2018-10-25T07:01:00Z

What needs improvement with Automation Anywhere (AA)?

Julia Miller - PeerSpot reviewer
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402 Answers

TM
Real User
Top 20
2024-01-30T12:51:00Z
Jan 30, 2024

The Automation Anywhere calibrating needs to be more user-friendly to avoid human error. Non-technical people can not use Automation Anywhere.

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NP
Reseller
Top 20
2023-12-04T09:47:00Z
Dec 4, 2023

To improve Automation Anywhere for the next release, standardization is key. The application should work universally across servers and desktops, without limitations on licenses tied to specific virtual machines. Currently, the one-to-one bot and VM dependency pose restrictions, and a more flexible licensing system would enhance its usability. Additionally, for business users without technical skills, using Automation Anywhere can be challenging. While it is easy to develop automation, deploying and running them requires some technical knowledge. Training is essential to navigate the platform effectively. Upgrading Automation Anywhere can be challenging. Communication about upgrades is lacking, and an auto-upgrade feature or at least notifications would be beneficial. Currently, there is no automatic check for the latest version, and improvement is needed in providing information to users about updates.

Mahmoud Bani-Hani - PeerSpot reviewer
Reseller
Top 10
2023-11-27T15:50:00Z
Nov 27, 2023

The marketing for Automation Anywhere has room for improvement.

Matt Ham - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
Top 20
2023-11-12T08:20:00Z
Nov 12, 2023

From the product side, I like the minimum viable product approach, where the first generation of a new product is released and tested in the market, but it would be great if some of those pieces were a little bit more thought out from a user experience perspective. They could take a little more time to get some insights from their customers like in a beta test or something like that.

Christian Pinheiro - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
Top 10
2023-11-12T07:19:00Z
Nov 12, 2023

I think there are some opportunities to improve integration with monitoring tools already on the market to make this even faster. We struggle a little when applying the upgrades because the control room has some flaws. That's one advantage of migrating to the cloud. If we do that, then we don't have to upgrade manually. There is a SaaS option, but we decided to opt for on-prem and perform the upgrades ourselves. We're thinking of choosing the cloud options in the next version to make it easier.

Sura M. - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
Top 10
2023-11-07T10:29:00Z
Nov 7, 2023

The price has room for improvement.

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Amarjeet Kamble - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
2023-10-04T11:19:00Z
Oct 4, 2023

If you come across any process, it can be automated via Automation Anywhere. However, companies need to better justify the ROI before usage - otherwise, they might spend money on things unnecessarily.

Krishnakumar Maurya - PeerSpot reviewer
Reseller
Top 10
2023-09-08T08:32:00Z
Sep 8, 2023

Novice users are able to automate basic applications using Automation Anywhere. Business processes are more complex and require experts to be brought in to automate. The automation process can be made more user-friendly.

ND
MSP
Top 20
2023-09-04T12:04:00Z
Sep 4, 2023

We only faced some problems when integrating it with SAP, and Oracle integration was a bit challenging, especially with Oracle Fusion. We had some issues when we were trying to connect some of the applications on the API level. But, in general, integration using Automation Anywhere is fine.

Sunilkumar Venugopal - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
2023-08-16T11:15:00Z
Aug 16, 2023

Automation Anywhere was difficult with certain applications with respect to Java platforms. For these, we'd likely use UiPath instead. Handling Java-based applications or browser-based applications could be better. Automation Anywhere should have more Excel-related functionality.

Somasundaram N. - PeerSpot reviewer
Reseller
2023-07-31T08:17:00Z
Jul 31, 2023

Integrating RPA bots, APIs, business applications, and documents in Automation Anywhere is a challenging task. We have come across a type of YAML application that we use with the APIs, enabling us to get a holistic picture. However, direct integration has always been problematic. For instance, when attempting to integrate with SAP, we encounter certain gaps. As a solution, we can either input the data into the call sheet or create a YAML application for the integration process. Unfortunately, it is not a seamless process where we can transfer everything directly into an SAP system. This presents a double issue for us. I would like Automation Anywhere to work with SAP and improve their interfaces. The technical support needs improvement. They take a long time to respond, and they are not very knowledgeable.

Nayeem Mohammed - PeerSpot reviewer
MSP
Top 10
2023-07-13T13:01:00Z
Jul 13, 2023

For business users, the solution is complex and could be made more user-friendly. It is not easy to integrate APIs with Automation Anywhere without a good knowledge of APIs. The pricing of Automation Anywhere is higher compared to other solutions on the market, such as Microsoft Power Automate and UiPath, and it has room for improvement.

PK
Real User
2023-07-13T06:42:00Z
Jul 13, 2023

There are not many areas for improvement. As compared to V11, A360 is more user-friendly and flexible. It is fine. They have even included support for ChatGPT, Azure, and other things in the latest version. They have incorporated many latest technologies, such as AI, and there is always scope to improve the processes and have more stability.

Vjaindra Sonawwane. - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2023-07-06T08:56:00Z
Jul 6, 2023

Automation Anywhere is difficult to use and could be made more user-friendly. The GUI needs to be improved. Using Automation Anywhere can be extremely difficult for individuals who lack technical skills. The learning curve for Automation Anywhere is challenging. We should not need to rely on a vendor to handle the solution. The end-user should be able to use the solution independently. The automation at scale has room for improvement. There are many features missing from Automation Anywhere, including cloud collaboration tools provided by Google and Microsoft, that I would like to see integrated into the solution.

SabrinaTrabelsi - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
Top 20
2023-06-02T14:46:00Z
Jun 2, 2023

We have a new feature share in Automation Anywhere, but it does not migrate automatically from the previous version to the new one. Therefore, we had to do a lot of work to adapt the records to the network, which was a problem. I would like Automation Anywhere to have more integration with for example, with AI platforms. The technical support response has room for improvement. Automation Anywhere is not user-friendly and could be improved.

Yugen Nair - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
Top 10
2023-04-14T06:00:00Z
Apr 14, 2023

The analytical dashboard in the Control Room could use some improvement. Currently, it's quite basic, which can pose a challenge when customers require more advanced features. Of course, different customers will have varying needs and expectations, so there's no one-size-fits-all solution. However, I believe it would be helpful if our team could have more flexibility in developing a more sophisticated analytical bot to meet these diverse demands.

KK
Real User
Top 20
2022-12-20T19:22:00Z
Dec 20, 2022

The solution should include an analytics dashboard. As the space is maturing, many vendors sell functionalities as separate components so this is not unique to the solution. If I am buying a license, I should at least get a flavor of my analytics with a dashboard related to operational KPIs. Right now, if you want detailed analytics, you need to buy the dashboard separately. This licensing structure adds to the overall cost. The solution should include bot insights instead of selling it as a separate license. From the bot and business perspectives, insights are important for operational agility metrics and managing KPIs. For example, I want to how many hours in a day or month a bot runs for human resources when it performs A, B, C, D, and E and gives benefits across D, E, and F.

Yasser - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
Top 5
2022-04-23T00:58:00Z
Apr 23, 2022

They need to improve the REST Api Documentation because its not well detailed or clear enough for beginners, They need to provide some out of the box AI and ML functions such as Image classification and Objection Identification, They also need to improve the real-time data and analytics,There is less support for various data types, The .NET Framework is not completely supported and they have to add more features to fully support the .NET, Last advice is to add an option for developers for Graphical View along with the Code View option.

Madan-Divvela - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
Top 20
2022-03-29T18:28:43Z
Mar 29, 2022

There is room for improvement; with the overall architecture as it is tightly coupled. Everything is coupled with the Control Room of the overall product architecture. When I look at the UiPath product, where they have a mostly combined architecture and development environments. It should be more loosely coupled, but both products have advantages and disadvantages. The overall product in Automation Anywhere is good, but they need to improve a little bit on the overall architecture side. Integrations should be included with the analytics platforms and third-party SAP, enterprise-level applications, as well as if there are any built-in connectors where you can connect with the ERPs to automate the required teams. There are ready-made connectors available, which will help to democratize automation across the enterprise with various customers across the globe. They should include integration with not only analytics but also analytics and enterprise applications, as well as advanced AI/ML features. It's not just about the IdP; some AI/ML features should be available. Aside from computer vision, NLP, NLU, and NLG, as well as a variety of other advanced features, should be included.

DK
Real User
2022-02-17T15:45:00Z
Feb 17, 2022

Their OCR is a bit expensive, meaning the IQ Bot. There are a lot of customers who don't want to use it due to the price tag. Maybe if they price it more aggressively, it could be widely used as well. Otherwise, it has pretty much industry-leading functionalities, similar to any other RPA tool. In general, their roadmap is well defined and we are pleased with its offering.

AK
Real User
2022-02-16T10:02:06Z
Feb 16, 2022

In terms of what could be improved with Automation Anywhere, there are a few areas. They could improve the environmental stabilizing issues. There are a lot of environmental issues when rolling over from one environment to another, higher environment. This is the one thing they definitely need to look into. They also have to look into the document understanding process - the screen scraping of the documents, etc... In the next release, I would like to see, as I mentioned, better document understanding and screen scraping. There are a few more activities they have to include, like reading the particular column on the Excel operations. They can increase more activities like that. Right now, there are a lot of complications and complexities involved when reading Excel - they could make that easier.

Rahul Uppal - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2022-02-15T22:25:46Z
Feb 15, 2022

Excel automation or the activities for Excel is an area of improvement.

Minal Kathe - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2022-01-20T10:23:18Z
Jan 20, 2022

The solution could improve the integration with some web applications. It was difficult to manage them.

GB
Real User
2021-12-21T21:33:00Z
Dec 21, 2021

Migration is probably our biggest challenge. When we were trying to do the migration to the new version, it was a little bit painful. We didn't have that many bots, and I can't imagine the level of effort that some of the bigger customers have to put in for that. The product is stable, but moving from one release to the other was the issue. We also had difficulty with some of the documents that we were trying to automate. IQ Bot or intelligent document processing doesn't have all the features and functions that we were originally told it had. They need to improve that. It had some limitations, and we've had to add other products to the mix just because they weren't able to deliver some of the things that we were told that they could deliver upfront. They've been talking about task mining for a while. They don't have a good tool out there to evaluate the current processes and come up with a plan. It is a trial and error process where you have to sit down and go through what different people are doing, for how much time they're doing it, etc. There isn't a good systematic way of capturing that information. There are other products such as Kryon, and there is a new product called Soroco that we're looking at, that would let us evaluate the task that could be automated. So, it is not really process automation; it is task automation. You don't really see end to end when you're doing these projects. You don't just decide to automate the whole process. You select the tasks that you are going to automate, but you don't really know the effect that particular automation is going to have on another task. You don't have the big picture. It would be very helpful if both UiPath and Automation Anywhere provide a center of excellence that you could run on your systems so that the people who are running things come back and say that: * Here is the task that we should be automating. * Here is the time that we are taking to do it now. * Here is what the benefit is going to be. All these are manual today. You're looking at what other companies are doing and hoping that you're going to get an ROI, but you don't really know until you start the project, and by then, it is too late. You've already spent the money on the software, the bot, the integration, the services, etc. At the end of the day, you're thinking if you would get the ROI. You have to measure it to see if you're going to get it after you've already spent the money. It would be really nice to have something that you could run upfront to know about the automation tasks that are costing you money today and where you should focus your efforts on automating.

KD
Real User
2021-12-06T08:32:38Z
Dec 6, 2021

The product's technical support could use improvement. I can't think of any additional features I would like to see. The existing features are okay.

MR
Real User
2021-12-03T09:09:00Z
Dec 3, 2021

Automation Anywhere has a lot of room for improvement. It is not customer-friendly. They are always rolling out patches. They have a lot of limitations.

BH
User
Top 20
2021-10-22T14:04:00Z
Oct 22, 2021

The current version is very effective and I have no recommendation for improvement. Since we deployed Automation Anywhere is has never failed in functionality. It has led to faster growth of our enterprise and lead to increased productivity. Automation of most services has led to faster service delivery and given our organization an opportunity to win over many customers. The next version could have more data storage capacity that can be customized to sustain different workloads. I am satisfied with most features overall and I am very proud of this Software.

AS
Real User
2021-10-19T04:26:36Z
Oct 19, 2021

Automation Anywhere can improve by implementing a Citrix environment and increasing the stability of tools, such as IQ bot.

SB
Real User
2021-09-29T08:50:00Z
Sep 29, 2021

They still need to improve the SAP application's ability to use the features it has. For example, we have been using a MetaBot to automate SAP applications. They have given the SAP the ability to command Automation Anywhere itself, but we have encountered some limitations. Microsoft Power Automate has so many connectors, like its connector with Microsoft Office and SharePoint. On the other end, I have found Power Automate to be overpowered compared to Automation Anywhere because they already have so many connectors with Office 365, Teams, and other APIs. There are even more if you consider the cloud flow of Power Automate, so it's easy to get triggered. Automation Anywhere is not so easy to trigger. For example, I can create an automation in Power Automate where the user provides input into a form, such as Microsoft Form, and that info gets pulled into SharePoint. In Automation Anywhere, we do not have some trigger like that. We have to keep one bot running 24/7 to get this data into SharePoint. Power Automate does not have anything like scheduling. Whenever you fill out the form, it gets triggered on its own, and the information is saved into SharePoint. So this is an advantage of Power Automate that Automation Anywhere does not have. Automation Anywhere should add the same feature that Power Automate has, so whenever I create a flow, there is a trigger given by Automation Anywhere. Instead of scheduling that bot on CR, there should be something running in the background constantly, so I do not have to schedule the bot or trigger the bot manually. The trigger should be integrated into Automation Anywhere. Also, if I am creating one variable in one module, I have to make the same variable in another subtask, then I have to create a mapping between those two. If Automation Anywhere were to come out with a feature like Power Automate's environment variables, then that variable could be created globally and used throughout the process. That would be better. Another feature I would like to have in Automation Anywhere is "Go To Line." When we are writing the code, it sometimes extends 500 to 600 lines. If I want to go to some line numbers — say, the bot has failed on line number 120 — I have to go manually to line 120. If Automation Anywhere provided something like a "Go To Line" feature, that would be useful for us. For example, if you face an error at line number 500 and your code is 1,000 lines, you have to scroll so far down to get to line number 500. Furthermore, in Automation Anywhere, you have to write a DLL separately when you want to have something from a .NET perspective. In UiPath and some other tools, there are direct call functions available. It would be nice if Automation Anywhere came up with something like that, where you can directly have the method called.

RR
MSP
2020-12-14T10:28:55Z
Dec 14, 2020

Their bot runners could be made to handle multiple payloads at the same time because if I want to run multiple parallel operations, the number of bot runners that I have to buy just keeps increasing. It is adding to the cost. However, there is a possibility that we don't need that many bot runners, and we can run multiple operations in a bot runner. This would be a great addition to have.

SS
Real User
2020-12-07T05:32:00Z
Dec 7, 2020

Automation Anywhere should improve its OCR command, as it's my observation that I have faced data loss or improper data being extracted. If the image quality is low then the data extraction with 100% accuracy is a huge task that I have been facing. If the scheduling of the bot were much simpler, also allowing us to schedule bots prior to the start time, it would be an improvement.

reviewer1460613 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-11-25T08:24:00Z
Nov 25, 2020

AA has many features but the issue is with the loss of overhead on computing resources. For example, if the bot is encrypted, the bot should decrypt it first then act accordingly. If there are issues with the logic in the bot, there will be a lot of computer memory overload. There should be an additional feature for cloud functionality. Also, there should be an improvement done in Citrix automation. There should be a bit of a pricing cut down as other RPA tools charge only for bot runners. If any new features been introduced it would be a delight for many developers like me.

VN
Real User
2020-11-11T22:56:55Z
Nov 11, 2020

If I build a bot today and don't use it, however, in several months, someone tries to use it, there's a 30-40% change the bot will fail in one or two areas. I'm still trying to figure out why. It's on a ticket right now. It may be due to updates or changes to the environment. I'm not sure. The solution lacks in the approval process area. They need to provide more solutions.

reviewer1457238 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-11-03T05:27:00Z
Nov 3, 2020

* Available Data Analytics * More on AI Front and Deep Learn concept

Gajanan Shalgar - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
Top 10
2020-11-02T12:08:00Z
Nov 2, 2020

Automation Anywhere changed OCR features in A2019. My suggestion is to improve the OCR command scope and usability. We use OCR for PDF data extraction as we use in V. 11.x product. Automation Anywhere has a perfect structure of working. Automation Anywhere has the best product structure. It also provides support for customers and they respond in 24 hours. They still provide updates on packages to get more accuracy in process creation. The automation has already improved very much.

reviewer1460994 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-11-02T09:07:00Z
Nov 2, 2020

Handwritten documents are still a drawback to read. Regarding the UI, once you're on some of the screens there are fixed dialogues, they are a set size, so there's a lot of horizontal scrolls and vertical scrolls. If I want to do something that is purely business-related and is somewhat complex to write or is nuanced, I sometimes have trouble implementing that inside of the Automation Anywhere script. I feel limited at times with some of the looping and some of the branching and some of the ways to make procedure calls when I have a complex business issue. Also, there's a loss of overhead of the computing resources in Automation Anywhere. If you have an encrypted bot, the Automation Anywhere software has to read it first, decrypt it, and run it. So there is a potential that, if the logic of the bot isn't good enough, a lot of CPU and memory overload will happen. This is something that Automation Anywhere should look at because it takes a lot of computing resources. I have seen CPUs running at 100%.

SG
Real User
2020-11-02T07:40:00Z
Nov 2, 2020

The price is a little high and could be reduced.

reviewer1469709 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-11-01T19:44:00Z
Nov 1, 2020

I have had some difficulty with OCR extraction, which could be a little better. Automation Anywhere is not fully compatible with browsers other than Internet Explorer while working with web extraction. Maybe there could be more options added for PDF integration. Having a few practical use cases added to online learning would be helpful for newbies. Other than these, I don't see other difficulties. In terms of extra features, they are adding them day by day to make for the smoother automation of processes.

NS
Real User
2020-10-31T18:09:00Z
Oct 31, 2020

Bots get disconnected from control rooms sometimes without any reason and this takes up a lot of time. If the user creates a schedule then he/she leaves the company, that schedule became unusable at some point and I can't edit it. We need to create it again using generic IDs. This problem can be avoided in an upcoming release or update. There should be a button for customer support. For each process, we have a separate log folder/files and it's tedious to go and check each process. They should include a button/feature to check the logs for each/process and or bots in the control room itself. There should be an option for the quick addition of disconnected bots/kind of rollback options. I would also like to see the One-Touch Asset management report button in the control room.

reviewer1446147 - PeerSpot reviewer
MSP
2020-10-31T18:01:00Z
Oct 31, 2020

I have identified a few areas where one can find the scope of improvement: 1. AA IQ Bot has not yet succeeded in living up to its reputation due to its high cost, low ROI, and its inability to meet client requirements. 2. Commands such as OCR are not up to the mark the output accuracy is not satisfactory. 3. It is unable to identify IF/Else, for Loop block when reviewing/writing AA code. There should be an expand/collapse button to identify a block of code. Integration with Google Spreadsheets and other products should be included in the next release.

PB
Real User
2020-10-31T12:28:00Z
Oct 31, 2020

When it comes to Citrix automation, AA should improve or add more features in such a way that all the commands should work when automating a Citrix application. There should be more options to write codes in VBScript, C#, Python, etc. directly within any commands, instead of just invoking an already existing script. Since A2019 is cloud-based and since it is a new product, there are a lot of commands that require improvisations such as the Outlook Save Email command, Rest API commands, and a few others.

reviewer1460631 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-31T09:07:00Z
Oct 31, 2020

1) Needs some improvement in IQ BOT: * while uploading input files we are facing issue with grouping even the same kind of PDFs * consuming of CPU utilization and requiring more RAM 2) It is not able to use OCR effectively and has limited usability. 3) Handwritten documents are still a drawback. 4) Some of the control room GUI can be improved, it is also difficult in terms of control room management. 5) If Excel gets hanged Automation Anywhere does not give any notification. 6) Needs improvement in image recognition. 7) BOT insights taking more CPU utilization.

SD
Real User
2020-10-31T08:16:00Z
Oct 31, 2020

Automation Anywhere has lots of good features. It does not require improvement. I would like if the IQ Bot could read hand-written documents, otherwise, Automation Anywhere is fabulous to work or develop processes for customers. Automation Anywhere has a user-friendly UI to work with so that any non-technical person can easily understand the process workflow. The accuracy of the IQ bot in the new version has been increased. We can make validations to fields in IQ Bot with Python scripts.

Kelvin Chee Khai Loon - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-31T05:53:00Z
Oct 31, 2020

I hope that Automation Anywhere can further optimize its bots to help automate tasks with Microsoft Word documents and Microsoft PowerPoint documents because, in most organizations, there is a lot of reporting required. Hence, it would be great and more cost and time-efficient if there is a way to automate everyday tasks such as Microsoft Word Report Generation and Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation Generation. Further, I would also recommend that Automation Anywhere assist users with automating tasks such as the monthly payment of essential services. For example, automating payment of utilities like the water bill or electricity bill, online.

reviewer1457208 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-31T05:10:00Z
Oct 31, 2020

Most clients use systems which use old Java versions, trying to automate on these systems is really difficult since most features/commands are not supported. Java earlier than 1.7 cannot work something and most firms I have interacted with their systems are old. Another thing according to Automation Anywhere, it's main aim is not to change the client's system but to be used on top of the existing one hence Automation Anywhere should consider those clients since in my country most of them use systems which date back to 2000, and they are not willing to spend another fortune to change them just so they can use Automation Anywhere. Additional features: Automation Anywhere should add a couple of commands which will help most developers not to always use a script, a good example is in String operations.

reviewer1466952 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-31T02:00:00Z
Oct 31, 2020

Excel functionalities, the macro interface can be improved in the next release of RPA platform Automation Anywhere. Functionalities such as maneuvering on the excel worksheets, increased capability to manipulate formulae, and other Excel functionalities will give Automation Anywhere and edge in the RPA platform category since most financial applications use a lot of Excel and macro sheets for their calculations and postings. This will not only help the developer in saving time to develop simple keystrokes but also make the final bot much more stable and robust.

reviewer1468431 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-31T01:48:00Z
Oct 31, 2020

There are some areas that the product can be improved : (1) Better exception handling mechanism. (2) Parallel processing of branches to improve execution time. (3) IQ Bot: An easier way to tag the document's source after extracting information from the document. (Which group does the document or a transaction belong to). (4) Better integration with external data sources for Bot Insights. (5) Advocating and encouraging use of queues and device pools by providing implementation details with success rate and support from services for the same.

reviewer1458450 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-31T00:56:00Z
Oct 31, 2020

Especially while using v11, I often experience freezes with OCR extraction from PDF files. It just didn't work properly. I had to work around this using Python scripting. It would be a big improvement to have the inbuilt OCR capability work seamlessly. A perfect OCR would be awesome.

