UiPath Platform Reviews

I piloted the introduction of UiPath to my team with two projects. The first, domain monitoring, automated our ten-plus Pega applications' quarterly security and health checks. We designed an architecture that could be mapped across all domains, streamlining the process to run weekly instead of quarterly. This provided timely reports on application health via Webex. The second project was a more straightforward test suite automation for another UI-based application. These two successful pilot projects showcased the capabilities of UiPath, with the domain monitoring still in use today.

Building automation with UiPath is straightforward, but it's essential to be familiar with the target application and have a basic understanding of coding and if-else statements. This knowledge will help troubleshoot any unexpected errors. Overall, I'd rate the ease of building automation with UiPath an eight out of ten.

While working on the projects, we used two versions of UiPath: the enterprise and cloud versions. The orchestrator that comes with the enterprise version is different from the cloud version. The cloud version had better end-to-end automation, and the ease of use and accessibility were superior to those of the enterprise orchestrator, which is the on-premise version of UiPath. Although the enterprise version lacks a few features, the cloud version provides a complete solution.

I was impressed by UiPath's user community. We used an open-source library that someone else had built and generously shared with the UiPath community. It ideally suited our needs. The user community is also very responsive, and we readily receive answers to our questions.

We didn't see immediate benefits from UiPath because it was a new tool I was piloting. We had to prove to upper management that it saved significant time, and we eventually eliminated manual testing. It took until the project's end to demonstrate this, as management focuses on results, not processes. However, other teams adopted UiPath after completion, so benefits appeared after two or three months. It took time to get people on board, but they eventually embraced the idea.

UiPath has significantly improved our efficiency by automating domain and application monitoring, saving valuable time and working hours. These tasks were previously quite intensive and repetitive, demanding considerable focus and effort from our employees. With UiPath handling these processes, we've freed up our workforce to take on more engaging and strategic responsibilities.

My favorite aspect of UiPath is its user-friendly interface, as it's a no-code, low-code platform that eliminates the need for extensive coding. Its drag-and-drop functionality, coupled with UiPath's comprehensive library suite, simplifies automation tasks. For instance, the Microsoft Outlook and SharePoint libraries allow seamless integration with those platforms, streamlining processes like connecting to SharePoint in Microsoft 365. In essence, the combination of UiPath's robust infrastructure and versatile tools significantly enhances its usability and effectiveness.

I found the UiPath Academy courses to be a bit rigid in their curriculum. It was more beneficial for me to learn from the forums and YouTube videos. Their courses were tailored to particular roles, with a course on UiPath in data science being heavily focused on Excel. While it was a well-structured course, it didn't align with my job's limited use of Excel. Overall, their courses are well-built, but I found YouTube a more suitable learning platform for my needs.

UiPath Studio provides comprehensive tools and libraries for building automation, but it lacks a built-in feature to generate consolidated reports after automation runs, detailing successes, failures, and operational features. This absence of detailed logging information makes it difficult to troubleshoot issues and identify whether the problem lies within the application or the automation itself. While UiPath's orchestrator website provides some information, it's insufficient for demonstrating automation runs and accomplished features to stakeholders. Although a future release may address this, the lack of robust reporting capabilities remains a significant area for improvement. Additionally, UiPath's diverse suite of licenses can confuse end-users, making it challenging to determine the most suitable option. While the company has improved features, the increased number of licenses creates a knowledge gap between what's available and user understanding. Clearer explanations of each license would simplify decision-making for potential users and streamline adoption.

I have been using UiPath for one year.

Once we have the licensed version of UiPath, we don't anticipate issues with caching. We were using the 2021 Studio version because it was stable. Although the UiPath team suggested upgrading, I'm not certain about the reasons. I can't comment on the latest models, but the 2021 version was reliable.

The scalability of UiPath depends on the number of licenses. To deploy our automation, we need to utilize robots responsible for executing the automation we've built in a user-less environment. Scalability is directly proportional to the number of robots we have, which is, in turn, determined by the number of licenses. Therefore, more licenses translate to greater scalability.

The initial onboarding of UiPath was straightforward, but the only challenge we encountered was connecting UiPath Studio to the Orchestrator. UiPath Studio is where automations are built, while the Orchestrator is where they are deployed and run. This required some back-and-forth with the product team and my technical lead. However, this issue only arises during the initial setup. Once someone familiar with the process sets it up, it becomes easier. There were some challenges connecting and deploying the first automation, specifically between the Orchestrator and Studio.

Three people were involved in the deployment: my technical lead, who liaised with the product team to discuss progress and challenges; myself, responsible for building and deploying the automation; and one of my junior colleagues, who assisted me. In short, we had a three-person team.

