Automation Anywhere Reviews

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.

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 see opportunities to utilize AI in banking, mainly check validation and customer churn prediction. Additionally, my work with a Pharmaceutical focused on R&D and supply chain presents further opportunities for AI implementation.

For each full-time employee, we can deploy one bot, automating approximately 75 percent of their tasks.

Automation Anywhere makes tasks more cost-efficient.

Automation Anywhere enables us to achieve a 90 percent compliance rate.

For organizations with technical teams, Automation Anywhere serves as an excellent tool.

The learning curve is generally beneficial, especially with the rise of remote learning opportunities. However, businesses may find the transition challenging. Automation Anywhere is a valuable tool for technical teams, although it currently lacks generative AI capabilities like those offered by OpenAI and Azure. While RPA continues to evolve, it remains a strong asset for those with technical expertise.

Non-technical personnel can be trained to use Automation Anywhere in approximately two weeks. The training involves a standard checklist, a knowledge transfer session, a reverse KT session, and supervised practice. This approach ensures that individuals are fully prepared to use Automation Anywhere effectively within two weeks.

Our automation and AI strategy prioritizes delivering immediate value to customers. We begin by identifying and addressing their most pressing issues to demonstrate the benefits of Automation Anywhere. This approach allows us to establish credibility and build strong customer relationships, paving the way for tackling more complex challenges later on.

In the six months since integrating Azure with OpenAI, security teams have granted initial approval for using generative AI, leading to productive discussions on its implementation.

I have worked with the core banking system, which is fully integrated with Automation Anywhere. This includes call management, voice integration, and check validation using OCR scanning. Through this system, the entire core banking process is end-to-end and automated.

The integration is successful, demonstrating consistent accuracy rates exceeding 80 percent. Utilizing Automation Anywhere OCR scanning has proven effective and beneficial for our operations.

Automation Anywhere is easy to upgrade.

The OCR feature in Automation Anywhere is the best I have encountered, even better than Google. 

The initial cost of Automation Anywhere, including license fees and integration costs, is high. It is challenging for business users to operationalize the tool independently. Improving features linked to Gen AI and data processing could reduce dependency on ETL processes, allowing more tasks to be handled within Automation Anywhere.

Although Automation Anywhere is a GUI-based platform with drag-and-drop functionality, non-technical business users struggle to implement it due to the complexities of operationalizing automation within a business context. While a technical user can bridge the gap between the platform and specific business needs by collaborating with domain experts, non-technical users lack the understanding to effectively utilize the platform's features, resulting in a low success rate for independent implementation.

I have been using Automation Anywhere for six to seven years.

Automation Anywhere is stable.

Automation Anywhere is highly scalable for both horizontal and vertical expansions.

Customer service is good. Our internal COE provides support, and if needed, Automation Anywhere engineers are involved directly.

Positive

Previously, I used Blue Prism and Watson. Watson was primarily for the healthcare domain.

The initial deployment of Automation Anywhere is straightforward and can be completed in one week, assuming prompt support from the infrastructure team. The only potential delays stem from internal bureaucracy, not the tool's limitations.

The initial setup and licensing fees are high, and although it saves costs in the long run, reaching the break-even point can take at least six months. This means an initial investment may not yield returns for a year, which is often not feasible due to budget constraints. To address this, we offer amortization options, bearing the initial cost to help clients get started and then transitioning those costs into ongoing implementation support. This approach allows us to win contracts despite the high initial investment.

I would rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten. While it's a robust tool, costs could be more competitive.

Automation Anywhere requires a dedicated maintenance team, with a recommended ratio of ten technicians for every hundred users, to ensure optimal performance and stability.

The automation team handles bot maintenance directly, eliminating the need for a separate maintenance team.

As an RPA developer and RPA champion, I coordinate the implementation of RPA in my company and I also develop the automations. The main reason or main functionality that I am using Automation Anywhere is to integrate and collect data between systems, such as gathering data from one system and collecting data from another system, making some analysis, and having some results out of that. This is the main purpose or main use case in general for what we are doing here with this software. The specific challenge that we are trying to solve with implementing Automation Anywhere in our environment is to achieve better integration with SAP. Our ERP system is SAP, and this is quite a closed system, so to get any data or input any data, the only possibility is to use the user interface, or it is very difficult to do it in any other way. Therefore, Automation Anywhere acts as a simulator of a user, helping a lot with getting the data in time or uploading the data in a proper and easy manner. So for repetitive tasks related to SAP, this is the key functionality that we are using; integration with SAP.

