UiPath Platform vs VisualCron comparison

UiPath and SMA Technologies are both solutions in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category. UiPath is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.6, while SMA Technologies is ranked #16 with an average rating of 9.0. UiPath holds a 19.9% mindshare in RPA, compared to SMA Technologies’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of UiPath users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of SMA Technologies users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 30, 2025

UiPath Platform and VisualCron compete in the automation software category. UiPath appears to have the upper hand due to its seamless deployment, lower setup costs, and favorable ROI, while VisualCron is recognized for its versatility and extensive feature set. **Features:** UiPath Platform is known for its robust Orchestrator and Studio capabilities, offering easy automation through a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface. Its AI-driven tools enhance automation, allowing integration with third-party services like Excel and OCR technologies. VisualCron excels in task scheduling and provides a visual interface that simplifies complex job management. It integrates seamlessly with various databases and platforms without needing programming skills, making it highly adaptable for diverse applications. **Room for Improvement:** UiPath users express a desire for enhanced customization and integration options to support a wide range of business environments. Improvements in AI integration and better support for citizen developers could further enhance its offerings. VisualCron users seek improved integration capabilities with existing systems, an enhanced user interface for intuitive navigation, and more comprehensive documentation for complex tasks. **Ease of Deployment and Customer Service:** UiPath is praised for its smooth deployment process and responsive customer service, which greatly enhance user satisfaction. Its wide range of community and educational resources, like the UiPath Academy, provide valuable support. VisualCron, although facing some deployment challenges, has a knowledgeable customer service team that readily assists users, ensuring effective problem-solving and a reliable experience. **Pricing and ROI:** UiPath is noted for its cost-effective model, offering lower setup costs and positive ROI which appeal to budget-conscious businesses. Its pricing flexibility suits different organizational needs, making it accessible to a broad audience. VisualCron, while perceived as having higher initial costs, delivers long-term returns that users find justify the expense, particularly for those focusing on comprehensive scheduling solutions. The financial decision often depends on the user's budget priorities, whether emphasizing lower upfront costs or long-term benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed UiPath Platform vs. VisualCron Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

UiPath Platform vs. VisualCron

June 2025

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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 July 2025, in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) category, the mindshare of Automate is 1.8%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of UiPath Platform is 19.9%, down from 26.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VisualCron is 1.0%, up from 0.5% 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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Amjed Al-Tayyan

Governance Director at Diyar United Company

Automation streamlines onboarding and reduces the load on customer service agents

As the head of the division, I do not use UiPath myself. However, I am the decision-maker, so I review the features. The combination of both full-attended and half-attended automation, where you can automate tasks and still interact when required, is very useful. It provides efficiency by freeing staff from unnecessary tasks, resulting in a balanced workload and more productive use of an employee's time. The tool has a noticeable ROI, and the investment is worth every penny as it reduces tedious tasks and improves scalability. It is very easy to use. During the COVID lockdown, my son who was 11 at the time attended a UiPath and Automation Anywhere training with me. He has already automated his school tasks requiring saving data and uploading some documents to the portal. If a kid can do this, it shows how easy it is.

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Sourav-Dutta

Technical Lead - Database Administrator at SMART ENERGY SYSTEMS LLC

It's user-friendly, and I didn't need long to understand the process

We use VisualCron for all our automation needs, like connecting to FileZilla, calling APIs, generating PGP keys, creating encryption files with the PGP key login to Azure, etc. It can automatically log in to SQL Server and execute SQL script jobs in bulk. We had 2,000-3,000 users at my previous…

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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

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

"The licensing of the product is very good. You only need to license it once and then you have it forever."

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

"The most valuable features of Fortra's Automate include its FTP functionality and file manipulation capabilities."

"Overall, the whole product is really nice and provides significant benefits."

"The product effectively handles all the tasks we require."

"The best feature of Automate is its ease of use, which is a major selling point."