We used UiPath and built and deployed that project, which ran successfully for approximately two quarters while I was away. However, the cost and licensing associated with UiPath became an issue. The license we were using offered excellent features specific to our needs, but it didn't provide much beyond that. It didn't make sense to continue spending much money on UiPath, even though it saved us time and money. The savings were essentially being reinvested back into purchasing the UiPath license. While UiPath licenses offer valuable features, they are expensive. For our single-use case, investing that much wasn't justifiable. We switched to Selenium, an open-source automation tool. Although it took additional time to deploy the same solution with Selenium, and it might not be a 100 percent match in functionality, it allowed us to save on costs.

The cost of UiPath is justified for organizations with many use cases but not for one or two use cases.

I give UiPath a seven out of ten.

The advice I'd like to give new UiPath users is to first understand their specific use case for UiPath. I've noticed some teams try to adopt UiPath by first figuring out a solution and then trying to retrofit it to their existing problems. Instead, I suggest thoroughly understanding the problem before creating a solution. Many teams see others using UiPath and assume it's a cool new tool they can simply apply to their existing issues. This approach rarely leads to optimal results. You might be able to build a solution, but it won't be the most efficient. For first-time users, I recommend understanding your problem, then exploring UiPath's capabilities to determine the best solution. There are plenty of resources available, like forums and YouTube, to help with the building process. Remember, understand the problem first, then build the solution.

I use UiPath to automate various processes in the energy industry, including invoice processing and contract registration.

Building automation using UiPath is easy.

UiPath enables us to implement end-to-end automation. This is important for the impact of the work and the satisfaction of the client.

The UiPath User Community offers great value because it allows us to find support, ask questions, and collaborate and share with other members.

UiPath has improved our organization by enabling us to automate repetitive tasks.

UiPath has helped minimize our on-premises footprint.

We utilize the Academy courses to prepare for certification. The Academy, a structured learning environment, provides me with the opportunity to acquire knowledge systematically. While it offers a wealth of valuable information, it primarily serves as a foundation for earning the certification. To gain practical experience and proficiency with the tool, additional hands-on work is necessary. Nonetheless, the Academy courses serve as a valuable starting point.

UiPath helps speed up and reduce the cost of digital transformation. The digital transformation does not require expensive or complex application upgrades.

UiPath has helped reduce human error.

UiPath helps save around 80 percent of our client's time.

UiPath has saved us thousands of dollars over the years.

While I haven't explored all of UiPath's features yet, I'm interested in using some of them to discover potential use cases, scenarios, and projects relevant to my work. For instance, the collection center functionality seems promising. It allows clients to create tasks, fill in fields, trigger activities, and log execution process details. Additionally, verifying and managing jobs while switching between different items.

In UiPath, when debugging an issue, we cannot revert to previous steps while retaining variable values. Compared to Blue Prism, UiPath presents greater difficulty in troubleshooting bugs. 

The orchestrator may occasionally disconnect and lose communication with the machine, failing to provide real-time warnings. Additionally, error messages displayed throughout the solution lack clarity and conciseness. Furthermore, workflow names cannot contain spaces or symbols, leading to complications during package download within the project. However, no warning is issued for such naming inconsistencies.

I have been using UiPath for five years.

UiPath is not 100 percent stable but it is within acceptable range.

UiPath is scalable and it allows us to build scalable solutions.

We use both UiPath and Blue Prism, depending on our client's specific needs. However, in most cases, we recommend and utilize UiPath as our preferred solution.

The initial deployment was straightforward, but it does require some fine-tuning. I use the framework for deployments and customize it according to our client's needs.

One person is enough for the deployment.

The implementation was completed in-house.

UiPath provides a good return on investment. It saves on employee costs through automation.

UiPath pricing is average.

I would rate UiPath nine out of ten.

The environments and number of endpoints we deploy UiPath in vary by client.

One to three people are usually required for UiPath maintenance.

We managed over 500 global tasks worldwide, leveraging UiPath to automate procurement, financial accounting, customer service processes, and customer relations.

We evaluate resumes through the RPA and ChatGPT four. We also arrange service for customers who need repairs to their devices through automation we developed using UiPath.

UiPath enables end-to-end automation. The end-to-end automation is important because it allows us to reduce our testing and reporting time from 28 hours down to 15.

UiPath has helped us shorten the time for our supply chain and revenue report generation. By using UiPath Document Understanding the OCR can read the PDF documents and automatically drop the file into the ERP system significantly reducing our time.

UiPath has streamlined our operations by digitizing our documentation and converting it to easily accessible PDF files. This has significantly reduced our physical footprint, eliminating the need for paper storage and manual document handling.

As a partner of UiPath in our region we are required to take all the Academy courses so we can better service our clients and share our use cases.

We have 1,000 clients around the world, each with unique invoice formatting preferences. Our AI system efficiently sorts these invoices based on their specific formats. By automating more processes through AI, we've significantly improved efficiency. For example, while standard OCR takes a minute to process a PDF invoice, our AI system does it in just two seconds.

