Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)

I manage the product for our organization, and there are multiple use cases being deployed in Automation Anywhere . Regarding Copilot in terms of increased productivity, we are not currently using Copilot.

Automation Anywhere  does require maintenance. Any product needs maintenance, so we take care of maintenance with respect to version upgrades, operating system upgrades, and server infrastructure. We are properly planning and running this show. We only experience planned downtimes and maintenance, so nothing comes up where the product goes down immediately because of some issue.

Less than one full capacity is involved in the maintenance processes generally. Maintenance time in our organization will be less than the maximum. If it is a version upgrade, it will take more time. Standard maintenance will be completed within a set number of hours. Version upgrades take a minimum of four hours.

Automation Anywhere is easy to use for business users who do not have technical skills because with hands-on training, they are able to pick it up. We have many business users in our organization who go through two or three days of classroom training on the product and have started developing their own use cases by themselves.

I am satisfied with the learning curve for Automation Anywhere. Automation Anywhere is providing really good support and hands-on support trainings, which is really helpful for the product to catch up on updates.

The most useful features in Automation Anywhere are all the action packages, which are mainly connected with integrating with multiple applications. These features are easily accessible and configurable, and we have many use cases that depend on those features. All the integration features provided by Automation Anywhere are really helpful for building strong use cases.

Automation Anywhere can improve the product in potential areas of improvement with respect to automation and AI. From the automation workspace point of view, they are doing well. From the AI point of view, adapting is still in a very early stage, and there are certain things that are difficult for users to adapt on the AI side. Since I am an on-premises user and there are cloud users also, certain AI components that they release are not that effective. They are in a trial and error method for releasing products and trying them out. At the end of the day, certain components are not useful at all. They need to think, revalidate, and release the product according to business need.

Regarding functionality for Automation Anywhere, I am totally satisfied with the automation workspace, but I feel some lack of functions in automation with AI. Automation with AI is not completely satisfied.

I have been working with Automation Anywhere for six years.

I rate the stability of the product as nine.

I rate the ability to scale as eight.

Regarding the ability for automation and scalability for processes, there are two aspects: the product and the use case. At the use case level, we have respective features like WLM (workload management) or device management with which we are able to scale and run huge use cases based on demand. This feature is really helpful. On the other hand, regarding Automation Anywhere itself from a scalability point of view, we are currently running with a big user base, and we are in the maximum scalable configuration. We cannot go more than that, but that is where we are now. It is a one-time activity to set everything up where we need to spend effort. After maintaining it, everything has been fine.

I rate the technical support for Automation Anywhere as nine. I am totally satisfied with the response time and quality.

I am working with Microsoft Power Automate  also. There are certain things in Power Automate  where, from scalability and sustainability point of view, Automation Anywhere is more dependable than Power Automate. For more critical related use cases, we cannot go with Power Automate. We find that Power Automate is not that dependable for critical use cases where Automation Anywhere is highly dependable.

I find the initial setup for Automation Anywhere simple. I would rate the initial setup as nine.

I purchased Automation Anywhere directly from the vendor, not through partners or marketplaces. We have an enterprise license contract with Automation Anywhere.

The main benefits Automation Anywhere provides are the cost benefit that the product is providing. Comparing to other products in the market, we are getting all the features in hundred percent quality with what the objective needs to be met by other products, and that is also delivered in Automation Anywhere. From the business point of view, the cost benefit factor is the first point. Second is the ease of deployment that we are getting on Automation Anywhere. This is more convenient from the users' point of view. Development and deployment are not cumbersome for them when they get into Automation Anywhere. Comparing to Microsoft Automate  or others, we need to set up the environment with a lot of dependencies. Comparing to that, Automation Anywhere deployment is better.

When I think about the upgrade processes in general, I find them very easy. I do not see any concerns. We have been doing this activity for the past six years with Automation Anywhere, so I do not see any concerns. The only concern we faced was when we migrated from the client-based deployment, version eleven, to version 360. That was a big hurdle. Other than this, the upgrades and deployments in version 360 are very small.

The challenges we are trying to solve by implementing Automation Anywhere stem from the fact that we are a big enterprise organization. Handling certain enterprise core applications and connecting with them presents challenges because certain applications depend on cloud-based setup, which is not possible with other solutions. With Automation Anywhere, we are able to achieve easy deployment with easy integration of all our enterprise core applications. This made it easier for the user. Any automation product has the challenge of always connecting with core enterprise applications. That is the core challenge. Once we are able to connect to the applications, then we can do all the automations on top of it. That becomes much easier.

I am currently working with RPA  and still using Automation Anywhere. Automation Copilot is another product that I am aware of, but we are not using it completely. I would recommend Automation Anywhere to other users. My overall review rating for Automation Anywhere is nine.

I was working in IDFC First Bank, where we have internal users. We are developing automation processes for our bank users. We use Automation Anywhere  tool in our bank to automate our banking operations. We have integrated many tools with Automation Anywhere , including our intranet wall tools and various banking system tools.

