Our primary functionality is built around screen scraping applications. We collect data from one application and either generate reports or use it to complete a user transaction or a customer transaction. For example, I have automation that handles bill pay. A request comes in, we verify it, and then we execute a bill payment transaction.
Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)
Automation Anywhere, Inc.External reviews
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
Fair price, impressive availability, and continuously enhanced
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
When we first started, the motivation was not wanting to be left behind in the latest and greatest opportunity for automating desktop applications that are boring and time-consuming but are still very important for the company's business operations.
We were able to see its benefits immediately during our proof of concept five years ago. We were able to take five users of daily work and reduce it to one user of support work. It was very significant.
Prior to implementation, these processes were done by the business units manually. Post implementation, the solutions are IT-based. As a result, IT now has additional responsibility for the business automation, just supporting the business function. It is one thing to build the software. It is another thing to maintain it and keep it running in production. There is a pretty significant lift or burden on the IT side that was not there during the manual executions.
What is most valuable?
I like the diversity. Every year, maybe even every six months, new modules are introduced to the program, and module enhancements are added to the toolbox to make automating various applications or situations easier. For example, the email module has been enhanced over the years to support all the latest authentication technologies. That is very important as we move away from username and password and embrace multi-factor authentication. Without the ability for these modules to stay in sync and up to date, we would not be able to use them.
What needs improvement?
On the document automation side, the document learning features are not as robust as one would expect them to be. When I am doing document automation and a document fails due to low confidence in populating a field, it requires manual correction. Automation Anywhere states that if I correct enough documents, over time, the automation tools will learn where those error situations are and automatically fix them. We have not seen that feature work as advertised.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Automation Anywhere for roughly five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have not had any issues. I am very impressed with its availability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It scales quite well. I have not found an application that has exhausted the capacity of the system to execute. If we need to handle more transactions, we simply need to add additional bot runners. We currently have three bot runners in production. If we needed five or ten, I could have five or ten in a couple of days.
How are customer service and support?
On a scale of one to ten, I would rank their technical support group a nine.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have two other solutions in-house other than Automation Anywhere. They are very specific to the tasks they are handling.
How was the initial setup?
It was pretty easy. I took a proof of concept that took nine months to build. Since I could not copy it from the proof of concept environment to our brand-new tenant or control room, we had to reprogram it. The reprogramming and testing took three months. Now, if you put all those numbers together, you probably could say it took us a year to build that first application.
It requires operation execution maintenance by my company and my IT group, but it does not take any Automation Anywhere resources to maintain it now. They maintain it at the cloud level and do a good job.
What about the implementation team?
Two people were involved in the implementation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is fair. My company is part of a big organization, so the pricing is very advantageous.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Five years ago, we evaluated four products, and Automation Anywhere emerged as the top choice. It offered the best cloud solution compared to the other vendors or providers. Now, if I took those same four vendors and evaluated them today, I might come up with a different answer. The industry has changed drastically just in the last three or four years, and if we did a reevaluation and could start over, chances are everyone, including Automation Anywhere, is on much better footing today than they were five years ago.
What other advice do I have?
In terms of our AI approach, we are very cautious with AI. We are a Microsoft shop, so we are limiting our AI exposure to an Azure tenant-based AI resource. We are probably building our own LLMs to manage the intelligence or the exposure of intelligence to the AI engine. I do not see us ever using external AI modules.
On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Automation Anywhere a nine.
Improves process efficiency and accuracy, and it's fast and user-friendly
What is our primary use case?
I have worked on automation for several clients and organizations. In my previous organization, we automated several business processes related to governance. Currently, I am working with Nokia. Here at Nokia, we are performing data reconciliations, including financial data, procurement data, and asset-related data. To achieve this, we fetch data from systems like SAP and custom applications. Instead of manually navigating multiple screens in SAP, we use the RPA Automation tool to handle these activities. We are essentially automating these processes.
We are exploring an automated system that can help our production support system resolve tickets more efficiently. We have the data of or the history of multiple incidents raised in the past two or three years. We would like to utilize this data to resolve new tickets and provide the steps for resolution. When a ticket is there, the automated system can identify the solutions and automatically implement those suggestions to fix the ticket. We have not implemented it yet.
