As a consultant, I have worked with various clients, including banks, insurance companies, healthcare providers, and different tech companies. Each company has distinct use cases. RPA tools are capable of automating any task. We usually automate processes that are repetitive. Automation is always rule-based.

Co-pilot certainly makes the job easier if the client has a subscription. It allows me to analyze desktop flows and activities and create flows using natural language. Natural language processing using LLMs has become an integral part of IT. This tool lets me create flows using natural language, repair automation errors, and answer product-related questions. It is there to assist us in creating automation tests, CI pipelines, etc.

There are many areas for improvement, especially in the developer environment. Providing a desktop version rather than focusing on the cloud is essential. Only UiPath offers a studio environment for desktop application development. Automation Anywhere lacks a desktop version and is solely web-based and cloud-based.

Automation Anywhere is not so easy for business users who are not technical. It is at the medium level. UiPath also provides UiPath StudioX to enable business users to automate easily.

I have used Automation Anywhere for four years. I have also used UiPath for four years.

The support is good. I have faced difficulties with every RPA tool. Automation Anywhere has a good support system but has room for improvement. UiPath has a huge online community for support. They have a lot of active users.

Neutral

The solution we use depends on the client and their budget. 

UiPath is exceptionally more expensive than Automation Anywhere. UiPath is far ahead of its competition, but in terms of finances, Automation Anywhere offers better value and is more effective for organizations seeking cost-effective solutions. Small clients tend to go for Power Automate or Automation Anywhere, whereas large clients go for UiPath.

RPA solutions like UiPath, Automation Anywhere, Power Automate, and Blue Prism can be learned through their academies. When I graduated, I did not know what RPA was. I joined as an intern and was told to go to the academies for these solutions and do the courses. They have developer fundamental and RPA fundamental courses. They also have advanced-level courses of 30 hours, which are free of cost. It took me about two months to learn these solutions. I might have had an edge because of my technical background. For a non-technical person who is willing to put in two or three hours every day into learning, three to four months would be good to take themselves to a level where they can start developing automation at a medium scale. Complex automations happen from experience when you are working with different types of clients. Generally, two to four months is a good period for someone to get a grasp of RPA.

The focus is shifting from RPA to IPA or Intelligent Process Automation. For example, I have done automation for a website task. Previously, when the website changed, such as when a button was shifted, the automation would fail. With Intelligent Process Automation, the bot is intelligent enough to realize the changes that have occurred. It understands what my flow is and what I am trying to achieve. It is then able to modify itself in such a manner that it still works. This is something that RPA has been transitioning toward.

Overall, I would rate Automation Anywhere a seven out of ten.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for more than a year in my college laboratory. I utilize it for editing, collecting student assignments, data entry, report generation, grading multiple-choice questions, managing lab equipment, student communication, and automatic software installation or updating. The primary functions include handling repeated administrative tasks, data entry, feedback generation, grading processes, maintaining lab equipment processes, taking attendance, and communicating with students. If any software installation or update in the lab is required, I manage it with the help of labs.

The task bot is the most valuable feature, which I use primarily to automate repetitive and rule-based tasks like attendance tracking, grading, and report generation. I also utilize IQ Bots for more complex tasks involving unstructured data, and email automation for sending bulk reminders to students. It reduces my work time significantly, giving me the ability to focus on other manual tasks. Without Automation Anywhere, my tasks would take much more time, as these repetitive human tasks need daily attention.

Overall improvement is needed for non-technical users who face challenges with how to use it and how to perform more tasks. It should be more user interface friendly for non-technical users and enhance its ease of integration with third-party applications.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for more than a year in my college laboratory.

When we discuss its scalability, it is available across various departments and adapts well.

There are many FAQs, personal calls, and community forums available. Technical support can be easily obtained through official channels, although sometimes the community forum is not accessible to many users.

I used UiPath before starting Automation Anywhere. I also used Blue Prism, which was difficult due to its need for coding.

Initially, we found it a bit complex, but after learning about it, it served us well. For complex tasks, deployment takes about two to three days.

We can achieve nearly eight lakhs per annum in total savings by using Automation Anywhere.

I recommend Automation Anywhere to other users because it minimizes repetitive human tasks, saves time, and helps reduce costs. I would rate Automation Anywhere nine out of ten.

