Automation Anywhere (AA) Reviews

It’s mainly for back office tasks, such as accounting and supply chain management (SCM). Currently, we are implementing RPA for these back office tasks. 

We are not just doing RPA. We are tackling it along with the review of a business process as a set, improving the process and automating simultaneously.

The most valuable feature is that a job by RPA can be done three or four times faster
than a human without human error.

E.g., when the robot handles tasks, there are triggers. It could be triggered when it receives an email, when it finds a file, when the specified time comes, etc. As there are many outside points of contact, it’s hard to understand how they are prioritized when a trigger priority is the same. Since I wouldn’t know which trigger is being prioritized unless I actually give it a try, I want a clear understanding of it. 

Also, please make it possible to set a trigger with the control room. 

As far as the stability is concerned, some unknown errors do occur. While I am sure the Automation Anywhere is working to improve this, there is room for improvement. 

It is very scalable. The structure is a client server, so we can expand the environment quickly, if needed.

Currently, we are getting it through a vendor from who we purchased a license. So,
when we have questions, we contact them, then they contact Automation Anywhere’s headquarters. We always get answers, but it is a bit time consuming. Here is where I think some improvement can be made. 

We were given the manuals, so we did it ourselves. It was not hard or challenging. We
did receive support, but there were no issues. 

This initiative is not something that we expect will have a quick, huge impact. We are still in the process of expanding and penetrating the solution. We will enter the phase where we see targeted impact shortly. In order to achieve this, we would like to see the support by Automation Anywhere reinforced along the way. 

We did look at two or three other solutions. In our company, the people in each business unit would be creating robots rather than the IT programmers or specialists. With that in mind, Automation Anywhere can be user-friendly and simple since business unit staff can even create robots, and that’s one of the big reasons that we chose it. The other reason is that we wanted to have control and governance over the task assigned to robots. Those two points made Automation Anywhere’s structure a great match for our needs.

We have started using the solution overseas, and in some areas, including Asian Pacific, robots are made by the local staff. When they have questions, they want to ask questions in their native language, but the support is not available in some of the languages as of now. I’m hoping these language improvements will be something improved going forward

In regards to advice, if looking to reform your business process and automate in the same way as we did, they would need something appropriate. We chose Automation Anywhere. If you have a lot of simple tasks, you may want to process with speed and obtain something else. There are different tools for different purposes. Get the right tool and think about the way to do it for whatever you are aiming for.

Foreign Language: (Japanese)

この製品を主にどのように使用していますか？また、パフォーマンスはどうですか？

主に会計系、SCM領域のバックオフィス業務を主にRPA化しています。

当ソリューションはどんな点において最も役に立ちますか？

人の3-4倍くらいの速さでミスがなく業務が自動化される点と考えています。

当ソリューションを使用するとどのようなメリットがありますか？御社が機能する上
でどのような改善をもたらしましたか？

単なるRPA化だけではなくビジネスプロセスの見直しもセットで取り組んでいます。
プロセス改善も同時にできています。

当ソリューションの安定性に関して、どのような印象をお持ちですか？

安定性で言うと原因不明のエラーというのは多少発生しています。この点については
改善の余地があると考えています。

当ソリューションのスケーラビリティに関して、どのような印象をお持ちですか？

拡張性は非常にあると思います。クライアントサーバー型なので、増加したい部分を
必要に応じて迅速に拡張できると考えています。

このソリューションにテクニカルサポートを利用したことはありますか？ある場合
は、サポートをどのように評価しますか？

今は弊社がライセンスを購入しているベンダー経由でサポートを受けています。確実
に回答は頂けていますが、時間を要する部分もあり改善する余地があると考えていま
す。

初期セットアップには関与されましたか？セットアップは簡単、それとも複雑でした
か？どういった意味で簡単、あるいは複雑でしたか？

マニュアルを頂き自分たちで実施しました。セットアップは難しくなかったです。支
援も頂きましたが特に問題はありませんでした。

当ソリューションの次のリリースに含まれていたらいいなと思うのはどのような機能
ですか？また、それはなぜですか？

例えばロボットがタスクを動かす際にトリガーがいくつかある。メール、ファイル、
時間を指定など。トリガーの優先度が一緒の場合、これらトリガーの中でどれが優先
されるのかがやってみないとわからないところがあって、そういった所がクリアにな
っていると良いです。また、トリガーをControlRoomで設定できるようにしてほしい。
こういった点を含め、管理ツールの機能がもう少し強化されると良いです。