At the moment, we do not have any use cases for Generative AI, but we are looking into it.
How has it helped my organization?
Automation Anywhere has helped us with efficiency and accuracy. We cannot achieve the same level of efficiency and accuracy through manual tasks. There are also cost savings. Manually performed tasks are financially demanding.
Automation Anywhere is easy to learn. People who are not technical can also get started with this tool. They can explore and slowly adapt to the tool. They do not need too much expertise, but having technical expertise can be an advantage. Overall, Automation Anywhere is fairly good for non-technical people.
We have integrated SAP and web applications with Automation Anywhere. We have also automated using the APIs. Its integration is good and has improved over time. It is evolving and getting easier for us to integrate with external applications.
We have had a lot of time savings. We have 40 to 50 bots.
What is most valuable?
The best aspect is the user interface. It is very user-friendly and snappy, responding quickly compared to other available tools. It is easy to learn, and the community support is good for asking questions and getting answers. Training camps are provided by Automation Anywhere. I recently attended the document automation training camp. In 2025, we are going to attend the AI agent training camp. The community and the training around the tool have been beneficial.
What needs improvement?
In Automation Anywhere, the logging process is manual. We have to manually log each instance where the bot fails or the progress of a task. Automating this through a new feature would help developers simplify their development process. That is my suggestion.
About a year or two ago, debugging was challenging in Automation Anywhere. If you had multiple task bots with a parent task and a child task, there were issues during debugging. Automation Anywhere took the feedback and fixed it in the next releases.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Automation Anywhere for over five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Most of the time, I do not encounter problems with the control room. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate it a nine, but I have had issues with IQ Bot. I would rate IQ Bot's stability an eight out of ten due to some service instability. For example, it sometimes fails to communicate with RabbitMQ. Automation Anywhere's control room is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. Scalability also depends on how we code or develop the bots. We have 45 different use cases, and most of them are multi-bot, so I do not see any issues with the scalability. I would rate it a nine out of ten for scalability.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate it an eight out of ten. Most of the time, when I raise cases for help with the Automation Anywhere vendor, I receive good help at the right time. However, sometimes I receive automated responses, which are not helpful and cause delays. Despite this, I generally get good support, so I can rate customer service an eight out of ten, but there is room for improvement.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used Blue Prism and Power Automate as well. In Blue Prism, logging is simple because it is automatic. Automation Anywhere is more snappy and faster in response. It also has inbuilt document automation, whereas Blue Prism does not have the inbuilt OCR capability. Overall, Automation Anywhere is a better solution than Blue Prism.
Power Automate is a very slow tool. If you have to open any flow, it takes a lot of time to load. This issue is not there in Automation Anywhere. It is more capable than Power Automate.
How was the initial setup?
Currently, we have two control rooms. One is an on-prem control room, and the other one is a SaaS or cloud control room. We are using both.
The SaaS option is evidently easier because we do not need to manage servers, issues, or restart services. We prefer SaaS for these reasons.
In terms of maintenance, the platform upgrade from one version to another version is not difficult. We started with version 21 of A360, and we are currently on version 35. Most of the updates in the SaaS environment are automatic and happen during the night hours. Most of the time, we have not seen any issues. They went smoothly, but sometimes, there were some terminations and other issues. If those issues are also taken care of, it will be very smooth.
For the SaaS control room, there is not much maintenance. We are doing maintenance only in terms of the code. In terms of platform, we do not need any maintenance for the SaaS control room. For the on-prem control room, there is a lot of maintenance. Sometimes, the services go down, or the communication between the application and database server has problems.
What about the implementation team?
We have seven to eight developers and three to four production support resources. Building a bot is not an easy process. It is a lengthy process. The duration depends on the use case. It can take from one month to three to four months to develop one automation.
We have a separate platform team that helps us in terms of the platform issues. We have a development team, and we have a production support team. So everyone has their own responsibilities and roles.
We have about 45 use cases deployed in production.
