs to be a lot more intelligence involved in that. The ability for the robots to start thinking for themselves is coming out in the later versions. There are very few limitations at the moment, because we tend to pick relatively mundane, tedious, repetitive tasks, and it's all about number crunching. Really, RPA globally is all about number crunching. But in the next six to 12 months, there'll be more intelligence added, and there'll be more stuff going on that brings it closer to the AI environment that everyone's spouting about at the moment.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We've been involved in automation for ten years or so, and UiPath for about two or three. We've had no major issues from a stability perspective.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Very much so, and more so with the later revisions of the software. But we tend to start off with one project, one workflow, and then we're all about scale. But it's a land and expand approach for us.

How was the initial setup?

We always say that any idiot can build a robot. In reality, it's working out the workflow, working out what's involved, making that process lean that takes all the time. That's where we get involved. Actually setting the robot up itself is very simple. Some of the discussions we've had today talk about clients setting up their own robots. It is a relatively simple, drag and drop, point and click type setup for us.

What was our ROI?

We're averaging three to six months ROI, because we offer this subscription based model. There's no massive upfront cost. I think the biggest ROI we've seen is the one I mentioned with the law firm, where we estimated 3.9 million pounds of saving, and we actually realized 3.899 million pounds of saving. That was by far the biggest ROI, but as we start working with bigger councils and bigger law firms, those ROIs can only increase.

Not sure about percentages, but one of the anecdotes I always say to my clients is we've all managed to write our own name incorrectly on a web form, so if we cannot spell our own name correctly, what chance have we got of spelling the name of a client that may be from overseas? The reduction of errors is phenomenal, especially in that mundane, workaround environment that everyone seems to be in.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

The model that we offer, as I say, is a subscription model. The idea is that we land and expand. We charge a very small fixed setup fee with a monthly subscription, and a minimum commitment to us is three months. We believe that we have to prove to the client that robotics is the way forward. If you go to one of the competitors, such as Blue Prism, they will insist you buy ten licenses, you sign up for a three year deal, you do a 50,000 pound proof of concept, and then at the end of the proof of concept, they build you a live, working robot. Our argument is that we've already built you a live, working robot to do that trial with real data, with real cases and scenarios, and with real workflows, and we just make it from a dumb environment to a live environment. Yeah, we absolutely compete with those on a very different level.

What other advice do I have?

We're very, very happy with the product. It does exactly what we want it to do, and it allows us to sell UiPath, or sell RPA in the way that we want to. We're not being dictated by the manufacturers to how we have to sell their product. We know our customers best, and we believe that our methodology is the way forward. That's the flexibility we get with UiPath.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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Buyer's Guide
UiPath
August 2024
Learn what your peers think about UiPath. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2024.
800,688 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Manager at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Top 20
Has excellent support, stability, scalability, and a strong developer community
Pros and Cons
  • "We have found it to be quite valuable as we actively deploy and use bots, which have become a significant asset to our operations."
  • "Improving financial and recording operations through the use of charts would be advantageous."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use UiPath for RCM and it can handle most tasks effectively, especially when dealing with data extraction from PDF files. There might be more complex scenarios where AI could be more suitable, although the implementation might be challenging. We are in the process of evaluating these AI-powered use cases.

What is most valuable?

We have found UiPath to be quite valuable as we actively deploy and use bots, which have become a significant asset to our operations. 

We were able to achieve the savings. It has freed up around ten thousand hours of time and resources for other tasks.

What needs improvement?

Improving financial and recording operations through the use of charts would be advantageous.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using UiPath for approximately two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is excellent.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is impressive, and it only requires the appropriate licensing.

How are customer service and support?

The support is quite commendable, and they are very prompt in addressing issues. I would rate it eight out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward.

What was our ROI?

ROI is significant when the use case results in substantial cost savings, but it's important to note that not all use cases deliver such hard savings.

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

The cost is on the higher side.

What other advice do I have?

