In the financial industry, Automation Anywhere helps us streamline tasks by automating processes like invoice entry and employee onboarding, along with many other functions.
Businesses leverage Automation Anywhere to streamline their workflows and minimize operational problems.
Automation Anywhere has empowered our clients to achieve greater accuracy, enhanced control over their processes, and liberated employee time for more strategic endeavors.
Automation Anywhere is easy to use even for non-technical people once they receive the training.
Automation Anywhere is considered user-friendly, with the learning curve manageable for beginners. The available resources provide a solid foundation for new users to get started.
It seamlessly integrates with our daily applications, providing a valuable human-like interaction that enhances the automation process.
Co-Pilot improves productivity by automating tasks like reviewing purchase requisitions, which previously required multiple people. It also allows individuals to manage workloads that once demanded multiple people, allowing them to focus on more valuable tasks.
Generative AI stands out in automation, especially for crucial tasks like invoice processing, where it can extract information, or for tasks requiring web research, going beyond simple rule-based automation.
Automation Anywhere offers integration with various Large Language Model applications, and for connecting these external systems, utilizing their API is the best approach.
Automation Anywhere's document automation, powered by IQ Bots and now enhanced with AI, stands out as a particularly valuable feature. This combination allows for seamless integration of a wider range of document types, streamlining our workflows.
Automation Anywhere's current requirement for upfront annual payments limits flexibility for customers. Offering a wider range of payment options, such as monthly installments, would be a welcome improvement.
While Automation Anywhere's current learning materials cater to junior and new users, senior developers require more in-depth content to effectively utilize the platform's full potential.
I have been using Automation Anywhere for six years.
Automation Anywhere's technical support has a prompt response time, with Portuguese-speaking representatives in Brazil. For complex issues, they efficiently escalate tickets to a global team of engineers for further assistance.
Positive
I would rate Automation Anywhere ten out of ten.
I'm a developer supporting my clients with Automation Anywhere. I work at McKarthy Labs. We use Automation Anywhere to provide automated processing to our clients. For example, we might get paid to do automated invoice processing. The bot can extract all the information, complaints, or remarks in that invoice. All of these details will go into an Excel spreadsheet.
Any repetitive, rule-based task will be appropriate for Automation Anywhere, but a judgment-based task will require some AI to implement. For example, if a user needs to send an email once an invoice is ready, we can check automatically to determine when the invoice is available in the appropriate folder and send the email to the user.
The developer gathers the requirements, and we prepare our business equipment once approved or assigned. First, we will see which applications are being used and how they could be automated. For example, we might need to automate logging into a Gmail account multiple times. We'll create it in three phases: 30 percent, 30 percent, and 40 percent. The process can be completed in about a week. Sometimes, it may take longer due to data scalability issues or some required changes in the back end. Some minor changes in the domain may take a little more time.
Since we started using Automation, we have automated more and more tasks. We are gradually expanding the capacity. It has helped them save time and money. The automation copilot has helped our workers save time, freeing them up for other work. I have a co-pilot based on SQL database connectivity. It pulls the required information tables. Automation Anywhere's AI is excellent for automating any process.
It's easy for non-technical users to work with Automation Anywhere. There are many options and methods they can use if they want to run a bot. The Automation Copilot is helpful. It will automatically give you all the solutions your bot requires. It's like a dictionary.
The integration is not always seamless. Sometimes, it takes a while to get everything to communicate and be ready to go into production.
I have used Automation Anywhere for five years.
I rate Automation Anywhere eight out of 10 for scalability.
I rate Automation Anywhere support 10 out of 10.
Positive
We have used UiPath and Power Automate. It depends on the client's requirements. We use Automation Anywhere if the clients prefer that.
Automation Anywhere is a little expensive, but it's a good value. I've seen many companies use Power Automate, and the subscription is very low.
I rate Automation Anywhere eight out of 10.
Automation Anywhere is an RPA tool we use to automate common workflows that interact with various enterprise applications. These workflows can involve tasks like data generation, sending emails, or completing transactions within those enterprise systems.
We implemented Automation Anywhere to automate our workflows and save time.
In the past, these tasks were handled manually, leading to a lot of repetition. Automation Anywhere has eliminated that burden, making these same tasks much easier and significantly faster to complete.
We implemented AI-based automation that combines documents using intelligent document processing. This involved integrating generative AI to automatically create responses based on the data extracted from the documents. This automation streamlines the process and delivers the desired business output to end users.
Automation Anywhere caters to business users with its user-friendly interface, allowing them to build automation with minimal technical expertise. Our large business user community exemplifies this – after a five-day training program with hands-on exercises, they're empowered to independently develop their own automation within three to four days. This highlights the platform's ease of use from a business user perspective.
To ensure our business users can leverage RPA, we provide training through Automation Anywhere University. This platform offers in-depth coverage of both use cases and technical aspects, along with customized training that helps users directly connect their daily tasks to RPA methods. This blended approach has proven to be very effective.
Non-technical users can overcome the learning curve in four to five days.
While Automation Co-Pilot is a strong solution overall and integrates well with web applications, integrating it with legacy systems may require some effort on our part. However, this effort is typically minimal, taking just a few days to achieve successful integration. We're currently testing Automation Co-Pilot and exploring its potential for AI integration, which reinforces our belief in its overall value.
Based on our POCs, we project that Automation Co-Pilot will add value to our projects.
Automation Co-Pilot helps free up our staff's time on projects.