What other advice do I have?
I would definitely recommend Automation Anywhere. I have been using it for the last five years, and it is one of the leading RPA tools in the market.
Their community support is excellent. If we encounter challenges, we can rely on the community for help. There are ample training programs and an Automation Anywhere university to facilitate learning. The solution is reliable.
I would rate Automation Anywhere a nine out of ten. Some features, such as automatic logging, could be improved. It has the potential to become the best tool.
Empowers business users to execute bots with AARI, and saves a lot of time for developers and users
What is our primary use case?
I work for a company, and we mainly automate tasks that we deem necessary, which are often repetitive and mundane. Anything that can be automated to save costs, from the finance and manufacturing perspective, is automated.
We are currently considering how to use it for document automation so that we can read unstructured data, such as invoices, that is a little bit messy and hard for a standard rule-based OCR to understand. We are also looking at an AI solution that could do that for us.
In terms of integration, we use tools like SAP. That is a big one. We have integrated Python scripting a lot. We also use Active Directory.
How has it helped my organization?
The advantage of Automation Anywhere is that it automates the mundane jobs that are brainless or take up time out of people's day that they could use to do other tasks. That was the main challenge that we wanted to address by implementing Automation Anywhere. We wanted to free up time in other areas by automating jobs that would make good candidates to do so.
It is built keeping business users in mind. Every single human being who uses a computer uses a UI, so automating those clicks is not a very complicated thing. You are just telling the computer what to do. In that respect, they try to make it as simple as possible to use things like Excel, send emails with Outlook, and automate clicks on a computer. That part is done well.
Allowing business users to trigger the bot means that I do not have to worry about scheduling or triggering the bots. I can just give them the keys to the car and let them do whatever they want to do. It saves time. We spend less time micromanaging and more time developing.
I have heard from people who are using these bots that it is saving them hours every week, every day, or so. They start to see those time savings instantly.
What is most valuable?
AARI allows business users to trigger the bot, so I do not have to schedule everything. This convenience allows users to utilize it as they need. I can set it up to provide users with a form to fill in all required information, and then the bot operates based on those specifications. AARI is very convenient, and that is their biggest selling point.
What needs improvement?
I have found that Automation Anywhere is prone to bugs in handling Excel. It breaks and gives vague error messages. I have had a lot of experience with that and learned that it is better to write a Python script instead of using Automation Anywhere's package when dealing with Excel because it is buggy and tends to break, unfortunately.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have only been using it for about seven months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I do not remember having any problems. It usually does not lag or crash. Some packages, like Excel, can behave unpredictably, but I have never had any issues with the application itself.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I do not have much information about scalability. When use cases come, I just build them and move on.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before Automation Anywhere, I used Power Automate by Microsoft. I prefer Automation Anywhere because it is more robust. It allows us to build more powerful applications. Power Automate was great for small-scale things, but it had its limitations.
How was the initial setup?
It was already deployed when I got here.
In terms of maintenance, the updates happen monthly. I do not have to do anything, but there is some maintenance when users want to get connected to run bots. There is a little bit of upkeep that happens there. Other developers sometimes do not have the necessary permissions. That process is not particularly painstaking. It is usually painless. There are two or three of us involved in the maintenance. We spend very little time on maintenance. It does not happen too often.
What other advice do I have?
In our organization, there is a fairly steep learning curve because we have a very particular framework in terms of the way that we handle our bots and our processes. This is likely not the case with other organizations that do not have a similar framework. We like to break down our bots in a very particular way, and we like to control our bots' inputs with configuration files and use Python scripting to handle a lot of work rather than using Automation Anywhere's packages because it is more effective, but then there is a little bit of a steeper learning curve.
I never had to train somebody who is not technical on how to use Automation Anywhere, but you could teach someone how to make something super simple in 30 minutes, and then give them an hour. You can quickly teach them how to send themselves email reminders or do something similar, so you could get going pretty quickly.
Overall, I would rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten. It does what it does well.
Boosts efficiency in billing management and significantly reduces costs
What is our primary use case?
