Automate Reviews

It's difficult to say which feature is the most valuable as there are so many, each a must-have for any automation system. A great feature that you seldom see in these kind of systems is the ability to use a database as trigger to launch a task. This is something I asked for a few years ago and that was added.

We use AutoMate to interface different systems with each other, as an EDI tool, as an FTP tool, to automate AD reporting.

I would like to see some better web automation, a wizard like the one in the product WinAutomation would be very nice. Showing the global variables of a workflow in a task when you select it, which variable some result should be stored in. Now, you can't see the global variables but have to type them, which works but isn't ideal.

About eight years I think.

In some older versions there were some instabilities, but the latest version (v.11) seems very stable.

No, you can scale very easily by adding agent licenses and deploying these agents on different computers. You can see these agents as small runtimes of the actual BPA server. This way you can deploy the workflows across the agents and spread the load between the different computers. You can also add development licenses to allow more concurrent developers connecting to the AutoMate console.

We didn't actually deploy the solution. It was basically testing the product. It was just some simple testing we were doing. We've tried downloading reports from the new RP system, using RPA, and doing some manual uploading from some PDF files into our ERP. It was just used for some super simple operations to try it out and get a feel for it.

I actually quite liked the no-coding functionality. You don't have to be too technical or be a coding expert to utilize the solution. 

The platform was fairly user-friendly in terms of designing the bot. I was able to make it do what I needed it to do.

It's difficult for me to answer as I'm not really an expert on HelpSystems and I don't know it well enough to really give great feedback just yet. I'm not really that comfortable critiquing the platform. I'm sure there are some of those issues there. 

It's possible that they could use a stronger community for seeking guidance and help. For example, I know with Automation Anywhere or UiPath, there are strong community areas where I can ask questions and search for information. I don't know if that exists for HelpSystems. I find, for example, it's helpful, if I'm using UiPath, to go onto some of the community pages and I have found answers to my questions fairly easily. I don't know if that's something that exists with HelpSystems. 

The user interface could use a bit of an improvement.

I've only been working with the solution for a short period. I've only used it a little bit for about a month or two, however, I don't have great experience in RPA's.

The solution was quite stable. We didn't have to deal with bugs or glitches. It didn't crash or freeze. We found it to be reliable for the most part.

We were only using the free version and not the paid option. However, that said, I did find it to be fairly flexible. It could scale if you needed it to.

We haven't really used the solution for too long at this point. There aren't too many people using it in our organization.

I haven't really had much experience with technical support, as I haven't used the product that much or for that long. I wouldn't be able to critique their level of service.

I tried to download and use Micro Focus. However, it was too complicated for my skill level and I gave up before I really got too far into the process.

The installation of HelpSystems was not difficult at all. I'm not technically strong, however, I could do it myself without too many problems. It's pretty straightforward, even for non-technical users.

I don't remember how long the deployment took, to be honest. It was one of the easier installations I've dealt with on the platform. When I've looked at other platforms, I've found that some of their rivals were very difficult to install for a person with my lack of experience. For example, Micro Focus was one I tried to download and install and I gave up due to the fact that it was just too complicated. I can compare this experience to Micro Focus where I just found I wasted a lot of time and got very poor feedback. I found HelpSystems refreshingly easy to install. 

I handled the implementation myself.

I was not using a paid version. I was using a free version. We didn't have to pay for any licensing.

We're evaluating RPA at the moment, and therefore we haven't made any payments yet, or we haven't made any purchases to commence operations. We are looking at that, however, we haven't started anything officially. I have a good idea of the pricing of the HelpSystems and UiPath solutions. We're comfortable with what it would cost if we decide to continue with either option.

I've been looking at UiPath for a couple of months, however, I don't have a great amount of knowledge in the topic and I'm not an expert in the area.

I'm not sure which version of the solution we're using.

So far, from my limited experience, I would recommend the solution to other organizations.

However, based on my limited understanding of the product, as I haven't used it for too long just yet, I would rate it at a seven out of ten.