Automation Anywhere's service and customer support are improving. Their management prioritizes strong relationships with customers, evidenced by frequent collaborative meetings. This focus on customer solutions, along with other efforts, contributes to a clear upward trend in their overall support effectiveness. They've been a valuable asset to our organization.
Generative AI has the potential to revolutionize how we implement automation. Our organization sees a significant opportunity to leverage generative AI within the Automation Anywhere landscape. As a bot-focused organization, we have achieved a 30 percent automation feasibility rate. By combining automation with AI, we can achieve a 70 percent rate. This represents the kind of scalability we envision for our organization.
Our organization is expanding its use of Automation Anywhere. We have two main approaches: governance is handled through a dedicated platform integrated with Automation Anywhere, while bot deployment utilizes a separate web platform built with XTML or Java that interacts with Automation Anywhere for bot execution and deployment.
Integrating automation and APIs with Automation Anywhere streamlines workflows significantly. Users save time and effort since most integrations come with clear documentation readily available before the standard setup process, ensuring immediate functionality. Automation Anywhere's documentation serves as the primary resource for all integrations, and users can find most information there. For any remaining questions, support channels are readily available for further assistance.
Automation Anywhere has significantly reduced our operational costs and freed up employee time. With thousands of automated processes running on our platform, we're saving thousands of hours of work every month.
Automation Anywhere offers a complete suite of development tools to empower developers for various enterprise automation needs. These tools include packages specifically designed for SAP integrations and other commonly used enterprise applications, making them highly efficient for building automation across different use cases within large organizations. Additionally, the web-based nature of the platform adds further value by enabling easy access and collaboration.
Automation Anywhere risks falling behind by focusing solely on Robotic Process Automation when competitors offer more versatile and adaptable solutions that integrate AI for a more intelligent automation experience.
I have been using Automation Anywhere for three years.
Automation Anywhere offers a 99 percent uptime, ensuring a reliable and stable platform for its users.
Automation Anywhere is capable of automation at scale.
The technical support team is knowledgeable and efficient, readily guiding users toward automated solutions. While some complex issues may require additional data validation, they consistently deliver resolutions within established timeframes.
Positive
Getting started is easy - the initial deployment follows standard procedures and can be completed in as little as two days for a simple use case. Complex setups may take up to a month, and the number of personnel required varies from two to ten people depending on the specific needs of each project.
Automation Anywhere falls within a mid-range price point when compared to other RPA tools on the market.
After considering UiPath, Microsoft Power Automate, and Automation Anywhere, we chose Automation Anywhere due to its ability to handle growth in our automation needs and its strong data security measures.
I would rate Automation Anywhere nine out of ten.
Upgrading Automation Anywhere can be challenging, especially when migrating from a client-server architecture to Microsoft's. However, within the Microsoft architecture itself, upgrades are significantly smoother and can be completed within a four to five-hour downtime window.
While Automation Anywhere itself doesn't require application-specific maintenance, we still need to perform regular maintenance on the server it's running on. One person is enough for the maintenance.
The time to maintain bots varies depending on their purpose but typically ranges from one to four days on average.
Automation Anywhere is best suited for enterprise-level deployments due to its robust features. However, for smaller-scale needs, other options might be more efficient. If you're dealing with a large organization, Automation Anywhere is a strong choice. I recommend trying it to experience its microservice architecture, which allows for scalability and agility, as well as its integrated AI capabilities. These features provide a powerful and user-friendly platform for automating tasks.
I was working for an airline client that had their processes in the mainframe. The application Sabre that they had was all terminal-based. It was very difficult to navigate and capture everything. We automated a lot of tasks related to validation. For example, when someone booked a flight ticket and tried to cancel it, they needed to give some reason. We had rule-based validation, so we had to validate the reasons and assess them. Previously, it was all manual and terminal-based, and then we used Automation Anywhere to automate.
We also used Automation Anywhere to do a lot of PO manipulation. It was done in an application called Coupa. We used to do that automation with APIs. API automation was very easy with Automation Anywhere. We used it to automate such tasks.
Automation Anywhere was introduced as an RPA tool to facilitate the digital transformation journey of the client organization. They wanted to eliminate a lot of manual tasks and provide quality work for their employees rather than them doing manual activities. They also wanted to make sure that a process was in place. They wanted a very low code or no code automation so that even business people could upscale themselves and automate. They wanted to free up their employees from such manual tasks and have a lot of bandwidth to do some other research.
In the use case related to the cancellation of a ticket, a lot of things have to be handled. When you cancel a ticket, the airline has to make an update at a lot of places. Only then you would get the refund. It involves a lot of processes. They could be related to the meal or something else. Even if you have not subscribed to any add-ons, all the checkboxes have to be ticked, and only after everything is cleared, you get your refund. Before automation, the refund process was very tedious. When they were doing it manually, any mistake could lead to incorrect transactions. For example, they might end up transferring a different amount. It was a very tedious process, and it was handled with the Sabre application, which was not very user-friendly. It was mostly a terminal-based mainframe application. It had a user interface, but a person with good experience was required for it. A fresher or somebody less experienced could not do it. You needed to know where exactly to go, and there were a lot of things that you had to learn to do this process. It was always done by an experienced engineer, and it was very manual involving navigating different screens. During COVID-19 times, there was a shortage of employees, and the airline was handling a lot of regulations, so this manual process became more problematic. At that time, we introduced Automation Anywhere. We were targeting only 50% automation, but we were able to automate 80% to 90%. It significantly improved the time to process a request and reduced the dependency on a senior engineer for the process. The robot could handle the process. We had programmed the robot. It was a very good experience. It helped the client navigate through tough times.
