Automation Anywhere Reviews

Coming from a startup background, we lack a formal administrative structure. This means we operate without established procedures and often tackle daily tasks, such as Excel updates or attendance tracking, on an ad-hoc basis. To address these challenges, we develop internal proofs of concept and present them to clients. In my previous role, I automated approximately ten web- and Excel-based processes using Automation Anywhere.

We implemented Automation Anywhere to address the challenge of manually entering data, such as transferring thousands of rows from Excel to a web application. When performed manually at a rate of 200 records per day, this process typically takes five days. By utilizing RPA technology, we can drastically reduce this timeframe to a matter of hours. Our primary goal is to minimize labor hours and enhance efficiency, enabling employees to focus on higher-value tasks like logic and content development instead of repetitive data entry.

The generative AI is helpful for jobs that fail. It will try to redo the same operation by implementing different numbers, and if it succeeds, it will automatically continue the process.

The task process, before and after Automation Anywhere, requires a series of actions performed by either a human or a bot. Previously, without automation, the process was identical. Rather than having employees sit at computers inputting the same data daily, automation allows for their redeployment to other areas such as administration, cash flow management, or payments. The goal of RPA is not job elimination but to enhance efficiency. While automation platforms can handle many tasks, they are not infallible and require human oversight. Regular maintenance and monitoring are essential for any automated process.

The initial learning curve for Automation Anywhere will be challenging because the drag-and-drop interface differs significantly from traditional coding. While packages are used, the underlying logic is expressed visually rather than textually. This transition may take one to two months as users acclimate to the new terminology and approach. Once familiar with the platform, developers will find it easier to construct automation processes due to their existing programming knowledge, which includes concepts like string operations, conditions, loops, and other programming language constructs. Although the terminology will be unfamiliar, the underlying logic remains consistent, making the platform more accessible over time.

The training takes at least four months for technical employees to learn, understand, and implement what they learn.

Automation Copilot is a valuable tool for streamlining daily tasks, but human oversight is essential during execution. For instance, if a sales representative quotes a package requiring managerial approval in a tourism scenario, the process should automatically route to the manager for confirmation via email, message, or another preferred method. While Automation Copilot is beneficial, it's crucial to incorporate a mechanism within the process to handle this manual intervention.

Organizations can benefit from Automation Anywhere's document, web, and Excel automation capabilities.

Automation and AI used to be a frightening prospect for our clients, who feared job displacement. However, they have embraced the idea after experiencing how these technologies can free up their time for more critical tasks.

Our organization has integrated Automation Anywhere with Epicor, Aurora, Dynamic 365, SAP, and Power BI.

Due to the numerous internal teams and domains, Automation Anywhere has been implemented across various IT departments within our organization. Multiple processes within each team have been automated using Automation Anywhere, from account management to application maintenance. These automated processes often involve handling documents, APIs, Excel files, or web-based interactions.

The most valuable feature is the back-end process automation. I primarily encountered this issue in back-end operations. To illustrate, consider the medical industry where I previously worked. ICD codes, a critical component, must be mapped by the administrative department. Traditionally, reconciling a single report was a manual, ten-hour task. Automation Anywhere offers a clear advantage over other market solutions by streamlining these time-consuming back-end processes.

Although the UI and elements are user-friendly, it is still difficult for business users without experience to understand how to use Automation Anywhere.

Automation Copilot has generated a strong foundation, but its analytics capabilities lag behind competitors. While Automation Anywhere offers numerous built-in dashboards, its data visualization options are limited. In contrast, Microsoft Power Automate provides extensive data manipulation and visualization flexibility, allowing users to create various chart types and formats. To remain competitive, Automation Anywhere must significantly enhance its data visualization features.

Licensing fees could be a barrier to entry for many potential customers interested in using Automation Anywhere.

A major drawback of Automation Anywhere is the lack of notification for all customers when upgrades occur. Without any information about these upgrades, it is difficult to determine specific details.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for five years.