I am an assistant professor in a DMI institute in our country. In our institute, we have to manage a lot of invoice billing. I have been using the bots to automate and maintain invoicing in our institute.
We have also been using AI. I have created many projects, such as a virtual assistant, to automate tasks in our institute.
How has it helped my organization?
Automation has been playing a significant role in every aspect of our institution. In our institution, it is very difficult to manually manage more than 1,000 people's data. I like the ability to automate and the bot feature in Automation Anywhere.
Previously, we were doing everything manually. We needed a lot of people to do the work manually. We need 20 to 30 people to manage invoice billing every day. With Automation Anywhere, it has become very easy for us to do invoice billing. It has saved us about 80% of the time. We only need 10 people now. Financially, it has helped us a lot because we can manage tasks very easily with few people. The workload has been reduced by using automation.
I like to make use of Co-Pilot with every task because it is very reliable. They have improved it a lot. I like to use it every day and integrate it with my software. A task that takes months can be done in weeks with the help of Co-Pilot. It helps us save time and do other tasks. It saves a lot of time for employees to do or prioritize other tasks.
In terms of integration, some of our staff have been using the integration of Automation Anywhere with Microsoft 365, but I have not integrated it.
What is most valuable?
The interface is really nice and user-friendly. Anyone can start right away.
What needs improvement?
I have been using IQ Bot, and its accuracy can be improved. It could be more accurate.
Managing all the bots in the control room can be a difficult task for a large organization. The control room features could be enhanced for better performance.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Automation Anywhere for around one year in my institute.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
At times, I faced some issues with Internet connectivity, even though I had a good Internet connection. This happened at the initial stage, but over the last five to six months, they have improved a lot. Other than that, everything is perfect. I would rate it a nine out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. I would rate it a nine out of ten for scalability.
The automation is used by 60 to 100 people on a regular basis. Around 50 to 100 people use it at intervals. They are not using it regularly in our institute. Overall, there are about 200 to 250 users.
Around 30 to 40 people are involved in maintaining the bots that we have been using. We usually assign them tasks to maintain the bots weekly. It takes a few hours. It is not a big deal.
How are customer service and support?
Support is really good and genuine. I would rate their support a nine out of ten.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have not used anything other than Automation Anywhere. We were introduced to this by an employee of one of my friends, and we have been using it. We have not used any other solution.
How was the initial setup?
For a non-technical person, it can be a little bit complex, but it gets easier with time. A couple of days are enough to learn and deploy it.
We have five to six people involved in its deployment.
What was our ROI?
It has helped us save a lot of time and money. It helped us a lot financially.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is reasonable and affordable. If you consider the tasks that we can get done using this, the pricing is reasonable and affordable.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, it is not very difficult, but initially, it can be a bit difficult to understand how the bot works. Over time, even a non-technical person can manage it. A week or ten days would be enough to learn everything and start using Automation Anywhere.
I would suggest starting small for anyone new to Automation Anywhere. I would also recommend learning and gaining experience from those who are already experienced. Other than that, it is fine. I would definitely recommend Automation Anywhere to everyone.
I would rate Automation Anywhere a solid eight out of ten.
Bots using AA
Simplifies automation with Recorder and ease of use, and their licensing is also favourable
What is our primary use case?
My use case essentially involves in-house projects centered around invoice automation. They have their own mailbox where the client uploads invoices and payment information. My responsibilities include downloading, storing, and reviewing these invoices using automation. Additionally, I am tasked with automating scenarios that were previously manual processes. I am responsible for structuring the tasks, handling exceptions for efficiency, and ensuring automated email notifications are sent to clients if there are any discrepancies or missing values.
Previously, I worked with hospital automation. I had to create automation for hospital care to store patient data in some databases.
I have also designed a solution for document or file transfers and backups, as well as intelligent document processing, where I had to extract meaningful data from unstructured or semi-structured invoices. I had to train my bot to extract the required details from the invoices and store them in a database or a CSV file.
Going forward, I see a potential use of AI for automation related to chatbots, websites, and data visualization. I also see potential in doing repetitive tasks in a more thorough and error-free way.
