Automation Anywhere Reviews

I work in the Management Consulting domain and hence am working with huge amounts of data, using advanced Excel formulae and creating reports and dashboards for clients is a routine. I primarily used the RPA AA2019 to automate and streamline few weekly reports which track KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for few products. Also, I automated the process of Quality checks which we perform after creating the reports. Another use case that I have automated is sending a Zoom meeting invite through outlook. The user only needs to enter a few details like attendees, date, and the time of the meeting.

My organization i.e ZS has been a partner of AA for the past couple of years and this year the organization decided to reach the next level by introducing a pilot program wherein many associates are onboarded to the AA2019 tool and can implement robust and efficient solutions using the same thereby increasing productivity across the organization. This has been a success and we are planning to scale the program to a much wider audience within the organization. The saving of efforts within my project has been to the tune of 20% as of now and I am sure that it will improve as we explore the tool more and automate many more processes.

The Capture command has been a lifesaver for me in each of my use cases and the advanced Excel functionalities like running macro, reading and manipulating data, etc. It allows the bot creator to leverage the inbuilt functionalities that AA2019 has to offer to a great extent. Also, the functionality of designing child and parent bots help me to design the process in a modular way. Additionally, the error handling capabilities of the tool has really improved the troubleshooting experience when we encounter an error.

The AI Sense functionality is what I believe can be improved since when I tried to use it for automating a use case involving a Citrix Virtual Machine, it was unable to capture objects consistently. This feature can be made more intelligent and less bulky in terms of the downloadable package size of the code in the next release and also the VB/Python scripts which we can use in conjunction with the AA2019 functionalities is what I believe would help in automating many processes end to end.

I have been using the Automation Anywhere 2019 tool version for the past six months.

I would rate it an 8/10 since I believe if the AI Sense capability and handling MS power point functions is further enhanced with the next release, then it would make a much larger impact.

It is very much scalable in my opinion and should be used by big organizations lokoing to save costs and increase productivity.

The setup was a bit complex. There were many IT approvals that I needed to take.

I am currently able to save 2-3 hours of manual effort per week.

Project 1: Built an unattended bot to automate a complex Audit process for a healthcare client. There are 90+ bots deployed and it is processing 1000+ cases of different types every month.

Project 2: Built assisted bot for a healthcare client. It was used by customer service representatives. Unfortunately, this process was not used for a long time due to latency issues and a functionality gap.

Project 3: Working on migrating the Audit process automated using Automation Anywhere v10.5 to the new version, A2019.

AA has helped to automate a complex Audit process. The process was tedious to the auditors, as they need to log in to a number of applications to collect audit data for validation. It involves web, desktop, and mainframe applications (total of 20+ applications of 40+ roles).

The whole process was automated such that the bot will log in, collect screenshots, build the PDF, and then report the results to the auditors. This saved auditors from doing the mundane manual task of logging into multiple applications independently. Also, the auditors had to manage credentials for all of the applications before, whereas now, the bot takes care of storing the details in a secure vault.

The most valuable features for us are:

1. Object cloning with an option to enter wildcard selection was very useful when working in a web application that generated dynamic HTML content.
2. The Terminal client options have helped in automating terminal applications effectively.
3. The Windows capturing features that allow for automating desktop applications works seamlessly compared to web application automation.
4. Excel automation is one of the clean and very useful features that helps in reporting, as well as other Excel-related operations. Having the option of using Excel as a database helps with performing logic.

Areas that can be improved are:

1. For assisted automation, the AA bot needs the facility to be triggered through an application interface after collecting input from the user. There is no inbuilt option available in AA to collect all the inputs in an interface. In our case, we built a desktop application to collect all of the user input and, on submit, the .NET code will run the ATMX file.
   
   Can AA provide a simple user interface through which a user can collect input and submit it to trigger the bot?
   
   
2. It needs an option to change the Windows resolution.
   
   
3. It needs to have an option to select an object after a three to five-second delay. It is useful in the case of menu selection and this option exists in other tools.

We have used several versions of Automation Anywhere since 2019, as follows:

• 2019 May - 2020 January: Used Automation Anywhere v11.3
• 2020 March - 2020 October: Used Automation Anywhere v10.5
• 2020 October - Current: Migrating from AA 10.5 to A2019

We have used WorkFusion RPA, which had options for machine learning features first.

All of our solutions are implemented mostly for banking.

We have an offline biller, which is for reconciliation & settlement of offline biller data operations. We have similar automation for online billing.

The ATM (Automated Teller Machine) monitoring is automated. This includes the monitoring of operational processes on mutual fund & bonds transactions (upload and reconciliation).

We have a process for reconciliation of the billing statement before sending data to the customer.

DRI: Reconciliation charge back & note for SICS (AS400).

We use eight Bot Creator instances, nine Bot Runners, and two Control Rooms.

To show how Automation Anywhere has improved our business, I will explain one of my solutions in the ATM Monitoring use case. Previously, humans had to monitor the ATM status for 24 hours to find out the status of the ATM in the event of fraud or theft. With the RPA, every hour it will download the ATM status data from the ESQ application and compare it with all problem tickets that are still open. Every time a status mismatch occurs, the RPA will send info to the team via email and WhatsApp.

