Automation Anywhere Reviews

We mainly use Automation Anywhere to automate or mimic manual business processes. We use Automation Anywhere to develop bots that mimic human interventions in business applications such as SAP and web report applications. We use Automation Anywhere to automate human actions in the applications.

By implementing Automation Anywhere, we mainly wanted to automate business processes.

I am a developer, and I am using Automation Anywhere to develop automated tasks for business users. I am not a business user. Before automation, business users were manually updating the data into the portals or desktop applications. The business required more time and resources.

Automation Anywhere helps save time and resources for the business. For example, an e-commerce website wants to create purchase orders for its client orders. They get the information regarding the clients in an Excel form, and the bot picks up the data one by one and updates it in the desktop or web application. They get hundreds of records daily, so updating the data manually can take more than a week. The business would require at least two to four resources. To save time and resources, we automate such tasks. With a bot, the process is done within minutes.

We are a service provider for business people. So far, our business people are very satisfied with our bots. They are getting huge outputs as per their expectations. It is beneficial for our clients.

There are multiple features. About three to four years ago, they introduced IQ Bot which helps to get data from documents with different structures. We receive bills, invoices, or purchase orders from different vendors in multiple formats. Each vendor uses a different format. IQ Bot automatically scans all the documents, extracts the required data from all unstructured documents or PDF files, and provides it to the business user. It is a very helpful feature of Automation Anywhere. They have recently introduced Automation Co-pilot which is very helpful for developers doing automation or automating the business process. Automation Co-pilot is very useful to create tasks.

Its user interface is very understandable. Even a non-technical person can understand it. Everything in the user interface is self-explanatory. It is quite good.

To use Automation Anywhere, no technical knowledge is required because it is simply a drag-and-drop type of tool. Each and every action is available in the tool, and we can easily automate a task. Business people can also easily run the created bot and monitor a particular task. They can easily monitor the results based on their business criteria. Automation Anywhere is a very good tool. It is easier than UiPath. A non-technical person can learn it very quickly.

I have experienced the issues of UI getting stuck. There seems to be an issue with server stability. This is something that can be better.

At times, the created tasks start failing randomly or intermittently which affects the business. They are failing at the runtime because of the bot launch crash issue. Business people are impacted a lot because of these failures at the run time.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for four years.

We sometimes have issues with server stability. There are also run-time failures of bots. I would rate it an eight out of ten for stability.

For scalability, I would rate it a ten out of ten. Automation Anywhere is moving with the current technologies. It is scaling day by day. 

We are a large organization.

We have used UiPath. It needs technical knowledge. You must know the C programming language to automate with UiPath. As compared to UiPath, Automation Anywhere is better. A non-technical person can easily understand Automation Anywhere.

We are also learning Power Automate. As a service provider, we need to learn the latest technology. We are looking into Power Automate. Our business people are interested in Power Automate because it comes along with Microsoft Office.

Automation Anywhere also keeps on introducing the latest technologies. In the future, there will be good competition between Automation Anywhere and Power Automate.

Previously, it was on-premises, but now, everything is on the cloud.

Its deployment is very easy. Because it is a cloud platform, you just need to install a single file. It does not take more than two minutes to download. Within two minutes, the cloud license will appear. One person is enough for the deployment.

It gets updated automatically because it is a cloud version. There is no need to update it manually. Everything is done automatically. If auto-update is not working, we can update it manually, but that also does not take more than five minutes.

In terms of maintenance, regular maintenance is required because there are issues related to stability and tasks failing at the runtime because of unknown reasons. These things need to be fixed, so regular management is required for Automation Anywhere at the backend.

I am a service provider for business people. Business people will have a better idea about the ROI. From what I understand, there are time savings. 

My understanding is that the license cost of Automation Anywhere is more reasonable than UiPath and Blue Prism.

I would recommend Automation Anywhere for all business people. Automating a business process is easy with Automation Anywhere.

We have not yet used Automation Co-pilot. From what I know, if we are reading from an Excel file, it helps to generate each and every action for a task. What usually developers do is done by Automation Co-pilot automatically based on the information that we give it. Automation Co-pilot will improve productivity for a repetitive task. It will save 40% to 50% work for developers. We are currently not using the AI capabilities of Automation Anywhere.

