I am from the Mechanical Department at a college of engineering. We utilize Automation Anywhere with our students in the mechanical block. I am using it for educational purposes, and we are providing hands-on experiences.
Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)
Automation Anywhere, Inc.External reviews
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
AI collaboration and data extraction capabilities improve efficiency
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Automation Anywhere is very useful. With Automation Anywhere, we can do any task in the easiest way. If there is any repeated task, then we can replace it with Automation Anywhere to the same work in a short period of time. It helps minimize the work.
Automation Anywhere is very helpful and interesting to learn for students. It is very user-friendly, so they can easily learn it.
Automation Anywhere is very easy to learn for people who do not have any technical skills. It is very user-friendly. There is no learning difficulty. We can easily drag and drop the required components and make the model we want. We can automate and deploy a function. After one or two attempts, it becomes very clear. It does not take a long time to understand it. We can understand a simple process within thirty minutes, whereas a complex process can take two to four hours.
Automation Co-Pilot is an advanced feature that helps with finding out the next step. It also provides information about more efficient usage. Both Automation Anywhere and Co-Pilot improve productivity.
Automation Anywhere saves time. The attendance automation that we have saves about two hours each day. We are also able to easily scrape data from structured and unstructured files and write it in the CSV format. IQ Bot does this very well.
What is most valuable?
The AI collaboration is the most impressive feature of Automation Anywhere. We can use IQ Bot to extract data from structured and unstructured sources into a CSV file. It is very useful, and my university uses it for the attendance system. With AI integration, we can easily take attendance.
Other features include easy deployment and automation of repetitive tasks. If we want to automate any repetitive task, we can record it, which is very useful.
It is secure and user-friendly. Automation Anywhere minimizes human effort and time, facilitates learning, and supports automated tasks efficiently.
What needs improvement?
There are areas of improvement needed, such as complex decision-making skills. When updates are made, the IQ Bot's actions can be affected, leading to decision-making failures. If it had the ability to make decisions in complex situations, the bot would perform more smoothly. More advanced decision-making skills are needed for improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Automation Anywhere for more than two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Automation Anywhere is very stable. I would rate it a ten out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Its scalability is very good. I would rate it a ten out of ten for scalability.
In the mechanical department, we have more than 130 students. On average, there are 700 users.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is easy to access with various communication channels, including emails and personal calls. However, the community forum is sometimes unresponsive. Despite this, personal calls and quick fixes are very useful, providing good technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have experience with Blue Prism from four years ago. Initially, I used both Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere, but Blue Prism required coding, making it challenging. Automation Anywhere's no-code environment made it easier, and I preferred it. My students also favor it for its user-friendliness and affordability compared to Blue Prism. Automation Anywhere allows for easy drag-and-drop actions and is cost-effective for medium and large-scale enterprises.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost is high for small-scale businesses but it is fine for medium and large enterprises. Its high licensing cost may affect small-scale businesses. Reducing licensing costs would benefit many users.
What other advice do I have?
Learning Automation Anywhere prepares our students for a better future because the future belongs to RPA Automation. It helps build their automation skills, and we also provide certification to them after learning Automation Anywhere.
It involves understanding the structure, and once two or three models are deployed, it becomes easier. Using Automation Anywhere is more straightforward than other RPA tools. Bot deployment typically takes three to four hours depending on the process. A simple process can take about thirty minutes and complex ones take two to four hours. There is no time wasted during deployment.
Bots require updates only if there are any changes. Generally, five to ten minutes are enough to maintain the bots. It does not take a lot of time.
I would recommend Automation Anywhere to others. I actively create awareness about it in our classes and recommend it to other institutions for future RPA developers.
I would rate Automation Anywhere a ten out of ten.
Automation reduces personnel expenses and errors in back-office processes
What is our primary use case?
We attempted to implement this solution into the back-office business processes of various entities.
How has it helped my organization?
The program itself is phenomenal in terms of its design. It solves a lot of different issues. It cuts down on the need for large accounting personnel groups within organizations because it automates back-end office processes, such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, and just all those types of things. I am a CPA, so I see the potential benefit of Automation Anywhere being implemented within a business structure.
What Automation Anywhere is offering is amazing from a back-end office accounting standpoint. If implemented correctly, it is amazing.
I have not integrated it with any other solution. I have only been focused on backend office automation, but I know it has that capability because I have trained in it. I have built the bots. It is amazing if it works properly. I consider myself a fairly intelligent person who has been in the accounting field since the eighties, and it is truly revolutionary.