UiPath has helped speed up our digital transformation. We have created a large data lake to help with analytics.

We require human verification for the final invoice numbers. Using UiPath the number of human errors has been reduced to one percent.

UiPath has saved ten percent of our employees' time by automating the invoicing process, translating the invoice language, and emailing it to the original user.

UiPath helps save costs. We can keep the license costs down by using one API license to convert all our PDF files into Word.

UiPath is well-suited for automating tasks within Oracle applications and can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud. This flexibility is particularly advantageous when dealing with sensitive data that cannot be migrated to the cloud for security reasons.

UiPath needs to improve its integration with Microsoft products such as Office, SharePoint, and PowerPoint.

I have been using UiPath for two years.

UiPath is stable.

UiPath can scale to our needs.

The technical support is good. We rarely have to use them.

Positive

For general automation needs, we choose Microsoft Power Automate due to its cost-effectiveness compared to UiPath. However, for Oracle-centric automation, where stability is paramount, we rely on UiPath.

The initial deployment was complex. Many settings within the orchestrator need to be set before running a job. Once we implemented UiPath we had our user team keep an eye on it for one month to ensure it was stable, scheduling only attendee jobs before moving onto more complex automation.

In our region, we have a team of 15 to 25 people for the deployments and a smaller team of five in North America.

We implement UiPath in-house.

UiPath is expensive compared to the competition. We pay a license fee that is over 20,000 USD.

We evaluated Automation Anywhere, Power Automate, and UiPath. Automation Anywhere and UiPath are more expensive than Power Automate.

I would rate UiPath a nine out of ten.

We do require the assistance of IT to help increase our digital transformation.

Maintenance is required when updates are made to a process or component. Our team of 25 is responsible for the maintenance as well.

We have a lot of SAP Extract, transform, and load (ETL). We have human resources and time management. We have a very diverse tool landscape due to natural growth. We are in a very early stage of transformation, so we use it to bring information into multiple systems at the same time.

We also have a good few financial use cases related to tax. We work in Europe. Within the EU, there are different regulations, and sometimes, we have very short deadlines. On the third or first business day, we have to get information out of 16 or 17 SAP systems and format them. We have to get them out to Italy and Spain for government stuff.

The objective that we were trying to achieve by implementing UiPath was hard cost savings, but I changed that a little bit. It is not the right technology for hard cost savings. We have now changed it to quality and efficiency, and what they do with quality and efficiency is up to them.

Currently, we only use the core RPA. We joined the company only eight months ago. We worked for another company before, and that company is at a very early stage. We are setting up our CVs and our citizen development program, so currently, we only use core RPA and core automation services.

We are not using AI yet, but we are about to change that with Document Understanding. In the company where I worked before, we used Document Understanding, and it helped us a lot.

UiPath automations have increased the accuracy of our operations. We have a lot of peak sessions with finance and techs. There are quite high penalties if we get something wrong. For example, if we calculate our tax incorrectly and we pay too much, that does not mean we get the money back. If we pay too little, we also have to pay a penalty fee. We have reduced the error rate by over 25%. We saved 1.24 million last year. That is one aspect. The other aspect is the peak time work. We had a team of people coming in on the third business day at 5 am. I had to download all the reports and things like that because they had to get the report out by 12 pm. If they were not out by 12 pm, we had to pay a penalty. After automation, people came in at 8 am, and the reports went out by 10 am. 

I like the low-code/no-code approach and the graphical interface. Among all the RPA tools, UiPath is the one with the easiest interface.

Orchestrator needs an overhaul. They have added so many functions that it is sometimes quite hard to find the right settings. They have a tree hierarchy with the host and the tenant. Some settings you do on the host, and some settings you do on the tenant. You need to know at which level you are to find what you need. It all looks very same.

The other thing that I have been telling them for years is the width of the activity. You cannot change the width. I do a lot of training to show something, and I constantly have to go into the advanced editor to show what is in there, but the big thing right now is Orchestrator.

I have been using UiPath for 12 or 13 years.

I have not had any issues. If something happened, it happened because of the human network.

It is very scalable.

The USA support is okay. I would rate them a seven out of ten.

Their support in Europe is good or very good if you get the right people. I would rate them between six to nine out of ten.

Their support in Asia needs improvement. I would rate them a four out of ten.

I have worked with Blue Prism. I have worked with Automation Anywhere. I have worked with what I call the Microsoft suite, which includes Power Apps, Power Automate, and Azure Logic. I worked very shortly with OpenSpan, later known as Pega. I trained at a university. I trained others in automation as part of the robotics lab at the University of Hanover. We looked at several tools there. 

