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Architec82e8 - PeerSpot reviewer
Architecht at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
May 1, 2019
Gels with any other application we have, from legacy to advanced technologies
Pros and Cons
  • "It is very easy to use, very easy to learn. That is the main advantage of this tool. You don't need to have very specialized skills to learn it."
  • "Without thinking twice, I would recommend going for Automation Anywhere."
  • "It would be nice to have the IQ Bots integrated with the Enterprise Edition without requiring extra licenses. That would be great."

What is our primary use case?

The primary intention is to automate business processes where manual work is heavily involved, wherever it is feasible. That is our core objective. We want to free up our time and concentrate on what is very important for the business by moving processes to automation.

We have automated pretty much everything: premium registration, claims processing, underwriting. We have touched upon many processes.

How has it helped my organization?

Recently we have implemented one particular RPA function which helped the business to complete a particular renewal within a day, a process which took a month to complete before. They were able to reach out to the customer ahead of time. The customer was surprised to see a quicker response. The automation improved business value.

We use the solution for Citrix automation and the AISense is pretty good. It is very nice to use. It has helped us to resolve many security issues, whatever we have encountered so far. They were nullified when we moved into the Citrix AISense automation. We don't need to worry about any sorts of security vulnerabilities or security access issues. We can do everything in Citrix automation with the use of AISense. Previously it was not possible to do object cloning with Automation Anywhere. When this feature came out it was so nice to be able to use it.

What is most valuable?

It is very easy to use, very easy to learn. That is the main advantage of this tool. You don't need to have very specialized skills to learn it. It's very easy to use and user-friendly.

It gels with any other application we have. We can take everything from legacy technologies to advanced technologies. You don't feel any difference when using it with any of the applications.

What needs improvement?

It would be nice to have the IQ Bots integrated with the Enterprise Edition without requiring extra licenses. That would be great.

Buyer's Guide
Automation Anywhere
July 2026
Learn what your peers think about Automation Anywhere. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: July 2026.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is quite stable. Over the last two years we've had around 50 bots and there have not been many issues with Automation Anywhere. We do have problems, but they have been logged with the portal and should be resolved in the next releases. Overall, it is quite stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good. We started with very few bots and it was quite scalable. We now have about ten Bot Runners.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support has been very good. That is a major advantage of using Automation Anywhere. When you log your particular issue, within the next two to three hours a technical person will be available to walk through the problem, identify and troubleshoot it.

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

We would like to use the IQ Bot only, for PDF extraction. Currently, we are using PDF data extraction and finding whether the data is present. If we go with the IQ Bots, the main reason will be the capability. At the moment we are having some sort of problem with reading the images. We are using OCR and Python for that right now.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was very straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We did it ourselves.

What was our ROI?

Currently, we are using it for the labor savings, we are not very particular about what the cost savings are. We look at how much time we are spending on manual efforts and where we can reduce them.

So far we have saved about 15 FTEs in the last one-and-a-half years.

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

I'm not sure what the monthly licensing cost is, as that is taken care of by another team, but I would say it's around $100,000.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Our shortlist consisted of two products. When we started the journey we evaluated three or four products. We chose Automation Anywhere for two reasons:

  • It's easy to learn and
  • it's business-user friendly.

What other advice do I have?

Without thinking twice, I would recommend going for Automation Anywhere.

We have taken courses at the Automation Anywhere University and that was good. It is a good learning platform. We touched almost all the courses. It also has the certification course. It was very good learning there. We even have our business associates logging in to the Automation Anywhere University and learning for themselves, learning about the platform and playing around.

The process to get to our first bot took about one year. 

For our bot creation process, we first have a business meeting to understand what the business processes are doing and we look at the process metrics. We have a spreadsheet to capture the processes for which it's feasible to do automation. Then we look at the suitability of automating a given process and what would be the return on investment if we did the implementation. Once everything has been finalized, we contemplate the development time, do the development, the testing, and then put it into production.

I would rate the solution at nine out of ten. Its usability is very good. The problem is that the IQ Bots' capabilities are coming out slowly.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
SeniorMada6d - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager Development at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Apr 30, 2019
Saving primarily time, we have a high ROI
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features are ease of use and deployment."
  • "Our return on investment is high."
  • "I am looking forward to seeing writing on Linux in the web and WorkBatch in the next release."
  • "We have done some automation of incoming documents, but it has been somewhat hard."

What is our primary use case?

We wanted to have more automation around our customers' processes. We do claim insurance type processing. Therefore, we wanted a process for their first notice of loss and a lot of the government regulations that they have to handle.

