Automation Anywhere Reviews

The problem statement is to automate data reconciliation between three systems, namely SAP, Ariba, and manually-updated Excel. Supplier and Purchase data flows in from different systems and separately, which sometimes results in data inconsistency.

In the current scenario, two people spend two days per week to verify and reconcile this data and then save it. This is a big cost and investment for the client. The ask from Automation Anywhere is to automate this process, including a re-upload of the data back to the systems with results of reconciliation. This way, there is no manual effort spent. 

As mentioned above in the problem statement, the task is to automate the data reconciliation effort between SAP, Ariba, and Excel sheets from SharePoint. The developer team was able to create four bots as a PoC to automate these steps and additionally upload the data back to systems with reconciliation results. This brought consistency in data.

What we were also able to do for the client is to schedule these bots at a specific time every day, which helped remove any kind of dependency or human intervention. This also improved accuracy.

The solution was a mix of recorded runs and scripting. The developer team had a basic understanding of the tool, which made their job quite easy.

Features like reusing each and every piece of code for things such as login scripts, data extraction scripts, etc, helped us to speed up the implementation of PoC for the client.

Another valuable feature was the one-place control-all type mechanism, which helped to have a center point of control for bots running on multiple systems.

The scheduling feature allows for scheduling of the bots to a specific time every day, which helped remove the dependency on humans completely.

We were also able to get the results sent via email.

One area where I can see room for improvement is the training material that is available. I am aware that the Automation Anywhere university has a lot of training content, and even better, all of it is categorized with respect to the user's role in development. I took the training course related to architecture. This course and content were nice but the videos had a digital voice over, which made it non-engaging for me. After certain videos, you cannot concentrate much.

The other point that is relative to my experience is that for a completely new person to RPA, Automation Anywhere may come with a small learning curve.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for between ten months and a year.

The stability will mostly depend on the system under automation.

Qe started with four bots and now there are going to be only more. The target is for approximately 25 bots to be deployed.

I did not need to reach out to the service team myself, but the development team seemed to have no complaints.

This is my first encounter with an actual implementation for RPA. Automation Anywhere seemed to fit our requirements.

The initial setup is mostly straightforward, although there was some initial confusion with the right version of the tool to be used.

Deployment was done by our in-house development team.

On a very high level, I can say that we saved two days for two people per week with this automation.

My only suggestion in terms of pricing is very generic and that is to consider that as much as RPA saves cost and does automation, please get a realistic estimation done on whether you are really achieving any ROI over your investment with RPA. Once you are sure about it, go for it.

The other tool in consideration was Blue Prism; however, the internal development team advocated for Automation Anywhere as a better fit for the requirements, which is why we implemented it.

The tool comes in with a lot of capabilities, however, you are the best judge to use only what is needed.

I work as an RPA developer where I use the Automation Anywhere software.

We work with many clients, wherein we automate their processes. We get positive feedback from the client regarding the processes that we have developed. It saves a lot of their manual time and most of their work is done by the bot, without any human intervention. So far, we have all positive views.

IQ Bot is the most important feature and it has been extensively used by our clients. With all of the new features of IQ bot, I feel it is the most utilized component of Automation Anywhere.

The scheduling/triggering of the bots from the CR, without going to the actual environment and starting the bot, is an interesting feature.

I feel A2019 is still not completely ready and the discontinuing of version 11 is a negative impact for all of the users and clients. I feel version 11 should still be continued and it should be the client's choice whether they want to buy version 11 or A2019.

I have been using automation anywhere for the past two and a half years.

I have not used another RPA, although I have worked on several versions of Automation Anywhere. I have developed in version 10, version 11, and currently on A2019.

Although I'm new to the A2019 version, I find that version 11 was the most user-friendly version of all.

The price of this product is good.

We did not evaluate other options before choosing Automation Anywhere.

Automation Anywhere is being used as a solution in creating robots, which imitates mundane tasks and simplifying business processes all across different divisions and departments that fit their process needs.

This solution greatly helps us reduce repetitive human effort and turn them into more productive resources for the company. Automation Anywhere also helped in turning complex processes into possible solutions, which greatly reduces production costs, also allowing employees to do more and enjoy more.

Automation Anywhere greatly improved our processing time since robots can execute process steps faster than human resources do. With this, we also reduced errors and mistakes in processing because robots don't get tired or worn out. It thus reduces the risk of misinformation and other human errors.

It also helped in making our resources more productive, given that repetitive tasks are now reduced. Simple processes such as tracking, logging, and data consolidation are now automated, which helps us focus more on doing tasks that are impactful and more important.

IQ Bot is one of the features I greatly value in Automation Anywhere, as it has helped me in creating bots that involve processes with unstructured data, thus making complex processes possible and attainable with this technology.