I am from the Mechanical Department at a college of engineering. We utilize Automation Anywhere with our students in the mechanical block. I am using it for educational purposes, and we are providing hands-on experiences.

Automation Anywhere is very useful. With Automation Anywhere, we can do any task in the easiest way. If there is any repeated task, then we can replace it with Automation Anywhere to the same work in a short period of time. It helps minimize the work. 

Automation Anywhere is very helpful and interesting to learn for students. It is very user-friendly, so they can easily learn it.

Automation Anywhere is very easy to learn for people who do not have any technical skills. It is very user-friendly. There is no learning difficulty. We can easily drag and drop the required components and make the model we want. We can automate and deploy a function. After one or two attempts, it becomes very clear. It does not take a long time to understand it. We can understand a simple process within thirty minutes, whereas a complex process can take two to four hours.

Automation Co-Pilot is an advanced feature that helps with finding out the next step. It also provides information about more efficient usage. Both Automation Anywhere and Co-Pilot improve productivity. 

Automation Anywhere saves time. The attendance automation that we have saves about two hours each day. We are also able to easily scrape data from structured and unstructured files and write it in the CSV format. IQ Bot does this very well. 

The AI collaboration is the most impressive feature of Automation Anywhere. We can use IQ Bot to extract data from structured and unstructured sources into a CSV file. It is very useful, and my university uses it for the attendance system. With AI integration, we can easily take attendance. 

Other features include easy deployment and automation of repetitive tasks. If we want to automate any repetitive task, we can record it, which is very useful.

It is secure and user-friendly. Automation Anywhere minimizes human effort and time, facilitates learning, and supports automated tasks efficiently.

There are areas of improvement needed, such as complex decision-making skills. When updates are made, the IQ Bot's actions can be affected, leading to decision-making failures. If it had the ability to make decisions in complex situations, the bot would perform more smoothly. More advanced decision-making skills are needed for improvement.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for more than two years.

Automation Anywhere is very stable. I would rate it a ten out of ten for stability.

Its scalability is very good. I would rate it a ten out of ten for scalability.

In the mechanical department, we have more than 130 students. On average, there are 700 users. 

Technical support is easy to access with various communication channels, including emails and personal calls. However, the community forum is sometimes unresponsive. Despite this, personal calls and quick fixes are very useful, providing good technical support.

Neutral

I have experience with Blue Prism from four years ago. Initially, I used both Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere, but Blue Prism required coding, making it challenging. Automation Anywhere's no-code environment made it easier, and I preferred it. My students also favor it for its user-friendliness and affordability compared to Blue Prism. Automation Anywhere allows for easy drag-and-drop actions and is cost-effective for medium and large-scale enterprises.

The cost is high for small-scale businesses but it is fine for medium and large enterprises. Its high licensing cost may affect small-scale businesses. Reducing licensing costs would benefit many users.

Learning Automation Anywhere prepares our students for a better future because the future belongs to RPA Automation. It helps build their automation skills, and we also provide certification to them after learning Automation Anywhere. 

It involves understanding the structure, and once two or three models are deployed, it becomes easier. Using Automation Anywhere is more straightforward than other RPA tools. Bot deployment typically takes three to four hours depending on the process. A simple process can take about thirty minutes and complex ones take two to four hours. There is no time wasted during deployment.

Bots require updates only if there are any changes. Generally, five to ten minutes are enough to maintain the bots. It does not take a lot of time.

I would recommend Automation Anywhere to others. I actively create awareness about it in our classes and recommend it to other institutions for future RPA developers. 

I would rate Automation Anywhere a ten out of ten.

First, I tried to automate the process for surface automation, and it was mainly in a Citrix environment. At that time, I think no proper solution or feature was available with Automation Anywhere. Then, I tried it for some web applications and Windows applications, and there it worked perfectly. 

It saves time. It has saved 4,000 to 5,000 hours for one large complex process. If we break it down, it has saved 1,000 hours per process. The time savings vary based on the complexity of the process.

It is simple to learn. It is straightforward. You can learn about Automation Anywhere from their university or YouTube. Lots of YouTube channels are there. They provide you with all the information you need. Non-technical employees would need one month to three months to learn it. It also depends on their grasping and learning skills.