I contacted technical support for problems related to the in-progress tab. In 2021 or 2022, numerous tasks appeared in the in-progress tab despite not running on the machines in real time. This led to the development of an API to address the issue. However, a new problem arose: when triggering the bot on runner machines, the bot was not actually triggered on those machines, yet it still appeared in the in-progress tab. This discrepancy persisted despite multiple reports, but the issue was resolved recently.

Neutral

The initial deployment is straightforward.

BotCity is a newcomer to the RPA market, currently holding ninth place on the top ten list. They are rapidly expanding and offer a unique advantage: no additional software is needed as long as the system supports Python.

I would rate Automation Anywhere seven out of ten.

Maintenance is required for server-based environments but not for cloud-based architectures since Automation Anywhere is self-hosted and managed by them.

In the banking, financial services, and manufacturing domains it is used for process automation and OCR.

For example, it is used by banks for large-scale reconciliation. A group of companies often has multiple bank accounts. We have to do the reconciliation with multiple currencies. On a daily basis, there can be more than 10,000 transactions.

We have implemented Automation Co-Pilot in our organization. Suppose a business head needs to check the details about a customer, such as order history, payment clearance time, how many invoices have been sent, and how many of them have cleared on time. They may also need information about how many projects they have executed with that customer, how many of their resources have been used, and how long that customer has been associated with their organization. I get all this information in one portal by using Automation Co-pilot.

It is talking with Monday.com, our CRM, as well as with our in-house project management tool, and SAP, where I get all the account details. It gets all the information needed and more, such as how many times we had discussions with the customer about multiple projects, and which salesperson is assigned to that customer. All the details required for business management are presented on one page, using Co-Pilot.

An example of how Automation Co-Pilot has affected our productivity is that in India the taxation system differs from that in the UK. Everything is on a government portal. If I want to deal with new customers and need data about their previous taxation, I obtain all the details from the government portal using Co-Pilot.

We also use Co-Pilot for customer support. We are the number-one partner in India for Tableau and data analytics and we have many projects where we provide Tableau support. We've configured Co-Pilot to gather all the necessary background information from our support system about a customer who raises a ticket. This information is displayed on one screen from our project management systems, repositories, and accounts. All the details are presented in our ticketing software, Jira. Based on this information, we understand the customer's scenario, and what kind of dashboards and RPA processes they have implemented. Initially, a customer support ticket is opened by a chatbot, not a human. The chatbot communicates with the customer and registers the ticket. A bot then opens the ticket and triggers Co-Pilot to gather all the details. With all the details collected, a bot will then assign that ticket to a specific person. This process, which used to require three people, is now done completely by bots.

Another benefit is around approval processes. You can build one using Automation Anywhere Co-Pilot when multiple levels of approvals are involved. Initially, we didn't have an approval process. Multiple people were in approvals. Now, with all the details in a ticket, when it is resolved, it is approved by the manager. That wasn't integrated into Jira, so we automated that in Co-Pilot. A solution should be verified by a senior person. Now, when tickets are approved, it helps us provide a good customer experience and customers will renew their contracts.

And in banking, where you have thousands of loan applications each day, assessing each application involves getting the applicant's credit score and details from multiple portals and government websites. Making a decision for one applicant used to take half an hour. But by using Co-Pilot, the decision-making time is reduced to just five or 10 minutes. It is genuinely helping people speed up operations and decision-making processes.

It has also helped us increase automation. Every day we are sending the "overdue" report to everyone in sales because they do the recoveries. The salespeople update all the details in the database and a reminder is automatically sent to the customer as well as the salesperson if the payment has not cleared within the payment terms. Initially, there were three people generating the reports and sending them to Salesforce, updating SAP, et cetera. Now, there's only one person who is handling the exceptions, because there are exceptions that are not handled by the bot.

Now, our salespeople are focusing more on business opportunities and not worrying about payments. Most of the time, payments are taken care of by the bot.