Their mobile application is a great feature for developers and project owners on the go, as they can monitor the status of the robot runs anywhere and anytime. This is an important feature because this world is running at a faster pace than before, and mobility is very important for everyone.

Automation Anywhere can be improved with respect to the user-friendliness of the interface because most of the competitors are now using a flowchart-like structure, thus making it easy for anyone to learn and study it. Essentially, it's as easy as connecting shapes for each action and process.

An area for improvement is their OCR reading for images since some competitors have an inbuilt OCR reader that recognizes various hand strokes much better, thus improving the time and resources needed for transcribing the documents.

I've been using Automation Anywhere for two years and six months.

This solution is very stable in terms of performance and after-sales support.

This solution is very scalable as they adapt to the different needs of their customers.

Customer Service is a breeze since they quickly respond to various issue request.

We've previously used Pega Robotics as an automation solution, but since we're improving our services and processes as well, we need to step-up our automation technology to keep up with the ever-changing business world.

The initial setup was pretty straight forward, and the installation is easy.

Implementation was done by an in-house expert who had knowledge of our systems and processes, thus reducing the time needed in acclimating our process with the product.

Based on our department's statistics, we've been able to recover our initial costing after two-plus years.

I advise users or prospective buyers of this product to know more about the features they offer before diving in with this solution, pricing-wise. It is one of the most affordable RPA solutions, and as for licensing, they offer a community edition that greatly helps anyone who aspires to learn about the product before buying the enterprise solution. It will give them an overview of the features and functionalities that they will encounter when using the robot.

We've evaluated different options such as UiPath and Blue Prism, but due to costing, we've selected Automation Anywhere as our provider.

This solution is worth considering for medium to large-scale companies looking to automate various processes.

We have used RPA technology to build solutions which are across discipline and cater to end to end business process. At the start, we were performing use cases that primarily dealt with the Project Control group as most of the manual activities are based on the Excel operations which are either Macros based or involved tedious manual upload to the system in a periodic manner. Later we moved our strategy to cater to the more enhanced solutions which were primarily digital solutions involving - OCR, AI & ML. We were focusing on the Engineering Drawings which were more Unstructured & had the potential to create a Digital Workflow using the unstructured information.

Automation Anywhere has surely helped our organization to shape its Digital Journey - It was our first RPA tool which helped us to perform basic automation which created Point solutions but has added tremendous value at the early stage. We were able to scale-up fast using Automation Anywhere due to its user-friendly AI and later on IQ Bots provided the required edge to handle the unstructured data. We also tried to explore the Bot Insights which helped us to monitor the day to day Bot health and the hardware needs.

We have found both the basic Task Bot & IQ Bot very useful as the combination of both helped us to create some solutions which were End to End Business solutions. IQ bot performs the basic Data Sample set creation and Extraction of the details from the unstructured PDFs and later we have used the Business Rule engine using the IQ Bot to perform the data feed into the various Systems. Overall we were able to achieve the value using the combination. As part of our internal solution, we have also created custom Python scripting to handle the OCR failure issues surfaced due to IQ Bot product limitations

Automation Anywhere can be improved in certain areas specified in the cognitive zone where the information needs better OCR Engine + Machine Learning capabilities. Also, they can improve on the System Identified region function of the IQ Bot - Our team faced a tough time in handling that as we were not able to assign variable to System Identified Region as the IQ Bot tool wasn't allowing it. Also, we have had a certain issue while performing the WLM - Workload Management functionality, applying Queue mechanism becomes hard sometimes - Can be more intuitive for the end-users.

We have been using Automation Anywhere from the past 3.5 yrs and the product is catering to all our basic to mid-level complex requirements. We have developed multiple Bots catering to multiple disciplines. RPA Solutions are presently catering to Internal Stakeholders and we are planning to roll out for our External Clients as well.

We haven't used as such any RPA tool prior to this but yes we have used UiPath parallelly with the Automation Anywhere. Both tools are good but Automation Anywhere has an upper edge on Cognitive area as compared to UiPath.

Each RPA Tool has its own limitation & benefits - For an early started UiPath may be a better option because the license cost is less but once you Scale & Try to move to advance complex Use Cases involving Cognitive it may not help much

Yes, we have evaluated other Options but with the Tradeoff between License Cost & Functionality, we have found Automation Anywhere as the best fit for Oil & Gas Use Cases.

Nothing specific Automation Anywhere can do better in Cognitive it needs to stabilize its products. Also Cloud product is the game-changer for them A2019

• We have validated all the primary features of A2019. New features can be added just by updating the new Package (a group of commands).
• Pass Credentials in CR Directly to run a bot on any device.
• Instead of installing AA Client, we will just install Bot agent on the runner machine. 
• Excel commands are classified into two types Excel Basic, Excel Advanced By giving a lot of scope to use a wide range of Excel operations.
• Instead of using AA Client, A2019 provides users the ability to create bots directly in the control room.
• Flow, List, Dual Views enable the user-friendly environment.
  