How has it helped my organization?

We started using the tool in-house to help us deploy a lot of our own internal processes. We also use it to deploy Automation Anywhere bots to set up other virtual machines and deploy software.

We have automated sending out a first notice of loss. We have done some automation of incoming documents, but it has been somewhat hard. Therefore, we are looking at IQ Bot, as a possible solution.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are ease of use and deployment. It has very good ease of use.

It integrates very well with other applications.

What needs improvement?

I am looking forward to seeing writing on Linux in the web and WorkBatch in the next release.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is very good. I haven't had any issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is very good. I haven't had any issues.

From pilot to our current number of bots, it took about two months.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is very good.

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

We chose Automation Anywhere over other solutions due to the ease of deployment. We had also looked at UiPath, but their deployment was more difficult. We have some on-premise clients, so we were going to have to also deploy Automation Anywhere for them in their environment, and we needed something easy to roll out.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We used a reseller for the deployment.

What was our ROI?

Our return on investment is high. We have saved primarily time.

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

If you are looking into Automation Anywhere, get the Community Edition and play with it.

What other advice do I have?

I like the Automation Anywhere University courses.

We are looking at using IQ Bot to digitize documents.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Automation Anywhere
July 2026
Learn what your peers think about Automation Anywhere. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: July 2026.
904,899 professionals have used our research since 2012.
RpaDevel3794 - PeerSpot reviewer
RPA Developer at Verizon Communications
Real User
Apr 30, 2019
Reduced headcount by eliminating manual, repetitive work
Pros and Cons
  • "We can integration with other APIs, which is a good thing. This helps us with our database integration. For example, we have done an SAP integration, which is great, since SAP has a lot of manual work."
  • "It has provided our organization a lot of benefits, as we have reduced our headcount, approximately 200 to 300 employees, by eliminating manual, repetitive work and providing profit to the business."
  • "With Citrix, we need a dedicated server to work with it. This has become complicated, as it is not easy to pull all the systems together into one place. It would be better if the Automation Anywhere team could make this easy and simple."

What is our primary use case?

We have done a few use cases for the business, IT, and financials. The primary use case is for the business client.

How has it helped my organization?

It has provided our organization a lot of benefits. We have reduced our headcount, approximately 200 to 300 employees, by eliminating manual, repetitive work. It provides profit to the business. 

It is also good to incorporate new technology into our business and systems.

What is most valuable?

The MetaBot is a valuable feature.

We can integration with other APIs, which is a good thing. This helps us with our database integration. For example, we have done an SAP integration, which is great, since SAP has a lot of manual work.

IQ Bot is great for invoices. It helps a lot for retail and on the SAP side.

Ease of use:

  • For developers, the Control Room components are very popular. They are easy to use, along with the Repository Manager, Schedule Manager, and maintenance of the bots.
  • For people from nontechnical backgrounds, the product is simple from them to use. Everyone can learn it. It takes about two weeks on the tool.

What needs improvement?

With Citrix, we need a dedicated server to work with it. This has become complicated, as it is not easy to pull all the systems together into one place. It would be better if the Automation Anywhere team could make this easy and simple.

We would like to see AI incorporated into the tool. With the cognitive capabilities, they need to be improved to handle unstructured data.

The screen scrapping needs to be improved.

Some of the commands, like object cloning and OCR, are not so reliable when we are automating five to ten websites into the same task. Also, when we autofill fields, the comments are not so reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have built many bots. It is good to use the best practices when developing them. For example, we add logs and error handling to each bot, so if it is not working, then we can see why. This helps our developers a lot.

It took us two to three months to scale up from our pilot to the number of bots that we are currently using. What took time was our business people needed to be educated on bots and their capabilities.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have faced some of the problems with the Automation Anywhere tool. The technical support is quick and very responsive. They make sure the problem is completely resolved, which is good.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented it in-house.

What other advice do I have?

Go directly to the Automation Anywhere University site. There is some hands-on usage for the tool, and you can also download a trial there.

I have taken some classes from the Automation Anywhere University. I did three types of certifications, as well. The Automation Anywhere University site provides a lot of information, along with certifications. It gives an overview of what is the tool is and how the developers can code the product, which is a good thing.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
RoboticPe593 - PeerSpot reviewer
Robotic Process Automation Manager at Imerys
Real User
Apr 30, 2019
It is a well put together solution which allows us to produce more quality work faster
Pros and Cons
  • "The flexibility which has been built into it is its most valuable feature."
  • "Our first automation removed manual work from employees, so they are now able to more quickly product quality work."
  • "The support and user community need improvement. For example, it would be nice to have a place for those who create bots to have a place to share information and success stories."
  • "The support and user community need improvement."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is to automate manual tasks to free up space for more value-added tasks.