"I would recommend Automate because it has made my work much easier."

More Automate pros

"For our organization, the Orchestrator has the most useful setup. All automation is more or less the same. With UiPath, the difference is the Orchestrator. The amount of integration it has is actually what makes it different from all other vendors."

"The customer support is supportive and knowledgeable. They are always willing to help and support me."

"Excel automation is extremely reliable. Excel integration is one of the top features that I have been using. We also have a feature called Document Understanding for processing the PDF format of an invoice by a bot. It has the capability to scan an invoice and then pick out the required fields, such as the name of the vendor, the details of the products being sent, or the cost of the product."

"We like using the prebuilt AI models in UiPath rather than creating our own AI models. We also found the UiPath Community very good."

"The most valuable feature of UiPath is document understanding. AI is also a valuable feature, as that is the current trend, so it's one of the most essential features of UiPath."

"The steps, documentation, and information are pretty straightforward when it comes to the product, so there is no ambiguity."

"The most valuable feature is its screen recording capability, where you tell it what the workflow should do, and it then automatically creates Activities for you."

"The most valuable thing about this solution is that it is easy to develop and easy to train everyone how to use."

More UiPath Platform pros

"VisualCron is a very powerful program to automate different steps in your business processes. We use it to automate replacing files and inform departments about the replacement."

"What I like about VisualCron is that like its name, it's a very visual tool. In my previous company, there were a lot of scripts for all kinds of services, and through VisualCron, you get to group all flows and get a nice visual overview. VisualCron also has an alerting feature, so you receive alerts from it. VisualCron makes everything clearer and easier to maintain. Every other solution that I was looking for almost always needed a programmer, but with VisualCron, you can do what you need to do without programming skills, so this is another valuable feature of the tool."

"I love VisualCron because we previously spent a lot of time writing Power switches to connect to SQL Server. VisualCron makes it easier to execute services or connect to FileZilla by only adding the credentials to the master credentials stored in the solution."

"It helped us reduce manual steps."

"The most valuable feature of VisualCron is its ability to schedule interactive jobs so that you can have interdependencies within the job and interdependencies of a job on another job, and so on."

"'ve only had a few cases where I've had to request support in the past 12 years of use, but the support response time and resolution were was extremely quick."

"The ability to clone jobs to shorten the time it takes to implement a process has been invaluable, but its flexibility also gives us the ability to create a job that can handle a multifaceted process with a complex workflow."

"We don't have to do any coding. We just plug and play and it works."

More VisualCron pros

Cons

"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."

"The interface could be more user-friendly and easier to navigate."

"There is room for improvement regarding cloud functionality; there are a few missing features, and the logging could be better, especially air logging. We can go into logging events and create our own task, but it would be nice if this were more detailed."

"The product also has a limited use case in some respects."

"They do not encrypt passwords, so this is an issue with HIPAA compliance."

"While this solution is continually improving, as it is now, the user interface could use improvement when I compare it to a product like UiPath."

"The workflow for variables could be better. The input and output of task-level variables could be made a little clearer in terms of passing those around from one task to another upon success, etc. Things like that could be a little easier potentially."

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

More Automate cons

"Monitoring and statistics need improvement. It's quite hard to export if you want a long, clear report. It's quite hard to do that based on the style and functionality. You have to feed in your own functionality to do this."

"Sometimes, UiPath support is like a lottery. They have many intelligent people who can get you what you need, but it depends on whether the person you're assigned knows the solution. It might be that they have so many customers and not enough staff. The ticket response times can be pretty slow."

"The only concern is it's a bit tough to understand the first time, and you have to invest in the technical improvement of your team in general."

"There is a bit of a learning curve to the solution because it is like coding."

"UiPath's extensive built-in features, like communication mining, can be overwhelming to learn due to the sheer volume."

"Support could use improvement. It's always a struggle to engage with them. We have a very tight relationship with support, but when things are in hot water, everyone wants to fix it right away which doesn't always happen."