We have done lot of implementation with Automation Anywhere. Recently, we have used IQ Bot's latest version and delivered a few projects. It is saving most FTE benefits using Automation Anywhere automation. One good thing in A2019 is that all products of Automation Anywhere, like IQBOT services, Meta Bot Designer, Discovery Bot, and Control room are all together in one product which is very effective for any business team. Package options and workload management with queues are the most efficient features.

• The universal recorder is a kind of hybrid recorder that enables the user to record the data across devices.
• Option to send email from Outlook or SMTP.
• A2019 also supports Python script(2.0/3.0) along with Javascript and VBScript. Also it as inline scripting and importing script file feature. 
• A2019 contains almost 11 diffs. datatypes. Ex: window,number,table.
• Browser support is Improved with Different Browsers support: IE, Mozilla, Chrome.
• A2019 is not dependent on single os. It supports Linux, Windows, etc.
• Running bot through Excel, Waiting for release from the vendor
• Instead of meta bots we can use run DLL commands

• Cloud API vision and OCR engine integration should be more effective. 
• Auto-update of the Bot agent in runtime machines from Automation Anywhere control room server. 
• The import and export of the previous version bots to the latest version of A2019 should be more flexible and friendly for the end business users. 
• AI Sense recorder should be upgraded with additional features for better results. 
• SMTP mail features should come with migration options. All kind of VB scripts and Java scripts which we built using exiting version should support in this version.

We have been using Automation Anywhere for three months. 

The stability of the solution is good with the latest version with final patches. Automation Anywhere team release patches in every release to enhance the features and performance of the added features

It is good for scalability.

Technical support is good. 

We have migrated few projects from other RPA tools to Automation Anywhere RPA automation.

The setup is easy but it is better to have AA support person during that activity.

AA Support team is good in the environment setup.

ROI is as expected.

I am managing the entire cost, price, and licensing model for our project.

We have entirely validated the products before using in our projects.

Initial version of products bugs should be reduced.

We have multiple use cases, we build & supported 200+ automations and one of the main businesses was related to the contract processing and due to high volume and complexity, it was very crucial. Also, we built and supported multiple operations related use cases.

We have built and implemented multiple SharePoint, OutLook, web-based, and automation related to ticketing tools.

Automations were from simple to medium and high complexity related however with the help of many easy to use and user-friendly features, we have implemented them with high accuracy.

Using Automation Anywhere we have built/supported 200+ automation around operations and automated different Sharepoint, Outlook, ServiceNow, and contract processing related use cases. It offers a lot of features, flexibility whether it is through Meta bot, IQBot, etc. 

It offers :

a. Zero-install, Web-ready platform: Deploy RPA across the entire organization and scale bots on-demand in a few clicks.                                                                                                  b. Use the pluggable API architecture to maximize extensibility and customize RPA to meet unique business automation requirements.
c. Integrated machine learning: Streamline your document-centric processes with drag-and-drop IQ Bot integration.
d. Self-learning automation engine: Create a smarter automation engine by infusing third-party AI technology.

Movement on cloud architecture according to me provided by AA2019, will be most beneficial as it will be easy to use and will provide flexibility.

However, we have almost sued all the features extensively and few of them are as below :

• Intelligent automation for business and IT tasks
• Uses SMART Automation Technology
• Rapidly Automates complex and complicated tasks
• Create automation tasks like recording keyboard strokes and mouse clicks
• Distribute tasks to multiple computers
• Automation Anywhere offers scriptless automation
• Auto-login runs scheduled tasks at any time, even when the computer is locked.

1. Accuracy to process handwritten documents.

2. Should add more Analytics and Intelligence related capabilities.

3. Scalability along with the volume and business should be more flexible.

4. Cognitive capabilities should be improved more.

5. Large scale robot deployment is limited.

6. Licensing costs should be reduced.

7. Error handling should be improved more.

As AA has recently moved to Cloud architecture, there will still be a lot of additions and improvements in terms of the features and offering and this will be evolved over the period of time only. About the exact performance on the cloud maybe we have to wait a bit more time and should evaluate once it will get settle down more.

We have been using Automation Anywhere for more than 3 yrs and implemented 200+ uses cases. Also, we have started using the new version AA2019 for a few months (4) and did a few POCs.

The stability is good.

Scalability is good, however, it can be improved.

Technical support is good.

We have evaluated other RPA tools as well however, looking at overall feasibility from features to costing perspective we have taken a call to go along with AA and we are happy that we have made a right call and it has benefited us to a great extent.