After we implemented that process, we then implemented vendor invoice processing, customer invoice processing, customer payments, PO processing, and bank reconciliation. We have implemented multiple processes.

The most valuable feature, which was launched last year, is Automation Co-Pilot. Microsoft has a co-pilot, but it's only for Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint. But Automation Anywhere offers a co-pilot that is suitable for Salesforce, Genesys, Atlassian, and other contact center and standard applications. This is a game-changing feature for Automation Anywhere compared to the market. We are also getting good responses from customers about this product.

Automation Anywhere is easy to use. In my experience with more than 100 customers, coding is not a big deal nor is writing the bot. Understanding the process and providing optimized workflow, and fitting RPA properly for their processes are important.

In terms of the learning curve, Automation Anywhere provides detailed resources through their portal, including instructor-led training, prerecorded sessions, and exams. When training my team, I initially recommend that they go to the Automation Anywhere University. Then, for two days, I provide high-level training, covering the use cases and overall process. We then give simple use cases to the team and they are ready to implement them. Within three months, I have trained a team of over 20.

I hire people who have worked with other technologies but who want to shift to RPA. They already have knowledge of processes and their logic is strong. Others don't know about logic or how to apply algorithms.

I'm impressed with the solution's OCR and document automation because I've worked with multiple OCRs and Automation Anywhere has built in most of the document formats so you can easily get results. You can easily and quickly extract data from a PDF and it's faster than other tools.

I would like to see a low-code/no-code platform, similar to Zoho Creator or Joget, for process building, so that we can build applications within Automation Anywhere itself. Right now, we need some kind of portal that supports these types of activities. We would like to give a 360-degree solution to our customers without needing to get help from other technologies, like Joget to build processes, or Java to build custom portals.

If Automation Anywhere included these features, I would be able to include all these processes. There are features in place in Automation Anywhere right now, in AARI and Co-Pilot, but they have limitations. They do not match the development capabilities of platforms like Joget or other applications like that.

I'd like to see the stabilization of Co-Pilot and integration with multiple products. Right now, it is integrated with Genesys and Salesforce, among others. In the future, I will require integration with SAP Oracle, Atlassian, and Service Now. The contact center vertical is important and ticketing comes into the picture. We can build integration with Atlassian, but I have to do the coding and use extensions on everyone's laptops. Integration of Co-Pilot with Atlassian and other products will help the user.

For instance, if a big bank wants to automate loan application management with Co-Pilot and I need to use their CRM, if the CRM is not supported they won't do the project. And if a bank has over 3,000 loan agents, I have to install the extensions and integrations on each of their laptops. Instead, I could add one line of code inside Atlassian and get all the results automatically on everyone's laptops. This would save a lot of time for both developers and customers.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for more than four years.

Technical support is related to the product only. We receive good support from them because they respond within one hour. They even have chat support.

Customer environments aren't the same. Sometimes they block the reverse proxy or other things. That's when I need help from Automation Anywhere because they are the product experts, while we are implementation experts. If we have an issue with the product, we get help from Automation Anywhere. 

For example, if there is a problem with communication between the server and client and the bot is down, I need to contact Automation Anywhere to resolve the issue. We reach out to Automation Anywhere for these kinds of problems, but we handle process-related or implementation-related issues ourselves.

Positive

I worked with UiPath for about two to three months.

Co-Pilot is not free. It has a user-based cost. If I have 100 users, I need to purchase 100 licenses. But for practice purposes, you can get the Community Edition where you can understand all the details for implementing Co-Pilot.

The pricing is reasonable.

Automation Anywhere is the only RPA tool that is developed using something other than .NET technology. If you go for UiPath, Blue Prism, AutomationEdge, or Pega, they are all built on .NET, and only support Windows. But Automation Anywhere is developed on Java and Python entirely, and is totally web-based. Other tools are desktop-based. That means I can install their server on Linux too. Most banks and many other enterprise organizations require servers on Linux, not Windows. That's an advantage for Automation Anywhere.

