eWEEK is building a new IT products and services section that encompasses most of the categories that we cover on our site. In it, we will spotlight the leaders in each sector, which include enterprise software, hardware, security, on-premises-based systems and cloud services. We also will add promising new companies as they come into the market.
Today: Automation Anywhere (IT automation and robotic software)
Company description: Automation Anywhere was founded in 2003 and provides an enterprise-grade robotic process automation (RPA) platform with built-in cognitive solutions and analytics. More than 1,000 global organizations use the platform to manage and scale their business processes faster, with near-zero error rates, while dramatically reducing operational costs.
Automation Anywhere is privately held and based in San Jose, Calif. Mihir Shukla is the company’s CEO.
Markets: Financial services, insurance, health care, manufacturing, logistics, retail and technology
International Operations: Automation Anywhere has offices in the United States, Canada, India, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and Singapore.
Products and Services
Automation Anywhere Enterprise is the culmination of more than a decade of research, development and innovation in RPA. The software is designed to automate any process end-to-end and run independently with minimal human intervention. Automation Anywhere is the only provider that offers RPA, cognitive and analytics technology to enable automation of business processes for global enterprise organizations.
Key Features
The Automation Anywhere Enterprise platform automates rules-based tasks through software robots with scalability, security and governance fit for the modern digital enterprise. The product has been built from scratch to meet the demanding requirements of both IT and business users in banking, finance, insurance, health care, manufacturing, logistics and other industries. In return, businesses can create software robots to automate any process end-to-end.
The enterprise platform has sophisticated security capabilities based on a solid foundation that includes a credential vault, role-based access control and encryption for data at rest and in motion.
Additionally, the product delivers business process automation using sophisticated cognitive technology, working to make sense of unstructured data and enabling more complex business processes to be automated.
Insights and Analysis
IT Central Station has a section on Automation Anywhere, and it has a page on one of its products, BotFarm. There are some product reviews here and here. Some highlights:
Valuable Features: “TestingAnywhere is a Scriptless Automation Tool which is easy to learn and implement. A lot of features present in this tool are effective during automation. Test cases are created using one of five methods (web recording, object recording, image recognition, Smart recording, editor). These test cases are recorded, saved, and can be edited and enhanced.
“One more feature that is very unique is the conversion of Automated TestCase in to Executable (EXE) files so that testers can run them on remote machines too.” (Go here to read the rest of the review.)
Highlights of another review:
Valuable Features: “There are several features that are very valuable to me, and these are the main reasons I was attracted to it.
- “It has a very wide array of built-in functionality. I am able to test against SNMP (v1 and v2), Telnet, SSH, Command Line, Web Browsers (IE, Google, FireFox), email, Microsoft Office, Windows integration, etc. On top of all that I can write other apps in other languages and have Testing Anywhere control them when necessary.
- “The scripting language is easy to learn and very quick to build on.
- “The server side allows for multiple developers to be involved and all their work is saved to a single repository.”
(Go here to read the rest of the review.)
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Gartner Peer Insights has a few dozen reviews of separate products. Here are the reviews for the Enterprise product. Highlights:
What do you like most about the product or service? “From a developer perspective, Automation Anywhere aligns more with traditional programming than simple screen scraping. However, it also provides the option to bring IT literate end-users into the Development Team.”
What do you dislike most about the product or service? “Automation Anywhere requires a base level of IT / programming knowledge which can limit the population of internal candidates from non-IT functions that would ideally be available to join the Development Team. As a result, recruiting and building a strong RPA team can take longer than with other RPA solutions.”
(Go here to read the rest of the review.)
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List of current customers: Cisco, Google, GM, ING, Mastercard among others
Delivery: Software as a service
Pricing: Annual license; contact sales@automationanywhere.com for details.
Other key players in this market: Blue Prism, Kofax, Pegasystems, UiPath, WorkFusion
Contact information for potential customers: sales@automationanywhere.com
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Resources
If you have a suggestion for an eWEEK Product Overview and Analysis article, email cpreimesberger@eweek.com.