When you decide to automate a process, you try to understand the process in and out. You try to understand the exception scenarios and how to solve them. You prepare a process discovery document. While doing this documentation, you try to streamline the process because Automation Anywhere, as a tool, needs to be configured to automate that process. It forces us to ask a lot of questions, such as what if the file to be downloaded is not there. You come across all such things at the initial phase. That helps a person to restructure the process and fine-tune it more strategically. It saves a lot of time. It has plenty of features to do Excel operations. It has a lot of capability for querying. You can read data from Excel and process it using a query. You do not have to do Excel operations one by one. It is very quick. If a person is taking 30 minutes to do the operation, it takes only seconds or minutes to finish it. It provides a lot of efficiency.
You also have a lot of traceability. You have a lot of logs. You can see what happened after a process. When you have an audit, you have some traceability. A person doing a task does not always document each and every step. He or she would just do the task and finish it off. When you automate the process with Automation Anywhere, because the robot is doing the tasks, you get a lot of logs and a lot of traceability for auditing.
At the initial stages of automation, you also redefine and optimize a process. Instead of downloading 4 Excel files at different places, you try to standardize it. You give a standard name and a standard path. Everything is standardized, and a lot of focus is put on security and data privacy. We are very conscious of not saving it at any location that is accessible to anybody else. Subconsciously, we do all these checks. It improves the security and data privacy aspects. It also leads to process optimization. Like any RPA tool, it saves a lot of time, and it is efficient, and then logs are there as a good source of tracking.
Automation Anywhere is easy. It takes one to two weeks to introduce a non-technical person to this solution. They already have good domain knowledge, and they just need to know how to work with the tool. In about a week, we will be able to train them in basics. We can show them the interface. We can show them what goes where, but they will not be able to develop full automation or know about full RPA coding. They can get the basic knowledge in one to two weeks. Full training will require building a use case. It could be a small use case. If a developer would take four weeks, which includes development, testing, and other things, a non-technical person would require eight weeks. Only then a person will be able to learn completely and become a very good developer.
In terms of integration, there was SAP integration and Sabre integration. There was one more application. I worked only with these applications. If there is a component available, the integration goes smoothly. When you want to go for something customized and you try to build an integration, it is very challenging, but that is common with all the tools. When you try an out-of-the-box integration, it is very easy because they would have already tested that it is working. When you try to build something or customize it, that is when the challenges come. I have seen plenty of challenges with Automation Anywhere when you go for something that is not there in the package. You need a lot of support from the team and a lot of effort. The security restrictions from the organization were also stopping the integration. It was not happening. A lot of errors came, and we had to reach out to the network team and the security team. There were networking and security issues that had to be resolved.
Automation Anywhere has saved time and costs, but I do not have the metrics.
I have not used the recent versions, but it provides a great way to automate. Excel automation is quite valuable. Initially, it was only there in Automation Anywhere. It was not very popular with other automation tools. Excel automation is a very good feature. A lot of back-office activities happen in Excel. It is a very needed feature that Automation Anywhere provides.
In 2021, Automation Anywhere switched from on-premises to cloud. They renamed it as A360. They brought the required changes with this version. Before that, they used to have a line-by-line code view. They did not have a flowchart diagram, but it was very much needed. Because it was low code, a pictorial representation of the code was something that was missing in Automation Anywhere. It was there in UiPath and Power Automate at the time. Automation Anywhere then introduced two views. That gave people the option to use the view that they were comfortable with. That was a very brilliant move. Having two options made it very accessible.
It is very user-friendly. The AI capability that nowadays I am seeing in Automation Anywhere is very good. They have plug-and-play AI solutions. You do not need to know a lot about coding or AI to implement AI in your automation. You can just use their plug-and-play solutions. That is where its real strength is.
Automation Anywhere is easy, but the Automation Anywhere courses are not so easy. All RPA tools have their own academy where business users can go and learn the solution and do things themselves. Automation Anywhere courses are a little bit complex to understand. You need a little bit more time, and accessibility is also a little bit of an issue. They should focus a bit more on the academy and learning materials on their portal. The content should be easy to understand. It is not easy to grasp for a non-technical person. It should be easy for citizen developers. Also, their certification is very costly.
There should be more visibility as an RPA product. Every organization is trying to stick with certain tools. I like Automation Anywhere, and I would like to work with it, but I am not getting an opportunity. Automation Anywhere is not promoting itself to other organizations. Organizations are moving towards Power Automate and UiPath. It could be because Automation Anywhere is not reaching out to companies.
Their community events are also less. There are not many developer events in the cities where IT is there. In Bangalore, India, most of the IT companies are there, so we get to go to a lot of conferences. We get to hear a lot from other vendors, but Automation Anywhere's events are very limited. They should take care of their presence in the community and companies.
They should introduce videos for the new features. They should promote new features. They should be known to people. They should be accessible to people. Only then developers or companies will know about it. Only then, it will get used. There are probably plenty of good features, but they are not known or explored.
I worked with Automation Anywhere for 2 years.
It is a stable product. I would rate it a 7 out of 10 for stability. It is not a perfect product, but it is improving every day.