Automation Anywhere has a great learning curve. We have automated processes through bots that ease our work by handling repetitive tasks and minimizing effort and work inefficiencies. I have completed many projects using Automation Anywhere tools. One significant project involved email triggering for our bank. We process thousands of mail requests to customers. When a bank account customer comes to open an account, we receive the request and forward it to the regional manager. We automated this system to directly send the mail to the regional manager automatically. We have completed many projects through this implementation.

Automation Anywhere has some limitations. One weakness is that users cannot build software from scratch. If a user wants to build software from scratch, they can only modify something according to their needs. We cannot build it from scratch because we have to follow the specific path and role that the tool provides.

Additionally, some banking applications cannot be integrated directly with Automation Anywhere. However, these limitations are due to RBI regulations, so we cannot blame Automation Anywhere for this. Automation Anywhere cannot do anything about that particular limitation.

I have two years of experience with Automation Anywhere.

Throughout my two years of work, I have faced many problems. I receive full support from Automation Anywhere at any time. I have faced issues even around midnight, and we have experienced many problems in the production environment. We have raised many tickets, and I can rate the support nine out of ten because we have received a good response from Automation Anywhere team.

Automation Anywhere is scaling well.

Throughout my two years of work, I have faced many problems and received full support from Automation Anywhere at any time. I have faced issues even around midnight, and we have experienced many problems in the production environment. We have raised many tickets, and I rate the customer service nine out of ten because we have received a good response from Automation Anywhere team.

I was part of the initial setup of Automation Anywhere. When Automation Anywhere was introduced in our bank, I was part of the team. Initially, we hired a third-party vendor rather than directly contacting Automation Anywhere. We coordinated with this vendor who used Automation Anywhere tools to perform automation. After six months, we directly purchased the license from Automation Anywhere. I was part of that team, and my team leader was also part of the setup. We coordinated with Automation Anywhere project leaders and project managers to set up many projects and automate the processes.

I think that for the quality Automation Anywhere provides, they charge a premium price. They are charging a premium price to their customers because they are providing premium service with quality.

If a company has a good budget and wants a good amount of quality work, Automation Anywhere is a good option in the market. I can recommend Automation Anywhere for smaller companies as well. If a company has a good budget and good amount of resources, I can surely recommend Automation Anywhere.

Initially, we did not use Automation Anywhere Co-pilot. After approximately one to one and a half years, we started using Automation Anywhere Co-pilot. When I left the bank, it had started using Automation Anywhere Co-pilot two to three months prior.

I searched for Automation Anywhere tool resources on YouTube and learned by working day by day with the developer team, evolving my skills over time.

Patching activities for Automation Anywhere are done on a monthly basis. The patching process goes smoothly, and I have never experienced any issues with patching activities.

I would rate this review nine out of ten overall.

With my experience on RPA  solutions specifically, I have completed projects on Automation Anywhere , and my enterprise company has now moved to Blue Prism ; so we are currently using Blue Prism  for RPA . I can provide a brief of what we accomplished with Automation Anywhere .

Our use of Automation Anywhere was to handle a test case where a ticket came in each day, possibly overnight. There was a job that we ran specifically on our Linux machines to upload the assumption files, which was a repetitive task. Although we had a script on the Linux box, someone had to come in and process the Jira  workflow manually by approving the ticket. The ticket came in from the outsource party with a data set and a zip file. We created a workflow in Automation Anywhere where it would open the web page, access the vault, get access to Jira , and input the Jira credentials. If the ticket was in an approved state, it would start pulling the zip file and download it on the Windows machine. The bot would perform validation checks on the zip file and then open PuTTY on the same Windows machine to obtain the credentials, log into the system, and run the shell script for assumption load, passing the data set coming in from the Jira API. The data set was downloaded to the Linux box. After we obtained the data set, we ran the script execution on Automation Anywhere, which loaded the file on the system. If the validation was approved, it would open the browser again, use the Jira ticket, close it with specific comments that the task was complete, and send a notification to the end user. This was one test case; we had modules for Jira and Linux that consumed most tasks. Different scenarios required changing the scripts for different purposes such as loading assumptions or restarting applications. We scheduled tasks on Automation Anywhere to run daily and check the Jira API, running only if the workflow was open.

The initial deployment of Automation Anywhere is user-friendly. If you have self-learning capability, the wizards are self-explanatory, making it not very difficult to navigate. It is a very low-code environment, allowing flexibility to explore based on the project's complexity. Overall, I believe Automation Anywhere is a very user-friendly tool.

In terms of user-friendliness for non-technical users, the wizard is self-explanatory. Non-technical users, such as those involved in Excel automations or HR roles, can handle their tasks easily. Some tutorials available through YouTube can help guide them, and I find that the terminologies used in Automation Anywhere, such as Control Room, are also self-explanatory. Users can simply take an Excel file and run the rules without much difficulty.