I would rate Automation Anywhere a ten out of ten.

I use Automation Anywhere for SAP, email, Excel, and web automation. We first try to understand the process and check whether it can be automated. Some processes require human intelligence and a human touch. If it's a completely goal-based process, you can consider it as a potential use case. After that, we conduct a complete analysis, based on which we set up the modules and proceed to development. 

Automation Anywhere helps us save time by replicating manual processes so our users can focus on other areas and perform meaningful work. It helps us automate repetitive tasks. We started with version 11. After that, they upgraded to 2019, and now there is Automation 360. Clients were frustrated with version 11, but 360 has a lot of good features. When 360 came out, the clients needed to spend money on the migration because they had to do some testing. 

It has saved the clients time. I would say reduces the time spent on these processes by about 30 percent. I can't say how much they save because I'm a developer and not involved in the business side of things. I don't even know what the license costs.

In one of our client's use cases, the user needed to log in at 6 a.m. because there is a trigger in Salesforce that happens around 9 a.m. Before 9, they have to do all the manipulations and place the files into a particular location. She had to start early in the morning to get all this work done. Now, with Automation Anywhere the bot handles all of this. Her job is so much easier.

I like Automation Anywhere's document automation. It can distill or scan documents and convert the information into a structured format. The solution doesn't require much of a technical background. I'm from a mechanical engineering background and don't have any prior experience with coding. I only know the basics of SQL. Even a business user who is willing to put in some hard work can learn and do some small things. The learning curve depends on the complexity of what you're trying to do. For me, one month was enough to understand the solution. 

We have begun exploring Automation Anywhere's AI features, but we have some limitations. We need to adopt rule-based automation, and there are still some use cases we cannot do. With AI, we can do some more use cases. We have done some POCs, but haven't done any projects where we integrated ChatGPT because we cannot put some of the things as a rule. 

It's easy to integrate automation into workflows and APIs. We just need to know where to pass the parameters or the details. If you have that knowledge, it will be easy.

Automation Anywhere's stability could improve. It isn't completely stable, but it's getting better daily. 

I have used Automation Anywhere for four years.

I rate Automation Anywhere seven out of 10 for stability. 

I rate Automation Anywhere support nine out of 10. I have raised multiple tickets with Automation Anywhere, and they usually respond within hours.

Positive

I previously worked with AutoIQ and Blue Prism, but it was a while ago. 

The deployment time depends on the process. If the processes don't have any dependencies, we just need to move the code to public and schedule it with the necessary configuration. The configuration is related to the process, not to automation anywhere. The processes require some maintenance after deployment. The number necessary to maintain them depends on the client. 

I rate Automation Anywhere nine out of 10. It only requires scripting for complicated jobs, but non-technical users can handle simple processes or those that are moderately difficult. 

We use Automation Anywhere for our clients which consists of banks and a telecommunication company to automate their developing systems using bots. We receive the process definition documents from our clients and we developed a process that they need to approve before we can implement the automation.

With Automation Anywhere, we can automate high-priority projects first and gradually shift our focus to automating smaller, manually-driven projects.

It takes around three months to train non-technical people to use Automation Anywhere. We start training on simple Excel automation tasks and progress from there.

Automation Co-Pilot has helped increase productivity. The bots save three to five minutes for each small task per person and even more time on larger tasks. One bot can handle thousands of projects.

Automation Co-Pilot has helped save staff time for other projects.

Automation Anywhere successfully integrates automation into workflows, APIs, business applications, and documents. Everything runs seamlessly in the backend with no issues. 

Automation Anywhere offers valuable features, including command packages for PDF, Windows, XML, and Excel, as well as universal recording capabilities.

Automation Anywhere has difficulty collecting data from Citrix and Oracle applications.

Extracting customer addresses from Google that are not in a standard URL format is a challenge for Automation Anywhere.

I would like Automation Anywhere to make available more development tools, so our people can learn on their own and enhance their skills.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for just over one and a half years.