My recommendation is to thoroughly assess use cases and choose the right tools to prevent possible setbacks. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Manager Business operations at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Extracts website data and stores them but needs more documentation
Pros and Cons
  • "We use UiPath for web scraping. We extract data from websites, store them in boxes, and analyze them later."
  • "UiPath fails jobs sometimes and doesn't give you direct instructions on why it failed. A little more insight into failed jobs would be beneficial. It should have more documentation and short training modules."

What is our primary use case?

We use UiPath for web scraping. We extract data from websites, store them in boxes, and analyze them later. 

What needs improvement?

UiPath fails jobs sometimes and doesn't give you direct instructions on why it failed. A little more insight into failed jobs would be beneficial. It should have more documentation and short training modules. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for a year. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

UiPath is scalable. 

How was the initial setup?

The product's installation is easy. 

What other advice do I have?

Our business objective for AI automation included making our team members' time more efficient. We didn't want to spend an hour or a day manually downloading the data. We wanted to automate it and save time. 

AI-powered automation has fundamentally changed our organization. We can get the data quickly and instantly anytime. It can be uploaded directly without needing someone to check it manually. A bot does it for us. It saves time, speeds up our time in the market, and scales up our business. 

Automation has affected us positively. We often focus on data; having them at the right place and time is very important for us. UiPath helps us to achieve it with accuracy. 

UiPath has saved us at least five to seven hours a week. We also save money since we don't have to outsource or seek the help of an intern to do the manual downloading task. 

I rate the product a seven out of ten. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Technical Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
MSP
Helps us easily implement rapidly changing new business requirements
Pros and Cons
  • "The best part is the way UiPath provides the ability to automate everything, including the architecture and Orchestrator. The interfaces are very user-friendly and intuitive. It's very easy to build automations. Someone who is not very technical can understand quite a lot and start to automate."
  • "I faced a problem when a new version of UiPath Studio didn't work with an older version of the packages that were part of our project. The problem is that when I have to change something just a bit, I actually have to rebuild the automation with new versions of these libraries. There is no backward compatibility."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for the automation of internal HR processes in our company.

How has it helped my organization?

It helps with the ease of implementing new logic from business requirements, which very rapidly change.

UiPath has also helped because fewer people are engaged in the processes we automate, and they can do more important things. It saves our staff time, on the order of 80 percent. In terms of employee satisfaction, I don't really know how they feel, because they are not in my department, but I believe that when you don't have to do such routine, repetitive work, you can have a coffee and come up with ideas on how to improve the automations. That is, by far, better than clicking and typing thousands of forms.

Also, there is less chance of a person making a mistake. If a given operation would take one person, for example, two days to do, the automation can do it in one hour, or even 30 minutes. It is very useful. We saw benefits with the first automation that was implemented, because it started to work and free people from routine work, within the first second of the automation working.

We have a lot of automations that involve filling forms on the internet and creating events in a calendar. There are a lot of fields to fill out. When creating these meetings, you have to add a description and pick the actual time. All this stuff should be done precisely, because if there is a mistake, somebody will not come to this meeting, or the information will not be applicable. Now the number of errors is zero because robots don't make mistakes.

We also don't need to involve the IT department, and we now have 15 automations. The group of people who implement it do the maintenance as well. We don't need IT and, actually, everything works fine without any maintenance. The problems come when there are updates, but the time needed for maintenance is very small.

Because we don't need to create virtual machines to install the solution on-premises, the cost is as little as it can be. Of course, we have to create several virtual machines for actual clicking, because the robot works the way a human does. But it has definitely helped with our on-prem footprint because we don't have to install the core of the system on-premises. I know, from my experience, that those kinds of core components take a lot of hardware resources. They would not require just one virtual machine; it would be a bunch of virtual machines. It is definitely very efficient to use the cloud solution from UiPath.

UiPath reduces costs because it reduces the time it takes to create automations. You don't have to write the actual code. You just build automations with higher levels of abstraction and you don't have to worry about what is done behind the curtains.

What is most valuable?

The best part is the way UiPath provides the ability to automate everything, including the architecture and Orchestrator. The interfaces are very user-friendly and intuitive. It's very easy to build automations. Someone who is not very technical can understand quite a lot and start to automate.