We are working with one of the top-three banks in India. They have a policy that all servers have to be Linux servers. Because of that, UiPath and other tools were eliminated in the first stage of the deal.

We did build our own product related to OCR but not RPA, but Automation Anywhere is the biggest product. We also looked at Power Automate, but cost was a factor. Power Automate charges per process, not per bot. For example, it doesn't take more than 10 minutes to close the last month's General Ledger. One of our customers was paying $600 per month for this process with Power Automate. He went with Automation Anywhere, where he only had to pay $3,000 to $4,000 in total for an unattended bot, which was able to help 24/7.

And to get all the components in UiPath that are similar to what you have in Automation Anywhere, a customer would pay more than $37,000, while an Automation Anywhere customer would only pay $25,000. That is a game-changer.

As for using an API integration instead of RPA, API is faster than desktop automation, but it depends on the scenario. If you want to work with standard applications like SAP or Oracle, you can use APIs or desktop automation. I faced an issue with one of my customers who said that to do an API ABAP integration for SAP automation, he would have to pay for automation and ABAP development. I suggested he not pay for ABAP and just do desktop automation. What will be cost-effective depends on the scenario and the automation.

If a customer has to spend $10,000 on ABAP and another $30,000 to $40,000 for Automation Anywhere, they will kick us out. But if we go with Automation Anywhere and there is no need for ABAP, and instead we'll do desktop automation, the customer will be much happier because they are saving costs.

I have replaced existing portals for multiple customers. For one of my customers in Dubai, when we came into the picture, multiple things were not in their portal. They had developed the portal in-house. We started by understanding all the requirements. Before we started with RPA, we redeveloped the portal and then applied RPA OCR and pushed the data where it needed to go.

People develop their portals according to their convenience, but they don't know the standard processes and how to implement them. When they have to provide reports to management, or they have to do an audit, or they have to check details of particular transactions, they don't get the details from their existing portal or process. We standardize their process and then we implement RPA. If their process is not standardized, RPA will be a failure for the customer.

A simple process, from requirement gathering to production, takes about one month. Solutions don't require more than two or three people. For smaller projects, we don't assign a dedicated project manager. Instead, we use a shared project manager. The business analyst is also shared, because the costs of these roles need to be recovered. If the cost isn't recovered, there's no need for us to assign this role. The business analyst will do the final testing of the project because they're involved from the initial phase of the project.

The time spent maintaining bots depends on the bots, the situation, and the customer. A critical process might have 40-plus unattended bots and might take two resources during business hours for project support and monitoring. But I recommend support on an hourly basis.

An enterprise with multiple licenses should have at least one dedicated support person. That resource will provide reports to management. For instance, when discussing future projects, management will require all the information to approve the budget. We can present all the information: the number of transactions over the last month, and how much time or money was saved. Support will also provide training to business users if required. When AARI is part of the picture, we have to train people.

I automate data entry by receiving files from one system and making data entries into other applications. Additionally, I perform file transfers by receiving files from one system and uploading them to another application. I also have OFAC verification procedures, which were previously done manually. I enter a local application, and depending on the pending cases, execute all verification processes automatically, sending responses to other applications. Basically, I have extensive data transfer automation. Moreover, I have automation that receives a file from another system and executes a procedure or invokes a web service to upload or create other things.

The product, in general, is more stable. The latest version provides easier vulnerability management. The new version offers a better experience in recognizing objects. The Co-manager tool helps calculate saving costs. Many of the issues I had in version eleven were resolved in version 360. The cloud version of Automation Anywhere 360 eliminates all the vulnerability management, making it much easier to manage. The application replaced about three employees for the OFAC verification processes, thus eliminating the need to hire more people for those tasks.

The new version requires one project to be open at a time, making it slightly more difficult to manage tasks compared to the previous version. They sell every different functionality in too many separate packages, making the procurement process complicated as it requires paying additional licensing for more features.

I have been using the solution for about six years.

The support is good. Sometimes the technical team doesn't know too much about the situation, and they rely on knowledge articles. However, they have improved.

