SAP FICO Functional Lead Consultant at Thungela
Consultant
The solution is cost-effective and significantly reduces the risk of errors that can cost the company lots of money
Pros and Cons
  • "Automation Anywhere's error handling is its most valuable feature. It sends you an email when there's an error and helps you find the cause quickly. It walks you through exactly how you should handle it."
  • "I am not technically inclined, and it involves many steps for a process to function properly. It requires a lot of work initially to design and develop a process. I find it somewhat challenging. If you take time to understand it, it's not too difficult, but it seems complicated at the beginning if you're not a technical person."

What is our primary use case?

My company uses Automation Anywhere to automate tedious processes involving large amounts of data. My job is to monitor the processes for errors and see what caused them. I address those errors and run the automation again. We only started using the solution a few months ago, so we're still exploring some potential candidates for automation. We are discussing and trying to build and define those automations based on our business requirements and existing processes. So far, we have integrated it with our ERP and other SAP solutions. 

We have about 500 users at the company, but most of them are not building automations in the solution. They are indirectly benefiting from activities that are automated. Only about two or three employees are supporting the processes, but the rest are benefitting from the results. Automation Anywhere covers about three work streams. 

How has it helped my organization?

Automation Anywhere is cost-effective and significantly reduces the risk of errors that can cost the company lots of money. The solution improves our time and cost efficiency. Automation can cut the time spent on these tasks in half or more in some cases. Sometimes, it might take a day to do something that automation can complete in a few minutes. 

Before we implemented Automation Anywhere, we performed these tasks manually. It took a long time, and there were many errors. Now, everything is efficient, and there are fewer errors. If there's an issue, it tells you exactly where to find the problem and goes straight to it, so you don't need to investigate the whole process. 

There are several use cases where we can leverage AI. One example is purchase orders that are there for maybe 100 or 120 days, but there is nothing happening with the order, so we need to close them. When we go into the system, there are thousands of purchase orders that are still open after years. Normally, we would need to close them all manually. We can use Automation Anywhere to close all the purchase orders that have been open past a certain date. 

What is most valuable?

Automation Anywhere's error handling is its most valuable feature. It sends you an email when there's an error and helps you find the cause quickly. It walks you through exactly how you should handle it.

What needs improvement?

If you don't have a technical background, it's somewhat complex, but you don't need to have coding or software development experience, so it is easy in that sense.  I am not technically inclined, and it involves many steps for a process to function properly. It requires a lot of work initially to design and develop a process. I find it somewhat challenging.  If you take time to understand it, it's not too difficult, but it seems complicated at the beginning if you're not a technical person.  

The time needed to learn the solution varies. Some of the processes are complex, involving four or five activities from start to finish. It's a lot of steps and can get quite technical. It might take a month or two to learn. 

Buyer's Guide
Automation Anywhere (AA)
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Automation Anywhere (AA). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Automation Anywhere for six months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Automation Anywhere is highly stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I'm impressed with Automation Anywhere's scalability. 

How was the initial setup?

I found the setup process to be somewhat complex because I don't come from a technical background. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Automation Anywhere eight out of ten. We recommend adopting Automation Anywhere. Using digital platforms to automate is efficient and cost-effective. Many tasks that might normally take a day or two can be done in a few hours. You also reduce the risk of human error. It's highly efficient and accurate. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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PeerSpot user
Software Engineer(RPA) Certified Advanced RPA in Professional Automation Anywhere at Prodapt
Real User
Enables us to automate high-priority projects first and gradually shift our focus to automating smaller, manually-driven projects
Pros and Cons
  • "Automation Anywhere offers valuable features, including command packages for PDF, Windows, XML, and Excel, as well as universal recording capabilities."
  • "Extracting customer addresses from Google that are not in a standard URL format is a challenge for Automation Anywhere."

What is our primary use case?

We use Automation Anywhere for our clients which consists of banks and a telecommunication company to automate their developing systems using bots. We receive the process definition documents from our clients and we developed a process that they need to approve before we can implement the automation.

How has it helped my organization?

With Automation Anywhere, we can automate high-priority projects first and gradually shift our focus to automating smaller, manually-driven projects.

It takes around three months to train non-technical people to use Automation Anywhere. We start training on simple Excel automation tasks and progress from there.

Automation Co-Pilot has helped increase productivity. The bots save three to five minutes for each small task per person and even more time on larger tasks. One bot can handle thousands of projects.

