Automation Anywhere Reviews

We have use cases for Automation Anywhere in underwriting claims, HR, IT support, and various other areas. It's mixed. 

We completed our first document automation POC this year with Automation Anywhere. We don't really use it extensively yet. The use case we were trying to use it for did not work that effectively, however, that is probably more of a use case identification and selection issue. 

We were trying to apply Automation Anywhere to a catch-all contract-reading program. There were no good requirements, and we simply wondered if it could read the contract. While it could read contracts, we didn't have good planning for what to do with the information once we created it. We didn't have the human loop elements set up for exception handling at that time, which made it challenging.

Automation Anywhere has benefited our company as we've been able to process thousands of transactions daily through various automations that distribute work, classify work, and handle claims, doing preliminary work for the finance team. When an adjuster first sees it, they don't have to access multiple systems to gather information because the automation has already completed that task. It has been really useful for traditional RPA, which remains our forte.

What I appreciate most about Automation Anywhere is how easy it is to use and test, particularly the debug feature. I've been doing considerable development this year. It has been easy to put together looping and if logic. 

Automation Anywhere could be improved by staying more current with Microsoft products through packages. There have been challenges with their email package. For a long time, they didn't have an effective one, and with new Outlook releases changing how Microsoft handles emails, the package hasn't been updated to accommodate these changes. It still uses old, deprecated Microsoft components that have an end date. 

There have also been struggles with other Microsoft suite applications, such as SharePoint. They moved from their old REST to a graph API, and the packages aren't configured to accommodate that out of the box, requiring the use of generic API commands instead of the out-of-box packages.

I have been using Automation Anywhere in the company for six years.

Automation Anywhere helps overcome challenges with decent sales representatives who make calls on a cadence, and we can set up meetings easily. They provided technical architecture consulting for a few hours with some of our leaders.

I didn't use another solution before choosing Automation Anywhere. Currently, we are also using Microsoft Power Automate extensively.

The deployment was fine. We had to get some servers set up to deploy some service accounts created to have the bot runner licenses and set up some users in the control room. It really wasn't that complicated.

For what we have in the traditional RPA space with Automation Anywhere, the pricing is good. The licensing hasn't caused any concerns. I'm not familiar with the pricing of the agentic features as we don't have them yet. For the traditional functionality, it has been feasible.

We considered UiPath six years ago before choosing Automation Anywhere. I didn't personally evaluate UiPath as that was before my involvement. Automation Anywhere is more robust and functions more as a platform for integration, embedding, and orchestration. Power Automate is faster to set up and cheaper for our current uses. It doesn't necessarily work better with Microsoft products than Automation Anywhere does.

The main challenge we were trying to solve when implementing Automation Anywhere was entering the emerging space six years ago. Currently, we're determining our path forward with agent process automation and AI. We have an AI council and are still determining where it fits into that picture.

In the age of agentic AI, our company's biggest challenges include getting buy-in and understanding across the organization. All decision-makers and stakeholders need to understand what's possible, what competitors are doing, and how the industry landscape is changing. There aren't necessarily challenges with the software itself. It requires funding and getting people who make decisions to see the vision.

We don't have the AI Agent Studio feature of Automation Anywhere. AI governance is extremely important in our company and has been somewhat of a blocker. We've been working to form a council and determine how our company will use AI, which remains an ongoing process.

We don't have AARI for autopilot capability and have never utilized Automation Anywhere COE, Center of Excellence. We are deploying Automation Anywhere to the cloud. We aren't using API with Automation Anywhere yet, mostly focusing on RPA, though we're considering API usage.

I would rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten overall.

Our Automation Anywhere use cases primarily focus on streamlining regular business processes by automating repetitive, time-consuming tasks. While direct FTE (Full-Time Equivalent) savings are not always the primary metric, the true value lies in enabling users to redirect their time toward higher-value, strategic activities.

The use cases are largely centered around the transportation domain, including:

• Warranty tracking and claims

• Logistics operations and coordination

These automations improve efficiency, ensure consistency, and support compliance while freeing up human effort for tasks that require judgment, analysis, or stakeholder interaction.

Automation Anywhere has brought measurable improvements to our organization by automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks across various business functions. The primary benefit has been time savings for employees, enabling them to focus on more meaningful and high-value work rather than manual, routine activities.

While the impact is not always quantified through FTE reduction, the platform has enhanced process efficiency, accuracy, and overall user productivity. Automations have helped reduce errors, improve turnaround times, and ensure consistency in daily operations.

Overall, Automation Anywhere has contributed to building a more efficient and scalable operational environment, aligning with our goals of digital transformation and continuous improvement.