Neutral

This is my first RPA solution. I have other automation solutions in my company, but this was my first RPA solution.

The initial setup for the initial version, version eleven, is not too complex, medium. The latest version is easier because it requires less infrastructure.

One person was involved in the deployment.

The bot replaced about three employees, saving hiring costs.

I think it is expensive. It is not a cheap solution. Though there are other options that possibly can be less expensive, this is not a cheap solution. It's not for everybody.

My supervisor conducted research based on the Gartner reviews and decided to go for Automation Anywhere. This analysis was made several years ago.

The overall rating of Automation Anywhere is eight on a scale of one to ten. Other departments in my company use Control-M and Ansible for automation. If I did not have Automation Anywhere, we might have needed to hire more people for certain processes. I don't have any direct integrations, but I do have several project integrations via file or triggering a bot when an email is received.

I have used Automation Anywhere in various industries, including banking, telecommunications, retail, and oil and gas. In such clients, there's often a mismatch between systems, needing more integration. Creating new integrations from scratch, like calling APIs, is complex. Automation Anywhere bypasses this by integrating systems through their user interfaces. For instance, inserting data into an SAP database typically requires knowledge of connection strings, database design, and tables. This information isn't readily available. With Automation Anywhere, I observe users performing tasks like creating clients. I note the screen and information used, then load that into an Excel file. Automation Anywhere processes numerous transactions using Excel data and screen interactions. This accelerates digital transformation. While APIs are the ideal engineering solution for integration, robotics provides the fastest results.

We have installed Automation Anywhere on AWS, Azure, and GCP, which works well.

Automation Anywhere is user-friendly with its concept, even C-level executives can try automating tasks in five minutes, which is a great marketing strategy. However, for professionals in sectors like banking who design critical mission bots, deeper knowledge is necessary, including logging, API calls, etc. Automation Anywhere's best features are sufficient for newbies or those needing quick implementations.

Copilot is a good feature for those using machine learning and AI.

Copilot helps increase the productivity of new users.

Typically, extracting information from transactional systems requires tools like Automation Anywhere. For less structured tasks, generative AI is a great option. One area where these tools can improve is web scraping. For instance, if a website changes, traditional bots fail. However, with generative AI, we can create bots that understand page context and adjust accordingly. For example, if the input field for a flight code changes its location or ID, a generative AI-powered bot can still identify it by understanding the context of the surrounding labels, like "flight code". I believe we'll see a significant evolution in the coming years, with computer vision and generative AI enabling bots to understand the location of information on a screen and adjust web scraping strategies dynamically.

One of the main concerns with Automation Anywhere is the lack of a robust feature for capturing and managing information from the user interface, something competitors like Blue Prism already offer. In Blue Prism, you can create an "application model" to capture every control on a screen and assign them to variables, making it easy to reference and update them in your code, even if the screen layout changes. In Automation Anywhere, however, you must manually search and update capture instructions within the code, which is time-consuming and error-prone. Implementing a similar feature in Automation Anywhere would be critical for improving efficiency and maintainability. While this idea has been discussed with the company, it has yet to be implemented.

For experienced developers, there's room for improvement. For instance, code refactoring, a valuable feature, is currently impossible in Automation Anywhere. While Automation Anywhere is excellent for beginners, it could benefit from enhancements for advanced users.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for eight years.

Automation Anywhere is scalable. One of my clients, the largest bank in our country, is also one of Automation Anywhere's biggest clients. We have Automation Anywhere running on over 9,000 computers at the bank.

The technical support team is an excellent resource. We are a long-standing partner of Automation Anywhere in our country. My team possesses a deep understanding of the platform, but when we require assistance, the support team is always helpful.

Positive

The initial deployment of Automation Anywhere is straightforward. We use the bot model and deploy bot runners through the Automation Anywhere cloud, simplifying the process. While using the Automation Anywhere cloud is convenient, we've also deployed an instance in a private cloud environment like Azure or AWS, which works well. However, deploying in a private cloud requires knowledge of clustering and related concepts, so it's not suitable for everyone.