Process Description: ATM Monitoring

• Recap machine problem data according to status and sort by each vendor automatically.
• Send notification & report via email and WhatsApp.
• Schedule adjustment in sending notifications and reports.

Process Steps:

• The Bot will automatically download problem and faults ticket data from ESQ.
• The Bot will compare problem and faults ticket data automatically and sort each vendor for terminal IDs with tickets that are still open but have no faults.
  
• The Bot will send data that has been recorded and processed automatically to each vendor via email and WhatsApp.
• The Bot has a schedule adjustment function related to sending ticket data to each vendor.

Master Data Bank: 00.00 WIB
Supervisor Mode: 00:10 to 05:00 WIB
No Transaction: 14:00 to 00:00 WIB
Outstanding Ticket: 07:00 to 19:00 WIB

The benefits we get from automation include faster and more accurate matching, running 24x7.

One Control Room, one Bot Runner, and one Bot Creator are required. 

Time saved: 45 minutes per bot, per process, and two hours for three status updates.

Applications involved: Outlook, Excel, Browser.

One very useful feature is the IQ Bot, which is helpful in the operation of the data input process to all of their applications. Initially, humans had to read one per one document, but with the IQ Bot, it is continuous until the input process is complete.

Currently, IQ Bot is implemented by a finance company that is concentrating on motorbike financing. There are many claim documents that must be processed and inputted to their internal application, and using the IQ Bot reduces both cost and time.

My suggestion for version A2019 is to enable the Metabot function because it helps us in a shortcut to the integration process with other applications such as SAP, Oracle, and Cyber​Ark.

It would be helpful if Device Credentials can sync with Active Directory so that for the IT policy case that requires periodic password resetting, there is no need for a human to input manually into each Bot Runner machine.

The quality of the IQ bot can be further refined for scanned documents.

We have been using Automation Anywhere for about two years, since 2018.

After using the A2019 version, I find that it is more stable and features more actions. However, maybe because this is a new version with a change in platform, it still has some bugs.

The support from the AA team was very helpful when I encountered issues that I couldn't solve on my own. The ability of the support team is very good and helpful.

From the start, I have only used Automation Anywhere for RPA.

At the initial project commencement in 2018, it was still complex. With the experience of AA projects, it became easier for us to start them.

We implement using an internal team. To improve development skills, I always suggest taking the AA certification and participating in the training.

We did not evaluate other RPA options.

The current version has a fresher UI and more Excel processing features. That's what I admire.

I have been using A2019 for validating IC reports and scorecards that we publish every month for the client on a portal. As the reports are around 200, it used to take a lot of manual efforts previously to get this done, however now, A2019 has helped in automating the complete validation part. 

Apart from this, the other major use case is validating the child level reports with the parent. Though the underlying reports are generated from the parent itself, validating individual reports just to add another level of the quality check was a tedious task initially, however, A2019 has made it very easy in comparing the two excel based reports end-to-end

Automation Anywhere, specifically A2019, has helped me and my organization in automating the tasks related to quality checks and assurances. As a consulting firm, it is really important to provide correct insights, reports, and deliverables to the client and it involves a lot of QC checks and validations. A2019 has helped us in automating a major chunk of such tasks, thus helped in saving a lot of time, effort, and revenue. There are trainings going on every now and then, to spread the knowledge and access of this tool to other folks in the organization, so that more number of people would be able to implement this in their projects

The best part about A2019 is its ease of use. You don't need to be a coding champ or an expert to use and implement A2019 in automating tasks. It's very easy to learn, tweak, and implement in your day-to-day tasks, especially features like capture/record is completely marvelous. Apart from these, the Excel basic and Excel advanced features are really handy and easy to use. I personally have used them frequently in all my bots as most of my work is related to excel and stuff. Last, but not least, using A2019 for automating the tasks even on the virtual machines, which is one of my favorites.

One of the challenges that I face every now and then while working with A2019, is around the bot agent updates. Every week/alternate weeK, I receive an error while running my bots, that asks me to update the bot agent. I have to download the bot agent every time and reinstall it, in order to get the work done. This thing has also created an issue for me in the past, where I need to present something to my US counterparts, and then the bot was unable to run because the bot agent update notification came few minutes before the meeting. This was really frustrating at that point in time, however, fortunately, I got that resolved within minutes during the meeting by updating the bot agent. Hence, I believe, there should be some facility available, which can help me in running my previously implemented bots, even if there are some updates in the bot agent

I recently got involved in A2019 training organized within my organization as part of motivating folks for Automation. It's been around six months that I have been using this as a part of my day-to-day work.

I have been using this for the past six months and have been already utilizing this for my day-to-day work. The level of involvement of A2019 for me is increasing as time passes, as now, I see things from a point of view, where I try to automate major chunk of my work using this.

This can be used to any level of tasks/processes as it allows the bots to communicate within. This helps in automating major tasks into smaller bots and then coordinating them together to automate the complete process.