What is most valuable?
I like the holistic approach of the company to automation. Many automation software solutions focus on only one area. I am particularly talking about back-office processes such as accounting, AR, AP, treasury management, financial statement forecasting, presentation, budgeting, and similar areas. That's where my expertise lies. I appreciate that it automates all these processes.
What needs improvement?
The learning curve is an issue in terms of implementation and writing scripts, which is a challenge. Although it is advertised as easy to implement, it is not. It is not easy to learn or implement. However, if you have the IT staff and are willing to invest the time to learn it, then it is worth it. You need the planning and the capability to hire the appropriate people to implement Automation Anywhere. It is not as easy to implement as advertised. It is difficult across the board. It is difficult for technical and non-technical users.
I am still in the learning stages. I attempted to implement it with a client, but the client did not move forward with it because it was too costly and too difficult to implement without the significant assistance of Automation Anywhere. The issue with Automation Anywhere is that the majority of their help staff or technical staff seems to be offshore, not located in the United States. That is, in my opinion, an issue for companies. In addition to that, it is for companies that are very large. It is not for mid-level and below companies because it is too expensive. It is unfortunate. I could sell a bunch of it if it was affordable. So, the fact that the majority of their staff is offshore making it difficult to get technical support from them and the fact that it is unaffordable to anything other than the Nikes of the world is an issue in the United States.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Automation Anywhere since June 2024.
How are customer service and support?
I've attempted to engage with customer service, but it is difficult and a drawback. For instance, my partner and I did extensive training on the university to get certifications so we could be approved as resellers. The process had many glitches, and verifying our passed certification exams took weeks, something that should be a simple button press. For an entity promoting automation, there was no automation involved in that process, which is a red flag.
What was our ROI?
In terms of return on investment, the benefit is realized economically because you may not need as many employees, reducing personnel expenses. For example, if you have seven people in accounts payable, you might reduce that number to three if Automation Anywhere is implemented and monitored properly, so the savings can be realized right away.
The software also minimizes errors, unlike humans, who may lose focus during routine tasks. The speed at which the automation bot operates compared to a human delivers significant cost savings and return on investment.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I've also used Topalti, an accounts payable automated solution. Topalti has prewritten all the scripts and done everything needed, unlike Automation Anywhere, where I would have to do everything manually. However, Topalti only focuses on accounts payable for certain industries.
What other advice do I have?
A major issue is that a large percentage of their help staff is offshore, which is problematic for U.S.-based companies. It is also more suitable for very large companies, not mid-level or smaller companies, as it is too expensive.
I could sell more if it were affordable.
The two main issues are the difficulty in obtaining technical support and the fact that it's unaffordable for anything other than very large companies.
Overall, I rate the product ten out of ten, the sales channels four out of ten, and the support four out of ten.
Provides scalability and modularity we need for our expanded portfolio
What is our primary use case?
I work in an automation Center of Excellence in health care, and I utilize it for everything and anything that is appropriate in health care. We have approximately 41,000 hours worth of automation that operates and handles tasks ranging from assisting with HR operations, such as leave of absence, to medication monitoring and much more. Our portfolio is quite expanded.
We are also jumping into the Co-Pilot world because we want to start embedding it into Teams, SailPoint, and some of the other tools.
We are also looking at a unique use case. We have discharges, and there are certain types of prescriptions that are just extremely specialized as part of discharge. We have medication contracts. One of the things that we have going on in our organization is a buddy system and then an official request. The buddy system is essentially prescription denial appeals. We would like to use AI to search our contracts to figure out what is the standard for these medications and what are the denials and appeals that we can have prewritten and ready to go.
How has it helped my organization?
It was a response to COVID that prompted us to dive into scalable tools. We needed scalability and the ability to perform 10,000 or 1,000 or 200 tasks at any moment. No other software that we have had could provide such scalability and is built in a modular way.
It is unique and almost invisible. You do not realize its impact until you discuss it with users who provide positive feedback. We build automation, support it, and deploy it. When we meet with our users later, they have such good feedback about how impactful these things are to their path. For a nurse, not having to repeat a task 10,000 times has made a significant difference. Especially during COVID, it was truly helpful on the front line. Now, I also employ it with other powerful medication tools.