Automation Anywhere effectively automates our manual tasks at scale.

We clear up any issues in the testing phase, so once we are ready to deploy it is straightforward.

The solution itself is free unless we want to add the support option but we have to pay for the bots we use. There are two types of payment options: monthly or quarterly licenses for the bot agents. 

Between Automation Anywhere, UiPath, and Blue Prism I find Automation Anywhere to be the best with UiPath a close second.

I would rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten.

Upgrading Automation Anywhere is easy.

We use Automation Anywhere in multiple projects and multiple teams.

Maintenance is required for updating bots or if changes are made by the developers.

We have five to six people working around the clock who are responsible for the bot maintenance.

We use Automation Anywhere in the finance domain for tasks such as data reconciliation, data identification, and aviation operations.

We implemented Automation Anywhere to address our outstanding invoices, purchase orders, and quotations from multiple vendors. We utilized the IQ Bot feature, which is integrated into the OCR system.

For technical individuals, Automation Anywhere is easy to use.

The learning curve is favorable for non-technical staff, as it typically takes between two to four weeks before they can start automating with Automation Anywhere.

Automation Anywhere's capability to deliver automation at scale is commendable. We possess the ability to scale up to multiple users across organizations. In fact, I have successfully executed this RPA using a report containing one Lakh operations, which is equivalent to one hundred thousand.

Automation Anywhere has helped our organization increase its automation consumption. We were able to showcase the use cases and case studies we have completed to market our abilities and services.

IQ Bot is the most valuable integrated feature of Automation Anywhere.

For business users, the solution is complex and could be made more user-friendly.

It is not easy to integrate APIs with Automation Anywhere without a good knowledge of APIs.

The pricing of Automation Anywhere is higher compared to other solutions on the market, such as Microsoft Power Automate and UiPath, and it has room for improvement.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for five years.

Automation Anywhere is stable. We can rely on it without encountering any issues.

Automation Anywhere is highly scalable.

The quality of technical support relies on the partnership we maintain with Automation Anywhere. Gold partners receive excellent service. As long as we maintain this relationship with Automation Anywhere, we can expect consistently good service. However, if the partnership is not in place, it may take some time, but we will still receive some answers eventually.

Positive

We still use multiple RPAs depending on the customers' requirements, including UiPath and Microsoft Power Automate.

UiPath has the ability to integrate with other products, whereas Automation Anywhere has limitations in integrating with APIs and other OCR tools.

We will see a return on investment eventually, but we need to be patient in order to realize the potential that Automation Anywhere offers three years down the line.

The price for Automation Anywhere is high. I would rate the cost an eight out of ten, with ten being the highest cost.

I would rate Automation Anywhere eight out of ten. The integrations and pricing model are areas that need improvement. However, Automation Anywhere is a very effective tool, offering its own internal solutions. Automation Anywhere eliminates the need to rely on any other third-party solutions, which is a significant advantage.

For organizations interested in utilizing API automation, there are several tools available in the market. Additionally, numerous BPM tools can be employed for API integration. However, if they require desktop automation or process automation, Automation Anywhere is a recommended tool.

Our IT department maintains the solution. We maintain the bots once a quarter for one hour.

We use Automation Anywhere to automate processes for our clients and have hundreds of use cases. 

We implemented Automation Anywhere for redundant and manual tasks that are data-heavy and do not require a lot of logical reasoning in the process.

We offer cloud-based deployment of Automation Anywhere for our clients. The specific type of deployment depends on each client's needs and preferences. Larger organizations may opt for their private cloud for security and control, while smaller ones might favor the public cloud's lower costs and simpler setup. Ultimately, the ideal deployment model depends on the individual organization's priorities.

Before Automation Anywhere, all of our processes were manual, time-consuming, and prone to inaccuracies due to human error. Automation Anywhere has transformed our operations by streamlining processes, boosting accuracy, and eliminating downtime.

Business users who have decent logical and problem-solving skills can easily use Automation Anywhere.

The learning curve is linear.

Training non-technical employees to use Automation Anywhere takes around one month.