One thing I dislike about Automation Anywhere is that our process is time-consuming. Since the bot is utilized by that machine and if a long-running task is happening, then another bot may not run and the machine is locked. We had to provision multiple machines to avoid deadlocks. This might be an issue with all RPA solutions, but it could have better handling if an existing lock allowed a second bot to provision and take requests. Because our infrastructure is idle in that case, we must bring up more infrastructure, and if there's a bottleneck, the bot is idle, waiting for the Linux process to complete. This is a challenge we faced, particularly during peak load.

Cost is another concern since we moved to Blue Prism, which is more expensive due to needing more VMs, bots, and capacity, which led us to procure more licensing. While Automation Anywhere was used efficiently and was cloud-based, software installation on Windows VMs was an overhead. Moving to the cloud for a web-based solution would allow for no software requirement on the system, which is a more modern approach compared to installing software on machines that require maintenance and consistent configuration.

One area for improvement would be the licensing, making it more cost-effective. The other issue involves security, particularly with password flags. I faced challenges in troubleshooting when providing passwords through the vault, as I could not secure a valid log to see whether the password was correct or incorrect. Log management could be enhanced, and regarding troubleshooting, since I utilized API calls with Jira and a PuTTY session, tracking failures in one of the processes was difficult. The log management needs to improve to identify the root cause of failures.

Regarding the duration it takes to train non-technical employees on using Automation Anywhere, we provided documentation and instructions. Employees reviewed them along with YouTube or external links to start automation, beginning without needing technical support from our team. There were sessions around it, but I do not believe they required much assistance apart from the provided instructions and tutorial guides.

I have used Automation Anywhere on projects throughout my experience with RPA solutions.

Concerning stability, while I have not seen substantial lagging, crashing, or downtime, performance could be an issue, especially since our jobs take longer. It might be a performance issue on our system or possibly Automation Anywhere not being lightweight. I do not believe the tool itself is heavy; it primarily acts as an orchestrator while the actual jobs run on the machines. However, the tool does block the VM, hindering the utilization of CPU and memory when the bot runs a job. If another job tries to come in at the same time, it complicates the situation.

Automation Anywhere should be resilient enough to provide automation at scale. I know there is an AI bot that we have not leveraged yet, but it should be efficient for capacity jobs. For example, if I receive multiple tickets for loading assumptions simultaneously, I would not want a single bot to complete the task in six hours. The AI bot could recognize multiple pending jobs and scale up the bots to execute them efficiently in parallel.

One thing I dislike about Automation Anywhere is that our process is time-consuming. Since the bot is utilized by that machine and if a long-running task is happening, then another bot may not run and the machine is locked. We had to provision multiple machines to avoid deadlocks. This might be an issue with all RPA solutions, but it could have better handling if an existing lock allowed a second bot to provision and take requests. Because our infrastructure is idle in that case, we must bring up more infrastructure, and if there is a bottleneck, the bot is idle, waiting for the Linux process to complete. This is a challenge we faced, particularly during peak load.

I have not had to contact technical support personally, as we managed to handle most things independently. Although we experienced Jira API issues, it was not related to the tool itself; we utilized a different token authentication and did not face significant issues.

I have used Blue Prism as one of the major RPA giants and an alternative to Automation Anywhere.

When comparing them, I find that Blue Prism has more complexities. It depends on the use case; for a very complex architecture or hardcore coding, Blue Prism is preferable. Otherwise, in a low-coding environment where a developer is not needed, I prefer Automation Anywhere because it enables non-IT users to leverage it effectively.

The initial deployment of Automation Anywhere is user-friendly. If you have self-learning capability, the wizards are self-explanatory, making it not very difficult to navigate. It is a very low-code environment, allowing flexibility to explore based on the project's complexity. Overall, I believe Automation Anywhere is a very user-friendly tool.

Cost is a concern since we moved to Blue Prism, which is more expensive due to needing more VMs, bots, and capacity, which led us to procure more licensing.

I have used Blue Prism as one of the major RPA giants and an alternative to Automation Anywhere.

When comparing them, I find that Blue Prism has more complexities. It depends on the use case; for a very complex architecture or hardcore coding, Blue Prism is preferable. Otherwise, in a low-coding environment where a developer is not needed, I prefer Automation Anywhere because it enables non-IT users to leverage it effectively.

As for the overall learning curve for Automation Anywhere, I think it is not difficult. However, when adding more complexity, there is a limitation. In a low-code environment, if you need to incorporate more complex logic, you require a coding environment to run some code against it.

I have not used what is called Automation Co-Pilot , previously known as ARI. However, I have utilized GitHub  Co-Pilot and I assume that the Co-Pilot would be a self-learning AI bot. It would learn from inputs and make better decisions with each learning curve, similar to how we use GitHub  Co-Pilot, which prompts based on our codebase.

Overall, I would give Automation Anywhere a score of eight. I find that an eight is a fair representation of the experience.