All automations are built starting with process analysis, then robot building, and monitoring. One person can gather the requirements, build the automation, and monitor it. This end-to-end coverage is very important. I can't even imagine how it would work if not in this way. This is the essential part of the automation: the idea, the implementation, and the maintenance.

UiPath's approach allows adding new workers, new agents, or robots to perform quicker and in parallel. For example, if you create two extra virtual machines with two extra robots, a whole bunch of operations will be performed three times faster. This kind of implementation is very convenient. And, we can change the way automations are deployed in Orchestrator and make it more efficient as well. We can do all these kinds of things really easily and quickly, like in minutes or less than an hour. That helps to scale things. You can change something in an automation in several minutes and deploy it or publish it in Orchestrator, and it already works. The challenge of implementing innovation can be addressed very quickly and very efficiently. The challenge is that we have to change our automations because other applications change with time. They have new user interfaces. But we don't need to upgrade anything to automate.

Several of our team members are studying the UiPath Academy courses at this moment. It has definitely helped because they get to know about new features that make automations more mature. One of my colleagues said, "As I read and study more in this course, I begin thinking more creatively and in more interesting ways." That means their understanding is growing and that it is changing their perceptions of what they can do with UiPath.

The information in the Academy is structured, starting with simpler concepts and moving to more advanced levels of knowledge, gradually. Also, you really learn about things you haven't used before. Thirdly, it leads you to the certification exam and getting the certificate on passing this exam. That makes you a good candidate for better jobs.

UiPath also has a very nice community of developers. When I face problems that I can't resolve by myself after several hours, I Google it in the UiPath Community and almost every problem can be solved by searching their resources. I work with different vendors and not all of them have such a big and open community. This is a real advantage. I'm not very familiar with other communities in RPA, but I can say that this community is, by far, more useful and more open than any other vendor's community I have seen.

What needs improvement?

I faced a problem when a new version of UiPath Studio didn't work with an older version of the packages that were part of our project. The problem is that when I have to change something just a bit, I actually have to rebuild the automation with new versions of these libraries. There is no backward compatibility. 

This question was addressed to an engineer from UiPath in the Community but I haven't gotten an answer. This is quite a hard question. So, I just create new automations with new approaches, which takes some time.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using UiPath for about eight months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable compared to other enterprise tools. Even if there is an error, if you handle it properly, everything works perfectly. From the point of view of UiPath developers, everything is done on a very high level.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. However, to see the scalability you have to use the Enterprise Edition, because the Community Edition doesn't allow you to use more than one robot. But the mathematics are very easy: The more robots you have, the faster everything happens.

The number of automations will grow in our company.

How are customer service and support?

I haven't used their technical support.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was easy. It took a few hours.

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

We are using the Community Edition. The cost is only that of the virtual machines.

The pricing of the Enterprise Edition is a bit high. It's several thousand dollars a month. That's too much, because not every enterprise or organization can build such useful robots that will make it worthwhile for them to pay this much. Maybe the cost of the program could depend on the number of automations, or the complexity of the automations.

What other advice do I have?

The solution is cloud-based, but you have to have some components deployed on the local computers. That is the architecture of UiPath, but the base of the infrastructure is in the cloud.

My advice is to just implement and begin automating. You don't have to even learn something before it, because everything is very intuitive.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Senior software engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Helps to minimize our on-premises footprint and makes it easy to build processes
Pros and Cons
  • "Previously, nobody could automate the process. The design and implementation allowed clients to handle their own data, for example, for transfers and items like that. We were able to digitize entirely from end to end. Now, the customer doesn't have to come to the bank and they don't need a pen and paper. They just have to log on and fill out the details of their request."
  • "While the solution speeds up the cost of digital transformation, doing so requires expensive or complex application upgrades or IT app support."

What is our primary use case?

I work for a banking company. We use UiPath for tracing and collecting customer's credit information.

We also use it to deploy a bot when clients have specific requests for changes to their information or accounts. We're able to change their service via these requests. We can also remove some processes of manual intervention.

