Automation Anywhere Reviews

I work for KL University as an associate professor. I take care of internships, placements, and industry connect. I'm the associate dean of internships, placements, and industry connect at KL University.

In our university, we have started a center of excellence in association with Automation Anywhere. This robotic process automation tool is very important in terms of distal transformations. 

The majority of students are doing a lot of robotic projects with the help of the bot that we have established in our university.

Another way that this tool helps is professors are doing a lot of researching initiators in terms of automation, wherever there is automation, there is the possible usage of RPA.

The majority of students are showing a lot of interest in this tool as it deals with process automation. Once students are done with the certification and training, the majority of recruiters are showing interest because RPA is doing an excellent job in the market. The majority of Indian companies are showing a lot of interest in recruiting students who are trained in this Automation Anywhere RPA tool. When compared to current skills in the market, Automation Anywhere is a hard skill, where in universities in an Indian-based culture, this place a wider role.

A user can easily adopt this technology and utilize it, when compared to the other available resources in the market.

A majority of this tool works on automation. For future prospects, this tool should 80 percent deal with neural networks, deep learning, and artificial intelligence and that has to be integrated a lot. As these are future skills, these integrations will help us take the tool to take to the next level.

This product is very stable in the market because the adoption of this product is very clear. There is no complexity. Plus, anyone can learn this tool. In India, if a tool comes along, people think that it is relevant to technical guys. However, if someone goes through RPA, a non-IT guy or IT guy (anyone) can adopt this technology, as it is easy to adapt. The unique selling proposition of this product is adaptability is good. So, this product will be the stable in the market.

The majority of the technical support that we get will be through digitization. If someone wants to go through a digital process automation, this is one of the best tool to adapt it. When compared to other products on the market, the adaptability and usage are very easy. Moreover, getting the resources who are trained in Automation Anywhere, we can get that very easily. As Automation Anywhere is giving this technology for free, as there are no commercials involved, the majority of the skilled workforce are showing a lot of interest. That will be the future of this product.

There are quick user manuals clearly available. We can easily install the product and start working immediately. There are very big eLearning resource contents available. With the help of Automation Anywhere team in India, they are providing a lot, just to support student and faculties in universities. There is a quick learning process with the help of eLearning resources.

This is a one of the best automation tools where we can have quick transformations when compared to other tools available in the market.

The most interesting about this product when compared to the other products on the market: 

1. The resources available.
2. eLearning access is available.
3. The certifications are free of cost.
4. Adaptability is easy.
5. The implementation part is easy.

I can give it an eight out of 10. We need it to add something. It is a little too early, and they are working on that. If they can add more on these things, this will be one of the future leader of the market. While it is already a future leader, it will goes into the next level of the market.

In Concentrix, my role is as an asset manager. It's very much focused on the RPA practice globally, which is why we come from enablement to delivery and support. End-to-end is something that is managed by me.

One thing I really like about Automation Anywhere is the product has actually taken leaps in the last three years. We started with the conventional RPA type of use cases. But, in the last two years, with the help of IQ Bot, and what I learned today about this Attended Automation 2.0, I think they are addressing vital key challenges that we have faced so far. The description on top of the description is what their model is. They're partnering with us in this journey of transformation. The type of technology advancement that they have done will certainly help us a lot.

They are constantly being in the BPO space and BPO and RPA are something which go hand in hand in technology. It is the right space for the utilization of this technology in the industry. While our customers are also asking for us for this technology benefit for the revenue benefit, productivity benefit, efficiency, etc. In the last two years, we have leveraged it for multiple clients, whether for telecom, healthcare or other spaces, it has been a very strong partnership that has really helped us.

RPA is something which was their best product. It was easy to config, easy to record, and deploy on the floor. With their IQ Bot, I am very much convinced that was the area where we started tapping unconventional use cases, like machine learning, artificial intelligence, and all those things bundled together. With this cognitive capability, we went from 30 to 40 percent use cases which we are able to address and have leaped over to a wider space of 50 to 60 percent with this cognitive bot.

There are many things which I have liked in the last couple of months that I have seen in Automation Anywhere. Something that really excites me is the new release of Attended Automation 2.2. It's a very lightweight solution. When I'm talking about the automation of the size from 2,000 to 20,000, and everyone is using the attended bot with this scale and thin client model, we can easily deploy and scale it out to the larger corporate size. So, this product is very unique and I have not seen it in any of Automation Anywhere's competitors. They came out with it.