How has it helped my organization?

Our first automation removed manual work from employees, so they are now able to more quickly product quality work.

What is most valuable?

The flexibility which has been built into it.

What needs improvement?

The support and user community need improvement. For example, it would be nice to have a place for those who create bots to have a place to share information and success stories.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is very scalable.

We're in the process of scaling currently. We started off with two pilot automations, then we needed an engagement strategy to get people excited about it and get their ideas. Then, we needed to prioritize those ideas and go deeper into the processes. But, we plan to start on the next phase soon.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is good. You create ticket on the website, then hear back from someone. I do wish they were a bit quicker with a solution.

How was the initial setup?

It was a bit complex. You can contact support, and they will help you through it.

What was our ROI?

We measure our ROI as time savings per month returned back to the business. We are currently saving about 150 hours per month.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Automation Anywhere, UiPath, and Blue Prism. 

We chose Automation Anywhere because of its user-friendly interface. It is a well put together solution.

What other advice do I have?

We don't currently use attended automation.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Engineer0ae1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineer at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Apr 30, 2019
The bot creation process is very straightforward compared to other tools I have used
Pros and Cons
  • "Ease of use is one thing that definitely first comes to mind when I think of Automation Anywhere. The tools are built in a fairly straightforward way. The documentation is really good and a Knowledge Base is available on every topic."
  • "I would like to see more bots available right out-of-the-box in the SAP area. For example, if you take the overall OTC in our organization, we have to contact 15 teams. Even if we provide one big bot for the OTC, it won't work. It will not be used by one person. So if there could be more specific bots out-of-the-box, that would be really helpful."
  • "I would like to see more bots available right out-of-the-box in the SAP area."

What is our primary use case?

In our company, if you look at the SAP security area, there are a lot of user requests. There's a confusion around the rules. With Automation Anywhere, we can increase the automation capabilities and automate all the user-provisioning in that area.

How has it helped my organization?

It's definitely useful. I went through the enterprise client and the Control Room and using it, a lot of processes can be automated. The SAP integrations look to be very useful. We have a big SAP shop, so a lot of processes can be automated using that integration.

There are three parts to the savings: 

  1. the number of hours saved
  2. the dollar amount saved
  3. how streamlined the process is.

A manual process can be one where an email is sent and then another email is sent to get the approval, and they have to wait one or two weeks until that email comes back. That full manual process can take three weeks while the automated task takes about 30 minutes.

What is most valuable?

Ease of use is one thing that definitely first comes to mind when I think of Automation Anywhere. The tools are built in a fairly straightforward way. The documentation is really good and a Knowledge Base is available on every topic.

The bot creation process is very straightforward compared to other tools I have used. ServiceNow has a workflow which is a drag-and-drop activity itself, and then you configure it. Here they are going in that direction too: flow, design. It's really good.

The number of activities available to automate is amazing. There are 500-plus so there are a lot of possibilities with that. I can automate a lot of processes.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see more bots available right out-of-the-box in the SAP area. For example, if you take the overall OTC in our organization, we have to contact 15 teams. Even if we provide one big bot for the OTC, it won't work. It will not be used by one person. So if there could be more specific bots out-of-the-box, that would be really helpful. 

An example would be a credit check. There might be one there but I'm just giving an example where it would be specifically targeting a single process. 

More Meta Bots would also be good because they are reusable. If we had more of them that would make it faster for whomever is working on them and make the process more seamless. They would be able to build the bots very fast.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

As of now, we have one or two instances of Automation Anywhere, so I'm not yet able to comment on its stability. Once we install it in production, with multiple processes running, multiple bots running, we'll have to see how it performs overall, how scalable it is.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

To scale from pilot to the number of bots we're currently using went pretty quickly. I have talked to other teammates who are working on Automation Anywhere and developing the bots. I've heard really good feedback on that. It's within weeks, and sometimes days, depending on the complexity.

Doing a simple password reset went really fast. If they are doing something on an OTC process or a P2P process or integrating with SAP, it will be a long process. First, you have to get approval from all the business owners and understand the process. That takes time. But the technical aspect - once you have everything in place and you know what you are going to do - the coding itself, is pretty fast.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have not yet had to contact technical support.

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

In terms of switching to a new solution, as a company, if we grow out of a solution or it's not at a level that will help us with all scenarios within the company, then they will usually look to change.