How has it helped my organization?
It is pretty simple to learn. It is user-friendly, so people can learn it quickly. A person without a basic knowledge of IT or programming logic would need at least a month to understand how it works and how to code in Automation Anywhere. An experienced person would just require about 15 days.
I was previously a backend software developer, so I am good with coding. I work with multiple RPA tools such as UiPath, Automation Anywhere, and Power Automate. I find these low-code or no-code solutions to be very easy. Automation Anywhere is pretty simple. It is UI-based with just the drag-and-drop functionalities. If I want to use any of the functionalities, I just have to search for that functionality and drag and drop it. After that, I only need to take care of the logic. It has been very helpful for me. It is very easy to use.
Automation Anywhere allows us to create unattended bots. These bots can work 24/7 with high accuracy and reduced costs. Last year, we made significant advancements with IQ Bots processing financial documents. It offered cost efficiency and reduced the errors typical of manual processes.
For our use cases, I integrated Automation Anywhere with Salesforce and some CRMs such as Zoho CRM. I also integrated the ChatGPT API. Automation Anywhere and other RPA solutions do a great job when it comes to integration.
They have done a good job in terms of licensing and cloud performance. They keep evolving with new technologies such as Generative AI. It works very well for processing any unstructured or semi-structured data. With OCR, we can extract meaningful data from hundreds or thousands of invoices.
What is most valuable?
The recorders are highly beneficial when automating web scraping or web automation tasks. With the recorder, I can capture all the XPath and HTML data, which can be selected in different forms like a dropdown list, radio buttons, or a click event. In Automation Anywhere, the recorder is one of the most valuable and used functionalities.
Additionally, it includes features supporting PDF handling, Advanced Excel, Basic Excel, and XML Path. In a recent project, I integrated ChatGPT APIs with Automation Anywhere to manage email responses, enhancing communication with clients.
Automation Anywhere has done a pretty good job with Automation Anywhere Academy. There are some certifications and basic courses in the academy. If you are working as a developer, as a business analyst, or as an RPA lead, there are separate courses for that.
What needs improvement?
There are occasional technical issues, particularly with cloud operations. Sometimes, the bot struggles to initiate on the cloud, even when everything appears in place. This issue occasionally requires uninstalling and reinstalling a component on my PC, although I cannot recall the specific component involved. I often need to stop and restart system services to get the bot process working correctly, which can be frustrating.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have four years of overall experience, including two and a half years as an RPA developer.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Occasionally, there are initial startup issues. Other than that, the platform runs smoothly, and the deployment process is user-friendly in both UAT and production environments. Assigning tasks to runner machines and developers is efficient.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The platform excels in scalability.
How are customer service and support?
Automation Anywhere community support is helpful. They are not always quick to respond, but they provide solutions.
At times, some issues require additional research due to inadequate documentation. Some errors were not yet encountered by others, so I could not find any solutions in their community. It required extra effort on my part to find a solution.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I use Automation Anywhere, UiPath, and Power Automate. I have good hands-on experience with Automation Anywhere.
Drawing on my experience with UiPath and other RPA tools, Automation Anywhere is user-friendly and less complex. It ranks second or third in the RPA market, while UiPath holds the top spot. Automation Anywhere is effectively capturing market share through favorable licensing terms, and it continues to expand.
How was the initial setup?
It is deployed in the cloud.
The initial setup was handled by the system team in my current company. In my previous company, I manually set up the system, assigning roles like bot runner and creator through the control board. The process is easy. You just need to remember the steps.
In terms of bot deployment, you can deploy a fully functional bot in less than 15 minutes if you have a clear understanding of which machine is the bot runner, which machine is free, and which machine is already logged in. You also have to take care of the credentials. After deployment, you also need to test the bot.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Automation Anywhere has an advantage in terms of licensing. It is more cost-efficient compared to all other RPA platforms. It is a recommended solution when clients need a cost-efficient automation tool to perform unattended automation.
What other advice do I have?