In terms of comparison between UiPath and Microsoft Power Automate, given the use cases for which I normally use them, they both have areas where they are good. If Microsoft could get their documentation right, the attended series of UiPath would be in a lot of trouble. Given the whole unattended and hyper automation or intelligent automation, which is the main focus of UiPath, you need orchestration. That is where the big bucks and the big savings are, but to get the technology out with the attended bots or shadow IT, Microsoft Power Apps and Power Automate are important because they help people understand what technology can do. What we see very often is that people start with Power Apps, sometimes even with a macro, and then they realize that they have hit a certain barrier very quickly. They come to us. Initially, we take what they have and just enhance it with UiPath, and then over time, we bring the functionality from the macro, Power Apps, or Selenium and migrate them into our things.

Currently, we are on-prem, but we are migrating to the cloud in November. We are currently not using the latest version, but with the migration, we will be.

I was involved in its setup. The Orchestrator setup could be easier. There are a few loopholes that you need to understand. UiPath Studio is straightforward, but the setup of Orchestrator has become a little bit more complicated over time. You need to connect them to bots, and you need to know what type of user you need for what type of robot, which has become more tricky. Overall, the setup of Orchestrator and certificates can be a bit challenging.

In terms of the implementation strategy, we took a test server and put it on. We did some testing with our network and information security team, and once they were happy, we moved it out to production.

For the current implementation, we did not take any help. The first one was done by a partner, but they did not do a good job. I did the second installation on my own because I knew how to do it.

In the previous company, they had a partner system. 

I do not like the enormous jumps that they have had in the past. The ROI has become a lot harder because of the pricing changes. When you have time to plan for it, the ROI is there. If it was cheaper, it would make my life easier, but on the other hand, it is worth it. These jumps year after year are a problem for me because then I have to go back and say that prices have increased by 30% percent, and I get asked, "For what?" It takes a lot of time.

In this company, UiPath was already chosen. In the company before, I looked at all the big ones. I chose UiPath for the ease of use. 

I would advise finishing UiPath Academy courses. After you have finished them the first time, finish them the second time.

I would rate UiPath a strong eight out of ten.

Our company, Block Mosaic, automates the creation and management of DeFi (decentralized finance) applications. This involves streamlining the development, deployment, and maintenance of these applications by automating repetitive and rule-based tasks. UiPath enables us to automate tasks such as data collection, communication with customers, integration with blockchain networks, and the execution of smart contracts.

We mostly use UiPath for the integration of bots in websites, as it provides integration features for AI chatbots, and we use it for the deployment of smart contracts on a large scale.

Automation not only accelerates our application development but also reduces errors and increases operational efficiency. It has accelerated our development process, and that means that our time-to-market has improved for DeFi applications, giving us a competitive edge in the fast-moving blockchain sector. It allows our team to focus on innovation and improving the user experience of DeFi applications.

UiPath is very important for our organization. It improves the workflow of our company, and it helps our company publish more DeFi applications. It helps accelerate the process of managing accounts in our company, as the DeFi applications we create are for managing many accounts on a platform.

It has helped with cost-cutting because UiPath chatbots have replaced many of the employees. The employees were not that efficient in comparison to UiPath bots. The bots are very efficient and productive and can do tasks in just minutes or hours, things that used to take a lot of hours to do.

We have also used the AI functionality by integrating AI chatbots into our website using UiPath. They help with amusing chats with our users for their entertainment. Our users do not like the simple Python or bots that are made with C++. They like modern bots like ChatGPT, so we have implemented that.

AI has played a significant role in improving our efficiency. Tasks that a person used to do in hours are completed by AI chatbots in a shorter time. Also, human error has been reduced when compared to bots. The bots are highly efficient. The AI functionalities have helped us manage all the smart contract deployments as well as the management of our user base. It has also helped with database and account management and in settling many transactions. And it has boosted the number of KYCs that are managed per unit.

Deploying most of the smart contracts and managing our user base are now done by the UiPath bots. This saves us about 30 to 40 percent of our time and gives us time to think more creatively about our solutions for making better DeFi apps and improving their functionalities.

Another benefit is that UiPath has reduced the cost of digital transformation because our projects require a lot of web services. We have saved money by using UiPath instead of cloud services.

One of the best features is the workflow automation. That is the most valuable feature for our company, as it plays a pivotal role in the efficient development of our DeFi applications. In the dynamic world of DeFi, where integrated financial processes and smart contracts are the norm, UiPath's workflow automation capabilities provide us with a valuable advantage. It enables the orchestration of complex sequences of tasks involved in DeFi application creation, from smart contracts to blockchain transaction monitoring.

By automating these workflows, we can ensure that all components work harmoniously and efficiently and reduce potential human error.

UiPath is also a very easy platform to use. It provides us with a canvas where we can draw from our imaginations, draw our settings, and then convert them to automations.

It allows us to enable end-to-end automation.

The user community of UiPath is very big and very helpful as well. When our team hits an error, the community is sometimes very helpful. And the customer support we are getting is also very full and good. I am satisfied with the community. I would rate it 10 out of 10.