Integration of automation into our workflows, APIs, business applications, and documents in Automation Anywhere is easy.

The simpler the process and the larger the volume of data involved, the greater the potential for time and cost savings with Automation Anywhere. This is in contrast to more complex processes that require data manipulation and advanced reasoning or decision-making skills, where the benefits might be less pronounced.

The simplicity and ease of use is the most valuable part of Automation Anywhere.

Automation Anywhere could benefit from a more technical focus. As a developer, comparing it to UiPath, I find UiPath offers greater customization and integration capabilities, particularly with core languages like C#. Automation Anywhere currently seems geared more towards business users, while UiPath caters to technical users. Additionally, UiPath's free community edition appears significantly more robust than Automation Anywhere's.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for almost 13 years.

The cloud versions of Automation Anywhere are a significant improvement over the earlier desktop versions. I've been using Automation Anywhere since version five, and while the desktop versions were initially unstable, the cloud versions have been much more reliable. I commend the Automation Engineering team for their thorough testing before deployments.

Automation Anywhere's ability to provide automation at scale is good, especially with the control room and the workload management features.

The initial deployment is simple, especially for the cloud version. Just create an account, log in, and install the local connector or bot. Then, connect it to our device and access the website. One technical person can complete the deployment in five minutes.

I would rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten.

While everyone seems eager to jump on the AI bandwagon, I believe it's not a mandatory element for every situation. The need for true, cutting-edge AI currently lies in research and development, not in everyday business processes. Current AI implementations tend to be overhyped and unnecessary for many applications.

Upgrading Automation Anywhere is simple in the cloud.

There is no maintenance for the cloud version of Automation Anywhere.

We sell Automation Anywhere to customers who want to automate their processes within the hospitality industry.

Our customers can deploy Automation Anywhere both on-premises and in the cloud.

It is easy to learn and use Automation Anywhere.

Learning to automate using the solution for simple processes in HR and IT is easy. For areas such as finance, the training takes a few months and requires a technical person to train the team.

Integrating with co-pilot is straightforward when using SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, or other international systems. However, challenges arise when integrating with in-house systems.

Co-pilot helps increase productivity for our customers.

We often integrate SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft with Automation Anywhere. There are no issues with the integrations as long as we configure everything properly.

Automation Anywhere enables our customers to achieve savings of over 60 percent in time and money. While employees may take breaks and vacations, their automated processes continue to operate seamlessly without interruption, ensuring a consistent flow of work.

The ability to automate renewals of government licenses four times a year is valuable.

The marketing for Automation Anywhere has room for improvement.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for three years.

Automation Anywhere can provide automation to scale as long as the organization has the budget for it.

The technical support is great.

Positive

I use both UiPath and Automation Anywhere. UiPath has a more aggressive marketing strategy and a larger market share. However, our banking, insurance, and high-level customers prefer Automation Anywhere over UiPath.

The deployment time depends on the number of processes being automated.

Despite being less expensive than UiPath, Automation Anywhere remains cost-prohibitive for many small and medium-sized businesses.

I would rate Automation Anywhere nine out of ten.

Our customers are all enterprise-level. 

Automation Anywhere does not require ongoing maintenance and offers 24/7 support if any issue arises.

We use Automation Anywhere for process automation.

Automation Anywhere has enabled us to eliminate manual, time-consuming tasks, and increase accuracy within our organization by automating them.

We witnessed the benefits of Automation Anywhere within six months of its deployment.

Automation Anywhere helped reduce the workload of our P2P billings by around 60 percent.

Automation Anywhere helped our organization increase its automation consumption by 25 percent on our billing automation once we resolved all the background issues.

Automation Anywhere performs efficiently.

Automation Anywhere is difficult to use and could be made more user-friendly. The GUI needs to be improved.

Using Automation Anywhere can be extremely difficult for individuals who lack technical skills.

The learning curve for Automation Anywhere is challenging. We should not need to rely on a vendor to handle the solution. The end-user should be able to use the solution independently.

The automation at scale has room for improvement.

There are many features missing from Automation Anywhere, including cloud collaboration tools provided by Google and Microsoft, that I would like to see integrated into the solution.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for three years.

