What is our primary use case?
Our company uses the solution to process state reporting uploads for clients.
For one use case, we automated the process of dragging forms, filling in fields, capturing confirmations, logging information, and moving files for upload.
For another use case, we automated the process of manipulating data, setting filters, and generating reports in Excel.
We are now moving to another department that uploads yearly tax reporting files to websites.
We do not yet use AI but have many possible use cases for reading invoices and PDFs so we will try these processes first.
How has it helped my organization?
We have saved a lot of time on uploads. For example, our state reporting uploads now take only two to four minutes and that saved us 7,500 hours for January alone. We anticipate similar time savings for the automations we are currently doing in another department.
As we continue to automate our uploads, we will not need as many seasonal workers so that is a big cost savings.
What is most valuable?
The solution includes preset activities but allows integration of code and expressions that make it more powerful and dynamic. In nine month's time I have barely scratched the surface, but it feels like it integrates to so many things that finding new use cases is easy.
The automations allow us to better catch errors because data is always transcribed correctly.
What needs improvement?
The upgrade process could be improved so that it does not require download and reinstall. It would be nice to have an upgrade option that talks directly to the orchestrator.
Some documentation can be improved. For example, documentation for integrations and activities tells you what it does but does not tell you how to fill in variables or fields. I had issues finding some things I needed for new activities or integrations.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for nine months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is pretty stable. You may have version issues because there are a lot of updates, but that is not a stability issue. It is always important to make sure you have the latest updates.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is definitely scalable but it takes time to learn how to best scale. There are many routes you can take which depend on different things.
How are customer service and support?
The Community is super helpful because they share information that is of great benefit. Forums have been useful when I have needed help.
I gained my experience through the Academy's courses. I was in a different role at my company but they needed another UiPath developer. For three months, I did a rotation with the RPA foundations course. After that, I was able to start working in the full time developer role. The Academy was very helpful and allowed me to jump in with no UiPath experience.
Technical support is very helpful. I only contacted them once for an issue with the Salesforce API package that would not run with attended users. They responded in a timely fashion and helped me quickly resolve the issue. I rate support a ten out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Our company previously did not use an RPA tool but rather used command line scripts and tools with Python.
One of our developers had been writing scripts and came across the solution. He showed our company how much time it saves while improving accuracy.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is pretty straightforward.
It is amazing how easy it is to automate some things. Once you learn the interface, everything is straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
I assisted our department in implementing the solution in-house. I helped build and run things for our big rollout in January of 2022.
Since then, I have automated fourteen processes with attended bots.
What was our ROI?
There is a big learning curve to ensure you get everything invested in the solution to realize ROI.
For example, my department only had two developer licenses but still managed to save 1,300 hours in the first year. Another department was scaling a much bigger deployment, so it took longer for them to hit returns.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is affordable enough to get a good return on your investment. We get ROI over the cost of licenses.
We started out on-premises because we did not have attended licenses. Now, we are moving to attended for bots and trying to publish more things to the cloud so others can run them.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I looked at Blue Prism but have not spent time using it.
What other advice do I have?
Start with a couple of solid use cases that would realize time and ROI benefits so you can see how the solution works.
Do not go too wide or too fast with deployments. Focus on a few things first until you are clear how you want to expand. It is important to decide whether you want more citizen or RPA developers and whether your bots will be attended. Just take it slowly unless you are working with someone who has high-level knowledge.
I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.