Automation Co-Pilot has helped save staff time for other projects.

Automation Anywhere successfully integrates automation into workflows, APIs, business applications, and documents. Everything runs seamlessly in the backend with no issues. 

What is most valuable?

Automation Anywhere offers valuable features, including command packages for PDF, Windows, XML, and Excel, as well as universal recording capabilities.

What needs improvement?

Automation Anywhere has difficulty collecting data from Citrix and Oracle applications.

Extracting customer addresses from Google that are not in a standard URL format is a challenge for Automation Anywhere.

I would like Automation Anywhere to make available more development tools, so our people can learn on their own and enhance their skills.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Automation Anywhere for just over one and a half years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Automation Anywhere effectively automates our manual tasks at scale.

How was the initial setup?

We clear up any issues in the testing phase, so once we are ready to deploy it is straightforward.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution itself is free unless we want to add the support option but we have to pay for the bots we use. There are two types of payment options: monthly or quarterly licenses for the bot agents. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Between Automation Anywhere, UiPath, and Blue Prism I find Automation Anywhere to be the best with UiPath a close second.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten.

Upgrading Automation Anywhere is easy.

We use Automation Anywhere in multiple projects and multiple teams.

Maintenance is required for updating bots or if changes are made by the developers.

We have five to six people working around the clock who are responsible for the bot maintenance.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Buyer's Guide
Automation Anywhere (AA)
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Automation Anywhere (AA). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
SabrinaTrabelsi - PeerSpot reviewer
Developer at Inetum
Real User
Top 20
Has cloud capacity, can increase automation consumption, and is scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "The capacity to use Automation Anywhere in the cloud is the most valuable feature."
  • "We have a new feature share in Automation Anywhere, but it does not migrate automatically from the previous version to the new one."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution to automate the financial process.

How has it helped my organization?

Automation Anywhere has helped improve our organization by automating many processes that used to take us a lot of time.

We see the benefits of Automation Anywhere within one year of launching a project.

Automation Anywhere has been helpful in scaling our organization's automation efforts.

The latest version of Automation Anywhere makes it easy to integrate RPA bots, APIs, business applications, and documents. However, we had a lot of problems migrating from the previous version.

Automation Anywhere has helped our organization increase automation consumption.

What is most valuable?

The capacity to use Automation Anywhere in the cloud is the most valuable feature.

What needs improvement?

We have a new feature share in Automation Anywhere, but it does not migrate automatically from the previous version to the new one. Therefore, we had to do a lot of work to adapt the records to the network, which was a problem.

I would like Automation Anywhere to have more integration with for example, with AI platforms.

The technical support response has room for improvement.

Automation Anywhere is not user-friendly and could be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Automation Anywhere for four years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Automation Anywhere is scalable. We have 100 end-users and the solution is deployed across multiple locations and departments.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support response time is slow. They are difficult to contact and I am not satisfied with their support.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I previously used UiPath, which is more user-friendly than Automation Anywhere. UiPath has many more features, and a better platform, making it easier to learn.

How was the initial setup?

My manager completed the initial setup, but I believe it was complex. The deployment required one person from Automation Anywhere and four people from our technical office, including my manager.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was completed in-house with the assistance of an Automation Anywhere tech.

What other advice do I have?

I give Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten.

Automation Anywhere requires users to have some technical skills to use it.

For someone who wants to use an API integration instead of a robust process automation solution, I would say that it depends on the API process. Performance is not the only factor to consider.

We have two people responsible for the maintenance of the solution.

We maintain our bots daily because our processes are complex and ever-changing. We spend around two hours each day maintaining bots.

Automation Anywhere has a steep learning curve and should not be learned on the job.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1466877 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technology Test Lead at Infosys Technologies Ltd
Real User
The intelligent OCR helps with accurate form field and text field data extraction from unstructured documents
Pros and Cons
  • "Bot Insights is neatly integrated into the platform, which enables us to develop rapidly and train the learning instances using pre-defined domains over the purchase orders, forms, and invoices that need to be processed."
  • "While exporting a package, an option to de-select all the depending/referenced files should be available. Currently, it only allows for selecting all the files. Also, the views should be re-sizable as they are currently a fixed width. This would enable to view long file names easily eliminating any chances of exporting the wrong file."

What is our primary use case?