"Improvement should definitely be made in the area of screen capture, where Adobe Flash is still being used."

"Some of the transitions from the forum to submitting a ticket are a little clunky. If a ticket could be submitted on my behalf on the forum, then have me boot over to where the ticket is, that is fine. Just kicking me out of the forum, then having me submit a ticket seems counterintuitive to me."

More UiPath Platform cons

"VisualCron seems to operate like an efficient machine when it comes to improvements and enhancements and new features. I always appreciate the quick response I get when bringing up an issue or coming up with suggestions. I've mentioned before that it would be great to see a move away from SQLCE and XML configuration files."

"There are some conditions in the mail trigger, but you can only use them as an "AND" condition, not as an "OR" condition. This is an improvement that could be useful. For example, some people put "invoice" in the subject and others put "invoice" in the body. If I want to make a trigger for everybody whose sending invoices, I have to make two jobs for this now."

"VisualCron is software, and you will experience performance degradation when you scale up. VisualCron takes too much memory or CPU power. We have to increase the hardware resources of a specific server or system."

"Our suggestion to make it better and more manageable in terms of GDPR: Implement it in a very partnership way."

"VisualCron's command console is a little bit difficult to understand and needs to improve."

"I would like for VisualCron to expand audit log to show who changed job variables that are initialized per job run."

"The only problem I face when I use the tool is that it doesn't contain much documentation or it doesn't have many video tutorials on its features."

"An area for improvement in VisualCron is its cluttered interface. It isn't always easy to find all functionalities, so what VisualCron needs is a user interface expert who can improve the interface. There's a learning curve in terms of finding what you need from the interface of VisualCron. The technical support for VisualCron also needs improvement in terms of response time. Currently, there's no live support or hotline you can call to get quick answers, so this is what I'd like to see in the next version of VisualCron. A less cluttered and more streamlined interface, where you don't need to hunt for some of the features, is also what I'd like to see in the next VisualCron update."

More VisualCron cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"It comes with a package that costs approximately $20,000 USD per year."

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

"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."

"The pricing is quite reasonable. We can run the process with one bot. The limitation is at the server level because they have some resources, and sometimes that is enough. It isn't too expensive, so you can get a good return off of one, and you can also have a pack of five bots that is quite competitive."

"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 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."

"The cost is a bit high for a small business like ours, but we manage with Fortra's Automate."

More Automate pricing and cost advice

"The price is a bit high, but UiPath is worth the cost, given its ease of use and features."

"The pricing depends on whether you're running attended or unattended bots. Unattended processes cost a lot more, and you have to pay cloud costs, too. It's costly. The licensing for the tenant dashboard, developer's toolkit, etc. was reasonable, but unattended bots are quite expensive."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"The UiPath license is expensive."

"In the RPA industry at the moment and in automation in general, UiPath's pricing model is the most consistent. So, if you are looking at year-on-year growth and pricing, or even if you are comparing solutions, each vendor has their own take on how they are going to generate profits and expand their return on investment. By far, UiPath is the most consistent with their pricing. They make it quite clear what they set out to achieve with their pricing and product. That makes their product so much easier to design for, as you don't need to change your pricing and go back to clients every time that you introduce a new aspect into the solution."

"The product is very affordable, not costly at all."

"The licensing makes sense, but it does lead to a few adoption issues when a lot of the licenses are per user. Convincing some of our business units to pay for user licenses for either Action Center or attended robots can be a roadblock."

"For the features and the quality of features that they provide, it's a very reasonably priced product."

More UiPath Platform pricing and cost advice

"VisualCron is correctly priced because it wasn't very cheap, and it wasn't overly expensive, so the price for it was set correctly. When my previous company bought VisualCron, it was €800 per server per year. On a scale of one to five, I would rate the pricing for VisualCron a five because it was just right. The tool was affordable, and it has one of the most competitive pricing in the market."