I was personally able to see its benefits as soon as I jumped into software. It was one of the most impactful and amazing tools for my day-to-day life because, at any point in time, I could design something, modularly build it, and deploy it. It can handle such amazing tasks, including things like templates and design and all other materials that we have for communications or activities, and produce them for me automatically. For me, personally, it made a huge impact right from the get-go, but as an organization, we definitely had to learn how to make choices on our use cases.
It has absolutely saved us time and costs. The whole point of the software is to develop something that at least on a use case basis provides value. We have many years of learning how to do our program. Over time, we have also been using it for other things, such as compliance. We have definitely evolved from just saving time or money to using this solution for everything we can use it for.
What is most valuable?
I have just built my first Co-Pilot, and it is significant in how that part functions. I am also exploring the API task tools, which appear to be quite significant, but for the most part, the forms and the capability to integrate data from other software represent the specialty.
What needs improvement?
One thing I learned with Co-Pilot is that it is very static. For instance, when dealing with tables and their headers, I must program them in a form. If my build changes, I have to return to my form and update the table titles. Features like looping are missing from Co-Pilot. If I want to perform a task five times in a row, I have to rerun Co-Pilot five times just to achieve that. This is an aspect I considered as I explored possible changes and improvements. Other than that, it is among the best software tools and organizations I have worked with. I find it challenging to suggest much beyond continuing the good work and expanding on it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I first heard about it back in 2021. This will be my fourth year using it.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I had an issue lasting for the better part of three years, and it was quite severe. I never lodged a ticket because whenever we attempted to resolve it internally, the problem temporarily ceased. Each time I ran my Digital Colleagues, I encountered a strange error on my screen, which persisted for a couple of years. However, an update corrected it, and it is no longer an issue.
The only current challenge involves a discrepancy in table columns. In my support session, we could not figure out why my table was off by one column. I had to have a blank column zero for my table to align correctly. These minor issues aside, the tool now functions more stably.
Previously, inconsistent search behavior occurred in the ServiceNow search bar. It was puzzling because it worked differently every single time that we searched in that search bar, but that issue has been resolved.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is the most remarkable feature of this tool for me. For example, we have a recognition system for automation. I designed a template for various achievements by citizen developers, such as completing a class or build. At first, it was not a big deal to just do it yourself because you are only doing a handful of templates, but the last round had 34. Initially, creating a few templates was manageable. With time, however, it escalated from 5 templates to 34. We are now using this tool multiple times weekly for template generation. Eventually, I aim to release it to the entire automation team so that leaders can readily recognize achievements based on team activities.
Scalability is impressive; whether handling five or a hundred million templates, it remains easy to design and build. The tool's intuitive nature contrasts with other tools, which are less intuitive for building and scaling, explaining my infrequent use of them.
How are customer service and support?
I have contacted their support for technical issues with the software as well as personal build support.
The response is very quick. Within a couple of days, they are communicating and establishing connections to set up solutions. In my case, I meet with my customer relations every Friday. We get prompt responses to any issues I raise. The support is fantastic, even when dealing with complex situations due to the complexity of some of my builds. While not all problems are solved immediately, this is typical for complex tasks.
I very recently had one of the best support help sessions that anyone could have ever asked for. We were doing something really complex in Co-Pilot, and it was something that was completely unique to even our internal development team. They helped me solve that, and they did it in such a great way. It was a ten out of ten for connecting to someone, taking the time, and doing all of the work. However, we have also had some support tickets in the past that have been just okay. It has been a mixed bag on that front. I would rate them an eight out of ten because they do try hard to connect and support us even though we are doing some complex work.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
This predates my time, so I am not fully sure. I do know Microsoft automations were used before transitioning to Automation Anywhere. Selecting a vendor was a part of the process when we started the program, and Automation Anywhere was chosen.
How was the initial setup?
The decision for the software had already been made. I was only involved in meetings to discuss how we were going to deploy programs, design things, and create standards.
I believe it took six months from deciding to go live with the software to deploying automations. It did not exceed six months to get everything up and running, though there might have been a year of planning. Once I was set for launch with everything in place, the transition from purchased to used tenants happened swiftly, possibly in less than six months.
What about the implementation team?
Initially, I used strategic resourcing for implementation. At the time, I had an engineer, a technical lead, a technical developer, and an architect—four individuals in total—who implemented all my environments. Four environments were set up, following designs, standards, and rules. This setup involved comprehensive program design, focusing on transitioning and using different control rooms and establishing standards.