I used to have connections with Automation Anywhere folks every week/alternate week and I must say that they were highly professional and learned people. They always guided me before even implementing something and made me aware of all the nuances. Overall, I am really happy to get in contact with such folks, who not even helped me in shaping my imagination for automation, but also showed directions by demonstrating their example bots.

I have a little experience of working on Blue Prism in my previous organization. However, Automation Anywhere is far better it in terms of features and ease of use and implementation.

For me, the setup was quite straightforward. Yes, I did take some online help to get some issues resolved, however, the overall process was pretty easy.

I implemented it in an in-house setup. This has really become a part of my organization's work as the Business Operations vertical is using it very frequently.

I invested around 2-3 weeks in learning this and creating my first bot. Then it took me a week to use it for targeting parts of my day-to-day work. And now, I am using it for the past 6-7 months without any investments and saving a lot of effort on a weekly basis.

The costs are just a one-time cost, but the amount of savings it will generate is uncountable. So it's better to invest in something now, learn and start saving your time, effort, and money in the future.

One of the options was the level of features present in Automation Anywhere. It allows both back-office and front-office bots to automate. However, in the other case, only back-office bots can be automation. I personally like the UI and the overall features present in A2019 and level of ease, with which this can be implemented to any application.

The only con is the frequent updates in the bot agent every now and then. This annoys the user at times and (s)he may land up in some trouble due to this, as the bot would be able to run without installing the updated bot agent.

I have automated the applications that we use for daily checks. We automate the application health check functionality, capture the result in an Excel sheet, and share it.

By using this, we are saving time and we no need to do routine work, as it is now automated and the result is shared with all of the end-users. We are able to navigate if any further application changes.

It captures all of the day-to-day activities and monitors the jobs at the time we specify. It helps with all technologies.

Automation Anywhere, by the name, can be used anywhere for automating tasks. Everywhere automation and anywhere automation. By using AA, we are able to reduce the time and manpower spent on tasks.

We can also have data updates in form of email, which can be saved for later usage.

It is very easy to understand the code.

AA helps in moving people's current trends using the current technology. AA is an RPA tool that makes robots do all of the work or jobs as assigned.

AA is a good tool for all technologies in all organizations.

The features I found valuable based on my usage are:

• Error Handling helps to find the exact error line in the logs.
• Email can be used to send emails to any number of users.
• Excel advanced and basic modules help to execute most of the commands in Excel.
  
• OCR captures the exact text.
• Keystroke shortcut is used within the shortcut, like TAB or ENTER.
• The universal recorder captures the specific options that need to be captured.
  
• The mouse click option can be used to capture exact actions.
• The delay function can be used to make applications wait for a specific time.

In the Universal Recorder, we face minor bugs in A2019. For example, the browser closes and using the recorder.

There are some minor bugs in the universal browser. In cases where Microsoft Silverlight is used, it doesn't capture the button.

In V11 we use OCR, it captures the image and displays the text it captured. However, in A2019, it only captures and does not display the text.

In A2019 it does not display the exact running status, but rather it displays the previous one.

In V11, we used to add images in email message boxes with the current date and time but in A2019, we are unable to do so 

I have been working on Automation Anywhere since February 2020.

The first-ever RPA tool that I used was AA V11.

I started with AA V11, completed the Advanced and Master certifications, then moved to the next version, A2019.

AA comes at a more affordable price than the other tools.

AA is the best tool compared to others in the market such as UiPath, Blue Prism, and ProcessRobot by Softomotive.

I am expecting that in the next versions of A2019, more actions will be added.

We have applied AA to our customers. KPMG another solution they use. 

Streams like HR, payroll are reasons that AA may have been chosen in an environment.

Use cases like report extractions, SAP interactions, HR data, and many payroll automations have been put into use.

We used UiPath and Automic before AA and I feel the difference very clearly and I am sure there's a long way ahead.

Sensitive data handling departments are usually not allowed or exposed to automation but I do not see such limitations when it comes to AA.

AA definitely did improve the scope of our organization but tools like Automic and UiPath still take a slightly upper hand in terms of business and market.

We have been trying our best to sell AA as our best tool and we are getting projects one by one eventually.

Not all tools give us the clear utilization of the infrastructure in place but this does and trust me, this has been proved far better than other RPA tools and that is why I see AA booming day by day.

We are pretty positive about AA.

Live executions on the prod machine with the player options is good.

I have been using tools like Automic and UiPath that has either an engine to run for Automic and Orchestrator for UiPath.

The versioning concept is pretty nice and increases the security and tracking mechanism.

Instead of packages like other RPA tools, I think the repo check-in and check-out feature enables the same in AA. 

Although it does the same, the ease of usage is fantastic in AA from my experience.

The line compare feature is another feature that I personally like the most but there is an anomaly as well.

Maybe not improved but I heard that the 2019 version is going to look more like UiPath, which is not ideal for a typical/classic developer.

The feel of parsing at the code is different from viewing object images for sure.

When comparing the code under version checks, although there is a change done, it doesn't say so because the change is done at the variable level and not in the line of code.