There are many factors they look at, such as return on investment and cost. They will look at all the parameters, but the main parameter will be that it should be very useful to all the different teams. It also needs to be scalable since we have about 50,000 employees.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We managed it ourselves.

What was our ROI?

You will usually see return on investment easily see because of the depth of things you can automate with it is huge.

My way measuring ROI of an automated process is that first, even before starting any automation, I will see what the input is for the process, how the process works, what the output from the process is, and I'll measure how much time it takes, end-to-end in the manual process.

There will be some initial investment ahead of time and, after that, everything is a return on investment. Based on the number of minutes it takes manually, versus automation, the reduced amount of time will be the savings that I calculate, per request. I'll put a dollar amount to it based on who the user is. If they are, for example, paid $50 per hour, and the automation saves 40 minutes, that's a savings of $33 per request.

Every time we do an automation, we definitely note how many requests it processes. For example, in ServiceNow we count every automation request that goes through, without manual intervention. It writes to a table and we go there and run a report on the table. Straight away, I know my return on investment from that part of the automation.

What other advice do I have?

As you understand more and apply the tool to the processes, you will start to leverage the tool more quickly. 

I have looked at other tools, like UiPath. While I have not completely tested them, Automation Anywhere definitely has ease of use and a strong community available.

I have taken the developer courses and done certification in the Automation Anywhere University. It's really good and helpful and I was able to grasp things quickly by using it. I installed the Community Edition on my laptop and started using it straight away. It's very good.

I would rate the product at nine out of ten because of the number of uses. We have automated 30 to 40 processes. Those kinds of things have been very easy to automate using Automation Anywhere. We didn't need any other platforms. We were able to straight-out build all the bots. 

As I said, there could be more on the SAP integration side. Also, knowledge of the actual process of automating is not readily available outside. If they could build up their Knowledge Base more that would be helpful. That's where the real investment for the company is, not in automating the IT team's requirements. For example, if I automate an application for my IT team, that's one thing, but if I automate a business process and I'm able to provide them analysis and provide a report on something that the business really needs, that will help to deliver on the business side. There's a difference.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Technica6e74 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Lead at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Apr 30, 2019
We have integrated it with everything from standard off-the-shelf products to custom apps
Pros and Cons
  • "The flexibility: If there is anything the tool cannot do, we have the ability to make a MetaBot to achieve that functionality. The overall flexibility of the tool makes it very useful for us in our landscape."
  • "It has taken a lot of manual Excel manipulation that we have previously did, and removed that work away from people who did that for ten hours a day, five days a week, allowing us to refocus our resources into more value-add activities and simplifying our landscape."
  • "I would like more integration into the entire Microsoft Suite of products, not just Excel. Companies use all of Microsoft products at the same time, and being good at just one Microsoft tool is a limiting factor. Being able to use Microsoft Excel, Access, and Outlook together and have them integrated (as standard) into the tool would be very useful, especially when you go into attended automation."
  • "I would like more integration into the entire Microsoft Suite of products, not just Excel."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for every aspect of our company: Financials, purchasing, HR, etc. 

How has it helped my organization?

It has taken a lot of manual Excel manipulation that we have previously did, and removed that work away from people who did that for ten hours a day, five days a week. We now have a robot doing this manual work, allowing us to refocus those our resources into more value-add activities, simplifying our landscape.

What is most valuable?

The flexibility: If there is anything the tool cannot do, we have the ability to make a MetaBot to achieve that functionality. The overall flexibility of the tool makes it very useful for us in our landscape.

We have integrated it with everything from standard off-the-shelf products, like SAP and Oracle, to custom apps that we built within our landscape. The integration to other applications is very good and easy.

What needs improvement?

I would like more integration into the entire Microsoft Suite of products, not just Excel. Companies use all of Microsoft products at the same time, and being good at just one Microsoft tool is a limiting factor. Being able to use Microsoft Excel, Access, and Outlook together and have them integrated (as standard) into the tool would be very useful, especially when you go into attended automation.

They keep rolling out more features in selected areas. They should broaden their scope.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We intentionally took a long time to scale up to our current number of bots because we focused on using large processes, instead of small ones. For us to grow to scale, it took us about a year and a half. However, we have been focusing on processes with tens of FTEs per year, instead of about processes that are one to two hours per day.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is good. Whenever we have issues with the product, the support team gets back to us normally within half a day, or sometimes even sooner, with direct answers of how we can solve our issues. If they don't have documentation for it, they have somebody call us, and we have the issue resolved in a day or two.