The best features in Automation Anywhere that I really appreciate are found in the basic module for pure RPA, such as the recorder function, which helps in making automation even easier. No coding is required; you are just doing things, and the recorder records your movements and actions, creating the code out of that. This makes preparing RPAs faster. Another significant aspect is Automation Anywhere University's e-learning materials, now called Pathfinder, which enhances this learning curve significantly. The software's easy-to-understand interface is its biggest benefit, aiding rapid learning and automation creation. Moreover, the integration capabilities with databases and external web portals are well-developed, enabling seamless data management and exchange, whether it involves Microsoft SQL or MySQL databases or Microsoft Excel for reporting. Despite not having significant experience with other RPA platforms, I assess these features positively.

Regarding what I would to see improved or enhanced in Automation Anywhere, it's difficult to judge if the problems we are facing are truly RPA related or related to other systems that we cooperate with. The main issue is to have better resilience of the whole system. If we have 95% success during the bot runs, it costs a lot of time to debug and find the errors or to rerun the bots. So constantly working on the resilience of the bots, whatever it may be, will help. One thing I would to see included in the next releases of Automation Anywhere is a more clear overview of when we have gaps in our automation scheduling. Currently, when we are scheduling our automations, and we have historical data of our runs, there is no clear overview of when we have space in time to schedule another automation. So having functionality that shows in one clear picture where we have gaps to run additional automations would be beneficial.

I have been working with Automation Anywhere for already four years.

I would evaluate the stability of Automation Anywhere as generally stable, but there are some issues. It's always difficult to judge what the root cause is; it may be the software, the hardware, or other software. But in general, I would say it's stable in 90% of the cases.

It is difficult for me to rate the technical support I received because I was not fully involved; it was resolved between our IT and this support. I was just waiting for the results and trying to support. I would rate it a seven.

Although I didn't directly participate in the evaluation process when choosing Automation Anywhere, I know it was chosen because of its full no-code approach. Unlike other automation tools or systems, there is sometimes a necessity to know coding, making them low-code platforms. Here, we have a totally no-code solution, making it much friendlier for individuals with no IT background. I have previously used a different RPA just once or twice; I had the opportunity to use Power Automate, but it was just one or two hours of trials and nothing more. So basically, I have no significant experience and cannot justify which is better or worse.

For me at the very beginning when I started working with that, the technical setup was extremely complicated and extremely problematic, and we spent half a year to really make the software work. At that time, we were not happy with the support of Automation Anywhere. But now if everything is already set up, it's quite easy to learn how to do it and to make easy automations quite fast.

I have not calculated ROI, the return on investment from Automation Anywhere; we don't have such a complex analysis. We are calculating for single automations, but we don't have complex ones.

The main benefits I see from using Automation Anywhere, in terms of time-saving, cost-saving, and resource-saving, is the release of resources from high-paid and high-skilled specialists for more creative tasks. My recommendation for other organizations considering Automation Anywhere for their environment is based on my experience; it is always good to analyze the process first, then optimize this process, and after that, make automation of that. Otherwise, without proper analysis of the process, you end up digitalizing a non-optimal process, making automation challenging. So first analyze the process, optimize it, and then try to automate it; otherwise, you will have an automated process that is still not good. I rate Automation Anywhere nine out of ten.

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 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.

We were in finance before, so all of our use cases have been in finance. Recently, we have grown out to IT. Our use cases now encompass HR, IT, legal, and everything that we can.

There have been numerous improvements in the organization. We have saved hours and time and hard dollars. In the first year, we saved over half a million dollars. That was about six months of time. After that, we have done at least three million year over year, and we have increased that very much. As far as time saved, it is well over 10,000 hours in the first year alone, and we continue to grow. This year, we are projecting 30,000 manual hours saved.