Automation Anywhere is stable. I rate the stability an eight out of ten.

Scalability involves both the customer and the vendor, requiring significant effort to increase due to its lack of user-friendliness.

We experience difficulties in getting our issues resolved when dealing with technical support.

Neutral

I used Microsoft Power Automate, which was not a great application at the time. However, it has now become easier to use, more cost-effective, and more scalable compared to Automation Anywhere. As a result, we are considering switching back to it.

The initial setup was complex. The vendor was unfamiliar with the process, and there was no guidance from Automation Anywhere regarding the requirements. According to Automation Anywhere, we were supposed to simply follow the onscreen instructions and click "next," which should have taken a maximum of one hour. However, due to an error and misunderstanding, it took us around three days instead.

The deployment started at the control room, then the client, and finally the developer.

One person, who was an Automation Anywhere specialist with infrastructure knowledge, was used for the deployment.

We used a vendor for the implementation.

To realize a return on investment, we must utilize Automation Anywhere for several years.

Automation Anywhere is significantly expensive. The cost is at the highest end of the spectrum.

In addition to the licensing cost, let's say, $1,000, we also have to pay the OEM vendor fee, which can be around $150. Furthermore, we are responsible for the payment of managed services, and occasionally there are additional charges for maintenance.

We considered several options, including Blue Prism, before choosing Automation Anywhere.

I give Automation Anywhere a six out of ten.

When I joined my organization, we were using Automation Anywhere. Consequently, I am currently using it. However, all the features are also accessible through Microsoft Power Automate, which offers a free upgrade.

We attempted to train non-technical staff members for one month to utilize Automation Anywhere; however, learning proved to be quite challenging. As a result, we ultimately abandoned the endeavor and opted to hire a technical professional.

Automation Anywhere requires technical personnel who can write code to utilize the solution, making it challenging to integrate RPA bots, APIs, business applications, and documents. We are compelled to hire a vendor to write the code, which is not a practical approach.

I would recommend Microsoft Power Automate over Automation Anywhere because Automation Anywhere is excessively complex and challenging to use.

We have three users across three teams who utilize Automation Anywhere in our organization.

Automation Anywhere is self-maintained unless there is an error.

I advise exploring other options before settling for Automation Anywhere.

In the banking, financial services, and manufacturing domains it is used for process automation and OCR.

For example, it is used by banks for large-scale reconciliation. A group of companies often has multiple bank accounts. We have to do the reconciliation with multiple currencies. On a daily basis, there can be more than 10,000 transactions.

We have implemented Automation Co-Pilot in our organization. Suppose a business head needs to check the details about a customer, such as order history, payment clearance time, how many invoices have been sent, and how many of them have cleared on time. They may also need information about how many projects they have executed with that customer, how many of their resources have been used, and how long that customer has been associated with their organization. I get all this information in one portal by using Automation Co-pilot.

It is talking with Monday.com, our CRM, as well as with our in-house project management tool, and SAP, where I get all the account details. It gets all the information needed and more, such as how many times we had discussions with the customer about multiple projects, and which salesperson is assigned to that customer. All the details required for business management are presented on one page, using Co-Pilot.

An example of how Automation Co-Pilot has affected our productivity is that in India the taxation system differs from that in the UK. Everything is on a government portal. If I want to deal with new customers and need data about their previous taxation, I obtain all the details from the government portal using Co-Pilot.

We also use Co-Pilot for customer support. We are the number-one partner in India for Tableau and data analytics and we have many projects where we provide Tableau support. We've configured Co-Pilot to gather all the necessary background information from our support system about a customer who raises a ticket. This information is displayed on one screen from our project management systems, repositories, and accounts. All the details are presented in our ticketing software, Jira. Based on this information, we understand the customer's scenario, and what kind of dashboards and RPA processes they have implemented. Initially, a customer support ticket is opened by a chatbot, not a human. The chatbot communicates with the customer and registers the ticket. A bot then opens the ticket and triggers Co-Pilot to gather all the details. With all the details collected, a bot will then assign that ticket to a specific person. This process, which used to require three people, is now done completely by bots.