This is logically wrong, a line would contain n number of variables including object clonings, screen images, variables, etc so any change to any of these has to be captured and shown as a change done in the version history.

I have been using and working with AA for 1.5 years. 

I started with initial training, they gave me a project and then a certification as well.

I am AA Master certified, I did it around the start of 2020. Ever since I got certified I am working on the solution building for major clients, client proposals and enhancements for the existing bots on production.

Not all developers use a full fledged tool and that is where I am being considered to propose better solutions. 

We took new clients since April 2020 where AA is the only prime RPA tool being used and we have been enriching it since then day in day out.

I am sure AA is pretty stable.

Now that it's on its own framework, I am positive about the stability. At any point in time, I would preferably suggest sticking to the initial platform and framework that people like the most providing an overall package.

Scalability is always a sensitive topic when it comes to RPA.

For me, I look at it as availability in simple terms. The scalability factor has to be stretched to an extent where availability is never compromised.

I have personally had interaction only twice along with my onshore peers.

1st was with Mae Chang about v11 environment setup &

2nd was with one of the support engineers who helped solve the control room blank screen error.

So far so good.

I used ITPA tools like Automic (CA Technologies product, now Broadcom product) & RPA tools like UiPath and BluePrism.

For a classical and typical developer, we like code to be seen, written, and parsed but not objects. More importantly, security features like parsing, code versioning, ease of use, live executions, etc made us chose AA.

We haven't moved completely to AA for now but talks are in place with customers.

So, for multiple valid reasons, AA takes the first place when it comes to automation.

The setup was good. I wouldn't say straightforward but the process and steps were laid down clean so for us, it seemed to be cool.

It was in-house for the POC project and the customer himself for the account we hold.

Our setup was pretty clean and neat.

I would rate the customer level a 70/100. They haven't defined the scope, networks, security properly, and there is too much of JUST red tape. The process definitely takes priority but not at the cost of providing solutions. The optimal path has to be chosen.

I shouldn't be projecting this out but would say there is a grace ROI with our current clients.

I am not 100% sure. Revenue is nominal as of now. The business model defines it more in order to sustain a customer but I am sure it's doing well.

So far so good.

When it comes to 2019 and the AA cloud I think many are skeptical about the pricing and support model.

For example, we are already on our own cloud, AWS and azure so as a cost-effective solution we would obviously want to choose our own platform for hosting. Be it IAAS, PAAS, SAAS etc.

Now that AA is proposing a cloud as well, we are still in the thinking phase of the costing model to see if this fits us better in terms of revenue and margins.

We are looking forward to experiencing the AA cloud soon.

Like mentioned, we have been using Automic, UiPath, and BluePrism to a pretty good extent for about 2+yrs and it was good until we realized there is a better product in the market and who doesn't want the best.

It was not a one day's decision to chose AA. A big set of people, the cream of the project, were deployed to learn and explore AA to the maximum extent possible.

I lead the operations part of the existing automation project and so was I leading this POC project under AA as well. So all possible test cases, comparisons, ease of use, security, and many other factors were considered before we opted for AA and so is the product now.

My request would be to keep a little lower pricing for services like on call support, cloud, and other key services. Otherwise, the rest all seems to be very much feasible in AA.

The primary usage of this solution is for the development of software bots using this RPA solution for various customers, and also for in-house process automation.

Bots have been developed for various domains like Automotive, Banking and Finance, HR, Housing, etc, and across various end-user software like Oracle, SAP, QAD, Terminal applications, etc.

As a first step towards having companies direction move towards emerging technologies, getting the right skillset available for adding Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, NLP, etc, so that we could provide a complete end-to-end solution to the customers.

We internally host v11 and A2019 Web CR of this solution for in-house development and training/learning purposes.

RPA was introduced as an emerging technology in our company and Automation Anywhere was chosen as the RPA Solution. Thirdware became an AA partner for reselling AA licenses. Thirdware performs bot development as a vendor using this solution and has automated more than 60 processes to date in various domains.

The Automation Anywhere RPA solution has opened gates for Thirdware to step into providing an end-to-end solution to customers by implementing emerging technologies like Machine learning, Artificial intelligence, NLP, etc.

AA has brought a completely new skill set for entering a completely new domain and being versatile as a service/solution provider.

1. Bank-grade security provided by AA with Credential Vault and Lockers. With the level of security provided by AA, it is a global leader and it becomes easy to convince prospects and turn them into customers.
   
2. Bot Insights provide visibility. Simply tagging variables used in the bot, can provide automated real-time dashboards that are presentable to management showing them a complete view of how the bots are performing.
3. Platform support is very good. AA supports on-premise and all major Cloud providers for the installation of the software.
4. The solution is very scalable.
5. After learning other RPA tools, I can say that AA provides one of the best user experiences with the user-friendliness of the UI.
6. The role-based access controls (RBAC) provided by AA are simple to define and provide clear distinction and segregation of duties and roles, and they help to maintain security.
7. The A2019 bot agent and development on browser means that there is no need to install a thin client like v11 or other RPA tools. The automation development of bots can be performed right from the browser itself.
8. The Flow view and List view for development mean that development becomes much easier, even for newbie users. The flow view and the drag and drop command flexibility is very helpful. The list view is generally preferred by the developers.
9. Workload management and Queues are valuable components. With the WLM module, multiple bot runners can be utilized to perform a single task more quickly and thus help achieve SLAs. Multiple bot runners can be used optimally to divide and perform tasks simultaneously on different machines.
   