Prior to the implementation of Automation Anywhere, we had lots and lots of manual work. People would go into Excel and copy data from one master sheet to many sheets. They would compile data. They would take lots of time to do these things. Today, they can go in, press a button, and launch it. They can download hundreds and thousands of invoices, whereas previously, they used to do it manually. One of our use cases saved two people four days a week of time, which is 32 hours each. We now do that automatically in six hours.

The learning curve is initially a little daunting, but after you are in there and you understand how it works, it is very seamless. It is very easy to pick up and very intuitive, and then from there, it is pretty much you go and get your hands dirty.

The tools that we integrate with Automation Anywhere so far have been Python scripts and PowerShell. We have got Power Automate and Power Flows from Microsoft. We are starting to do some cognitive RPA. We are implementing OpenAI through Azure. We have got a lot of that going right now.

The integration with all of the documents and APIs is very seamless. There are packages available in the store if you do not have the integration built-in out of the box. They are available to everyone. Everything that we have been able to use has been just drag and drop. We can just pop in our credentials and be done.

Automation Anywhere has affected us in a positive way in terms of employee capacity and compliance. We have not had to backfill roles. We have not necessarily replaced people, and that is by intent. We did not want to replace people, but we also did not want to have to backfill people. We wanted people to focus on things that they value and be more productive instead of doing mind-numbing things that get no value, but they just have to do it.

Our time and cost savings have been immense since the beginning. In our first year, after we started launching the bots in June or July of 2019, we saved half a million dollars and 10,000 man-hours. Since then, we have grown more than 70% year over year. This year, we are on track to go up to about 40,000 man-hours saved and more than three million hard dollars saved.

They have been able to provide automation at scale pretty well. We fired up and started off with only three production machines. We are now up at five. Officially, we were going up to seven as of next week. We have heard about people here at the Imagine conference who, for example, have hundreds, so the point is proven, and the facts are there. They can scale up very quickly.

The main Automation Anywhere Program offering we use is Pathfinder. We have not utilized our partner services or anything like that, but Pathfinder has been great. Their user groups have been great. To be able to focus and see the product launches beforehand has always been advantageous. The ability to see that has been good.

The features that we found most valuable have been just automating manual processes. We are able to integrate and work with applications that users typically work with. That has been the best feature for us right now. 

Some of the biggest improvements they can make are with the interface. It can be improved in terms of usability or searching for something. For example, icons are hard to find. Typically, you jump into the search box, but being able to go in and find things quickly with the eye could be very valuable.

We have been using Automation Anywhere since 2019. It has been five years.

The stability of the solution has been great so far. It has been very resilient. Obviously, it depends on how you build it. You can obviously make a bad solution and it is going to be bad, but the uptime has been amazing. We have not had any issues with the cloud service since we moved to A360. It has been great since then.

I would rate their technical support an eight out of ten. There is some room for improvement. A lot of that depends on who you talk to. You have a great person and you have a not-so-great person. 

On the client support, so far, their service has been a ten out of ten. We have had amazing reps who I have worked with, and I have nothing bad to say about them.

I did not use a similar solution previously.

We use a mix of on-prem and cloud devices. We are exploring Microsoft Azure to go to it soon, but we are not using it today.

The deployment experience was a little bit frustrating at first, but I was not the one involved. Our architects were having issues, but we engaged with the Automation Anywhere solutions engineers. We were on the phone for maybe an hour or two hours and they fixed it. The deployment was great.

Our ROI is time saved and money saved. This has just been massive, and we continue to grow. We will be growing in the future, especially after this year.

There has been a half-million-dollar return on investment in the first six months alone. We will be up to three million this year. That is our projection, and I think we are going to exceed that.

The evaluation was done before I got here, but I know the company did evaluate UiPath, Blue Prism, Kofax, and a few others. They evaluated the top Gartner Quadrant applications.

My favorite aspect of the Imagine event is being able to see what other customers are doing, not just networking but seeing the presentations, the breakout sessions, and seeing how other companies are doing the same challenges and maybe way better. It is a good time to go and reach out and ask them how they are doing something or how they are scaling up. For example, one company here has managed to scale up to more than 800 bots. They do something with Azure where they turn on a machine, and it is very cost-effective. That is solving some of the problems that we have.