With Oracle and ServiceNow, there seem to be challenges. With SAP, it worked very well. We first tried Automation Anywhere with Oracle but had to go for Blue Prism. With Oracle, Blue Prism was easier and a little bit more stable than Automation Anywhere. Even with ServiceNow, the automation was very unreliable. It did not work as expected.

Business users face difficulties with Automation Anywhere setup. As an administrator, even if I provide any license or features, they would not be able to use it on their local individual machines. The client sometimes does not work perfectly. There are difficulties when we install the Automation Anywhere client. It can be hard to know what is causing issues. They might have a different Java version or other software installed on their machines. Automation Anywhere clients sometimes need clean machines or virtual machines where we deploy the bots. Such difficulties are there, but it does not happen with just Automation Anywhere. I have also observed this problem with other solutions.

Automation Anywhere does not provide API integration. You have to design everything on your side. It does not have an inbuilt API tool like Postman. They do not provide a virtual interface to execute GET, PUT queries. It is very difficult in Automation Anywhere, but in other solutions, this feature is very good.

It is not stable with the Microsoft Edge browser. They have to develop or integrate lots of things. It used to work very well with Internet Explorer around five years ago, but Internet Explorer is gone now. People have moved to Microsoft Edge. If you are using Google Chrome, it is easy. With Microsoft Edge, sometimes processes fail, and you do not always know the reason. You have to debug it entirely.

I have been using it for a total of five years, but in between, I used other tools as well. Overall, it has been around two years with Automation Anywhere. I have used versions 10.2, 11.3, and 360, and a little bit of 2019 as well.

The product is overall stable. With lots of normal applications, you can use it without any issues. 

Automation Anywhere is 50% to 70% good in terms of scaling. For business users who want everything on their machines and do not want to use different virtual machines, it is not scalable. Management also worries about deployment costs.

I contacted their technical support. Their L1 support is just normal, and you can get that information on Google or YouTube. They do not have a solution a lot of times. Their L2 support is quite expert. They know how to address things that are happening, and they will try to understand and find the root cause.

Neutral

I am also using other RPA tools such as Blue Prism and UiPath, and I prefer them over Automation Anywhere. 

In API integrations, Automation Anywhere is way behind other tools because its interface is not simple to use for business users. If someone is using Automation Anywhere as the first RPA tool, they will understand it, but if they have used any other RPA tool in the market, they will feel the need to improve Automation Anywhere's UI and API integrations. Additionally, in the API integration part, companies are nowadays using scripting with SAP and others. Automation Anywhere can also improve in that area. 

UiPath's design structure is quite powerful and straightforward. It is easier to work with when you have a complex process with multiple load items. API integration is quite powerful. We can easily use that.

If you are deploying the client on a virtual machine, it is very simple and straightforward. If you are going to do it on a common machine for normal development purposes, it can be a bit complex if you are using other software on the same machine. 

Upgrading is easy. I have migrated some processes from versions 10 to 11, but the newer version requires some time and cost because sometimes the processes designed in the older versions cannot be migrated to the newer version. Instead of migrating, you can redesign the same process in the newer version. That would be better.

Usually, all developers are involved in the bot maintenance at a later stage. If only considering support and maintenance, you will require two people there. If your team has around ten to fifteen people, you will require two people for support.

Cost-wise, it is fine. A lot of medium businesses prefer Automation Anywhere. The development cost is also lower.

I would rate Automation Anywhere a seven out of ten.

There are two main use cases. We are working to complement their RPA capabilities. They have quite a strong position in the RPA market. Instead of trying to face them on the RPA market, we complete what they do. They are especially not good in the attended space. They are good in unattended but not in the attended space, so we kind of complement them.

The second thing we are working on with them is FortressIQ. Automation Anywhere has a task mining solution. We have a process mining solution, so it is a good completion. We have a product that is doing all the process mining stuff. When we need to investigate further into one precise process, dive a little bit into the details, and understand the number of clicks, the number of screens, and basically all the details of the process, we need a task-mining solution. That is where we have integrated with FortressIQ from Automation Anywhere.

The benefits include a reduction in tedious tasks and manual handling of tasks and time savings. This transition moves processes from several hours to a few minutes or even seconds, ensuring that money is saved. Furthermore, it secures the process, facilitates better execution, eliminates errors, and establishes a standard process, which is much more than just saving money.