10. Inline Python scripting support with A2019 is possible, which reduces a lot of lines of code for programmers. 

Technical support provided by Automation Anywhere is not up to the mark and needs a lot of improvements. Solutions or details provided by L1 support are contradicted by L2 and/or L3 support persons, thus leading to confusion.

The quality and response time of the support, even on Sev-1 tickets, is not satisfactory.

Enhancements or product issues/bugs are not fixed quickly and no ETA is provided for the same.

Working of triggers (email file, etc) in A2019 in unattended mode is a feature that was available in v11 but missing in A2019. I would like to see this feature in A2019.

In v11, RDP-based deployment and auto-login both were possible but with A2019, only the RDP-based approach is possible. Due to this, there is no way to maintain any application open inside the RDP, as each and every time Web CR connects to RDP to run the bot and disconnects, it closes all of the open apps inside RDP and terminates. I need a way where open apps inside RDP must be left open if they are open already.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for more than three years, right from v10, v11 until the latest A2019 release.

All of the bots deployed by our company are working quite stably in production with minimal support required. Unless there are some changes/enhancements to the bot logic suggested by business users, there are no changes or modifications required to the bot to work.

There was a bug in A2019.14 version which did not allow proper bot deployment intermittently. this had led to a major issue on PROD where schedules were running but bot was not getting deployed on PROD runner machine leading to instability. We had raised the concern with AA team and they have addressed the same in A2019.15 release.

The solution is highly scalable, which is a USP of this solution. Adding more creators and runners is a quick task.

I would rate my experience with technical support as four out of ten, due to a lack of responsiveness and the quality of support provided.

This was the first RPA solution that was introduced in our company.

However, personally, I have learned UiPath and found the Automation Anywhere solution better in all the aspects (Features, Releases, User-Friendliness, Cost).

Customers do ask for a comparison of this solution with the competitors in the market but it is always seen that Automation Anywhere is a clear winner.

The initial setup is straightforward if it is done in express installation mode.

Custom mode installation and installations involving SSO and AD authentication are more complicated.

IQ Bot installation requires expertise.

All installations and implementations are done in-house in our company.

ROI achievement for most of the customers is observed from four to eight months from the time of implementation.

The one-time setup cost can be fully recovered with the ROI achievement within six months, provided the implementation of bots is planned properly.

The pricing and licensing are definitely moderate to costly but easily recoverable by achieving ROI quickly.

Our setup cost was only procuring AWS instances but installations are performed in-house.

UiPath was evaluated but it was found that Automation Anywhere is a clear winner and a market leader globally.

AA is a global market leader and the best RPA software to go with, in all aspects. If the AA support improves then this definitely deserves a rating of nine and a half out of ten.

We've done a lot of automation with the product in the last two years. We started with accounts receivable processes in finance. I would say like AR function is one of the most mature functions in the product right now because we almost automated all the aspects of accounts receivable.

We have also started looking at automating the accounts payable process as well. I've only mentioned finance at this point, but we also have done a lot of automation with IT, as well as with procurement. Right now the penetration is higher with the support functions but we are also looking at different ways to automate. For example, we would like to use automation technology in core engineering. We also want to be expansive and do projects beyond our current boundaries — outside of just India. We've already done a small PoC (proof of concept) with a company in China and we also automated three small processes with a U.S. entity.

We use it daily and have done projects with the support functions, such as financial services, IT, and procurement support. We have 50 to 60 processes that have been automated using RPA in all three areas put together. This is the breadth and extent of what we have automated.

We are using the on-premise deployment model.

The product is improving our company in a number of different ways through the automation it helps us to create. I would say like the AR function is completely automated right now, but we are in the stages where we are looking beyond AR, beyond finance, and beyond support functions. 

All this time that we were using the product in the beginning, we chose to work on individual processes for automation. We are working in small pockets. We were identifying a project or a process as a small chunk of automation and we looked at opportunities within that particular function or a process and automated it step-by-step. 

For example, within the AR invoice process, there are different types of invoices that we do, like project invoices, manual invoices, past invoices, and other invoice variations. We had started building solutions for these things in isolation. We automated the SPA (Sales and Purchase Agreement) function first and then the project invoices. Then we saw an opportunity and made a change to bring all the invoices into the same platform. So now there is a bot which identifies what kind of invoice it is and it triggers a respective sub-rooting function what we have built-in. This is much more efficient. The AR function is something which we have automated end-to-end right now.

When bots start interacting successfully with each other, that is when we will see a true enterprise RPA (Robotic Process Automation) evolving out of using this solution. So we have benefitted a lot now, but expect that we will benefit even more in the future as we get better at using intelligence.