What I appreciate most about Automation Anywhere is the interface, and it is very specific on what to use and where to use it. That is the most interesting part for me to consider. Automation Anywhere has improved my company significantly; earlier we were dependent on the client installed on local machines, but now it is completely web-based, so we don't have to worry about having a dedicated VM. We can connect and access the browser from anywhere. Rather than having a dedicated machine for every developer, we can have a shared machine so that based on shift basis we can use the same machine for multiple persons. That is an interesting feature which was not present in the older versions.

The advanced features such as document automation are helping tremendously, mainly in reading handwritten information and stable information. That has helped us significantly to extract the required data from renewals and some unstructured documents.

The primary challenge we aimed to address using AARI and Automation Anywhere 2019 was automating decision-making based on unstructured, free-text information-traditionally handled by operations teams. While earlier automation efforts managed to streamline parts of the process, manual intervention was still required for reviewing and routing free-text data. With AARI, our objective is to eliminate this dependency and achieve a fully autonomous process without human interruption.

In leveraging AARI and IQ Bot, the most significant challenges for our team lie in understanding the product capabilities and deploying them effectively in real-world scenarios. It’s not solely about training or online learning resources, but about applying the technology pragmatically and successfully within our environment.

At this stage, Automation Anywhere has only partially helped us overcome these challenges, as we are still in the exploratory phase with AARI in the context of document automation. While we’ve seen progress toward our automation goals, the full potential is yet to be realized.

One area where Automation Anywhere has shown promise is in AI governance, which is a critical requirement for us-especially in document automation and AI-powered workflows. The platform’s governance features help us ensure data integrity, traceability, and compliance in how information is processed and stored.

That said, there remains room for improvement, particularly in the clarity around AARI infrastructure requirements. Before fully adopting the solution, we need better insights into what infrastructure is necessary, any additional costs involved, and the level of support required. Understanding whether our existing environment can support AARI or whether additional investments are needed is essential for effective implementation.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for nine years.

We utilize Document Automation in one of our current processes with Automation Anywhere, but if we would to use any advanced features, it is very restrictive to use it in on-prem. We have to enable the cloud. When we say cloud there will be many red tapes, security wise, and it takes considerable time to get approval for anything from security. It would be beneficial if we had all those latest features enabled in the on-prem so we don't have to go through these hurdles. We worked together with Automation Anywhere to get security approval to enable the cloud environment.

I have not measured the time saved by using Document Automation and document processing extensively, but there are savings from the use case standpoint. The real-time saving is in decision-making and removing human dependency. When we achieve that, then I will be able to confirm the true savings.

There are additional things that Automation Anywhere could do to make it a 10; they need to consider the implementation perspective. It's not only about the features and latest tech, it's also about supporting that in the existing infrastructure and what else we need to consider. All those things will help them to stand as a front runner compared to other tools we have in the market. On a scale of 1-10, this solution rates between 8 to 9.

I am working as a solution architect at Boston Scientific, and I help other teams automate their manual processes using Automation Anywhere as the primary RPA tool. 

The business cases come from multiple teams, such as the HR team, service management team, or supply chain management team. We identify the manual processes that are the best fit for automation opportunities. 

Initially, we review the entire process to understand how the teams are completing their tasks manually. Then, we assess how much we can automate using Automation Anywhere, the features it provides, and how suitable it is for the process. We then convert that particular manual process into automation opportunities.

We are on the path of implementing GenAI for digital transformation. We are doing demos of the AI agents to implement GenAI across all the verticals at Boston Scientific. We are figuring out the right opportunities and use cases.

With chatbot integrations and AI agents, we are able to create responses by extracting the data from the database, massaging those replies, and replying back to the customers. 

We just need to know the end goal to automate a particular process. In Automation Anywhere, we have multiple commands to automate from Excel or record the UI. A person needs to just drag and drop the commands and fill in the data.

Automation Anywhere supports various types of integrations. We have integrated SAP, Excel, Python script, and JavaScript. We can easily integrate them with Automation Anywhere.

We have many opportunities from multiple teams. There are requirements to automate Excel, the UI, or their scripts. We have various integrations with technologies like Python, Java, or macros. Automation Anywhere is perfect for integrating those technologies.

Automation Anywhere has undergone drastic changes over the past five years, transitioning from version 10 to A360, including desktop-based and cloud-based options. The tool is now more stable, with more opportunities and new commands, like recording for the UI or advanced Excel features. 

For beginners learning Automation Anywhere, there should be predefined templates to start creating a task bot. Instead of dragging and dropping action commands and doing error handling, there should be predefined templates that they can directly use. It will help maintain code uniformity across the organization. Besides templates, most features are already available in Automation Anywhere to help automate a manual process into an RPA opportunity.

I have been using Automation Anywhere since 2016, so it has been nine years.

It is stable. I would rate it a nine out of ten for stability.

I would rate it a nine out of ten for scalability.

We have multiple teams in India, the USA, and Costa Rica. We are working from multiple locations. We are a team of 35 users.