On average, a bot runner in Automation Anywhere can cost $5,000, while in Microsoft Power Automate, you can get most of the same functionality for $100. However, when you factor in the materials, support, and ecosystem of Automation Anywhere, it proves to be a more cost-effective solution overall.

I rate Automation Anywhere ten out of ten.

Typically, they release hotfixes, and if you're using Automation Anywhere's cloud platform, you receive these hotfixes automatically and at no cost. However, in my situation, as a system integrator partner of Automation Anywhere, they inform us of available hotfixes, which we then download and implement without issue.

We use Automation Anywhere to process our collections. 

We couldn't hire more people, but we had some information stored in Excel that we needed to distribute. The sales information was centralized in one area, so we automated the process of putting the information into Excel so everyone could help themselves. The benefit we get from this is increased efficiency. The bot performs the tasks four times faster than a human. Our goal is efficiency, not replacing bots humans with bots. We wanted to do more with the eight people we had and allow people to focus on what was important.

We got what we wanted, but the implementation took slightly longer than expected because we changed our methods and partners. We had some issues with our partner at the beginning, but we implemented the software in one or two months. It was fast.

I think the person in charge over there has the same mentality now, but we wanted to automate everything that is transactional or everything that impacts the client at the end of the day. We were looking to use AI to make development or programming more efficient, like finding some codes. I know Automation Anywhere has some kind of AI incorporated in it that can read PDFs and stuff. That would be nice to use, but I haven't had a chance to implement it.

We were working on a system called AS 400. Automation Anywhere performed well on that old system. It handled complicated processes. I had to review different menus and screens and give resources, storage, and databases. That's complicated.

We found a local Automation Anywhere expert and then trained someone inside the company to be a developer. This person had technical skills, so it was easy for him to understand the things in Automation Anywhere. The learning part was kind of quick, but I don't think that would be easy for a normal business user. I think it would be more complicated for a normal business user. I won't say that I learned all about Automation Anywhere, but I know how to automate simple tasks I learned by watching some videos and checking the community forums.

The Insight feature could be improved. I don't think there's a lot of information about how to use Insight, so you have to try different scenarios to understand that feature better.  

If I compare Automation Anywhere with UiPath, which has something cool that lets you automate a workflow. We have no positive response when we try to use it with Automation Anywhere. We are doing everything by code and the drag-and-drop component.

I don't think it's easy because Automation Anywhere is marketed as a low-code solution, but it isn't low-code at all. It requires some programming skills, and I don't think it would be easy for a non-technical user to program something on Automation Anywhere. 

One challenge the company faced while integrating Automation Anywhere was people. The IT department is big and has been divided into different areas, including databases, infrastructure, and support. To adopt automation anywhere, you have to put everything on the table and see what you want to do.  I also require resources with the capabilities and technical skills to program in Automation Anywhere.

We have used Automation Anywhere for four years.

I rate Automation Anywhere support nine out of 10. The support is good. The team from Colombia responsible for selling in Latin America can provide whatever you need. I don't have any complaints about that. They are always willing to offer you proof of concept in case you have to use it. I talked to somebody in Colombia because we wanted to do something in terms of proof of concept about document automation because we had so many processes that included PDFs. 

Positive

Automation Anywhere is deployed on the cloud, so I think it was very straightforward and fast. It took around one to two weeks.

Automation Anywhere is somewhat expensive. The prices are slightly higher, but if you need something, you must pay for it.

We also evaluated Blue Prism.

I rate Automation Anywhere 10 out of 10. I would recommend It for a medium-sized or enterprise business. Because of the cost, it isn't appropriate for a small business. The solution itself is good, but it isn't a low-code product.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for more than a year in my college laboratory. I utilize it for editing, collecting student assignments, data entry, report generation, grading multiple-choice questions, managing lab equipment, student communication, and automatic software installation or updating. The primary functions include handling repeated administrative tasks, data entry, feedback generation, grading processes, maintaining lab equipment processes, taking attendance, and communicating with students. If any software installation or update in the lab is required, I manage it with the help of labs.