どのようなROIが見いだせていますか？データを提供してくださいますか？

初期段階から大きな効果を出そうという取り組みではないと考えており、現在は社内
にRPAを浸透させている段階です。これから狙った効果が出るフェーズに入ると思って
います。Automation Anywhereさんのサポートもより強化して頂く必要があると感じ
ています。

他にどのようなベンダーを検討していましたか？最終的に当ソリューションを選択し
た理由は何ですか？

他に2つ、3つ検討しました。弊社では、ITプログラマーやスペシャリストというより
も、業務部門の人にロボットを作成する前提です。Automation Anywhereはユーザー
に対して非常にシンプルで分かりやすく、業務部門の人でも作ることができるという
ことが一つ大きかったと思います。もう一つは、ロボットがやる仕事、タスクをコン
トロールするガバナンスの観点がありました。これら2点から、Automation Anywhere
のストラクチャーは弊社のニーズに合っていたため、選定しました。

このソリューションに1から10の評価（10＝最高）を付けるとしたら、どのように評
価しますか？そしてその理由は何ですか？

8

海外でも利用を開始しており、APACの現地スタッフが開発しています。質問がある場
合、現地の言葉で問い合わせをしたいのですが今はそれができない言語もあります。
こういったところで今後改善もあると思いますので、期待も込めて残りの2点。

他の会社でソリューションまたは同様の他のソリューションについてリサーチしてい
る同僚の方がいたら、どのようなアドバイスをすると思いますか？

色々なやりかたがあって私共みたいに業務プロセスを改革するのとセットで進めると
いうことであれば、…我々はAutomation Anywhere を選択しました。

本当に単純な業務が沢山あって、スピードを持ちたい、出したいというのであれば、
違うツールかもしれません。狙う業務形態にあったツールは変わります。

何を狙おうとしているのかによってツールは選ぶべきですし、やり方も考えるべきだ
というようなことは申し上げるかなと思います。

My primary use cases consist of the following:

1. Filtering and manipulating multiple Excel, CSV, XLS files to gather relevant data as per the business requirements.
2. Extracting text from searchable and non-searchable PDF files and uploading the data to separate output files or web-based forms.
3. Scheduling tasks to run on a daily basis or implementing trigger-based process execution.
4. Implementing email automation in various modules.
5. Working with external macros and JScript files, depending on the given business logic. 

Automation Anywhere has by far, provided one of the best and easiest solutions to implement RPA. It has helped increase our productivity in the following ways:

1. The scheduling and trigger-based solutions provided by Automation Anywhere have saved the effort of manually checking the conditions and executing tasks.
2. The OCR commands have made document processing efficient to a certain extent.
3. Working with external scripts has been very useful; I have used JScript and VBScripts in my processes.
   

The features I found most valuable are:

1. PDF Integration Commands: It is easy to extract text from PDF files in two ways, plain text and structured text. Automated password protected files, as well.
2. FTP Commands: I found it very easy to automate processes where I have to extract, upload, and rename files on the SFTP server for my process.
3. Error Handler: One of the most valuable features is the error handler, as this command has helped me design bots that can handle multiple errors and exceptions.
4. Object Cloning Features: This is one of the most reliable features provided by Automation Anywhere.
   

The product is amazing, nevertheless, it would be really great to see the following points being implemented:

1. Better OCR Extraction: The OCR extraction is good to some extent, but I have seen some cases where it has failed to extract text from a few documents, and this was quite unexpected.
2. More Excel Commands: The set of Excel commands I am currently using in Automation Anywhere V11.3 are limited. Most of the Excel commands such as filtering and removing duplicates are not available.
3. Options to edit Document and PPT files: The scope of projects could be expanded if we have such commands. 

I have been using Automation Anywhere for more than a year.

Our primary use case is for automating daily routine jobs, where I have saved a lot of time. I have enhanced my automation knowledge. We have automated the daily reports and it will trigger automatically once jobs are completed from the backend database which has saved a lot of extra work for our team, saving workforce and time. 

The implementation of the bot is easy and can be built in less time when compared to the other automation tools. No coding knowledge is required to build the Automation bot. It's very as simple, easy to use, and maintain.

We used to do many daily routine checks and jobs. We have implemented the automation knowledge which resulted in good productivity, time-saving, and extra efforts being reduced. It has saved a lot of extra work which we used to put for manual report sending. Implementing the bot is so easy that a new joiner can learn it within weeks. You don't need coding knowledge which helped us a lot because many other automation tools require good coding knowledge to develop a bot. The password security feature helped in securing the passwords.

Easy to use, high scalability, password security features, easy access, etc. There is no coding knowledge required which helped us a lot because many other automation tools require good coding knowledge to develop a bot. 