When we automate, we deliberately kept some manual toll gates. This was a very informed decision that we made. It's a conscious decision that we don't want to leave everything to the bot to do from start until the end because the accountability will not be there with any of the team members. This is one of the reasons why we have kept a manual toll gate in all our processes.

I would say the entire Automation Anywhere RPA functionality is the most valuable part of the product because it helps me to automate the mundane interpretative task. That is where most of my team members, who are part of the support team for product function, spend a lot of their time.

The IQ Bot is good. The pilot that we have done with one of our U.S. entities went well. Our accuracy has increased tremendously over the last two to three months. We have increased FTE efficiency. It's definitely a success for us. 

You spend some time trying to automate using RPA and then once a solution is created, they will gain back the time that they spent in development and then have more time to think about how they can further improvise and improve the process. That is all possible with the RPA. That is what we have been doing successfully in the last two years. The opportunity to customize and build out the platform makes it more useful and valuable.

We found it very comfortable because we are all functional experts. Nobody had any programming experience earlier. We all were able to learn Automation Anywhere in a four day classroom session that we had with one of the trainers from Automation Anywhere. With that, we started our own development. 

At least for our requirements, whatever version we have been using till now —  I think the current version 11.3.2 — is fantastic and more than we could use as we grew with the product. Any additional functionality I'm going to get in the upcoming version is a bonus for us as users. 

No product is perfect, so there is always some room for improvement. Right now we are most interested in cloud functionality. It could give us an additional option for managing everything in on-premises or in the cloud.

My experience and knowledge with respect to our initial deployment of Automation Anywhere were very limited. Had we had more experience, we probably would not have used the Intel landscape. We would have used something more relevant to our process and function. This compatibility might be improved.

I would definitely say Citrix automation is one area we have continued to struggle with for the last two months. If that can be an improvement in design for the next release it would be welcome. I know that a Citrix plugin has been already introduced by Automation Anywhere. If that can be made seamlessly integrated and easy to use, then I would definitely be very, very happy with that as an enhancement. The Citrix automation plugin that they have come out with until now has not been working for us. We are still in the process of figuring out how we can make that work. So, we are collaborating with the technical team from AA. There is an alternate solution where you can just move the system or application out of the Citrix environment and made it a standalone system. That will work. We know the workaround, but we still haven't figured out a solution to making it work in a Citrix environment. Hopefully, they will figure a solution in a month's time.

Any customer would look for advantages and changes in pricing. I won't say Automation Anywhere pricing is not good or not competitive. It is definitely competitive. But there are additional players in the market that they need to compete with and working on pricing could help. I believe there are competitors who do not charge anything for what is the AA Control Room (used for Bot creation). They charge only for the runners (Bot execution).

So there are other options available where you don't need to pay extra costs that may be more attractive depending on your usage. With Automation Anywhere I'm the creator as well as the Control Room. If Automation Anywhere could get a little more competitive on those aspects of pricing, I think it would be like heaven.

I would like them to combine a BPM solution with RPA. Sometimes you need to have BPM in place so your process orchestration will be smooth. It'll go through a standard process. On top of that, you are doing some manual activities that will be replaced with RPA. Automation Anywhere already has RPA, if they would allow us to create a simple BPM solution on top of it to use RPA that is the best resolution. It would solve most of my problems in my processing unit.

I have been using the solution for about 18 to 19 months.

I would rate the stability of the RPA as much higher than the stability of an individual manually handling processes. Because stability is pretty good, the machine will outperform an individual. With respect to individuals, there will be always some attrition — there will be some learning time and people will tend to do mistakes. That is not the case with respect to the RPA. So while that is not directly about the product, it does add stability to our processing.

Beyond that, whenever there is any change to your applications or environment where you have automated a function, that is when your processes or RPA can stop functioning. So it requires a little bit of customization, and again you upload it into the control group. Because the RPA is so flexible and so convenient to work with and easy to use, I don't think that is where the major bottleneck occurs at these junctures.

Beyond that, we developed a fallback plan. We test the fallback plan once a quarter by stopping all the bots in operations and then we invoke the fallback plan. We have this mapped out in a document where we ask the respective processors to do the processes and simulate a stability failure.

There will be always risk associated with anything that you do. It's all up to an individual to make plans as to how they deal with bottlenecks, how to structure plans for potential stability issues, how they mitigate these potential issues by having a proper solution and proper process in place. To me, that is where the secret of stability really lies. It is not really correct to blame the stability of the product when it is the fault of the process. It's all up to an individual better manage how to look at things.

I would say that scalability is a critical aspect of using RPA and maximizing efficiency. When you develop one bot. You can just use it for N number of ports with the same source code. So it doesn't require any retooling. Scalability is very high. There will be some process deviations or some nonstandard aspects associated with any process that may require rethinking and interaction.

For example, maybe because of the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) or the different systems that we use or integrate at the time of taking over those processes, scaling may be influenced. The classic example for our company, I would say, is that we have grown manyfold by acquiring lots of companies in the last three decades.

Every time we acquired new divisions or companies, it is not only about the revenue or products. We also get legacy systems or along with those entities, there will be some processes and practices which are nonstandard for our organization. We'll need to incorporate these different systems in the ERP.