It is not very scalable. I would rate it a 6 out of 10. After you have built your robot, if you want to make some changes, you can do that, but if you built a robot and you want to make it an AI-enabled robot, it is quite a challenging task.
There were many users of this solution. I was a part of the Center of Excellence. The finance team and HR team were also trying to use it. There were more than 50 people for this solution.
I was getting good support from them. I would rate them a 9 out of 10. They were always very helpful to me. My colleagues have had a bit of a bad experience, but I did not. I have raised a few tickets, and every time, the person was attentive and helped me out. They were very patient. They were straight to the point. They knew the technology.
Positive
I am working with UiPath and Power Automate. Automation Anywhere has got its own benefits and its own strong points, and the same is applicable to other vendors. It is just about which one your organization is aligned with and which one your organization has chosen to go forward with. However, other vendors are better in terms of reach. Even if I am not working on Power Automate for six to seven months, I get to learn about it. I see a lot of things on LinkedIn. There are communities where I can go to learn and keep myself updated, whereas, about Automation Anywhere, I do not see much information. I have to exclusively go and spend a lot of time to find the information. That is where I see the difference.
It was on-prem before, and then we migrated to A360. It was already deployed when I joined, so I do not know about it, but migration took 4 to 5 months.
There were 4 people mainly focusing on migration. It was a bit complex because it was new, and there was not a lot of material available online. It was a little complex, but later, it became smooth. We reported a lot of bugs, and other people also reported them. It was very smooth.
It is cost-efficient in terms of licensing. I found their support good when I was working for the airline client. However, I hear from my managers here that the support price for Tier 3 or premium is a little higher. That is why we are not going for Automation Anywhere. Its price was okay for our client, but for us, it seems expensive.
Automation Anywhere was a tool that was decided by our client. They were very much satisfied with how work was progressing. It gave them faster results, and it helped them navigate through the Covid-19 situation.
I would recommend Automation Anywhere. It is a very solid product. I have always vouched for it. I see a lot of potential because it is very easy and it was a stable product when I was working with it. They were very careful about their releases. They were not releasing a lot of things, which is something I see in other products. With Automation Anywhere, each release is very carefully tested.
They introduce new features, but I have noticed that in India, the market for Automation Anywhere is not very big. I am not getting to work on Automation Anywhere because companies are moving to Power Automate and UiPath, so I am not able to learn it more. It is difficult to get hold of this solution.
In terms of our organization’s perspective when it comes to automation and AI, specifically Generative AI (GenAI), we want about 50% of the income coming from IT and services. Automation and AI are placed at the top of the strategy. We are moving towards RPA plus AI and ML. It is almost like hyperautomation or intelligent automation. This is one focus area, and another one is Pure Generative AI and data. The data part is handled by a different organization. We are looking into how to drive insights from data analytics and how to leverage the GenAI technology outside and derive value from it. These are highly focused areas.
I would rate Automation Anywhere an 8 out of 10. I liked working with it.
In the retail industry where I work, we need to track our working hours every Sunday. This is because some Sundays have work restrictions in our country, with exceptions. We record these hours to ensure our national system can verify the accuracy of our payroll.
For example, we use Automation Anywhere to automate tasks. It takes changes from an Excel spreadsheet and updates two different systems. Another process involves checking discrepancies between the quantity of items received and those paid for. For our back-office bonus processing, we use automation for transactions in our ERP system, ensuring all necessary data is entered.
We implemented Automation Anywhere to reduce the amount of manual operational work currently required in our company. This decision comes as we are experiencing significant growth, with new stores opening and a corresponding increase in back-office workload. Additionally, Automation Anywhere will help us improve data quality and minimize errors, ultimately reducing costs.
Since implementing Automation Anywhere, our processes are much better documented. Previously, we lacked process documentation in our company. Now, not only do we have it, but it's also created quickly and accurately. Additionally, we have more control over logs. This means if a robot encounters an issue, it can automatically escalate the task to the responsible individuals. Furthermore, we now benefit from reporting capabilities that were previously unavailable.
There are three scenarios where AI could significantly improve our efficiency. Firstly, we deal with weekly discounts. We offer reduced prices on certain items and advertise them in flyers. Unfortunately, sometimes the printed flyer prices don't match the prices in the original digital tables. This inconsistency is problematic because our stores operate independently, carrying different products and offering varying discounts based on location. Consequently, we create multiple flyer versions for different cities. Currently, this process is entirely manual. Back-office staff print the flyers and then meticulously compare prices with the digital tables. We believe artificial intelligence coupled with advanced OCR could automate price verification on flyers before printing. AI could analyze the flyer images or scans and ensure they match the original data. Secondly, we encounter discrepancies between product names in vendor data and the names we use internally. AI could streamline this process by matching equivalent products and eliminating the need for manual data entry.
Automation Anywhere offers an academy that is helpful for non-technical users to learn the platform. Learning the basics typically takes up to three months.
We implemented Automation Anywhere about a month ago and developed a comprehensive solution for our office. We've already observed a significant increase in satisfaction among back-office workers who previously performed these tasks manually. Automation Anywhere has freed them from repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on more strategic activities like report oversight. Management is also very pleased with the results, rating their satisfaction at eight out of ten. Additionally, Automation Anywhere has helped us improve both speed and accuracy by significantly reducing errors in this process.