"The price is a bit high."

"ROI is one month."

"We are fine with a rather cheap setup. Licensing with VisualCron is fair. You have a simple one-year licence in different sizes. There isn't a licensing jungle with hundreds of options and opt-ins."

"The pricing is extremely fair, and because of that I recommend purchasing multiple instances to split out the processing load across multiple application servers."

"ROI is 95 percent."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

28%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Insurance Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for HelpSystems AutoMate?

The main purpose is for automation. That has been the purpose why I have been using it so far.

See all answers

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

Regarding pricing, it is very friendly. I would not say that it is really cheap or very expensive, but it fits within...

See all answers

Best RPA tools for IBM iSeries

I can only speak to UiPath since that is the only RPA solution that I have used. I know that there are specific packa...

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RPA that Bots can run without centralized control?

Yes, Attended Bots which can run without centralized control Module. RPA Tools like Automation Anywhere, uiPath ,Pow...

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How do I choose between UiPath and Microsoft Power Automate?

Microsoft‌ ‌Power‌ ‌Automate‌ ‌is‌ ‌intuitive‌ ‌and‌ ‌easy‌ ‌to‌ ‌integrate‌ ‌and‌ ‌use.‌ ‌I‌ ‌like‌ ‌that‌ ‌there‌ ‌...

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What do you like most about VisualCron?

The tool has reduced our operational costs by 40%.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VisualCron?

The price is a bit high. However, it is okay.

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What needs improvement with VisualCron?

The documentation is a bit weak. The tool must provide a better set of documentation.

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Power Automate vs Automate

Compared 30% of the time

Blue Prism vs Automate

Compared 9% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs Automate

Compared 8% of the time

MOVEit vs Automate

Compared 5% of the time

Redwood Software - Finance Automation Edition vs Automate

Compared 5% of the time

More Automate Competitors

Microsoft Power Automate vs UiPath Platform

Compared 20% of the time

Blue Prism vs UiPath Platform

Compared 13% of the time

Automation Anywhere vs UiPath Platform

Compared 11% of the time

Pega Robotic Process Automation vs UiPath Platform

Compared 6% of the time

Nintex RPA vs UiPath Platform

Compared 2% of the time

More UiPath Platform Competitors

Microsoft Power Automate vs VisualCron

Compared 40% of the time

Control-M vs VisualCron

Compared 19% of the time

OpCon vs VisualCron

Compared 8% of the time

ActiveBatch by Redwood vs VisualCron

Compared 6% of the time

MOVEit vs VisualCron

Compared 5% of the time

More VisualCron Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Automate

July 2025

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Buyer's Guide

UiPath Platform

June 2025

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Buyer's Guide

VisualCron

June 2025

Download VisualCron product report

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate

No data available

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

UiPath Platform offers an intuitive automation solution with its user-friendly interface and low-code/no-code capabilities, empowering users to efficiently automate processes without technical expertise. It integrates seamlessly with applications and enhances productivity through attended and unattended automation.

UiPath Platform stands out for its scalability and operational control, especially through Orchestrator, which effectively manages bots and processes. AI-driven features like Document Understanding and OCR streamline data handling, reduce human error, and increase productivity. With support from a robust community and UiPath Academy, users benefit from ongoing skill development and learning. The platform's integration with tools such as Salesforce and ServiceNow ensures flexibility, and its Automation Cloud simplifies deployment and maintenance. Despite these strengths, UiPath users have highlighted areas for improvement such as licensing complexities, documentation clarity, and support responsiveness. They also seek enhanced integration with AI, machine learning, and external systems, combined with improved stability and more intuitive design.

What are the key features of UiPath Platform?