Another benefit is around approval processes. You can build one using Automation Anywhere Co-Pilot when multiple levels of approvals are involved. Initially, we didn't have an approval process. Multiple people were in approvals. Now, with all the details in a ticket, when it is resolved, it is approved by the manager. That wasn't integrated into Jira, so we automated that in Co-Pilot. A solution should be verified by a senior person. Now, when tickets are approved, it helps us provide a good customer experience and customers will renew their contracts.

And in banking, where you have thousands of loan applications each day, assessing each application involves getting the applicant's credit score and details from multiple portals and government websites. Making a decision for one applicant used to take half an hour. But by using Co-Pilot, the decision-making time is reduced to just five or 10 minutes. It is genuinely helping people speed up operations and decision-making processes.

It has also helped us increase automation. Every day we are sending the "overdue" report to everyone in sales because they do the recoveries. The salespeople update all the details in the database and a reminder is automatically sent to the customer as well as the salesperson if the payment has not cleared within the payment terms. Initially, there were three people generating the reports and sending them to Salesforce, updating SAP, et cetera. Now, there's only one person who is handling the exceptions, because there are exceptions that are not handled by the bot.

Now, our salespeople are focusing more on business opportunities and not worrying about payments. Most of the time, payments are taken care of by the bot.

After we implemented that process, we then implemented vendor invoice processing, customer invoice processing, customer payments, PO processing, and bank reconciliation. We have implemented multiple processes.

The most valuable feature, which was launched last year, is Automation Co-Pilot. Microsoft has a co-pilot, but it's only for Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint. But Automation Anywhere offers a co-pilot that is suitable for Salesforce, Genesys, Atlassian, and other contact center and standard applications. This is a game-changing feature for Automation Anywhere compared to the market. We are also getting good responses from customers about this product.

Automation Anywhere is easy to use. In my experience with more than 100 customers, coding is not a big deal nor is writing the bot. Understanding the process and providing optimized workflow, and fitting RPA properly for their processes are important.

In terms of the learning curve, Automation Anywhere provides detailed resources through their portal, including instructor-led training, prerecorded sessions, and exams. When training my team, I initially recommend that they go to the Automation Anywhere University. Then, for two days, I provide high-level training, covering the use cases and overall process. We then give simple use cases to the team and they are ready to implement them. Within three months, I have trained a team of over 20.

I hire people who have worked with other technologies but who want to shift to RPA. They already have knowledge of processes and their logic is strong. Others don't know about logic or how to apply algorithms.

I'm impressed with the solution's OCR and document automation because I've worked with multiple OCRs and Automation Anywhere has built in most of the document formats so you can easily get results. You can easily and quickly extract data from a PDF and it's faster than other tools.

I would like to see a low-code/no-code platform, similar to Zoho Creator or Joget, for process building, so that we can build applications within Automation Anywhere itself. Right now, we need some kind of portal that supports these types of activities. We would like to give a 360-degree solution to our customers without needing to get help from other technologies, like Joget to build processes, or Java to build custom portals.

If Automation Anywhere included these features, I would be able to include all these processes. There are features in place in Automation Anywhere right now, in AARI and Co-Pilot, but they have limitations. They do not match the development capabilities of platforms like Joget or other applications like that.

I'd like to see the stabilization of Co-Pilot and integration with multiple products. Right now, it is integrated with Genesys and Salesforce, among others. In the future, I will require integration with SAP Oracle, Atlassian, and Service Now. The contact center vertical is important and ticketing comes into the picture. We can build integration with Atlassian, but I have to do the coding and use extensions on everyone's laptops. Integration of Co-Pilot with Atlassian and other products will help the user.

For instance, if a big bank wants to automate loan application management with Co-Pilot and I need to use their CRM, if the CRM is not supported they won't do the project. And if a bank has over 3,000 loan agents, I have to install the extensions and integrations on each of their laptops. Instead, I could add one line of code inside Atlassian and get all the results automatically on everyone's laptops. This would save a lot of time for both developers and customers.

