Blue Prism Reviews

We are using Blue Prism's process automation software to eliminate low-return, high-risk, manual data entry, and processing work for our financial processing in manufacturing. We are not a direct partner with Blue Prism, what we do is when our clients have bought the Blue Prism solution for someone we implement Blue Prism for them. We are acting as the integrator.

Blue Prism has improved process efficiencies. We can get some maximum optimization with ticket processing. Blue Prism provides a large variety of robots that can automate and manipulate processes with very few problems. Furthermore, we can program multiple methods within a single bot.

We found the unassisted bots very useful because they can program a variety of different processes. This is a valuable feature of Blue Prism, especially when compared to other tools on the market.

Blue Prism needs to provide better customer support because there are some bugs in the product that make implementation tricky.

It is designed more for operational than transactional processes. If Blue Prism incorporated a lot of IQ bots and cognitive processing, then it might be of better value at a lower cost. 

The issue of the cost of the tool needs to be addressed. To become a Blue Prism partner, it's costly. I think that this is one of the negative aspects of using Blue Prism. 

In terms of the stability of the solution, I think that Blue Prism is a really good tool. It's a stable solution.

Blue Prism scalability is good. 

The requirements for deployment and maintenance differs from process to process. Certain processes take around three programmers and one solution architect and technical architect. It really depends on the project scope.

In total, we require a minimum of four to five people for deployment and maintenance. 

Technical support has a local team, but they have not been very supportive. We manage our technical support through our internal team. We have not received a sufficient level of support from the Blue Prism's professional support team. They don't respond, and when they do respond, they say that it's the job of the implementors to do whatever it is we are requesting from them. Blue Prism is good at selling the product, but implementation support, technical support is not that good.

The initial setup was a little complex. We needed a specialist with good coding experience to implement it.

Blue Prism is by and large a standalone type of tool, with quite a lot of optimization required. I think that this is an issue, especially when compared to some other solutions on the market that don't require any coding knowledge. With Blue Prism, you need somebody with good coding experience for implementation.

Our initial implementation strategy for Blue Prism took between two to three months per process. For the implementation strategy, we used both a technical architect and a solutions architect, both experts in implementing Blue Prism.
For deployment, we have been using partners who already bought directly from Blue Prism. 

Pricing is on an annual basis. Blue Prism is around 8,000 GBP while other tools vary between 3,000 to 6,000 USD. 

The standard licensing fees for Blue Prism are around 3,000 to 4,000 USD for a partner. In addition to the tools, you have implementation costs to consider. There are no additional fees. 

Before choosing, we didn't evaluate other options. But now we are looking at a lot of competing tools in the market. We have considered migrating to EdgeVerve.

My advice to others would be to let them start with the standard enterprise-wide robotic automation solution. If they're looking for fewer process automation bots, Blue Prism would be incredibly expensive. They should have a ballpark figure of the number of people under the processes, then Blue Prism is an excellent tool, but if you lessen the number of processes then it's costly.

On a scale of one to ten, one being the worst and ten being the best, I would rate this product around seven. Blue Prism is the same for enterprise-wide implementation but if you're considering the entire tool, technical support, implementation needs all these things; I would adjust my rating.

We are a company that automates console services. We work with console tax, revenue, and benefits.

We manage approximately twenty consoles in the UK, and we have achieved considerable savings with Blue Prism. We were able to automate a large task using Blue Prism to verify extensions and console tax, and we have seen great benefits from using Blue Prism for these tasks.

Although the solution may look complicated it actually has a lot of features and user space to work out of.

Optical character recognition has room for improvement.

I would like to have more options to automate from mobile devices without having to pay for additional licenses.

I have been using the solution for five years.

I give the stability a nine out of ten.

I give the scalability an eight out of ten.

We have around 18 people using the solution in our organizations. We have around 30 licenses to easily scale if needed.

The initial setup is not straightforward but also not complex. We had to set up the database. We required two IT people for deployment. 

The implementation was completed in-house.

We have seen a return on investment with Blue Prism.

I give the price of the solution a seven out of ten.

I give the solution an eight out of ten.

The more time spent using the solution the more proficient we become.

Our primary use cases are mostly for device processing, such as extracting data from PDFs and reporting it into ERP applications.

We have a customer who used to perform certain tasks manually. They no longer have to do that as the bot performs the tasks. They only need to review whether the bot is working as expected or not. It has significantly improved their process time, and Blue Prism has proven to be time-saving and resource-saving.

The most valuable feature is that it is more secure and reliable. It is also why big companies such as banks mainly use Blue Prism.

Blue Prism doesn't have a web orchestration or control room where businesses can directly check the trends or carry out the process directly from the URL without downloading additional software like Nextiva on their machine.