Intuitive Interface: Drag-and-drop design eases automation for non-experts.
Orchestrator Management: Effective bot and process management for operational control.
AI-Driven Features: Document Understanding and OCR optimize data processes.
Extensive Integrations: Connects with Salesforce, SAP, Excel, Oracle, and CRM.
Automation Cloud: Simplifies deployment and streamlines maintenance operations.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Time Savings: Automation reduces time spent on repetitive tasks.
Cost Efficiency: Decreases operational costs by minimizing manual labor.
Productivity Boost: Attended/unattended automation increases productivity.
Comprehensive Training: UiPath Academy and community resources support user growth.

Organizations adopt UiPath in finance, HR, IT, healthcare, and manufacturing sectors to automate repetitive and data-intensive tasks. Automation in invoice processing, data entry, and document management is common. Its integration with systems like SAP, Excel, Oracle, and CRM enhances efficiency, enabling businesses to reduce errors and manual effort, while focusing on strategic activities with both cloud and on-premises deployment options.

UiPath

VisualCron automates tasks like file encryption, scheduling SQL jobs, system integration, data workflow management, and application triggering, making it ideal for handling nightly syncs, FTP server file replacements, job scheduling, and invoice processing.

VisualCron provides an efficient automation solution with features like error and status reporting, API connections, PGP key generation, encryption file creation, and bulk SQL script execution. It simplifies task automation through its mail and event triggers, job variables, conditional execution, and logging with error alerts. Users benefit from its integration capabilities, scheduling flexibility, visual interface, and support for databases and credential management without extensive coding.

What are the most important features?

Simplicity: Easy-to-use interface for seamless automation.
Mail and Event Triggers: Automate tasks based on specific events.
Job Variables: Customize tasks using various input variables.
Conditional Execution: Execute tasks based on predefined conditions.
Error Alerts: Logging and error reporting to ensure task reliability.
Integration Capabilities: Easily connect and integrate with systems and APIs.
Scheduling Flexibility: Create complex schedules with ease.
Visual Interface: User-friendly GUI for efficient management.
Database Support: Manage and automate database tasks efficiently.
Credential Management: Securely handle credentials for various tasks.
PowerShell Commands: Execute PowerShell commands directly.

What are the benefits or ROI users should look for in the reviews?

Efficiency: Streamline and automate repetitive tasks to save time.
Cost Savings: Reduce manual labor and associated costs.
Reliability: Ensure consistency and accuracy in task execution.
Integration: Enhance workflows by integrating with different systems.
Flexibility: Adjust quickly to changes and handle complex scheduling needs.
Support: Benefit from extensive post-sales support and configuration options.
Innovation: Foster innovation by eliminating the need for coding.

Industries like finance, healthcare, and logistics implement VisualCron to automate data workflows, secure file transfers, and schedule critical tasks. It is used to streamline invoice processing, manage large-scale data operations, and ensure compliance through encryption and error reporting. VisualCron enhances operational efficiency, scalability, and security in various sectors, making it essential for businesses requiring robust automation capabilities.

SMA Technologies

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

1. Accenture 2. Deloitte 3. PwC 4. IBM 5. Capgemini 6. KPMG 7. Ernst & Young 8. Infosys 9. Cognizant 10. Wipro 11. Tata Consultancy Services 12. HCL Technologies 13. Genpact 14. Tech Mahindra 15. DXC Technology 16. Atos 17. NTT Data 18. CGI 19. L&T Infotech 20. Hexaware Technologies 21. Mindtree 22. Mphasis 23. Virtusa 24. Syntel 25. Zensar Technologies 26. WNS Global Services 27. Hexaware Technologies 28. Larsen & Toubro Infotech 29. Persistent Systems 30. QuEST Global 31. Sonata Software 32. Zensar Technologies

7 Eleven, ABB Sécheron SA, Adobe Systems Incorporated, Amazon Europe Core, Apple, Assa Abloy, Aston Martin, Banco Santander, BMW (Australia)

Buyer's Guide

UiPath Platform vs. VisualCron

June 2025

Free Report: UiPath Platform vs. VisualCron

Find out what your peers are saying about UiPath Platform vs. VisualCron and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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