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

Technical support is related to the product only. We receive good support from them because they respond within one hour. They even have chat support.

Customer environments aren't the same. Sometimes they block the reverse proxy or other things. That's when I need help from Automation Anywhere because they are the product experts, while we are implementation experts. If we have an issue with the product, we get help from Automation Anywhere. 

For example, if there is a problem with communication between the server and client and the bot is down, I need to contact Automation Anywhere to resolve the issue. We reach out to Automation Anywhere for these kinds of problems, but we handle process-related or implementation-related issues ourselves.

Positive

I worked with UiPath for about two to three months.

Co-Pilot is not free. It has a user-based cost. If I have 100 users, I need to purchase 100 licenses. But for practice purposes, you can get the Community Edition where you can understand all the details for implementing Co-Pilot.

The pricing is reasonable.

Automation Anywhere is the only RPA tool that is developed using something other than .NET technology. If you go for UiPath, Blue Prism, AutomationEdge, or Pega, they are all built on .NET, and only support Windows. But Automation Anywhere is developed on Java and Python entirely, and is totally web-based. Other tools are desktop-based. That means I can install their server on Linux too. Most banks and many other enterprise organizations require servers on Linux, not Windows. That's an advantage for Automation Anywhere.

We are working with one of the top-three banks in India. They have a policy that all servers have to be Linux servers. Because of that, UiPath and other tools were eliminated in the first stage of the deal.

We did build our own product related to OCR but not RPA, but Automation Anywhere is the biggest product. We also looked at Power Automate, but cost was a factor. Power Automate charges per process, not per bot. For example, it doesn't take more than 10 minutes to close the last month's General Ledger. One of our customers was paying $600 per month for this process with Power Automate. He went with Automation Anywhere, where he only had to pay $3,000 to $4,000 in total for an unattended bot, which was able to help 24/7.

And to get all the components in UiPath that are similar to what you have in Automation Anywhere, a customer would pay more than $37,000, while an Automation Anywhere customer would only pay $25,000. That is a game-changer.

As for using an API integration instead of RPA, API is faster than desktop automation, but it depends on the scenario. If you want to work with standard applications like SAP or Oracle, you can use APIs or desktop automation. I faced an issue with one of my customers who said that to do an API ABAP integration for SAP automation, he would have to pay for automation and ABAP development. I suggested he not pay for ABAP and just do desktop automation. What will be cost-effective depends on the scenario and the automation.

If a customer has to spend $10,000 on ABAP and another $30,000 to $40,000 for Automation Anywhere, they will kick us out. But if we go with Automation Anywhere and there is no need for ABAP, and instead we'll do desktop automation, the customer will be much happier because they are saving costs.

I have replaced existing portals for multiple customers. For one of my customers in Dubai, when we came into the picture, multiple things were not in their portal. They had developed the portal in-house. We started by understanding all the requirements. Before we started with RPA, we redeveloped the portal and then applied RPA OCR and pushed the data where it needed to go.

People develop their portals according to their convenience, but they don't know the standard processes and how to implement them. When they have to provide reports to management, or they have to do an audit, or they have to check details of particular transactions, they don't get the details from their existing portal or process. We standardize their process and then we implement RPA. If their process is not standardized, RPA will be a failure for the customer.

A simple process, from requirement gathering to production, takes about one month. Solutions don't require more than two or three people. For smaller projects, we don't assign a dedicated project manager. Instead, we use a shared project manager. The business analyst is also shared, because the costs of these roles need to be recovered. If the cost isn't recovered, there's no need for us to assign this role. The business analyst will do the final testing of the project because they're involved from the initial phase of the project.

The time spent maintaining bots depends on the bots, the situation, and the customer. A critical process might have 40-plus unattended bots and might take two resources during business hours for project support and monitoring. But I recommend support on an hourly basis.

An enterprise with multiple licenses should have at least one dedicated support person. That resource will provide reports to management. For instance, when discussing future projects, management will require all the information to approve the budget. We can present all the information: the number of transactions over the last month, and how much time or money was saved. Support will also provide training to business users if required. When AARI is part of the picture, we have to train people.