The product is quite stable. I don't know how to code the the other products which we have used. One thing with the bot that we are always with struggling is the memory management. The Automation Anywhere product is quite stable in that perspective. Security and other things are very well managed by Automation Anywhere. The third piece is the architecture is very much centrally governed. This makes this product more robust.

In the last two years, one thing which Automation Anywhere has changed and they actually worked on is the support and enablement part. That will be the key game changer for them. Because if I compare them with other competitors who are in the space of Automation Anywhere, the customer experience (where we are the customer) is there when you need them. The support is available on time. That is where I think Automation Anywhere is wonderful.

It was very straightforward. I don't know if it was because of the training which was given or if it was because of the application itself, but it was very straightforward to start the journey of RPA using Automation Anywhere. Whether it's a complex use case or low complex use case, I think Automation Anywhere does give you that flexibility that you can start your journey seamlessly.

One thing that we are just changing now: When this automation journey started, everyone was talking about ROI. E.g., I'm investing X amount into the technology, and I'm now trying to cannibalize on efficiency. We are not leveraging automation just for cost reduction. The business is now leveraging automation to get it into this space where we were not able to get so far. So, the dimensions of ROI are not only cost reduction. The dimension of all ROI have been changed to scalability, compliance, some other new business go-to market strategies, etc. Those things are very much changed from the way it was here previously.

This is tricky. We all know who is in the quadrant and the leading there. In the last five years, we actually worked closely with them. Everyone does have their own pluses and minuses. But, if I talk about Automation Anywhere, their cognitive bot is one of their unique selling points.

We are able to sell it very easily compared to its competitors. Another piece is the stability part. The third piece is something which is the customer experience: The ease to work with it. The Automation Anywhere, as a partner, is very easy to work with. They are there when you need them, whether you are in the initial journey of automation, you are figuring out what is the right opportunity, or whether you are in the journey of deploying the bot or support. They are there with you at each of those stages.

These things really make them different compared to their competitors. I'm sure if they will continue focusing on these they will be leading in this space.

So far, it's a 10 (out of 10). If there's anything which will change, I will let you know. But so far, the experience with Automation Anywhere in the last two and a half years has been wonderful. My best wishes to the team.

One thing that we have used it for is uploading reconciliation files. These files usually come in hundreds. Previously, users used to do this work manually everyday. There were around 1,000 users, so that process has been completely automated. Now, these users can focus on more valuable work other than this manual task. This has really helped them.

Apart from this, we also have invoice processing where we are using IQ Bot. For that, even if the invoices are in different formats, the IQ Bot learns, then it works on them. That has helped us a lot.

Apart from the thing which Automation Anywhere is meant for: To automate manual tasks. I feel IQ Bot is the cherry on top, as it has helped us process a lot of unstructured data and it learns over a span of time. So, it has really helped us.

The IQ Bot is the latest feature of Automation Anywhere. It uses cognitive abilities to learn over a span of time, in which we have to train the IQ Bot. It will eventually learn after about 10 files, then it will start learning on its own and it will be able to do the task on its own. 

We use IQ Bot for invoice processing. It can be any type of document. It could be a PDF or any sort of document. It will convert those PDFs into CSV files, which is a structured format. It takes it from an unstructured to structured format. That is why we use IQ Bot.

The Excel command has some limitations. They are working on it. Now, from what I have heard, it has 40 plus commands in the Excel operation, so that is a very good thing. Once that comes up, it would be a 10 out of 10 for Automation Anywhere.

Stability will come down to how the code has been made up. It should definitely handle the code. If anything fails, like the website is not working, it should inform the users. So, it depends on how the code has been developed and it should be able to handle the code if any error comes along. The stability depends on the factor of the developer's coding. Otherwise, the tool is pretty stable.

There have been problems with scalability. It comes down to how we handle the code. It should be handled properly, then there shouldn't be any problems.

Automation Anywhere has very strong game because it is always up for asking feedback. It doesn't just ask for feedback. It actually works upon it. So, every time it releases a new version, we always see that feedback being implemented into their tool. That's a very good thing from Automation Anywhere which I have seen. They actually take the customer's feedback very seriously.

I was working on a workload feature called Workload Management, where I was facing a few issues here and there. For that, I raise a ticket and in the next release it was actually implemented. It was glitch type of thing, and it was handled in the next release.

For evaluating, there is a visibility team which does a visibility check for how the tool should be implemented. I haven't been a part of that.

I wasn't part of the decision-making process since I am the developer. Management sees the tool visibility and checks.