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

We did not have a previous solution.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was in-house.

What about the implementation team?

We did the deployment in-house.

What other advice do I have?

Do your homework on your use cases. Knowing which use cases are really good for RPA is crucial in getting the program started. If you don't have your use cases identified, or have your functional processes identified, that want to automate, then it makes the scaling aspects more challenging.

I am RPA professionally certified through Automation Anywhere and have taken multiple classes through the Automation Anywhere University. The courses are good. They are just like any other online training courses, which I have taken through other vendors, like Microsoft or SAP. It is on par with those vendors who have been doing this for a long time.

As long as a person has a semi-technical mindset, the product is very simple to use. Even for the traditional business user, with just a little training, we are able to bring them up to speed on how to use the tool fairly easily. The tool is very good, as far as ease of use.

As long as you have a technical mindset or are able to think in a certain manner, the creation of a bot is very intuitive, especially since the tool is drag and drop. For example, I am able to take any of the commands that I need and put them in the right sequence of orders. This makes it very intuitive to create a bot from start to finish.

We are evaluating the cognitive document processing as something to use in the future, but are not currently using it.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
ProcessAb41f - PeerSpot reviewer
Process Architect at a media company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Apr 30, 2019
It returns hours, time, and money back to the business
Pros and Cons
  • "From a developer perspective, the user interface is user-friendly and easy to use."
  • "At the most granular level, automating people's daily tasks has been helpful by freeing them up to do higher value-add activities, which is definitely beneficial."
  • "Anything that can be done to increase the stability from a system standpoint in regards to large-scale systems, which are being used by a number of applications, e.g., Salesforce or Workday."
  • "My current and previous companies have had stability issues."

What is our primary use case?

I have worked for two companies in the past who have used Automation Anywhere. Both primary use cases have fallen under finance and accounting, with a lot of finance and accounting based functions primarily for data processing: 

  • Extracting data from different systems.
  • Aggregating data.
  • Doing analysis on data.
  • Porting data into other systems.
  • Doing accounting based functions, such as reconciliations and transaction uploads.

How has it helped my organization?

  • At the most granular level, automating people's daily tasks has been helpful by freeing them up to do higher value-add activities, which is definitely beneficial. 
  • On a larger scale, the tool is improving processes overall by making systems and processes more stable. It returns hours, time, and money back to the business.

What is most valuable?

  • From a developer perspective, the user interface is user-friendly and easy to use. 
  • From the admin side, the Control Room is simple to use. There is a lot of functionality with a lot of analytics and oversight that you can draw from just simple web pages. It is definitely the most useful.

What needs improvement?

Integrating this solution with other application has been good for the most part. A lot of the issues that I have are related to the actual applications than with Automation Anywhere. Any additional functionality which comes out in regards to integrating it better with more widely used applications, like Salesforce, Oracle, or Workday, is definitely beneficial and helpful at the end of the day.

I have been hearing great stuff in terms of upping the product's cognitive game. Anything that can be done to work with unstructured data sets would be helpful, like increasing the subjectivity of bots, and moving away from solely rules based processes to anything which actually requires subjective judgment. If Automation Anywhere could code that into the bot design and framework, having it sort of act like a human, that would be helpful. 

Anything that can be done to increase the stability from a system standpoint in regards to large-scale systems, which are being used by a number of applications, e.g., Salesforce or Workday. This would help us, as well.

Automation Anywhere should work to continue maintaining its ease of use.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

My current and previous companies have had stability issues. 

I started on version 11 of Automation Anywhere, then when I joined a new company, they used version 10. Therefore, I have seen both versions. With version 11, some of the development stuff was a bit clunky in terms of the tasks that we were performing. They didn't perform as expected, or perform properly, when we were developing the bot. Then, once we deployed it into production, the bot would run for a specific process and work properly about 10 times, but on the eleventh time, it would break. It was always random. Nothing had changed at all, in regards to our system, architecture, or infrastructure.

On version 10, things had been a bit more stable. We made sure that we build code which effectively captures all use cases and exceptions, but stability is key. When you're building automated solutions using bots, people are already skeptical and hesitant to adopt them. Anything you can do to improve the stability is definitely helpful. Ultimately, it depends on what your goal with RPA is. If you're using RPA as a stop-gap to build large-scale system integrations, then it's very helpful. If you're using it as a be all, end all, then stability is your number one concern. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product is definitely scalable. A lot of it will depend solely on the architecture of the organization who is implementing it. If you are using on-premise servers, it is much harder to scale up versus if you are using cloud-based architecture. Automation Anywhere provides the tools and expertise to make it scalable.