But scalability is always possible. With the RPA only those areas where there are differences need to be fine-tuned in your RP source code. Then you can redeploy it successfully. Beyond that, we also take this as an opportunity to evaluate processes because we don't look at the RPA project as an isolated project. It is an opportunity to grow and improve automation in various ways and not just this one project alone.

Even before we automate something, we look at processes to scrutinize what are the nonstandard activities we do. We look to see if there are ways we can make the process more lean, simple and straightforward. This can actually make the process that I'm trying to automate more efficient. Then it is also easier to accomplish the development, easier to integrate with other processes, and more adaptable when you automate the process. Working this way, I know for sure that what I am automating is going to be an efficient process. 

So scalability is very easy and very simple to achieve especially compared training individuals in a process. A bot needs no training. Making tweakings to the source code and deploying successfully in production is much faster and easier. Because of these reasons, I would say scalability is pretty efficient and easy to achieve using RPA.

We plan to increase usage in the future both in our current departments and new divisions of the business.

I would rate Automation Anywhere as one of the best in the world when it comes to customer service. I've had the opportunity to gain specific experience with certain members of their team and the service is consistent and excellent.

Initially, when we started with the IQ Bot project, we had some issues and experienced a bit of a learning curve. So we immediately raised those concerns. Our first issue took less than 24 hours to get fixed, and without adding any additional cost to the customer. That type of service and support of a product is an important thing.

I would say the customer service team, the project team, and even the aftermarket customer success manager are all fantastic guys. I know that the organization has people with strong capabilities and excellent talent. It is very, very evident when you interact with them.

I would definitely say Automation Anywhere is aggressive when it comes to driving success for the customers. They are very passionate about customer success and their focus on the customer.

Some of my team members have taken courses with Automation Anywhere. They still need to complete a few more assessments before they get their certifications. The courses are pretty good, the assessment is very cumbersome and complex (from what I understand). It's too technical for them. Maybe it is easy for technical guys, but not for functional people. I assume that this is the way it should be, because it's an assessment before you get a certification. It has to be tedious and cumbersome to crack it.

The best person in our organization to speak to the complexity of the initial setup is an IT guy from my team. He was responsible for a series of calls to the tech support team and he was involved in a lot of discussion with the Automation Anywhere team initially. Obviously we had contact with technical support so it may not have been so easy to do the initial setup, but I think that is quite acceptable or understandable. Anything which is new will probably be something you need to spend extra time on during the initial phase-in of a new product.

Beyond that initial setup and normal learning curve, I haven't seen any problem with respect to adapting the RPA technology in our company. It has been pretty smooth. The technical support team was great in terms of supporting anything we experienced in the way of technical issues. The only issues we experienced after that have been some issues with respect to using a Citrix environment. We are finding it difficult to automate on Citrix efficiently.

We have been continuously on calls and meetings with the technical support team. They have been coming up with a lot of innovative ways as to how they can fix that problem with Citrix. Of course, we are still in the midst of finding a solution to the issues. But I know for sure with the support that I get from the support team that we will definitely have a solution in the near future.

We did our own implementation with assistance directly from Automation Anywhere's technical support team.

There was a bit of a hand-holding in the beginning because Automation Anywhere developers came and developed a few bots for us. Beyond that, it is all on our own. We have been very independent. We hardly got support from the Automation Anywhere team after that. From our own experience, the tool is pretty easy to understand and start using.

The bot creation process has different processes depending on what we automate, e.g., accounts payable, IT, and procurement. These are miles apart. The complexity would differ based on the different applications that we trying to integrate using RPA.

We try to check the different applications involved for automation and whether they are compatible with Automation Anywhere. Then, we understand the process. We do a value stream mapping, e.g., what are the non-value-added activities that we are currently doing to make it lean, simple, and re-engineer the process. We identify the activities that can be automated using RPA, or any tool.

There'll be the extensive workshop conducted before we conclude what we want to automate, how we want to automate, and how long it is going to take to automate. We do an extensive study to determine:

• What'll be the return on investment? 
• What type of a return that you'll get by automating the process?

We document it and prepare it as a business case. We send it to the sponsor for approval. Once it is been approved, then we will kick-start our development. Once the development is completed, there will be UAT and we will roll it out to go live.

There will be a burn-in period where we will be providing the support. It's like a normal SDLC. It's the same model. However, we analyze the process in detail and a BRD will be prepared, then we will start the development.

A simple process might take somewhere around four weeks from start until the end. Something which is very complex in nature might take up to 12 weeks. Anything which is very complex, we would like to break into small pieces, then automate it step-by-step. We don't try to take the entire thing and digest it. We would rather try to break it into small portions, then move on. 

Calculating ROI for us is pretty simple. We identify efficiency at the beginning, then based on that we will just move the headcount out of the process. We try to compare with the cost spent versus the quote of the money that we have saved on the fully loaded employee cost. That's a simple comparison of what we do. This is a very crude way of calculating our return on investment because there are other benefits that are derived by doing an automation. Other benefits include:

• Improving the quality of the process.
• Eliminating some of the duplicate payments to save some dollars. 
• Making timely payments to the vendor to have better negotiation skills with them. 