We support the entire tool, and we support the automations which require lots of maintenance and support. That is only due to user design or systems changes or some of the elements that are out there. We have a whole support program that goes along with our automations. As for the tool itself, it is just like any other software tool. It is certainly more stable than something like Microsoft where you constantly have to go back and correct issues or incidents. Our incidents are with bots, not with the software.
What other advice do I have?
My job involves citizen development. I work in the field of helping people connect to this technology and use it. In terms of ease of use, the software is not hard to use, but things are presented to users in a new way than what they are used to. I had to make people start with basic programs and learn how to do a simple process. It is a little bit of an advanced tool. It is easy to understand for me and I love it, but it is definitely a step above entry. Before I instituted an entry course, the learning curve was a little bit steeper. We would have individuals coming to our four-day course and then come through and do lots of support. When we taught them the basics of how the automation software works and then brought them into this advanced tool, it was very quick for them. Our results were much better, and we have those individuals building regularly.
In terms of integration, what was interesting to learn was that everything requires a configuration. For an organization like ours, it involved figuring out how we should branch, how we should grow, and how we should engage other teams to get those configurations implemented so that packages will work as intended. That was an interesting learning curve for us. We had to adjust how we train, talk about packages, and use the software to make sure that we had the right integrations and setups. A great example is ServiceNow. They have the packages for ServiceNow built in. If you have all the access to the information and all the things you need, you are in good shape to have some really awesome automation. If one of those pieces is not in place, you have to think a little bit about how you are going to access that.
Automation Anywhere is a ten out of ten. The company is impressive, especially with its new initiatives like Agentic AI. In five years, it is going to be amazing to witness their advancements, particularly as AI continues to play a significant role.
Workflow recording and AI capabilities make automation easy
What is our primary use case?
We automate many tasks in our college laboratory using Automation Anywhere. We offer a course on Automation Anywhere. Students add it and complete many jobs using our lab systems. Automation is the future of technology. We want our students to have its knowledge. As a professor, I teach my students how to use Automation Anywhere, and we build many things for them.
How has it helped my organization?
Automation Anywhere saves cost and time. It helps to minimize human labor.
Automation Anywhere is very easy to learn. I learned it by watching video tutorials and documentation. It was easy for me. It took me a week.
For integration, everything is available inside the Automation Anywhere software. We can integrate it by using extensions or plugins. We have integrated it with Microsoft 365.
Automation Anywhere has made us more productive. No data got leaked from our software, and it is safe and secure.
Screen scraping is easy. I can easily collect data from any website using Automation Anywhere, creating and saving that data in an Excel or CSV file.
What is most valuable?
For the tasks that I do repeatedly, I can record processes using Automation Anywhere. I record mouse and keyboard actions and create a workflow for those activities. This minimizes my workload. The recording option is very useful.
It has AI-powered capabilities that are very beneficial to me, along with significant analytical and reporting capabilities. It provides real-time data.
What needs improvement?
Logging into Automation Anywhere takes some time. I use it frequently, and each login currently takes some time. A reduction in this time would be helpful. When we enter the automation tool, it sometimes takes a while to refresh the page or perform drag-and-drop actions. Other than this, I am satisfied with Automation Anywhere.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for more than one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is one of the most stable and reliable RPA platforms. However, the stability also depends on deployment, system configuration, and use cases. If the UA of any application changes, the bot may fail unless updated.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate it a ten out of ten for scalability. It can support thousands of bots at a time.
We have 5 departments in our college using Automation Anywhere in the laboratory. A single class contains about 138 students, and in a department, there are up to 10 classes.
How are customer service and support?
Their support is very useful. If any doubts arise, they clear them and provide training. We get good service from Automation Anywhere.
We also have a good knowledge base and a large community forum. If I have any doubts, I can ask and get answers from experts. We also have dedicated account managers and technical experts to solve our problems related to Automation Anywhere.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used UiPath. Automation Anywhere is a better and easier option. It is powered with AI features, producing intelligent bots. We can generate more processes using Automation Anywhere. UiPath is more user-friendly, but Automation Anywhere has IQ Bot which is very useful for us.
How was the initial setup?
Its deployment is easy. Usually, we sign up for the cloud and choose a subscription plan. We then set up our control room and configure our bots. We develop and deploy them directly from the cloud. It is easy for us.
Automation Anywhere does not require any maintenance from our side, but the bots require a little bit of maintenance. We spend almost an hour on bot maintenance. We see how it is working. If anything goes wrong, we get informed and we then check it out. If there are any errors, we might have to spend more time, but in general, one hour per week or 15-20 minutes daily is enough.
What was our ROI?