At the previous company that I was with, we had a pilot in September 2017 with approximately 20 bots. Then, in production, it took nine to ten months. With the organization that I'm currently with their process took a little longer, but they were standing up their COE initially. So, they went from pilot to about 30 bots in production. This took roughly a year and a half to two years. 

With regards to process, there is a lot involved. If you want to have a successful RPA and Automation Anywhere implementation at the ground level, you need to lay the foundation and the framework. Therefore, you need to build your center of excellence, and make sure you have dedicated people who will focus on whatever their role is: People related to support, governance, development, architecture, oversight (who will work with your security teams to get your reviews done), and IT personnel (who will provision servers and licenses and do Control Room administration). There is a lot involved to take it from inception to a successful program. 

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support has been helpful from what I've used. Initially, when we were exploring solutions and using Automation Anywhere, as a vendor, their technical support seemed to be lacking a bit. It seems like in the last few months or year, they have been stepping up their game, in this regard. They are very prompt to follow up with issues and want to make sure issues are thoroughly resolved before they close tickets and move on, which has been helpful.

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

At both companies, we never used a different solution before Automation Anywhere. 

We had individuals working at the companies who spent years going to school, but could not necessarily download reports nor input data into spreadsheets, and this was something that could be easily automated. We wanted to free up users and people to perform higher value-add activities, exercising analytical and critical thinking, as opposed to being cogs in the machine.

How was the initial setup?

Certain aspects of the initial setup were complex, but that's a given when you're talking about technical architecture and getting the infrastructure you need in place for a successful rollout. Though, some aspects of the initial setup were simpler. 

The simpler aspects are designating roles for people based on what it is they want to provide to the center of excellence for RPA and how they see their fit in the organization. The more complex piece of it is working with all the stakeholders, internally and externally, to get all the infrastructure in place that you need in order to develop, deploy, test, and run bots in production. 

What about the implementation team?

For deployment, at the first company that I worked for, that was all in-house, as we were deploying our own bots. The architecture, development, and deployment were all in-house. 

At the company that I currently work for, we have a managed services company who does development for us, and we still handle deployments. It is more like a segregation of duties, where we handle the full deployment on the end once code is ready for production.

What was our ROI?

We have seen ROI, otherwise we would have stopped using the product.

At a base level, for ROI, we equate a dollar value out to the process owner, or the business user, and multiply that out by the number of hours being saved. However, that is really base level. There are other factors involved that will help:

  • If you reduce the number of errors.
  • If it's related to month-end or quarter-end close for a business cycle. 
  • When automating a base level process, that saves time, but it doesn't always account for the additional time given back to the user to perform another higher value-added task, as well.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

On the shortlist were some of the largest players in the industry: Blue Prism, UiPath, and Automation Anywhere. This was in 2017, when I was involved with the PoC. We chose Automation Anywhere because of ease of use and overall functionality. I think the cost was also a big factor, but I don't have much insight into it.

People seem to be a bit skeptical about the cognitive document processing. I don't know if they see the power that IQ Bot provides relative to other world leading software products, such as ABBYY, which is another big OCR technology that I have used. If Automation Anywhere is stepping up its game in the cognitive aspect, this will help guide adoption in the future.

What other advice do I have?

Consider all relevant factors before making a decision on a provider. Don't just randomly decide to choose one provider over another. At the end of the day, it comes down to what you are trying to achieve by implementing an RPA solution, what you're looking for in an RPA service provider, and who is willing to best address that and meet the needs of what it is you're hoping to achieve. You should consider RPA as a solution, and there are a whole host of other automation software solutions across the spectrum, as well, which are relevant for different things, but RPA has its place in any organization. Just know exactly what it is you are hoping to achieve. Based on that, you'll be able to find the best provider for you.

For developers, it's relatively easy to use. I know some developers are hesitant to use it because they come from traditional technical backgrounds. The product is counter-intuitive to everything that they have studied. If they studied computer science, they're really reticent towards something that can just automate what they learned. For someone with a nontechnical background, it's relatively easy to use and easy to build tests out. It takes a bit of effort to master and build sustainable solutions, but it is easy to use from a development perspective.

I have not been able to take courses in Automation Anywhere University for the new platform. I started using Automation Anywhere back in 2017, and the Automation Anywhere University wasn't available. There was another platform, at that time. We did the online training center for it, and it had eight different sections. Back then, it was a little clunky. You had to go through one section and complete it before moving on another. From what I've heard about Automation Anywhere University, it's much better and more functional. I haven't had the opportunity to use it yet, since I haven't really needed to use it. However, I do plan on exploring it in the future.