AA
Real User
2020-10-31T00:47:00Z
Oct 31, 2020

The improvements that we could see would be the increased stability of each A2019 releases and reduce the likely impact on existing features. We are also looking to see improvements in the upgrade and bot deployment processes to make them easier and less interaction with back end servers. We are also to see more features to be added to seamlessly transition between human and bot tasks in the long-running process. We are also keen to see the new AARI feature develop into a voice-enabled command activation to run the bot process.

reviewer1466958 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T21:55:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

I would suggest adding more fields while calling in API. There is no option to generate an Authentication token within the Bot. While using REST web services, we faced a lot of issues as we were trying to connect with the Salesforce application which needs an authentication token to connect. Since there was no option to create an authentication token we had to find a different solution altogether. This feature can be improvised. Object cloning is another feature which is not very stable and this can be improved as well

Mudhukrishna Lalapet - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T18:37:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

One of the important drawbacks of Automation Anywhere is that it needs to be able to show the automated process as a single flowchart. After complete deployment of the bot, such as a Task Bot, to see an overview of the complete process and the steps in the job is difficult. As such, I would like to suggest that they provide an option to show the entire process as a flowchart. This isn't required for the UI pane, but perhaps simply export it as a flowchart. This would be great. The ability to automate using third-party code involvement should be improved. As far as I know, Python scripts can be used to automate a few use cases but it would be great if there is a change to include the .NET and C# languages. I've also worked on UiPath and .NET code can be used for most of the Excel automation. This includes operations like creating pivot tables and applying advanced filters. These are things that work directly with VB.NET code. Automation anywhere needs a forum where active users can provide answers for standard errors and exceptions. More webinars regarding the latest releases and the features should also be created.

reviewer1468443 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T17:03:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

Verbose logging of bot compiling and deployment from the control room. Events occurring during compiling, pre-processing the bots should be logged in the control room or bot launcher logs. Exported bots packages are not updated. Each package must be validated independently upon being exported from one control room to another. Moving away from Client-server architecture to web-based deployment compromised developer experience of app reliability offered by 11.3.X flavors. Desktop app experience >>> Web experience. Developers are not pleased.

reviewer1467657 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T15:41:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

I still believe there is a long way to go when it comes to ML & AI capabilities, though Automation Anywhere is the leader here in the market. A2019 is awesome with its features but I don't find it as stable as v11. I suggest having more ways to perform string manipulations and string operations, instead of just what is pre-defined in the V11 tool. I would like to have a buffer-type thing where the bot should throw an exception to the production support team when it is looping through a record. Date operations can be improved without using VS script.

MJ
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
2020-10-30T15:29:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

Though IQ Bot is the most powerful and effective cognitive OCR platform for data extraction in the market, still, there is a lot of scope for improvement as there are a lot of non-standard documents which do not give a high straight-through processing rate and accuracy. Additional features to be included in the next release should be the option to develop basic web portals through which business users can view and run required bots on demand. Secondly, some features of BPM should also be included in the RPA platform itself so that business workflows can be defined and automated easily.

Celestine D. - PeerSpot reviewer
Reseller
Top 10
2020-10-30T15:19:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

OCR - OCR capability needs to become better. For the handwritten documents, we had a struggle to extract with accuracy while some other market tools were able to achieve it without any issues. The OCR component should allow integration with 3rd party OCR. This way we can use the best of breed solution along with AA or allow better control over OCR packages to be customized. As of now, it acts like a black box where there is very little control over the outcome of the OCR. We had great struggles with a customer who had handwritten data extraction. Finally, the customer was not able to see the value and the exploration went on hold post COVID.

reviewer1466976 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T15:12:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

The inclusion of word packages would help us to extract data from Word and automate word-related activities easily. PDF package should have the Read from PDF option. Now we need to convert the word to PDF and then extract data. The quick mapping between the parent and child bot variables should be available. Different tasks should be visible at the same time. Now we need to open different browser tabs to view multiple codes at the same time. A2019 has more features than the v11 version but some mentioned that user-friendly features should be enabled.

AS
Real User
2020-10-30T15:08:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

We have a challenge in our front office automation where capturing details from a table within a table does not happen in the existing AA Enterprise client version 11.3.4. The AA team tries various methods like using an Excel spreadsheet to capture the tables. Using object cloning it recognizes only the top line items and not the table which is in an HTML format then they asked to use Python codes within AA to identify tick boxes as a windows box. If this gets improved then we should be able to work on all the voice-related projects for a particular healthcare payer.

reviewer1466973 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T14:58:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

They bring out new or enhanced functionality on a very short cycle, which is great, although a criticism would be sometimes new features are released so quickly they can sometimes be a little buggy. We have been faced with inconsistent error handling during the bot development stage, which is something that should be improved. The error handling is generally good, but the problem arises when developing multiple tasks within the same project. Specifically, I want to handle the error that occurs in a sub-task, as we have to ensure that all of the relevant tasks are completed properly in order to continue the process. I would like to see a global error handler introduced, which will explicitly handle errors over the entire project. I would like to have a Project Sharing Hub, similar to that of GitHub, but inside the tool. This would help with consolidating all of the project files at the end of the deployment.

reviewer1465482 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T14:49:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

Automation Anywhere is the best automating tool on the market and it's very difficult for me to think to suggest something to improve the tool. Here are my few suggestions: Automation Anywhere can include database commands like insert row, bold row, etc commands in 11.x They can also include features like API integration features in the command panel. They should create a standard framework like re framework in Ui Path. As it enhances the capability of the developer to create an automation project.

reviewer997830 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T14:40:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

I think automation anywhere is a complete system if we have to work on structured data that doesn't require human decisions. However, it does not work as well with retrieving data from images. Image automation is something that needs to be improved. One more thing is that Automation Anywhere does not support reading and writing to CSV files. If we are getting input from a CSV file, we have to add one more layer of automation that first saves the data to an Excel file. This is important to us because most of the data we get from the database is saved to a CSV file.

reviewer1460625 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T14:05:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

1. User Interface can be simpler. 2. Master Certification now paid (previously it was free of cost) which sometimes creates hesitation to go for it. 3. Though the courses in the certification's learning hub are great and awesome, there is some more space for adding more explained contents. 4. Citrix automation lacks the perfect end to end automation. 5. Web Automation fails when an automated Screen Resolution is changed to some other resolutions. 6. Pricing with respect to the competitors is more.

SD
Real User
2020-10-30T13:52:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

Automation Anywhere should think about the integration with Machine learning and deep learning with ease, so that AA can be used in various other domains that require human calculation and logic to work. A good application would be IVR, as this can help businesses reduce the response time and achieve better customer satisfaction AA should include more features in the mobile app, such as monitoring and debugging bots. This can help the administrator to look at the status on the fly. They should provide more features to improve the visibility of bots.

reviewer1458792 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T13:50:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

Areas that can be improved are: * For assisted automation, the AA bot needs the facility to be triggered through an application interface after collecting input from the user. There is no inbuilt option available in AA to collect all the inputs in an interface. In our case, we built a desktop application to collect all of the user input and, on submit, the .NET code will run the ATMX file. Can AA provide a simple user interface through which a user can collect input and submit it to trigger the bot? * It needs an option to change the Windows resolution. * It needs to have an option to select an object after a three to five-second delay. It is useful in the case of menu selection and this option exists in other tools.

Islam Fathy - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
Top 10
2020-10-30T13:47:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

The areas in which the product and service must be improved are in the government sector and ministries such as the Ministry of Education and Health. From my point of view, we need a lot of features that must be added in future releases, for example, improving the special dashboard in bot insight, reducing the duration session from 20 min to 5 min, and added SAP API command. I would like to have the ability to work on a remote desktop connection, run the recording on it and use all commands.

reviewer1466931 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T13:46:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

It would be better to make it more user-friendly so that individuals with no experience can pick it up pretty quickly.

reviewer1466970 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T12:59:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

Had we had access to the RPA bots in advance, we would have practiced before fully implementing. This is something that should be changed in the future.

reviewer1462716 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T12:53:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

Automation Anywhere provides more than 300 commands but it lacks in certain areas like Excel automation. For eg: there is no command to add, rename, or delete sheet. However, meta bots can be utilized for the same. AA sometimes poses compatibility problems with new web browser versions like Chrome. The AA control room is fairly difficult to understand and maintain initially. Integration with new technologies and scripts like Python. However, I have heard that A2019 supports Python scripts. The license prices vary drastically depending upon the partnership with the client. Debugging of SQL queries is hard. The error description is not accurate. I have to initially test the queries on Access and then only I paste them on AA.

reviewer1457247 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T12:35:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

1. Data Mapping Utilities 2. Console Management 3. Bot Runner need to perform much smoother 4. It is not able to use OCR effectively and has limited usability. 5. Handwritten documents are still a drawback. Also difficult in terms of control room management. 6. A few applications take more time for loading when integrated. 7. Declaring the datatype of variables is challenging. 8. The process of migrating codes from one environment to the next can be automated as a default function. 9. The webpage for the control room could use some retouching or redesign to enhance the user experience. 10. Many little-usable features.

reviewer1466877 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T12:08:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

Points to Improve: 1. Control Room -> While exporting a package, an option to de-select all the depending/referenced files should be available. Currently, it only allows for selecting all the files. Also, the views should be re-sizable as they are currently fixed width. This would enable to view long file names easily eliminating any chances of exporting the wrong file. Points to Add in next release(s): 1. Availability of actions for Date and time functions in task bots, meta bots logics editor like Date Addition, calendar functions, etc. 2. Addition of Assertions activities, that can help with conditional compilations 3. Option to copy multiple variables at the same time (as selected by the developer) 4. Option to close all the task bots files in the editor at a go 5. Option to check-out multiple files inside a folder structure in a go 6. List and array should be made dynamic, as in there must not be a requirement to specify at least 1 element in the list, etc. 7. Deletion of multiple variables in one go (as selected by a developer)

Ahmed Shaheen - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
Top 10
2020-10-30T11:40:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

The product needs improvements in dealing with remote servers and providing more APIs that will be used with other systems. Also in need of improvement are: * The AI sense command needs improvement. * Bot discovery needs more work. * Migration tools should be improved. * REST and SOAP services need work. * AA should provide the ability to use custom packages that follow a standard to be imported in RPA. * I would like the ability to use custom cryptography algorithms with commands. * They should improve PDF commands and IQ features to include Arabic language OCR. * The admin user should have the ability to change the tome out of the session.

reviewer1460073 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T11:30:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

With more demo recordings and positive real-time reviews from the clients. AA should provide a free evaluation period so it is easy to attract new customers. It is not able to use OCR effectively and has limited usability. Handwritten documents are still a drawback. It is also difficult in terms of control room management. The debugger is also a weakness of the tool, forcing the developer to use error handling or message box to map errors. Few applications take more time for loading when integrated.

reviewer1469007 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T11:27:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

The IQ Bot could use improvement.

reviewer1469130 - PeerSpot reviewer
MSP
2020-10-30T11:11:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

The Automation Anywhere Control room component features can be improved, as of now it contains too many roles and rules which makes it confusing to use it. They should make it more simple because a lot of times I have to go through the user manual while dealing with the Automation Anywhere Control Room. I always wanted a python and javascript editing console in version 11, which I later found in A2019. Earlier, only Run script command was there to directly run the scripts which somehow creates one additional dependency to the solution.

reviewer1455417 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T10:49:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

For improvements, I would like Automation Anywhere to add new default mail operation commands, which might help developers to automate Outlook solutions easily and effectively. Similarly, some PDF commands can help developers to automate complex PDF automation projects and help developers to extract the PDF data more accurately and precisely. IQ Bot has some limitations that should be improved in future releases. It would be great if the work items concept is improved; that would help the developers and support team. The AI and ML features should be more fully explored in the future.

EC
Real User
2020-10-30T10:36:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

You could improve the tools for reading CSV/Excel, also providing wizards or detailed guides, otherwise, it is quite complex to use them, especially at the beginning. It would be useful to have an online wiki on each tool that can be used on AA with practical examples of use, with images and videos. It would also be useful to increase the community and make public in a forum the problems solved by other developers through the support, so that we can use past experience to solve development problems without having to send emails to AA about a problem that may have already been solved.

reviewer1463940 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T10:32:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

The UI can be improved a little bit to make it easier for beginners to understand. There are many commands called Actions that are very good but sometimes, I feel that it should be more comfortable to find and search for specific commands. There should be some type of hint or notification system about what actions are useful, according to the situation or part of the process that it is in while creating the bot. The speed of the bot processing on a whole can be improved so that the bot can run in less time than the task or processes.

reviewer1460619 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T10:27:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

The accuracy in Web Recorder needs to be improved, defective outputs found most of the time(not sure if is a website side issue). You cannot add dynamic variables in PDF scanned values, hopefully, this can be added as a new feature in future. Integration with most-used email applications eg: Gmail, Outlook, etc for ease in sending mails without any configuration of port or hostname. This could help to concentrate on actual problems, instead of spending time to figure out port and hostname for sending or receiving emails.

reviewer1469001 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T10:22:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

The debugging tools need to be included, for where and why it has failed to execute the bot in a clear manner. Maintaining the bot is a little tough sometimes during a failed issue. If Automation Anywhere is developed in a real-time environment, we can do daily routine our home routine jobs much easier. I am learning a bit daily day by day. Automation Anywhere can also be improved in machine learning and artificial intelligence. It would make our lives easier.

reviewer1465500 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T10:11:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

Configuring A2019 and using it is getting a little difficult because of frequent errors of compatibility. It is not so user friendly like the enterprise desktop version. Sometimes the A2019 platform takes too much time in the pre-processing and deployment process which is too time consuming and to solve this we need to restart the services and also sometimes need to restart our machines. This is extra overhead. AA-client is too heavy software. AA-client should support multiple languages. Sometimes the client software needs to login, again and again, every hour and so. Advanced Machine Learning and AI features with visualization capabilities should be included in the tool so that the product can offer many new use cases and

reviewer1457211 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T10:10:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

One of the challenges that I face every now and then while working with A2019, is around the bot agent updates. Every week/alternate weeK, I receive an error while running my bots, that asks me to update the bot agent. I have to download the bot agent every time and reinstall it, in order to get the work done. This thing has also created an issue for me in the past, where I need to present something to my US counterparts, and then the bot was unable to run because the bot agent update notification came few minutes before the meeting. This was really frustrating at that point in time, however, fortunately, I got that resolved within minutes during the meeting by updating the bot agent. Hence, I believe, there should be some facility available, which can help me in running my previously implemented bots, even if there are some updates in the bot agent

reviewer1466988 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T10:03:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

It would be great if there will be a built-in machine learning model available in the AA, so the developer can directly map it with their task and train the model accordingly. Training and testing the model can be achieved using these features.

VS
Real User
2020-10-30T09:44:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

1. Excel commands should include more features. 2. Need more variable types for eg. date, amount, number, etc 3. Better API support and more APIs. 4. Queues should be enabled to directly connect to DBs. 5. Managing so many variables is a pain. Some kind of variable initialization mechanism like how Blue Prism has it will be helpful. 6. Input-output variables should be defined for taskbots as well. 7.There are a lot of glitches in AA not fixed since Ver 10. Reach me to know more about them. 8. The commands should help evaluate the current state of variables(like how in Blue prism) 10. Metabots should have command to stop the task. Basically should have all commands of a task bot. 11. No one uses "WorkFlows". 12. The user roles and the Credential Vaults administration, sharing and the whole thing in action is very confusing. 13. Automatic technical logging option should be given by default in all commands like how we have in BP.

reviewer1445445 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T09:36:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

I believe Automation Anywhere is working perfectly and it is the best in the market. However, some points based on a development perspective I would like to add are: * Universal search. * Creating a variable from anywhere, including from the properties/attributes of commands. * I would like to have the ability to delete multiple variables. * It should be possible to delete multiple parameters for the API. * I would like to have commands to link with the respective knowledge base. * Having a refractor in the code would be an improvement. * A predefined framework for Bot Development that includes an audit log and error handling would be helpful. * It would be useful to have some updates for the control room in terms of analytics.

reviewer1460628 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T09:34:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

We had a few setbacks because of bots getting queued and unable to force delete a task bot which kept persisting in the control room. These features should be included in future releases which will be highly beneficial. Also when the upgrade happened from .14 to .15, it did not allow for the existing task bots to be checked in. The upgrades should work seamlessly to enable high efficiency of the AA product. We need the Business dashboard to be exported to other environments. Also for the availability of G-Suite package in the enterprise edition.

AS
Real User
2020-10-30T09:32:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

Already the new version is out, which has cognitive abilities. The bot learning skills are there, which helps to train the bot. AA has done a great job by bringing compatibility with IBM Watson and many other AI interfaces. If some more functions we can get related to other web applications will be a great help. At some places, the if-else statements become so confusing so, at that place, they can change the UI for better understanding. Apart from this I liked this tool and would like to continue working on this.

SK
Real User
2020-10-30T09:31:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

As long as we are using this tool, it includes all features required from a process automation perspective. As of now, we are not looking for any additional features. However in IQ Bot if the following features can be added then I would be very grateful: The recognition of Voice /Audio As of now IQ Bot only takes/fetches the record of the places that we have marked. e.g. Invoices fields that are dynamic in nature are very difficult to fetch the data from the scan copy. If this feature gets added, it will save a lot of time for developers.

reviewer1457229 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T09:22:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

PDF extraction and cognitive automation need improvement.

reviewer1457217 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T09:21:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

I would like for AA to add an inbuilt debug log that has functionalities to view the values of variables during run time in order to have a point-to-point debugging in case of an error.

reviewer1468452 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-30T09:11:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

It should be easier to use.

HK
Real User
2020-10-30T06:19:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

Autosuggestion of existing use cases based on the problem statement could use improvement. My primary use cases are where I'm dealing with a lot of raw data extraction and transformation so that the data can be used by other systems. An example would be getting the data out of PDF files, transforming it from semi-structured to structured, and putting it into an extra-stable system like Excel or a CSV so that it can be used by other systems. Listed are low hanging fruits and will boost the confidence of the stakeholders in the RPA deployment, recommend to look at such use cases when looking at Automation Anywhere and its implementation.

VS
Real User
2020-10-30T04:45:00Z
Oct 30, 2020

The UI could be made better because the UI in Version 11 was better and easier as compared to a2019. We were able to fit in more lines of code on the screen at a time, whereas in a2019, we can see much less. This means that the developer has to scroll again and again to view his/her code. An option should be provided to disable the flow and dual-mode since those are not used often by the developers, and hence take up extra space on the screen. The IQ bot should also have a feature to process documents with multiple invoices, as currently, we need to split the document according to invoices beforehand.

reviewer1464537 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-29T17:31:00Z
Oct 29, 2020

I am currently on 11.3.4.2 and the analytics feature of AA, Bot Insights, needs improvement. It is not easy to implement. It is not intuitive for the developer as you have to mark variables for analytics. Because it is very clunky you either have to build "helper" bots to display your bot analytics or use another platform like Tableau. I would also like to see improvement in the segregation of roles. I still do not understand the login in not allowing the Control Room Administrator to also be a Bot Insights Administrator.

reviewer1464534 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-29T14:51:00Z
Oct 29, 2020

1) We have encountered some issues in the actions like Terminal Emulator-> Send Key -> Page Down/Up not working. 2) We found difficulties while copy-pasting commands after the end of "IF" condition and "Loop". 3) A scroll bar will be good in the "Flow" tab. 4) When any command is double-clicked, if the command opens in a popup window as we had in AA desktop versions, then that could have saved some space for development as the code writing section seems to be less which creates difficulties when there are loops in the loop. 5) Email trigger was also not working.

reviewer1454259 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-29T12:41:00Z
Oct 29, 2020

We do not have a precise area that needs improvement, but sometimes while running bots that traverse through different websites, the screen hangs or takes time to fully load. This in turn increases the wait time. So, if possible, having saved a screen while the earlier bot runs and comparing that saved screen with the current bot run, so as to get an idea if the screen has been fully loaded or not, would be great. Though we can make this happen by adding extra logic to the bot, this would increase the bot size for every new website search.

reviewer1457235 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-29T11:50:00Z
Oct 29, 2020

In A2019 the dependencies that are being downloaded take a longer time that should be reduced. Migration utility should be provided so we can easily migrate from lower versions to higher versions. I would like to have reading from a handwritten text, which they are bringing in the next version. That will be a good thing. Some things that I do not see as of today are interactive chat or video interface. These are things that I will look for in the future. I saw something like image recognition, but something like a video or voice recognition is something that I'm looking for in the Automation Anywhere platform as an end-user.

reviewer1462719 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-29T10:09:00Z
Oct 29, 2020

Intelligent automation is currently a buzz and I would love to see more innovation in this segment. I am looking for artificial intelligence and machine learning to be tightly integrated into the cloud platform and I hope that they enhance this segment in the upcoming releases. Clients are eager to see AI and ML implemented, and thus leverage the technology to its maximum. We can bring more processes into automation, which is what I want to focus on. In a nutshell, more innovation in AI and ML will bring more potential and capabilities to the product.

reviewer1463817 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-29T09:01:00Z
Oct 29, 2020

Custom models with advanced features can be included in the IQ Bot models for unstructured and semi-structured data.

reviewer1458453 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-29T06:00:00Z
Oct 29, 2020

The conversion time of invoices to JSON File should take less time using AA2019 IQBot, the report file creation feature should be added into IQ Bot A2019.

reviewer1454436 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-28T19:26:00Z
Oct 28, 2020

I would like to see a button on the bot developer web page that allows you to "expand all" and "close all" actions, folding them up into their respective "Steps". I would like to see a comment feature that allows you to embed comments/notes into an action sidebar, without having to actually take up a line of code in order to write such a statement. I would like to see a dedicated XPath web interaction drag and drop action that allows you to click/interact with websites via an XPath query. This way, you are not required to use the recorder action to gain this functionality. I would like to see an option allowing you to change the color scheme of the bot developer page, so you can use colors that are less harsh on the eyes when developing a script. A simple dark mode skin would be nice as well.

reviewer1460607 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-28T11:40:00Z
Oct 28, 2020

1. for attended automation, the agent should be able to execute the bot without logging into the control room and triggering the bot 2. There are limited features to automation MS word & PowerPoint will look for more in those areas 3. Include Gsuite based automation 4. limitation on .csv based automation 5. Automations on iframes 6. We want to have greater control on deciding when we want to upgrade to a newer version. 7. Smooth upgrade with no production disruptions 8. ability to manage bots across control rooms 9. Ability to generate reports without using bot insight

Meindert Van Der Galiën - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
Top 10Leaderboard
2020-10-28T06:44:00Z
Oct 28, 2020

IQ Bot requires a significant improvement for its data detection and data retention, mainly from the previously trained documents: regarding the document's format, layout, data contained within the document, the type of data that needs to be extracted. Object cloning commands require a significant improvement in its functionality. It is far too inconsistent with execution within the same application. Plugins for web browsers should be a single plugin that allows for the connectivity and functionality of both the v11/v12 and A2019 software, or at best, allows for both the A2019 and v11/v12 plugins to run on the same client browser simultaneously.