When it comes to user experience, Automation Anywhere scores a nine out of ten for ease of use, even for those new to the tool. Non-technical staff can quickly learn it with the help of Automation Anywhere Academy. However, improvements are needed for lagging issues and undocumented problems.
Overall, based on my experience with Automation Anywhere, I would rate it a nine out of ten.
Empowers organizations with the most advanced OCR capabilities
What is our primary use case?
I see opportunities to utilize AI in banking, mainly check validation and customer churn prediction. Additionally, my work with a Pharmaceutical focused on R&D and supply chain presents further opportunities for AI implementation.
How has it helped my organization?
For each full-time employee, we can deploy one bot, automating approximately 75 percent of their tasks.
Automation Anywhere makes tasks more cost-efficient.
Automation Anywhere enables us to achieve a 90 percent compliance rate.
For organizations with technical teams, Automation Anywhere serves as an excellent tool.
The learning curve is generally beneficial, especially with the rise of remote learning opportunities. However, businesses may find the transition challenging. Automation Anywhere is a valuable tool for technical teams, although it currently lacks generative AI capabilities like those offered by OpenAI and Azure. While RPA continues to evolve, it remains a strong asset for those with technical expertise.
Non-technical personnel can be trained to use Automation Anywhere in approximately two weeks. The training involves a standard checklist, a knowledge transfer session, a reverse KT session, and supervised practice. This approach ensures that individuals are fully prepared to use Automation Anywhere effectively within two weeks.
Our automation and AI strategy prioritizes delivering immediate value to customers. We begin by identifying and addressing their most pressing issues to demonstrate the benefits of Automation Anywhere. This approach allows us to establish credibility and build strong customer relationships, paving the way for tackling more complex challenges later on.
In the six months since integrating Azure with OpenAI, security teams have granted initial approval for using generative AI, leading to productive discussions on its implementation.
I have worked with the core banking system, which is fully integrated with Automation Anywhere. This includes call management, voice integration, and check validation using OCR scanning. Through this system, the entire core banking process is end-to-end and automated.
The integration is successful, demonstrating consistent accuracy rates exceeding 80 percent. Utilizing Automation Anywhere OCR scanning has proven effective and beneficial for our operations.
Automation Anywhere is easy to upgrade.
What is most valuable?
The OCR feature in Automation Anywhere is the best I have encountered, even better than Google.
What needs improvement?
The initial cost of Automation Anywhere, including license fees and integration costs, is high. It is challenging for business users to operationalize the tool independently. Improving features linked to Gen AI and data processing could reduce dependency on ETL processes, allowing more tasks to be handled within Automation Anywhere.
Although Automation Anywhere is a GUI-based platform with drag-and-drop functionality, non-technical business users struggle to implement it due to the complexities of operationalizing automation within a business context. While a technical user can bridge the gap between the platform and specific business needs by collaborating with domain experts, non-technical users lack the understanding to effectively utilize the platform's features, resulting in a low success rate for independent implementation.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Automation Anywhere for six to seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Automation Anywhere is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Automation Anywhere is highly scalable for both horizontal and vertical expansions.
How are customer service and support?
Customer service is good. Our internal COE provides support, and if needed, Automation Anywhere engineers are involved directly.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, I used Blue Prism and Watson. Watson was primarily for the healthcare domain.
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment of Automation Anywhere is straightforward and can be completed in one week, assuming prompt support from the infrastructure team. The only potential delays stem from internal bureaucracy, not the tool's limitations.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The initial setup and licensing fees are high, and although it saves costs in the long run, reaching the break-even point can take at least six months. This means an initial investment may not yield returns for a year, which is often not feasible due to budget constraints. To address this, we offer amortization options, bearing the initial cost to help clients get started and then transitioning those costs into ongoing implementation support. This approach allows us to win contracts despite the high initial investment.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten. While it's a robust tool, costs could be more competitive.
Automation Anywhere requires a dedicated maintenance team, with a recommended ratio of ten technicians for every hundred users, to ensure optimal performance and stability.
The automation team handles bot maintenance directly, eliminating the need for a separate maintenance team.
Eliminates extensive coding and integrates well with enterprise applications
What is our primary use case?