We've deployed bots across various processes. We have been able to remove human intervention for multiple processes and have seen a general improvement in terms of cost-effectiveness.

We used to handle dashboards manually. Now we've turned customers into kind of specialists in that, whenever they want to change something, such as adding debit, or opening/closing accounts, changing addresses, et cetera, they can handle it. They no longer have to push that request through us and have us intervene. They can do it themselves using the bots. 

How has it helped my organization?

Previously, nobody could automate the process. The design and implementation allowed clients to handle their own data, for example, for transfers and items like that. We were able to digitize entirely from end to end. Now, the customer doesn't have to come to the bank and they don't need a pen and paper. They just have to log on and fill out the details of their request. Being able to share this new data is important. If there are manual aspects, we can now handle them for the customer. We don't have to have them worry about doing tasks manually.

What is most valuable?

We can use browsers like Internet Explorer for our automation. However, we've been able to use Excel as well with just a few hiccups in the beginning. UiPath really helped us with this change by disabling some elements at the managerial level. It was a big learning experience for us.

We are able to use codes to do a lot of checking to see that we are getting enough data and that we are able to filter it correctly.

The ease of building a process is pretty good and simplifies things. Normally it takes three to four hours to complete a process. That includes everything, including generating reports and sending the data. There are, of course, multiple steps involved in the process. We've gotten that down to about six minutes. We're able to better focus the work and, at the same time, we're able to use a lot of bots to get things done. 

We can scale the solution well. We've already deployed four more bots for various processes. We're actually able to have good control of each bot. We're able to put things into a proper standard format and then send the information where it needs to go without having to handle the process manually. It would go so much slower without the bots in place without having to go back to the customer. There's no longer a needs to do anything manually here. There was a concern that customers would not be able to manage the process that's automated by the bots, however, in the end, everything was clear and it was easily handled. 

The solution enables us to implement end-to-end automation, starting with process analysis, then robot building, and finally monitoring automation. We're involved from the very beginning to design the process from step one. We're able to test everything out before moving to production and that allows us to make sure everything works. End-to-end coverage is first and foremost. The visibility we have is really powerful. 

We were able to deploy in parts, as we didn't have global production. At first, we didn't know how to manage everything. Once we went live, however, we were able to monitor it all. We could send reports to show what was happening, and if there were any concerns, we could go and directly look at those areas.

The solution helped to minimize our on-premises footprint. I always look for capabilities to deploy from the cloud. It changes as the customer needs to decide how to ultimately deploy. However, the cloud is able to handle anything an on-prem option would. We are able to handle the entire volume using one cloud. Our bots are able to be on the cloud and online. 

Attended automation has helped to scale RPA benefits in our organization by automating department roles and specific processes that require human/robot collaboration. Previously, we were concerned with data loss and not being able to attend to the browser. We were not able to do even the simpler stuff.

We were able to upgrade to an updated version, from 19.4 to 20.4 which had some more UI and automation. We were able to upscale our entire quota. We're able to do workarounds if we need to.

We can speed up our automation processes and automate faster with UiPath.

The automation cloud offering helps to decrease the solution's total cost of ownership by taking care of items such as infrastructure maintenance and updates.

The solution speeds up the cost of digital transformation.

The solution has reduced human error. We've been able to reduce errors and have gotten more quality data instead of just more data. That way, if there is a mistake or something goes wrong, we can check the error against the quality data and resolve issues more effectively.

It has also freed up our employee's time. They can better deliver on big and innovative processes. We used to handle a lot of high volume tasks at the end of the month mostly and that's since tapered off. We'll have to see at the end of this month how much time savings we've accumulated. 

Our employees can now focus on more high-value work. Employee satisfaction is high as well. In a bank, we do have a high volume of transactions every month, and previously, each would have to be checked and verified and balanced by someone manually - even if most would be dismissed as canceled transactions, et cetera. With automation, our employees no longer have to look at everything themselves. They can be wiser about what interventions they have to make every month.

