What is our primary use case?
Internally, we use UiPath to automate financial transactions, specifically for invoice processing.
Externally, on the client side, we use automation in the financial space, primarily. There are various use cases from generic file uploads to transaction processing that we implement for our clients.
How has it helped my organization?
We have some processes that haven't been completed flushed out. Right now, there has not been an exact improvement yet.
What is most valuable?
Ease of use and speed of development are the most valuable features.
The overall integration with Microsoft stack and a few other third party vendors, like Google, are very useful to us. Having these built into the product speeds up our development, so we don't have to code a bunch of connectors on our own.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see some sort of better implementation of the Python modules. Right now, any error code that Python throws up turns into a generic error that is difficult to track down. I would want to see some sort of integration that at least lets me debug the issue.
Its pretty difficult to do source control through the typical Git functions because of the nature of the UiPath and the visual element. Some sort of method to bring source control home for us would be very helpful. A way to systematically track which actions or activities were added and subtracted from a given process before adding to a repository would be very helpful to us right now. Our team of developers is growing, so control has become somewhat of an issue for us.
For how long have I used the solution?
We are still very much in a prototyping phase and don't have full development.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Ease of use has definitely exceeded expectations. Initially coming in, UiPath had some features that needed to be implemented that weren't quite there yet. Now, we are on 2018.4 and all of the features that we desperately needed are there. Thus, ease of use has been pretty great.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have looked into scalability a lot. So far, we haven't done anything that involves a 100 bot. However, the scalability seems pretty easy. Scaling up to just five bots running in parallel has been very easy.
If we are going to build up the environment, we would run on virtual machines. We would connect through Remote Desktop Services, not through Citrix.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support has been fairly good. I like that they pick up on interactions in the forum. However, some of the transitions from the forum to submitting a ticket are a little clunky. If a ticket could be submitted on my behalf on the forum, then have me boot over to where the ticket is, that is fine. Just kicking me out of the forum, then having me submit a ticket seems counterintuitive to me.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
As a company and for our client, we see any sort of legacy system or too many individual systems as somehow needing to be integrated. This is the bread and butter for RPA, and where we started our conversation (and our clients' conversations).
How was the initial setup?
The complexity of the initial setup depends on who you are. First time implementing, it seems a little complex. If you know how to develop UiPath, it is more straightforward. I had to walk somebody through the implementation setup of the environment because they had a lot of questions about where they were going. For software development is not that complex, it is pretty straightforward.
Having some understanding of database management and services is helpful, so you understand the inner workings of UiPath.
What was our ROI?
It has definitely eliminated human error in our internal process, somewhere between full production, deployment and testing. There were definitely some error prone tasks that we eliminated. If I had to give a ball park, maybe 10 to 20 percent of the process was error prone, which we were able to resolve with UiPath.
For time savings: What used to be a 15 minute task, now it takes the bot two minutes for the bot to run through, for example.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Generally, we push unattended. We think the cost savings is better with unattended. As far as ROI, when you are talking about returning man-hours or moving people off work, unattended does that efficiently. Attended doesn't always save much time. Thus, we push unattended for cost.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We have seen general platform survey before implementing RPA of the different market vendors.
Personally, I looked at other platforms, and it is hard to transition from UiPath. It does have ease of use that now I am used to.
What other advice do I have?
If you are starting with development, start with the UiPath Academy. For the end user or client, start conversations about security and prevention now, while you get trained up on development.
Internally, there is not a lot of automation in place. We are using a good robotic process automation software to bridge that gap right now and get us further down the automation road.
We use the UiPath Academy for new hires. The new training programs, both the previous and current versions, with the UiPath Academy work out for us. I have the previous videos, then the current new slide deck idea. It is pretty streamlined and high level, but it is good for getting new people started.
Also, I used Academy just last week. I used it for security because I had some knowledge gaps on security with UiPath.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.