The technical support is excellent. I would rate it a ten out of ten. We just have to raise a ticket, after which we receive a call, email, or ping from the Automation Anywhere team. We then provide our queries or show where we are getting stuck, and they provide us with the solution.

Positive

Previously, I worked with UiPath and Power Automate. However, I find Automation Anywhere to offer a better experience.

The setup is easy because all updates and upgrades are synchronized with the newer versions.

We have a dedicated support team that helps deploy the bots. We raise the change requests, which are approved by a technical person and the release manager. After all the approvals and validations are in place, the automation bot gets deployed to the new environment.

The time required for the maintenance of bots depends on the requirement or process. We can see the status of all bots in the control room. It is simple.

We have a completely dedicated team to track bots. We have more than 100 bots running in the control room.

In terms of ROI, we have a good amount, which amounts to millions of dollars per year.

I am not responsible for the pricing part, but I know the pricing is competitive compared to other tools.

It is relatively simple. It is a platform where you get all the commands for integration and other functions to automate your end-to-end process. It is easy to learn and cloud-based. The control room is easy to understand. All these features will be helpful for automating or starting your RPA journey. 

I would rate Automation Anywhere a nine out of ten.

I have experience using Automation Anywhere to automate various processes, primarily in the banking domain. I've worked on credit card reconciliation for Citibank in Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, as well as loan services and contract renewals for CIMB Malaysia. Additionally, I've utilized IQ Bot to analyze Twitter sentiment, identifying positive and negative comments to create service tickets. My experience includes working with ServiceNow, SAP, and mainframe environments, specifically IBM SQL Server.

Automation Anywhere has significantly transformed its platform. Previously, tasks were created and managed locally through the control room panel. However, with the introduction of cloud technology, users can now build and deploy tasks directly in the cloud. By installing a bot agent runner on their systems, tasks can be executed automatically. Furthermore, the platform now integrates with Git and Azure repositories, enabling version control and collaborative development. This means multiple users can work on a single project simultaneously, enhancing efficiency and promoting agile methodologies. Additionally, the platform offers automated code review capabilities, allowing users to track changes and identify contributors. The control room manager also receives email notifications for any modifications made. This transition to the cloud has been a gradual process, spanning two to three years, and has significantly improved the platform's accessibility and functionality.

Automation Anywhere has a two to three-month learning curve.

Integrating Copilot into our system is straightforward. From a chatbot perspective, we can use it for tasks like sending emails or completing daily assignments. By utilizing Automation Anywhere, we can build an agent that functions as a Copilot, automating tasks for us. Copilot is also integrated with machine learning models, providing prompts and responses that can be modified as needed. Its user-friendly interface and ability to integrate with existing applications make it a valuable tool for streamlining daily tasks and improving efficiency.

Copilot has helped to improve our productivity by up to 30 percent.

With the use of Automation Anywhere, the organization has seen improved efficiency, particularly with the introduction of IQ Bot and Metabot for tasks such as extracting data from invoices and purchase orders. The combination of RPA with AI and cloud solutions has considerably transformed our processes, allowing for intelligent document processing and seamless system integration, thus streamlining operations.

I use a variety of AI technologies for our research and development, including generative AI, custom bit models, GPT-4, and LaMDA. We've also built our own product for GPT-4 called Thor, which utilizes intelligent document processing to extract data from contracts, purchase orders, invoices, and receipts. This data is then integrated with our machine-learning models and downstream systems. Our focus is on transforming our processes using RPA, AI, and cloud technologies, migrating existing systems to the cloud and enhancing them with AI and ML capabilities.

I have integrated Automation Anywhere with numerous applications, including Salesforce, ServiceNow, ITSM, SAP including S4/HANA and Fusion, Oracle including Oracle Fusion, Java Technologies, .NET Platform, Maple's Web Platform, various databases including QLS with dual database configurations, and Power Platform. I am also familiar with backend systems like Data Lake.

I enjoy using applications and API integration tools to efficiently connect systems. Our organization favours API automation, so we developed an ML-based automation product. We prioritize API integration for all applications, leveraging our back-end team and custom APIs for seamless connectivity. While UI automation can be time-consuming, API integration, especially with back-end services, is significantly faster. Our strategy involves collaborating with IT business partners to prioritize API development.

Automation Anywhere helps us save at least 85 percent of our costs.

I find the terminal emulator feature very valuable, particularly in how it interacts with IBM mainframe automation. The Control Room and credential vault are also noteworthy features. Control Room ensures security and access management by keeping credentials within a secure vault. The variable panel, with its comprehensive variety list, array, Boolean, and string types, is quite efficient. Additionally, Metabot stands out as an efficient tool for applications that change frequently.