The password security feature helped in securing the passwords. Implementing the bot is so easy that our new joiner also can learn it within weeks. It helped us in testing the application end to end without any errors. Record and playback features helped in making our work less and efficient.

The debugging tools need to be included, for where and why it has failed to execute the bot in a clear manner. Maintaining the bot is a little tough sometimes during a failed issue. If Automation Anywhere is developed in a real-time environment, we can do daily routine our home routine jobs much easier. I am learning a bit daily day by day. 

Automation Anywhere can also be improved in machine learning and artificial intelligence. It would make our lives easier.

I have been using this for the past six months.

Good stability.

The scalability is good.

I have used Selenium and now i am trying to switch to AA.

I have evaluated a few other tools, UFT and Tosca.

I am a developer and I have developed bots mainly for insurance companies. Most insurance companies in my country usually have big problems trying to transfer data from one application to another, this hence has made it very difficult for them to be up to date with their entry. Usually, they are faced with a one month lag since they employ humans to do the work for them. 

In addition to this, the data transfer usually contains a series of errors, and in that area accuracy is very key. A slight mistake can end up ruining things big time .

Our company's reputation has made it easy to improve recently after beginning to offer RPA services to clients.

Before AA, the insurance companies used to do data manually from one app to another, but after introducing them to automation the speed and accuracy have been outstanding. They had a lot of workload hanging around. 

After automating the process, my company has been able to acquire new clients who are interested in automating their processes using automation anywhere. This hence means more work for us which is always a good thing.

1. I would say business analytics, it provides real-time data that's something other competing companies lack. It uses statistics and graphs to show the performance of the bots which processes are lagging behind and if you need to give priority to certain tasks. 

2. The control room and the bot creator - the control which is the brain is a powerful feature that allows administrators to be able to control how the bots work, create users, and be able to give roles to a user. 

The bot creator allows developers to be able to customize bots according to the client's needs 

Most clients use systems which use old Java versions, trying to automate on these systems is really difficult since most features/commands are not supported. Java earlier than 1.7 cannot work something and most firms I have interacted with their systems are old. Another thing according to Automation Anywhere, it's main aim is not to change the client's system but to be used on top of the existing one hence Automation Anywhere should consider those clients since in my country most of them use systems which date back to 2000, and they are not willing to spend another fortune to change them just so they can use Automation Anywhere.

Additional features: Automation Anywhere should add a couple of commands which will help most developers not to always use a script, a good example is in String operations.

I have been using AA for two years. 

This solution is stable, as of now, I can't complain about anything but more attempts to make it more stable would be okay maybe I haven't encountered one yet but I'm sure it's flawless when it comes to stability.

Definitely would like it, scalability means more new features.

Most customers we've interacted with at first are usually not certain about automation but immediately we do a proof of concept, they are eager to implement. 

I have only used Automation Anywhere and I love it.

It was straightforward.

It was an in-house one.

Anything above 50%. Most clients cannot go for anything less.

I usually advise them not to worry about the overall cost since the outcome will be profitable.

Yes, I had considered UiPath.

I like the way Automation Anywhere has migrated from v11 to a2019 my concern is about bots in a2019, once you delete them it's impossible to get them back.

I automated Server applications like SAP, ERP, CRM, etc. With SAP, we can use different kinds of automation like BAPI with MetaBot and the SAP GUI with DLL automation.

One of my uses cases to help understand how we use AA is email-related. First, we used to get emails, and based on this as input, we needed to trigger some events in SAP. Depending on the resulting error, we needed to delete some records and further, needed to generate DB for some records (daily around 1,000 records). This is a repetitive process that happens every day.

Mmainly, we implemented SAP tasks related to customer support functionality. We also use it for the creation of PowerBI reports related to sales.

We have automated approximately 30 processes, reducing the manual effort a lot. Now all of the manual work is handled by the Bot alone.

We trigger by email sometimes, and it is also scheduler-based. We handle errors and can extract information. If the bot is not able to perform any step, then the support team gets into the picture and they will resolve the issue.

I like all of the features, especially the MetaBot, REST API, and SAP DLL.

We use the MetaBot to capture all of the screen contents, then if the elements are captured properly, it is fine. Otherwise, we create a custom object that acts as a click function.

The price is a little high and could be reduced.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for the past five years and it is one of the best tools to automate manual tasks.

Stability-wise, Automation Anywhere is good.

I would rate the scalability a 9.8 out of 10.

The technical support is good. We directly reach out to the AA guys by raising a ticket, and they also have a forum to resolve issues

Previously, we went through manual work. It was only with Excel that we had some automation using macros.

