What is our primary use case?
The main use cases include the payment extinction process, which we have automated. It is a basic, very critical servicing process, which needs to run on stringent SLAs. We automated that before and during COVID, which brought a lot of value with less human intervention and support during the peak time. It was able to process almost all the payment extinctions effectively and efficiently, providing significant value to our servicing operations team.
Another use case involves customer service, where the call center agents uses these bots as co-pilots, gathering real-time information from multiple subsystems, aggregating the information, and presenting it to the agent. This greatly improved the customer experience during real-time interactions.
Those are a couple of critical use cases we have automated.
How has it helped my organization?
We recognized the importance of RPA automation and transitioned to Automation Anywhere, onboarding and automating over 100 processes in a short period.
What is most valuable?
Automation Anywhere has all the integrated advanced features within the platform, including basic RPA-based automation, task bots, document automation, AARI co-pilot, and now the agentic AI studio. All these come as a package allowing us to handle any kind of use case using the Automation Anywhere platform, which is what we appreciate most. Instead of using different tools to automate various test cases, we are using Automation Anywhere as a platform to automate entire end-to-end processes.
We have used document processing from the beginning. We have a few use cases running in production, processing thousands of documents. With the success rate of more than 80%, it's efficiently extracting data for us.
The time saved with document processing has been impressive. Each document can take 10 to 15 minutes to process manually. With Automation Anywhere, we can process 40,000 in a given month.
It's a low-code platform where we deliver automations faster. Now it is coming up with all the AI features like agent AI and today has announced process engine, which are all coming part of the Automation Anywhere platform. It's great news.
What needs improvement?
One key feature we are looking for from Automation Anywhere is the need for a fully evolved CI/CD pipeline approach within our IT organization, given that we manage multiple applications.
We want to bring Automation Anywhere into those application stacks, ensuring easy integration from a DevOps or DevSecOps perspective. That's a recommendation I have for Automation Anywhere.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Automation Anywhere for almost five and a half years now, and we have automated 100-plus business processes that are deployed and running autonomously in the backend.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability and reliability of the automation bots are quite good, especially for those running in production. However, changes in end-application UIs can affect them. With the introduction of automator AI and generative recorder capabilities, they have been able to self-heal and run seamlessly in production.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scaling potential of Automation Anywhere runs parallel to our company's growth and technology stack. It adds all the necessary AI features at the right time, allowing for a smooth experience as we expand usage.
How are customer service and support?
We have great support from Automation Anywhere. Whenever we create support cases, they respond within the given timeframe, and we haven't encountered major issues so far.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before adopting Automation Anywhere, we were using a vendor-based solution with a Cogs product that the vendor managed in their environment. We recognized the importance of RPA automation, which led us to explore building bots on-prem within our data center using our own platform.
How was the initial setup?
The setup process is pretty seamless. Recently, we have introduced the API capability, the code migration utility, which we are using to deploy the bots from one environment to another. It is helping a lot.
What was our ROI?
We realized a return on investment with Automation Anywhere, especially during the COVID surge in volume within the payment process. Since we automated that process, we managed to handle the surge effectively, granting immense value to our servicing operations.
We've saved almost 2,000 manual hours a month.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is competitive right now. I'm not directly involved in the pricing discussions, however.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before selecting Automation Anywhere, our parent company was already using it and had evaluated it, allowing us to adopt Automation Anywhere.
What other advice do I have?
We are not using the Agentic process automation yet. We're in the exploration phase and exploring tools and requirements. We may be starting the process soon.
The real benefit we are looking at from utilizing the automator AI, which we are not working with yet (but plan to) is the ability to quickly deliver the process workflows need where AI is involved, eliminating the need to integrate multiple tools and requiring various skills and programmatic knowledge.
For organizations looking to purchase Automation Anywhere, I would recommend it for automating task bots or processes requiring AI, as the platform features all flavors of automation. It covers everything from process discovery to automation deployment with integrated AI capabilities, which is a significant advantage.
I rate Automation Anywhere nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
*Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.