The debugging capabilities need to be improved in UiPath because it is very difficult to find bugs in the chatbot. In Visual Studio Code, by contrast, we have an excellent debugger that fixes all the bugs.

Also, task management is complex and needs to be improved. They need to simplify the user interface so it can work properly.

I have been using UiPath for six months.

It offers a great amount of stability, and the team at UiPath is adding more and more features that are increasing the stability of the platform.

UiPath demonstrates excellent scalability with its consistent addition of features. It's impressive to witness that it remains current and continues to evolve and incorporate new capabilities. I rate the scalability at nine out of 10. It offers a great deal of scalability.

I used Blue Prism, which is quite a good solution, but it's not as easy as UiPath because it requires a high level of coding. UiPath offers good drag-and-drop functionality, which results in better automation. Also, there is no orchestrator in Blue Prism.

Automation Anywhere does not have the features that UiPath has. It does not have as good a web-based orchestrator as UiPath, which manages all the accounts and services.

Deploying the system took a couple of hours, done by a team of three to four people.

It doesn't require any maintenance.

After implementing UiPath, our organization realized a substantial return on investment. This was achieved through a combination of cost savings, increased productivity, and improved accuracy. We quantified the cost savings from reducing labor expenses and eliminating error-related costs. There is also ROI from optimizing overall operational efficiency.

Furthermore, UiPath automation capability significantly improved productivity, allowing us to process more and more transactions, take on more and more customer needs, and respond to the customers as fast as possible. We have been able to handle the increased workload. This has translated into enhanced customer satisfaction and market competitiveness.

By automating error-prone tasks, we also saw a remarkable reduction in errors and compliance-related issues, leading to further cost reductions and process efficiencies. After factoring in deployment and maintenance costs, we calculated a positive ROI, and the payback period for our initial investment was achieved in a very short timeframe.

We've seen about 30 percent ROI through the growth of our company.

The price of the Enterprise version is high, and the licensing is very complex. For small businesses like ours, licensing is a very complex task and takes too much time. I face many issues with that.

All our people, about 50 to 60 staff, use UiPath because we do not have an alternative. There is Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere, and Microsoft Power Automate, but UiPath is the best solution. The only issue is that the pricing is higher, but it has all the features that make it worth it.

UiPath has reduced a good amount of human error, but there are some errors that the chatbots make. They are resolved within seconds or minutes, although longer ones can take hours. But overall, the bots make many fewer errors and increase efficiency. It has removed about 80 percent of human errors. Since using UiPath, we have gotten good customer reviews about the websites and improvements in all our sites and management.

Using UiPath has been a great experience. It's the best alternative on the market. No alternative is better than UiPath.

We are a platinum partner of UiPath. We work exclusively for UiPath and do implementations. We provide solutions using UiPath products.

One of the use cases was for a client from the manufacturing industry for onboarding apprentices. We did this project in India. They were onboarding 300 to 400 apprentices. Their insurance and other things were done manually, which was time-consuming. It used to take them a week to complete the whole process, which was a problem in case an accident or incident happened in the first week. They wanted to do automation to ensure that on the first day itself, after the employees are onboarded, the insurance and other tasks are completed.

RPA as a technology has many benefits. UiPath comes with all those benefits. In addition, you also get flexibility, the availability of resources and new features, the ability to scale up, and an excellent partner ecosystem with UiPath.

As a tool, UiPath is becoming a hyper-automation platform. Every six months, they add something new to the platform. If you want new features, you can subscribe to those. From just an RPA tool, it is becoming an intelligent automation platform. They bring everything into the same platform. When you subscribe to Office 365, you get the entire package from Microsoft. UiPath also does the same thing. They bring automation, process mining, and all other things into the same platform. You can pick and subscribe to whatever you want. You can scale up as you want.

At this point in time, everybody is looking for intelligent automation solutions. UiPath has something known as AI Center that consists of multiple machine learning models. Solutions that have the intelligence to automatically understand and make decisions are the demand of the hour. For example, earlier, invoice processing was template-based. It was done using ABBYY and other OCR tools. UiPath now has a product for document understanding that supports the customers in extracting the details of the invoices without templates. It has a machine-learning model. I have been using their AI Center or document understanding module since 2019. It matures every year. For example, in 2019, if we loaded 15 to 20 invoices, it extracted only 20% of the data, whereas now, it extracts more than 80% of the data because over time, the model has got trained, and it gives better results. 

As a company, they are growing very fast. They are acquiring multiple companies. If they do not have competency in any field, they either partner with other firms or acquire them. They have recently added a communication mining product. It is something that is going to help the BPO industry a lot where call centers have many people taking the calls and rerouting them. Putting a machine learning model or a communication mining product on top of it will definitely help to reduce the effort. It will help with cost reduction and optimization of the existing operations. All the new features that they are adding are aligned with the usage of the platform as an intelligent automation platform.