In our lab, we buy it at a monthly price and offer it to every student. The students using it give some amount to us. As a return on investment, we have achieved a 250% ROI in six to nine months, and sometimes it increases up to 380% percent. Our lab monitor collects this data and gives it to us. We calculate and give the final result to the principal of our college.
It saves us a lot of time.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is affordable for us.
What other advice do I have?
Automation Anywhere is good. It is perfect to use. The students like it a lot, and it helps with so many purposes.
I would recommend Automation Anywhere to others. It has good scalability and stability. Bots are resilient and reliable. We can easily integrate it with the cloud. Automation is the future, and Automation Anywhere is the best.
Overall, I would rate Automation Anywhere a ten out of ten.
My Favorite Intelligent Automation Platform
Very good learning experience
With all of our processes already deployed we save time for the business users to take care of the tasks which need human decisions. RPA helps us to handle customer queries much quicker then before.
Review about automation anywhere
One of the best easy and activly helping RPA platform & community-utomation anywhere
Document processing and queue management enhance efficiency despite complex interface
What is our primary use case?
Our use case involves reconciliation in a security company where money is collected from different locations and is reconciled at the end of the day. Other use cases include IT service management automation and HR processes, labeled HR two point zero. This involves payment processing in the HR space and fulfillment receiver.
How has it helped my organization?
Prior to implementing Automation Anywhere, the HR department faced challenges with payment scheduling, resulting in significant delays and monthly penalties. By automating this process, the department has eliminated these penalties and reduced the turnaround time for payment processing from two weeks to one day. This automation has not only improved efficiency but also generated substantial cost savings, as each transaction previously incurred a penalty of four rands.
Automation Anywhere offers good learning materials that are free to access. However, some background in RPA or an understanding of workflows is recommended to effectively utilize the platform and its resources. While the materials are comprehensive, a basic understanding of automation concepts will make the learning process smoother.
The learning curve for Automation Anywhere is relatively short, with non-technical users able to start developing within a week. This rapid learning process allows beginners to learn on the go and immediately apply new knowledge. With dedicated practice, approximately 40 hours, or a week's effort, can result in significant developer readiness.
Automation Anywhere has significantly improved our turnaround time, transforming our operations from lagging to leading. We are now ahead of our transactions and able to proactively meet metrics, cutting costs and avoiding penalties. This proactive approach has resulted in substantial cost savings and the elimination of losses due to penalties, marking a significant achievement for our organization.
We have integrated Automation Anywhere with an SAP application, encompassing processes that involve Excel and other mainframe applications.
The integration was challenging, but our experience with RPA technology proved beneficial. We collaborated with application owners to identify suitable APIs and address concerns regarding sensitive data and test environments. Leveraging Automation Anywhere's integration tools, including IQ Bot and cognitive capabilities, we successfully accessed necessary materials and automated sensitive processes. We also incorporated our existing workflows and adhered to standard screening procedures throughout the integration.
Automation Anywhere automated 90 percent of the process, with the remaining reserved for quality assurance to ensure complete processing.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Automation Anywhere are the document processing and queue management.
What needs improvement?
The workflow has a complex drag-and-drop interface that is not user-friendly and requires a good technical understanding, which can be challenging for users. Additionally, the IQ Bot configuration is complex and requires significant effort to interpret unstructured data effectively. Simplifying these aspects would be beneficial.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Automation Anywhere for over four(4) years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Automation Anywhere is stable, and I would rate it nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Automation Anywhere is reasonably scalable, and I rate it as eight out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The customer service is straightforward, and the support process is efficient. Issues are addressed through logged tickets, making it quite good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Used automation solutions such as Blue-Prism, UiPath and OpenRPA
The switch came when there was a need for document understand technology i can leverage within the demand of our use-case and that time automation anywhere was a leading capability and very easy to adapt to.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Automation Anywhere was straightforward and completed within a day, primarily due to our accreditations and existing understanding of other technology tools.
What was our ROI?
We reduced the number of full-time equivalent employees from five to one through automation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Automation Anywhere is thought to be quite expensive, especially for smaller organizations. The pricing model, which varies based on the number of bots and level of support, can become costly. For corporate environments, it is manageable but still on the higher side.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Other solution such as Blue Prism, are strictly tired to organisational governance rather hybrid when it comes to cloud integration tools.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Automation Anywhere eight out of ten.