We get many banking and finance use cases e.g. reconciliation, accounts payable, etc. from banking clients which involves the extraction of unstructured data from various scanned and true PDF documents. Post this, the data needs to be validated and triaged before feeding it into SAP and Java-based applications. 

The Automation Anywhere platform has always stood out from the rest of the solutions available on the market given we have IQ Bots and Bot Insights neatly integrated into the platform which enables us to develop rapidly and train the learning instances using pre-defined domains over the purchase orders, forms, invoices that need to be processed. Post extraction of the form and data fields from the documents we post them into SAP and Java-based applications. Automation Anywhere's ease of automation with these types of applications helps to deliver consistent and reliable automation in record time.

We are currently using AAE 11.3.5.1 Client with Control Room, IQBots, MetaBots, Bot Insights, and AA2019 capabilities.

How has it helped my organization?

Automation Anywhere has and continues to help us deliver multiple complex and very complex use cases in record time. With AA2019, this ease of development and rapid time to market has improved by a great margin as virtually no setups and configurations are required. Converting prospects into leads into opportunities has never been easier. AA2019 enables us to build POCs quickly without waiting for IT guys to install AAE client as no setups are needed to build BOTs. This enables us to give demos to clients at lighting speeds and gain client confidence in the capabilities and kind of automation we can execute as an Automation CoE.

What is most valuable?

1. IQ Bot: IQ Bot makes it a breeze to classify banking documents, purchase orders, and invoices. Also, intelligent OCR helps with accurate form field and text field data extraction from unstructured documents. The easy cloud training of the already existing domains and integration with task bots is the icing on the cake.

2. MetaBots - Metabots makes capturing and re-calibrating screen controls in (offline mode as well) really easy. This enables us to make changes to the UI Assets easy.

3. AA2019 helps us to rapidly try out POCs without going through the install cycle and setting up the control room. This is a very important and critical step given we can build automation rapidly and show to prospective clients helping foster confidence amongst the business enabling growth.

What needs improvement?

Points to Improve:

1. Control Room -> While exporting a package, an option to de-select all the depending/referenced files should be available. Currently, it only allows for selecting all the files. Also, the views should be re-sizable as they are currently fixed width. This would enable to view long file names easily eliminating any chances of exporting the wrong file.

Points to Add in next release(s):

1. Availability of actions for Date and time functions in task bots, meta bots logics editor like Date Addition, calendar functions, etc.

2. Addition of Assertions activities, that can help with conditional compilations

3. Option to copy multiple variables at the same time (as selected by the developer)

4. Option to close all the task bots files in the editor at a go

5. Option to check-out multiple files inside a folder structure in a go

6. List and array should be made dynamic, as in there must not be a requirement to specify at least 1 element in the list, etc.  

7. Deletion of multiple variables in one go (as selected by a developer)

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Automation Anywhere for over three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution has been becoming better with every release. We have been reporting bugs and supporting the developer teams to make Automation Anywhere more stable and better. With AAE version 11.x.x.x most of the feedbacks are incorporated and solutions are stable and performant.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability with Automation Anywhere has been great. BOT farms have helped rapidly and dynamically spawn up or down the BOT runners. 

How are customer service and technical support?

We always get a prompt response from customer service and technical support. I really find the priority technical support the depth at which they go to help us find a solution to issues is simply amazing. I have not experienced this with any other solution vendor. A big thumbs up to you guys. 

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup was a breeze and fairly straightforward with all the great support from Automation Anywhere customer service and various technical teams.

What about the implementation team?

We have used vendor teams and in-house teams to implement various solutions. Vendor team people have good knowledge of the various components of Automation Anywhere and know how to design effective, performant solutions in record time.

What was our ROI?

Post implementing AA, ROI numbers have grown exponentially. Given the scalability and dynamics that Automation Anywhere platform supports.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

1. Setup cost is minimal as AAE Control Room is hosted in the cloud. Also, with AAE no dedicated setups need to be run and installed

2. Licensing cost is relatively less compared to other solutions on the market

3. Pricing stands out well compared to other solutions 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have evaluated UiPath and Blue Prism.

What other advice do I have?

