Top 5 Reasons to Upgrade to Automation 360 (as Explained through Emojis!)

Top 5 Reasons to Upgrade to Automation 360

Automation 360 is the first and only cloud-native robotic process automation platform. In this blog, we’ll take a look at Micah’s top 5 reasons for upgrading to Automation 360 and break down each reason to understand what advantage is offered over previous Automation Anywhere Versions.

1. Bot Agent

   1. The Bot Agent is what runs locally on a development machine and a bot runner (attended or unattended) to establish a connection between the local machine and the Control Room.
   2. Beyond the Bot Agent being a lightweight application for running bots, what really makes this a top 5 feature is the ability for CoE leads or system administrators to automatically (or manually) update the bot agent all from the Control Room.
   3. For additional details on automatic Bot Agent updates, take a look at the documentation portal for a detailed description of how updates to Bot Agent devices can be controlled.

2. Human-Bot Collaboration

   1. AARI (Automation Anywhere Robotic Interface) introduces the capability for humans and bots to collaborate in new ways.
   2. While you may be familiar with running bots through scheduling or triggers – AARI enables users to kick off tasks that can be sent to a bot and also enables for an interface for the bot to communicate back with users
      1. Great for situations like call centers where bots can do research in support of human efforts, or for front office use cases where users may want to kick off a task to a bot while they go and work on other things.
   3. For more details on the AARI, check out the What is AARI? Tech Talk as well as the AARI Web Full Build Tutorial – for a hands-on AARI Web use case.

3. Cloud

   1. Cloud is a key product differentiator – Automation 360 is Cloud-Native, not just cloud compatible.
      1. Built from the ground up to run on Cloud infrastructure, Automation 360 offers a scalable, highly reliable RPA experience
   2. If you’ve ever had any experience managing the architecture, failover, and high-availability of on-prem enterprise software, you’ll recognize how big of a benefit it can be to offset that to a cloud provider that can handle that infrastructure for you.
   3. To learn more about the different deployment options for Automation 360, check out this documentation portal reference on the different cloud operational responsibilities/architecture options.

4. Custom Packages

   1. With the introduction of Automation 360 came the Automation 360 Package SDK – enabling developers to create and modify their own custom packages that can be installed and used in Automation 360 just like the packages that come built into the product.
   2. The flexibility of package development means that organizations that have custom in-house apps, services, or interfaces that they want their bots to work with – can create customized packages built to the specific needs of those target apps.
   3. This also means that developers can share custom-built packages with other developers through Automation Anywhere’s Bot Store.
   4. For more details on the Automation 360 Package SDK, check out the Package SDK details on the documentation portal.
   5. For details on creating your own custom package using the Automation 360 package SDK, check out the How to build a Twilio Package tutorial
   6. For more information on downloading Automation 360 Packages to your own control room from Bot Store, check out all of the Automation 360 Bot Store offerings
      1. Bonus: If you want to see how many of the Automation Anywhere created Bot Store packages work, head over to our GitHub for the full source code for 20+ packages!

5. Modular Design

   1. The Modular Design of Automation 360 enables expanded bot resiliency when platform upgrades or package updates occur.
   2. When a bot is created – the bot keeps track of the specific versions of each package it is using.
      1. When that bot is sent to a bot runner for processing – the bot runner is also made aware of the specific package versions that were referenced in the creation of the bot
      2. Should you develop your bot using the 2.2.20200208.1.2 version of the Excel Basic package, that version would continue to be distributed/referenced with your bot during bot processing – even if a newer version of the Excel Basic package has also been installed.
   3. This modular design should enable RPA practices to upgrade bots on their own schedule, and reduce any interruptions that bots may have otherwise faced after an upgrade.
   4. For more details on setting up and configuring your bot agent, check out the Working with the Bot Agent piece from the documentation portal.

Conclusion

There’s no shortage of reasons to upgrade to Automation 360, and the top 5 reasons list provided in this article only begin to scratch the surface of the benefits of a fully cloud-native and web-based RPA platform. As you continue to test, build, and run bots on Automation 360 it’s likely that you too will appreciate some of the features mentioned above as well as many others that solve issues unique to your organization.

Haven’t tried out the Automation 360 platform yet? Head over to the Automation 360 product page to learn more about product features, request a demo, or try out a free trial today!