The task bot is the most valuable feature, which I use primarily to automate repetitive and rule-based tasks like attendance tracking, grading, and report generation. I also utilize IQ Bots for more complex tasks involving unstructured data, and email automation for sending bulk reminders to students. It reduces my work time significantly, giving me the ability to focus on other manual tasks. Without Automation Anywhere, my tasks would take much more time, as these repetitive human tasks need daily attention.

Overall improvement is needed for non-technical users who face challenges with how to use it and how to perform more tasks. It should be more user interface friendly for non-technical users and enhance its ease of integration with third-party applications.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for more than a year in my college laboratory.

When we discuss its scalability, it is available across various departments and adapts well.

There are many FAQs, personal calls, and community forums available. Technical support can be easily obtained through official channels, although sometimes the community forum is not accessible to many users.

I used UiPath before starting Automation Anywhere. I also used Blue Prism, which was difficult due to its need for coding.

Initially, we found it a bit complex, but after learning about it, it served us well. For complex tasks, deployment takes about two to three days.

We can achieve nearly eight lakhs per annum in total savings by using Automation Anywhere.

I recommend Automation Anywhere to other users because it minimizes repetitive human tasks, saves time, and helps reduce costs. I would rate Automation Anywhere nine out of ten.

Our company uses Automation Anywhere for enterprise automation of various finance tasks, focusing on accounting. This includes processing accounts payable invoices, managing oil and gas revenue, extracting data from text, and downloading files from our ERP system. These automated processes, some of which are business-critical and complex, enhance efficiency and accuracy within our finance operations.

Automation Anywhere has helped to address process bottlenecks and departmental inefficiency. It is used as an attempt to streamline operations.

It simplifies the management of complex workloads.

Automation Anywhere has a significant learning curve, but it is understandable and reasonable. Having a support team makes the process easier compared to learning it independently.

The training for non-technical users takes one to two months.

We've integrated numerous tools with Automation Anywhere, most notably our accounting system, which is interfaced via SQL and terminal. Additionally, we utilize RPA to interact with various systems employed by other departments.

One of the strengths of Automation Anywhere is its user-friendly interface, which makes it accessible even to those without a development background. As someone who began with no coding knowledge, I found it a great entry point into the world of automation. This accessibility, compared to tools like UiPath, stems from its intuitive design. Furthermore, the capacity to deploy RPA solutions across various virtual devices, a common feature in RPA, is invaluable for streamlining and scaling automation efforts.

Automation Anywhere's API feature is a fantastic offering, providing the valuable ability to call or execute tasks.

As a developer, I find Automation Anywhere's bot editor riddled with minor workflow issues that hinder productivity. For instance, the broken bot package versioning system prevents copying and pasting code between bots with different package versions, a stark contrast to the flexibility of Python. This inconvenience arises even when transferring code between bots within the same process, significantly disrupting workflow. While there are other minor improvements I could suggest, Automation Anywhere has been, albeit slowly, addressing our concerns.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for five years.

The stability of Automation Anywhere is quite good, with few outages from the platform itself.

Automation Anywhere is a very scalable product capable of handling large-scale automation operations.

In my experience, Automation Anywhere's technical support has been lacking. Many of their representatives don't understand the product enough to offer effective assistance. As a developer, it's frustrating to encounter issues and try to communicate them to support staff who seem unfamiliar with the underlying technology. This lack of product knowledge hinders effective troubleshooting and resolution.

Our current support plan is the most basic, so I don't anticipate a quick resolution. However, they generally respond within the expected timeframe for this level of support.

Neutral

Although I wasn't involved in deploying Automation Anywhere, I recall the process being straightforward and immediately successful for the company.

The implementation included a team of four to five individuals supported by a contractor.