ND
Real User
2020-10-27T10:41:00Z
Oct 27, 2020

In the control room, the manual bot update should be looked at. I would like to see a technology where they can automatically update or upgrade themselves to the latest version, without having to uninstall the current bot. Bots should also be automatically downloaded to all computers or devices in the organization without people having to individually install them on their machines. The device connection can also be improved, as I happen to lose connection most of the time.

reviewer1469025 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-27T06:47:00Z
Oct 27, 2020

It would be better if they could extend the support for AA version 11 for a few more years, as most of the companies have tasks completed in AA version 11, and A2019 is much slower compared to AA 11. It keeps on downloading dependencies, and time-consuming while running the tasks. In AA version 11, if the bot stops uninterruptedly it's better if it could resolve itself and back to normal and process the applications. You can give clients some more time to get used to A2019 and find and fix the concerns observed till then. That way you can add more features and easy to implement for the development team. If you ask all the clients to migrate to the latest version. Few are still thinking about the migration of code from the old to the new environment and various other factors. Bot Insight for 24/7 tasks is limited in the AA 11 version. If this gets fixed a few more clients will renew this license as well.

reviewer1454247 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-27T06:44:00Z
Oct 27, 2020

The OCR can be a little better because sometimes while scrapping, it leads to data loss. In the future, more commands for automating SAP should be included.

reviewer1454253 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-27T03:31:00Z
Oct 27, 2020

Automation Anywhere is one of the leading RPA tool vendors and they have done splendid work on improving their tool. The places where I still see scope for improvement is in their background automation are, and also their ability to handle Java applications. I feel that document extraction like IQ Bot can be made more refined so that it may reach its full potential. Another area I feel that needs improvement is the variances caused in extraction results when using the tool with third-party OCRs. This is something that needs to be addressed. I believe rather than giving more third-party options, a single good OCR solution must be added to prevent variations in extraction results.

AP
Real User
2020-10-26T17:19:00Z
Oct 26, 2020

The product is amazing, nevertheless, it would be really great to see the following points being implemented: * Better OCR Extraction: The OCR extraction is good to some extent, but I have seen some cases where it has failed to extract text from a few documents, and this was quite unexpected. * More Excel Commands: The set of Excel commands I am currently using in Automation Anywhere V11.3 are limited. Most of the Excel commands such as filtering and removing duplicates are not available. * Options to edit Document and PPT files: The scope of projects could be expanded if we have such commands.

SD
Real User
2020-10-26T07:57:00Z
Oct 26, 2020

We are still exploring all the new features and functions of A2019, but one thing I noticed was that it has introduced variable type. While helpful at certain places, I miss the previous method, where one variable can handle any type include a string, numerical, or boolean value. If the option were available to use the old generic-style variable type, it would be helpful. Now, I need to create one variable for holding a numerical value and convert it to a string value to display it on a message box, which is a little inconvenient. This is purely based on past experience. Once I get used to it, I might find it better and more convenient.

TT
Real User
2020-10-26T06:36:00Z
Oct 26, 2020

Maybe not improved but I heard that the 2019 version is going to look more like UiPath, which is not ideal for a typical/classic developer. The feel of parsing at the code is different from viewing object images for sure. When comparing the code under version checks, although there is a change done, it doesn't say so because the change is done at the variable level and not in the line of code. This is logically wrong, a line would contain n number of variables including object clonings, screen images, variables, etc so any change to any of these has to be captured and shown as a change done in the version history.

SM
Real User
2020-10-25T12:27:00Z
Oct 25, 2020

* The API integration should be improved further since it is a bit difficult at the moment to connect with the API in the enterprise version. * The object cloning command should be improved such to increase the capability and capture more objects in the UI. * It would be more advantageous if the email automation allowed us to integrate with cloud-based email servers. * Metabots should be improved further, allowing for the same functionality as the task bot. * It would be great if AA could reduce the price of IQ Bot.

reviewer1442211 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-23T18:46:00Z
Oct 23, 2020

I would like to have a simple bot dashboard window for admins to manage things easily. This is important when an organization has a huge number of tasks to be automated because managing tasks can be complex. It would be very helpful if the bot dashboard were simplified for admins. The mobile application can be improved by adding more functions and capabilities abuse right now, only a few features are enabled for mobile users.

DD
Real User
2020-10-23T11:07:00Z
Oct 23, 2020

Technical support provided by Automation Anywhere is not up to the mark and needs a lot of improvements. Solutions or details provided by L1 support are contradicted by L2 and/or L3 support persons, thus leading to confusion. The quality and response time of the support, even on Sev-1 tickets, is not satisfactory. Enhancements or product issues/bugs are not fixed quickly and no ETA is provided for the same. Working of triggers (email file, etc) in A2019 in unattended mode is a feature that was available in v11 but missing in A2019. I would like to see this feature in A2019. In v11, RDP-based deployment and auto-login both were possible but with A2019, only the RDP-based approach is possible. Due to this, there is no way to maintain any application open inside the RDP, as each and every time Web CR connects to RDP to run the bot and disconnects, it closes all of the open apps inside RDP and terminates. I need a way where open apps inside RDP must be left open if they are open already.

reviewer1442199 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-23T11:00:00Z
Oct 23, 2020

I feel A2019 is still not completely ready and the discontinuing of version 11 is a negative impact for all of the users and clients. I feel version 11 should still be continued and it should be the client's choice whether they want to buy version 11 or A2019.

VE
Real User
2020-10-23T10:04:00Z
Oct 23, 2020

Automation Anywhere can be improved with respect to the user-friendliness of the interface because most of the competitors are now using a flowchart-like structure, thus making it easy for anyone to learn and study it. Essentially, it's as easy as connecting shapes for each action and process. An area for improvement is their OCR reading for images since some competitors have an inbuilt OCR reader that recognizes various hand strokes much better, thus improving the time and resources needed for transcribing the documents.

reviewer1442205 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-23T08:55:00Z
Oct 23, 2020

One area where I can see room for improvement is the training material that is available. I am aware that the Automation Anywhere university has a lot of training content, and even better, all of it is categorized with respect to the user's role in development. I took the training course related to architecture. This course and content were nice but the videos had a digital voice over, which made it non-engaging for me. After certain videos, you cannot concentrate much. The other point that is relative to my experience is that for a completely new person to RPA, Automation Anywhere may come with a small learning curve.

reviewer1443672 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-22T23:33:00Z
Oct 22, 2020

The time taken to execute a Bot through A2019 can be reduced. It takes time to upload Bots/Files once you click on Run, and it is difficult to wait while we are developing automations because deadlines are always a risk factor for developers. Code needs to be run code multiple times to achieve requirements shared by the client or team. Migration from V11 to A2019 is difficult and needs more attention because it should be simpler. They need to improve the Object Cloning feature because it creates problems when the resolution is changed.

reviewer1469046 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-22T09:15:00Z
Oct 22, 2020

We noticed slowness in a few of the commands like Object Cloning, Web Recorders, etc. on which Automation Anywhere can work to make it more robust. There are improvements required in the WLM solution provided by AA, which can make it a more robust queuing system and the system should retry by itself in case of failure due to system error. There should be the option of selecting credentials by passing variables and not just limit it to selection. Retry mechanism should be included in Enterprise 11.x version which helps developers to reduce the number of lines of code.

reviewer1455426 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-22T03:13:00Z
Oct 22, 2020

My opinion is that we need to have a video or tutorial on how to implement these features, as well as seeing what results to expect. We are having difficulty explaining RPA to users if we have to. The competitors can present the features more interactively using video, which is better than a PowerPoint presentation. Having this would make it easier to sell to the user, because the market in Indonesia prefers to see the demo/result, as opposed to learning the technical aspects first. Similarly, they would prefer to see a success story and case study, instead of listening to a text presentation. I think we need to create an interactive presentation that is more creative and gives more proof of results for the process, and lesser in terms of technical description.

MM
Real User
2020-10-21T19:25:00Z
Oct 21, 2020

Currently, Automation Anywhere's debugging functionality is minimal. Most notable is that it works on only the top-level task (not on sub-tasks called by the top-level task). This limits its practical usefulness. Increasing the robustness of the debugging functionality would be very helpful. Additionally, implmentation of a "global" variable concept (variables shared across tasks) would be very useful. AA's variable mapping between tasks is cumbersome.

reviewer1468995 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-21T17:34:00Z
Oct 21, 2020

Version A2019, the Number data type variables should be available to display in "Message Box" command. This will help in debugging. At the present, a type conversion is needed to display it in the message box. There should be an efficient way to integrate AA 11.x. meta bots into AA2019. Also, the Master certification should be provided free of cost for partners. More practical samples and examples of bots using new features in A2019 should be available in people Documentation. A2019 presentation material for proposing A2019 as an RPA choice should be provided to partners.

BP
MSP
2020-10-21T10:26:00Z
Oct 21, 2020

The dedicated BPM from AA should help to cover more use cases. I would strongly say that AA should have a more advanced BPM tool to support the process/use cases attempted in the project. Instead of depending on other open-source BPM products, AA should provide their own BPM for attended automations.

reviewer1463793 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-21T08:46:00Z
Oct 21, 2020

The A2019 Community version does not fully support Mozilla Firefox, as it has problems when you try to capture data from the Firefox window. I would like to see more features added in the Community editions to improve developer hands-on practice. When you try to capture an error snapshot in A2019, it's not capturing the proper data compared to V11. The Recorder action in the A2019 Community edition is not supported. If we refresh the window then it does not show the Chrome window title in the list. This only works on Internet Explorer.

reviewer1468989 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-21T06:43:00Z
Oct 21, 2020

I would like the AA tool to be more proficient and a single entity tool that does not require DLLs or some script to be written separately where it is not capable. It should have more commands, which should remove the dependency on MetaBots or other scripts so that everything is available in the tool itself. This would save time. All the time working on the tool requires internet connectivity, and it will be great if we can work offline. Offline development would be helpful. More features like AI and ML should be included, as well as additional features to automate Citrix applications and mainframe applications. I would like to see more Excel commands available. Introduction to dictionaries and other data types should be included. I would like to have a ready-made framework available so that less time is spent to develop the whole framework for the processes. In terms of robustness, the bot should be efficient enough to deal with the code breakdowns. This could be done with more exception handling features and a ready-made framework. More tutorials with complex scenarios and ILT training would be an improvement.

reviewer1458447 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-21T02:49:00Z
Oct 21, 2020

My suggestion for version A2019 is to enable the Metabot function because it helps us in a shortcut to the integration process with other applications such as SAP, Oracle, and Cyber​Ark. It would be helpful if Device Credentials can sync with Active Directory so that for the IT policy case that requires periodic password resetting, there is no need for a human to input manually into each Bot Runner machine. The quality of the IQ bot can be further refined for scanned documents.

reviewer1469010 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-21T02:33:00Z
Oct 21, 2020

For the short term, in this pandemic era, they should have a feature to write and save directly into Word documents, Office 365, or Google Docs. As it is now, it can only save to Excel files. In the long term, in the cloud era, it would be great if they had an API or connection into other cloud services, such as SaaS, IaaS, or PaaS. This would mean that their automation ecosystem would be more complex, helping to improve our productivity and creativity.

reviewer1454622 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-21T00:38:00Z
Oct 21, 2020

Where minor but widespread changes are made to the cloud product being operated upon (e.g. a banner was added, or dropping all DIVs down 1), changing the cloned search values (Taskbot) individually was incredibly time consuming, and it shut down the RPA service until it was fixed. To counter this, it would be valuable to have a 'mass update' of search values for cloned objects, in a similar way to Metabots. Better tracing of 'if' and 'else' statements and their corresponding 'end' statements would be helpful. Vertical connecting lines would be appropriate within the code, and a collapse/expand feature for code blocks would be ideal.

reviewer1468944 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-20T17:46:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

I would like to see them continue building out documentation with more video-aides. Training is good and interactive, although the final certification exam is very tough and requires practical, in-depth knowledge. The certification exam for AA is not as per the training videos, as the questions are more scenario-based. This makes it very hard for beginners to clear the exam after just tutorial knowledge.

SS
Real User
2020-10-20T17:13:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

A2019 should have more improvement for developers, as it was in v11.x. For example, copying of specific lines between Bots, and Metabots (Calibrate option). All this will make A2019 even more unique in its own way.

AP
Real User
2020-10-20T14:03:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

The AI Sense functionality is what I believe can be improved since when I tried to use it for automating a use case involving a Citrix Virtual Machine, it was unable to capture objects consistently. This feature can be made more intelligent and less bulky in terms of the downloadable package size of the code in the next release and also the VB/Python scripts which we can use in conjunction with the AA2019 functionalities is what I believe would help in automating many processes end to end.

reviewer1439841 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-20T13:49:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

For me, IQ Bot needs to be improved. It has great capabilities and works really well for fully structured and spotless documents. When we try to process structured documents but with some little pen marks, improper partitions, or faded documents, IQ Bot fails to extract data properly out of them. Typical Indian supplier invoices are hard to process through IQ Bot. I would love to see a package for Regular Expressions with various sub-commands such as regex builder and regex replace. OAuth2.0 native support should be added in future releases. From a security point of view, there is work that is needed.

reviewer1464705 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-20T13:28:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

In terms of improvement, usually, I have found is not as general as people think. Specifically, as a use case, I am excited to see improvements in having an A2019 cloud control room working and improved on the Lenox environments. A good bit of our finance infrastructure for web-based applications is built in that environment. There is a good bit of dashboard-type development going on in this type of environment already, so the ability to integrate some of the functionality, as well as keep the synchronicity of everything within it, would be a major benefit. Having fewer connection instances would make it more secure, more simple to troubleshoot, and possibly more flexible with the type of applications in use.

RP
Real User
2020-10-20T12:36:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

It can be improved in a few areas where the legacy system can be read through object cloning. The Image Recognition functionality should be enhanced to improve the accuracy of checkboxes. In A2019, the bot agent will be deployed on the local machine when we run the bot runner, but to download it takes too long, and the user will lose patience. My advice is to improve on this. Sometimes, the files are getting corrupted and this causes us a lot of trouble. This is an issue that is still pending.

reviewer1463937 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-20T12:23:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

The assign value function is not there in the A2019 Community edition, which makes it hard for a developer to manipulate the data. For example, using a data table record, when I want to assign a value to a record variable, I am not able to assign it properly. I am only able to define a hardcoded value inside that variable, whereas the requirement is to put the value inside that variable dynamically using another variable. In the next release, I am hoping to have a feature where the developer can use a programming method like ".Double/.toString" to make programming faster. As it is now, one has to pull commands one by one for assignment. Next, I am hoping that AA can have an explanation and directions for each command and how it is to be used by developers. For example, with the OCR function, it would be helpful to know what data is compulsory for the developer to enter, and what data is optional. By having guide like this, it would be more developer-friendly. This would be better for beginners who are using AA for the first time.

MJ
Real User
2020-10-20T11:45:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

Certain areas of the user interface require improvement. Most of the time, it's pretty easy to drag and drop the required field but it would much better if we had voice commands so that I save time instead of using my mouse and keypad. It would be better if it were digitally designed so that users can feel the live experience as if looking at the exact interface, rather than the logo. Replacing the list of search options with voice commands for each item would be great. I would like like to see changes made to the appearance of the control room. Although we all love the brownish dark mode, it would be better designed with white and orange instead of the dark brown colour on the left side of the panel.

reviewer1455411 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-20T11:26:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

Going on-cloud comes with security hiccups and concerns. The product team has managed to go both on-premise or off-premise, as per comfortability, but the cloud version has more concerns.

reviewer1468983 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-20T11:19:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

Comparing the code from dev to QA or production should be in some easier way. Pausing the bot and resuming it in Metabot should be easier. The Control room audit logs should be moved to an archive for those that are more than six months old. The error handling capability is good but we are facing difficulties when there are multiple tasks in the same project. I want to be able to handle errors that occur in sub-tasks and it would be better to introduce a global error handler so that we can debug all of the relevant tasks. I would like to have a project sharing hub like GitHub, inside of the tool, which will help to consolidate project files post-deployment.

reviewer1465503 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-20T11:11:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

The REST API could be improved.

reviewer1467651 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-20T11:02:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

The product should improve on Voice Recognition and IoT pretty soon, as this is the next big thing in and I would like to see this upgraded in the next release. This is the age of Voice Recognition where systems like Alexa and Cortana are ruling. I would love to see certain features for these. In addition to this, there should also be a community version that will be able to provide support without a cost. This will make sure that the outreach for Automation Anywhere would increase up to a considerable extent.

reviewer1464582 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-20T11:01:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

We have observed that AA gets locked sometimes. After being used for hours with the same bot, while still using the Run Window command and having it in an open state, the users received a prompt to log back into the control room. This is not correct, leading the bot to fail at certain times. In the next release, once the bot is triggered, the system should always recognize the active state and not prompt the user to log in again before the bot finishes all of its tasks.

MK
Real User
2020-10-20T10:52:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

Many clients use the Citrix environment but AA has very low functionality to automate a Citrix environment. I would like to see improvement in advance Excel commands like lookups, Pivots, etc. After changing the name of the ATMX file, the developer has to remap all the variables again manually at all place and it does not auto handle the renaming of ATMX or variable. In older version 10 it worked fine but from version 11 due to enhancement, this function does not work and faces issues during the development.

AS
Real User
2020-10-20T10:44:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

Sometimes the tool is timing out, which would be a good thing to have resolved. It will be good if we have a framework that is created with the package, so we can leverage those for the multiple processes. As it is now, we create a base framework. When we have more packages for each of the basic operations, it will be more user-friendly and easier to complete, rather than starting from scratch. Ideally, when we have those packages we can leverage them for overall project development. Adopting the cloud platform will be more convenient, as opposed to depending on the on-premises setup.

reviewer1457205 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-20T10:34:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

While using IQ Bot we found that data extraction accuracy is a bit weaker in semi-structured documents compared with structured documents. We would like to see improvement in the data extraction part of Automation Anywhere IQ Bot. In version 6.5 handwritten data extraction capabilities were not there so if we can get it in upcoming releases then it will be great opportunity to automate tasks which are working on some handwritten documents. Another additional feature we are looking for is logo matching and signature matching capabilities with IQ Bot. In addition we would like to see more compact version of AA which can be controlled over mobile devices.

reviewer1455402 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-20T10:33:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

I would like to have on-call customer care support so that if the user gets stuck anywhere, he/she can get the issue clarified. Additional details or support can be provided for IQ Bots. The Help menu/description can be provided while hovering over actions so that it can help us better to know them. The Variable feature can be improved, as there is no single place to handle all your variables. Sometimes, while recording, the screen hangs and we are not able to perform any actions during that time. Also, the support should be more user-friendly, as we are not getting any support online.

reviewer1459914 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-20T10:28:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

The Web Recorder should also include a feature where the user can select what browser you want it to run since it is currently using the Internet Explorer browser as default. Some of our web-based systems are currently not compatible with Internet Explorer and can only run using Firefox or Google Chrome. Image recognition can be improved if it can still run the created bot in a different PC with different resolution sizes as it is currently very dependent on it and will not able to recognize the image you need if there are changes to resolution size.

AK
Real User
2020-10-20T10:15:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

I would like to use VB.NET native code inside of Automation Anywhere. If there were a feature like InvokeCode in UiPath, it will help me to write native VB.NET code inside of AA. This would be a relief to the developers. Another feature I want to see is data conversion from one format to another. For example, I want to convert a string date time to Date Time format, or a float to an integer, etc. This will give me the flexibility to interact with other applications and help with passing correct values. I won't have to worry about the error handling from the application that I am automating.

OS
Real User
2020-10-20T09:59:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

Improvements that can be made are: * It should be easier to automate tasks on a virtual machine that uses a different environment altogether. * The AA portal should not give us pop-ups every time a bot agent is updated. * Ease of debugging & inbuilt debug messages can be improved to help find relevant bugs easily. In the next release, they should add the Tableau tool as a package since most organizations use it for reporting & analytical purposes. Useful actions would be: * Opening & closing tableau * Downloading sheet data in Excel * Refreshing extracts * Publishing Tableau

BV
Real User
2020-10-20T09:55:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

Commands in Excel, Outlook, and Word automation are very limited and hence facing difficulties automating complex requirements for the above applications with V11 version.

reviewer1455396 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-20T09:40:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

Cloud-Based architecture is what we expect. Training is good and interactive but the final certification exam is very tough and it requires in-depth practical knowledge. I think the process design flow should be simpler than the present feature. Nothing much, but requirements keep adding with complexity, so automation becomes complex for now. That should be one more area of improvement.

reviewer1454262 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-20T09:38:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

In the Universal Recorder, we face minor bugs in A2019. For example, the browser closes and using the recorder. There are some minor bugs in the universal browser. In cases where Microsoft Silverlight is used, it doesn't capture the button. In V11 we use OCR, it captures the image and displays the text it captured. However, in A2019, it only captures and does not display the text. In A2019 it does not display the exact running status, but rather it displays the previous one. In V11, we used to add images in email message boxes with the current date and time but in A2019, we are unable to do so

PN
Real User
2020-10-20T09:32:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

As a developer, I would like to have copy commands available from one bot to another. It is a tedious task to write the same snippet of code in different bots again and again, whereas I could simply copy and paste the patch of code, like in the older versions. As a business user, I would like to have a feature wherein the bot is run on demand, whenever an email with a specific keyword or whenever a specific person sends an email to the bot's email address. Thereby, I need not worry about setting up a schedule in the WebCR.

reviewer1468968 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-20T09:30:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

When we think from a business perspective, business applications are more compatible with their specific browsers. Let's say one of my customers is using Firefox, which is the most compatible browser for their application, when we try to automate that with AA, we don't get accurate and stable results. They need to make the AA stable across all browsers and I hope to see it fixed in the next version. As I mentioned, if we don't close an Excel file in a safe manner, then when we try to open it or another Excel file in the same place, most of the time it will lead to issues. As we are working with unattended automation most of the time, no one will be available to take care of those issues when they happen

reviewer1464540 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-20T09:27:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

I feel the tool has to provide deeper insights for debugging issues, considering both internal and external factors. The image recognition functionality needs to improve so that we can work faster.

reviewer1455387 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-10-20T09:22:00Z
Oct 20, 2020

It would be great if they provide installation documents that are easier to understand, place more focus on capturing the fields, and most importantly, concentrate more on the OCR capability. Lots of customers come with scanned PDFs, wherein we find that area is more challenging. If a constant solution can be provided to read the non-editable documents, then that would be the highest milestone of the Automation Anywhere. Lots of companies do not follow the LEAN method, so most of the processes are still with the old models. AA can focus on those areas and introduce some techniques to address those issues within the processes. They can conduct more regular sessions with partners about their ability and new developments, which will help us in bringing new businesses.