Automation Anywhere's Metabot and IQ Bot have become increasingly efficient tools for automating tasks. IQ Bot, in particular, has evolved significantly since its launch. Initially, it struggled to effectively extract data from various document types like invoices and purchase orders. However, with the integration of built-in machine learning models, IQ Bot now excels at data extraction and processing. Furthermore, users can build custom models to suit their specific needs, leveraging Automation Anywhere's pre-trained models and readily available tools. This continuous development has made IQ Bot far more user-friendly and efficient than its earlier versions.

There are improvements needed in error handling processes, as currently, they rely on start and end error commands. A more strategic approach could enhance efficiency. While the implementation of a structured development approach has been introduced, further enhancements could be made to accommodate non-technical users better, perhaps by making the platform more accessible and user-friendly through a flowchart or diagram-based setup.

Automation Anywhere can be moderately challenging for business users without technical skills. While the platform offers some drag-and-drop functionality, building automation requires a strong understanding of logical operations and scripting. To become proficient, users may need to invest time in learning basic coding concepts or pursuing relevant certifications. This learning curve can mean that users typically require a few months of training before they can effectively build and implement automation.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for approximately eight years.

I would rate the stability of Automation Anywhere as eight out of ten.

I would rate the scalability of Automation Anywhere as eight out of ten. Automation Anywhere is capable of scaling to automate multiple processes and tasks.

Support for Automation Anywhere includes L1, L2, and L3 tiers, which respectively handle various levels of issues from preliminary checks to development challenges.

Neutral

I have used various other automation solutions including UiPath, Blue Prism, and NICE. Each of them offers different strengths, but Automation Anywhere stands out for its terminal emulator and credential vault.

The initial deployment of Automation Anywhere is straightforward, conducted through the Control Room, where understanding task scheduling is vital for effectiveness. While verifying production readiness takes one day, the actual transition to production is a simple switch.

The implementation of Automation Anywhere has yielded substantial financial and time savings, effectively reducing the workforce by approximately 16 full-time equivalents within six months.

Automation Anywhere's pricing falls within the mid-range, but the long-term benefits outweigh the initial investment. After a year, significant cost savings and efficiency gains become apparent, justifying the expense.

I would rate Automation Anywhere a seven out of ten. The process of building a script is difficult due to the lack of clarity in identifying the problematic stages. While the code highlights issues, the studio's interface is not user-friendly, especially for those unfamiliar with scripting languages. This lack of intuitive design can make it challenging to utilize the solution effectively.

I started using Automation Anywhere during its beta version and continue to use the latest version for both cloud and desktop deployments. One challenge I faced was the extensive number of default commands, 545 in scripting, 2,565 in web and the need for scripting knowledge, particularly when interacting with other services or adjusting system settings. While Automation Anywhere promotes itself as scriptless, understanding coding concepts is beneficial, especially for tasks like connection manipulation. Although the platform offers a vast array of pre-built commands and drag-and-drop functionality, creating custom activities requires building DLLs, which can be complex. Overall, despite some tricky aspects, Automation Anywhere remains a robust tool for both scripting and scriptless automation development.

Upgrading Automation Anywhere can be complex because its products rely on the .NET framework. When namespaces, components, or libraries within the framework are updated, the entire system isn't always fully adjusted to these changes. This necessitates careful analysis of the specific modifications and their impact on the overall system, allowing for a comprehensive understanding of the upgrade's effects.

Our organization has over 45 users of Automation Anywhere.

Automation Anywhere requires monthly maintenance. While patching the virtual machines only requires a reboot with minimal impact on the production environment, any changes to the environment itself, such as modifications to personal systems or processes, will significantly impact production.

The time spent on bot maintenance varies based on the complexity of the tasks. Simple cloud server or production changes require minimal time, approximately two to three hours. Application changes are more involved, with L3 or L2 tickets potentially taking three to four days depending on the service level agreement and impact. Minor L1 tickets, such as troubleshooting malfunctioning ML or server downtime, can involve either small or large changes. Migrating environments, like transitioning from on-premise to cloud, constitutes a major change that can take a month or even a couple of months.

Automation Anywhere offers a robust infrastructure with advanced features like Metabot, IQ Bot, and seamless integration capabilities with AI technologies, making it a commendable choice for automation needs. However, users should have some technical knowledge before using the platform.

I am trying to solve data challenges with Automation Anywhere. Not all data is good quality. This presents a challenge for automation, which is important.

Automation Anywhere has impacted our efficiency and productivity in a very positive way since we are shutting down a very manual process. 

Automation Anywhere has helped my company with APIs. We are currently in a project to create APIs for our core banking service and other transactional systems, migrating from another integration technology to API. We have measured the time saved by using document automation with Automation Anywhere, and it amounts to about five hours.

We have used the APA. It's helped us achieve some automation. We're working on a project now, which requires us to make APIs, and we're using this for that work.