I would give it an eight (out of 10) because there is still scope of improvement which I see in the upcoming tools they have already implemented. I'm still waiting for it. Maybe after that, it could be a 10 (out of 10), but for now it's an eight (out of 10).

We generally do stuff to automate websites and SAP that we have in our company.

It has helped us to save a lot of FTEs for our solutions that we have provided to our companies. Suppose a job which was done by a group of eight to nine people on a daily basis for 24 hours was taking a lot of time, so we created a bot with Automation Anywhere. It was done with a bot working 24/7. It reduced the numbers of guys required to do that process.

The cognitive solutions that it provides.

The feature to automate the use case by simply extracting data, putting it into SAP, and automating the data. This is mostly website based, which is pretty easy for us to work on.

I would like to see some more with the Excel commands that they have. Also, with the cognitive, that is coming up we need to see what else they have, e.g., some SAP features to enhance the product more.

It is moving to a stable version right now. Version 10.5 was more stable and version 11.3 is having some glitches. But, we are moving to a newer version. Let's see what that brings to the table.

Technical support could be much better with the responses which we get. Also, guys come to our company and help us whenever we have some big challenges, so it is quite good. However, it could be done in a better way.

Now, it is a big complex to download the product and install it, then again to install the patches. So, it takes a lot of time to download it. But, the newest version that they are coming out with is web-based so it will be quicker on the cloud. As the CEO said, "Booking an Uber takes more time than downloading Automation Anywhere and even making the first bot."

It has provided us ROI.

It is a bit close, but I feel UiPath has an edge over Automation Anywhere.

I would rate the product a proud seven (out of 10). It could be improved more. With the newest version, we need to check the product. I am giving it a seven (out of 10) as a developer and because I'm using it daily.

When we started Automation Anywhere, it was a rule-based automation. All the rule-based used cases we could automate. Now, with the upcoming version, it includes AI and Python, so we can go ahead in our roadmap and start automating dynamic used cases too.

We started on the 10.5 version of Automation Anywhere. The Control Room had some limitations. With version 11, they removed all those limitations. In version 11, we do not have the Python support or AI machine learning support. But, with the A2019 version, we will have the AI machine learning libraries in the support. So, we can easily use those libraries now.

The main thing is the simple UI, easy to use commands, and it's very easy to learn compared to other tools in the market.

With the upcoming version, they have addressed all the issues of the clients. They have AI and ML. The GUI is good. The cloud has been included. So, it's promising that they have now included these. We have to see how much we can get used to it.

Version 10.5 has been the most stable version that we have used. With version 11, we are still getting some updates, so it will take some time for version 11 to get stable.

It is scalable. In version 11, scalability has a limit, but with the upcoming version, it will be scalable because it is on the cloud now.

AA has good support. Suppose we have any queries, they are there to help us. They have a support portal where we can raise a request and they will immediately reply on the basis of the priority level that they have set. So, it's very good.

If we go through the client setup, its very easy. But, if we are going through the high availability in the IQ Bot setup, it's a bit complex.

We have more than 50 bots in the company. The FTE and ROI are very good. In the future, we have many projects in pipeline that we are about to implement. So, definitely there is a good ROI and FTE savings for us.

I will rate version 10.5 as a nine (out of 10) and version 11 as an eight (out of 10). Let us wait and see about the upcoming version.

We use it to develop bots. 

Use cases: We do Excel operations if we have to download any file from a portal to do any Excel operations. We send these outputs to our business customers. 

Bots are specific for each customer.

Most of the tasks that our organization used to do were manual. We automated our internal processes so it would give us FTE benefits and work would be done in less time. This also saves us time and FTE benefits.

The most valuable feature is the Excel operations because the most repetitive task which we used to do was Excel operations. Automation Anywhere has the Excel commands feature where we can run Excel Macros, which is very valuable. It's saving so much time for us.

We have our limitations. We can run only VBScripts and one more thing. If we want to run Python scripts or batch files, we cannot do it. So, if they would add these extra things in there then that would be beneficial.

I have to add in Excel commands because it is a limited feature, as we only have five to six commands. Suppose we have a spreadsheet and we have to get the counts for how many rows were filled, we have to do it through a Macro or VB. We have to write a separate code and call through Automation Anywhere. If they added in this inbuilt feature into Automation Anywhere that would be helpful for us.

Stability is pretty good. If we want the code to be stable, then we have to handle it in a particular way. We have to utilize the tool in the best way. An example is if there is a web page, and it gets refreshed every time, then the odd properties will get refreshed. If it is the UI making changes, then the properties will get refreshed. So, we can utilize error handling in the best way and make use of it. Instead of failing, we can make it run, making it more robust.