JA
Real User
2020-10-06T12:01:00Z
Oct 6, 2020

The starting price, which is a one-off fee is a bit high and this may deter mid and small-sized companies from acquiring and decide to shun the platform. It ought to be broken down into monthly installments, where the billing of using the platform is done monthly. This will increase its absorption in the market. The vendor should increase the training and other engagements with users before they acquire the platform, as this will simplify its usage further and ensure that there no hindrances in using the platform.

AG
Real User
2020-07-20T08:17:00Z
Jul 20, 2020

Automation Anywhere can be improved in certain areas specified in the cognitive zone where the information needs better OCR Engine + Machine Learning capabilities. Also, they can improve on the System Identified region function of the IQ Bot - Our team faced a tough time in handling that as we were not able to assign variable to System Identified Region as the IQ Bot tool wasn't allowing it. Also, we have had a certain issue while performing the WLM - Workload Management functionality, applying Queue mechanism becomes hard sometimes - Can be more intuitive for the end-users.

reviewer1390506 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-07-18T16:36:00Z
Jul 18, 2020

1. Accuracy to process handwritten documents. 2. Should add more Analytics and Intelligence related capabilities. 3. Scalability along with the volume and business should be more flexible. 4. Cognitive capabilities should be improved more. 5. Large scale robot deployment is limited. 6. Licensing costs should be reduced. 7. Error handling should be improved more. As AA has recently moved to Cloud architecture, there will still be a lot of additions and improvements in terms of the features and offering and this will be evolved over the period of time only. About the exact performance on the cloud maybe we have to wait a bit more time and should evaluate once it will get settle down more.

reviewer1390509 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-07-18T08:14:00Z
Jul 18, 2020

* Cloud API vision and OCR engine integration should be more effective. * Auto-update of the Bot agent in runtime machines from Automation Anywhere control room server. * The import and export of the previous version bots to the latest version of A2019 should be more flexible and friendly for the end business users. * AI Sense recorder should be upgraded with additional features for better results. * SMTP mail features should come with migration options. All kind of VB scripts and Java scripts which we built using exiting version should support in this version.

PS
Real User
2020-07-17T18:53:00Z
Jul 17, 2020

They need to concentrate lot on a nonpersistent RPA model. Integrate IQ bot with AA instead of making it as a separate component, since nowadays intelligent bots need to be integrated into RPA core. Instead of bot agents getting installed on the machines, concentrate on making it independent of the system and only as a plugin in the browser. It doesn't have an independent small install for developers and always requires to be fully installed. Bringing a DevOps model for bot implementation integrated through private bot store might be a good idea to improve the tool.

reviewer1383858 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2020-07-08T06:21:00Z
Jul 8, 2020

Additional features should involve the Cognitive Section where we need more Advance solutions involving ML & AI. We have entered into the Cognitive zone where our solutions are much more advanced in nature due to the complexity involved in the Use Cases. Structured Data require a higher level of data analysis and grouping. We also recommend Automation Anywhere to start incorporating Plugin with Open Source Softwares so that we are able to build robust solutions - presently custom scripting is limited. The automation team can also explore the Oil & Gas sector as a target sector as this Industry have lots of potential and they need to foray in the Digital world in the near future.

reviewer1249008 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2019-12-12T06:27:00Z
Dec 12, 2019

We need more commands for PDF integration to make it more flexible.

SP
Real User
2019-11-03T13:17:00Z
Nov 3, 2019

A Cloud-based version of this solution would reduce dependence on architecture. Better use case management to prevent each development from scratch would be an improvement.

it_user1205001 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2019-10-10T05:43:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

Whatever I was thinking for version 11.3, it's being implemented in the A2019. For example, it is great that the product will be: * Integrating with cognitive analytics. * Integrating with Azure. * I can write scripts. In version 11.3, if I want to write a Python script, then I write an ESX file. This is gone in version A2019.

AS
Real User
2019-10-10T05:43:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

We have in-house, a few variables, which we use from technical perspectives. We don't have them in Automation Anywhere, but they introduced them yesterday. I had a word with an Executive Officer, and he told me that they took all this into consideration and developed it.

it_user1110189 - PeerSpot reviewer
MSP
2019-10-10T05:43:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

I am looking for artificial intelligence and machine learning. I hope that they introduce them in A2019. I'm looking forward to what will be there in A2019 because that's the area that we need to go forward. We are looking for Automation Anywhere to put up their efforts to make it easier by incorporating artificial intelligence and machine learning. Along with RPA, this would make our automation journey very easy. We can bring more processes into automation, that's where I am looking for automation to focus on.

MA
MSP
2019-10-10T05:43:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

There is a small thing from a development point of view. There should be a static site box for finding any command if I am writing a code. If there are hundreds of functions, you can only scroll up and down to find one each one. There should be a site box where we can find the commands and easily use them. In the new version, they have included a flow chart instruction. This should be easily removed by mouse cursor. It's basically no problem; like we have to always use keyboard or mouse. This should be independent since we are either using a mouse or keyboard. This should be running smoothly. These are very small things which need to be improved.

it_user1205016 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2019-10-10T05:43:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

I face little challenges when I move code to production. In Automation Anywhere 11.3, when the bot is running until it loops 24/7 in my development and UAT environment, we don't have our antivirus on it. When it comes over to production, there is an antivirus running on it. However, we don't know what time it will be scheduled. My client is taking care of that. So, when I raise a ticket with Automation Anywhere, they share some suggested documents to exclude those lists from antivirus. When I approach my client, they want to exclude those things because they are treating them as maybe not secure. What I am suggesting, when using A2019, if there are any additional features to exclude those antivirus scans until after my task is completed, then the antivirus can start scheduling. Then, I can easily tell the client that the priority are running and the Automation Anywhere scans can wait until after the release. I had a chance in Intellect Design Arena to go from installation to deployment. This was the first process with RPA in Intellect Design Arena, so people were thinking it's the first project that we have with Automation Anywhere. However, we are very experienced and can automate nearly anything.

SK
Real User
2019-10-10T05:43:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

I would like to have reading from a handwritten text, which they are bringing in the next version. That will be a good thing.

SK
Consultant
2019-10-10T05:43:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

We face some issues, but we can’t prove them again. They occurred sometimes, but don’t occur again. For example, I record a video when a bot is running, and it is working fine. Another time it is not working. We face issues with Excel file creation. I’m trying to create a file in Excel .xls. It is getting corrupted. In these type of scenarios, I am not able to prove the issue from my end. I give suggestions as a developer, and these are in the notes, and I have already raised a ticket. I got information from the support team as well.

RM
Real User
2019-10-10T05:43:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

IQ Bot is the primary reason that we are using this. We are the one who started using this sometime back. What I realized is that it is just a product that came to be into existence. There are a lot of things that can be improved with a lot of scope. We are already engage with Automation Anywhere, giving our feedback, so they can improve. For example, they can improve the scope of extractions. IQ Bot does have some limitations. We have received assurances that in future releases this problem will be solved, and we should be able to do more extractions based upon future releases.

MP
Real User
2019-10-10T05:43:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

The new version 6.5 has come [out]. They are still working on the handwritten format — they want to get more accuracy in handwritten forms, which might take some time. It's everywhere, because the algorithms are evolving and the technology is only going to become more and more accurate. That is one area where we are really looking forward to understanding how IQ Bot can really leverage handwritten forms and also make significant progress into what could be called the "untouched places" at the moment - as far as rural India is concerned.

SV
Real User
2019-10-10T05:43:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

An interesting thing: If you look at AA, the OCR capability is actually from a third-party. They don't have their own OCR in there. They use ABBYY or Tesseract. They should have their own engine built-in with their own IP. It increases the value rather than trying to use a third-party solution. That's where I see a lot of value.

DD
Real User
2019-10-10T05:43:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

Some things that I do not see as of today are interactive chat or video interface. These are things that I will look for in future. I saw something like picture recognition, but something like a video or voice recognition is something that I'm looking for in the Automation Anywhere platform as an end user and even as a reseller.

SP
Real User
2019-10-10T05:43:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

If it is in the cloud, then you have a lot of scope of doing it even faster because you spend a lot of time in installation of virtual machines (VMs) alone. So, they are coming out with that, which is good. I believe that if there is some functional expertise within the organization, this helps in improving the process timelines even more because our current architects are totally IT-based. If they have some functionalities, that would help in automating processes faster. If we want automate some Automation Anywhere processes, we have to do it from scratch. If they are already there, we can use and scale them, then when can customize them. This is something worth thinking about.

VM
Real User
2019-10-10T05:42:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

There are a couple of features that I would like AA to improve upon in their next releases. One is the PDF automation. Of course, AA has come up IQ Bot which scans PDF documents. I feel that IQ Bot has not reached its mark. With financial and banking, we have multiple invoices that we have to process in our top use cases. Typically, these invoices come in a PDF file. So, PDF automation is the one automation that we want them to concentrate on. The second feature which I would like them to concentrate on is the work items concept. AA has come up with this in version 11, but I want them to more like competitors in the market for the next releases.

RO
Real User
2019-10-10T05:42:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

There are multiple features, like PDF integrations, which are coming up. Task-related features to PDF integrations are coming up nowadays, so people want those executed and improved a lot in Automation Anywhere. For improvement, I would like to see Automation Anywhere integrating with multiple other technologies. As of now, it is integrating with .NET. When it come to future technologies, I want Automation Anywhere to integrate with Python scripts, and make the execution easier. That will be very helpful, having our cognitive technologies interacting with Automation Anywhere.

SM
Consultant
2019-10-10T05:42:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

IQ Bot seems to be a good solution that Automation Anywhere has come up with. It sets them apart from the other solutions. I want Automation Anywhere to work on IQ Bot further to help evolve the tool more and create a certain set of solutions using IQ Bot. They can maybe use better machine learning algorithms to come up with better accuracy for OCR extractions. This is an area that I want them to work on.

PY
Real User
2019-10-10T05:42:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

I would like a couple more features where I can talk and the line comes up automatically. I can just put on a mic, like in "Ok Google". With "Ok Google", I can tell it to please open an Excel spreadsheet with the header read. If this is there, then I don't even need to sit on a computer, I can just dictate my commands and it will automatically come up. Right now, it's more sequential, where it works in a sequential manner. If they have something dynamically, where it run parallels, I'm not sure if it's out there yet, but It would be a plus point if we could have that. With A2019 will get both options (writing lines of code and dragging and dropping). So far, we are just doing sequential coding. I'm just writing line-by-line code. But, there is a pain area if I want to go back and have to understand where the issue started, it becomes a little cumbersome to identify. That's where A2019 comes into the picture, you can drag and drop start to make a flow. This will be a useful feature.

KS
Real User
2019-10-10T05:42:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

Although, IQ Bot has data being extracted from it. It can improve with more features, like handwritten copies that are readable. Anyway, the IQ Bot is coming out in a bit, and I'm sure we will go with it.

HA
Real User
2019-10-10T05:42:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

With the IQ Bots that use AI, I want to see more features using that type of machine learning and artificial intelligence in their products.

RM
Real User
2019-10-10T05:42:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

I suggest that they add some features in dashboard, where you can say, "These type of features are things that people like more." You want to add those to your project and showcase them to the client so they will be happier. Because you know what features people like if you give a suggestion, that is good for everyone.

SS
Real User
2019-10-10T05:42:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

We have our limitations. We can run only VBScripts and one more thing. If we want to run Python scripts or batch files, we cannot do it. So, if they would add these extra things in there then that would be beneficial. I have to add in Excel commands because it is a limited feature, as we only have five to six commands. Suppose we have a spreadsheet and we have to get the counts for how many rows were filled, we have to do it through a Macro or VB. We have to write a separate code and call through Automation Anywhere. If they added in this inbuilt feature into Automation Anywhere that would be helpful for us.

AS
Real User
2019-10-10T05:42:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

The Excel command has some limitations. They are working on it. Now, from what I have heard, it has 40 plus commands in the Excel operation, so that is a very good thing. Once that comes up, it would be a 10 out of 10 for Automation Anywhere.

DY
Real User
2019-10-10T05:42:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

With the upcoming version, they have addressed all the issues of the clients. They have AI and ML. The GUI is good. The cloud has been included. So, it's promising that they have now included these. We have to see how much we can get used to it.

TK
Real User
2019-10-10T05:42:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

I would like to see some more with the Excel commands that they have. Also, with the cognitive, that is coming up we need to see what else they have, e.g., some SAP features to enhance the product more.

HS
Real User
2019-10-10T05:42:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

There were also some tasks where we needed a cognitive approach or an OCR solution. There were some scanned documents in a PDF format. We were in the initial stages and struggled at that time. I'm talking about in 2018. We struggled to get them into the structure format. In the current stage, there are lots of opportunities in terms of claims, insurance, and banking where we need AI and cognitive solutions to automate unstructured documents. That is a need of ours. Automation Anywhere should improve in this field so they can provide support for artificial intelligence and cognitive solutions.

SP
Real User
2019-10-10T05:42:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

They have done a fairly good job on the RPA space, but more and more, the whole cognitive AI space and machine learning are where I see the industry actually going. I'm sure Automation Anywhere is also focused on that topic, but we would like to see more coming down the pipe, as early as possible.

VN
Real User
2019-10-10T05:42:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

There are many things which I have liked in the last couple of months that I have seen in Automation Anywhere. Something that really excites me is the new release of Attended Automation 2.2. It's a very lightweight solution. When I'm talking about the automation of the size from 2,000 to 20,000, and everyone is using the attended bot with this scale and thin client model, we can easily deploy and scale it out to the larger corporate size. So, this product is very unique and I have not seen it in any of Automation Anywhere's competitors. They came out with it.

RA
Real User
2019-10-10T05:42:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

A majority of this tool works on automation. For future prospects, this tool should 80 percent deal with neural networks, deep learning, and artificial intelligence and that has to be integrated a lot. As these are future skills, these integrations will help us take the tool to take to the next level.

AC
Real User
2019-10-10T05:42:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

I sound like a promoter A2019 with the attended bots and some of the new features coming in with the partnership of Microsoft will be a game changer. We work predominantly within an Office 365 environment. I think there are some real opportunities there for us to do things differently. One area where I think there's an opportunity to do things a lot better is in the analytics function. They do have a concept or product called Bot Insights. It hasn't worked for us. It isn't as plug and play as we were led to believe, which is unfortunate. I can absolutely understand the value, and the demonstrations that I've seen of Bot Insights are sensational. But, we just haven't been able to make it work. We've invested a lot of time and effort trying to make it work to no avail. So, for us, that's one side of it that has been a bit of a disappointment, but not enough to detract from the overall success story of using Automation Anywhere.

DB
Real User
2019-10-10T05:42:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

I didn't have anything as such in mind. After listening to the CEO of Automation Anywhere, he has given some very exciting features which are up and coming in the next few weeks or so. One of them is the integration with Microsoft. This will be a game changer forever. Because Microsoft Office 365 or Outlook, these are being used by every individual. Integrating Automation Anywhere bots with these type of Microsoft solutions will give us so much flexibility. We can utilize so much reach or access to these bots in every type of work that we are doing. They will become like our personal assistants. That is where it's very exciting. I'm looking forward to look it. I believe that it will be a killer in this area. It may sound a little funny or weird, but one thing that we are thinking is we have to go to various websites and pick up relevant data from various websites using the bot. That is something we have seen that none of the bots have been able to really do it because the back-end of those websites do not allow bots to scrap through all these websites and get the relevant data in one place. We would like to see how the bot companies would crack this idea. But, that's why I said, this look weird because of the legal reasons why this cannot be done. This is something that I am looking forward to.

MW
Real User
2019-10-10T05:42:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

There are often a lot of functions within the software that will do the same thing, but it's up to the developer to decide which is the most appropriate. If there were a way of the product sort of indicating or automating which function is most applicable for that field for that particular purpose, that would be great. I think that might be a ways away. But, I think a lot of the improvements that we're looking to find are going to be in the new cloud release. So, we are really looking forward to getting on that.

AB
Real User
2019-10-10T05:42:00Z
Oct 10, 2019

The industry is moving towards strong AI and ML-based algorithms. They have already started their journey. Earlier, Automation Anywhere added Taskbot, then they added IQ Bot. I would say bring the AI component into the Automation Anywhere product line, then a user will be able to make a lot of decision-making processes digitally instead of with human intervention. The more that they bring and make their cognitive engine stronger, along with the Taskbot or digital worker, that's where I feel they will have a wonderful contribution to an organization who is looking at a truly digital workforce environment. They should do more on the cognitive side. If they can keep adding more features, that would be their greatest advantage.

reviewer1185765 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2019-09-10T12:05:00Z
Sep 10, 2019

More support required to be embedded in the SMART Recorder for SAP objects. IQ Bot should be available embedded as a feature on the developer client and not as a separate product. Some NLP AI is required to work in combination with RPA, especially for reading unstructured emails.

reviewer1184964 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2019-09-09T11:00:00Z
Sep 9, 2019

In the Microsoft Excel features, it needs a command to wait for a calculation to complete. In Microsoft Excel, why isn't it possible to share a session in different tasks? It's complicated to program all of the commands in the same tasks (loss of overview). The Filter function only supports four commands (Mouse/Key/Delay). In the Optical Overview for the Loop command, an if/else would be helpful.

Real User
2019-09-05T17:24:00Z
Sep 5, 2019

I would like to see them expand the service catalog with RCA add-ons to the current RPA package.

DS
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

One very important thing would be more support for Citrix automation. We want something to support Cisco. Citrix automation is not a very good tool. We are not able to use it properly. Even if we go through a remote desktop connection, it goes along only with the keystrokes and image recognition. Also, when we are moving from one version to another version, it's very difficult because most of the features stop working. They should first test everything and then release the new version. For example, there's a system variable known as the Excel Cell Row. It gives you the current row of the inner loop. When going from version 11.1 to 11.3, this variable was suddenly not supported, and most of our bots were dependent on that. Everything went down and we had to start from scratch. If you do not have a developer who has done this, it's going to be a big problem in terms of the time it will take. We need the migration from version 11 to A2019 to go smoothly. Our developers cannot be expected to enter the code again.

MK
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

We would like a better coding interface for developers. We would also like to have a user interface which reduces the time to learn the product so more people in the organization can use software, like Automation Anywhere, quickly automating processes. As an organization, we feel the exception and error handling could be way better. We would like the software not to change as often. Architectures were radically reinvented without informing the customer. This wasn't something we appreciated. Some of the stuff being used internally in the product, like Elasticsearch or open source, did not pass vulnerability ability assessment. This is another issue. We hope Automation Anywhere takes internal component security seriously as we are looking forward to the Automation Anyway A2019 launch. We hope it addresses some of these issues with error handling as well as component security.

AN
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

They are launching cloud into the market, which is very good. They need to improve the OCR engine which is not up to the market. We still cannot use IQ Bot with our documents. They have to work on the OCR and object cloning features. However, I have not used version A2019 and cannot comment on the latest Automation Anywhere updates.

VN
MSP
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

Right now, the audit trail sits in file systems. I would prefer it to be in a database where it is queryable and searchable. Another major downside is an upgrade. If I have to switch over from single sign-on to non-single sign-on, etc., then it's a complete reinstall. When I do a complete reinstall, I lose a lot of information because it's a new instance. I'm not able to bring information from the old instance and my metrics are all gone. I basically have to reset the whole infrastructure. I would like to see an option to switch over to single sign-on post-installation. It should not have to be a reinstall. It should be part of the installation or configuration. I wanted to see a cloud version and mobile app but those will be available in the A2019 version. I would like the bots to be more automatic without having to check emails, which is how we have our tool setup. Going forward, the bots should be more interactive.

SR
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

For us at this point, I don't think the product needs more features. There is already a new release coming up with a bundle of new features which we will have access to and have to learn. As a user and developer, I only look at stability. That's it. I want the most stable environment — a stable version of the product — where I can close my eyes and sleep and the bots run and do their jobs. The basic system is very ease to use, but the difficulty comes when we make changes. For example, any change in the name, even if we have wild characters in place, the bot fails to identify the filename. It identifies the same filename in non-prod, and it does not identify the file in production. We need a more reliable tool. Sometimes, the same check (a 70 percent scan) identifies numbers, and sometimes it does not identify the numbers. We are not sure why it is behaving weird. We don't use the Bot Store because it is not legal for us to use.

RohitShetty - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

We want them to have a clear roadmap on what they want to do and follow it. If they are moving to version 11, we want them to stay with that version. Now, I hear that they have a new version out there. I have to plan out every upgrade or movement from one landscape to another. This is a cost for us. I have to get buy-in from my leadership. That becomes a challenge for me. I need assurances that wherever you are going, you are clear on what you want to do. You don't end up with doing multiple upgrades every now and then. It's not a sustainable solution for us. One of the things that I see in the forums is they are planning to build an ML platform on it soon, whereby we can use RPA as a starting point and have leverage on all the machine learning services available across multiple vendors: Azure, Google, and Amazon. I'm really interested to see how that works because we are already using those entities but in a different manner. We want to see how all of them work together as a platform. That's one of the requirements we are looking for. I would like them to have more collaboration with SAP and Oracle, as those are our key products. This would provide more value for us.

MG
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

There are security certifications on the tool, but there are still places where our organization has highlighted that there needs to be an improvement on data-related encryption. That is something which needs to be changed or improved. My main worry is about the security. My organization is very concerned about the data. Data in transit is mostly covered through encryption or TLS 1.2, but there are few things which have been identified which need to be improved. We need a better way of getting upgrades or defect fixes. It is creating problems for us, as we have to go for a completely new version. Maintaining and managing existing bots, then coming up with new ones takes a lot of time. We would rather have a batch fix than an installation to an installation.