We use the document automation capabilities. We can optimize about three or four people who previously performed the tasks manually. This is just the beginning of the impact we see, however, it's a significant impact for us. We've saved about 500 hours so far.

I am unsure how Automation Anywhere can be improved.

Integration with other platforms may prove to be very interesting for us and others.

I started using Automation Anywhere last year. We are currently in the setup phase for our solution and need to move to production. It's very recent, as we discovered it at the end of last year.

Before Automation Anywhere, we were testing other solutions including Microsoft and Oracle, and currently we are testing Data Stimulus.

The deployment is ongoing. It's not difficult. You have all of the information you need to implement successfully. 

The pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Automation Anywhere are good. It's more of a challenge for us to get all the value that the platform can provide. It's not very costly; it's a fair price.

The main differences between Automation Anywhere and other tools are in their focus. For example, we need many partners to make good things happen with other tools, but with Automation Anywhere, it works very well.

In the age of agentic AI, the biggest challenges for me and my company come from people not being open to this technology. In financial services and traditional banks, people are very cautious. They need extensive testing and need to see the technology working to understand its advantages. AI governance is very important to me and my company as many areas are inquiring about AI. Without governance, we would be in chaos.

The AI in the studio and the integration from all the AI and other platforms is very interesting, and it's a very good opportunity for us now. 

We do not use the COE just yet.

On a scale of one to ten, I'd rate the solution a nine. I don't know all of the solutions. I only really know Automation Anywhere, and so it's hard to compare it against all others. 

We are still in the relative infancy with Automation Anywhere. We still use mostly RPA bots and haven't quite gotten to the Agentic Process yet. We are hoping to upgrade our platform to the Enterprise platform this year, so we are still at the beginning of the learning curve in the RPA bot-building stages. We have a couple of Co-Pilot projects going on currently, but we are still trying to get the process owners to buy in.

The main challenge we are looking to solve with Agentic Process automation involves processes that work specifically with call center operations. This includes agents taking calls, managing cases, working with ServiceNow, ticket handling, and similar tasks. Agentic Process automation shines when people create cases and tickets flow in and out of the system, but a human isn't needed to process most of that because it is all being captured by the computer during intake. Saving time working on the phone, gathering information, and handling ticket information makes APA a huge game-changer.

In the age of Agentic AI, the biggest challenges for me and my company involve adoption. We are still in the infancy of process automation, so currently, it is just getting the stakeholders to buy in. Automation Anywhere has helped me with that. Our company has looked at different software vendors, and Automation Anywhere is worlds apart from any other offering. The platform itself is intuitive and easy to use. I have even mentioned to people who aren't developers or very computer savvy that they could pick up Automation Anywhere and just get started.

I have really loved all of the new Agentic Process automation pieces from Automation Anywhere that are being introduced. They are announcing new features at AA Imagine, and it has been fantastic to see all of the amazing innovations. I am really hoping we can get to that Enterprise platform this year so we can take advantage of the APA capabilities, as there is groundbreaking, industry-changing technology happening.

It is difficult for me to suggest improvements for Automation Anywhere because it is such a fantastic product. We have looked at competitors, and there is nobody that holds a candle to Automation Anywhere.

It is challenging to specify needed improvements because there is so much functionality we are not taking advantage of yet. We haven't been able to utilize the full product offerings, which makes it difficult to suggest specific improvements.

One of the things that has gone very well is the control room itself. The control room itself is easy to use. One area that could potentially be improved is adding additional widget capability within the main dashboard in the control room itself.

We have been using Automation Anywhere for about eight years.

It's been great. It's been flawless. We've had great integrations into Genesys and ServiceNow. Deployment has been wonderful.

It is fantastic. It has been great. It is perfectly priced for the quality received. When paying for quality, that is exactly what you get.

We considered UiPath and Blue Prism before choosing Automation Anywhere. ServiceNow has an RPA platform, but it was not suitable for our needs. The main competitors we looked at were UiPath and Blue Prism, but Automation Anywhere was exactly what we were looking for.

I believe Automation Anywhere could help achieve our automation goals, but we haven't reached the APA stage yet, as we are still in the RPA stage. There are numerous use cases we could implement.

AI governance is important for my company in general. Having governance in place ensures things work out properly and stay aligned. However, that part is managed by our product manager. 

We have several copilot projects in development, but we are not using Automation 360 AI yet. We don't use Automation Anywhere COE yet, which is another offering we hope to invest in this year. I am not utilizing document automation in current processes, which is another capability we hope to get buy-in for this year.

I would rate Automation Anywhere a ten out of ten.

Get manual tasks done by automations wherever possible. For now, we only use task bots. We use them across whole EMEA at RICOH for different departments like: Business Services, SCM, Annuity & Services, Data governance, Finance and Sales. When I joined Ricoh, there were 30 processes in production and now we scaled up over 50 processes in production and counting.

