IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vs Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition comparison

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vs. Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Automate

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category, the mindshare of Automate is 1.3%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is 2.2%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition is 0.3%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Featured Reviews

Anabel Marco

Account Director at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Automates processes efficiently with cost-effective scaling and robust customer support

Web scraping is quite good since it offers a lot of possibilities. Another important feature for me is its compatibility with MBI, the Power that is ISEQUADO Centers. I appreciate the ability to scale and increase the number of bots or studios without additional expense. Automate's non-reliance on additional orchestrators makes it quite cost-effective.

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Karinne Carnevalli De Almeida

Consultant at Universidade Federal Fluminense

User-friendly interface and good stability

I would recommend using IBM RPA. I would advise you to learn about your main processes to automate inside your company. So you can apply it in big and small processes depending on the investment for your company. That is an advantage or not. Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. It has some difficulty in the tool, but it's a very stable and useful tool for automating processes.

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Amarjeet Kamble

Senior Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

User-friendly and enables automation in finance, HR, and SDM

There is room for improvement, considering no tools having everything inside it is right. So the room for balancing improvement lies in automation enhancement with respect to the feature areas, considering dealing directly with Excel and reviewing it to do some additional stuff for it in the end system so that reading the right thing, picking up the values, and everything. Right now, you can do it with a little bit of custom scripting in addition to eight. But rather than custom scripting, if we can have a direct feature integrated inside this tool, it will be a major achievement. So, it already has that capability, as you can do custom scripting, and you can go ahead with creating your own. But the direct functions are not available. That's where we are lagging behind. However, importing the values or importing the service can be achieved. So, that is where I can see the room for improvement. In this particular area, the entire system can be improved.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"We use it for specific cases, mainly secure file transfers, which are vital for us. And it works for us."

"Web scraping is quite good since it offers a lot of possibilities."

"The ability to connect to websites and pull data is the solution's most valuable feature."

"Fortra's Automate has effectively replaced the workload of an entire employee, saving us significant time and money."

"The most valuable feature is the drag-and-drop interface, which is very Windows-like."

"I would rate the technical support as a nine out of ten because it is quite fast and courteous."

"It's very easy to use. That's a big selling point for it. It has got a drag-and-drop interface, so you can quickly deploy bots."

"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."

More Automate pros

"If you have a business process, and once you have automated that process, you have a readily available workflow in place."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"The initial setup is very easy."

"The good stuff about IBM is the fact that it's very easy to use, there are very nice and smart AI tools within the licensing that you don't have to pay any access. Moreover, it's more precise and more secure."

"I like the integration with Watson and the possibility to have an intelligent reading of all the customers' documents."

"The solution is scalability."

"The solution is very user-friendly."

"The solution's ease of use is its most valuable aspect."

More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) pros

"Redwood has a great feature where it logs every transaction. So, at any point, we can see every step taken for each transaction. It creates an audit trail of the entire process execution. It is a really good feature. This eliminates the need for extra coding or report generation. The audit report is readily available within the tool itself."

"The out-of-the-box finance modules within the Redwood Finance framework help to speed up the process, versus designing and writing generic BOT code."

"So the best thing is ease of use."

Cons

"There is a lack of good development for artificial intelligence, such as machine learning."

"The solution has a very weak knowledge base."

"I find that most important features are strong, however, there is a lack of good development for artificial intelligence, such as machine learning."

"We really need a free development environment for customers. Building and testing automation on production isn't ideal."

"Error messages should be better. For error status, there should be better documentation because a lot of times, error messages that you get are quite vague. For example, you get a message saying that the workflow has run into an unknown status, which is vague. It just tells you that it failed, but you don't know how or why it failed. It makes debugging difficult."

"The technical support could be better. We suffer from language barriers, as we are in Argentina."

"I believe we need to test various OCR tools that assist in evaluating, let's say, six different customer resyncs. We analyze their spending patterns and documentations, but current OCR support has limitations, requiring highly standardized documents, which isn't always the case. With a more advanced OCR system, we could improve processes related to credit risk management and legal matters. We're exploring how to integrate Fortra's Automate with our CRM platform, taking cues from instances where Salesforce seamlessly merged with Automate. However, we use a different CRM, Insight for New Enterprise, and we're seeking ways to connect the automation process within our CRM. We aim for the automation to continue smoothly, even in instances where traditional automation methods might face hurdles."