Some other features are also missing in Blue Prism. For example, the record and play feature makes development faster, but it is not there in Blue Prism. When you start the recording and do the activity, it automatically generates the steps. So that feature needs to be included.

I have about four years of experience with Blue Prism. We're working with the previous update.

Blue Prism is a stable product. But it's not very flexible when it comes to integrations. Blue Prism's forum is smaller, unlike some other RPA tools, where there is a large forum with a wide range of integrations readily available in the marketplace. If you want to integrate any solution from the Digital Exchange, you may not find as many options as compared to other tools. So, while Blue Prism is stable and secure, it may not be as flexible as other RPA tools.

When compared to other RPA tools, Blue Prism is highly scalable and reliable. I have deployed Blue Prism processes that required deployment for up to fifteen users per process. Due to other factors, deployment permission is needed if the workload exceeds the system's capacity. Typically, it runs smoothly without issues, but in cases where the workload surpasses our support team's capabilities, we can deploy up to fifteen percent of the portal's resources, and the system continues to function effectively even at that scale.

In the beginning, when we were working with Blue Prism version 5, there were some issues after installing the latest update. So we decided not to install the latest version and only update after some time. Eventually, it became stable without any issues. When we needed to contact support for updates, we had to reach out to group parameters.

Most of the time, they say it is a known issue and will fix it with the next update. When we faced challenges, like setting up a load-balancing server, the support was good, and we could set it up without any issues. They provide good support for known issues but may not be able to fix some problems.

The initial setup process is easy compared to other applications. Our customers use the on-prem version because they are old customers; at that time, the cloud version was unavailable.

To deploy the solution, it is advisable to deploy it in an environment that closely resembles the development environment. It includes having similar desktop resolution, applications, and access. In case of any changes in common objects, thorough end-to-end testing of use cases is necessary to ensure that the existing solutions are not affected. It can be a time-consuming process due to the increased amount of testing required.

For the deployment team, it would be best if we have a separate chain management process to ensure security and prevent developers from accessing the production environment. Having dedicated resources for chain management would be beneficial not only for Blue Prism but also for other sectors. We can recommend tools to ensure coding standards are being maintained and submit them to the chain management team.

For maintenance, we should have a separate support model in place. Like in any other support model, it would include a support team with levels 0, 1, 2, and 3. The support team would be responsible for automated processes that provide information on the version, system improvements, and high memory usage alerts. This way, the support team can act accordingly and increase the model size if needed.

Having these measures in place would make maintenance easier. Otherwise, if the process runs at its peak level, it may not run as smoothly as needed. Without automated alerts, maintenance becomes more difficult, and the process may not function properly. Implementing these setups could be useful and can be delivered through email.

The pricing or licensing costs of Blue Prism are around $15,000 per year, primarily based on the number of processors run in parallel.

My advice would be first to assess your requirements. If you prioritize reliable security, Blue Prism could be a good choice for you, but it may come with a higher development cost than other vendors. Additionally, if you choose Blue Prism, you should ensure that integration is streamlined by developing your own code.

When it comes to business, the process assessment should be critical in finding the right solution. Not all processes are suitable for automation, and there is a risk that ROI may not meet expectations if the process is not suitable. It's important to consider the required equipment and ensure the solution is designed to handle potential issues, such as offline support. The solution should also be designed with the expectation of needing support once deployed. During development, it's important to follow best practices to ensure the solution is efficient and has a high ROI. It's also important to ensure that the solution is reliable and does not break. Manual intervention may be necessary if there are any issues, so it's important to have a plan in place for business continuity.

Overall, I would rate Blue Prism a seven out of ten because it has stability issues.

We have a partnership with Blue Prism and I'm a software engineer. 

This is a good solution. I like working with multi-bot architecture, it's very flexible. 

In the object section, there are certain things such as the navigation in the UI that could be improved. It would be helpful for developers. I'd like to see more technical support for the team and the provision of some community versions for people to learn the product. I believe it would also benefit Blue Prism to better understand the requirements of those using the product.

I've been using this solution for almost four years. 

The solution is generally stable although we have had some inconsistencies. 

The solution is definitely scalable. 

The value of this product could be greatly improved if we could get satisfactory answers from the technical support. The last time I opted for a learning license from one of my colleagues, I never received a response from the company.

The initial setup wasn't too complex and didn't take a long time. 

We've implemented Blue Prism for various banking operations for HSBC. It's used to provide support for various areas of business like mortgages, screening teams, and payment processing. So based on the process requirement, we prepare best cases and use cases, then we cater to the requirements of the business. There are around a hundred people at HSBC divided up among four digital operations center teams. These are spread across the globe in India, China, Europe, and Hong Kong.

