Automation Anywhere Reviews

Our use case is spread across multiple areas: 

1. We are using it in finance: automating the month-end process. 
2. There are a lot of review processes that happen every week. We are in the middle of that.
3. We have a product lifecycle management process that when we close the books on a product, information needs to go into multiple systems. We have another bot in system for this.

These are the three things that we have in production right now.

A project that we automated: A person used to spend about eight to twelve hours every week to finish the process. The bot finishes it in half an hour. Now, the person just reviews it, then passes along the information. This has helped our organization because originally EMEA and APAC would not receive the files the same day that they were processed. But because the bot only takes a half an hour, everyone can now receive the files on the same day.

We know the process. It doesn't deviate.

Speed: A process that would take two days for a person every month to do is now completed within two hours.

Right now, the audit trail sits in file systems. I would prefer it to be in a database where it is queryable and searchable. 

Another major downside is an upgrade. If I have to switch over from single sign-on to non-single sign-on, etc., then it's a complete reinstall. When I do a complete reinstall, I lose a lot of information because it's a new instance. I'm not able to bring information from the old instance and my metrics are all gone. I basically have to reset the whole infrastructure. I would like to see an option to switch over to single sign-on post-installation. It should not have to be a reinstall. It should be part of the installation or configuration.

I wanted to see a cloud version and mobile app but those will be available in the A2019 version.

I would like the bots to be more automatic without having to check emails, which is how we have our tool setup. Going forward, the bots should be more interactive.

So far, the stability has been pretty good.

We did have some issues when our database server sort of crashed. A lot of processes went uncommitted, so we had to engage the Automation Anywhere support team. They came in to clean up the database and bring the server back up. Otherwise, we have seen pretty good stability.

So far, the technical support has been really helpful. We were even able to engage the customer success team when we needed them. They have helped us solve our problems, which is very good.

We had a major issue when it came to single sign-on. We couldn't get it working. There was a bug in Automation Anywhere that eventually got solved just a few weeks back. However, we have not implemented it. We have had hiccups with the single sign-on, but otherwise it was a smooth setup. We are not using single sign-on because of this bug.

We used our implementation partner for the deployment and implementing the bots. Our experience with them was good. Most of them are good developers. They have been able to solve a lot of issues and build a lot of processes.

We have seen ROI on two out of our three bot processes. We see ROI from hours returned back to us.

It is a lot easier to debug Automation Anywhere than UiPath because of the code. Our clients like Automation Anywhere which is another reason that we picked it.

Automate several smaller processes within departments. Show the benefit there before implementing an end-to-end solution. This will get people excited about the solution and kick start the process.

We got our workloads for issues and our bugs fixed, which is why I rated the product a 10 out of 10.

We are trying to automate a few of the processes that we did manually. Product setup is an important aspect, as we are using bots to do the setup for us. We used to do the setup manually about three to four months back. 

We used to set up 150 to 250 products in a week. That has come down to a day. 

I initiate the bot, then I go home. So, it's working 24 hours. I am restricted to working nine hours. Time is something that we are saving. We are becoming more efficient and our partners are happy. They can send us workloads. Then, we can just kick it off, go home, and by the time we are back, it is done. I send an e-mail saying, "Whatever you've sent over is done." 

Efficiency is something that has increased a lot. Productivity has increased a lot too.

Object cloning is one of the main features that are using. We are very happy with it. as It has enabled us to capture a lot of things on screen and use them. 

We want it to work with more APIs. It needs to integrate with multiple APIs. That would be something that I would like going forward.

Currently, it does not work that well with legacy tools.

It is a bit wonky with HTML when I'm working with it. There are times when it's not able to detect the technology that we are using. I don't know whether it's an Automation Anywhere issue or an internal issue. I want it to work smoothly with more technologies.

Our tool is a bit slow, as it's a legacy tool. Automation Anywhere is having a some issues when running back. This is one of the things that we are not happy with. We need to upgrade our systems for Automation Anywhere to work better.

As of now, we have it limited to one process. However, we can scale the solution. It can cascade onto multiple processes, so that is a positive note for scalability.

We are just in the initial phases. I personally have created about three to four bots. 

We have not contacted the technical support because we have not had issues.

My manager works our customer success manager.

Automation Anywhere is our first introduction to automation. I'm pretty happy with it. I did ask people who had come from Automation Anywhere about UiPath to get a clear idea about it. I think UX is one of the strongest points for Automation Anywhere which can attract competence to your workbench and work. That's what we have been told. 