We have so many use cases. When customers come to us, they'll ask for a very simple use case, they will not know the features of Automation Anywhere and what we can automate. Once they get to know it after we automate one process, they will want more features which they'll ask for. They'll give us more use cases for us to do.

We have done many bigger tasks. If the customers are doing it manually, it will take them 12 to 24 hours. But, if they're doing it through Automation Anywhere, it will done in half an hour to an hour.

Automation Anywhere gives quick responses to any request when we used to reach out to them. Then, they will response and work with us to get it fixed. I have multiple experience like that.

I was partially involved, not fully involved, when they were doing the IT Bot setup and migrating to latest version. It went well because the Automation Anywhere team was there. They helped us migrate from the older version to the latest version. Whatever code that we had written in the older version, that needed to be migrated to latest version. With all these things, they helped us out.

Automation Anywhere helped us if our bots should be in their Control Room, if they were migrating or adding extra features. Then, they would take care of it. I don't know much about what would be in the background.

They asked me to use Automation Anywhere and I went through studying the others, UiPath and Blue Prism. Automation Anywhere is user-friendly, and if you're automating, then it's good for developers.

I'll give Automation Anywhere an eight (out of 10). They lost two points for the Excel commands. We have so many things to do in Excel, but we have very limited commands for it. We need to use Macros. We also have to know extra coding languages, like VBScripts.

I lead the automation team in UI. In the UI, we automate mostly PDF and shared devices, then most web applications. For large volumes, we mostly automate PDFs.

I have enjoyed using all the features of this tool, not just one feature, e.g., object cloning, Excel automation, and the web recorder. 

The tool is very easy to use and mostly user-friendly. I like that when using it I don't need much expertise.

With the IQ Bots that use AI, I want to see more features using that type of machine learning and artificial intelligence in their products.

It is a very scalable product. With the market, every time and every day, we can scale it.

It is very easy to interact with the support team for Automation Anywhere whenever it's required. Sometimes, if the training is required, they would visit our premises. We can also visit their premises. In terms of training and product support, if you have any challenges as a developer, they help all the time. It is very easy to connect with them.

It is very straightforward.

I have seen a huge difference in how it is improving products.

I use them mostly. I would recommend it to all my friends and team. I encourage team member to use it, even those who are not from a technical background. They can also move to Automation Anywhere, use, and can learn from it. If they go to use Automation Anywhere University and other training tools, the training materials are available for them. So, it's very easy to learn as well. Different platforms and technology members have also moved to use the RPA platform, and are now using the Automation Anywhere tool.

I'd give it a nine point two out of 10. There is still a way to go for Automation Anywhere where we can see improvement. Mostly, we want to see more artificial intelligence and machine learning. Now, I can see only this mostly in the IQ Bot where we construct the data from PDFs. I also want to see more features where we can use the artificial intelligence in automating tasks as well.

Processes which have a decision making and do not have any required rule-based are considered for automation.

All the features that we have different from each other. Most of the time, we go for object cloning and IQ Bot, which will be used in the coming years. That feature, people are looking forward to, as it will help us read and extract data from unstructured formats.

Although, IQ Bot has data being extracted from it. It can improve with more features, like handwritten copies that are readable. Anyway, the IQ Bot is coming out in a bit, and I'm sure we will go with it.

For most of the cases that we have worked on, the application has been stable. Automating applications has brought a huge change to the automations which we have carried forward.

It depends on the developer and how they have coded it with respect to scalability. However, it has the ability to be scalable.

The main point to go for Automation Anywhere is because we have worked with other tools than Automation Anywhere and the support team which Automation Anywhere has takes time to try understanding the issue, then give the feedback. That is something we learn along with the Automation Anywhere guys. I would go for Automation Anywhere because of the support team.

Version 10 that we had was a little complex to set up. However, version 11 is pretty easy.

We use multiple tools, but most of the time, it is Automation Anywhere which we go for because of our clients who are looking forward to working with Automation Anywhere. It's sort of easy to use. Also with respect to the client as well as the developers, it gives quick results. With other tools, we need to perform a lot of tasks. This tool is a bit quicker. The ROI also comes into picture.

I have in fact told all my friends and colleagues who are in the RPA domain to work with Automation Anywhere because it's easier to run as well as to implement. Overall, the deployment is easier. I mostly prefer Automation Anywhere over the other RPA tools.

I would rate the product a nine to nine point five (out of ten).