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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I have been using AA for two years. 

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

Definitely would like it, scalability means more new features.

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

I have only used Automation Anywhere and I love it.

It was straightforward.

It was an in-house one.

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

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

Yes, I had considered UiPath.

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

We use AA for Training and Proof of Concept purposes.

OS: Windows 10 

Task: Automate Excel files consisting of quality data.

Multiple Task Cloning

Automated Email Sender

Object Cloning

The basic requirement was to extract a big Lot of data consisting of many attributes.

We need to extract out a relevant attribute from the DB data set and process it such that it fulfills client Data Quality requirement.

Filter out quality data using Manual intervention was a hectic task and that is why I used AA RPA tool. 

• It reduced a lot of time to process quality data and store in organized Excel files and ledgers.
• AA made Task management simpler.
• Hassle-free development 
• Hassle-free deployment
• Good Community Support

There was a large number of individuals who were doing the data collection and artifacts collection, and they were actually a third-party. The solution improves our situation in terms of time, money, and resources. Plus, when you're dealing with Data Quality information, there are additional complications of privacy concerns. If we can keep that in-house and have a bot or automated code take care of it, then there are fewer human eyes on the private information as well. It's a resource saver, it's a money saver, and it helps us with security, keeping more human eyes away from private or touchy information.

1. Task Bots

2. Smart Recorder

3. Meta Bots

4. IQ bots

5. Task Cloning

6. Ease of coding with drag and drop features.

7. It has a very good analytics package.

It is one of the popular RPA vendors offering powerful & user-friendly RPA capabilities to automate any complex tasks. It is one of the "Revolutionary Technology" that changes the way the enterprise operates. This tool combines conventional RPA with intellectual elements like natural language understanding and reading any unstructured data.

Automation Anywhere allows organizations to automate the processes which are performed by humans. It is a Web-Based Management System which uses a Control Room to run the Automated Tasks. Automation Anywhere tool can automate ends to end business operations for companies.

1. Data Mapping Utilities

2. Console Management

3. Bot Runner need to perform much smoother

4. It is not able to use OCR effectively and has limited usability.

5. Handwritten documents are still a drawback. Also difficult in terms of control room management.

6. A few applications take more time for loading when integrated.

7. Declaring the datatype of variables is challenging.

8. The process of migrating codes from one environment to the next can be automated as a default function.

9. The webpage for the control room could use some retouching or redesign to enhance the user experience.

10. Many little-usable features.

I have been using AA for three months. 

I previously used Ui Path.

First have hands on with Community Version and then figure out your requirements. 

Blue Prism

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.

We have used AA for multiple applications that were to be automated. We're interfacing a lot with Excel, scanned PDFs, image files, databases, file folders, text files, CSVs, and web applications. It's hard to pin down one. The tool can interact with SAP and Oracle which helps us automate the application faster. Mainframes can be automated and Citrix applications can be automated. 

We use it to automate all kinds of business processes. The primary use case is the RPA platform, even though they have the cognitive platform and the analytics platform. We use it for so many different things it's hard to focus on one. Now AIML is also incorporated which is a current requirement and an added benefit.

Data that was in scanned PDF format could not be extracted, but the IQ Bot feature has made it simpler. It's also easy to use and deploy. It is faster and the new features in A2019 are better than the previous versions of AA 11. Currently, new features like the Data Table have been added which helps in multiple forms. 

As it's now completely web-based it can be accessed from anywhere. As AIML is also incorporated where the machine learns by itself it helps in data accuracy and training time for the BOT. Time-saving is achieved and resources can be utilized for some human judgment work.

IQ Bot is very helpful as it is easy to learn and implement and the data output accuracy is almost 90%. Over time, the BOT learns from the validation which is an added advantage. Whatever I was thinking for version 11.3, it's being implemented in A2019. The incorporation of Python scripts is also implemented which will be easier for validations. The forms feature in A2019 is useful which can be used for voice processing where only input will be provided and BOT can perform the backend activity and get real-time data instead of Agents searching for the details.

In A2019 the dependencies that are being downloaded take a longer time that should be reduced. Migration utility should be provided so we can easily migrate from lower versions to higher versions. 

I would like to have reading from a handwritten text, which they are bringing in the next version. That will be a good thing. Some things that I do not see as of today are interactive chat or video interface. These are things that I will look for in the future. I saw something like image recognition, but something like a video or voice recognition is something that I'm looking for in the Automation Anywhere platform as an end-user.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for three years. 

The scalability really depends on how much RAM and how much network bandwidth we can do, how many servers we can apply. From the scalability standpoint, I don't think there will be any issues except for the increased costs.

It's good sometimes. Sometimes it takes time.

I have used different solutions. I switched mainly as A2019 is now web-based so desktop dependency is removed. IQ Bot is easier to use and learn for images and scanned documents.

Setup is straightforward.

In-house.

Cost-wise, it should be reduced.

Document Understanding and Abbyy Flexicapture.

Overall its good solution.

We work for a credit card client. There are a number of manual processes that can be done with Automation because the processes are truly rule-based and absolute for Automation. We delivered 10+ end-to-end solutions using AA version 11. 