SK
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

In the next release, I think it has to be more compatible when deployed with the Citrix environment. That's one bottleneck that we have seen. Technically when we used the IQ Bots, we couldn't work directly through the Citrix environment. With our ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) setup, we needed to access it through the Citrix environment. Because we were not able to do that, we had to have a workaround. We are currently working with Automation Anywhere to have that fixed. They have given us confidence that it can be done.

PV
Consultant
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

Citrix should be more stable. MetaBot helps getting data from SAP, but we still have some cases where we cannot fetch data from SAP. They should improve this. They could add more commands that we can find in other tools. In emails that we have to download, we cannot read the MS docs. There is another type of procedure that we have to follow to find these things and download them. We are doing most of these things in a MetaBot format. For SAP and Excel, we are also using MetaBots. These commands need to be improved, especially in Excel because they are only a limited number of commands for Excel. Other tools have very good Excel commands, but Automation Anywhere lags here.

CK
Consultant
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

The main problem that we see is migrating data from one system to other system. This is where a human comes into the picture. While we can do Excel crude data going into an ERP system, we would like it going forward if the Excel to SAP integration had a higher focus in the coming features. The Excel functions that we see are currently very limited. While I have not tested it, I have seen these functions expanded in version A2019. I would like more detailed activity logging of what the client does. Currently, it just shows that a task started, then a task has ended. We want more detail around this for our clients, especially for error logging. E.g., we had to create an encrypted log for our clients to see what happens every second for every step. We made this in a CSV, and that CSV can be accessed by anyone who can change it. If Automation Anywhere could integrate this into the Control, that would be great.

SS
MSP
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

As of now, it's only available on Windows machines. I would love if it were to also be available for Mac machines. That is something which is lacking as of now. A cloud version was also missing, but now, with the new A2019 version, that's coming. When I compare Automation Anywhere with the competition, some of the competitors have ready-made, off-the-shelf modules. For example, UiPath integrates with Windows AD. That is missing as of now in Automation Anywhere. If that became available it would also be great.

PN
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

Change management can be an issue because as applications change, the bots need to be modified. There are some business areas for which this tool is not capable of doing, such as in the areas of graphically-based input. The image capturing of the network management systems is not up to date for all of our customers' processes. We are seeking some kind of improvement in this light. We have use cases that the tool does not currently support, and we will be able to do many more if this capability is also covered. Technical support for this solution could be improved if they categorized according to severity. At the highest degree of severity, one dedicated person should work to resolve it as early as possible. It would be helpful to have a repository of use cases that are created by different customers. They could be accessed from the Bot Store. For us, it would help if we had access to use cases specifically for Telcos. We have a lot of problems installing for some customers. In particular, if it is a distributed environment then we face challenges. For example, the database should be installed in a network other than where the control is installed. It can be very time-consuming, and support for these situations is very important.

JS
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

Version 11 is a bit heavy. At times, it takes a toll on the computing resources. It consumes a lot for computing power. We have seen multiple instances where computers or the client has crashed because of this particular problem. Automation Anywhere can improve this a lot. However, the A2019 version will be a lot lighter because it is all web-based. In the future, we expect to see lighter version, but for now, it is okay. The features around holding and handling Excel data need to be improved. They need to be able to handle data tables, data variable, and Excel numbers. They need more scripting integration.

SP
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

We would like to have the Excel plug-in. We have a challenge with unattended bots in development which will be deployed on virtual machines. End users ask, "Why can't we run the bots whenever we need?" The new concept for getting attended bots as well as the Excel plug-in will solve this problem, but we'll wait for 2019 version, which may be a better solution for the business. More structured and unstructured data collection will be a challenge. While we have the IQ Bot tool, the success rate at the beginning will be lower. It will be around 20 to 30 percent at the start because you need to train the bot at regular intervals. Of course, this depends on the data. This area could use be improvement. The marketing strategy is directed toward end users. These leads to confusion in the organization regarding, "Who needs to develop?" Is it IT or the business? This causes friction within the business. Whatever the approach, it is important to show how to get the most benefit out of the tool. There should be a clear roles for IT and the business when using the tool. This way teams and structure can be better established in a business. For attended automation, there are still questions to be answered: How it is going to maintain the queue? E.g., there are 20 users who want to process their own processes, and when they trigger things, how will the Control Room react? How will bot work distribution happen? These things still need to be looked into, but conceptual-wise, attended automation is really good. It is confusing: Who needs to develop the bot? The business or IT. At the basic level, the bots can be created. However, once they are moved into production, you have to make sure that the bot is stable and running 24/7 without any issues. Therefore, a lot of care is required due to the amount of controlling mechanisms required. There are a few problems with deployment and maintenance. When it moves to other systems, the consistency will be somewhat lost.

PB
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

We could use more accuracy with IQ Bot. We want to automate fully with Citrix. However, we are only able to do this at 70 to 80 percent.

Sunilkumar Venugopal - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

We encountered issues during the upgrade of the framework. We were using the older framework of version 10.3.5. When we were upgrading, we were having a few issues in terms of getting the proper hardware and software prerequisites. For some things, like getting the controls of some of the application's tools, we were getting Automation Anywhere's help. The operation happened both in hardware and software. There was some amount of friction in terms of technical and hardware operations. In terms handling capturing the controls, that's where we used the help of tech support. We are looking forward to the release of cloud/web automation, which has yet to be released. We having most of the use cases rely on Automation Anywhere. However, we face some challenges in terms of RPA implementation with Citrix.

BC
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

MetaBot still needs to be optimized, though Version 11.3 did integrate all the commands into it. We are not able to see all the lines of code which are executed in MetaBot. Integrate .NET functionalities instead of installing Visual Studio, which is an additional resource to us. Needs more Excel features and functionality. We are moving onto Python machine learning and would like to have additional functionalities to be added, especially to MetaBot. This would help for the use cases that we are working on. There are some discrepancies in respect to the variable creation of copying and pasting the code. However, in version 11.3, these type of disturbances has been removed.

VB
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

The integration of IQ Bot, Bot Insight, and other products should be flawless, and the execution should be seamless, so this needs to be improved. The vendor should make recommendations based on our customer's requirements so that they can make the right choice. Automation Anywhere will sometimes announce releases or updates in their roadmap, and we wait for them, but they do not happen on time or at all. This happened, for example, when we had an issue with IQ Bot. We ended up waiting for two more months.

AD
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

We are one of the smaller startups in the area so we experience a lot of issues. Most of the issues have been: * How do you build up your platforms? * Automation Anywhere is more geared toward how humans work, and a bot works differently. These are the specific challenges that we have seen. Some small issues: * A bot will be working and the the screen will lock out. * The app has a password change policy every few days. * One day, there will be a message box saying that the application is down or not available on a weekend. The instructions will say read the information and click, "Okay." But a bot doesn't understand the instructions because it is not the IQ system. There are a lot of initiatives going on. E.g., there is one for the Excel part where they are building a plugin in Excel. Those type of plugins would help if they were built in various applications for integration across applications. I would like more plugins overall. It would be nice to have a plugin for all applications, like PowerPoint or any PDF to text converter, to make the tool easier to work with. On the user side, we have seen issues with user training. The product still requires programming knowledge. We would like it to become easy enough to use where anyone in the organization can utilize the tool and use the bots. The usability should be at the same level as a Microsoft Suite product. This is on Automation Anywhere's roadmap to evolve toward this.

GR
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

I would like more cognitive abilities, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. E.g., if I see you, your facial recognition has to be there. If I send your picture, it should tell me your name, where you are from, and when I met you because we forget people. It should have these type of capabilities.

DB
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

There should be a meeting between the Automation Anywhere team and the end-users to understand whether the process can be made to work on the first attempt. This would save a lot of time, especially in cases where it doesn't work in the end. This introductory meeting would include what the processes are and what platforms are compatible with Automation Anywhere.

RC
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

if Automation Anywhere could bring in object recognition, it would be a game changer. Today, we have a lot of video analytics. People talk about video analytics since I come from the consumer background. We are looking into the latest technologies of facial recognition from an audit proxy, e.g., counting the movement of the products from the counter versus the billing application. I have brought up this inquiry at my last three Imagine sessions but I am not getting an answer. Maybe the demand in the market is less. but people now are looking for this type of solution where Automation Anywhere can bring in some cognitive inbuilt. It would be great if video analytics could be brought in as a third-party product integration or on the Automation Anywhere platform. I would like the video analytics to be integrated within the next two years. Right now, most people are using third-party tools. Video can be translated into an image and information can be picked up from that, then translated into meaningful insights to make decisions. Getting buy-in was a major challenge because of the various people not aware of the technologies moving and getting buy-in from top management is a challenge. A major issue is getting the in-house team trained. I would like to have a better way of managing the teams. The more your in-house team is trained, you're less dependent on your partners or solution providers, thereby scaling up the confidence of doing it in-house. I just visited a booth now on the training part to see what can be achieved so I can go back and tell my team what Automation Anywhere is providing in terms of training.

HK
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

Citrix automation is unstable. It is failing on a frequent basis. With the bot, they claim a lot of things, but it is not the real picture. It is not as powerful as they claim. It is not up to the mark. Once I'm friendly with a tool, then I'll start checking the stability and power of it. It is not there with Automation Anywhere. The management people don't know the technicalities. The actual tool is not as powerful as they claim. They are pitching the IQ Bot, but it's not as powerful or as fruitful in real world scenarios as it should be. The user analytics are not analytics. Their Community Edition is awful. Every second day, it will fail. It will become corrupt.

MR
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

For our legacy systems, we are finding it very difficult to use the automation. Sometimes, forty percent of our work cannot be processed in an automated fashion. We need to acquire additional automation tools in order to reach one hundred percent automation. Automation Anywhere says that you can use this tool for any type of application, but there are some for which it is not compatible. In cases where automation is not supported, there should be alternative tools that are inbuilt where they can be used to support or guide the automation forward, giving us one hundred percent automation. The licensing model has to be changed to perpetual because even when we are not using a license, we are charged for it.

AS
Consultant
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

New versions keep coming up. The challenge for us is to have the downtime to do the migrations. This could be improved upon. We would like fewer version changes and upgrades happening to the application. While the downtime is not that much, depending on the business processes, there are times few critical processes are running on a daily or hourly basis. We would expect the downtime to be even less for them. There are a few internal applications that we have where Automation Anywhere needs to be added. We need to get those applications embedded so the integration process between those applications is smooth. E.g., With a Citrix type of environment or VDI environment, we have not been able to get the right information. We have to use the coordinates. Recently. we attended a session and realized that they have come up with an IQ Bot and computer vision technology. Therefore, we have some use cases which we want to leverage. Our focus would be for them to keep innovating for more intelligent solutions which can merge your text to speech. These types of solutions, along with other ML and AI capabilities, can solve for the larger objective and typically RPA platforms are not able to do. The type of applications that we use are very large and different. They are not the typical ERP systems or systems which normal organizations would have. If they could bring AI and ML capabilities onboard, this would help me rate them even higher.

PR
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

We would like to see support for macOS, rather than just Windows machines. Whenever you start Automation Anywhere it opens the IE browser to notify you. It would be really great if you had the option to not open IE when it starts. If you want to use Chrome then there are three or four additional steps that need to be completed.

SK
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

I would like this solution to be supported on a Mac. Right now, we are using a VM with Automation Anywhere installed inside it, but it would be nice if the solution could be used on macOS. I would like to see instructional videos on how to use this solution.

DS
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

The technical support needs to be improved. Often, this is the first time people are working with automation. I would like to see more marketing automation. I believe more marketing stuff can be automated through bots. Currently, marketing automation is not there. It needs machine learning to automate the process. This is something that I would like to see.

SM
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

The areas that need improvement are the license management, user access permission, user role access management, and technical support. We have had many challenges in managing the roles through user automation, but we have heard that 2019 has something new, so we will wait and see.

DM
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

In the previous version, we were facing auto login failure issues. The production machine would go down on a daily basis. Later, once we had stability, the tasks don't fail because of the object cloning issue. Therefore, all issues have been resolved in the new version. I'm happy with that. In the new version, we got options for running the bot in attended mode as well as unattended mode. Triggers work in the attended mode on Automation Anywhere. I would love it if we could use triggers in the unattended mode too. This way we can use the feature more in our IT sector. E.g., when any service or folder is accessed by unauthorized person, we want to be able to get an immediate trigger, even on "out of office", this would be helpful for my organization.

it_user1180314 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

I would like to leverage the AI component without the requirement to know a coding language, such as Python.

VC
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

We have some ERPs tools which are not compatible with Automation Anywhere because they are legacy systems. We find that Automation Anywhere does not work with these at times. Just enabling the usability of Automation Anywhere on some of these legacy ERPs would help us, as we struggle regularly with this issue.

AS
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

They need to improve the speed. It runs too slowly. There are some setup limitations: * There is no direct passing mechanism to manipulate adjacent data and send it back to the server. * There is not one task that lets you debug everything. Version 11.3 already has a lot of things that we want: quickness, ease, bigger, and more functions.

HT
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

In the 10.7 version, the back-end port for the MetaBot password has looping. This has been a type of limitation. Now, we are upgrading and integrating the Control Room, which is a validating feature. I would like them to add OCR features. This would help us deal with unstructured data and we can get more data out of images. I would like to see more features related to artificial intelligence.

SS
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

Looking at the POC's requirements and use cases, our customers are asking us for the OCRing of handwritten documents. This is a feature we would like to see included in the next release. We would like a web-based product for implementation in the cloud. The licensing needs to be made simpler or shortened. You need to be able to bundle the licenses for clients. Instead of asking for three licenses, which sometimes causes the customer to panic, I would like to have one bundle with three licenses contained within it. It is essentially the same thing but would make more sense to the customer. It is just a different mindset.

GB
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

In the version that we have, there are some challenges with the browser-based applications, the cloning of the objects, and the solution's stability. Automation Anywhere must be able to maintain a consistent resolution. The latest edition, which is enterprise A2019, has better analytics and the cloud all integrated into the bot framework. The client version is getting challenging to use because you have to maintain a lot of infrastructure. You must have the machines to deploy the client. However, you don't need a large infrastructure, if you can do it on the cloud. I would like a Bot Store for MetaBots. The MetaBot feature needs to be expanded. E.g., I would like a copy/paste from the top row of Excel where I don't need to write a keystroke. Instead, I could just use MetaBot for this.

MP
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

I think that all the expectations I had for the new release of the product are covered in the coming version A 2019. I'm very happy about what I hear about it. I think once I use this A 2019 release, I'll come to know what the things are that I'll want in the future. We have access now to a community edition version, which I have to download and will be testing out shortly. The first of the new features that I believe will do me the best is the customization of the commands. I can build my own package as per my convenience. Let's say we have a variable command. We already have the ability to use XML commands and we have some Excel commands that are provided by Automation Anywhere. Now Automation Anywhere is allowing us the opportunity to build something of my own in their environment and deploy that in production. Before I could imagine that component and not build or deploy it. I can build it now and that an important new feature for our progress.

MN
Real User
2019-09-03T07:39:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

I would like Automation Anywhere to integrate with Google activities, like Google Sheets. While this should be available in A2019, I would like it to be scaled more. Version A2019 will have better error handling. They are also adding Python script. I would like them to add dictionaries to it.

SB
Real User
2019-09-03T07:38:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

It is very difficult to create and automate timetables because they are modal and it would be helpful if the bot could assist us with this.

BS
Real User
2019-09-03T07:38:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

In the next release of this solution, I would like to see a plug-and-play tool for NLP programming. This solution needs to have more support for big data, including decision-making abilities.

MK
Real User
2019-09-03T07:38:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

We would like to see the scalability improve from a local perspective.

LJ
Real User
2019-09-03T07:38:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

At least for our requirements, whatever version we have been using till now — I think the current version 11.3.2 — is fantastic and more than we could use as we grew with the product. Any additional functionality I'm going to get in the upcoming version is a bonus for us as users. No product is perfect, so there is always some room for improvement. Right now we are most interested in cloud functionality. It could give us an additional option for managing everything in on-premises or in the cloud. My experience and knowledge with respect to our initial deployment of Automation Anywhere were very limited. Had we had more experience, we probably would not have used the Intel landscape. We would have used something more relevant to our process and function. This compatibility might be improved. I would definitely say Citrix automation is one area we have continued to struggle with for the last two months. If that can be an improvement in design for the next release it would be welcome. I know that a Citrix plugin has been already introduced by Automation Anywhere. If that can be made seamlessly integrated and easy to use, then I would definitely be very, very happy with that as an enhancement. The Citrix automation plugin that they have come out with until now has not been working for us. We are still in the process of figuring out how we can make that work. So, we are collaborating with the technical team from AA. There is an alternate solution where you can just move the system or application out of the Citrix environment and made it a standalone system. That will work. We know the workaround, but we still haven't figured out a solution to making it work in a Citrix environment. Hopefully, they will figure a solution in a month's time. Any customer would look for advantages and changes in pricing. I won't say Automation Anywhere pricing is not good or not competitive. It is definitely competitive. But there are additional players in the market that they need to compete with and working on pricing could help. I believe there are competitors who do not charge anything for what is the AA Control Room (used for Bot creation). They charge only for the runners (Bot execution). So there are other options available where you don't need to pay extra costs that may be more attractive depending on your usage. With Automation Anywhere I'm the creator as well as the Control Room. If Automation Anywhere could get a little more competitive on those aspects of pricing, I think it would be like heaven. I would like them to combine a BPM solution with RPA. Sometimes you need to have BPM in place so your process orchestration will be smooth. It'll go through a standard process. On top of that, you are doing some manual activities that will be replaced with RPA. Automation Anywhere already has RPA, if they would allow us to create a simple BPM solution on top of it to use RPA that is the best resolution. It would solve most of my problems in my processing unit.

JN
Real User
2019-09-03T07:38:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

The cost of this solution can be improved. We have written applications that do the same thing as Automation Anywhere, but for less cost.

GB
Vendor
2019-09-03T07:38:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

One of the challenges that I think should be resolved — from what my team was telling me — is that Automation Anywhere is not able to connect to a database directly. I have not evaluated this myself. There may be good security reasons for this, but it should be possible. For example, generally what we do now is to write scripts to push the data from the database and into the automation event. The direct access feature — which is not available according to my team — could solve the issue with the scripts. There's room for improvement in making more flexible solutions. As of now, because I have not used the new version very extensively, I don't have any reference to say what features should be added to the next release of the product. My one thought is that I don't know about the possibility of reading from unstructured data and if Automation Anywhere has any features to access unstructured data sources. It would be good if it can read the data and build some intelligence over that to push data to the right application. We do have some requirements from clients in other organizations where invoices will come in to be scanned. Based on the analysis of the data, copies of the data can be sent to different, appropriate applications. We are using different tools to do this now. If this kind of feature for reading unstructured data is there, then it will be easier to incorporate in processes. That is good to add if it is not there already. There can be some options to connect to the database directly where we should be able to add some data. There was a limitation where we were supposed to login remotely to one server and carry out some actions. That integration was not possible.

FK
Real User
2019-09-03T07:38:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

We want it to work with more APIs. It needs to integrate with multiple APIs. That would be something that I would like going forward. Currently, it does not work that well with legacy tools. It is a bit wonky with HTML when I'm working with it. There are times when it's not able to detect the technology that we are using. I don't know whether it's an Automation Anywhere issue or an internal issue. I want it to work smoothly with more technologies.

JL
Real User
2019-09-03T07:38:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

I want the tool to be more stabilized. After three or four hours, the navigation keeps changing. We will be running error handling for 8,000 process and the system will fail. We need it to be more stable. I would like a detailed description of all the features in a PDF explaining their significance and what they do.

BR
Real User
2019-09-03T07:38:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

I would like to be able to look at the steps that are completed as a process is running. It would be helpful if we could start running a process from a particular step. In the drag-and-drop interface, it would be helpful to have interactive hints, or notes, about what is happening and what the different choices are. This would make it easier to learn.

KD
Real User
2019-09-03T07:38:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

There are areas where the product can be improved and ways we can get Automation Anywhere to help us in other fields. For example, there are situations where legal interpretations are involved which have the potential for automation. We are not currently using the bots for these situations. So that's definitely one area where I would say there is room for growth for the product. Mostly, for my purposes, I'm looking for more support on reporting. There is too much use of attended automation. I would like to move more toward unattended automation, where bots are capable to handle exceptions and give proper feedback to the users, e.g., how many exceptions we have that we can fix it, so we can make it more aligned.

it_user1180188 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2019-09-03T07:38:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

I would like more integration with Microsoft Excel. More screenshots that can be integrated with Excel would help our customers too. It is good that Automation Anywhere is now willing to partner with Microsoft. I need to be able to work on Citrix with the solution. I need cloud-based applications. Now, we are manually running the application.

BV
Real User
2019-09-03T07:38:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

We started with attended bots and are in the process of migrating to unattended bots. We are facing a lot of issues with unattended bots as Automation Anywhere is not supporting this. When we run unattended bots in the background, the screen resolution changes. That needs to be improved because it might cause our IR operations or objects to fail. Attended automation is fine but it is not the favorable because we are looking for an unattended bots. If we want to trigger bots manually, then we need a resource for that. Therefore, there is no point in hiring a resource only to run the bot. They need to improve the scheduler. There are a couple of issues which needs to be rectified. Otherwise, Automation Anywhere is like using the Windows Scheduler. Aside from the Control Room, it's normal automation, and you can use other tools for that.

Gurvinder Singh Dhaliwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2019-09-03T07:38:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

I am looking forward to IQ Bot, but I expected more out of the current version. We do not deal with much scanned documents. I want to see if IQ Bot can scan client emails for us because our clients send emails with some incidents and issues. We want to see how IQ Bot can automatically do the processing and create structured data and trigger other bots to get related tasks done. The Control Room is demanding on resources, even when the traffic or processes are low. We are planning to integrate with Outlook. We are plan to create a small plugin which will trigger in Outlook once an email comes in. It will monitor the mailbox and remotely trigger a bot. Very soon, we'll see how we can trigger from Excel. I am looking forward to integrating with MS Office very soon. The only challenge is we are moving from the local Office to the online Office, which will be a small challenge for me. There are many bots available on the Bot Store. However, my developer told me that he was unhappy with the quality of the bots available. I would really like natural language processing and IQ Bot in version 11.