I am working specifically in the finance sector of every single business. Currently, I am collaborating with the finance department of a company to automate their reconciliation and other processes. It works well with ERP automation and similar tasks.
How has it helped my organization?
Before Automation Anywhere, we had Python automation packages. The challenging part about that was it required a lot of coding and error handling. That becomes very complicated, whereas in Automation Anywhere, we already have the framework. We just need to put the logic and all the error handling is done by the Automation Anywhere framework. It is quite good. The availability of frameworks for error handling allowing users to insert logic without additional handling is valuable.
They have an AI platform with GenAI implemented to help us generate anything that is necessary for automation.
Co-Pilot is an interface between a human and a bot. It helps us to give basic instructions or human-related intelligence to a particular bot to complete certain processes. It is quite an important part of automation when we need a human to decide what to do.
It definitely increases productivity. If a human takes six to seven hours to complete a process, a bot can do it within two to three hours with the help of a human if we include Co-Pilot.
When it comes to integration, I have integrated Automation Anywhere with Microsoft Dynamics, Excel, SAP, and Salesforce. All business and enterprise applications are pretty compatible with Automation Anywhere.
The benefits of Automation Anywhere can be seen immediately.
What is most valuable?
Automation Anywhere has a drag-and-drop feature eliminating the need for extensive coding.
It has a large supportive community. They support you at every single step. Their Apeople community is similar to the GitHub community. They are immensely helpful in developing automation bots.
What needs improvement?
One area requiring improvement is the debugging process. When I use a multi-structure with conditions to switch from one bot to another, successful debugging of the entire process is not feasible. Each bot has to be debugged individually.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Automation Anywhere for almost four and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of the automation depends on the applications being automated. For very old or legacy applications, there may be crashes. However, with the latest applications, there are no significant issues like freezing or crashing.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is quite flexible. For cloud-based applications, there is the option of APIs. For Windows-based applications, it provides UI interface automation, which enhances its scalability.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is quite good, offering silver, gold, and diamond levels depending on the license. I have had instances of contacting support for compatibility issues, and they provide solutions such as patches. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate the support as eight.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used Microsoft's Power Automate, which is excellent for automation processes within Microsoft-related products. However, it lacks efficacy with other applications such as SAP, Salesforce, and others.
How was the initial setup?
The setup varies with the deployment type. Cloud deployment is straightforward with only a few steps. Dealing with on-premises can be more complex due to customization for specific organizational needs.
The upgrades are quite easy. You just need to select the appropriate version suitable for your business. You need to contact Automation Anywhere, and they will do it for you. There are no hidden charges.
It requires maintenance. If you update your basic application, you also need to update Automation Anywhere to that level. If your application is old or not compatible with Automation Anywhere, they can create some sort of patch to link those applications together.
What about the implementation team?
A single person can manage the deployment if they are purchasing the correct license with support. Alternatively, without direct support, an organization might need at least one professional and one developer.
What other advice do I have?
For business users, there is a separate dashboard and UI to help automate their process. If you are very new to Automation Anywhere but have a basic knowledge of your processes, you can directly automate with Automation Anywhere. If you have basic knowledge of any programming language, it is easy. You can also go to Automation Anywhere University and go through some basic videos. A new person can get started with it within 15 days.
I would rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten overall.
Automates data entry tasks with seamless AI integration and has a user-friendly interface.
What is our primary use case?
I primarily use Automation Anywhere for automating manual data entry tasks, such as customer data validation and supply chain management. I have used it for managing a large volume of customer entries, such as handling one lakh customer entries efficiently.
How has it helped my organization?
It saves time and is efficient in data entry for my company. Previously, tasks took more time, but now the process is easier with the software.
What is most valuable?
The best features of Automation Anywhere are having a user-friendly interface and the ability to integrate AI. Additionally, APIs and services like OpenAI's ChatGPT can be integrated, enhancing its functionality. It stands out for its efficiency and ease of integration.
What needs improvement?