UiPath also has benefits in terms of resources for implementing automation. If a customer wants to build a COE, they need to onboard resources and train them. UiPath is the easiest in terms of finding resources. For Pega Automation or SAP automation, you may not be able to find as many resources in the market as UiPath.

When clients want to automate a manual process, their expectation is that once automated, they do not want anybody to look into that process. It should run without any human intervention, but sometimes, there are scenarios where human intelligence is required to make a decision or trigger something. For example, if you do automation on a portal, there might be a captcha or multi-factor authentication where you enforce a human to come into the picture. Generally, everybody is looking for automation that runs without any human intervention. If 10 to 15 people do an activity, usually, the customer expectation is that none of those people should have to look into it, but realistically, only about 80% of those employees can be used for other tasks. 20% are still needed to monitor the system. 

UiPath speeds up digital transformation. RPA is normally the first step of digital transformation because it is the technology that you can add with minimal investment. The rest of the things require much more than what is required for RPA. Digital transformation starts with identifying the right candidate for automation and putting a process or a bot to do the processing. After that, you can build AI on top to make decisions. This digital transformation does not require expensive or complex application upgrades or IT application support. If any of the processes require upgrading the existing system or additional licenses, we normally do not recommend RPA for that. We can do automation using API calls and other methods.

UiPath saves time. RPA technology is generally adopted for the reduction in FTEs and time. The time savings vary based on different engagements.

UiPath is much easier to learn than other tools. Its interface is not that complicated. It is very user-friendly. Among all other similar tools, UiPath is the one that came out last. It came out in 2016 or 2017. They had the opportunity to understand what are the best features of other tools. They also knew how to put it together so that people pick it up faster. UiPath's founders are from a technical background, so there is a developer-oriented approach, which is another benefit of this solution. In the RPA market, if you want to hire resources, you will get more UiPath developers than any other technology. If any customer wants to adopt UiPath as a tool and build a team, there are more options for UiPath. You get a bigger resource pool to select from. For other tools, you will not find that many resources. This is something that we have seen while hiring people.

UiPath Community is one of the main differentiators from other tools. You can easily compare the number of subscribers of UiPath Community or UiPath forums with Stack Overflow, but Stack Overflow is not just one tool. You have everything there. You have Java, you have Python, and you have .NET. From a technical perspective, queries related to different technologies are there. In UiPath Community, you get the same level of support. I have seen developers solving puzzles and tricky questions. About 90% of questions get answered in the community. The way UiPath promotes its community is also not unique. It is not like anybody else. I have not noticed anything similar to the MVP programs that they run in other tools. They promote people who contribute more to the forum. Anybody who is giving a solution gets marked and evaluated based on the support provided in the forum. They give them exposure on the platform. They mention their MVPs for each year, which is motivating many people. I do not think anybody else is doing that. I have a team of 120 people. I see the motivation in the team to spend an hour or half an hour on a daily basis to see if any questions are there to which they can respond to have an opportunity to get into the MVP segment. UiPath is doing a lot to ensure that there are more active users in the community and people give good suggestions and solutions.

The UiPath Academy is one of the best self-training portals. They have two types of portals. One is for everybody. Anybody can subscribe and log into it and start taking courses without paying anything. They also have another portal for partners, which has more details. They do not have static material. They update the material every six months. When they have a release, they update the information. UiPath Academy is a very good platform for self-training purposes. They also have other training programs such as instructor-led training. UiPath's training and support mechanism is excellent.

Their technical support should be improved. Their support has deteriorated with the increase in the number of customers. That is one area of improvement.

They should give the flexibility to customers to reduce the number of licenses. UiPath does not want you to reduce the number of licenses. It is not easy to reduce the number of licenses even though there is a provision to do that. It would be good to give flexibility to customers to upscale and downscale whenever they want.

For low-code development, they already have something called UiPath Apps, but it needs improvement. Generally, to build a small workflow, we use Microsoft Power Apps. Even though UiPath has a local platform, it is not comparable to the Microsoft Power Apps platform. If they invest a bit more in that, for creating workflows, we can use UiPath Apps rather than opting for a third-party tool.

I have been working with UiPath since 2018.

Nowadays, all RPA vendors are trying to bring in something new every six months, but they don't get adequate time for doing the testing. As a result, there are multiple bugs. They should stabilize the release, do proper testing, and then only launch it. Otherwise, we need to wait for the next release for a bug to be fixed. Similarly, the training material for all established products from all the vendors is good, but with constant new releases, it is a challenge to get the latest material. They should release the training material before they start selling the product so that everybody is well aware of the features and the issues.

With the cloud model, you can subscribe to whatever you want and scale up as you want. You also get the flexibility of a monthly subscription from the cloud. If you want to run automation for one month or a certain period, options are available.