The Imagine experience has been great. This is my second year here. It has been fun. It is helpful to learn. We have done a lot, so I really enjoyed the entire experience.

I got one of my direct reports here for the first time this year. Some of the things or the reasons I did tell him to come were:

• Being able to network
• Being able to learn from others and see how they do things
• Being able to talk to people who have the same challenges that we have and being able to figure out how to do it better

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Automation Anywhere a ten out of ten.

I have many use cases for Automation Anywhere, including multiple use cases. We are automating SAP finance processes, commercial processes, and distribution processes. So many processes are there.

Automation Anywhere is very easy to use. It's a low-code platform that a person who doesn't have any technical knowledge can use. Automation Anywhere has a single control room where everything exists in a single platform.

In other tools such as Power Automate and UiPath, Power Automate has two components: desktop flow and cloud flow. To do end-to-end automation, including cloud applications and desktop applications, we have to use two things: Power Desktop Flow and Cloud Flow. Similarly, in UiPath, we have three interfaces: Orchestrator, Desktop Flow, and Cloud Flow. However, in Automation Anywhere, there is a single control room where we can do everything: cloud automation, desktop automation, everything.

It would be good if they could make a direct connector with Microsoft applications, such as Teams and SharePoint.

I have been using Automation Anywhere in my career for three years. I am using this for four projects.

I have not seen any problems regarding stability and performance. However, the community control room, which they provide free of cost, sometimes causes problems. When we purchase it, it doesn't create any problems.

The scalability depends on our project and how long it is. We have a project that started in July 2022, and we have many use cases in there. We can say that we can still run. We are still developing some automations there. The scalability depends on the project.

The technical support is structured based on the sensitivity of the ticket. I have created many tickets on the support portal since we have a purchased support portal. We get responses according to the business impact. For example, if we mark it as one, they call us within two hours. If we mark it as three, they just mail us and give the solution. Most of the time, I find that our internal team finds the solution; the support team isn't able to provide a perfect solution.

Positive

I have used UiPath, but I don't work on UiPath. My team members are working on it. As a manager, I used to use UiPath before, but now I am managing everything at the admin level.

The installation is easy. It's not too difficult. There is a provisioning of the control room where we have a customer portal. We can go there, put our licenses, provision our control room, and they can provision within fifteen minutes. After that, we can use the automation engine. The installation part is just installing a small EXE, and we can start the automation.

To deploy a solution from end to end, there is the discovery phase where we identify the use cases. Then we have some documentation phases, such as the design documents. After that, we can start the development. It depends on the use case and its complexity. On average, it takes four to five weeks to complete automation end to end.

If a person has knowledge of everything, they can do everything from development, requirement gathering, to production deployment. But according to our role-based access control, we need at least three people to do these tasks. One can do development, another can do QA testing, and the last one can do deployment.

For pricing, I don't have any idea about the pricing of Power Automate. Power Automate costs fifteen dollars per month for a single creator license. Whereas Automation Anywhere provides a package where we are getting one attended license, creator license, and one control room. It costs seven hundred fifty dollars per month. We can say Automation Anywhere is more expensive than Power Automate.

Automation Anywhere has their own university, which is on an online platform, and all the courses are free. Anyone can make their account on the Automation Anywhere University, get registered in the courses, and take all the training sessions.

It is easy to use for business users who don't have technical skills. There is a license called Citizen Developer. I have a scenario where, six months ago, our client's manager wanted to do some automation, and he didn't want to disclose these things with anyone. He asked me to give him a Citizen Developer license, where he can do his automations. He automates things such as Outlook and some Excels.

I used the Copilot. It allows the user to interact with the live running boards. Before the Copilot, unattended boards were there. When we trigger the board, we cannot give any input at runtime. But with the help of Copilot, we can give input at runtime whenever we want to change the value of any variable.

I would rate the solution overall as nine out of ten.

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

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

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

I have been using the solution for about six years.

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

Neutral

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

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

One person was involved in the deployment.

The bot replaced about three employees, saving hiring costs.

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

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

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