JP
Real User
2019-09-03T07:38:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

I would like to have some of the features that I have seen for future releases. I'm using the outdated version, as compared to the current one. That's the reason I'm rating it as a seven out of 10. If I was using the latest version and all its features, then I might rate it a bit higher.

KM
Real User
2019-09-03T07:38:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

Older versions of Automation Anywhere required specific skill sets to use it. It is no longer like that. The version A2019 GUI allows you to drop and drop.

SN
Real User
2019-09-03T07:38:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

Sometimes, the MetaBot fails using the recording option. In previous versions, there were some limitations. There wasn't proper security when it came to credentials. We tried storing credentials, but the security level wasn't great. When a bot is in production, sometimes the keystrokes will not work. I am not sure why, and we have tried to contact technical support. They said that they don't have an answer for this. It happens in the the remote environment when we are deploying a bot into AWS machines. So, technical support said this happens in AWS machines sometimes: If the bot is running and the machine is locked, then at that time, the key strokes will not work. They have provided that solution, but we are trying to avoid keystrokes now. Unwanted windows are popping up. We have to train a bot to recognize the window if it comes up, know what it is, and click it. If it is interrupting our bot, I just want to avoid that window, because I am getting failed logs.

AA
Real User
2019-09-03T07:38:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

Alert transition is happening in the Python space and on the front lines of AI and with other tools. You have the opportunity to use different data blending tools and data manipulation tools. It would be good if Automation Anywhere could make more plugins available to use with a greater variety of tools and additional options. I think it would be a better product if it had a greater capability for integration.

SS
Real User
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

We used to face a lot of challenges with older versions, like auto login. Nothing is perfect. The tool should always evolve to the better and more efficient. If we are talking about evolving, then we are talking about intelligent automation. There should be more features included in the package with this type of software. For example, IQ Bot is something that we used to have and was working well. However, there are other use cases of machine learning and complex cognitive solutions. Those should be included in the package, as they will solve major problems which we face today of unstructured data. This is part of the evolution process and these changes won't happen in a day.

SG
Real User
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

I make changes, but when updates happen, then I have to make those changes again. This has to be fixed from the product side, so we are not continuously making changes again after updates. It takes us four to five weeks to develop a bot and the upgrades erase a lot of that work, because it takes another two weeks of small coding changes after an upgrade has been released. We are looking forward to seeing additional features in version 11.3, such as the new APIs and MetaBot features. They are also adding Jenkins and AWS.

AC
Real User
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

It takes a lot of time to deploy, and sometimes it fails after a timeout. You cannot learn it quickly. Sometimes you build on one platform, but when you switch to another platform it doesn't deploy properly and it fails. The user interface should be enhanced to make things simpler for the user. It is important because while the RPA consultants have the relevant knowledge, not all of the individuals who use the tool will. Having a better dashboard for this would help. The solution should also be simplified.

AP
Real User
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

The GUI can be improved by making it more user-friendly. Python integration is coming with the next release, and they should expand on that.

NR
Consultant
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

I would like to see this solution made to be a little more robust. As a coder, I have written more than one hundred functions and I can do high-level testing, but I can't do the low-level testing of complicated use cases. I think that AA has to look at it from that perspective. Hire a few developers, give them some complex work or use cases, let them work on it, and then check for stability when there are two or three tasks. For example, one task runs, the output goes into another task, one window opens, then another window opens, and you interact with multiple interfaces. This type of testing may be how they'll get to know what is wrong with the application. I would like to see more Excel functions built-in. Currently, they have forty-five or forty-eight functions supported, but I have written a DLL that includes one-hundred functions. They can do many more than forty-eight, and because we are dealing with accounting and finance, Excel is used a lot. We need Excel and we don't want to always have to depend on a custom-built DLL. When using a DLL, ninety percent of the time it won't be uniform for all of the processes. This means that I have to modify it, rebuild the DLL, and deploy it again. Native support would be much better. Web automation capability needs to be improved. I would like to see more features in the next release of this solution, including data tables, spying, and cloning. IQ Bot is bad and needs a lot of tweaking. It needs to have thrust because right now you use it and it doesn't get off the ground. It just stays there. They made us believe that there is potential, so they have to fulfill it. For example, they speak about this ML component in IQ Bot, but I know that it doesn't exist. There is no ML component there, and I would like to see one kick in when IQ Bot fails to extract data. It should start automatically, and maybe ask us for some guidance at the beginning on how to do the work. With the ML component working, IQ Bot would be very good.

SG
Real User
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

With attended automation, we need human intervention to provide input for bots. We make sure files are presented in a particular folder to pick up those files and feed it to the bot. Attended automation sometimes might go into exceptions, thus we need to monitor it in-between, then check whether it is working properly. This way, we ensure the bot is working properly.

AS
Real User
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

This solution should be more user-friendly so that our clients can take a bot that we have developed for them, and then run it by themselves. As it is now, we write the VBA code and give it to the user, our client, and then they run the code. However, they do not like this. Having this is the next release would be helpful. Automation Anywhere is intuitive. Initially, you may struggle a little, but once you get used to it, then it's intuitive and you don't really have to know all the commands beforehand. There is scope for improvement here. The feature often asked about by the users, the product owners, is that they want to learn more about the bots themselves. We have not used anything attended. As far as we are aware that feature not available, but it is to be released soon. Version A2019 is something that could be beneficial to new users. At the same time, I cannot rule out completely that you need to have a very good programming skills. It will be easier if you have some knowledge on the programming front because you might be using a command which is already built-in. Therefore, you should know how the loops works and how the conditions work in order to implement them. If you want to do a bit of deep-diving into automation but you will need a little technical knowledge at this point of time.

SK
Real User
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

There are several things that would improve the product. I would like to see them include a group chatbot and make the IQ Bot more stable. Just those things would be great. Adding those kinds of features improves what we can do with the product. Using a client control room concept to ensure that everything is based on the web login, would also be great. Obviously we know that the development of new features will take some time. We are expecting those kinds of features in the future. We expect more AI integration in our technology. Automation Anywhere could use to be more stabilized. The product is becoming more stabilized with newer versions, but there are various things that still need to be stabilized. In the current version that we are using, we have a Control Room where the client will sometimes get disconnected. This will result in downtime. Therefore, we need some stabilization from the tool perspective. We don't have any other option than to raise a ticket to Automation Anywhere or get in touch with their support to get the issue resolved. So, we are having downtime. This can be improved. We are not completely okay with the IQ Bot. We previously used version 5. The newest version does have more accurate results. Technical skills are required to use the product. With these tools, technical programming is still required with the guidance of technical people. Business people can go ahead and try building a few smaller processes, then when they gain technical knowledge, they can use this tool to their full advantage. Most of our processes are attended automation. It would be great if more processes were unattended automation, so we could release more FTEs. We are currently using third-party Taskbots. We would like Taskbots directly integrated into the tool.

GM
Real User
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

They might add some features that competing products already have and do something to help reduce deployment time.

SC
Real User
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

What may be able to be improved is that sometimes there'll be a connection that is not from our clients and servers and that's a situation they may want to address. The solution for that may need to be built differently based on the needs from organization to organization. In that case, it is not particularly or specifically about the tool. It is just something I could see they might help enable. That the product is now available as a cloud-based solution is a good feature that they added. So with that and new features already coming out, I don't have a lot of suggestions. I will have to work on this new version, then let's see if there's something I think they need to add. There are a number of current tools which can be improved because they have many limitations. Like some better controls in emails, and better support for features in Excel and PDF. Especially things like that which I need more than new features. I'll be enabling the current features, but I'll have to see them and what they do before I can feedback more.

SG
Real User
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

As a developer or user, I feel that the performance of the overall package could be made a little better or reliable. For example, if I'm opening up a heavy Excel file, which is uploaded in some shared drive over the net, and I have my box coded to open that Excel to do some work or formatting on it, and depending on the network load and the size of the file, this client version while trying to access that file becomes unstable at times. It goes into the hang position until a human being comes in, ends the task, and restarts it. Until this happens, it does not respond. In version A2019, it's moving from a software installation infrastructure to a cloud-based infrastructure. I am hoping that the end-to-end deployment from conception to coding to production will be much faster than it is right now. That really excites me as this is a feature that I suggested to tech support.

SN
Real User
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

When it comes to reading email, this solution is unstable and improvements need to be made. Specifically, it should be able to handle email based on the subject or the email sender.

DM
Real User
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

In the future, I think we would like to see more capability for integration and more customization with some features. For example, email records should have their subject like email that's been downloaded. Because it is not doing this, we now need a separate solution for this based on the subject line. Integrations that we'd like to see are that the product is more friendly with languages like Python and JavaScript. These are the type of integration we are expecting. Also, it should be more friendly with Excel commands which it does not seem to agree with or have so that we can customize the output. The product is not working sometimes with the methods we prefer. If it is going to be a flexible product it should include some more common things. There are so many small issues with the product it is not as good as it could be.

VN
Real User
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

One thing that they have to fix is scalability. We are scaling at a fast pace, and they promised us that they would implement multitrigger. If they don't get that enhancement out it is very inconvenient. When we asked when they could deliver the stable version of that feature, they said it would be sometime in August or September. But when I discussed this enhancement with one of the product owners, it doesn't look like they have had that on their development roadmap for even a September or October time frame. But that's something which we are desperately looking for because we are scaling at a massive level, and without that feature, we are doing a lot of workarounds. It is a wasted effort. It would also be a good addition to the product. I am sure in a lot of organizations, are also facing that need or they'll come eventually to it. We have interacted with our customers and our partners and they agree. Some are already also in the same boat. We would definitely like to see the Workload Manager (WLM). We thought that we would not need it. We thought that with the WLM feature, they were making a mistake and going nowhere. But right now, first and foremost, it is the most important feature I would like to have. The rest all are secondary for me. There are other organizations desperately waiting for that product. I don't see that the release will be happening soon.

IK
Real User
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

In my current role, the only thing that I focus on is how sustainable the code is. It has to run for a long time — years. I am expected to run extensive testing. So, in this position, I'm working on the current stability of all the commands and how that can play into the future. I'm not looking for new features. Really the opportunity for automation is already offering this opportunity to create your own features. Adding new features is almost too much. If I've got enough tools to use, I should learn to utilize them first. Use them and then maybe get something new once I have exhausted the possibilities. There are already enough options that AA provides to use. The commands that it offers out of the box are okay for people to begin to work with it. If you don't know it, all you have to do is ask. It is not an end-to-end solution for everything, but it is very good at what it does with allowing automation and freeing up other resources — both human and hardware. It is not an end-to-end solution for everything. The only area for me that I would consider as an improvement is sustainability in areas I face every day. On CSM (Central Management System), for the most part, it works every time, but those areas exist where it does not perform as expected. For example, we had a problem with our ticketing system. What we do is we have a ticket open so that the issues stay open for a week even if we have it fixed. It is supposed to stay in the system continuously for a week — a hyper-care period — so that the issue stays open and we are sure the issue is fixed. That hyper-care period never seemed to end in the application. The problem was it extends a week, to two weeks, to three weeks, but we did not achieve that four-week period of no error of the full runs for the solution. We worked at resolving the issue and thought we fixed it permanently. We locked in the solution. We were happy. We almost won. Then in a week, we had a reversion to the same problem without making a change. It was not possible to explain. It is my only concern that some things get handled erroneously or changed.

ER
Real User
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

We would like to have more ease of use for the operations team. There are still bugs in it. We are waiting to get to the newest version to resolve our bug issues. We just upgraded from version 10 to 11.3 this week. We would like to have quicker turnaround times.

BG
Real User
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

When using MetaBot, we cannot viably search inside it. When we debugging the automation, we cannot see where the automation goes after doing a subtask. The object cloning is inaccurate sometimes, but this can be improved with future versions. For A2019, I am looking for a faster running bot because I am still experiencing delays when running the bot.

SS
Real User
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

While I am happy with the stability, it could use improvement. We have found that the passwords are not very stable in terms of their accuracy. We could only get 70 percent accuracy in these cases. Our clients require more accurate results. We are working toward this. We are looking into other applications and how they can be integrated, e.g., Google Analytics and Azure AI. Instead of developing from scratch within Automation Anywhere, we want to bring out these advanced capabilities from other platforms and integrate them into our platform requirements. Integration with a lot of existing platforms is going to be a game changer. We already see Automation Anywhere tied up with SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, and Microsoft. We expect that it will be tied up Google Cloud going forward. These type of improvements will increase the adoption rate of the tool and we can have a lot more use cases because a lot of companies they have already invested in ERP.

it_user1180137 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

Automation Anywhere is unable to connect to the database directly. What we are doing now is directly writing the PL/SQL scripts and trying to push the data from the database into Automation Anywhere. This feature is available in UiPath, but not in Automation Anywhere. I am unaware if Automation Anywhere is able to read unstructured data, build some intelligence around it, and then push it into the application. We do have some requirements in our organization where invoices are scanned, and based on the data, hard copies of the data are fed into some applications. Today, we are using different tools for these features, but if it is available in the tool, then that would be good.

GS
Real User
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

Security needs improvement. I need to understand the migration from desktop to cloud. There are questions around this that I need clarified, like: "How is it going to happen?" Migration is not easy. It will take time. Will the process be smooth? I have a few doubts.

SH
Real User
2019-09-03T07:33:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

Automation Anywhere has to be integrated with machine learning and AI systems to read images and videos, then put the information into another format.

VM
Real User
2019-09-03T07:32:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

While we have been developing over time, there have been issues with stability. The speed of automation needs to be improved.

NP
Real User
2019-09-03T07:32:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

I would like the product to have more capabilities going forward.

AG
Real User
2019-09-03T07:32:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

In the next release of this solution, I would like to see more OCR agents included. My customers would like to use the IQ Bot without having to invest more money in purchasing another license. If it is not possible to include IQ Bot in the basic package then, at least, the OCR features and the TaskBot can be enhanced. This would allow us to include small-scale industry, as well as large organizations. There is an issue with security where users can see the values in the credential vault. Because of this, we don't see the point in creating values inside the vault. This system should be able to handle situations with very there are very large volumes of data in Excel.

NS
Real User
2019-09-03T07:32:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

From a QA and development perspective, we would like to communicate with the tech support through email and have that put in the dashboard. This would let us better track the ticket and make it easier for us to communicate with Automation Anywhere. They recently integrate Oracle and SQL. I would like to have more integration and feature going forward.

Vatsal Shah - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2019-09-03T07:32:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

We have had issues with stability in the past, and there should be a function that helps you to find out what is wrong with your environment that is causing the automation to fail. We would like to have more information on how Python integration works, and how easily it can be done.

YP
Real User
2019-09-03T07:32:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

I would like OCR for video and text using the IQ Bot. It should also be available in an email tag format. I am waiting for them to add Java code.

AK
Real User
2019-09-03T07:32:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

We have a situation where the system is not capturing data properly. It is clicking on the UI but it is not able to expand. We have trouble with large volumes of data in Excel and are not getting good results. I want all the functionalities that they have in the Excel added to our existing version or an upcoming version of the product, e.g., Macros and VLOOKUP. We have had connectivity issues, such as the reporting of a bad gateway. We have integrated Automation Anywhere with our SQL database. I heard in version A2019 that we can easily integrate Python too, which is great news. Up until now, I have not been able to implement Python in our Automation Anywhere task bots. Though, we can integrate with other applications, like artificial intelligence, and this is better. We have not implemented this tool with our AI. We have AI and IBM Watson. We would like to get information (or services) from the Automation Anywhere team on how to connect and implement the AI, as this is a great thing in the market. I'm looking for what to do. Sometimes, we are facing issue in unattended. If unattended mode is not working, sometimes it will work in attended mode. However, I don't want anything in attended mode. The process is rule-based and logic-based. We just have to schedule, then if the user wants to run from the Control Room, they can. To run attended mode, we have to login into the VM to start it and human activity is required.

IN
Real User
2019-09-03T07:32:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

The stability of this solution depends on the processes, but I think that there is room for improvement in this regard. We are using Microsoft Dynamics, and it would help if they had a set of standard development specifications for each of these solutions.

RM
Real User
2019-09-03T07:32:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

Currently I am using AAEC 11.3.4 and A2019 version. Both are stable and have all the required features. If I will find anything which has to be focus on definitely recommend to AA team.

VB
Real User
2019-09-03T07:32:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

Built-in HTML features are lagging in this solution, whereas in UiPath, they are very good. We would like to see more improvements in the ability to retrieve region data because, currently, this is the reason that some of our automations fail.

MP
Real User
2019-09-03T07:32:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

The version that we are using has been difficult for us to code. As changes are very frequent, we have to make sure the code can be updated automatically so we don't have to make a change every time a user makes a change. Then, the user doesn't have to update us and we don't have to push a change to production. We have found a workaround with the help of the Automation Anywhere support people for this. Automation Anywhere is launching a new UI where you can add your own liabilities. That is a very good feature that is coming up. I would like some proper user manual guides where we can debug the problems on our own because the community feels stranded at the moment. You can't go and just find a solution. The solutions for the community are pretty small for now. We need it to be intelligent on its own, and that is not possible with an RPA solution.

SK
Real User
2019-09-03T07:32:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

We would like to be able to directly implement automation for Word documents and XML. Currently, we have to write a script or some code in Python, and there is no direct solution. Basically, I'm expecting some things that are more innovative. It would be great if technical support were a little faster. I would like to see more documentation for automation.

MV
Real User
2019-09-03T07:32:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

I would like to have the MetaBot screen name title dynamic instead of static. This would allow us to use wild card entries and make our lives much easier. As it is now, we cannot automate using MetaBot because the screen name changes. The only way it can be done is to use multiple MetaBots. We are having a problem when trying to automate the opening of very large Excel files. One example is our 70MB Excel file, which normally takes approximately twenty minutes to open. Automation Anywhere crashes before it opens, so we moved it to Instaknow-ACE, which is another RPA tool. It imports the Excel file, creates its own database, and then you perform whatever operation you want. After this, it generates the output result without crashing. If this were fixed in Automation Anywhere then it would be a large benefit because we are in a phase of moving away from smaller automation. We are doing a lot with bigger data, and most of it is still in Excel files instead of a database. It isn't the fault of Automation Anywhere because it is Excel that is crashing, but we need to have a feature where Automation Anywhere can import Excel files directly. The stability of this solution needs to be improved. The OCR capability needs to be improved to be made more accurate.

NP
Real User
2019-09-03T07:32:00Z
Sep 3, 2019

Better support for Excel is needed because there are a lot of limitations and we are having issues with it. We do a lot of Excel work, and if we could use it as a database then it would help a lot.

JP
Real User
2019-08-26T06:42:00Z
Aug 26, 2019

One thing about it that we have not found to be exceptionally useful are the built-in bot analytics, the Bot Insights. From our own extensive experimentation, as well as from what we've understood from other people using this solution, we've been able to come up with better solutions using our own in-house analytics and our own systems than through theirs. Also, we're seemingly plagued with certain technological issues or bugs. In particular, at the moment, we're in the middle of a pretty serious issue that's blocking our further development. We have been working with the Automation Anywhere support team on it, but it's been dragging on for a while now and we still haven't received a solution from them yet. We're hoping to get that resolved and move forward. There's definitely some funkiness or some jankiness, sometimes, with working with them.

MS
Real User
2019-08-26T06:42:00Z
Aug 26, 2019

On the cognitive side, some of their competitors, when we were originally shopping, were a little more advanced in that space. Making use of probabilistic outcomes and presenting them to a business user is a feature that, at the time of our evaluation, did not feel like a strong, mature solution for Automation Anywhere. Nevertheless, they won our business. That is one feature where I feel they are trying to make investments to address those gaps.

CD
Real User
2019-08-05T06:24:00Z
Aug 5, 2019

The Excel part needs improvement because we use it as a database. Right now, we are using UiPath for this feature, as that RPA tool allows us to sort, search, and filter in Excel databases. The IQ Bot is pretty immature, in regards to AI and machine learning. I would like them to add additional logic.

AS
Real User
Top 20
2019-07-29T10:12:00Z
Jul 29, 2019

Automation Anywhere needs to improve Excel and its commands. In Excel, if you want to add a sheet, you cannot add a sheet. There is no command for adding a sheet. Also, if you want to rename something in Excel, you cannot rename it. You always must keep a list that you can rename through your keyboard, but there is no specific command in Automation Anywhere. The email automation command also needs to be improved. The email automation command sometimes is not working properly. When you connect the mail server, it is not being done properly. The OCR feature is not that reliable. With the PDF command, you can only read structured data. If your data is in an unstructured format, there is no command for it in Automation Anywhere. Then, people need to use Python coding if their data is in unstructured format. Therefore, Automation Anywhere needs to improve in the PDF area.

SM
Real User
Top 20
2019-07-16T05:40:00Z
Jul 16, 2019

The functionalities and UI could be improved. We have HTML mode and Windows mode, but Automation Anywhere is limited in this. It would be better if they were able to provide different specification modes.

Priya Batish - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
Top 10
2019-07-16T05:40:00Z
Jul 16, 2019

#1 Exception Management and Notification: When you are making a code, and there is a happy path and exception management mechanism, it would be nice if there was feedback in terms of whether this is the most appropriate way to code this. I'm not sure how this can be done, but that could be very insightful. It already gives you some screen tips, but this could be done in a better fashion, in case you are creating the workflow and then you believe a beta workflow is available or could be done. If a screen tip could be given to the coder for this sort of workflow, this would be a much better feature for Automation Anywhere. # 2 Type of Cloning: I've realized that sometimes when screen-level cloning is a better option, people still use object-based cloning. It would be useful if Automation Anyone could give you tips recommending fewer steps or fewer areas of exception management after you inputted your code. I'm not really sure if this is doable from a technical standpoint. #3 Debugging: Currently, I believe the debugging of bot is a bit tricky and not very elegant, you might have to keep re-running the script to be able to identify the bug. This can be looked at, as a possible area of improvement. #4 Scheduling:There are two modules: the run module and the control center. In terms of scheduling and triggering, they could make it a bit more helpful and provide suggestions, e.g., if you are scheduling it, and there is a conflict, can you resolve it this way. Maybe you can get an upfront alert or something to that effect. #5: Stability, Workaround and fall back mechanism: When bot breaks down, is there any of mechanisms or notifications that can be given? You can possibly choose to notify people, typically in organizations people are pretty much adverse to automation. If something breaks down, they would like to know at the earliest given opportunity that something is breaking down and piling up. They want to be able to resolve it quickly. If the resolution is going to take time, they want to be able to make some specific workaround mechanism kick in. If a bot breaks down, immediately the fallback mechanism should work too. If there could be information in terms of when the process was out of range and somebody might need to take a look at what has happened. This is because most of these business processes that get automated are critical in nature and might have financial and operational impact. People need to know that there are working fine and not broken down. It can really have an adverse impact if they break down and nobody knows. #6. Platform Training: My experience has been that if the person who codes the bot is not very well-trained, then they might create unstable bots. So, it's not the platform. It is just how somebody has coded the bots which can bring in lot of instability to them. I recommend that when you are using a coder that the person well-trained and have a good amount of experience already working on bots. They shouldn't be newbie or beginner who comes in to code because that will impact the quality of the code itself.

reviewer1129443 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2019-06-20T11:05:00Z
Jun 20, 2019

I have noticed that after the bots have been delivered to run in a production environment, there are issues in terms of quality and performance. For example, if the government website takes too long to respond, or there is an apostrophe in names, then these exceptions are not handled in the bot. I would like to see a higher quality in the final bots that are delivered to production.

reviewer1126875 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant
2019-06-19T13:47:00Z
Jun 19, 2019

I would like to see a built-in read-only role for the control room so that the bot creators can log in and monitor the production environment without any auditing concerns. Currently, our development team cannot log into the production control room, due to audit concerns, and it would be beneficial to see the bots running, confirm the schedules, etc.