The initial setup was straightforward.

We have our in-house development and support team.

Looking at overall feasibility from features to costing perspective we have taken a call to go along with AA. Installation is easy however pricing etc. can be reduced a bit as it is still more for small business/automation.

Yes, we have evaluated other RPA tools like UiPath and BP as well.

Looking at overall feasibility from features to costing perspective, I strongly feel Automation Anywhere offers a lot of features and scalability and is a very good tool overall and people who have not tried should give a try and put some hands-on. 

We are in the Oil & Gas Sector and our use cases are completely different from standard Industry Use Cases (BFSI). We work upon Engineering Drawings as the Data collection point and IQ Bot plays an important role to perform the tasks. We have built use cases which were involving the Finance Business processes, Procurement process, HR process and also we have developed solutions which were catering to Shared Services in Malaysia where value derived was quite substantial as its cost center and any automation creates a value add to them.

AA has improved our digital strategy extensively and provided the required leverage to place ourselves above other peers in the O&G Industry. We were able to develop quick digital solutions by demonstrating the ROI and gain momentum by aligning the desired resources & budget from leadership. All this has happened due to early wins which were supported by Automation Anywhere. We were able to build our solutions using the OCR Engines provided by Automation Anywhere which helped us to perform the Data Scrapping we have even integrated the tool with Free OCR available in the market.

We have used almost all the features of AA - IQ Bot is no doubt the most useful one for us. Task Bot & Meta bot forms the baseline and is used extensively for most of the use cases. Also, we were able to deploy composite solutions .NET + AA to achieve greater benefits. We have also purchased some other Digital Tools to help us with OCR, these tools have inbuilt Machine Learning capability which makes it easier for us to extract the components from the P&Id's which is an essential part of our pre-processing. Task Bot completed their job of creating the post workflow seamlessly.

Additional features should involve the Cognitive Section where we need more Advance solutions involving ML & AI. We have entered into the Cognitive zone where our solutions are much more advanced in nature due to the complexity involved in the Use Cases. Structured Data require a higher level of data analysis and grouping. We also recommend Automation Anywhere to start incorporating Plugin with Open Source Softwares so that we are able to build robust solutions - presently custom scripting is limited. The automation team can also explore the Oil & Gas sector as a target sector as this Industry have lots of potential and they need to foray in the Digital world in the near future.

We have been using Automation Anywhere for the past 3+ years and we have deployed around 40+ Bots to date with quite a significant amount of savings associated with it.

In the digitization space, Automation Anywhere has some of the new bots, which are really good. This is making the invoice digitization as a use case quite helpful. The user interface is very interactive and easy to use. At the same time, for giving results, it looks very impressive. That is the use case that we are working on currently. That is one of the best use cases that I have dealt with from Automation Anywhere.

I think most of the keystroke level activities that users used to do in probably the last five years is now taken care completely by Automation Anywhere and similar RPA providers. They are now getting into the next segment of AI. I deal personally with a lot of AI tools in my company, which has got a lot of use cases in this industry. I see Automation Anywhere now getting into this particular segment, and it's very good for the industry

The Bot Store is something very impressive because it is one place where you find a lot of free bots that you can test and try different bots. At the same time, you have developers who can create different bots and put them into that marketplace so multiple people can use those bots. It is a win-win situation both for the developers, Automation Anywhere, and even the customers.

Some things that I do not see as of today are interactive chat or video interface. These are things that I will look for in future. I saw something like picture recognition, but something like a video or voice recognition is something that I'm looking for in the Automation Anywhere platform as an end user and even as a reseller.

5 years

Stability is great from what I hear from the users. As I'm the sales division, I get this feedback from my operations team. Even the technology support that Automation Anywhere provides is very good. At the same time, they have a lot of good B2B services at very low costs which helps in the end-to-end development, deployment, and successful implementations.

Scalability is one of the best things about most of the RPA bots. Once you create one, scalability is just about multiplying them. We've not had challenges with scalability, given we provide the right infrastructure.

As mentioned above this support has been good and we always look forward for continued support here

As a service provider company we have worked in alternate service provider. This is client specific

Straight forward

We are the vendor team here

6 Months to 1.6 years depending on the process we looking to automate

may not be able to comment here.

UI path and AA are the ones on top when we compare

I would surely rate it as a 10 (out of 10). There are other RPA providers as well in this good range, but I think AA is in the top three. I would rate it ten along with another competitor as well who's doing well for us.

If you are new to automation, do try Automation Anywhere or a similar partner. Once you do that, then there's a lot more in the market to explore, e.g., you have the big players, like IBM Watson, Azzure, AWS etc. and one place stop will be a company like Wipro which can help you chose a mix. If you're not started anywhere, then I would recommend to start with Automation Anywhere for RPA.