Research Note: Automation Anywhere, RPA
Corporate Overview
Automation Anywhere, founded in 2003 by Mihir Shukla and Neeti Mehta, is a global leader in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) headquartered in San Jose, California. The company's mission is to empower businesses to operate with unprecedented productivity and efficiency by automating any part of the enterprise that can be automated. Mihir Shukla currently serves as the CEO and has led the company through significant growth and multiple funding rounds, including a $290 million Series B round in 2019 that valued the company at $6.8 billion.
Product Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
Automation Anywhere's RPA platform, Automation 360, is known for its user-friendly interface and ease of use. The platform's web-based control room, Bot Creator, and Bot Insight provide a comprehensive ecosystem for bot development, deployment, and analytics. Automation Anywhere's strong focus on AI and cognitive automation through its IQ Bot technology allows users to automate complex tasks involving unstructured data. The company has a wide range of pre-built bots and integrations available through its Bot Store, accelerating automation deployment.
In our comprehensive 12-component assessment, Automation Anywhere achieved a total score of 104 out of 120. The company excelled in core RPA software (9/10), AI and machine learning integration (9/10), orchestration and management (9/10), analytics and reporting (9/10), cloud-based RPA (9/10), security and governance (9/10), intelligent document processing (9/10), and attended automation (9/10). Automation Anywhere also performed well in process and task mining (8/10), low-code/no-code development (8/10), industry-specific solutions (8/10), and integration capabilities (8/10), demonstrating its strength across all key aspects of the RPA space.
Weaknesses
While Automation Anywhere offers a comprehensive RPA platform, some users have reported challenges with scaling bots across large enterprises. The platform's pricing model, which is based on the number of bots deployed, can become costly for organizations with extensive automation needs. Some customers have also experienced difficulties with customer support and documentation, particularly during the initial setup and deployment phases.
Bottom Line
Automation Anywhere is a well-established player in the RPA market, offering a robust and user-friendly platform for automating business processes. The company's strong focus on AI and cognitive automation sets it apart from competitors and positions it well for the future of intelligent automation. While there are some concerns around scalability and pricing, Automation Anywhere's overall performance across the 12 component framework is impressive, earning a total score of 104/120. As organizations increasingly adopt RPA and seek to automate more complex processes, Automation Anywhere's platform and ecosystem provide a solid foundation for enterprise automation success.