By implementing Automation Anywhere, we wanted to get rid of the mundane tasks. They are better to be carried out by bots so that the employees can focus on tasks that need human decisions, not repetitive tasks. We also wanted better customer satisfaction.

We also have an email automation where people can write emails to us 24/7, and we create service requests inside Siebel. It is an Oracle app. 

With all process in production so far, we reduced the manual effort which led to more satisfaction by employees to get rid of the mundane tasks and focus more on tasks which need human decisions. Especially for our Annuity & Services department we have a quicker response time, and this led to more customer satisfaction.

Automation Anywhere constantly bringing new features in their product. Which will open more possibilities for automation out of the box.

The integration of coding languages like Python, JavaScript an VB Script will allow to extend the capabilities.

The bot store is also a good point to explore pre-built automation to integrate in your tasks.

To keep yourself up to date they provide Skill Booster learning trails for the new features and product updates.

The website has a lot to provide, but with this whole variety of information it is hard for me to keep track and navigate through.

AI agents need constant improvement, but this is by the nature of AI.

We had a use case for handwritten documents, which we were not able to extract safely, so some improvements on document automation would be great.

I am using Automation Anywhere as a developer since September 2021, so for almost 4 years now.

It is stable. I would rate it a nine out of ten for stability.

I would rate it a nine out of ten for scalability because we can use the workload management feature.

We have approximately 20 people using this solution.

I would rate their support an eight out of ten.

Positive

Prior to Automation Anywhere, we were doing almost everything manually. We started with Automation Anywhere version 11 and later migrated to A360.

We have a separate team that handles the integration and setup. We are still on the on-premises version of Automation Anywhere. We are not using the cloud version. We have virtual machines running for us developers. We have a development environment where we use our own dedicated VMs. We develop automation on these VMs, and then we push it through the UAT and the last life cycle for production.

As far as I have heard from our team, they said it was easy to implement.

We started with version 11 of Automation Anywhere back in 2019. When I joined the team in 2022, we were migrating from version 11 to A360. I directly started in the migration phase where I could help with my fresh knowledge, because I was one of the first ones certified in A360.

Our central RPA team, which handles resources, currently consists of five people. I am not sure how many people from the service provider are involved, as they handle on-prem resources. On our side, we have five people pushing these things to production. As a developer, not much maintenance is required.

I am not involved in the pricing, but based on what I hear from our central RPA team, it is not very expensive; it is also not cheap. Its price is in the midrange.

We are not using the AI tools from Automation Anywhere, but we have created some of our own modules, which we are triggering in combination with Automation Anywhere in Python scripting language. We are using this combination for text analysis and problem descriptions from our customers. We are getting the sentiment score to categorize these service requests so that our agents can handle them better. We will, for sure, investigate if we can use Automation Anywhere's AI capabilities in the future.

I am responsible for showing and teaching new joiners how to work with Automation Anywhere. We also have some new citizen developers. We have asked different departments if they have some people on their team who are interested in this. They are not professional developers like me, but I teach them the basics. I also recommend they join the citizen developer training provided by the Automation Anywhere University. They take that training first, and then we do in-depth training tailored to the RICOH processes. It takes them three to six months, but it also depends on how much time they can spend on the training because they also have their regular work.

If you start using Automation Anywhere I highly recommend the Automation Anywhere University platform to start with the learning trails.

These are focused on three roles: Automation Lead, Automation Developer and Citizen Developer.

Also, great content on the Skill Boosters which will give you in depth training on a particular topic.

To scale your automation journey, good practice is building central tasks like “switching a responsibility” in Oracle with proper error handling that not every developer needs to implement these by his own. With these generic central tasks, it will also save time in terms of maintenance.

For any questions you might have, you can ask them in the Pathfinder Community where you get answers from Automation Anywhere’s global community of Pathfinders.

For companies starting new process automation implementation, I would advise not to tackle the largest processes at the beginning. Start with small ones to track benefits and demonstrate to the board what process automation has achieved in a short time. In the past, we tackled larger problems first and spent one or two years getting them to work end to end as expected. This was not the best strategy.

I would rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten.

First, I tried to automate the process for surface automation, and it was mainly in a Citrix environment. At that time, I think no proper solution or feature was available with Automation Anywhere. Then, I tried it for some web applications and Windows applications, and there it worked perfectly. 

It saves time. It has saved 4,000 to 5,000 hours for one large complex process. If we break it down, it has saved 1,000 hours per process. The time savings vary based on the complexity of the process.

It is simple to learn. It is straightforward. You can learn about Automation Anywhere from their university or YouTube. Lots of YouTube channels are there. They provide you with all the information you need. Non-technical employees would need one month to three months to learn it. It also depends on their grasping and learning skills.