In the first year of implementation, we have identified 20-30 processes that could benefit from automation to help us manage our growing volume of office tasks. We are considering incorporating AI as early as this year-end, depending on the success of our current implementation and any unforeseen challenges. Additionally, we see potential in generative AI to improve efficiency for both our clients and back-office staff. We've identified ten HR processes in particular that could be streamlined with this technology.
We have integrated several internally developed HR applications with Automation Anywhere to manage timesheets and vacation planning, and also integrated retail applications for checking product quantities.
I've been using Automation Anywhere for a few years now, and it's addressed most of the issues we had with previous versions. It runs smoothly, especially since our company uses Google Workspace. Overall, I've had a positive experience with Automation Anywhere. It's worked well for me, and I haven't encountered any problems so far. In the past, I also used Microsoft Workspace, and Automation Anywhere functioned well with that too. In my experience, it seems to be compatible with most platforms.
Automation Anywhere has helped save us costs and almost 40 hours per week.
In terms of development, we've been relying on the provided operations so far. However, I haven't yet explored Copilot for the discovery phase. I believe it could be a very helpful tool for us moving forward, and I think it's a great feature.
The help Automation Anywhere offers during setup isn't great for smaller companies like ours. It could be improved.
Many users in my country lack, for example, advanced Excel skills. This makes using Automation Anywhere a significant challenge for them.
The Automation Anywhere community doesn't seem very active. Additionally, navigating their site can be quite difficult when encountering problems. As a developer and engineer, I found it challenging to locate information. Support could also be improved. For example, I had trouble connecting my Google account, and finding help was nearly impossible.
In terms of variable initialization, I prefer the previous enterprise version. It was simpler and required less code. Object access could also be improved in the current version. Ideally, there would be an easier and more precise way to retrieve objects.
I have been using Automation Anywhere for three years.
Automation Anywhere is stable.
Automation Anywhere does a good job of providing automation at scale.
It is difficult to get proper help from the technical support.
Neutral
Deploying cloud solutions can be relatively straightforward. Therefore, I don't anticipate the initial deployment of Automation Anywhere being particularly complex. It seems the Automation Anywhere salespeople provided excellent information to facilitate the implementation process. In total, three people were involved in the deployment.
By implementing processes using Automation Anywhere, we can save up to 3,000 euros within two weeks of development.
The pricing is fair and allows for scalability. This means we only pay for what we need, and if our needs increase, we can easily upgrade our plan.
Upon joining the organization, I discovered they were already using Automation Anywhere. However, before implementing this solution, they had evaluated UiPath, Blue Prism, and Microsoft Power Automate. Ultimately, Automation Anywhere won them over due to its competitive pricing, fast implementation speed, and responsive support.
I would rate Automation Anywhere nine out of ten.
Understanding the trade-offs between different solutions can be challenging for higher management. While some local RPA solutions offer free or cheap services initially, they may not be as efficient, especially as automation needs grow. It can be difficult to explain to the board that maintaining such solutions becomes increasingly complex as automation demands increase. Additionally, limited vendor support during implementation can be another hurdle.
Upgrading the solution is easy because it is cloud-based so it is all done by Automation Anywhere's people.
Currently, three departments are contributing to the development of automation solutions. We anticipate even more involvement this year. On the personnel side, ten individuals are currently involved in developing Automation Anywhere. Additionally, two people utilize the tool – one developer and one business user. We are experiencing a growth phase and are actively hiring additional staff to develop new processes.
Since it's a cloud solution, maintenance is handled by Automation Anywhere. Our team maintains the custom software and processes we've developed.
I recommend Automation Anywhere, but before implementing it, every user should first identify the processes they have that are suitable for automation. Be critical and optimize everything that can be streamlined without RPA. This is important because automation requires well-defined tasks to plan resource allocation effectively. When nominating a process for automation, evaluate the time it currently takes for a human to complete it. For example, a four-hour manual process won't become instantaneous with RPA, but it will certainly be faster. The goal is to understand the time savings and resource allocation needed for the robot. This includes determining how frequently the robot should run and on what schedule.
Vale is one of the largest mining companies in the world and Automation Anywhere is our primary process automation tool. We're using it globally across several branches and locations. There are multiple processes involved in mining, transporting, and shipping iron ore that benefit from process automation. We can also automate our corporate use cases, such as finance, HR, and back office processes. Automation Anywhere is integrated with our core company systems, including SAP solutions and some in-house applications we've built.
Automation Anywhere enables us to standardize and replicate operations and processes. We have a lot of repetitive processes that are time-consuming to perform manually. We aim to increase productivity and save time for our business users. Over five years, we've saved about 68,000 hours. Automation Anywhere integrates well with our workflows and business applications. We haven't had any issues.
We see some cost savings, but we also tend to think of cost avoidance. We have some compliance and regulatory processes that need to be completed in a timely fashion to avoid fines and taxation on top of that. Our CoE is responsible for a critical portion of the automation. In addition to thinking of how we can automate existing processes, we create new processes. When you automate something that isn't optimized, the results aren't as good.
We like Automation Anywhere's Citizen Developer program. We've been doing this for a while now. It helps to expand platform adoption within our company and encourage more people to use it. It has been good to see the engagement. We've done some events and hackathons and hope to do another one in November. We like having an easy tool to share with our business users.
It isn't hard for business users without technical skills to use Automation Anywhere. We've received positive feedback from them, saying it was an easy tool to learn, especially with the latest version. We set up a training program, and new developers can learn the basics in around a week and start programming bots in three weeks to a month.