These are some of the other overall business benefits that you can derive out of it, but they are too tedious to take into consideration when you're trying to do an archive. That's why we keep it very simple by comparing the labor cost saved versus the cost spent on the technology.

They are already coming out with a community license, which is really good. That's something that I wish to have.

We had looked at a lot of prominent players in the market and examined the different options as well, like Blue Prism and UiPath. Automation Anywhere was the one company who was flexible in terms of offering a PoC. We find this very comfortable. They were very approachable and aggressive, in terms of getting things done. This helped us make a decision in favor of Automation Anywhere. Also, Blue Prism doesn't have the functionality with attended automation that we would like to have. We are looking for the flexibility and convenience that comes with attended automation where you can still run your show.

We ended up choosing Automation Anywhere based heavily on their highly-approachable team. We thought of doing a PoC and Automation Anywhere was the first vendor to volunteer and say they would do PoC for us. That was not the case with the other vendors. They were very reluctant for whatever reason.

In terms of product, almost all the products are good. The differences are insignificant from the product standpoint. What makes Automation Anywhere a little different from the other players in the market is their presence in India. They have a very strong presence in India. They've an excellence sales team, very approachable solutions team, and technical team.

They are very approachable. They come and help you out in terms of creating a PoC, which is not the case with the other companies. The other companies are not that aggressive. They normally don't show that level of interest in terms of getting things done with the customer. They all come and approach for new business, but when it comes to going the extra mile to making something happen, that is where they are lacking. That is the difference for our decision of going in favor of Automation Anywhere.

But we got a lot of support from the company and they have always been willing to go the extra mile in terms of supporting the customer and making solutions happen. So that really influenced our decision, and that is one of the reasons why we want to go with the Automation Anywhere compared to other players in the market.

If I were to rate this product on a scale of one to ten where ten is the best, I would definitely rate them nine. It is not a ten because of what may be my ignorance of the entire Automation Anywhere platform. Probably I'm not aware or don't know the complete suite of assets. I'm not in a position to rate it a ten. To rate Automation Anywhere a ten means I should have complete knowledge of the product and I am sure there are things I have not yet explored. 

As far as advice, the normal tendency — and the mistake often made by organizations — would be to commit at the time of vendor selection by volume of features. They pay too much attention and focus on the product landscape. They think about one solution that has got 200 different functionalities rather than one which has got 210 different functionalities as being inferior just based on a number. But in reality, the users may probably not even be using even 10% of what is available in the tool or the platform. So they tend to give more weight to the product landscape. 

In our case, we made an effort to look at more than just features, but the qualities of the companies and vendors as well. For example, we learned about the leadership journey for each vendor, how long ago they started in this business, how much focus they put into coming up with the product development — the R&D. It is also important who the venture partners are and who the people are who are associated with the company and product.

We have done a lot of automation with our ERP systems. We also have some in-house applications which are on .NET that we have integrated with RPA. This should be the minimum expectation when you're signing for an RPA contract with any vendor. You would expect the RPA solution or tool to work seamlessly with any system. Automation Anywhere works well with no problems except for the Citrix environment. This is where we have had a bit of a challenge. Beyond that, we have never had issues with Automation Anywhere.

These details are relevant and important when you go to make a decision or when you take on a partner as an RPA solution provider. You are not just investing in a partnership for the next six months or a year. Probably some of the bots you are developing today you'll want to be using even after ten years. It's a long-term association what you're trying to make with an entity, the product, and with a company. So it's important that you go through all these checkpoints rigorously.

I've not used anything from the Bot Store.

Every technology has pros and cons with some limitations. There is no point in just harping on the limitations alone. You need to look at how you can make that technology work and solve your problems. This is where the human intelligence comes into the picture.

This technology is an enabler. It will solve most of my problems. It is up to individuals on how to make it work. That is where the trick of the trade lies. If you know how to work with RPA, you will not complain. I've seen many people complaining saying, "RPA doesn't work. It doesn't give you ROI." It's not the technology's problem. It's the people's problem. It's your mindset which is stopping you from getting automated and start using the technology. 

Biggest lesson learnt: You'll understand existing processes in a different dimension. You'll understand your people problems with the process in a better manner. It should not be just be looked at as an opportunity to automate it. If you look at the overall process to revamp and re-engineer it, then you can make your process efficient by making it lean, simple, and straightforward. On top of that, when you try to automate it, the overall process efficiency should increase tremendously. 

if you just look at RPA as a tool to automate everything, that is not a good approach. There are some things which can be automated efficiently using simple VBA Macros. Sometimes you might require a simple .NET solution to automate your end process, which is more efficient. You can make automation in the existing ERP, and that might work better. You have to look at different ways of automating things based on the process and complexity. You have to look at what is the ideal solution, then you have to pick and choose what you want to automate.

Don't look at RPA to solve all your problems. You need to use the right technology to automate, simplify, and minimize your problems.