Overall, the solution has reduced the cost of our automation operations. As a developer, I cannot speak to exact amounts, however, as that's handled more by project managers. 

So far, the solution has saved the company costs. We're very customer-focused in our organization. Deploying these kinds of innovative solutions allows us to better serve while offering our customers better services as well. It's become like their personal service manager. We've done this without ballooning costs. 

What needs improvement?

While the solution speeds up the cost of digital transformation, doing so requires expensive or complex application upgrades or IT app support. You will need IT. That said, I haven't had a chance to explore mine in any detail.

There need to be more warnings for when there are issues within the automation especially when it comes to exceptions. We're not easily made aware of problems. The sooner we understand what the exception is, the sooner we can adjust things.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution going on 25 years now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

For the most part, the solution is stable. We did encounter one problem when we were testing. Apart from that, we did not encounter any issues. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution has helped us to scale. For example, if we have no idea from where to start, but we know the process test and know the application is involved, we're able to start building. We can go and test and try out options without having to put anything into production right away, so we can refine and validate the data.

The solution itself is highly scalable. We have three worker bots running at the same time. Users, however, can scale it up however they want to.

I'm not sure if the company has any plans to increase usage or put more bots into production.

How are customer service and support?

We have a team that lets us know if there are any changes coming up in relation to the infrastructure. If there are any changes that will affect the bots, it will not be done suddenly. We'll be able to ensure nothing is overly affected. 

In terms of technical support, if something is not working as it should, they do need to review it. They do help us with technical validation.

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

We did not use a different solution before we adopted UiPath.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was complex to a certain degree. The documentation was unclear. In the beginning, we weren't really comfortable with the approach or the process. 

There were two types of processes happening at once during the deployment. We did each process twice, and each took two or three hours, so it was about one day to get everything going for each deployment, and then we did a final run-though. Likely, in total, it took us about 12 days or so. 

We tend to have a specific process that we go through for every implementation we do. We'll go through how many bots are needed and what to do. We also do testing for all types of situations. We have a process designer who is involved and assists with the setup.

In terms of maintenance, we don't need anyone to run the operation. We have three to five people that after a month of production, have a good enough understanding to handle any outstanding tasks, whatever they may be. If there are issues, such as, for example, if Internet Explorer is not working, they are able to troubleshoot and manage the solution.

What about the implementation team?

We did not use an integrator or installer to assist in the deployment process.

What was our ROI?

We have seen an ROI.

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

I always work to design my solution in such a way that is the most cost-effective.

You do need to pay the full license cost in order to use UiPath, so you need to be strategic to get the most out of it.

Our company handles costs internally as we do not directly deal with a vendor.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did evaluate other options for data capture before we chose UiPath.

What other advice do I have?

We are customers and end-users.

At this time, we do not use the AI functionality within UiPath. Our solution is not impacted by anything generating artificial intelligence.

The automation speeds up the time to value and we see very quickly how much the solution is able to positively affect the business aspects. It's been really helpful for us overall. The processes have been profitable. 

I'd advise users to really focus on their input and output size. You'll be able to validate your data. It will help you transform your processes. You just need to figure out where you want to simplify and where you want to maximize value.

We've learned how to standardize processes. We've realized how important it is to always try to be very clear when creating automation.

I'd rate the solution at a nine 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.
PeerSpot user
RPA Lead at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Speed ups and reduces the cost of digital transformation and offers good AI functionality
Pros and Cons
  • "The product is well-integrated with different tools that can help with logging, et cetera."
  • "For a few of the projects, we have saved money, however, on a few of these projects we've noticed less revenue. The orchestration cost is a bit higher when we are working on smaller projects."

What is our primary use case?

We deal in banking and finance. The use case is based on the transaction dates. For example, how customers are using credit cards, net banking, transactions, and what components they are buying. We gather this information in order to provide a CIBIL score. 

We do have multiple applications, which are provided to the banks so that they can work without taking much time. We have a set of test cases that need to be automated and we'll run it up. 

What is most valuable?

As of now, we test and we usually have a CSED pipeline as well. We are not only restricted to any one of the features in UFR. We are using Citrix, among others. 