"Sometimes when we communicate with the ERP system and there is an issue, we are not always aware of the specifics of Automate and the source of the problem."

More Automate cons

"This RPA should be under the umbrella of BPM. This is what the future should be."

"We're based in Thailand, but the documentation is not in Thai, which makes it difficult for us. If they could translate all of their documentation into our language, we'd be very grateful."

"Needs better integration with artificial intelligence or with machine-learning."

"I would like to have more flexibility in connecting the platform with third-party systems."

"Stability could be better."

"IBM Robotic Process Automation should be more stable."

"The product's document readers must be improved to capture the data well."

"The product must be promoted more."

More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) cons

"The room for balancing improvement lies in automation enhancement with respect to the feature areas, considering dealing directly with Excel and reviewing it to do some additional stuff for it in the end system so that reading the right thing, picking up the values, and everything."

"would like to see AI integration for automation in future releases. Post-automation, I envision a generative AI model. If I could ask the bot questions like the number of invoices or their current status, it should be able to provide answers directly."

"Mapping the process steps to an existing R2R process quickly would be a definite step forward."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Once you buy the software, you just pay for the support for backend help."

"I believe the price falls within a reasonable range, which significantly influenced our decision regarding the product. This aspect is crucial for any technological solution, especially in our country where enterprises might be hesitant to invest heavily in something untested or uncertain about its practicality and potential returns."

"From a distributor's side, one of the biggest selling points is its price point. Without going into any numbers, compared to UiPath, Automation Anywhere, and Blue Prism, we're significantly cheaper. The main difference is that other competitors usually charge you per process. However, in Automate's case, it's priced per bot. So, a bot can run multiple processes at the same time, but you are only priced for a single bot."

"While solutions like UiPath and Blue Prism cost around $11,000-$12,000 for each license, this product costs around $7,000 and you can keep it forever."

"I like the way this solution is priced because you can buy a license, or you can buy the software outright."

"From a distributor's perspective, one of the biggest selling points of Automate is its price point."

"It has gone up in price. The price of Fortra's Automate has increased since we first started using it. It does a lot but also costs a lot. It was a lot more affordable before Fortra owned the software."

"I'm only involved in running the product and maintaining the systems, so I can't speak to the cost."

More Automate pricing and cost advice

"IBM RPA is cheaper than other tools."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"I rate the pricing ten out of ten. So, the pricing is very good for me."

"There is a free trial for one month, so you can use it to run your payloads or proof of concept. After that, you can pay for the license on a monthly or annual basis."

"The product has a yearly licensing fee."

"The product is reasonably priced compared to other tools."

"IBM licensing is annual and based on Virtual Processor Cores (VPC). This provides flexibility as part of the containerization environment."

"The pricing is reasonable for this solution."

More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) pricing and cost advice

"The licensing was purely based on the number of transactions being processed in production."

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842,690 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

16%

Educational Organization

Government

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Energy/Utilities Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about HelpSystems AutoMate?

We use it for specific cases, mainly secure file transfers, which are vital for us. And it works for us.

What is your primary use case for HelpSystems AutoMate?

I am a consultant and I am making a lot of processes in human resources, payroll, certifications, trainings, web scra...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortra Automate?

The pricing is quite good compared to its competitors. Competitors are often more expensive than Automate. I would ra...

What do you like most about IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?

Integrating the tool with SAP, EBS, or other ERPs is easy.

What needs improvement with IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?

The product must be promoted more. There are no promotions.

What is your primary use case for IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?

We're working with different clients from the manufacturing environment. We have implemented end-to-end solutions. We...

What do you like most about Redwood Business Process Automation - Finance Edition?

Redwood has a great feature where it logs every transaction. So, at any point, we can see every step taken for each t...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Redwood Business Process Automation - Finance Edition?