For payment processing, our department needs to handle all inbound and outbound payments. Each transaction has to be reviewed and screened at two levels. This entire process takes around 40 minutes of uptime. So that is the time actually, whenever we initiate any NEFT or IMPS payments. So it takes generally 20 to 40 minutes time to deposit the funds. So in this scenario, RPA helps this particular department to reduce that processing time. 

So earlier it was taking around 30 to 40 minutes to complete this entire cycle. Now the first level has been automated, and the robots are processing this payment. 
Level one is completed within a few minutes, so the payment automatically goes to the level two team. This has cut the processing time by around 30%. Now it takes less than 20 minutes to process. That's just how it helped in this particular department. There are other examples of similar time savings in other departments of HSBC.

We use Blue Prism's automation features for any activity that is repetitive and has to be done repeatedly.  We have implemented this solution for our existing processes where the management transformation team has conducted a proper investigation and proper methodology.  All of the processes that we've automated have been completed successfully, and the bots are able to process them as expected.

There are a couple of challenges in Blue Prism's latest version. So the main difficulty is when the bots are in a run state. If the schedule calls that, then the schedule information is not being received by bots in the right way. It means the bot is already running, and there is a schedule in place that is not functioning as expected. Also, there is a scenario where the bots are not handling volume as expected, especially when there are challenges with other environments. So there are a couple of areas where we have found that bots are not working as expected, especially in version 6.4.

I have a total of four years of experience with Blue Prism, two of which I spent working for digital worker management where we were specifically responsible for run activities. I know how to react to any situation where the bots are not working. I know what action needs to be taken, who to contact, and how to prioritize each action. In these areas, I'm very strong. So based on my experience, my efforts, and my inputs, I have had the opportunity to move to as a configurator or a developer. So for the last two years, again, I've been part of this development team.

We have been working with the bots for the last two years, and they're working as expected as of now. 

There are a couple of projects where data science using the R language has been integrated into the Blue Prism solution. The R language data science specialists have designed a solution that helped us to process the payments based on previous investigations or previous decisions. So looking at previous decisions and creating models about the probability of approving or denying payments helps the bots process decisions quicker. So in this way, R language has been integrated with Blue Prism. This particular solution has been producing good results. It's able to make better decisions than a human and faster.

Most technical issues are handled in-house. There are two teams. One is the configurator or development team. The other is the worker-management team or digital workforce management team, which is nothing but the run team. If they find any issues, they create an incident ticket and send this to the program team or development team. So these teams will actually add that work on it to resolve the issue. That's how it happens.

Four years ago, the bank did not have a specialized team for this RPA solution, so they started taking support from Accenture or Ernst & Young teams. So the initial processeswere automated by these teams. Two years ago, HSBC started its own teams to develop the solutions using Blue Prism. Blue prism is the only automation solution HSBC has used so far. 

It depends on the types of applications and processes being automated as well as the number of applications being used for that particular process. As the number of applications increases, so will the complexity depending on the situation.

When the DOC team shares our stats with the operations department, we quantify the potential cost savings of using a particular automation solution. Generally, we speak in terms of the number of full-time employees used for a particular process. So, if there are 10 people working to complete a particular task, how many people do we need after implementing Blue Prism? If the remaining work is being completed by seven people after the implementation of RPA, then we have saved 30% using Blue Prism.

We are on a yearly license. There are two types of licenses. One is for the VDI license and the other one is for the Blue Prism license. For HSBC we have yearly licenses. Altogether, I think $750 per annum needs to be paid for this VDI license and the Blue Prism license is different. 

Blue Prism is a bit higher priced compared to other payment-related or investment-related solutions. At the same time, it also provides more security than those solutions, specifically for the banking and insurance sectors. Moreover, this Blue Prism provides the flexibility to automate daily banking-related activities. 

So that's how Blue Prism is being used for the banking sector. Senior management team is looking into alternatives. For example, Alteryx is the one tool that is being introduced to HSBC. Currently, we are undergoing training for Alteryx and are exploring ways to cut down on costs.

If you are looking to automate repetitive standard activities that need to be done by a human investigator or any manual process involved, Blue Prism will help. But when you need to automate other types of activity UiPath can offer better results than Blue Prism. In terms of cost, UiPath is a bit cheaper when compared to Blue Prism.

There are pros and cons to this particular application, Blue Prism helps us complete a particular process in a better way. It may give us better results or produce the same result faster. But there are many unknown challenges, like application latencies. Maybe Blue Prism or automated processes might not be able to handle those situations properly or it might not be able to deliver the expected results sometimes.

I would rate Blue Prism a seven out of 10. 

Anything which is redundant and has the same steps can be easily automated with Blue prism hence reducing manual operation and manpower.

