Best RPA Tool
There is no “the best RPA tool” as such. It all depends on the requirements and needs of a person
and what they are looking for.
There are a huge variety of factors in which all the tools differ from each other in. A very simple
example is with regards to the language, I was recently asked for a requirement on Arabic
language and the company I work with does not support that, in-fact there is only 1 tool which
supports that. So, for that client that 1 tool will be the best.
Another set of people might be looking at costs, the third might be looking at a variety of things
like process change management, another might be looking at automation of research. For each
category there might be a different tool available in the market.
So, lets analyze the pros and cons of these market leaders so that you can decide which one best
suit for your need.
UI Path
UI Path is extremely user friendly, it shines in Citrix and was specifically designed for BPO
Automation, based on client insights.
Below are some key points
Speed of implementation would be very high but anyone who has worked on it can sense
the delay problem that must be improved upon.
Can be used for various integration services with different workflow modules hence
scoring high on re usability.
Citrix environment automation and desktop contribute to major pros of this tool. The
architecture of the tool ensures future proof, meaning it can evolve in unbelievable
measures.
It has a free community edition allowing everyone to download and learn with umpteen
number of learning PDF’s and videos available online
Only con is lack of control. No coding. Neither C# nor VB script can be run.
Blue Prism
The term Robotic Process Automation was invented by Blue Prism, that itself proves they are the
pioneers in Robotic Process Automation software development. Blue Prism has been recognized
by the American IT research and advisory company They already have more than 100 customers
around the world and partnered with biggest giants like NHS, Accenture, Hexaware, Hewlett
Packard Enterprise, Capgemini, IBM etc.
Below are some key points
Enterprise grade RPA solution tool with extreme control over activities and point-
blank approach towards object creation, coding and automation implementation.
It’s difficult to go wrong when coding can be done.
Speed of implementation can be controlled (which is very high) by anchoring browser
based automation and through, I say it again, coding. Check for element and other
features, like waiting until object exists in a page of a browser with three modes namely,
accessibility, HTML and region mode giving more options and control over selection and
accuracy.
The code insertion part gives Blue Prism an edge over other RPA tools but, other
tools like Automation Anywhere and UI Path have been very successful in making it user
friendly.
Whereas other automation tools are designed very well for some processes and are
lacking in a few others, Blue Prism have the capacity to automate almost anything
without any exception.
BP has only back office (batch automation / unattended automation) and does not
support front office robots. Front office is also known as attended automation or RDA
Robotic Desktop Automation
Annual support cost and license cost is higher than other tools.
Automation Anywhere
It is a way lot developer friendly tool with a decent sociability to handle huge volumes
It offers both front office and back office robots, the front office is also known as
attended automation or RDA Robotic Desktop Automation
It is more script based, while UI and BP have visual process designers. This means you
need to have better programming skills to use AA.
It has a smart recorder option which is not present in Blue Prism. UI element
identification works well in both, but seems more robust in Blue Prism as it considers
multiple factors apart from xy coordinates.
Automation anywhere robots can be deployed on both physical attended machines and
cloud.
RPA Attended vs Unattended automation
Attended vs Unattended automation
Unattended Automation
Unattended automation is process of automation without human intervention
while executing the robot. The robot is scheduled to run automatically and if the application or
system is logged off the robot is capable of logging into the system and run the automation task.
The robots in this model are self-triggered.
This automation is used for back office systems. When robots have dedicated
servers to be placed and scheduled to run processes that involve large amounts of data are being
gathered, sorted, analyzed, and distributed amongst key players in an organization, these robots
are scheduled to run automatically without any human interaction to invoke, even when the
system is logged off.
For unattended automation the developer must keep in mind that while
scheduling the robot he must select the respective options to run the robot even if the system is
logged off. Credentials are managed either through windows credential manager or other
password vaults.
Attended Automation
By now you might be guessing about the other part attended automation, yes the
attended automation requires human intervention or at least more at the forefront of how
automation robots go about their tasks. This is a front office automation, where the solutions are
present in the employee system itself and are triggered when specific events happen or at a
scheduled time they run.
In the attended automation scenario, it doesn’t require a human to invoke the
robot always it can be a specific event that triggers a robot though the name attended
automation. But still it is sharing the space with an employee. The details about the robots
schedule are mostly confined to the same system