With Oracle and ServiceNow, there seem to be challenges. With SAP, it worked very well. We first tried Automation Anywhere with Oracle but had to go for Blue Prism. With Oracle, Blue Prism was easier and a little bit more stable than Automation Anywhere. Even with ServiceNow, the automation was very unreliable. It did not work as expected.

Business users face difficulties with Automation Anywhere setup. As an administrator, even if I provide any license or features, they would not be able to use it on their local individual machines. The client sometimes does not work perfectly. There are difficulties when we install the Automation Anywhere client. It can be hard to know what is causing issues. They might have a different Java version or other software installed on their machines. Automation Anywhere clients sometimes need clean machines or virtual machines where we deploy the bots. Such difficulties are there, but it does not happen with just Automation Anywhere. I have also observed this problem with other solutions.

Automation Anywhere does not provide API integration. You have to design everything on your side. It does not have an inbuilt API tool like Postman. They do not provide a virtual interface to execute GET, PUT queries. It is very difficult in Automation Anywhere, but in other solutions, this feature is very good.

It is not stable with the Microsoft Edge browser. They have to develop or integrate lots of things. It used to work very well with Internet Explorer around five years ago, but Internet Explorer is gone now. People have moved to Microsoft Edge. If you are using Google Chrome, it is easy. With Microsoft Edge, sometimes processes fail, and you do not always know the reason. You have to debug it entirely.

I have been using it for a total of five years, but in between, I used other tools as well. Overall, it has been around two years with Automation Anywhere. I have used versions 10.2, 11.3, and 360, and a little bit of 2019 as well.

The product is overall stable. With lots of normal applications, you can use it without any issues. 

Automation Anywhere is 50% to 70% good in terms of scaling. For business users who want everything on their machines and do not want to use different virtual machines, it is not scalable. Management also worries about deployment costs.

I contacted their technical support. Their L1 support is just normal, and you can get that information on Google or YouTube. They do not have a solution a lot of times. Their L2 support is quite expert. They know how to address things that are happening, and they will try to understand and find the root cause.

Neutral

I am also using other RPA tools such as Blue Prism and UiPath, and I prefer them over Automation Anywhere. 

In API integrations, Automation Anywhere is way behind other tools because its interface is not simple to use for business users. If someone is using Automation Anywhere as the first RPA tool, they will understand it, but if they have used any other RPA tool in the market, they will feel the need to improve Automation Anywhere's UI and API integrations. Additionally, in the API integration part, companies are nowadays using scripting with SAP and others. Automation Anywhere can also improve in that area. 

UiPath's design structure is quite powerful and straightforward. It is easier to work with when you have a complex process with multiple load items. API integration is quite powerful. We can easily use that.

If you are deploying the client on a virtual machine, it is very simple and straightforward. If you are going to do it on a common machine for normal development purposes, it can be a bit complex if you are using other software on the same machine. 

Upgrading is easy. I have migrated some processes from versions 10 to 11, but the newer version requires some time and cost because sometimes the processes designed in the older versions cannot be migrated to the newer version. Instead of migrating, you can redesign the same process in the newer version. That would be better.

Usually, all developers are involved in the bot maintenance at a later stage. If only considering support and maintenance, you will require two people there. If your team has around ten to fifteen people, you will require two people for support.

Cost-wise, it is fine. A lot of medium businesses prefer Automation Anywhere. The development cost is also lower.

I would rate Automation Anywhere a seven out of ten.

I started with Automation Anywhere version 11, which was the desktop-based version. It was the most initial cloud version. There is also a 2019 cloud version of Automation Anywhere. With some modifications and improvements, 2019 led to A360, which was again a cloud version but an improved form of the 2019 version. A360 is the current and running version of Automation Anywhere.

Most of the problems we've worked to solve have been related to business process automation. We were able to automate email - including replying to email, and capturing data.

We've also used it for website automation. We can do object cloning in PRA terms.

We were able to automate several data systems. We've automated Excel, for example, and various backbones of process systems.

It releases humans from monotonous tasks. Automating helps a lot and gives us the ability to free people for more high-end activities.

Most of the problems we have solved are related to business process automation. Ideally, in RPA, around 80% of the problems are related to business process automation. 

Processes and tasks automated compared to a manual approach offers a lot of benefits. Any RPA tool will offer good time savings. When we have to do things manually, if there is a 20 or 30-step process, as a human, we may get confused and redraw information. We make mistakes. All of these things take time. Things can be very data-intensive and this takes time for a human. They need to look it up and validate, et cetera. and there are high chances of error. A human can misread or misunderstand, this could lead to losses. With RPA, we gain time savings, and we can make everything 100% error-free.

To train a non-technical employee, it might take a bit. They need to learn the basic foundations. It might take a month or two if they give time to learning every day.

It helps increase productivity by 20% to 30%.