MW
Real User
2019-06-04T07:43:00Z
Jun 4, 2019

The scheduling is a little difficult at times. Rather than setting up individual instances, it would be really nice if we had the ability to set repetitive jobs easily. Right now, if you want a job to run every 15 minutes, you have to schedule it a lot of times. I'd rather have the ability to just say 'run every 15 minutes.' There could be some improvements made in the Control Room. I really like the concept of the application that they've got, so you can now access the Control Room from a mobile device, but there's only a lot of potential, there's not a lot of functionality there yet. That would be a great place for it to be able to expand, so you could have full functionality of the Control Room through a mobile device. And in general, I would like to the solution to get into more machine-learning/AI. I know that the IQ Bots are looking to go there, but there's definitely a lot more potential there as well.

MB
MSP
2019-05-31T11:27:00Z
May 31, 2019

Improvement areas will be there for everybody. I think one area which I would like to see improvement is in IQ Bot. Maybe it has improved a lot in version 11 X but I think that that's one area which definitely scope to improve.

SR
Real User
2019-05-27T09:37:00Z
May 27, 2019

Cloud was one of the features we wanted to see because it makes it much easier. The second feature is ease of use in terms of agnostic, which was released in the next few quarters. A lot of customers had been asking about the operating system agnostic, so today it runs mostly on Windows and I believe agnostic is also coming. There are a few features that we would love to have: running on the cloud, running on Linux, out of the box integration availability with larger ecosystems like Salesforce, Workday, or Microsoft. If somebody is using an AWS shop it should be much easier for them to use this. So there's a lot of room for improvement in terms of infrastructure, provisioning, cloud usability, and ease of use.

SN
Real User
2019-05-27T08:38:00Z
May 27, 2019

The focus on usability and user experience is bang on. Addressing several personas and making it easy for every persona to adopt and embrace is the spot on focus. That's an area that has a lot more room to improve. In the absence of that, the skills and expertise in the industry are going to struggle and if you need broader adoption, which has maximum potential, the persona-based user experience is a focus and I'd say Automation Anywhere is already working on.

RR
Real User
2019-05-27T08:38:00Z
May 27, 2019

Room for improvement is more on the IQ Bot side: How quickly we can adopt and deploy it? Another area which I feel would help is how the business can adopt it: * Is it easier for the business to make changes to the tool once it's deployed? * How can the business take up roles in the man-machine continuum? * How can the business and machine work together, and how does the role change for the business stakeholder. It's more on the change management side, but includes all of the tool enabler.

SF
Real User
2019-05-27T08:38:00Z
May 27, 2019

The areas for room for improvement are always going to be around experience, making it even easier to get engaged, and get started. Because lowering that threshold to get started is what enables an additional set of problems to be solved. So, I sort of look at it like a water level. If I can lower the water level, then there is more surface area of the business area exposed above the water, and that's the stuff that we can go solve.

JK
Real User
2019-05-27T08:38:00Z
May 27, 2019

The bot insides should come in the same package versus having it as a different bundle by itself. If we could have this product come with all the inside solutions altogether, that would help. I was talking the other day in a session that when we go into this, how do we ensure that the right security policies are in place? Because now, we are talking about people accessing these bots from anywhere outside of the restricted access zone. So, that is where we should put focus on, because it takes only somebody to snatch the phone and start breaching. Therefore, that is where we should put the focus on.

SM
Real User
2019-05-27T08:38:00Z
May 27, 2019

For now, because we just started using Automation Anywhere recently, it's probably a little difficult for me to answer that (room for improvement). But from the feedback that I've received from the team, it is a great tool. We're definitely looking forward to using it more in the future. Because we are very new to our process, so we're still sort of working through it. One of the features that I just learned about in this particular conference yesterday was about the Enterprise addition that they're just coming out with. I think in about six or seven days. So, that's very exciting because I don't particularly come from a programming background. I think it'll be really easy for us to continue to do more RPA-related processes, and not necessarily have to worry about having the right programmer on the team, or programmers, for that matter.

JH
Real User
2019-05-27T08:37:00Z
May 27, 2019

With the user interface, a lot of the parts of it I really like, but there are some things that could be made a little simpler. A little less clicking around here and dragging over there to use. My impressions of the Bot Store are I really love the idea of it. We've actually downloaded a couple of them and used them. One of the more recent ones was interesting. It required a license key, which kind of confused us. If it's freeware, why do you need a license key? But we got around it. What has also been nice, with the most recent bot from the Bot Store that we downloaded, it was developed by a vendor partner who we are partners with as well. So, when we had some issues with it, we were just put in contact with the developer at that same firm, then we were able to work through any issues. Subsequently, they have made updates to it and uploaded it back to the Bot Store, so it's actually great.

BW
Real User
2019-05-27T08:37:00Z
May 27, 2019

The IQ Bot has room for improvement. It is not that it doesn't do a lot of things today, it is just that it can do so much more. I think that that product is going to go crazy. The next big thing that you are going to see is the analytics engine. I think people finally realize that you can do analytics on what the bots are doing. I think that you will see that come alive in the next six to nine months.

BD
Real User
2019-05-27T08:37:00Z
May 27, 2019

I would like to see a lot around API integration going forward, like the ability for other systems to talk to the AI better by opening it up. I would like to see more chatbots or anything in the journey of making it truly immersive for human workers working with these bots. There are a couple things that have room for improvement: Its openness and more APIs should be exposed to allow people to integrate. How do you make it easier to integrate back with this technology? I would like it to do more predict, which means if I have a thousand bots in product, how do I check which of the bots may be at risk of failing? This would really help in supporting the bots when scaling the programs.

KB
Real User
2019-05-27T08:37:00Z
May 27, 2019

We did use quite a bit of Citrix automation. Of course, AI Sense helps you through that. There are two big challenges that I can think of with Citrix automation. * Your making multiple hops into end-to-end systems. * As you are rating the screen, which is a screen within a screen, which is what Citrix automation is, the complexity increases. That is where the two things will come in: the tool's functionality and the beauty of design. These two have to come in together to make it work. If you don't have one or the other, it's not going to work. Let us take the example: Guidewire. We all know Guidewire. The way that guidewire is set up in the organization, or any tool, is it goes into a VDI, and from the VDI, I go into the SAP VDI. From there, I will access my IBM mainframe system, so there are multiple hops. Unless you have any iSense, and also the best design, you will not be able to achieve the outcome that you wanted. One of the biggest challenge of automation is if you don't automate it, or if you don't execute the process then it is okay, but don't do it the wrong way. That is the biggest challenge that we try to solve. That's actually impacting the customer if I make a wrong decision. I'm okay to go back to the customer, and say, "I could not execute this process." But, I don't want to go back, saying that I executed the process in the wrong way. That's what we always believe in. When we go to customers and talk to them about automation, "Everything is great." We can automate their process. However, one of the biggest challenge that we see personally as we automate a task, but our automation of the process is very manual. The DevOps side of it has not yet evolved. That is one aspect that I would think about. The second aspect of it is the testing side of it. Right now, automation testing is really manual testing. On one side, we are saying automating with automation. On the other side, we are automating manually. These are not going that well. As Sage IT, we have products that we are building on top of it to solve this particular problem.

JS
Real User
2019-05-27T08:37:00Z
May 27, 2019

I believe version 11 is much better than the previous version we were using. They should make the product smarter. The bot we use right now is kind of fundamentally basic loop-based. We really want to see a little bit more advanced capability, that way we can undertake more comprehensive tasks.

SK
Real User
2019-05-27T08:37:00Z
May 27, 2019

One aspect of the solution that needs improvement is with respect to its stability. There are a lot of issues in the tool. There are a lot of breakdowns. We report these issues to Automation Anywhere and they come back with a fix, but it takes some time. At least the fact that we know those errors up front really helps us to design the code. However, with respect to some features, we've finished designing and then we realize that it's not going to work, so all our effort goes wasted.

DS
Real User
2019-05-27T08:37:00Z
May 27, 2019

MetaBots and Control Room may have some room for improvement.

DP
Real User
2019-05-27T08:37:00Z
May 27, 2019

The IQ Bot is a tremendous product. The more we can make the IQ Bot intuitive, as an application, and start connecting it to real-life examples, the more value it's going to bring to clients. The human training area is still something that needs to be improved. It's not so much the actual technology learning, but rather how you bring this to life with all the peripheral competencies that are needed for it. Incorporating some of the Lean Six Sigma type of principles into the process optimization, as well as the change management, would make it a much more comprehensive solution than what it is today.

JL
MSP
2019-05-27T08:37:00Z
May 27, 2019

We're in a digital world where everything's evolving. AI is coming out, so just looking at keeping moving, introducing new innovations into the product, nothing specific. The Automation Anywhere teams seem to know what the customers want.

DG
MSP
2019-05-27T08:37:00Z
May 27, 2019

One of the things that the product should have is to add more advanced level developer capabilities into the platform. I know it is easy for business, non-technical people. However, for the developers, there should be some more features within the product so they can build advanced level use cases much faster.

PH
Real User
2019-05-27T08:37:00Z
May 27, 2019

More interactions with PDFs would be great for Automation Anywhere. The ability to use more legacy technology for object cloning, flash plugins, etc. A lot of their Excel commands could use some improvement. I noticed sometimes the functions don't work properly or the ability to use over a macro isn't as efficient. So, definitely the Excel commands and the ability to use formulas for Excel could use improvement.

HP
Vendor
2019-05-27T08:37:00Z
May 27, 2019

A useful feature of Automation Anywhere, which is on the way, is the ability to use inline code for both Python and VBScript. The reason that this is so useful is a lot of the time people who are doing RPA are people with technical backgrounds who have been developers. Although, Automation Anywhere is very powerful, sometimes what you need to do is a very specific task which is accomplished more efficiently with code. So, I'm really excited that this feature is coming soon. Another feature that would be cool to see in Automation Anywhere is more use of artificial intelligence. Right now, RPA is basically limited to a bot which is simply following the instructions that it was given. However, what would be really useful is if a bot was able to more flexibly respond to issues. For example, sometimes there are erroneous errors and pop ups. With good code, you can certainly build your bots to be able to handle that. However, it does take time and a bit of technical know-how to be able to do that. But because a lot of those technical challenges tend to be pretty similar, I would like to see Automation Anywhere include more robustness into the way that errors are handled. The biggest area of improvement with Automation Anywhere is on the enablement side. A lot of the times, people have the capabilities with the tool, and it's all there, but it's not necessarily so easy to see that roadmap to RPA success. This is very new technology, and there's not a pre-walked path to success. It's unique to every organization, but there are certain commonalities. What Automation Anywhere could do to improve the solution is help customers understand what the tool is really capable of. Walk customers through what changes are needed both organizationally and in terms of infrastructure to really see success with RPA. I've seen customers who have the licenses. They have the know-how. They have all the pieces from Automation Anywhere to achieve success. But, where they fell short was there maybe wasn't necessarily commitment from the right stakeholders within the organization or maybe there were other forces which were holding things back. What they needed was vision for it: * How can they operate efficiently? * How should it work? * How should it look? * What roles are needed? These are the areas where I've seen customers struggle, and somewhere where Automation Anywhere could really improve.

RT
Real User
2019-05-09T13:13:00Z
May 9, 2019

Having some more pre-mapping and pre-setup analysis of what you're going to be doing with it would be helpful.

PC
Real User
2019-05-07T23:23:00Z
May 7, 2019

Operationally, there's room for improvement, especially in the area of high-availability and deployment. In high-availability, we have two Control Rooms acting as a cluster so if one fails the other one will take over. But that's not our environment operationally, and the latest information we have is that they identified another product bug. We have come through a number of issues with them and they've been very good at fixing them, but we've gone through four different patches to get things working, and currently, we're not working in a clustered environment.

AZ
Real User
2019-05-02T07:06:00Z
May 2, 2019

There are two big pain points for me. One is communication of all known bugs and the issues with the current versions that users that might be on. A heads-up of known issues would be a nice-to-have. If we're spinning our wheels, and we have that piece of information, it would make it a lot easier to either justify an upgrade or a process change here, to handle that particular bug or issue, given that it's a system-wide known issue. The second thing is that we have a lot of use cases that depend on certain Java applets, and currently we're not able to leverage the Object Cloning that would speed up our automation designing. So we have to revert to more image recognition-type of designing, and it just takes a long time to get that bot built. We have one, solely web-based use case, and we can deploy those kinds of use cases fairly quickly and then make modifications on the fly with them. But when we have these other use cases that leverage image recognition, it makes it difficult to be agile and to do updates or edits fairly quickly. Those are the two biggest pain points and opportunities. I have raised these issues with Automation Anywhere and they've mentioned that the automation piece is something that they're currently unable to do, but it's somewhere on the roadmap to deploy. We just haven't received the date for when it will be.

AD
Real User
2019-04-29T16:02:00Z
Apr 29, 2019

The object cloning that exists cannot capture 80 percent of the objects that we need it to capture.

AB
Real User
2019-04-22T09:21:00Z
Apr 22, 2019

Reliability and error handling should be improved.

JH
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

While the Automation Anywhere University is good, the estimates of the time that it takes to complete it are a little low, especially when you start watching all the videos thoroughly. One of the courses that they said would take six or eight hours was closer to 16 to 20 hours. I noticed that from version 10.5 to 11.3 the number of clicks to start a bot through the Control Room and Schedule Manager have increased. In certain cases, I would like to see that become simpler, faster, and easier. I would love to be able to schedule things based on business case. Right now, the Schedule Manager is either once a day or pick days of the week with times. However, in the financial industry, I sometimes need to run something on the third business day of every month. At the moment, I don't really have a way to set that up in the Schedule Manager. I would like to see some improvement in error handling. That would be great. Sometimes, the errors that you get back are awfully generic. It is like you have to do a lot of research to figure out what the issue is. I would love to see a little smoother integration with some different types of platforms, technologies, and user interfaces.

BB
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

I would like to see more bots available right out-of-the-box in the SAP area. For example, if you take the overall OTC in our organization, we have to contact 15 teams. Even if we provide one big bot for the OTC, it won't work. It will not be used by one person. So if there could be more specific bots out-of-the-box, that would be really helpful. An example would be a credit check. There might be one there but I'm just giving an example where it would be specifically targeting a single process. More Meta Bots would also be good because they are reusable. If we had more of them that would make it faster for whomever is working on them and make the process more seamless. They would be able to build the bots very fast.

PP
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

It would be nice to have the IQ Bots integrated with the Enterprise Edition without requiring extra licenses. That would be great.

SN
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

OCR capabilities are what we're looking for. We started using IQ Bot but we are not utilizing it to the extent that we would like because of some technical issues. We would like to see some development on that side. It would also help if they integrated AI and other predictive analytics into this solution.

AA
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

In terms of the usability, the drag-and-drop, instead of being able to type, makes it hard for somebody with a programming background to get used to it. The drag-and-drop slows down development; I can't just keep my hands on my keyboard, I have to use my mouse as well. The bot creation process is tedious. The solution has a lot of features, but since you have to drag down a lot of the commands, it can get tedious to use it. You end up having to use the mouse a lot more. You can't do it as fast as if, say, you just typed it out on a keyboard. Since I do a lot of bot development, I'd like a different way to develop them, other than dragging the commands down. If there were a way to type out the commands, to make it a little bit easier or a little bit faster to create the automation, that would be good. Integrating this solution with other applications is hit or miss, depending on the application. For some applications it's very easy and then sometimes, for others, it's very difficult. There are occasions when, the first time, the application doesn't work at all, so we have to use commands that are not as consistent.

SR
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

There have been a lot of nuances in the technologies that are missing. Being a tech company, where the technology is moving forward, I'm excited to see what is coming in the near future. At this point in time, the installation is one of the biggest challenges in terms of being on a particular instance. Also, we've been working very closely with Automation Anywhere on some of the integrations. There are some workarounds we have had to do, but I think in the newest features of version 11.3 there are things like callback, especially for the API integrations. We are looking forward to that. There is room for improvement in that it is still on Windows and there is no self-service. Even though the product is easy to use, there are some challenges when we move across different environments; there's a lot of setup needed.

JP
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

My team has taken courses through the Automation Anywhere University. The courses have been good. They have helped us, but it could improve some things, like how the courses are designed.

OM
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

I would like a better code migration solution, because this is something that we do a lot.

SR
MSP
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

An additional feature we would like to see is the inclusion of a particular kind of scripting in the development environment itself.

JF
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

If there were one thing I could ask for it would be a text-based language. Right now it's proprietary, so you always have to go through the tool, even for things like basic compares. What we're trying to do is spin up other teams to get them using more and more of it. That would help, the basic .NET for basic tasks. The language itself has been working well. They should just keep doing what they're doing.

GB
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

I would like more integration into the entire Microsoft Suite of products, not just Excel. Companies use all of Microsoft products at the same time, and being good at just one Microsoft tool is a limiting factor. Being able to use Microsoft Excel, Access, and Outlook together and have them integrated (as standard) into the tool would be very useful, especially when you go into attended automation. They keep rolling out more features in selected areas. They should broaden their scope.

MG
MSP
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

I have not seen bots working efficiently in the area of reporting.

VS
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

We are looking forward to seeing it in the cloud and how it works there. It needs more functionality and customizability for bots.

JA
Vendor
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

From an ease of use point of view, on a scale of one to ten with ten being really easy, I would rate the tool a six. The interface is not intuitive for business users who are used to seeing the process on a flow chart, like a Visio workflow diagram. This may be because of the nature of the way the interface is structured and the way the functions are built in list type of format. I feel like there is a bit of a learning curve for anyone who is new to the program. As with everything, it takes time and you start to get better at it.

SH
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

It does not easily integrate with customized solutions. I would like to see more Excel functionality, especially around the copy and paste functions. A lot of our business users utilize the copy/paste special values. We are currently not getting any formatting, etc. It is just a raw data set. To fix this, there are some workarounds that Automation Anywhere needs to build into the app. This would make it a lot easier for us. Automation Anywhere should better vet their partners and resellers for their packs.

WH
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

We would like to have collapsible code loops. It would be nice to upload a project, instead of individual files, so we can look at file and versions changes. We would like to have more features inline with our traditional IDE, like what is in Visual Studio.

HP
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

We would like it to be more user-friendly.

VJ
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

While the ease of use for non-tech users is good, it could be improved. I would like to see extensive OCR capabilities in the next release. That is a must. They need to make the solution more robust.

HS
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

They could improve the learning curve.

LR
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

I would like to have a bot as a service platform on AA Cloud. This would minimize the installation process, and we wouldn't need to have all the hardware to support the platform in-house.

TE
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

* The development environment needs to be improved. * Making edits across files is hard. * Not being able to resize Windows has proven challenging.

VK
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

We had initial hiccups, like any new process. It took us six to eight months to sort the product out. It has been two years, and we know what we are doing and which use case work better for us. We would like to use the mobile feature and give access to our users, but we don't know how.

MR
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

I would like to see a bot button.

SK
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

I know Automation Anywhere is available for front-end applications, but I don't know how it deals with the back-end. If they are sending technology which comes through to the back-end, that would be a big evolution in the industry. Citrix is only in the development stage. Automation Anywhere could put some time into improving this more.

AS
Reseller
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

I would like to see web and cloud-based platforms for future releases.

AJ
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

While you don't a coding skill set as a business user, you do need to have some knowledge before using the product. We would like Automation Anywhere to have a way to run a capacity check on machines and show us what is available.

BG
Reseller
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

I just came to understand that there is a cloud attached to it. I would like to see how the cloud is going to work, because every application is coming out with a cloud version. If you are not on-premise, then you will need to have Citrix automation.

JD
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

I would like better support for migration objects.

JL
Vendor
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

Integrating this solution with other application has been good for the most part. A lot of the issues that I have are related to the actual applications than with Automation Anywhere. Any additional functionality which comes out in regards to integrating it better with more widely used applications, like Salesforce, Oracle, or Workday, is definitely beneficial and helpful at the end of the day. I have been hearing great stuff in terms of upping the product's cognitive game. Anything that can be done to work with unstructured data sets would be helpful, like increasing the subjectivity of bots, and moving away from solely rules based processes to anything which actually requires subjective judgment. If Automation Anywhere could code that into the bot design and framework, having it sort of act like a human, that would be helpful. Anything that can be done to increase the stability from a system standpoint in regards to large-scale systems, which are being used by a number of applications, e.g., Salesforce or Workday. This would help us, as well. Automation Anywhere should work to continue maintaining its ease of use.

JP
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

The ease of use is improving for development. We've had a lot of issues with the installation and performance on a variety of computers, onshore and offshore. Our network bounds multiple domains, and we've had issues there, as well. So, we are looking forward to the web-based development versions. The bot creation process is getting better. The general development process and change management deployment process is moving more towards enterprise-level and catching up with the more mature software industry around it. So far, the cognitive document processing is not available at the enterprise level. However, this is being worked on by Automation Anywhere. I would like them to start building continuity between employees and customer contacts. There are a lot of new features coming with the release of version 11.