Automation Anywhere has been a significant step in our digital transformation. AA2019 addresses a lot of gaps that we previously had. This makes Automation Anywhere stands out in the market making it an obvious choice.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Associate Consultant at Ernst & Young
Real User
SAP GUI commands in the latest update is helpful as a lot of processes have SAP involved
Pros and Cons
  • "It has definitely helped automating a lot of processes, but it is very difficult to build resilient bots. It is very difficult to find skilled developers in the market, who actually build resilient bots with appropriate error handling. Maintaining the bots is another challenge as the applications keep changing."
  • "Queues are great but need improvement. They are helpful because most of the automations are transaction-based."

What is our primary use case?

Primarily we use it for automating back-office operations processes. Some of the most frequent use cases are:

1. Invoice processing and proofing.

2. Reconciliation

3. Automating Timesheets

4. SOW invoice creation.

5. Creation of Credit memos

6. Pulling data from SAP and generating a report.

We use VDIs to deploy. Client & runner environment is mostly Win 10. Most of the bots are scheduled. 

Some organizations still use the manual click on the run button method instead of scheduling or running from CR.

How has it helped my organization?

It has definitely helped automating a lot of processes, but it is very difficult to build resilient bots. It is very difficult to find skilled developers in the market, who actually build resilient bots with appropriate error handling. Maintaining the bots is another challenge as the applications keep changing.

It is even more difficult to support a bot than build from scratch. No matter how much you document, things do turn haywire if someone new has to make changes to an existing bot. 

Documenting the AA Solution SDD, PDD is another pain point. It is very common to miss out on a lot of things. 

I feel that in places it is better to create a system to automate rather than use RPA.

What is most valuable?

Most of the features are valuable. 

1. SAP GUI commands in the latest update is helpful as a lot of processes have SAP involved. 2. APIs are helpful too, but they certainly need more improvement. APIs help in building resiliency.

3. Queues are great but need improvement. They are helpful because most of the automations are transaction-based.

 4. Good old object cloning is always helpful as it is versatile.

5. Metabots help in working with many of the legacy applications. But needs improvement there as well.

6. Credential Vaults are helpful, but needs improvement there too.


What needs improvement?

1. Excel commands should include more features.

2. Need more variable types for eg. date, amount, number, etc

3. Better API support and more APIs.

4. Queues should be enabled to directly connect to DBs.

5. Managing so many variables is a pain. Some kind of variable initialization mechanism like how Blue Prism has it will be helpful.

6. Input-output variables should be defined for taskbots as well.

7.There are a lot of glitches in AA not fixed since Ver 10. Reach me to know more about them.

8. The commands should help evaluate the current state of variables(like how in Blue prism)

10. Metabots should have command to stop the task. Basically should have all commands of a task bot.

11. No one uses "WorkFlows".

12. The user roles and the Credential Vaults administration, sharing and the whole thing in action is very confusing.

13. Automatic technical logging option should be given by default in all commands like how we have in BP.


For how long have I used the solution?

4

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

When it comes to RPA, for every step things should be in the right way at the right time. It is very difficult. So I would rate it as a 5 out of 10 on scalability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable, though, in an organizational setup where teams work in silos, I have never seen any organization truly using the scalability to its full potential.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is okay. At times it takes a lot of email exchanges involved before actually setting up a call and getting help.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

AA is all I am using. Blue Prism is used but I prefer AA. Though Blue Prism is better in certain aspects mentioned earlier.

How was the initial setup?

It is the same as how enterprise applications should have in terms of complexity.

What about the implementation team?

We develop RPA solutions for clients.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Costs are ok. IQ Bot is too expensive. Bot Vision should come for free as one can easily use a number of other visualization options for free. There is no point in paying too much for too little.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have evaluated Blue Prism along with AA

What other advice do I have?

We need some support of documentation methodologies so that the knowledge is easily transferrable through the documents.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: My company is an AA partner. I am a developer
PeerSpot user
Sr IS Manager at Amgen Inc.
Video Review
Real User
Attended automation can help people organically build automation
Pros and Cons
  • "I love the Bot Store. I encourage a lot of my staff to use it, because it changes the game and the time that it takes to build automation. It has a lot of reusable things that you can use off the bat."
  • "I would like to see a lot around API integration going forward, like the ability for other systems to talk to the AI better by opening it up. I would like to see more chatbots or anything in the journey of making it truly immersive for human workers working with these bots."

What is our primary use case?

We are a biotech company. We make medicines to cure cancers. 

We use Automation Anywhere for intelligence automation or robotic process automation. So, we use it finance, accounting, and supply chain. We are actual using it across multiple functions in the company.