I can integrate tools with Automation Anywhere. We've done Excel and database automation, web applications, data tables, FTTP tables, et cetera. 

Copilot is an area with a lot of scope for improvement. It's the number one thing to improve. It just gives us a structure. It doesn't automate the workflow. This is a major area of improvement. Currently, it's still evolving. The integrations in Automation Anywhere are evolving, and going forward, they could be more beneficial for end-to-end processes. It should not be just an add-on, but it should be very well integrated.

I have been using it for close to four to four and a half years now.

The stability is okay. I would rate it 8.5 out of ten.

I would rate the solution 8.5 out of ten. It is quite scalable. 

Power Automate is quite good, and gaining ground. With Automation Anywhere, you can log into the control room and work on it.

The deployment is on the cloud. The process depends on how straightforward it is. It depends on the number of steps. The deployment time doesn't take too long, however, they could improve a bit on the scheduling. It could be a bit more user-friendly if there is a new person coming in and using the solution for the first time.

Deployments tend to take a few days once all the approvals are in place.

The solution does require maintenance. Once you have developed and deployed a bot, there could be many things that may break the bot. We need to maintain them to keep them running as expected.

The ROI may be high. It depends on the process and the number of people involved.

It's not cheap. It's expensive. Power Automate is much cheaper.

My basic use case for Automation Anywhere is to ensure that the automation is taking place, and we are also using it for UI development. Additionally, we are using it for bot deployments, which is the main use case.

After implementing Automation Anywhere, we have felt a significant improvement in our processes, especially regarding scaling in the cloud environment we are working in. The cloud feature works effectively after implementing it, along with data manipulation automation for bots and intuitive designing.

We can use AI with Automation Anywhere whenever we are deploying a bot or performing a function. We can integrate multiple AI channels such as ChatGPT, GPT-4, and cloud services, which is the main benefit I love the most. It is a competitor to UiPath, which is a big company. Compared to UiPath, Automation Anywhere is working effectively with its AI compatibility.

For non-technical users, which includes business users, Automation Anywhere is easy to use because it does not require heavy coding knowledge or prior experience. The learning curve is easy, and someone with basic technical skills can easily learn and use it without needing to manually deploy codes or engage in complex tasks.

Our organization uses Co-Pilot with AI integration. Co-Pilot helps us give commands to the automation channel, resulting in outputs that make the job easier. It is a very good game changer in this category, and I would definitely give a good rating to Co-Pilot.

We could see the benefits of Automation Anywhere within 2 weeks of deployment.

We have integrated several tools with Automation Anywhere, including Zoom, Google Drive, third-party channels, and data management tools, ensuring we can easily connect everything needed within our cloud-based network.

There are several things I would highlight about Automation Anywhere, including the AI integration which is exceptional. It has several Generative AI agents that enhance automation capabilities and process orchestration. Since it is based on the cloud, it is a highly scalable product. It is easy to deploy, has a very good UI, and the bots can be easily deployed with no issues. 

Additionally, the cost is really good. If we compare it to UiPath, Automation Anywhere stands out significantly.

The learning curve for Automation Anywhere is quite good, as it does not require heavy learning or extensive training for technical and non-technical users.

If I were to mention one area for improvement, it would be on advanced AI commands, such as advanced coding. While this is not critically needed since Automation Anywhere is doing great, improving in that area could be beneficial.

Other than that, Automation Anywhere is working effectively for me. I currently do not have any complaints and wish them all the luck, as they are excelling in the automation sector.

My organization has been using Automation Anywhere for 2.5 years.

We have not faced any kind of instability, lagging, or downtime with Automation Anywhere after implementation; it runs smoothly and is based off the cloud with a good UI, so there is no issue to report.

I feel that Automation Anywhere is definitely a scalable product, and it has the potential to be even better in the future, especially given its good pricing compared to UiPath and similar products.

While I have not needed to reach out for support much. I did interact with their technical support during the implementation. They resolved our issue within 2 to 3 hours, which was not a major problem. I would rate their support positively.

Positive

I have used UiPath as an alternative to Automation Anywhere; however, we made a switch because it was not cost-effective for our organization. During our growth phase, we transitioned and found that Automation Anywhere is better and more cost-effective.

The initial deployment of Automation Anywhere was easy. Our team, which included eight to nine people, assisted with the implementation and deployment process. It took about 1.5 weeks to complete everything.

Automation Anywhere does not require any maintenance on my end.

For the deployment of Automation Anywhere, my team consisted of eight to nine people, including myself.

The current pricing of Automation Anywhere is fairly priced and has provided us with a good ROI on investment. UiPath and other similar options would typically cost 2X the price, which is why we have chosen Automation Anywhere.

Its cost is good.

Overall, I would rate Automation Anywhere a nine out of ten. It is a good product.