If a customer is subscribed to the UiPath Cloud and wants to add more processes, they just need to ensure that they have their infrastructure on-prem for only putting the robots. The load on the Orchestrator is handled by UiPath. You do not have to worry about that, so scalability is handled by UiPath. These are no issues, but for on-premises, all these things have to be handled manually. You have to increase the storage, but from the product perspective, there is no challenge in scaling up. Today, if we run 100 processes, and tomorrow, if we need to run 1,000 processes, we just need to procure the licenses and additional hardware.

Their support could be better. As the company grew, the number of customers increased, and their support deteriorated. When you raise a ticket, rather than addressing the concern of the client, they just want to close the ticket. It has gone to that stage. This could be because of the number of customers. It was not like this earlier.

We have been working with them for a long time. We know what questions we need to ask. Our concern mainly comes when a client contacts UiPath's customer service. Rather than asking them for additional details, they give a response saying that a particular feature is not supported and close the case. I would rate them a six out of ten at this point in time. 

Neutral

I have worked on other platforms, but at this point in time, I am predominantly working on UiPath. I have worked with Blue Prism. I also have some experience with Automation Anywhere and WorkFusion.

I have worked with the on-prem and cloud deployments. In earlier versions, the cloud model was not there. UiPath has a product called Orchestrator, which is an application web server. In on-prem installations, you had to put this application web server on a Windows Server. It then orchestrated the entire automation. You also had to install Developer SDK, called UiPath Studio, on a Windows machine. You had to connect that Windows machine to the Orchestrator tool. For running the process, you needed a bot. You installed that bot on another virtual machine or Windows machine. These were the three mandatory components earlier in 2018.

After that, they brought in the concept of cloud subscription. With the cloud subscription, they install the Orchestrator itself and give a public endpoint to the customer. The benefit is that customers do not need to install Orchestrator on their premises. They can directly connect to the Orchestrator that is hosted on their cloud platform. Of course, they have the authentication and all those things. With the cloud model, there is no requirement of installing their application server inside the environment. UiPath Studio and the bots still remain in the client environment. 

Previously, anybody with Windows experience could do the installation. Our developers used to do the installation, but since machine learning came into the picture, the platform changed because Windows was not able to do the processing. Machine learning requires resources, so they converted the platform from Windows to Linux. If you now want to install Orchestrator with the machine learning model and all other things, it is not a Windows installation. It is a Linux installation, so earlier, somebody with basic Windows skills could do the installation for machine learning models and other things on-prem, but now, this cannot be done by a normal developer. Somebody with Linux experience is required for installation. However, they offer a cloud subscription where you do not need to install anything on Linux. You can directly access the endpoint and start using it. They also offer a disaster recovery tool. UiPath provides something known as HA for on-prem installation. It is a multi-node installation. This HA tool is also installed on Linux, so previously all tools were on Windows, but all the new products or tools are on Linux. They require Linux expertise for on-prem installation as well as knowledge regarding firewalls, etc. You need an infrastructure engineer for that.

UiPath provides training for different roles. They have training for developers, business analysts, solution architects, and infrastructure engineers. These are the four main roles for which they provide training, and these are the four roles that are manually required for implementing the UiPath product.

In terms of maintenance, UiPath updates the product every six months. They have two main releases. They have a spring release and a fall release. They have .6 and .10 releases. If I am installing the 2023.6 release now, they will provide support only for three years, which will be till June of 2026. After that, they will not support it, so customers need to upgrade their environment once every three years. For the on-prem setup, when you do the upgrade, you need to bring down the environment because robots are there. Once they are upgraded, you need to ensure that everything is running properly. It requires the infrastructure team and the application development team to ensure that everything is working fine. It is normally a one-month activity, but it can vary depending on the number of processes. It requires at least two weeks. In the cloud model, product upgrades happen automatically. Orchestrator is hosted in UiPath Cloud, and they upgrade it. There are no issues. You just need to take care of UiPath Studio and the robots in the machine. That can be easily handled by the application development or support team. In terms of support, the number of people required depends on the complexity and the criticality of processes. If you have automated a banking application, you may require somebody for monitoring around the clock.

They have been increasing the price. The explanation that they provide is that they are adding more features. This works perfectly fine for customers who are looking for new intelligent automations, but there is another set of customers who use UiPath for vanilla, plain automations. Offering them something that is not required and asking them to pay more puts a burden on them. That seems to be a problem for the customers. Many of them have mentioned this concern because it is increasing the prices of automation every year, which is not acceptable to all customers.

As a company, they try to move from on-prem to the cloud. They give cloud subscriptions unless a customer specifically requests an on-prem solution. With the on-prem solution, you will not get the latest features automatically. You need to update it on a periodic basis. There is an overhead in terms of maintenance. In their new licensing model, they charge the same for the on-prem product and the cloud product. For an on-prem installation, you have the infrastructure cost in addition to the licensing cost. By going for the cloud version, you can easily skip the infrastructure cost.