I don't use Citrix automation.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
ManagerBf895 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Business Process Integration at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Apr 29, 2019
We can now do root cause analysis and have less noise in the system during the process
Pros and Cons
  • "We are making less mistakes and have more metrics available to understand what our problems are. Now, we can do root cause analysis and have less noise in the system during the process."
  • "The solution has removed humans making errors while increasing our time savings, and we now have a lot more efficiencies in our process."
  • "Understanding what we wanted to do the tool after setup, that was complex."

What is our primary use case?

We have developed apps for accounts payable (finance) to do three-way match.

How has it helped my organization?

We are making less mistakes and have more metrics available to understand what our problems are. Now, we can do root cause analysis and have less noise in the system during the process.

What is most valuable?

The solution has removed humans making errors while increasing our time savings. We now have a lot of more efficiencies in our process.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Our first bot took ten weeks to create. It took six months to create the number of bots that we are currently using.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have take basic courses at Automation Anywhere University, because I an not actually a programmer. I just needed to know the high level of the product. The Automation Anywhere University was very good.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was straightforward. Understanding what we wanted to do the tool, that was more complex.

What about the implementation team?

We used Thirdware for the deployment.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Automation Anywhere was the only vendor because we were told by our private equity company that was who we were using. However, Automation Anywhere is the industry leader, so it was an easy choice. So, we didn't argue too much with the selection by them, and we did not actually go through a selection process ourselves.

We use a different solution for cognitive document processing, not Automation Anywhere, but we are rethinking this.

What other advice do I have?

No tool will ever fix your company. It is always about the stability of processes, understanding your scope, and what your problems are. This tool is a great tool to help with that once processes are stable. It will always be dependent upon people. Make sure you program the bot to help people, not what you think it needs to be. There will be a lot of meetings, scope developments, and data review, which will need to happen first. Then, if you get good with that, then the tool's going to be excellent.

So far, everything has been good with the solution. It is a great tool.

The integration works very well. We have integrated it with four other software tools.

From a developer perspective, the solution is very simple. Our end users don't really see it. They just see the end result.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
VpIsGlob37e5 - PeerSpot reviewer
VP IS Global Development at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Apr 29, 2019
Using bots, we have been able to recoup revenue because processes previously weren't being followed correctly
Pros and Cons
  • "The tech support for Automation Anywhere has been really good, so far. We haven't had to call them very much, but when we have, we have received a good response."
  • "This solution has been great for our company in almost every way possible."
  • "I would like more with OCR and data capture. We are partnering with IBM to help bridge this gap, but Automation Anywhere should continue to expand on their product line and provide these capabilities, as well."
  • "I would like more with OCR and data capture."

What is our primary use case?

We use it to augment our staff and remove some of the manual processes in our business.

Our team, consists of two college kids who are doing almost all the work, along with a couple of business people to help teach them what is going on. The ease of use has been pretty simple, or they would not have been able to catch onto it so quickly.

How has it helped my organization?

With the new regulation on China tariffs, we were hit with a regulation that we weren't prepared to take on. By using a few bots, we were able to satisfy the requirements for that regulation without going into programs and making changes.

We have automated our China tariffs, some invoicing stuff, a lot of processes for finance, and some mundane closing tasks.

What is most valuable?

We have had a lot of great success with attended automation. The business has taken a hold and embraced it. So, we're very excited about it.

What needs improvement?

I would like more with OCR and data capture. We are partnering with IBM to help bridge this gap, but Automation Anywhere should continue to expand on their product line and provide these capabilities, as well.

The installation and setup for the bot runners and bot creators need improvement. The installation and setup for the control room is also a difficult task. Therefore, improving the ease of implementation would help out a lot.

For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We've not had any problems with the platform going down. Right now, it's been very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We're still pretty small, so we haven't had a need to scale out too much. 

We have seen the roadmap for scaling out, and it doesn't look to be too difficult. So, we should& have a problem with it.

We have only had the tool for about eight months. From start to finish, we have put over a dozen bots in place, some of which are highly complex and took a lot of weeks to properly deploy.

How are customer service and technical support?

The tech support for Automation Anywhere has been really good, so far. We haven't had to call them very much, but when we have, we have received a good response.

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

This was our first bot solution. We did do our research and looked to our partners to see what they were using, then created a shortlist. This product was on everyone's shortlist. Also, they partner well with IBM, and we have partnered with IBM for years. This made it very attractive and was the key selling point.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was pretty complex. Everyone who offers this platform is still trying to find the right tools which go with it. Without an integrator, we would have had a lot of difficulty getting it set up ourselves. 