The ease of use depends on what you want to do. What we do is quite simple because we are mainly using it from an unattended perspective, so we do not have any human interaction. With humans, you need to do a lot of error management. Automation is precise and simple. If the use case is A, B, and C, and you know how to treat A, B, and C, it will always be that, which is simple. If it is not A, B, or C, then you park it aside and do error handling. In the end, 98% of what you have done is good, and the remaining 2% will be manually handled. You still save about 98% of the time. It is quite easy to use as long as we stay in the unattended space. 

We mainly integrated it with non-SAP applications. It is not difficult to integrate Automation Anywhere in the workflow.

It is quite strong in the unattended space. 

I never use Automation Anywhere in the attended space because they are bad at that, at least compared to other players like us or UiPath.

I have been working with them for about four years.

I have not contacted them, so I cannot judge them.

Neutral

We are working with UiPath, Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere, and Power Automate. These are the four ones we are working with.

Automation Anywhere and Blue Prism are very close in terms of market perception, and they are very unattended-oriented. They are quite strong in the unattended space and are more IT-oriented than others, especially UiPath. They are strong in terms of integration.

In terms of ease of use, it is probably one of the best because they are doing a lot of screen scraping. It is more based on the screens and less on APIs, which makes sense from an unattended perspective. However, when you want to have human interaction, it could become a bit more difficult. It is a more techie product than others but also deeper in terms of what you can do with it in terms of integration, etc.

I do not think a perfect RPA tool exists. Overall, I would rate Automation Anywhere as a six out of ten. I would rate UiPath higher.

We are using this in our college laboratory where I am a professor. We are using it for educational purposes. 

In our college, we are also taking attendance using automation software that we have built. It automatically takes student attendance based on face recognition. We have automated this process.

Automation Anywhere is very useful for automating repetitive tasks. It saves time. Our attendance automation helps take attendance of every person easily. It enables focus on strategic work, boosting productivity.

Automation Anywhere is very easy. It helps in many ways to do more work. It is user-friendly and provides good productivity. It has improved our productivity by at least 10%. 

The best feature is its ability to combine Automation Anywhere with AI to build intelligent bots. It saves time and offers better career opportunities for our students. IQ Bot automation helps to extract data from PDFs and invoices and store it in the database. It is beneficial for students and allows employees to focus on strategic work. 

It is very easy to learn. If you want to do a particular work, you can do it fairly easily. There are drag-and-drop opportunities available, and everything is easily integrated. We can quickly learn and find solutions to our problems. A simple task takes two or three days to learn. A complex task may take about five days.

There is limited scope for complex decision-making. For instance, a bot can extract invoice details, but it cannot determine if an invoice is fraudulent without AI integration. The enterprise version is expensive for small businesses and individual users, which can pose a challenge.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for more than a year.

It is stable. I would rate it a nine out of ten for stability.

The stability of the bot depends on the factors like design and application changes.

It is highly scalable and flexible. Cloud-based Automation Anywhere offers maximum scalability. I would rate it a nine out of ten for scalability.

In our university, there are more than 500 students using Automation Anywhere.

It has good technical support, but the response quality and availability depend on your subscription plan. They offer standard technical support as well as premium and enterprise support.

Multiple support channels are offered, including documentation, community forums, chat, email, and phone support. Self-service support is also available for all users and is free for everyone. Community forums are helpful but not always reliable for critical issues.

Positive

It is better than UiPath Community Edition, open-source RPA tools like RoboCorp, and Blue Prism. 

Automation Anywhere is very easy to use. It does not require any coding which makes it more user-friendly than Blue Prism. Automation Anywhere is also cloud-based which is not the case with Blue Prism. Automation Anywhere's price is better than Blue Prism.

Its deployment is easy. The deployment time for Automation Anywhere cloud depends on factors such as infrastructure complexity. For a standard cloud deployment, if using a basic setup, the time required is between thirty minutes to two hours.

Ongoing maintenance is required, especially if bots interact with a dynamic application, cloud service, or AI model. We are using cloud services, so regular updates are required. If the UI of an application changes, we may need to update it.

The enterprise version is expensive for small businesses and individual users.