I still need to experiment a lot with it. Whatever I've done so far. it's been at an 80 to 85 percent success rate.

I've not had the chance to work with UiPath.

We want to do more Automation Anywhere certifications and learn more about them. We did not get that information from our account team, which could be improved.

We use this solution primarily for transporting data from Excel to SAP. 

This solution has decreased the time that our employees spend on manual processes. It has solved many of the problems for mundane and rule-based activities, so we can do some parallel creative work rather than taking care of these things.

The most valuable part of this solution is the import feature. We can take the data from where it is stored, in Excel, and upload it to a web site or where we need it.

The interface is user-friendly, well-developed, and straightforward.

When it comes to reading email, this solution is unstable and improvements need to be made. Specifically, it should be able to handle email based on the subject or the email sender.

This solution is quite stable for daily activities, but it has problems with reading email and improvements need to be made.

For the version that I have and what I'm using it for, the scalability is very good.

Technical support for this solution is very good. The response is very good and they come back to us very fast.

We did not use another solution prior to this one. Our employees were getting bored of doing the same thing, which is why we started looking into automation.

The initial setup of this solution was a little difficult. When we had trouble, we started calling the technical support team and they solved it. It was a little messy in the beginning.

We have just started using this solution, so we have not seen ROI yet.

We had heard great things about this solution so we chose it without evaluating other options.

This is a user-friendly solution that is all drag-and-drop, and very good.

When a new version of this solution is released, it would be very helpful if the vendor would give an explanation as to everything that is new. Simply releasing it is not a good idea.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Our primary use case for the development of business processes. For example, finance is using it to develop a lot of business processes.

We use it on a lot of things.

We are using an on-premise deployment model.

We only use unattended bots.

There are a lot of business processes that take time to do. By using this solution for RPA, we can automate a lot of business processes, which helps achieve less time to market.

The most valuable feature of this solution is that it runs anywhere. You can build for a single platform and then have it run anywhere. This is the biggest advantage of this solution.

Developers can customize flows.

It takes a lot of time to deploy, and sometimes it fails after a timeout.

You cannot learn it quickly.

Sometimes you build on one platform, but when you switch to another platform it doesn't deploy properly and it fails.

The user interface should be enhanced to make things simpler for the user. It is important because while the RPA consultants have the relevant knowledge, not all of the individuals who use the tool will. Having a better dashboard for this would help.

The solution should also be simplified.

With respect to stability, sometimes the process times out when you move to another platform, which is something that needs to be fixed. For example, if you build in Windows and then deploy in Linux then it should take the same length of time. 

We use this solution on a daily basis.

This is a scalable solution. Cross-platform is the only problem.

We have no plans to increase our usage at the moment.

Technical support is ok. They have fixed our problems when they come up. But, the problem returns, so the tool needs to be enhanced.

I did not perform the initial setup of this solution, but I have been responsible for one of the upgrades. It was ok. They gave us support and gave us the manuals to do it. I found that it wasn't a problem.

It took us two months to scale from PoC to our current number of bots. 

We used RPA consultants to assist us with our implementation. You educate them and they are able to use the solution. We have had no problem with them.

We have seen a return of investment because it takes less time to market in our current process. I would estimate a times savings between 20 to 30 percent.

We have seen about a 10 percent monetary savings.

We evaluated one or two other solutions, but I can't disclose who they are.

Use all the features. The enhancements that they have developed on the tooling side, and the other new features that they have provided, are good. 

This is a great tool that I recommend, and cross-platform is the only problem. The solution should recognize the platform and deploy the tools properly.

I have taken one course with Automation Anywhere University. That course needs to be updated.

We can sometimes integrate it with other applications.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Our journey starts from discovering and understanding what process to automate. That's where our deep domain and process expertise come into the picture. We leverage process mining technologies over there, partnerships with Celonis and TimelinePI. We take advantage of that. The journey continues from there to designing and developing automations. Automation Anywhere is the RPA platform we use for creating the bots in automation and along with that we also use many of the technologies including AI and ML. 

Toward this life cycle, we have a very structured approach of governing, monitoring, and tracking. Insights we gain from this governance, we apply towards automation strategy and implementations. We've done this for many clients across the globe. We are happy to share those experiences with some of you as well.