A few examples are managing customer surveys, managing credit limits for a card, commission payouts, tax recovery, insurance claim documents, etc. In the above solutions, we worked with web applications, desktop applications, databases, Excel sheets, and other file formats. Automation Anywhere is easy to maintain and works well for years without any issues in production. We achieved good ROI and STP with AA in the last two years. We are happy to use AA as an enterprise version.

We are working for a credit card supplier client and there are a large number of manual processes that are rule-based and need a large human workforce to do the process which requires a large number of investments. By automating those processes we achieved high ROI, great customer satisfaction, better STP, reduced manual work, reduced processing time, high accuracy, and 24/7 working capacity with the AA bots. Our customer is highly satisfied with the given solution and they are ready to invest more in the near future to automate a number of tasks.

We use AA Client, Bot runners, Control room, IQ Bot, Bot insights. With the AA Client, we are able to automate almost all kinds of automation requirements without any big challenges. We found the availability of the number of commands provided by AA is really helpful to do automation within a small time frame. We used IQ Bot to extract information from the structured documents and we achieved better accuracy with IQ Bot for field extraction and we did the process in less time compared to manual efforts thanks to AA providing such a business-centric solution.

While using IQ Bot we found that data extraction accuracy is a bit weaker in semi-structured documents compared with structured documents. We would like to see improvement in the data extraction part of Automation Anywhere IQ Bot. In version 6.5 handwritten data extraction capabilities were not there so if we can get it in upcoming releases then it will be great opportunity to automate tasks which are working on some handwritten documents. 

Another additional feature we are looking for is logo matching and signature matching capabilities with IQ Bot.

In addition we would like to see more compact version of AA which can be controlled over mobile devices.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for two years.

The product is used to automate mundane and repetitive business processes and in turn, increase process accuracy and headcount benefit.

The primary area this tool focuses on is automation in RPA. Service-based companies use this tool to provide automation services to organizations who would want to go on a digital journey to cut their expenses, or to organizations who focus on helping their employees get rid of mundane tasks and provide them more efficient and oriented tasks.

Digital implementation would be the primary focus.

Automation Anywhere has transformed the financial/healthcare/automobile sectors to a great extent by automating backend office work. It also automates parts of frontend office work, as well, using attended automation capabilities.

Automation Anywhere's product strategy has helped service firms get a very good client base and has increased their service capabilities. The product has a very good roadmap and a very good customer base, and this would help service providers to get a lot of customers in the market.

The most valuable feature would be ingesting data into third-party applications through seamless technology. Be it a Windows application, a web application, or a legacy tool, Automation Anywhere is able to achieve automation on these technologies seamlessly.

Another interesting feature would be the ability to massage and clean data and perform some sort of data analytics using the data, this would be very helpful when Excel-based automations are performed and the user needs to spend very little time now to verify the results.

The cloud version has been enhanced to a very great extent by being completely built from scratch and using a different technology stack altogether. The idea of going on-cloud is a very good option as it does reduce the effort for the infrastructure team to set up the environment, and this would be very helpful for the development team to seamlessly build things and deploy them.

Going on-cloud comes with security hiccups and concerns. The product team has managed to go both on-premise or off-premise, as per comfortability, but the cloud version has more concerns.

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

Highly stable with HADR.

It can be scaled to a very large extent.

The technical support is good.

We did not use a different solution prior to this one.

The initial setup is of medium complexity.

In terms of pricing, this is a good product.

We evaluated both UiPath and Blue Prism.

Being a QA analyst, I am involved in testing my application's stability on a daily basis. A2019 helped me in automating the repetitive process that I have been doing every day.

Once I get familiarized with A2019, I am planning to discuss with my teammates how to implement it into our project for all of the new requirements.

Our primary use cases are smoke testing of the applications, sending email for reports, stability testing, API testing for REST services, database testing, and pulling data from Excel and using it in applications.

A2019 has significantly helped us in reducing the overall time that we have spent on our application manually. Going forward, we have also planned to implement the IQ Bot feature that we are still exploring.

Tasks or activities that were taking almost six hours a day have been reduced drastically to 30 minutes, which saves time as well as business costs.

Smoke testing of the application is performed.

Sending reports and sending emails is easy.

I have found the below items most valuable:

1. The ability to find objects easily through the 'Capture' option saves your time most significantly.
   
2. The ability to run only a particular step, instead of running it from scratch.
   
3. The ability to debug.
   
4. Given that A2019 is a web application, it saves space in a significant manner.
   
5. It is user-friendly and anyone can learn easily.
6. No coding knowledge needed.
7. The flow chart view of the steps is very easy to understand.
   
8. The free learning course provided helped me a lot. I was able to better understand and also practice on my own.

I would like to have on-call customer care support so that if the user gets stuck anywhere, he/she can get the issue clarified.

Additional details or support can be provided for IQ Bots.

The Help menu/description can be provided while hovering over actions so that it can help us better to know them.

The Variable feature can be improved, as there is no single place to handle all your variables.

Sometimes, while recording, the screen hangs and we are not able to perform any actions during that time.

Also, the support should be more user-friendly, as we are not getting any support online.

I have been using A2019 for more than five months.

This product is extremely stable.

Scalability is very good.

I was using Selenium but because it involved too much coding, I switched to A2019.

The initial setup is very easy.

I implemented it on my own.

The cost can be reduced a little for users.

I did not evaluate other options before switching to Automation Anywhere.