We are currently doing some PoCs for generative AI and trying to see if it fits, but we're also concerned about the safety of our users and information security, so our approach is always conservative. We don't want to do anything that creates unnecessary risk for the company.
Our users would like more online community forums where they can exchange information. I would also like a better way to monitor and manage all the automations we have running within our systems because our CoE governance must be robust so we are always aware of what's happening.
We have used Automation Anywhere since 2018.
There have been some changes in personnel over the years, but they have always been great people who provide excellent service and solve problems quickly.
We previously used Microsoft Power Automate.
The platform was not hard to deploy, but each company has its own security protocols to deal with. Once we worked through all the security requirements, it was straightforward. Automation Anywhere requires some maintenance.
In the first year, we needed to adjust the size of the machines and optimize the bots. However, it hasn't required much maintenance since then. We developed some better processes in CoE governance to develop and track the bots, so it's much easier now. We set up alerts that send us messages when the bots have errors.
In 2018, we looked at some other products on the market, but Automation Anywhere was a perfect fit. We didn't have any issues that Automation Anywhere couldn't solve. The critical factor for us was its ease of use. We liked the drag-and-drop interface and the low-code capabilities.
I rate Automation Anywhere eight out of 10.
We use Automation Anywhere to automate tasks throughout the company, enabling our employees to be more productive and conduct more analysis.
We can save money by implementing automations. Before implementing Automation Anywhere, we had a lot of repetitive tasks that weren't adding value. It improved morale by automating some of the boring, repetitive tasks, allowing our employees to focus on more creative, meaningful work.
I like Automation Anywhere's development interface. Our developers love it because it's easier to learn, and they can pick it up quicker than the other tools. We can integrate Automation Anywhere with Slack to get alerts from our bots.
It's also integrated with our core banking application and many legacy applications that we could not integrate without the Automation Anywhere platform. Around 70 percent of our environment is integrated with it. The integration is fast and seamless. Integrating tools through the APIs is simple, reliable, and efficient.
We have a lot of ideas for leveraging Automation Anywhere's AI capabilities. For example, we use it to conduct analysis for our clients. We can use it to check a lot of documents. It can not only read but write documents. Using AI, we can run checks to see if a customer has been approved for credit.
It can help this process go faster, and we can enhance our employee's potential by augmenting their analysis with AI. We are already using generative AI. It has been a huge success because we are using it like a copilot to improve our employees' potential. We can scale it faster with another process in the automation manager.
We have developers, so all of our team has technical knowledge. However, Automation Anywhere's learning platform is comprehensive and it's easy to learn things on your own. Many of our developers didn't know anything about the platform, but it was easy for them to learn and become fully productive.
I think there are some opportunities to improve integration with monitoring tools already on the market to make this even faster. We struggle a little when applying the upgrades because the control room has some flaws. That's one advantage of migrating to the cloud. If we do that, then we don't have to upgrade manually. There is a SaaS option, but we decided to opt for on-prem and perform the upgrades ourselves. We're thinking of choosing the cloud options in the next version to make it easier.
We have used Automation Anywhere since 2022.
Automation Anywhere is highly scalable. That's one of its advantages. It's easier to scale than other solutions. We are a financial institution serving around 26 million clients with only 3,000 employees. We need automation to attend to our operational tasks. Otherwise, it would be challenging to manage all of our clients
I rate Automation Anywhere support nine out of 10. The local support in Brazil could improve. While it has gotten better in the last few months, we've struggled as a global company trying to contact them sometimes.
Positive
The initial deployment took three months, but it took a year to change the legacy bots to Automation Anywhere. We decided to automate new projects that would yield more ROI before finishing the migration of our legacy bots.
We get a significant ROI even though the licensing cost is higher than average. The gains we realize from the initial development make up for it. In the last three years, I estimate we have saved around 2,200 hours of labor. To date, we've saved almost $6 million.
The cost of Automation Anywhere is fine.
We looked at two other solutions before making the decision to choose Automation Anywhere. One reason was reliability. When we implemented it, Automation Anywhere was already a widely used and popular tool. It has high availability, which is one requirement for a banking solution. It's also easy to learn, use, and implement. We looked at the leaders in Gartner's, such as Blue Prism and UiPath. Automation Anywhere stood out for its development interface.
I rate Automation Anywhere nine out of 10.
My primary use case is focused on automating financial processes—specifically accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR)—through document automation. We receive a large volume of emails and invoices daily, and my goal is to leverage Automation Anywhere’s intelligent document processing capabilities to streamline the extraction, validation, and processing of this information.
Our environment includes a Windows-based infrastructure with Automation Anywhere integrated into email systems (e.g., Outlook), ERP platforms like SAP or Oracle, and document storage systems. I’m particularly excited to implement IQ Bot and Document Automation to intelligently capture and extract data from structured and semi-structured documents like invoices, remittance advices, and payment confirmations.
We plan to orchestrate these bots using the Control Room for scheduling, monitoring, and exception handling, aiming to reduce manual workload, improve accuracy, and shorten processing cycles in both AP and AR functions.
Automation Anywhere has significantly improved our organization by automating repetitive, manual tasks that previously consumed valuable employee time. Specifically, in our accounts payable and accounts receivable processes, it has streamlined invoice and email processing, reducing errors and accelerating turnaround times.
With Automation Anywhere, we’ve gained:
Increased efficiency: Bots handle high-volume, rule-based tasks quickly and accurately, freeing our staff to focus on higher-value activities.