SD
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

Automation Anywhere has some limitation with its integrations. You can build your logic with MetaBots and .NET components, e.g., if something is not gathered by Automation Anywhere or built into functionality, you can write a MetaBot. A MetaBot is like an external component. You can write it through C# or .NET code, and make a DLL, and import it. This is not open to all data types or EXE functionalities which can be written through C#. You have to define your variable types, matching them with Automation Anywhere existing variable types. Because of the knowledge required, I cannot let another person, who doesn't know Automation Anywhere, build my external DLL code. They are already addressing some concerns that I have been having, like having cascaded code blocks, which is very helpful for developers to use when finding and debunking codes. Until now, we haven't had collapsible cascaded code sections in Automation Anywhere. This is not typical, as any IDE will usually have it, on any language. The current interface for business users is not intuitive, as it is a code-based view. A business user wanting to develop a process may find the interface a bit elusive. Automation Anywhere is now working on a process flow view with a drop and drop, which should be better for business users. There is not much guidance for implementing DevOps, like continuous development. Nowadays, the technology has come for the deployment part, it should be part of Continuous Integration and Continuous Development (CI/CD). With Jenkins or TeamCity, there is a job, and I want to see them have integration with Automation Anywhere, so we can directly code check-in, run, test, and deploy. Now, we are doing this manually for deployment, but I want to see a DevOps job instead.

TS
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

I would like to have a cloud-based version with support.

AK
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

It is reasonably useful for developers. It can be a challenge for a developer, as it limits what they can do. I would like centralized orchestration and better exception handling in the next release. Because of the stability of the application and how it interacts with some of our legacy applications, it does cause difficulties.

KW
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

A lot of the features that I want to see going forward will be included in the next release. We have been a little frustrated by the frequency of cache releases.

it_user1008225 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

When it comes to integrating the solution with other applications, there are some challenges. For some third-party solutions, there are no direct interconnections. For example, there were no direct connections with SAP systems. So, we had to create connectivity between Automation Anywhere and some third-party solutions. They have now improved that situation a lot and we can connect SAP and other systems as well. If they want to sustain their position in the market, they have to be flexible, working on how we can integrate with third-parties, working on a machine-learning product. People are expecting that and it would be really helpful. From the IQ Bot perspective, frankly speaking, they still have to improve a lot. I got IQ Bot training in San Jose. My expectation from a straight, technical, architectural point of view was that I would be able to create my own algorithm and integrate it. But with IQ Bot, I am not able to integrate anything. It is already well-defined, so I have to use that particular option only. I know I can not go with any other machine-learning platform. I hope they will be coming out with version 12 where we can integrate it with Python algorithms and other stuff. It might only be in the future, it might only be on the roadmap. But as of now, it is lacking a lot in that area. We are expecting, for most of the documentation, things like tags, that there would be a checkbox option. That's lacking in IQ Bot.

TT
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

In the debugging mode, it writes all the logs to text files, but it doesn't ever clean them up. We had one that got to 200K, and it bogged our whole machine down. We couldn't figure out what was going on until we found out that we had a 200K file sitting out there. We would like some sort of maintenance on the log files going forward.

BR
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

I would like more integration around main applications, e.g., SAP. Automation Anywhere has to keep their RPA tool connected to everything to maintain it in the RPA market.

SS
MSP
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

We are still looking into some of its current capabilities, like IT Bot.

JD
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

The only challenge is knowing the process of using the software. I would like to have Git implemented with the version control system. Sometimes, the recorder from Automation Anywhere does not work well and is inaccurate. This should be improved.

JB
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

I would like more with OCR and data capture. We are partnering with IBM to help bridge this gap, but Automation Anywhere should continue to expand on their product line and provide these capabilities, as well. The installation and setup for the bot runners and bot creators need improvement. The installation and setup for the control room is also a difficult task. Therefore, improving the ease of implementation would help out a lot.

it_user1070898 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

It has been challenging integrating Automation Anywhere with other solutions, due to all of the controls, as we are a bank. We are really excited to have Python run directly from the bots. This would be a massive upgrade, as we could integrate AI even further with the solution. There is room for improvement in AI, but they are working on it. They can work more on integrating the code. I would like to see more similar examples where we don't have to create the code in the bot, but can create the code in the Workbench.

SK
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

I would like to have the ability to schedule bots by whichever one is available.

DJ
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

They designed the bot creation process where we can drag and drop and all of the commands are available to us on the left side of the screen, but in some ways, it can be overwhelming. There is a lot at a developer's fingertips to do their development process. I would like the ability to extract the code. You can go line by line, then open up each line of code and dig into the details, but it would be nice to extract all of the lines of code and all of the details into a document so we could read through everything. Right now, there is no way to really consume all of the code at once, except line by line, which can be fairly time consuming if we don't really know what we are looking for. As we deploy more solutions and take advantage of some of the features, like the Credential Vault, where we are introducing new administrative processes, we continue to have to go in and change passwords on a monthly basis. Tools that would make these administrative tasks more streamlined is an area where Automation Anywhere could really add value.

SN
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

A lot more can be done to make the solution easy for developer to use. While it is good as a base product, it could have better logging and alerting features. We would like the tools to have more usability, especially for humans in the middle. Other solution features which are offered by competitors, like IBM, should now be part of the part of the Automation Anywhere suite of products. I need high value products to be created, so I need integration with other solutions. Machine learning and AI need to be integrated with Automation Anywhere. While IQ Bot is a good beginning, our company does not work with manual paperwork since we are already digital. We would like to see more integration with cognitive tools going forward.

SK
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

It is a difficult solution to use for back-end processes. We can automate easily, but we have to use more functions. We would like to see more GUI-based automation instead. They do not include the basic functionality of column headers in Excel worksheets. This is missing, and we need it. We cannot currently copy data and send it on an email.

TC
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

They could improve around continuous integration, e.g., Jenkins and GitHub, stating how you could use those products and integrating them into Automation Anywhere. This is one area that we need to see more improvement on. We had to learn a lot of this on our own, as it is unavailable and not documented. I would like for them to be more verbose in putting this in the documentation. In the next release, we would like to see more error handling functions for the bots, the ability to kill an errant bot, and have more visibility into a lot of the process flows going on in a more automated fashion. There is a lot guesswork in areas.

KP
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

The bot processing is a bit slow.

LC
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

The solution doesn't offer all the capabilities that we need, so we have to use it in conjunction with other software. The bot creation process is a little tricky, since our company is not setup to accommodate a bot. Therefore, it has been a bit tricky and time consuming. However, we are getting there. I would like to see more capabilities in the next release.

ZM
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

The product is still lacking some features. However, I know that Automation Anywhere is continually improving it.

it_user388044 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

I would like to see integration better integration with Excel and SAP.

NR
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

* I would like to see more complex use cases coming out for our industry. * I would like to know how it can scale using enterprise data, especially for back office.

FF
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

Our developers are looking forward to code versioning. I would like to see GitHub or GitLab integration in the next version. It would be nice to have more screen scraping features for legacy systems. This needs improvement, because it doesn't work very well at the moment. I would also like to see cloud capabilities, but they announced that is coming.

DS
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

I would like to have a command that allows me to add code, like C#. As a developer, this would be helpful.

VP
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

The commands are not working 100 percent as the developers thought that they would. We tried Citrix six months ago, but the solution that they gave us did not work in our environment. I would like the IQ Bot to have plug and play functionality.

JG
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

Getting the bot design into the developer's hands is taking longer than we initially anticipated. I like the ability to grant specific permissions to specific users and want to see this rolled out in future versions.

SK
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

There are some places where Automation Anywhere needs improve a lot, especially from an integration perspective. We have had to build our own scripts to make this happen, building a bot in Automation Anywhere, along with some scripts. However, we have not yet implemented the Automation Anywhere MetaBots. So, once the MetaBots are implemented in our area, we should be able to achieve more. If the bots become more stable, we can completely avoid using our additional scripts. I would like to see the record management, data tracking, and database feature. Some of these have been implemented in the version 11. I have not used the latest release, version 11. Also, if some various cable features which come out with it, that will be really helpful.

NW
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

Working with the Automation Anywhere servers and domains have proven to be difficult. We are trying to get more licenses and servers set up, so we can run multiple scenarios simultaneously. I am excited for the web browser Automation Anywhere. This will be helpful for us because the solution is limited to our team at the moment. A web browser solution would allow us to expand it to different teams.

RS
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

We have had some quirkiness happen when integrating the Automation Anywhere with other solutions, such as weird Excel issues or temperamental legacy system issues.

JC
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

There are a few things that could be done better, so we can monitor properly. They need to improve in terms of development and enhancements. We need to get the right feature sets in place as an enterprise. We would like to use Citrix going forward. We use Bot Runners to scale up, and it gets to be expensive. Using Citrix, it can mitigate costs.

JA
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

I am looking forward to seeing writing on Linux in the web and WorkBatch in the next release.

AM
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

The support and user community need improvement. For example, it would be nice to have a place for those who create bots to have a place to share information and success stories.

JP
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

We have had some difficulty with ease of use. As far as getting the overall architecture setup, we had a lot of difficulties ensuring the control room was installed correctly and that we were setting up our runner machines correctly, as well. Some of that was due to our own IT not being fully up-to-date on the process and being properly informed. We also just found the install procedures somewhat cumbersome to use. In addition, we have had some difficulties getting it to interact in predictable ways with our in-house software. We would like a smoother process for moving bots and tasks between the different development environments, from development to testing to production. We find this to be pretty cumbersome to work through.

KH
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

The bot creation process is straightforward in some ways and complicated in others. You can get your initial stuff laid out really quick, but then putting in your exception handling is more time consuming. It is awesome because it takes two hours to get things initially done. However, then it takes another two months to work through everything else, such as infrastructure and moving from development to QA to production. When I change the name of a variable in the Variable Manager, I would really like it to change in the code. We just added coding standards where I had to spend hours going through and recoding existing bots, because anything needing a change had to match our coding standards, and that now includes variable names. I just spend two days renaming variables in a bot. While it should have been superfast in the Variable Manager, I had to go through every single line of code, rename all of them, and inevitability, I will miss one. If I have already assigned a variable do something, it makes sense that if I change the name of the variable, then it should change in the code.

ED
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

Anything that can be done to simplify the solution. I would love to see it where anybody who can run Excel will be able to create bots. Right now, I am watching everyone around me struggle with the tool. I do think the tool is getting there. From an IT perspective, we had too many issues and headaches. From an IT perspective, the migration is still very complicated, getting everything set up and running. Security was an issue for us, as well. Developers had to come through our firewalls to develop bots, internally. However, they were coming through a Citrix platform, so there were breakpoints in things they were trying to automate, file servers they were trying to get to, and FTPs that they couldn't get through. I understand the next version will have support for Citrix, which might solve some of our problems.

SB
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

The bot creation process is easy enough with its drag and drop, then add some logic. However, once you're done with it, you can't really work outside the tool that the AI provides. It is drag and drop, then work right there.

PP
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

With Citrix, we need a dedicated server to work with it. This has become complicated, as it is not easy to pull all the systems together into one place. It would be better if the Automation Anywhere team could make this easy and simple. We would like to see AI incorporated into the tool. With the cognitive capabilities, they need to be improved to handle unstructured data. The screen scrapping needs to be improved. Some of the commands, like object cloning and OCR, are not so reliable when we are automating five to ten websites into the same task. Also, when we autofill fields, the comments are not so reliable.

RR
Real User
2019-04-21T07:45:00Z
Apr 21, 2019

The product is not the best that it could be. There is always room to improve it a bit more. They are heading in the right direction with their innovations.

GB
Real User
2019-03-27T13:45:00Z
Mar 27, 2019

I am interested in discovery, and what this means for companies like mine. I think the pricing model should be more flexible.

Kumar Animesh - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
Top 5
2019-02-19T08:38:00Z
Feb 19, 2019

I'd like to see the OCR feature be perfected. Today we get an accuracy ratio from OCR of around 40 percent to 50 percent only. Better OCR would be very useful in the industry because most of the documents in the banking sector are scanned and hand-written and they want to compare them with other documents. I would also like to see them provide more support: profile documents and guidance. It would also help to have use-case demos available publicly, not on the Automation Anywhere website. Overall, better promotion of the solution would be good for Automation Anywhere.

SM
Real User
2019-02-10T10:06:00Z
Feb 10, 2019

Automation Anywhere is a tool. It is not able to go ahead and extract the hand-written documents. Most of the automation tools that we have in the market are not able to get an accuracy of close to 80 to 90 percent on hand-written documents. So, I'm eagerly looking at a release from Automation Anywhere, wherein they could plug in an LP or look at some sort of a platform which could convert hand-written documents into a readable format. If they could bring in they own platform, this would make a big in-roads for the entire automation industry. If it is able to integrate with any plug-ins available on the market which could read hand-written documents, that would be good. IQ BOT is one cognitive bot that they have launched, and if they could extend this particular cognitive bot to hand-written documents, then they would have an edge over other automation giants already in existence. Recently, they launched the business analytical dashboard, which is cutting-edge. We can see in real-time the business dynamics and the way the metrics are behaving when the bots are being run. If we could have a ready-made application allowing for input processes and metrics into it. Then, it provides the approach that you should take to start the automation and when the process should expect to be completed. Automation Anywhere already has bots stores and digital workers being enabled on the website. Instead of putting it on the website, if a couple of digital workers could be made inherent in the tool itself, then the customer who is buying the package gets an edge over other partners or other vendors. E.g., if Automation Anywhere could package a digital worker along with my existing tool, as sort of an add-on, then that would add value to my package. Similarly, if I am from SCN, maybe an SAT module digital worker could add value. There are hundreds of codes or utilities available. 60 percent just go down the drain and are never used, because there is no utility towards them. If they did something like Amazon, a pay-as-you-go, to get a digital worker, it would be cutting-edge technology. This would save costs for me and would optimize my implementations. The same benefits could then be shared with my customers.

BB
Real User
2019-02-05T07:17:00Z
Feb 5, 2019

I would like to see more stability around scheduling a bot to run headless. I believe version 11 may be more stable and have less issues when trying to run headless.

KG
Real User
2019-02-04T08:44:00Z
Feb 4, 2019

We faced a big challenge when moving from AA9 to 10. That was a nightmare. The whole process took six months to one year because we had to do it for 12 to 15 clients in my organization and I was leading the Automation Anywhere deployment for 25 clients. The biggest issue was that the new license required upgraded hardware infrastructure so we were getting all new tech stuff procured which meant that we were getting updated RAMs and things like that. Getting the licenses was easier but building the infrastructure which was required to support the new version was difficult.

it_user973275 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2019-02-03T08:26:00Z
Feb 3, 2019

Automation Anywhere is troublesome for some people because of the way it is organized. It's organized as an encrypted script, which gets run via a domain-specific language which the user sees. There's a loss of overhead on the computing resources in Automation Anywhere. If you have an encrypted bot, the Automation Anywhere software has to read it first, decrypt it, and run it. So there is a potential that, if the logic of the bot isn't good enough, a lot of CPU and memory overload will happen. This is something that Automation Anywhere should look at because it takes a lot of computing resources. I have seen CPUs running at 100 percent. In terms of additional features, if I am dealing with a dynamic workflow where the workflow might change based on the input parameters, then Automation Anywhere doesn't help me because the code is pretty much fixed. When I need those types of workflows I go to UiPath.

PK
Real User
Top 20
2019-01-16T07:54:00Z
Jan 16, 2019

We have a few issues which have persisted. These end up restarting the machine. We are hoping in version 11.3 of Automation Anywhere, our compatibility and infrastructure issues will be resolved.

EM
Real User
2019-01-13T11:37:00Z
Jan 13, 2019

The main things I've found that could be better are small things that can be annoying when you're using them a lot. I would recommend they add a feature where, if you mark the start of an "If" sentence it will highlight the end of the "If" sentence. That would make it easier to get a better overview. The small things are the most important in our day-to-day work with their software. Incremental improvements for a better overview or better user experience would help. Also, we would like to see more options for merging and un-merging PDFs. More flexibility there would be good. We've figured out ways around this and, using their software, we've been able to do everything we wanted to do. It just took a bit more time to do it. We were on version 10.5 and in their Bot Store they actually had a bot that did exactly what we wanted to do, but it was for Version 11.0. I find that they are making a lot of improvements that we are able to take advantage of with every release. I can't really think of something large that's missing.

PK
Real User
2019-01-06T18:17:00Z
Jan 6, 2019

There is room for improvement when this application is used in a Citrix-based environment. Another thing I have noticed is that the previous version does not have log functionality. If an external audit is happening, those logs are not available to show what changes have happened in the application. But in the new version they improved it and now those logs are available. So when our external audit came, we were able to demonstrate that whatever changes are happening in the application are getting logged somewhere and saved for future reference. In the future, if any fraud happens, we'll be able to backtrack that fraud into that application.

W"
Real User
2018-12-30T11:29:00Z
Dec 30, 2018

Regarding the integration with source control, when there's a large number of operations the bulk operations need a little bit more maturity. Also, regarding the UI, once you're in some of the screens there are fixed dialogues. They are a set size, so there's a lot of horizontal scrolls and vertical scrolls. Those are things that can be addressed in the future. The integration and having it inside the applications are far more important than these pesky complaints. But I get to a lot of scrollbars when I'm reading code. Sometimes I have to keep scrolling and moving up and down and it's a bit of a nuisance because I'm focusing more on navigating than on the actual logic that I'm trying to read through. A little bit more friendliness in the UI would help. I came from OpenSpan and Pega and it's a different approach as far as the coding goes. One thing I feel limited in, in Automation Anywhere, is that sometimes they give these wonderful screens where you can do conditional loops or branching with the "If" statements and they'll have these built-in features for if a window exists or if a folder exists or if a process is running. But if I want to do something that is more purely business-related and is somewhat complex to write or is nuanced, I sometimes have trouble implementing that inside of the Automation Anywhere script. I feel limited at times with some of the looping and some of the branching and some of the ways to make procedure calls when I have a complex business issue. Where it's really great, where it's very simple, is for me to see if a window exists, to see if a process is running or if I'm waiting for a window to close. On the flip side, let's say we're in capital markets and they have a complex business rule for some of the analysis. I don't know how well the product would handle that case. I can't say that it can, I can't say that it can't, I just have concerns of how that would be done, at this point. Coming from a couple of years of using a competitor, I do know exactly how I would do that in the other code and I do know it can handle it. One thing I can say is, even with that concern, I do know we can add scripts for JavaScript and Visual Basic scripts, so if we need to extend the product, we do have that option. I would like to see some other languages like Java or C# added to that as well, but I have questions about that. I may be able to do that through a MetaBot so that's a question I would have to ask support about, but I'm not there yet. Whatever limitations are there, I think we can still extend outside of the product.

GF
Real User
2018-12-19T10:49:00Z
Dec 19, 2018

There are general performance issues which are probably being addressed in the latest versions. To clarify, we currently we don’t have any issues, but during our implementation we had cases for which we needed to open tickets with the AA helpdesk.

RF
Real User
2018-12-19T10:26:00Z
Dec 19, 2018

* Object cloning - This component seems to be unstable in version 10.7. We have run tests in version 11.2 and they seem to work much better there. During development/test cycles it is common to see object cloning components that were working previously stop full of a sudden. In these cases we usually migrate those components to MetaBots. * Schedule queue - Scheduling is allowed at intervals of 30 mins. Having this interval reduced to 15 mins would allow better control of taks that run more quickly. The ability to schedule bots to run in different time zones would also be a great addition. * Control Room - Enabling the ability to customize it would be a great addition. In version 10.7 we need to pay attention to the URL to differentiate between Dev, QA, and Prod. We could also use the function to create our own custom dashboards. * Give MetaBots the ability to work with objects in applications running on a terminal server. This functionality would be a great help to developers.

NK
Real User
2018-10-25T18:37:00Z
Oct 25, 2018

Yes, the support from Automation Anywhere has room for improvement. Because we have contracts with Deloitte, and now that Automation Anywhere has its Japan office, things would be smoother if we could pose questions directly to their Japan office regarding “Bottasan” and FAQs.

NT
Real User
2018-10-25T18:25:00Z
Oct 25, 2018

In terms of features to add, they seem to have good grip on the future to come, for example, they already have incorporated cognitive technology called IQ Bot which translates semi-structured data into structured data. We have not tried it yet though.Working with this vendor can sometimes be challenging because their service quality on simple business operations like invoicing could be bad. I have received wrong invoices several times. Maybe this is a problem only with their new branch offices.

JS
Real User
2018-10-25T18:16:00Z
Oct 25, 2018

E.g., when the robot handles tasks, there are triggers. It could be triggered when it receives an email, when it finds a file, when the specified time comes, etc. As there are many outside points of contact, it’s hard to understand how they are prioritized when a trigger priority is the same. Since I wouldn’t know which trigger is being prioritized unless I actually give it a try, I want a clear understanding of it. Also, please make it possible to set a trigger with the control room.

it_user949512 - PeerSpot reviewer
Real User
2018-10-25T17:46:00Z
Oct 25, 2018

I have submitted requests to Automation Anywhere regarding feature expansion. There are two major issues. The first is that I would like to see functionality that will improve development efficiency. The second is to be able to schedule the management of bots. I asked for functionality that would reinforce the scheduling.

KH
Real User
2018-10-25T07:01:00Z
Oct 25, 2018

It’s not about the solution itself, but our administrative work is mostly done in the morning. This is something I have been speaking to Automation Anywhere about. If they could offer licenses only for use in the morning, we’d have a bigger savings cost-wise. Currently, the license is good for 24 hours, but there is not much to do at night and plenty to do in the morning. So, if we could use more in the morning, that would be a great, as we also have a bot farm. This is also when we increase the number of tasks to be stabilized. If they are managed within the client or server, there will be a risk of losing the service in case of emergencies, such as power outage. Therefore, we are working to manage them virtually on servers. With Deloitte’s help, we have been setting up a structure where we can get the robots to work without having the client. That would hopefully ensure stability and viability in case of emergencies. If we could hire part-time workers on shift-based employment, that would be ideal.

RM
Real User
2018-10-25T07:01:00Z
Oct 25, 2018

I’ve already mentioned the future of our human mind and thinking are limited. We only think in arithmetical progression, not GP. So, I have no answer for this. When you scale up, like on Proof of Value (PoV), it’s okay. You can have one full, dedicated person working on the site. However, when you scale up, and imagine there are 150 people including bots in an organization of 20,000 people, then they need to be loved and cared for (every single one of them). They will need much more support, because it is a new thing and it’ll never fail because of productive partners. It will fail if people on the “gemba” don’t adopt it.

Automation Anywhere is the leader in intelligent automation solutions that put AI to work across every aspect of an organization. The company’s Automation Success Platform is powered with specialized AI, generative AI and offers process discovery, RPA, end-to-end process orchestration, document processing, and analytics, with a security and governance-first approach. Automation Anywhere empowers organizations worldwide to unleash productivity gains, drive innovation, improve customer service...
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