We have automated a number of processes in accounting and finance: month-end close, eliminating profits, reconciliation, some in HR, some in operations, inventory to sell, and various other finance and account processes.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature for Automation Anywhere is that it enables developers to build bots and feel like they can contribute.

I love the Bot Store. I encourage a lot of my staff to use it, because it changes the game and the time that it takes to build automation. It has a lot of reusable things that you can use off the bat.

My impressions of the front office attended automation are that it really changes the game from automation which doesn't have high value. It can actually help people organically build automation. It helps change the game for more wide spread use.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see a lot around API integration going forward, like the ability for other systems to talk to the AI better by opening it up. I would like to see more chatbots or anything in the journey of making it truly immersive for human workers working with these bots.

There are a couple things that have room for improvement: Its openness and more APIs should be exposed to allow people to integrate. How do you make it easier to integrate back with this technology?

I would like it to do more predict, which means if I have a thousand bots in product, how do I check which of the bots may be at risk of failing? This would really help in supporting the bots when scaling the programs.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have had the solution for quite some time.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The more later versions that you implement, the better that they get. Any enterprise software has its gaps, but it is how quickly it is being addressed. In the latest versions, it has become much better compared to what was there in the past. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have them implemented in a cloud-based environment. Cloud by itself allows you to scale. As long as the software works there, it allows you to really scale.

To scale from pilots to the current number of bots that we are using, it took three to six months. That was the time frame. We started pilots on some functions, and learning from our pilots was key.

How are customer service and technical support?

There is definitely some room for improvement there. It is sort of a hit and miss with their support engineers, you have some really good ones and some that aren't. Consistency is the key. There is room to get consistent. I am giving them the feedback, because as you get more customers, support becomes the linchpin where you can either drive a customer away or get them to use the product more.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

For the last year, we were really focused around using it for the right purposes and processes. We have had fragmented solutions, then we decided to pick one player. We already had the tool (Automation Anywhere). It was more about doubling down on our investment on one product, then really getting good at using it. 

How was the initial setup?

We have had the solution for a long time. As you go to cloud-based solutions, there are some nuances, which is less about the initial setup and more about when you have a version that you need to migrate or update. This is an area where we have faced some hiccups, but we were able to get around them.

What about the implementation team?

We used a combination of an integrator and consultant for the deployment. We have used many different companies who are premium partners with Automation Anywhere, and we are also focused on building a COE internally, so we can do some of it ourselves. 

What was our ROI?

We measure ROI by a number of factors: 

  • Hard savings from cost dollars
  • Looking at the NPV over number of years.
  • Labor
  • What control or compliance things that we could be saving.
  • Productivity
  • Employee satisfaction. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Roughly, as of today, it is around $250,000 annually.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We had literally everything under the sun, like WorkFusion and UiPath. It was more about focusing on Automation Anywhere, and only if we hit a roadblock that the solution could not solve, then we should look at the other tools.

What other advice do I have?

I would say that they are a nine out of ten. Because if they are a ten, then they sit back and relax. To get a ten, there are some small tweaks to be done. I think the company is going in the right direction. It just needs more focused attention in certain small gaps, then they will get there.

The ease of use is its key novel feature. It is much better than earlier versions. I have actually trained people in finance who have not written a piece of code in their lives. They are able to pick it up. There is a learning curve, some it takes them some time, but it is definitely easy for them to use. I have a couple of folks who have not done automation before, and now they are able to go back to their jobs where we used to build automation for functions. They can now understand what we built for them and actually contribute to a certain extent for it.

Get started with the tool. Think of the structure because using the technology is not the problem, it is more on the governance and how to use it. How can you maximize your benefits that you are receiving? It is about getting your hands dirty and trying it on small PoCs. That is how we started; we started on small PoCs. That's the key.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Karthick Chandra - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
I don't have much technical knowledge, but I learned the solution in a month using the vendor's training courses
Pros and Cons
  • "From the customer's perspective, the biggest benefits are automation of the security and monitoring systems."
  • "The IQ Bots have a lot of room for improvement in terms of accuracy level. We need to improvise a lot. I'm facing another big challenge with one of the use cases. We raised a ticket and did multiple follow-ups with support, but the accuracy still isn't up to the mark."

What is our primary use case?

The use cases I use Automation Anywhere for are for healthcare and revenue.

How has it helped my organization?