Improved accuracy: Automation minimizes human errors in data entry and validation, enhancing overall data quality.
Better visibility and control: The Control Room dashboards provide real-time monitoring of bot performance, enabling proactive management and faster issue resolution.
Scalability: The platform has allowed us to scale automation across multiple departments smoothly without a proportional increase in headcount or operational costs.
Overall, Automation Anywhere has helped us optimize workflows, improve process reliability, and increase operational agility—making a tangible impact on our productivity and service delivery.
One of the most valuable aspects of Automation Anywhere is its intuitive user interface, especially across the main dashboards and the Control Room. From a non-technical user’s perspective, the platform is user-friendly—scheduling, managing, and monitoring bots is simple and does not require deep technical expertise. It’s easy to navigate and provides clear visibility into the bot lifecycle.
Another standout feature is the dashboard and reporting capabilities. I rely on the run reports and visual dashboards to track how many automations have completed successfully versus those that failed. This helps us quickly identify any issues and maintain high operational efficiency. We also find the bot runner utilization insights very helpful—it shows us which runners are used the most and helps us plan better resource allocation.
Additionally, we’re currently preparing to implement APIs into our automation strategy. We’ve seen the demos and are optimistic about integrating API-based automation to expand our use cases and streamline more complex processes. We’re in touch with an Automation Anywhere manager, and our team is coordinating a discussion in the coming weeks to finalize the approach. This will open up more scalable and dynamic automation opportunities for our company.
At this point, I don't see any major limitations in Automation Anywhere. The platform already offers a comprehensive set of tools, including support for third-party integrations like Python, and it meets most of our automation needs out of the box. We’ve found little need to rely on external platforms, which speaks to the solution’s maturity.
However, as we begin testing API integrations, we may uncover opportunities for further enhancement—such as improving how the platform handles complex data exchange or error management in external systems. These insights will help shape our understanding of what additional capabilities might be valuable in future updates.
To bring Automation Anywhere closer to a “perfect ten,” here are a few areas where I’d like to see continued progress:
Enhanced AI/ML Capabilities: Deeper integration of AI and machine learning for more intelligent decision-making during workflows would be a big step forward. For example, predictive analytics or adaptive learning models that improve over time could make automations more resilient and proactive.
Advanced Document Intelligence: While IQ Bot is powerful, continued improvements in handling unstructured or variable-format documents—like handwritten notes, multi-language invoices, or scanned PDFs—would be highly beneficial for use cases like AP/AR.
Citizen Developer Support: Expanding low-code/no-code capabilities would empower more business users to build and deploy bots without needing deep technical expertise. Features like guided workflows, reusable components, or natural language automation design would make automation more accessible across the organization.
Real-Time Collaboration and Versioning: Collaborative bot development, version control, and built-in rollback features would enhance team productivity, especially in large-scale automation environments with multiple developers.
If Automation Anywhere continues evolving in these areas and maintains a stable rollout of new features that work as expected, I’d have no hesitation in rating it a 9 or even a 10 out of 10.
I started using Automation Anywhere in 2018, so it's been almost seven to eight years. Over this time, I've worked extensively with the platform across a variety of use cases, especially in finance and operational automation.
In my experience, Automation Anywhere is a stable and reliable automation platform. The bots consistently perform their tasks as designed, with minimal downtime or unexpected failures. The Control Room provides robust monitoring and alerting capabilities, which help us quickly identify and resolve any issues that do arise.
The platform’s architecture supports fault tolerance and recovery features, ensuring that processes can resume smoothly after interruptions. Additionally, regular updates and patches from Automation Anywhere help maintain system security and performance.
While no system is completely immune to occasional glitches, Automation Anywhere’s overall stability has allowed us to maintain high uptime and deliver consistent automation results, which is critical for mission-critical processes like accounts payable and receivable.
From my experience, Automation Anywhere is a highly scalable solution that supports growth in both the volume and complexity of automation initiatives. The platform’s architecture allows us to start with a handful of bots and easily scale up to dozens or even hundreds of bot runners as our automation needs expand.
Key factors that support scalability include:
Control Room Management: Centralized control enables efficient scheduling, monitoring, and management of large bot fleets, which is critical as automation scales across multiple departments.
Flexible Bot Runners: We can add or reallocate attended and unattended bot runners depending on demand, ensuring resources are optimized without disruption.
Robust API Support: The ability to integrate with various enterprise systems and external applications through APIs allows for expanding automation use cases seamlessly.
Cloud and On-Premises Options: Automation Anywhere supports both deployment models, which can be tailored to the organization’s growth strategy and infrastructure preferences.
Overall, the platform’s design and features provide confidence that Automation Anywhere can handle increasing workloads and evolving automation complexities while maintaining performance and governance.
Our experience with Automation Anywhere’s customer service and support has generally been positive. The support team is responsive and knowledgeable, providing timely assistance when we encounter technical challenges or need guidance on best practices.
We appreciate the availability of various support channels, including online resources, documentation, and community forums, which help us troubleshoot issues independently as well. In addition, the training sessions and webinars offered have been valuable in enhancing our team’s skills.
There have been occasional delays during peak periods, but overall, the support experience has been reliable and contributes to the smooth operation of our automation initiatives.