The price is a little bit high but the support is good.

We compared different RPA vendors and finally, we decided to go for Automation Anywhere as our single RPA solution.

Many new options have been implemented in the cloud version. NLP and G suite automation are also available, among a lot of other options in the A2019. At this point, we just need to explore the options.

I am working for a company that is engaged in process automation.

In our company, we have used AA in several projects like finance process automation, payroll, accounts payable, and account receivable processing.

Each of the projects that I have engaged in is different from each other. For example, the finance automation project mainly focused on reconciliations, Excel automation, etc. AP and AR processes mainly focused on front-end navigation through the Chrome browser to download invoices from customer portals and upload and process them in their accounting application, which is also a web-based one.

Automation Anywhere assisted me with all the functions that I require to automate the processes and tasks.

The AA tool has more than 500 functionalities, which is really useful in feasibility studies.

Since it has capabilities to integrate with third-party applications easily, it makes the life of an automation engineer very easy. 

Our organization works with a few other leading RPA tools also. When compared, every RPA tool, coding/scripting in AA is much easier for a developer. The code is also very readable, which increases the user-friendliness when it comes to code maintenance.

The effort to train a beginner to code in AA is low because all of the commands and functionalities are simple.

Excel automation, database integration, and object cloning are few functionalities that I find valuable in the tool because most of the business processes work around them.

With Excel automation, we can open, close, save, and navigate through the Excel workbook. Most importantly, macro integration within Excel is easy, and with that, it unleashes all of the capabilities that we can do with macros to be executed by integrating with AA.

Database integration allows us to integrate with SQL Server and Oracle databases.

Object Cloning means that frontend navigation is made easier. With AA the object cloning command, we can capture the UI objects and customize them as per the process.

• The API integration should be improved further since it is a bit difficult at the moment to connect with the API in the enterprise version.
  
• The object cloning command should be improved such to increase the capability and capture more objects in the UI.
• It would be more advantageous if the email automation allowed us to integrate with cloud-based email servers.
• Metabots should be improved further, allowing for the same functionality as the task bot.
• It would be great if AA could reduce the price of IQ Bot.

We have been using Automation Anywhere for more than two years.

Stability mainly will be based on the system architecture. The tool is stable from 11.3.2.4.

This is scalable across many processes and can integrate with many third-party applications.

Technical support is excellent and they work round the clock to sort out any issue we have.

In AA, the tool has more capabilities and functionalities when compared with our previous RPA product.

Setup is very straightforward and there is a complete guideline provided.

We implemented in-house.

Using AA has improved the lifestyle of the employee. Monetary ROI cannot be revealed as per company rules and policies.

Pricing is affordable and I would recommend beginning with the Starter Package.

To evaluate the products, the company went through the reviews.

When considering all the facts, this is one of the most user-friendly RPA tools that I have worked with.

We use it for our product setup and rating products on our website.

We take raw data and manipulate it, then we feed the information to the bot. The rest of the process is automated using the bot.

We have seen increased productivity. What use to take about two days to finish with laymen doing computer work, a bot can finish it within a seven to eight hour time frame. That means we are removing a lot of man-hours.

Automation is less time consuming and very quick.

The features are pretty easy to use, like the drag and drop feature. It is easy and understand, even a layman knows how the application works. All the basic stuff can be done by anybody.

I want the tool to be more stabilized. After three or four hours, the navigation keeps changing. We will be running error handling for 8,000 process and the system will fail. We need it to be more stable.

I would like a detailed description of all the features in a PDF explaining their significance and what they do.

Stability-wise, we have found that it works pretty well. At this stage, it can work around 24 hours. However, the system does malfunction. We need to have a bot ready to back up another bot and spin up the data in case of a failure.

We need the solution to run without errors before we can scale more.

The initial setup was straightforward. Our processes are not largely complex, so we understood the background of how it was being set up.

We used a consultant. They came in and helped us with the setup of the products.

Automation Anywhere is user-friendly.

We automate a lot of front office use cases.

I would like to see integration better integration with Excel and SAP.

Product support for our customers needs improvement. They should increase the support personnel.

We worked closely with Automation Anywhere's customer success manager.

We have saved 60 to 70 percent on operations.

We only deal in annual licenses. There are no pay-as-you-go licenses.

We would like them to change the license model of charging per bot.

We take all the product features and operational needs into consideration before recommending a vendor to a client.

Before implementing it, figure out how the RPA product will make an impact in your company.

Using the Automation Anywhere University, you can go and train yourself to be an expert in the tool.