I would rate Automation Anywhere a nine out of ten. It is a great solution for automating business processes and repetitive processes. It works great for data entry, invoice processing, and customer service automation.

I currently work with both UiPath and Automation Anywhere. I mostly employ these tools for RPA automation use cases. For example, I can handle any kind of manual invoice processing, document automation, or any manual processes involving multiple business logic and applications.

I think the automation creation is very straightforward. It is drag and drop, with no need to write any code. It is very self-explanatory, making it easy for non-technical users to develop. Also, the overall platform is easy to navigate and learn, making it simple to adapt and use. As I automate manual processes, it helps reduce efforts, leading to financial savings because the speed at which I process has improved. Additionally, I have been able to redirect some headcounts to other work areas, such as research. This has yielded financial benefits by reducing the headcount on these processes. Normally, it takes three to six months post-development and moving to production to realize the benefits of each automation. Since implementing Appia, I have seen significant benefits within a couple of years.

The platform has good capabilities, but it could improve by providing more development options. Currently, it is really restricted to whatever its own ecosystem provides. Aligning the product more closely with a framework, such as the .NET framework or the standard coding practices in other languages, would simplify adaptation for regular developers. It would be beneficial if the platform provided options for power developers to integrate seamlessly with languages like Java or C#, allowing them to write their own scripts and code.

I have been using the solution for about five or six years.

So far, the solution is good and stable, without much downtime experienced.

Organizations can onboard this platform and scale their automation journey because it is very easy to adapt and set up. They can seamlessly integrate with most business automation processes and use the platform to automate their processes on those applications.

I believe the support is on par with industry standards. The SLAs are based on the criticality and compare well with other companies in the market. I would rate them around nine.

Positive

I was previously using UiPath. The switch was mostly due to cost factors, specifically regarding licensing. Otherwise, in terms of capabilities and the platform, WebKit is also a great platform.

The initial setup is somewhere in the middle, neither very complex nor very straightforward.

I had a team for deployment, coordinated by our infrastructure team. The whole team, including five engineers, was involved.

In terms of percentages, costs depend on the complexity and size of the processes. On average, I have managed to reduce spends by up to fifty or sixty percent relative to our budget.

I evaluated Blue Prism and other tools like WorkFusion, among others. However, I found the Automation Network to be more capable and easier to migrate from UiPath.

My advice is to evaluate and compare with other products available in the market. If someone is looking for an automation platform that's easy to adapt, easy to set up, and competitively priced in terms of licensing, they can definitely choose this product. With courses available in Automation Anywhere University, it should not take more than a month to learn properly and try it out. I have Automation Copilot, similar to MS Copilot, to help developers build code based on prompts. I haven't fully utilized it yet. I would give the overall product a rating of nine out of ten.

We attempted to implement this solution into the back-office business processes of various entities.

The program itself is phenomenal in terms of its design. It solves a lot of different issues. It cuts down on the need for large accounting personnel groups within organizations because it automates back-end office processes, such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, and just all those types of things. I am a CPA, so I see the potential benefit of Automation Anywhere being implemented within a business structure.

What Automation Anywhere is offering is amazing from a back-end office accounting standpoint. If implemented correctly, it is amazing.

I have not integrated it with any other solution. I have only been focused on backend office automation, but I know it has that capability because I have trained in it. I have built the bots. It is amazing if it works properly. I consider myself a fairly intelligent person who has been in the accounting field since the eighties, and it is truly revolutionary.

I like the holistic approach of the company to automation. Many automation software solutions focus on only one area. I am particularly talking about back-office processes such as accounting, AR, AP, treasury management, financial statement forecasting, presentation, budgeting, and similar areas. That's where my expertise lies. I appreciate that it automates all these processes. 

The learning curve is an issue in terms of implementation and writing scripts, which is a challenge. Although it is advertised as easy to implement, it is not. It is not easy to learn or implement. However, if you have the IT staff and are willing to invest the time to learn it, then it is worth it. You need the planning and the capability to hire the appropriate people to implement Automation Anywhere. It is not as easy to implement as advertised. It is difficult across the board. It is difficult for technical and non-technical users.