We have a project in which a user requests through an email, Blue prism pickups that email and according to the request finds out which access has to be provided and follows the same procedure to give access. Once access is provided a business notification is reverted back. In case of an exception the business is notified in such scenarios after maximum retries. 

We started with a very small team and small projects. As the project started getting success with Blue Prism we have a large number of teams now just for automating all the business procedures. Larger time was saved after automating the processes.

The business was very much satisfied with the results. Many projects involving Java, Mainframe SAP, Web browsers, and Windows were made. We did also use PDF automation using OCR and Surface automation which helped tremendously as our company is payroll-based and involves lots of file processing in which the toughest is interacting with PDFs. 

• Automating: Blue prism helps in reducing manual operation and manpower.
• Reporting: As cases are handled by Blue Prism we can extract all the logs and provide reports and analyze reports as per the need. We can use the reporting and dashboard feature of Blue Prism. And if the business needs a separated report we can create a separate report for such cases also by creating a process.
• Higher Productivity: Blue Prism can run in unattended mode for 27*7. No manual person needed other than Support.
• Cost-effective: As manpower is reduced.
• Higher Security: Blue Prism has inbuilt security features.
  

It can be improved more in :

1. Surface automation techniques: using region mode. Identifying images more properly.

2.OCR: Can improve more in OCR, to read text more correctly, currently can say OCR in blue prism only works for less cases and is only effective 50%. so mostly OCR's of Blue prism is very less used and other API's or tools are integrated with Blue prism for OCR techniques. 

3. Integration Support: To integrate any tool, API with blue prism. the team support is very less and also no proper details are available in Blue Prism. This can be improved much more.

4. AI: AI techniques will make Blue prism more powerful which is currently not done. 

I have been using Blue Prism for three years until now.

I was trained in .Net, and from then working in Blue Prism.

We used UiPath which was not so much effective than Blue Prism.

For simple processes use UiPath and Automation Anywhere.

For medium to high complexity processes use Blue Prism.

For much complex process involving decision making and much more of AI use Work fusin.

We did evaluate other options:

• Automation Anywhere 
• Work fusion

We are using Blue Prism mainly for the finance and IT automation processes.

The most valuable feature of Blue Prism is the control and development of the processes from one location.

The solution can improve by having a free license for evaluation purposes.

I have been using Blue Prism for approximately one year.

Blue Prism is a stable solution.

The scalability of the solution is good.

The solution can be suitable for all sized businesses, but it depends on the use case.

The support from Blue Prism is very good.

I have used UiPath and Robocorp. Blue Prism is more stable and provides good support, and a monitoring and development perspective.

Robocorp provides Python as a programming license and the cost is very low. All the features are available, but coding knowledge is required.

The initial setup of Blue Prism is of a moderate difficulty level.

I do the implementation of the solution with my clients.

The price of Blue Prism is high compared to others solutions. It would be helpful if they could provide a trial version for new users to try. Other vendors provide a community or trial version. There are not any hidden costs.

There are three different packages Blue Prism provides.

We are completely satisfied with the solution.

From a monitoring perspective, we have various stages and phases in RPA that enable us to perform monitoring, scheduling, and management simultaneously, which is a significant advantage. As a result, I can recommend to my colleagues that they utilize this capability and obtain certification.

I rate Blue Prism an eight out of ten.

We are currently using the automation provided by Blue Prism RPA in the claims process.

For one, it's easy to set up, and once it gets running it can handle multiple processes in an efficient manner. It's a very robust system.

Another nice thing is that, due to Blue Prism being a market leader in its industry, we often get people who are already highly familiar with it compared to other products. This was one of the main reasons why we went for it in the first place. 

Our primary challenge at present is that we are finding it difficult to get additional business insights into existing processes so that we can identify where we need to improve. Beyond that, we would also like to have a continuous monitoring facility.

I have been using Blue Prism for the past three years.

I would rate the stability a nine out of ten. We haven't had any major issues with the product.

The scalability is good and I haven't seen any limitations as yet. Right now there are about 20-30 people using it in my organization.

I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten.

Blue Prism's support is good at what they do, and they have lots of people available to help.

I would rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

There was certainly a learning curve during our initial experience of it, but it was fairly easy to set up.

I would rate the setup a six out of ten.

It's an expensive product. For what they are providing in terms of capabilities and features for the price, I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten.

I have also looked at Celonis and ABBYY Timeline, mainly to see if they offer the continuous monitoring feature that we are looking for.

Overall, I am satisfied with Blue Prism, knowing exactly what the product can and can't do. At this point, for us, it's just a matter of figuring out how we can implement it as a more complete, comprehensive solution in our business.

I would rate Blue Prism an eight out of ten.