We evaluated UiPath and another product that I cannot recall.

I would rate Automation Anywhere a nine out of ten.

My experience upgrading Automation Anywhere from an on-premise solution to the cloud was challenging despite some helpful features. While a tool was provided to convert version 11 tasks to 360, it introduced unnecessary code during migration. This inefficiency may be specific to Automation Anywhere or a common issue with automation upgrades. Regardless, the process was lengthy and tedious.

Automation Anywhere requires considerable maintenance due to a combination of factors. Our automation of an older Java-based accounting solution causes some challenges. Additionally, automating browser-based tasks in large oil and gas SaaS companies leads to frequent breakage of bots when the underlying HTML or code changes. Consequently, ongoing maintenance is necessary and will be a permanent responsibility for our maintenance team, which includes our project leader and a group of developers.

Establish consistent policies and procedures before doing anything. This aligns with the Center of Excellence framework. Having clear, consistent policies is important before building bots and implementing solutions.

We have built over 75 automations with Automation Anywhere across various teams in the organization, delivering a high value for our internal teams. We have explored a couple of process transformations with Automation Anywhere using their IQ bots and AI automation tools.

We have integrated applications like SAP ECC, One Source Automation, and SharePoint using Python code. Our company has 25 AA developers. 

AA improves process consistency and reduces human error. We have saved our clients considerable time using Automation Anywhere. While we don't assess the dollar savings, we look at the amount of time saved per project. The tasks were previously completed by hand, but Automation Anywhere enabled a lot of process automation, giving users automation that runs around the clock. For example, we can automate processes to address point-in-time reports so a user doesn't need to wake up at midnight to handle these issues. 

We haven't gotten approval to implement AI, but when we do, I believe it will accelerate the time savings we realize through automation. We will work with other teams to show them the value of AI and automation. 

Automation Anywhere's most valuable feature is its ease of use. It's easy to envision a solution or process to transform with Automation Anywhere from end to end. We can realize the value much faster because it's easy to use and understand. 

All the features are impressive. We haven't had a chance to use the Copilot or other AI features, but the studio is great. It's the platform where we build the bots. The IQ Bot used to be excellent, but the IQ Bot isn't available anymore. I believe it's document automation, which is also very good.

Anyone at any level can use Automation Anywhere. Once you get the hang of it, it's highly intuitive, and the learning curve is short. We started seeing value from Automation Anywhere within a month or so after implementation, but that was with the older version. It's even faster now that everything is on the web.

Training employees using the courses takes a couple of weeks, followed by another week or so of hands-on learning on the platform. It takes about four weeks to onboard a user.

Automation Anywhere can improve its integration. For example, you can't directly integrate Automation Anywhere with SharePoint or third-party applications seamlessly. Adding seamless third-party integration would add a lot of value to the platform. We need to use APIs or Python coding to integrate the third-party applications. If Automation Anywhere could add some connectors, that would be great. 

I'd love to see the ability to build web or mobile applications that are integrated with Automation Anywhere bots, so that a user can work on a web interface directly. Then, it can be linked to the Automation Anywhere bots in the background. They just hit a button, and all the data or information will be used by the bot to do some process in the back end.

We have used Automation Anywhere for five years.

We've never had any issues with stability.

It's easy to build automations and scale Automation Anywhere.

I rate Automation Anywhere support 10 out of 10. The tech support is great. We have a CSM we can contact for information, and they're very responsive. 

Positive

We use the SaaS model of Automation Anywhere, so the deployment was easy. We set up the infrastructure in under a week. We worked closely with the Automation Anywhere folks because we wanted a clean slate. We didn't want to migrate from the older version to the SaaS edition and took it as an opportunity to clean up the bots. It didn't require much effort, and only two people were involved. The upgrade process was simple. Maintenance is minimal. It only takes a couple of people to maintain 75 bots. 

Automation Anywhere's pricing is excellent.

I rate Automation Anywhere nine out of 10. I would recommend it to others. It's intuitive and easy to implement.