Positive
Before adopting Automation Anywhere, we explored a few other RPA and automation tools; however, we didn’t fully implement them across our operations. Our decision to standardize on Automation Anywhere was driven by its user-friendly interface, scalability, and comprehensive feature set that aligns well with our business needs.
Automation Anywhere stood out due to its intuitive Control Room, support for unattended and attended automation, and the ability to scale across different departments. It also offered strong document automation capabilities—especially important for our accounts payable and receivable workflows—and integrated easily with our existing systems.
The transition to Automation Anywhere has allowed us to centralize our automation efforts, gain better visibility through dashboards, and reduce dependency on manual work and disconnected tools. Overall, it gave us the reliability and flexibility we were looking for in an enterprise-grade RPA solution.
The deployment is very easy. We just need to export the bots and deploy those bots into production. It's very easy with import, export buttons. It's like five minutes. It's very easy to export into Android environments from dev to test and test to prod. It's very easy to move.
The deployment process with Automation Anywhere has been very straightforward and user-friendly. Moving bots from development to testing and then to production is seamless thanks to the easy-to-use import/export functionality.
Exporting bots and deploying them into different environments takes just a few minutes, making the transition smooth and efficient. This simplicity reduces deployment time significantly and minimizes the risk of errors during migration. Overall, the process of promoting bots across environments—from dev to test and then test to production—is very easy to manage.
While exact ROI figures can vary depending on the specific processes automated and the scale of deployment, our experience with Automation Anywhere has demonstrated clear and measurable benefits:
Time Savings: Automating repetitive tasks in accounts payable and receivable has significantly reduced manual processing time, freeing employees to focus on more strategic activities.
Cost Reduction: By minimizing manual errors and reducing the need for overtime or temporary staffing, we have lowered operational costs.
Increased Throughput: Automation has enabled us to handle higher volumes of transactions without proportional increases in headcount.
Improved Accuracy: Enhanced data accuracy reduces costly errors and rework, contributing to financial savings.
Faster Cycle Times: Automation has shortened invoice processing and payment cycles, improving vendor relationships and cash flow management.
Though we don’t have precise dollar amounts publicly available, these operational improvements collectively translate into a strong ROI and justify the investment in Automation Anywhere.
In our organization, we currently operate with ten bot runners and utilize most of them regularly. This makes the pricing feel reasonable relative to the value we receive from increased efficiency and reduced manual effort.
For others considering Automation Anywhere, here are some key tips regarding cost and licensing:
Assess Your Needs Carefully: Before purchasing, evaluate the volume and complexity of processes you plan to automate. This will help you determine the right number and type of bot runners (attended vs. unattended) you require, preventing over- or under-licensing.
Plan for Scalability: Consider your future automation roadmap. Licensing can often be scaled as you grow, but having a clear growth plan helps in negotiating flexible terms with the vendor.
Negotiate Licensing Terms: Engage with Automation Anywhere’s sales and support teams to explore flexible pricing models, including enterprise agreements or bundled offers that may reduce overall costs.
Include Add-On Costs: Don’t overlook potential extra costs for features like IQ Bot, API access, or advanced analytics. Factor these into your budget early.
Monitor Usage and Optimize: Use the Control Room dashboards to monitor bot utilization regularly. If some bots or runners are underutilized, reallocate or optimize them to maximize ROI.
Leverage Vendor Support: Utilize vendor support and training resources to speed up deployment and avoid costly trial-and-error phases.
By taking these steps, organizations can better manage their automation costs and ensure a strong return on investment as they scale their RPA initiatives.
Yes, during the selection process, we evaluated other leading RPA platforms, including UiPath. Both tools have strong capabilities, but after thorough analysis, we chose Automation Anywhere for several key reasons:
Ease of Use: Automation Anywhere’s user interface and Control Room dashboard felt more intuitive and accessible for both technical and non-technical users in our team, making adoption smoother.
Scalability: We believed Automation Anywhere offered better scalability options for our planned enterprise-wide deployments, including better management of unattended bots.
Document Automation: The intelligent document processing features, such as IQ Bot, were more mature and aligned with our heavy focus on accounts payable and accounts receivable automation.
Integration Flexibility: Automation Anywhere provided easier integration with our existing systems like SAP and email platforms, reducing the complexity of our automation workflows.
Support and Community: We also appreciated the strong support framework and active user community that Automation Anywhere offers, which gave us confidence in ongoing assistance and knowledge sharing.
Overall, Automation Anywhere matched our business goals and technical needs better, which is why we decided to move forward with it.
While I have not yet explored AI-driven agentic process automation in depth, I recently completed API training within Automation Anywhere and am excited to start leveraging these new capabilities. My main goal is to stay informed about the latest features introduced at events and to gradually implement them in our automation workflows. I believe Automation Anywhere is well-positioned to address emerging AI and Generative AI challenges.
Although we haven’t yet deployed AI-driven bots, we recognize the potential improvements AI can bring to automation performance and intelligence. I’m eager to learn more about how these tools function and plan to deepen my understanding as we explore API-based process automations.
Regarding document automation, we experimented with Automation Anywhere’s solution about two years ago. At that time, the accuracy was around 70-80%, which was not sufficient for our needs, so we opted to use third-party tools instead. However, document automation does save significant time, and we’re now motivated to revisit Automation Anywhere’s document automation capabilities, hoping for improved accuracy and better results with the latest versions.
Overall, I would rate Automation Anywhere an 9 out of 10, acknowledging its strong capabilities while recognizing there is room for growth, especially in AI and document processing.