I am still in the learning stages. I attempted to implement it with a client, but the client did not move forward with it because it was too costly and too difficult to implement without the significant assistance of Automation Anywhere. The issue with Automation Anywhere is that the majority of their help staff or technical staff seems to be offshore, not located in the United States. That is, in my opinion, an issue for companies. In addition to that, it is for companies that are very large. It is not for mid-level and below companies because it is too expensive. It is unfortunate. I could sell a bunch of it if it was affordable. So, the fact that the majority of their staff is offshore making it difficult to get technical support from them and the fact that it is unaffordable to anything other than the Nikes of the world is an issue in the United States.

I have been using Automation Anywhere since June 2024.

I've attempted to engage with customer service, but it is difficult and a drawback. For instance, my partner and I did extensive training on the university to get certifications so we could be approved as resellers. The process had many glitches, and verifying our passed certification exams took weeks, something that should be a simple button press. For an entity promoting automation, there was no automation involved in that process, which is a red flag.

Neutral

In terms of return on investment, the benefit is realized economically because you may not need as many employees, reducing personnel expenses. For example, if you have seven people in accounts payable, you might reduce that number to three if Automation Anywhere is implemented and monitored properly, so the savings can be realized right away.

The software also minimizes errors, unlike humans, who may lose focus during routine tasks. The speed at which the automation bot operates compared to a human delivers significant cost savings and return on investment.

I've also used Topalti, an accounts payable automated solution. Topalti has prewritten all the scripts and done everything needed, unlike Automation Anywhere, where I would have to do everything manually. However, Topalti only focuses on accounts payable for certain industries.

A major issue is that a large percentage of their help staff is offshore, which is problematic for U.S.-based companies. It is also more suitable for very large companies, not mid-level or smaller companies, as it is too expensive. 

I could sell more if it were affordable. 

The two main issues are the difficulty in obtaining technical support and the fact that it's unaffordable for anything other than very large companies. 

Overall, I rate the product ten out of ten, the sales channels four out of ten, and the support four out of ten.

I use it for a variety of shared service applications. It helps manage the volume of processing and handle many incoming ticket requests. I also utilize it for invoice processing, aiding AR collections, and some reporting. There is quite a variety of applications for Automation Anywhere.

I like the web-based development and the control room interface, which is robust and works well. Importantly, I experience fewer errors with finding screen elements to interact with when compared to other automation software. 

Automation Anywhere presents fewer maintenance issues. 

The built-in features, such as the connector builder and AI development tools, are easily accessible, keeping the software up-to-date. 

Before joining, I observed it to be a robust program with immediate visible benefits. I had fifty bots running, effectively demonstrating their workload. The hard parts, like recognizing ROI, building a backlog, and setting up internal infrastructure and governance, were already completed. Having done this elsewhere, I appreciate these accomplishments.

There are a lot of good built-in features like the connector builder. The AI aspects are very good. The software is keeping up with the times and I appreciate the new features they add.

It's easy for new users with no experience. You can learn quickly. You can also use pre-built packages that allow you to build a bot without much experience. There's Automation Anywhere University to assist as well. All of the tools are there to build a very robust robot. There is a learning curve within development. However, if you already have basic programming skills or a basic understanding of how computer science works, then it's fairly easy to build the bots that you need and can incorporate advanced logic, looping, variables, and things like that. If you understand those concepts, then it's not hard at all.

We have integrated other tools or applications with Automation Anywhere. That's one of the things that RPA is really good at. I couldn't say I've integrated other applications with Automation Anywhere so much as Automation Anywhere with other applications. We're using a lot of external vendors and automating processes for those external vendors that were problematic since they didn't integrate well with others.

The main request I have for Automation Anywhere is to focus more on technical demonstrations. They do extensive marketing and explanations of new technologies, which are great - however, often less technically focused. Common use cases are frequently repeated, such as loan processing and order fulfillment. I would like to see better and more technical use cases for the AI features, showing how to build them instead of repeated general examples.

I have used the solution for one year.

It is rock solid. Stability is great. I have never had any concerns about downtime or other issues.

The software is very capable. I am small compared to others, however, as a higher education institution, I'm probably one of the largest as a whole. The software can scale as far as I need, with no limit other than the investment of money, development time, and effort.