We use Document Automation and intelligent automation to identify fraudulent transactions and false claims. Automation Anywhere was instrumental in this process, helping to detect and prevent fraudulent activity. This has been a significant achievement in combating fraud.
We utilize Automation Anywhere across multiple environments, including quality assurance, user acceptance testing, and production, within various regions.
Automated bots monitor the active solutions and restart machines as needed to prevent downtime and reduce the need for manual maintenance.
Weekly maintenance of the bots, including any necessary manual tasks, requires one to two hours.
There are specific use cases where I would recommend Automation Anywhere, such as finance and accounting, human resources, customer service, and IT operations. It’s essential to consider the specific needs of an organization to determine if it’s the right fit.
It is user-friendly, scalable, and helps increase productivity
What is our primary use case?
I have used Automation Anywhere in various industries, including banking, telecommunications, retail, and oil and gas. In such clients, there's often a mismatch between systems, needing more integration. Creating new integrations from scratch, like calling APIs, is complex. Automation Anywhere bypasses this by integrating systems through their user interfaces. For instance, inserting data into an SAP database typically requires knowledge of connection strings, database design, and tables. This information isn't readily available. With Automation Anywhere, I observe users performing tasks like creating clients. I note the screen and information used, then load that into an Excel file. Automation Anywhere processes numerous transactions using Excel data and screen interactions. This accelerates digital transformation. While APIs are the ideal engineering solution for integration, robotics provides the fastest results.
We have installed Automation Anywhere on AWS, Azure, and GCP, which works well.
How has it helped my organization?
Automation Anywhere is user-friendly with its concept, even C-level executives can try automating tasks in five minutes, which is a great marketing strategy. However, for professionals in sectors like banking who design critical mission bots, deeper knowledge is necessary, including logging, API calls, etc. Automation Anywhere's best features are sufficient for newbies or those needing quick implementations.
Copilot is a good feature for those using machine learning and AI.
Copilot helps increase the productivity of new users.
Typically, extracting information from transactional systems requires tools like Automation Anywhere. For less structured tasks, generative AI is a great option. One area where these tools can improve is web scraping. For instance, if a website changes, traditional bots fail. However, with generative AI, we can create bots that understand page context and adjust accordingly. For example, if the input field for a flight code changes its location or ID, a generative AI-powered bot can still identify it by understanding the context of the surrounding labels, like "flight code". I believe we'll see a significant evolution in the coming years, with computer vision and generative AI enabling bots to understand the location of information on a screen and adjust web scraping strategies dynamically.
What needs improvement?
One of the main concerns with Automation Anywhere is the lack of a robust feature for capturing and managing information from the user interface, something competitors like Blue Prism already offer. In Blue Prism, you can create an "application model" to capture every control on a screen and assign them to variables, making it easy to reference and update them in your code, even if the screen layout changes. In Automation Anywhere, however, you must manually search and update capture instructions within the code, which is time-consuming and error-prone. Implementing a similar feature in Automation Anywhere would be critical for improving efficiency and maintainability. While this idea has been discussed with the company, it has yet to be implemented.
For experienced developers, there's room for improvement. For instance, code refactoring, a valuable feature, is currently impossible in Automation Anywhere. While Automation Anywhere is excellent for beginners, it could benefit from enhancements for advanced users.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Automation Anywhere for eight years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Automation Anywhere is scalable. One of my clients, the largest bank in our country, is also one of Automation Anywhere's biggest clients. We have Automation Anywhere running on over 9,000 computers at the bank.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support team is an excellent resource. We are a long-standing partner of Automation Anywhere in our country. My team possesses a deep understanding of the platform, but when we require assistance, the support team is always helpful.
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment of Automation Anywhere is straightforward. We use the bot model and deploy bot runners through the Automation Anywhere cloud, simplifying the process. While using the Automation Anywhere cloud is convenient, we've also deployed an instance in a private cloud environment like Azure or AWS, which works well. However, deploying in a private cloud requires knowledge of clustering and related concepts, so it's not suitable for everyone.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
On average, a bot runner in Automation Anywhere can cost $5,000, while in Microsoft Power Automate, you can get most of the same functionality for $100. However, when you factor in the materials, support, and ecosystem of Automation Anywhere, it proves to be a more cost-effective solution overall.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Automation Anywhere ten out of ten.
Typically, they release hotfixes, and if you're using Automation Anywhere's cloud platform, you receive these hotfixes automatically and at no cost. However, in my situation, as a system integrator partner of Automation Anywhere, they inform us of available hotfixes, which we then download and implement without issue.