The solution makes it easy to build automation. Earlier, we used to collect the data and create a hard copy. Now, these are all processes that are automated. There are fewer human interventions that are required to collect the data from the email or collect the data from the hard copy. It is auto-generated through auto-generated mail. It will collect all the details and save them to a repository. Based on that, our support team is providing the solution to the customer, and it's much easier.

UiPath enables us to implement end-to-end automation. These processes are very complete. Where there's not a single person is in practicum, however, it's only deployed in our productions. 

They have included the chatbot. Therefore, if the customer is having any issues related to any of the products, they will raise their queries. We will log these queries through a bot system, and this will get notified to the escalation team. They will locate into it through banking domains or through the solution of it and providing the solution on emails. It's very helpful.

End-to-end coverage is one of the best features. If their service display is not good enough, or if they are facing any issues, we can sort things out faster, which makes customers very happy. They are getting the solution on time, and they are running 24/7. Human workers are not able to provide each and every solution on an immediate basis, however, by using the solutions, we have got a solution for the end-user that responds immediately so that they are satisfied and their needs will be fulfilled much faster.

As of now, we are using attended automation, however, we also have created some of the use cases, which are going to be linked through unattended automation. Attended automation helped to scale RPI benefits in our organization, by automating department or all specific processes that require human-robot collaboration.

For example, in one project, which we used as a test, typically the turnaround would have been 15 days, however, with UiPath, we were able to churn out this product in 30 minutes.  It's amazing how much we are saving in terms of time. We've been able to shrink timelines.

We do use UiPath's AI functionality in your automation program. The complexities are always a part of the banking industry as data is from many places and over a large amount of time. However, when we talk about the calculations, it's when human beings are involved where it really takes a while to get a task completed. With automation, we can shrink that down to 15 or 20 minutes and know in that short amount of time a person's complete financial background and if they are credible or not. This customer doesn't have to wait so long to get the results they need. 

UiPath's AI functionality has enabled us to automate more processes overall. Now, for example, it's feasible to process data, and, if we have to, get the data explained very simply to calculate a score and find out if a person is genuine or not. We can look at credit histories, transactions, et cetera, and based on that, be able to process requests in order to enable users to get loans in seconds instead of days or weeks. 

UiPath both speeds up and reduces the cost of our digital transformation; it increases processing speed and saves costs that would otherwise be taken up in longer-term tedious tasks.  

I've used the UiPath apps feature, however, I cannot say it's fully required for our processes. That said, it was very helpful when we did use it. 

UiPath has helped us reduce human error. We can achieve our goals, as mentioned, in 30 minutes, without having to manually go from one stage to another, which may cause errors. It frees up our employee's time as well, to help improve their focus. That, and, within a week's time, we can save 30 hours on a single resource. It allows those employees to really focus on higher-value work. Employees are happier as they now have the time and space to build their skills.

Overall, UiPath has reduced the cost of our automation operations. This reduction is around 30% savings. 

The product is well-integrated with different tools that can help with logging, et cetera.

The task capture is great in that we have all of this data we are receiving that's automated and we don't need to invest much time in creating documents.

What needs improvement?

For a few of the projects, we have saved money, however, on a few of these projects we've noticed less revenue. The orchestration cost is a bit higher when we are working on smaller projects.

From the improvement perspective, I am from the testing background, and UiPath has recently released some announcements related to scrums. I would be happy to see their products be involved with scrum teams.

Just like they have data for the JIRA automation, maybe if they can include some of these options in the Rally solution. It's a tool that is used locally for various projects and having automation activity included there would be useful to us. 

From a migration perspective, if we can get something better than the manual process that would be great. It would be nicer if it was smoother for those doing implementations. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for five years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I can say it's a very good tool from the RP perspective. It is helping us to get our work faster, saving time as well as offering multiple functionalities. We haven't had any issues with it. 

Everything is good - except the capture part. They could improve on that as we are getting less accuracy as compared to the other functionality. Other than that, the rest of the components are fine.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is very good. 

On my team, somewhere around 14 people are working on the UiPath product. There are several other teams also on it. Likely, there are around 50 plus people in total on the solution.

We are regularly using this product. I cannot say I'm not using a single day. 365 days a year this solution runs, as these processes are basically used on the weekends as well. Based on the schedule, it is pretty much always running in the UAT or QA environment. 

How much we use it depends on the products. If we get more products, we will increase usage. 

How are customer service and technical support?

The customer support is very nice. Most of the time, we are getting a resolution from there.

I would rate them at more than eight out of ten. Over the last three years, I've been interacting with the web team on customer support. I tend to get an immediate response from their team for the assignment of my ticket, and they schedule a call. However, in some of the operations, it's not possible to directly interact on the WebEx.

It's important for us to have them extend their communications or extend their environment. Not every organization can get support as they offer it. Using Microsoft Teams or Zoom or a more popular platform may be helpful.

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

We did not use another solution that is similar. We previously used an automation tool that was purely used for the testing perspective. We decided to move to UiPath as it was an easy-to-use solution. However, I was not a part of the RPA tool decision-making process. 

How was the initial setup?

Earlier, it was a bit complex as we had to configure our robot with the orchestrator or the studio that was providing details. Now, when we are installing, everything is taken synchronously. We don't need to enter the required areas. It is automatically catching that from that environment.

The time it takes to deploy depends on the system resources or the system specifications. Usually, it will take around 23 to 40 minutes for the installation, however, now that they have improved their installation time as well, it may only take 20 to 30 minutes.

For us, the deployment plan is basically to focus on the data perspective. We don't want to lose any of the aspects of the data, which is already running, so we do take a backup first. The orchestrator has a different environment structure, which has already been configured like a development rather than a UAT.

These are the phases that we are using on a regular basis. Once it is certified for the first stage, only then does it move to the next phase.

We require 22 people to maintain the product. They are largely comprised of the DevOps team. 

What was our ROI?

While the solution is a bit expensive, we do see ROI. When we compare the ROI with the expenses differently, ROI is on the higher side. Of course, for the organizations who have a small product base, who may have less automation required, will find that expenses are higher. The more you automate, the more you save.

However, in relation to sharing actual data points, that's a bit tricky.

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

As compared to the licensing costs or the pricing of other tools like Automation Anywhere or Blue Prism, it's a bit cheaper, however, when we talk about the open-source tools such as Robocorp or Robot Framework, the cost is on the higher side. Microsoft Power Automate is also cheaper.

There are no other costs beyond the licensing. 

What other advice do I have?

We are just customers and end-users. I'm an RPA lead.

We are using an operating system related to Microsoft and several other features related to Microsoft. If they offered this type of product on a regular basis, that was less costly and had the same compatibility, security, and features, we'd likely adopt it. 

I'd advise those considering the solution to check the processes and compare them to their potential ROI. A company needs to consider if the tools will help them based on their environment and goals. It's important to first analyze the internal capabilities before jumping in. If they don't think they'll be getting the ROI they desire, they should look at another tool. 

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

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

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
RPA Developer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Significantly reduces the time needed to complete our stock rotation process
Pros and Cons
  • "For beginners, UiPath is a very low-code or no-code experience. They can get started with StudioX."
  • "We don't use the UiPath Apps feature yet. I did a PoC on it and it looks like a wonderful product. But when we are using Action Center with Apps, the Action Center stage is built in Orchestrator, but the same field is not built in the Apps... UiPath Apps should be stepped up in terms of its functionality and integration with other UiPath products."

What is our primary use case?

I'm working on a supply chain management project, where some of the distributors are eligible for some of their stock to be returned. The beginning of this stock rotation, and the interactions, are through email. It was previously done by representatives, but we are now automating that process so that we interact with the distributors using email. Responses are sent based on the validations that the bot performs. It's an end-to-end process, all automated using the UiPath.

How has it helped my organization?

The project I'm working on creates a lot of availability for employees to concentrate on other activities. Human interaction is reduced. Instead of all the management representatives interacting with front-end people, UiPath is interacting through the API. It has increased the time available to our associates who were working on that particular process. If 10 people were working on a particular process, that number has been reduced to three or four, and the other people have been able to concentrate on something else. The stock rotation process itself would usually take a month in a particular region, but that has been reduced to less than 15 days.

We have also automated a few processes that have human and bot interaction, using UiPath Action Center. When there is human interaction in a particular process, it takes a lot of time. But when we integrated a process with the bot through Action Center, the time needed for the human interaction was reduced. It gives time back to the person who would be doing repetitive work. For example, if a value is different from what the bot is expecting, an Action Center task will be triggered and the human will submit the input that is needed. The rest of the process will then be taken care of by the bot. So the time spent on a particular validation is reduced.

Also, if you compare the situation from a couple of years back, when I started using UiPath, and the present, there has been a lot of change in the way UiPath comes up with new products when it comes to document validation, such as Document Understanding. That does speed up the digital transformation process, and I haven't seen any requirements for additional infrastructure as a condition for benefiting from that transformation process.

UiPath has also helped to reduce human error, and that reduces the time that a particular process takes to run.

What is most valuable?

For beginners, UiPath is a very low-code or no-code experience. They can get started with StudioX. The best place to learn the solution is the UiPath Academy. If they come across any hurdles, the forum is an excellent place to post them and get answers. As a community, UiPath is very encouraging for newcomers. People with no coding experience can automate processes.

Initially, because I was working with Automation Anywhere, the switch was a little bit overwhelming. There are comparatively more Activities in UiPath. The scope is very large; you can automate large processes. But eventually, I have come to feel that building automation is easier in UiPath than with Automation Anywhere.

Also, in my experience using UiPath automation, we have not had to make any changes to infrastructure. It has really been a seamless interaction.

What needs improvement?

We don't use the UiPath Apps feature yet. I did a PoC on it and it looks like a wonderful product. But when we are using Action Center with Apps, the Action Center stage is built in Orchestrator, but the same field is not built in the Apps. We have to work around that particular process, to make Action Center and Apps work together. Action Center waits for a particular input when a particular task is triggered. This stage is not built in Apps. UiPath Apps should be stepped up in terms of its functionality and integration with other UiPath products.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using UiPath for almost three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I did come across an issue very recently where, when I had to update the version of the Activity package I used for a particular deployment, the Data Table Activity, it did not list the way it had been listed. I raised a question in the forum, but there was no clear answer. Apart from that, I haven't seen any other instability with UiPath.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

UiPath is scalable. We have deployed bots across many regions. There was no limit in that respect. I haven't seen any issue; the scalability is good.

I work in the automation center of excellence in our company. There are 50 to 60 teammates there, working on UiPath and Automation Anywhere. In UiPath, they work on the automation of SAP. In addition to my work on supply chain automation, there are a couple of projects dealing with our customers' needs. Our organization builds products that are generic and we then customize them to meet those customer needs. There are also some projects where Excel activity is the focus. And we recently started using Document Understanding in a PoC. We generally have two or three developers working on deployment, along with one DevOps person. Not many people are required for deployment.

How are customer service and technical support?

I haven't contacted UiPath tech support, other than posting that Data Table Activity question in the forum.

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

I was working with Automation Anywhere for a year or so, but because of the requirements of our company, I had to switch to UiPath. The switch happened because a customer we work for deploys UiPath.

What other advice do I have?

I have been able to learn things like interaction with multiple enterprise systems, including OBI, using API calls. Unlike other automation applications I have used, implementing a process using UiPath is very easy.

In terms of end-to-end automation, there are products that are useful for identifying processes for automation. But for the process I'm working on right now, we did not use UiPath to implement end-to-end automation. Identifying the process for automation was done separately. Only building the bot was done in the UiPath. The process is not end-to-end, except for the bot development. When I think of "end-to-end," it includes identification of the process for automation. From there, you need to build up the process, the documentation, et cetera. End-to-end is important, as it means you aren't switching between multiple tools.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free UiPath Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: August 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free UiPath Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.