The website can be buggy at times, and I would like to see improvements in latency and slow response times.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Automation Anywhere for about one year in my office.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the stability of the solution as a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate the scalability of the solution as an eight out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
I have never contacted technical support as there have been no issues.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before Automation Anywhere, I used testing software in BrowserStack.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup took about a day, and while it was initially a bit complex, it eventually became easier.
What was our ROI?
The solution saves about sixty percent of my time and approximately fifty thousand rupees per month.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Although the pricing is somewhat expensive, it is worth it for the value provided.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend Automation Anywhere because it is beginner-friendly, allowing anyone to learn it easily in their organization.
Approachable platform allows automation across multiple virtual devices
What is our primary use case?
Our company uses Automation Anywhere for enterprise automation of various finance tasks, focusing on accounting. This includes processing accounts payable invoices, managing oil and gas revenue, extracting data from text, and downloading files from our ERP system. These automated processes, some of which are business-critical and complex, enhance efficiency and accuracy within our finance operations.
How has it helped my organization?
Automation Anywhere has helped to address process bottlenecks and departmental inefficiency. It is used as an attempt to streamline operations.
It simplifies the management of complex workloads.
Automation Anywhere has a significant learning curve, but it is understandable and reasonable. Having a support team makes the process easier compared to learning it independently.
The training for non-technical users takes one to two months.
We've integrated numerous tools with Automation Anywhere, most notably our accounting system, which is interfaced via SQL and terminal. Additionally, we utilize RPA to interact with various systems employed by other departments.
What is most valuable?
One of the strengths of Automation Anywhere is its user-friendly interface, which makes it accessible even to those without a development background. As someone who began with no coding knowledge, I found it a great entry point into the world of automation. This accessibility, compared to tools like UiPath, stems from its intuitive design. Furthermore, the capacity to deploy RPA solutions across various virtual devices, a common feature in RPA, is invaluable for streamlining and scaling automation efforts.
Automation Anywhere's API feature is a fantastic offering, providing the valuable ability to call or execute tasks.
What needs improvement?
As a developer, I find Automation Anywhere's bot editor riddled with minor workflow issues that hinder productivity. For instance, the broken bot package versioning system prevents copying and pasting code between bots with different package versions, a stark contrast to the flexibility of Python. This inconvenience arises even when transferring code between bots within the same process, significantly disrupting workflow. While there are other minor improvements I could suggest, Automation Anywhere has been, albeit slowly, addressing our concerns.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Automation Anywhere for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of Automation Anywhere is quite good, with few outages from the platform itself.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Automation Anywhere is a very scalable product capable of handling large-scale automation operations.
How are customer service and support?
In my experience, Automation Anywhere's technical support has been lacking. Many of their representatives don't understand the product enough to offer effective assistance. As a developer, it's frustrating to encounter issues and try to communicate them to support staff who seem unfamiliar with the underlying technology. This lack of product knowledge hinders effective troubleshooting and resolution.
Our current support plan is the most basic, so I don't anticipate a quick resolution. However, they generally respond within the expected timeframe for this level of support.
How was the initial setup?
Although I wasn't involved in deploying Automation Anywhere, I recall the process being straightforward and immediately successful for the company.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation included a team of four to five individuals supported by a contractor.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated UiPath and another product that I cannot recall.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Automation Anywhere a nine out of ten.
My experience upgrading Automation Anywhere from an on-premise solution to the cloud was challenging despite some helpful features. While a tool was provided to convert version 11 tasks to 360, it introduced unnecessary code during migration. This inefficiency may be specific to Automation Anywhere or a common issue with automation upgrades. Regardless, the process was lengthy and tedious.
Automation Anywhere requires considerable maintenance due to a combination of factors. Our automation of an older Java-based accounting solution causes some challenges. Additionally, automating browser-based tasks in large oil and gas SaaS companies leads to frequent breakage of bots when the underlying HTML or code changes. Consequently, ongoing maintenance is necessary and will be a permanent responsibility for our maintenance team, which includes our project leader and a group of developers.
Establish consistent policies and procedures before doing anything. This aligns with the Center of Excellence framework. Having clear, consistent policies is important before building bots and implementing solutions.