FOR vs BOR

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1

Regarding the fuction of FOR vs BOR , what is the difference between the 2?
My understanding is only below:

-how to execute
Can BOR be executed not only by Orchestrator but also by human(manually)?

-interaction with Orchestrator
BOR can be managed as jobs by Orchestrator.

Is there any other difference between the 2?

Thanks & Regards

notice: I already kow the material published by UiPath “FOR vs BOR”

2

Hi Natsu,

Have you had any answer? :slight_smile:

3

The main difference between the 2 is that processes cannot be started from Orchestrator on Front-office Robots. On FORs, only a human ca trigger the process from the robot tray app.

Back-office robots can do everything FO robots can, plus they can be remotely started from Orchestrator.

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4

Suppose that we have a case with a customer.
After a succesfull PoC customer requested a Pilot phase to see the talent of the robots on non-mission-critical cases in production environment.
There is no need for Orchestrator, only 1-2 robots will be required and they’re going to be triggered by Windows Task Manager. Customer will buy license for these robots and Orchestrator Studio.
How would you classify these Pilot robots? Are they FORs or BORs?
This is very important answer for me, thanks in advance.

5

Hi @2aozturk,

If you are going start them with Task Manager, I would consider them as FOR even if there isn’t human intervention, the main concern here is if they are being managed by Orchestrator or not. They are going start automatically just the same that it would start with Orchestrator, however you won’t have the additional features that Orchestrator provides, including the follow:

  • Real time status
  • Log management
  • Dashboards
  • Source code management

In summary, UiPath distinguish them by interacting with Orchestrator or not, that’s why there are different license prices (FOR/BOR)

6

Hi @acaciomelo,
I’m little bit confused about that. I think you should be right but, I want it to be verified bu UiPath, I will contact our sales contact also.
According to your comment no robots can be considered as BOR without Orchestrator registration. In case a short-term Pilot phase with 1-2 robots wouldn’t require Orchestrator or it’s abilities et all.
Do you think so?
Thanks…

7

Exactly. In your current scenario it wouldn’t be necessary in my opnion, however you may use the Orchestrator CE (Community edition) for testing purpose and also have the chance to know better it’s benefits.

Important Note
As of now all the packages you’re uploading are tenant shared.

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8

You’re the man :slight_smile:

This is perfect news :slight_smile:

I’ll certainly try that CE Edition :slight_smile:

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9

Please check CE license terms carefully to make sure you qualify.

I might be wrong, but for me it looks more like Unattended (=BOR) is needed. And more like trial, not CE.
Either way it will be good to contact Uipath and if you can, please share back. These questions started popping more often recently.

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10

I’ll check it out, thanks. But as I see there is not so clear information about classification of these robots in forum.

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11

FOR / Attended = started by user
BOR / Unattended = run under locked screen, started by schedule or remotely

Using Orchestrator doesnt change the type of robot.

CE - at this point almost the same as Pro, IF you qualify for it’s license.
Trial is basically for evaluations / PoC.

I’m not sure what the confusion is about.

There are definitions in the docs, maybe @acaciomelo can link as I wont be able to from mobile.

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12

In the following link it describes that a BOR is considered to run on a Back Office Server.

Robots in Pilot might run in traditional back office VM computer (Windows Server or Windows Client) but UiPath describes Back Office Server as below;
The back office server orchestrates and deploys dozens - or hundreds - of software robots in a synchronized, scheduled fashion to complete the work with remarkable speed

This definition is not making it clear for me. Yes those robots in Pilot will not interact with any user but also there is no such Back Office Server ability with these robots. Suppose that if I deploy a robot on user’s computer that is not interacting with user and not deployed by an Orchestrator, should it be considered as BOR or vice versa If I deploy a BOR with Orchestrator in a VM and that robot requires interaction with user over RDP?

Also following link describes Unattendancy as;
Operating without human touch, the Unattended Robots are the key to maximized cost and performance benefits for any variety of back-office activities. Deployed by Orchestrator to either physical or virtual environments, they self-trigger work and run efficiently in batch mode. Access them remotely, with scheduling, workload management, reporting, auditing and monitoring all securely centralized.

So for unattended robot should it be considered deployment with Orchestrator?

13

And also there is one more definition that BOR’s can interact with users.

Robots are very good at processing rule based tasks but not so much at classifying unstructured data or making decisions, this is human territory. Most business processes require collaboration between human users and robots. UiPath Back Office Server facilitates human- robot collaboration by providing work queues. In a typical business process humans transform unstructured data into structured data and send it to the queue from where the robots are reading it and then process the rule based transactions. When the robot encounters a business exception, it flags it for a human to review it. This is a turn-based interaction happening at server level.

14

Hi @andrzej.kniola and @acaciomelo,

It looks very clear on that documentation. Thanks for cooperation in understanding the differences :slight_smile:

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