From the customer's perspective, the biggest benefits are automation of the security and monitoring systems. Our automation consumption has increased considerably since we began using Automation Anywhere. Initially, we were using two or three bots. Now, we have almost 25. In terms of revenue, we can save around $10 million through automation. We still have room to expand, and we're looking to implement more bots, especially IQ bots, but we have some concerns about the accuracy level. 

What is most valuable?

Automation Anywhere is easy to learn for business users without technical knowledge. For example, I don't have much technical knowledge, but I learned how to use the solution from Automation Anywhere University. It's a user-friendly solution everyone can understand and implement in their business with the help of Automation Anywhere University. The university is more than enough to develop a small bot. It's a comfortable platform. Even the new employees who don't know about automation can gain experience. It only took me about one month to learn the solution. 

What needs improvement?

The IQ Bots have a lot of room for improvement in terms of accuracy level. We need to improvise a lot. I'm facing another big challenge with one of the use cases. We raised a ticket and did multiple follow-ups with support, but the accuracy still isn't up to the mark. 

We've been exploring FortressIQ and tools that use AI/ML in the past three or four months. We're looking at ways to implement those tools in new areas, but there is a gap because Automation Anywhere University doesn't have much information about them yet. 

We have web recording applications, so we need something like AI to be involved where we can give a verbal command, and the bot can learn to do an automated process. That's the kind of technology or innovation required from the business perspective. If a business consultant can interact with a generative AI or some other advanced AI that can act as a developer, the development cost will come down drastically. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Automation Anywhere for more than six years.

How are customer service and support?

I rate Automation Anywhere support seven out of 10.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't deal with purchasing, but I know that Automation Anywhere is more cost-effective than Blue Prism. I won't say the cost is low, but I can say that it's cost-effective. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Automation Anywhere seven out of 10 overall.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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PeerSpot user
Sr. Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
An easy-to-learn solution that can be used for for web scraping, PDF automation, Excel automation, and API automation
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of Automation Anywhere are Excel, periods, database, and email action."
  • "Automation Anywhere should improve its OCR capabilities."

What is our primary use case?

We use Automation Anywhere for web scraping, PDF automation, Excel automation, and API automation.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of Automation Anywhere are Excel, periods, database, and email action.

What needs improvement?

Automation Anywhere should improve its OCR capabilities.

I would like to see more communication between other technologies. We can directly implement some coding scripts. We already have Python, JavaScript, and VBA, but having some programming languages like Java and dot Net would be great.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Automation Anywhere for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Automation Anywhere is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Automation Anywhere is a scalable solution.

Our company has different teams, and more than 500 users are using Automation Anywhere in our organization. More than 20 administrators use the solution.

How are customer service and support?

The solution's technical support team gives you different solutions. Some solutions work, but others seem irrelevant. It would help our organization if they gave accurate solutions instead of tentative solutions. They have to improve the speed of their response time.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The solution's initial setup is easy and not very complex.

What about the implementation team?

We develop the bot, test it on our local environment, and then take it to UAT and production. For simple usage, the solution's deployment may take around 30 days. We implement the solution through an in-house team.

We need only one resource for the solution's deployment. When everything looks good after the testing and peer review, we deploy the bot into production.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Automation Anywhere is easy to learn. I'm also looking at UiPath, but I'm not finding time to explore that RPA tool. Automation Anywhere is a hybrid tool, which we can see in the code view as well as in the flow chart view. On the other hand, UiPath has only flowchart diagrams. UiPath is ruling the RPA industry, but Automation Anywhere is next to UiPath. It would be great if Automation Anywhere had all the capabilities that are present in UiPath.

What other advice do I have?

People who don't have technical experience can learn to use Automation Anywhere quickly because it's easily understandable. They can easily build bots by going through the documentation and videos in Automation Anywhere University. Normally, business users will run the bots and know the functionality, but if they want to learn Automation Anywhere, they can easily learn it in a couple of days.

Currently, we have more than 10 bots in production and more than 20 bots under testing.

If anyone wants to use Automation Anywhere, I won't say it is a 100% perfect automation tool because it depends on the developer and logic. Users may sometimes face hiccups in running end-to-end automation. There are chances of the bot getting hampered while working on some websites.

Automation Anywhere fails to load some objects for some old technologies or websites. It would be helpful if the solution could read every technology and clone every object on the website, even for legacy technologies.

Overall, I rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Updated: March 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Automation Anywhere (AA) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.