Initially, it took me some time to reach the right team for help, however, the support was knowledgeable and resolved the problem fairly quickly. Although it took a little over a week due to the tricky nature of the issue, I am generally satisfied with the support and have no significant concerns.

Neutral

I have used UiPath previously. I like Automation Anywhere better.

The initial setup was easy. It took me about a week or two to understand how to use it, and that's being generous. The concepts are straightforward and it's very similar to UiPath, beyond a few differences.

We haven't needed to update to a new version. The major update from on-prem to cloud was done before I came. 

The more minor upgrades were painful, yet not at all due to Automation Anywhere. ERP updates and things like that required us to test every bot. None of that was a fault or a problem with our Automation Anywhere. The rest was relatively smooth and straightforward, and the control room updates were relatively smooth and straightforward. This last update, we had a little bit of a hiccup. However, working through support, we got a workaround until the fix can get into place.

There is some maintenance needed on the bots. That's not the software's fault. The maintenance effort is quite low compared to what I was used to. 

Pricing is fine. Renegotiating our contract was challenging, however, I have a new salesperson, and I am excited about working with him.

I'm an Automation Anywhere customer. 

I have spent the last year getting a handle on Automation Anywhere, bringing five years of experience with its main competitor, UiPath. The opportunities for AI are boundless, and I am working heavily with the hospital to identify use cases. I am incorporating AI in invoice processing to extract data correctly and for image preprocessing. 

Benefits form transactions, like enrollment forms for healthcare and dependent change forms, are the next focus. 

I have yet to use Copilot, although I do have a use case that I'm hoping to build out.

In terms of seeing the benefits to Automation Anywhere, this particular job had already been using it for five years before I came. So the benefit had already been realized, and it was already a fairly robust program. I could see the benefit the first day I started. We already had 50 bots running, and it was very easy to see all of the work that they were doing. The hard part had already been completed in terms of recognizing ROI and building out a backlog of work, and having the infrastructure and the governance internally set up was already huge. I've done all those things before in other employers, and that takes significant time, a couple of years, to do it properly. Since that was already done, I could just hit the ground running, and we could just build more bots and make the bots that we had more robust.

I rate the product eight out of ten.

I use it mainly as automation software. Any kind of processes that are manual, like data entry, for example, I definitely use it for those. Many legacy applications like Mainframe that don't have APIs or can't access the data to write out to that system are addressed mainly for those purposes.

The most valuable feature is the ease of use. It's very user-friendly. Someone with even basic technical prowess can jump in and learn it very quickly. The difference is night and day. With processes involving three or four people, having it full-time manually to address that, and once we implement the automation software on these processes, it effectively reduces eighty to ninety percent of the manual effort.

The automated regression testing could be better. I need to build my own testing suite, and I know other tools have built-in testing suites. That is an area that's very weak in this platform.

I have been using it for about six years.

The stability is pretty good. They are responsive. Just like with any software organization, they usually deal with tier one support, and nine times out of ten, I know more than they do. I get some good support when I advance beyond tier one support. When it gets escalated to the next level is when I receive some good responses and better support.

I think it's a little difficult to scale just because they don't have an automated regression testing suite. We currently have a bottleneck at quality control because of that. If I had to give it a number, I would say six.

Their customer service is pretty good. They are responsive. Just like with any software organization, they usually deal with tier one support, and nine times out of ten, I know more than they do. I get some good support when I advance beyond tier one support. When it gets escalated to the next level is when I receive some good responses and better support.

Positive

I have used UiPath, Blue Prism, OpenRPA, and NintexRPA. I've dabbled in a couple of others, and I can't even remember what they are because there are so many, but those are the main ones that I've used throughout my career.

It was already in place when I got to my company.

I think the setup cost is comparable to the other solutions. I don't think it's anything out of the ordinary. I've been on platforms that are a lot more expensive, and this one is comparable.

I would give them an eight out of ten. I definitely would make sure that you at least have some basic understanding of development, just basic principles, and then start training in Automation Software Anywhere Academy. Many like to think businesses can come in and build stuff, which they can, but sometimes they don't know basic software design principles. Once the volume increases or if they don't build it correctly, there are constant issues, and then we have to bring in the core team to help out. It's nice to say something, but in action, it's something that's not the same. Let's put it that way. You can build anything, as I said, you can build all kinds of things, but is it built correctly?