When you start your RPA journey, you should never start with just one process. You should have a pipeline in your mind in terms of the number of processes. You can start small, but you need to have a roadmap of what you are going to do by the end of the year. If you automate only one process, you will not get value from this product. Tools such as UiPath and Automation Anywhere are capable of doing so many complicated tasks. They charge you so that you can do all those things. If you do just a small task with that, your cost and your outcome will not match, and you will not appreciate the platform. That is why I recommend having a roadmap. You should also go for a tool for which you are able to get support when you get stuck. There is no question that UiPath is the easiest one.

RPA as a technology is going to be like Microsoft Excel. Soon, everybody's system will have bots to automate activities. It could be for extracting data from the internet for your analysis or for your project. It will be used for all redundant activities or rule-based processing where you have to extract the data and follow some steps. In five or ten years, it is going to be a mandatory technology. 

Overall, I would rate UiPath an eight out of ten. I am not completely happy with the way they bring out new versions or features in a half-cooked state. Stability or reliability is critical when you are launching something new.

We adopted UiPath to leverage its generative AI capabilities for rule-based automation. This technology enhances the resilience of our automated processes, ensuring continued functionality even when underlying systems or data undergo changes that would typically disrupt traditional automation.

Our business challenges necessitated a combined approach of AI and automation. While automation initially streamlined processes, its rigidity proved limiting when faced with changing information. AI, with its learning and adaptive capabilities, addressed this by recognizing patterns and adjusting to variations. This synergy allows the AI to handle similar changes without requiring new automation, ultimately achieving the same outcome with increased flexibility and efficiency.

Our automations are now AI-centric, and this focus will expand significantly within the company as our organization refines its AI strategy.

Our company is developing a new AI automation strategy focused on employee engagement, partnering with Microsoft Copilot and utilizing ChatGPT for automation. While our AI policy is still being developed, we plan to carefully consider how to best leverage UiPath's AI capabilities, with a strong emphasis on security, once the policy is in place.

UiPath has helped save our staff time to focus on other tasks. 

UiPath's most valuable feature is Insights, which provides invaluable data on time savings and AI model performance.

UiPath should prioritize improving its updates and user-friendliness, particularly for new team members. Streamlining updates and simplifying the interface would enhance the onboarding experience and overall productivity.

I have been using UiPath for two and a half years.

In terms of what we use UiPath for, the stability has been great. 

We utilize both cloud-based and on-premises automation solutions. Our infrastructure began with two servers and has gradually expanded to four. UiPath has proven to be a scalable platform, provided we maintain the necessary licenses.

UiPath's support is generally good, augmented by the assistance of a Technical Account Manager who helps escalate requests when needed. However, resolving issues without a TAM would be significantly more challenging.

Positive

Prior to my joining the team, the organization utilized Automation Anywhere.

The initial deployment was complex.

We collaborated with UiPath's service provider for the implementation, leveraging their expertise for the intake process and initial setup. Our experience thus far has been positive.

I would rate UiPath seven out of ten.

I recommend UiPath due to its robust user community, which provides valuable feedback that contributes to the continuous improvement and development of the product with new features.

We are primarily looking to solve business challenges related to processing unstructured documents.

Currently, we have not realized the business outcomes as we have not implemented the solution yet. The goal is to increase efficiency, throughput, and accuracy. UiPath AI and automation have not yet helped free up staff to work on other projects or tasks. In terms of environmental, social, and governance solutions, it is not applicable.

The Studio and the Test Manager have been valuable as they made testing with QA easier. We've been able to rerun numerous test cases quickly. From the UiPath platform overall, I find these features valuable.

The product documentation needs improvement as it tends to be self-contradictory and sometimes hard to access since we are on an older version. 

There is also a need for more consistency in product support and customer service.

I have been using UiPath for five years.

UiPath has been pretty stable since we are mostly on-premises. However, the stability is to be determined when we move our full infrastructure to the cloud. Outages could occur with SaaS solutions.

It has scaled with us efficiently despite the initial complexity in understanding licenses, runtimes, and utilization. No significant issues have been encountered yet.

There have been ebbs and flows with customer service. We are at Premium Plus, now called Enterprise Success. Initially, there wasn't much value, but there has been some improvement. Dedicated support provides more assistance and better outcomes.

Neutral

I'm familiar with Automation Anywhere and Blue Prism, each of which offer different pros and cons. UiPath, being the market leader, differentiates itself with its capabilities and portfolio. It is easy to use from day one, flexible, and their vision is helpful.

I can't provide specifics as to ROI. That said, in general, we achieve financial benefits and a positive ROI on our implementations most years.

Pricing and licensing are challenging as they can be difficult to understand. They make it hard to determine utilization and necessary licenses for runtimes. Comprehensive components need to come together for a clear picture, making renewals and contract negotiations complex.

We have considered Automation Anywhere and Blue Prism as alternate solutions.

I would rate UiPath a seven out of ten.