The focus on usability and user experience is bang on. Addressing several personas and making it easy for every persona to adopt and embrace is the spot on focus. That's an area that has a lot more room to improve. In the absence of that, the skills and expertise in the industry are going to struggle and if you need broader adoption, which has maximum potential, the persona-based user experience is a focus and I'd say Automation Anywhere is already working on.

In terms of onboarding, we step back and think about how to leverage this technology. We have created some IP around this and leverage our deep learnings from several implementations. We apply the process and domain expertise and determine which process needs to be automated by leveraging what technology and what ROI will you get out of it.

We leverage the process insights technology, we bring that to the table, we understand what processes need to be automated and we apply the relevant technologies. Automation Anywhere is one of the many we apply in transforming across automating the entire process end to end.

Number one thing when you're trying to automate, you need to start thinking beyond productivity gains and think about other value drivers such as improved business outcomes and superior customer experiences. The creation of a bot is only one half of the journey. The other half of the journey is understanding what to automate, what technologies to use and having a digital workforce and a governance platform around it is the other half of the journey. That's the one big learning for all of us from the many implementations we have done.

I would rate it around eight to nine. We have personally seen the platform really mature from several implementations, from scalability to availability, to API programmability. The vision and the journey Automation Anywhere is on is phenomenal.

We have a lot of use cases, mostly for repetitive processes. We have automated processes for loans, moving money across accounts, and transferring money between our institution to another.

It has helped us look at how our processes are organized.

The ease of use is the most valuable feature.

The object cloning that exists cannot capture 80 percent of the objects that we need it to capture.

We are running the old 10.5 version. Sometimes, we get stuck with it.

With our current version, we are experiencing issues with the access of the Control Room. Therefore, at the moment, we cannot really scale.

The person who is working on our architecture is not always available.

We have only ever used Automation Anywhere.

We are having issues with setting up the newest version. It doesn't install, and there are not a lot of things to do with it.

We used a consulting agency, who did not have good knowledge about the product and bots, such as basic principles of coding and error handling. This was surprising, as these were IT personnel. We felt that sometimes we were training the consultants from the agency on how to implement the product.

We looked at Automation Anywhere and UiPath. Blue Prism also approach us. This was to do the PoC. 

Automation Anywhere was the simplest solution, and it offered us immediate support.

With the current version that we have, I cannot rate the solution more than a six out of a ten.

About a year and a half ago, we started making a business case for the software. We now have 15 bots running.

• It is flexible and user-friendly. The flexibility is awesome.
• It is easy to learn. Coming from a programming background, it is easy to use.
• Its ability to integrate with other solutions is awesome.
• The cognitive document processing is very good.

I would like to see a bot button.

The technical support is very good. We now have a technician on-hand to assist us with issues, instead of reaching out to Automation Anywhere's technical support. 

The cost is affordable, which makes an easy barrier to entry for the RPA market.

We chose Automation Anywhere because it is user-friendly.

I would recommend trying it. Once you see it in action, you will understand its capabilities and how easy it is to use.

The bot creation process is pretty standard. We take an idea for a business process and try to standardize it. We put in development and test it a hundred times before putting in production.

Courses on Automation Anywhere University are very easy to learn. It provides a huge amount of training and learning exercises for you to learn how to use the tool.

I haven't used Citrix yet.

We are automating repetitive, manual processes that don't add value to people's work. Also, we want to improve our risk management through quality and efficiency.

We have an automation that we just put in production where we are doing a double-blind quality review. The bot is comparing the two entries and kicking out a large number of exceptions for human review. We have saved a large number of hours every day by not having humans look at things that match.

The ability to build automation without coding is its most valuable feature.

We have had some quirkiness happen when integrating the Automation Anywhere with other solutions, such as weird Excel issues or temperamental legacy system issues.

Our division took a couple of months to scale up our bots, when we were expecting it to take weeks. However, what we did was fairly complicated.

I have not had a lot of experience with their technical support.

We measure ROI by comparing hours saved to the cost of FTEs.

We have found the product useful. We are using it and have implement it. However, it is not perfect, and we have found that there are some frustrations.

The developers who work for me find the solution fairly easy to use. Though, I do have developers who prefer typing stuff in rather than dragging and dropping. Generally, they picked up the solution quickly.

For the bot creation process, we ask the end user, "Don't tell me how you do something, show me what you do." Then, as IT personnel, we build it.

We have not taken any courses through Automation Anywhere University yet.