As this product matures, it will continue to get easier to set up.

What about the implementation team?

We used an integrator (BP3) for the deployment. They've been tremendous to work with, satisfying all of our needs.

What was our ROI?

We measure our ROI mostly by time saved, from a real person doing a task versus a bot. In some cases, we have been able to recoup revenue because processes weren't being followed correctly. Because the bot was doing the task the same way every time, we have recouped some revenue that we had lost in the past.

We save 34,000 hours of time per year and have recouped up to $6000 in lost revenue.

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

We have a three-year contract with Automation Anywhere.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

UiPath was also on our shortlist.

What other advice do I have?

Every piece of software has its goods and bads. For your organization, you have to ensure that the goods outweigh the bads for your use case. This solution has been great for our company in almost every way possible. Obviously, we made a good choice. Therefore, I would recommend taking a good, hard look at Automation Anywhere as your bot platform.

With the latest version, I know they have improved the UI. That will already be a big help,

Return of investment has been pretty easy, so it has not been a problem with getting funding for this solution. Our executive team was immediately involved, where I know with most IT projects, they really don't care until they see the output. They had done their research, as well. So, they were really excited for us to take on this endeavor.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
CIO at Binary Technologies Inc
Real User
Apr 29, 2019
It provides the ability to leverage the APIs of third-party solutions by using built-in MetaBots
Pros and Cons
  • "Automation Anywhere is excellent for integrating with other solutions. It provides the ability to leverage the APIs of third-party solutions. We use some of the already built-in MetaBots to then scrape the data and manipulate independent data that we need in order to integrate with other third-party solutions."
  • "Compared to other RPA solutions on the market I have worked with, AA surpasses its competitors by far."
  • "I would like to have a bot as a service platform on AA Cloud. This would minimize the installation process, and we wouldn't need to have all the hardware to support the platform in-house."
  • "I would like to have a bot as a service platform on AA Cloud."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is the insurance of clients.

How has it helped my organization?

The solution has improved our organization through its integration with other products. We can integrate multiple platforms through the use of Automation Anywhere via the use of third-party APIs, so there is no human intervention at all. Everything happens on the back-end.

Automation Anywhere is excellent for integrating with other solutions. It provides the ability to leverage the APIs of third-party solutions. We use some of the already built-in MetaBots to then scrape the data and manipulate independent data that we need in order to integrate with other third-party solutions.

What is most valuable?

  • IQ Bot
  • Cognitive automation: The ability for the product to learn based on corrections made, such as exceptions and the way those exceptions are handled. Then, these are taken into consideration for future exceptions of similar type (autocorrecting).

What needs improvement?

I would like to have a bot as a service platform on AA Cloud. This would minimize the installation process, and we wouldn't need to have all the hardware to support the platform in-house.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have worked on several different projects, so far. From prototypes to production, on average, scaling our bots takes somewhere from three to six weeks.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is great.

The Automation Anywhere University is very good. I liked the courses and the videos, which were included. I found it to be very intuitive and educational. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. The videos on the Automation Anywhere University are extremely helpful during this process.

What about the implementation team?

We used a consultant for the deployment.

What was our ROI?

We are currently measuring ROI based on cost, labor and time to market metrics.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

UiPath and WorkFusion were also on our shortlist. We selected Automation Anywhere based on the product's ease of use, functionality, development environment, and workbench. This product surpassed what these other competitors had to offer.

In addition, we have a market which allows us to get products developed in timely fashion. This is beneficial to partners and clients, alike.

What other advice do I have?

Automation Anywhere is one of the products which allows you to leverage the power of RPA digital workforce technology is a timely and scaled approach. Compared to other RPA solutions on the market I have worked with, AA surpasses its competitors by far.

The growth of Automation Anywhere product's stability, functionality, and technical advancements demonstrates the company is dedicated to its product, clients, and partners. It is evident that the product will only get better.

The ease of use for developers utilizing this solution is excellent. I’ve abandoned the use of WorkFusion from our practice due to its limitations. Automation Anywhere, in particular, allows us to extend the functionality of the platform by writing our own DLLs, so we are able to easily integrate it into any RPA process that we may be developing. At the same time, the ability for us to use other users' bots downloaded from the Bot Store has added a huge amount of value to the product and our ability to get to market quickly.

I don't use Citrix.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Automation Anywhere Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: July 2026
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Automation Anywhere Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.