The pricing is very client-specific. It's not a one-size-fits-all price. They don't have a single price for everyone....

What needs improvement with Redwood Business Process Automation - Finance Edition?

Everything seems to be working well. However, I see value in integrating AI for automation. So, I would like to see A...

Microsoft Power Automate vs Automate

Comparisons

Compared 46% of the time

UiPath vs Automate

Compared 36% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Automate

Compared 8% of the time

Blue Prism vs Automate

Compared 5% of the time

VisualCron vs Automate

Compared 4% of the time

More Automate Competitors

Microsoft Power Automate vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Compared 67% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Compared 13% of the time

UiPath vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Compared 12% of the time

Blue Prism vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Compared 6% of the time

Nintex RPA vs IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Compared 2% of the time

More IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Competitors

BlackLine vs Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition

Compared 74% of the time

UiPath vs Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition

Compared 26% of the time

More Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition Competitors

Product Reports

Automate

Download Automate product report

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Download IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) product report

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) report

Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition

Download Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition product report

Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition report

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate

IBM RPA

Redwood Business Process Automation - Finance Edition, Redwood Robotics, Redwood Finance Automation

Overview

Automate offers a user-friendly solution with a drag-and-drop interface for efficient task automation and integration with major platforms like SAP and Azure, making it ideal for quick deployment with minimal coding and training.

Automate provides powerful features for businesses seeking efficient automation, offering compatibility with databases, email integration, and cloud platforms. Its simple interface supports both beginners and experienced users, simplifying tasks like invoice processing, HR automation, and data transformation. Cost-effective pricing and flexible licensing enhance its appeal while integration capabilities and scheduling tools ensure smooth workflow automation.

What are Automate's Key Features?

Drag-and-Drop Interface: Simplifies automation with intuitive design.
Integration Capabilities: Connects with platforms like SAP and Azure for seamless data flow.
Database and FTP Triggers: Enhances automation potential through direct data interaction.
Efficient Scheduling: Automates tasks with precise timing and control.
Web Scraping: Automates data extraction for quick analysis and reporting.

What Benefits and ROI Should Users Expect?

Rapid Deployment: Minimizes coding efforts for quick implementation.
Cost-Effectiveness: Offers flexible pricing models to suit budget constraints.
Operational Efficiency: Reduces manual workloads and enhances productivity.
Comprehensive Integration: Facilitates improved data management across systems.
Scalability: Adapts to growing business needs with ease.

In industries such as healthcare, banking, and logistics, Automate is used for tasks like invoice payment automation, data transformation, and task automation. This leads to streamlined processes and reduced manual workload, illustrating its value in enhancing operational efficiency through diversified workflows.

Fortra

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a technology that encompasses the use of smart robots in any process requiring efficiency, consistency and speed, with no risk of mistakes. In a nutshell, RPA simulates a human user working.

Today, it is possible to automate processes through the use of digital robots, or bots, which execute pre-programed, repetitive tasks in a safe and mistake free manner. There are literally thousands of opportunities for Robotic Process Automation to make an impact on your organization today, including: automatic invoice emission, system integration, information reconciliation, report generation, intelligent email management to lead generation, and many others.

IBM

The volume of repetitive, manual tasks across finance is overwhelming – every day or at the end of every month, quarter or year. Redwood’s finance automation reduces that unnecessary and time-consuming manual effort. We know because our customers tell us that our finance automation solution helps them achieve a much higher degree of back-office process automation compared with alternatives.

Redwood Software

Sample Customers

Aldergrove Financial Group, Preferred Health Professionals, Mindbeam Technologies, First Credit Union in British Columbia, Vestcom International, Prime Liberty Benefits, University of Tampa, CNLBancshares, World Precision Instruments, BJ's Restaurants, Globe Pequot Press, Accudata Technologies, Norton Healthcare, Pacific Toxicology Laboratories

The Hanover Insurance Group

ArcelorMittal, Alliant Energy, Allianz, Arla, Bacardi, CPS Energy, DSM, Faurecia, Genetech, Jabil, Jumbo,

IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) vs. Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition