Fortra's Automate Reviews

We used the platform primarily for task automation, including transmitting EDR files. Additionally, we've utilized it for repetitive tasks, such as downloading web-based reports using the browser and programming it to perform them automatically on a scheduled basis.

The solution's most valuable features are reliable task execution and ongoing development, which brings continuous enhancements. 

We were waiting for the product's FTP capabilities to be updated as they needed to catch up in some areas for which ciphers were permitted. The module for those file transfers or communications had issues with partners tightening their security and turning off certain cyber suites. We stopped communicating until we could resolve some problems. A part of it may have evolved into an actual version upgrade. They've recently made some release notes and added enhancements regarding that topic. I'm glad to hear that attention is still being given to getting the required changes.

The product also has a limited use case in some respects. However, it offers vast more capabilities than what we're utilizing.

The only thing they can improve on is its marketing sales. The costs have become exponentially more than what we used to apply it for. It was only about 200 to 300 bucks when I first purchased it. Now it has become five grand receipts.

We have been using Fortra's Automate for more than 20 years.

We rarely encounter stability issues. The platform works well.

The product effectively handles all the tasks we require. While I cannot confirm with certainty, other customers are likely testing its capabilities more extensively than we are. Nevertheless, it is scalable and meets the requirements of our environment.

I can reach the support team easily via email or phone calls. The resolution process varies depending on the complexity of the issue. For some problems, the support team provides straightforward solutions, such as trying different approaches. They are consistently available to address queries.

My most significant challenge involved agreeing on FTP ciphers between the host and server or client. The support team assisted in resolving this issue, which was the most prolonged troubleshooting engagement I experienced.

Positive

We are about to start with a proof of concept for Power Automate. Additionally, a few lower-cost solutions are available, but they are not feature-rich enough.

The initial setup is easy to work with, involving no code to create automation scripts. The time taken depends on the complexity of the task. Simple tasks can be done in minutes, like setting up a script to move files between two locations.

Maintenance is minimal. There are periodic updates, generally at least once a year, and intermittent releases for patches or enhancements as needed.

One person can handle the implementation if they have the time to learn and are diligent. Much of it is intuitive, like writing code without actually writing code. Before using the tool, one must have a high-level idea of the workflow and the steps needed to accomplish the end goal.

In general, if you want to use any process automation tool, don't just duplicate what you're doing by hand; instead, rearchitect the process to be more efficient. Have a high-level series of steps mapped out before you start coding.

For somebody who just started using Fortra's Automate, they would see the benefits fairly immediately. Once a task is set up, they can immediately observe its performance and reliability.

It can be configured to inform you of an error message. It could indicate a success or a failure, depending on the expected outcome. At least we are kept aware that the tasks are running regularly. A lot of bigger control can be utilized to ensure the tasks function properly.

If the product functions aren't broken, there is nothing to fix. However, it is crucial to complete updates quickly as they could make system upgrades difficult later.

As mentioned before, I advise ensuring they have a well-thought-out process for how they will build your tasks. They shouldn't attempt to automate a poor process; ensure it is optimized or tuned before starting. It applies regardless of the platform they use.

I rate it a nine out of ten.

Our primary use case is to automate the onboarding user process. This includes creating the user ID, enabling mailboxes in Exchange, adding user groups based on user types and sites, enabling third-party software like archiving for users on external sites, creating specific home directory and private directory structures, SQL querying if certain IDs already exist on our Document management system (our ID's don't match AD), creating logic to alert and email notifications. 

We will also be using it to monitor mailbox messages to create tickets via API for our ticketing system based on the type of email content and assigning it to appropriate departments.  

We are still in the process of rolling it to production and tweaking it (our AD groups are a mess), but the improvements are priceless.  Having users ID's created the same way every time without human error is the best part. We don't need to worry about why groups were not added, user rights not set to folders or missing a private folder being created, typos or just even knowing when things are done and logged. You can automate the time run and ignore it on holidays.  I haven't even gotten to the off-boarding part yet when we need to start archiving stuff on the backend.

It's not no-code, but it's very low code. It's easy to read and understand. A little bit of DOS scripting, basic knowledge of using the information you have, and tossing it into a database to use, and you're off running.  I have to say, the people who wrote this, really understand the use of automation.  You can run your scripts as a different user when you get an error - do this, dialog message box timeouts -positioning- -auto continue -delay, there's plenty of logging and more which I know I haven't discovered yet.

I haven't really come across anything I haven't been able to do with it yet. I am still finding things to automate but I'm sure there's a lot more to explore. My script is quite extensive so I do wish I could jump to parts of my script more quickly but being able to set regions (expand or collapse part of the script helps.) 

The support was great. One thing I got from support was some basic templates like logging and starter scripts, maybe just include some, the help is very useful but the start templates really get you off to a running start. I am truly surprised by the functions I can perform already on the system straight out of the box and I recommend the video training. 

I have been using it for two to three months.

It has the scalability if you need it. You can purchase more agents to run. It's easy to deploy.

It was great working with Ryan. He always answered my emails and was great at pointing me in the right direction.

Positive

I only had basic DOS and Powershell scripts which others didn't know how to use.

It's really easy to set up.

I installed it myself on-prem. The vendor came in to verify the configurations (recommended).

We have seen ROI in saving time and reduced human error. It can handle any repetitive tasks.

The starter pack was all we needed and was reasonable. Others were either more expensive or didn't do all that I wanted to do without an addon.

We looked at 2-3. ManageEngine and UIPath but I can't recall the other one.

If you like to automate, give this a try. It's easy to learn and you don't need a developer or programmer to help you.  

I primarily use the solution for giving the sessions to the clients and trying to get them to set up AutoMate in their organization and also help them to design and create a workflow.

For example, one of our clients, for a healthcare chain, was having a lot of COVID patients coming in in 2020. Their SAP systems are on 15(16) Field information had to go on to the Department of Health site, as all the blood samples are tested in the government hospitals. There were lab technicians keeping the SAP application open and they were copying all these 15(16) Fields of 2000 patients end of the day into the DOH website. That was taking them a lot of time. Two other people were hired to help. 

What we did for them was automate the process. We went into the SAP system and every three hours would download that information, then, we would go to the DOH site, upload these 15 Fields for all of the patients.

After two days, we could go to the DOH website, and download their PDF document, which was a report on whether they had detected COVID or not. For the data we download we would enter the date into that Excel file for the hospital and attach that PDF document onto the top record of the patient. This way, there's complete information about the patient. With this solution, the cycle was complete.

I can say it's a very good product. It has very good results and it is well suited for my requirements. Everything more or less I've been able to create, in line with what the client requires. If the clients have been stuck within everything I've been able to give them a solution on how to automate what is required. 

The solution is really pushing into cybersecurity and working to improve this aspect of the product.

They always check quarterly with the customer to find out what the customer wants to be enhanced in AutoMate. They make sure they try to put that into their roadmap. They are not complacent like some of the other RPA products which already are in the market. They're working on building out more automation so there are fewer bottlenecks in the future.

Technical support is very, very good.

We often get a sneak peek into what they will be releasing. We get to know about it first.

The solution scales extremely easily.

The stability of the solution is very good.

The implementation process is quick and easy.

The solution is continuously adding more integrations to help with workflows and bot and task creation.

So far, for two years, I have not found anything amiss.

That said, nothing is 100%. Each RPA product is not mature enough. There are always have to find innovative ways of automating. There are always challenges for automation. It is a continuously growing process. The majority of the clients want more automation in AutoMate and they want that in the roadmap. 

Some companies have asked for voice integration. This is likely part of the roadmap. 

I've been using the solution for the last two years or so. It's been a while.

The stability of the solution is excellent. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's very reliable.

The scalability is excellent. It's a very good selling feature for the product. If a company needs to scale, it can do so with ease.

The companies we work with are rather large enterprises.

Technical support is very good and very prompt. They have a chatbot for partners and clients. Anybody who goes to the website can interact with the chatbot. All queries get a response within 24 hours. Their SLA is a 24 hour response time if the chatbot can't immediately connect you to someone. 

We have our own discussion portal on which we can post things and immediately there's a solution. Or if there's no solution they let us know about it and will work on a proper response. 

The initial setup is very, very simple. In fact, one of the banks that is a client of ours for some other products plans to move from UiPath to AutoMate mostly due to the complex implementation process involved with UiPath. They have asked us to wait actually until the business comes up and then they will move to AutoMate.

It does not take a long time to set up. We have only one server, and any number of workflows can be created with one license depending on the size of the file and aspects like that. You just need a one-server setup. You don't need different kinds of products when your number of workflows increases. That is a real added advantage ofthe implementation. Our USP is, easy to implement, fast return on investment, and scalability.

While I'm not sure of the exact pricing, it's my understanding that the solution is one the cheapest compared to UiPath, Automation Anywhere and Blue Prism, or the other tier-one options.

I'm aware of UiPath, Automation Anywhere, and Blue Prism and have done some pricing comparisons. HelpSystems is much cheaper than these options.

We are a distributor - a value-added distributor that has the knowledge and expertise. We will combine products of HelpSystems and give to clients the tools as they require them. Many clients have more than one HelpSystems product, for example.

Overall, I would rate the solution nine out of ten.

We go case by case. We use Automate for various file transfers: SFPP, FTP, cloud to cloud, file to cloud, cloud to file, file to banks, and banks back and forth. We're happy with it, though it's mainly for file transfers.

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

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

Never had stability issues with Automate. Any downtime we've had was caused by other systems, not Automate itself. That's why a free development environment is crucial. We need to test and build without impacting production.

So, the only major improvement suggestion is a free development environment. That would solve our downtime issues and allow us to develop and test automation efficiently without affecting production.

We have specific use cases like secure file transfer. And it has been scalable for our business case. So, for us, the scalability is a ten out of ten.

Fortra's Automate has good documentation and a lot of videos available. We were also given training.

So, overall, support has been good.

Positive

Windows had something called 'batch jobs.' It still works, but it was manual monitoring and cumbersome. 

So, Automate has been a big leap forward, simplifying things. Only during the upgrades, do we need to visit the product. Otherwise, everything is seamless. 

The implementation is ongoing. It's not a one-time thing for us. We build new automations every few weeks for new software, involving requirements, development, and testing.

It does not require much maintenance, thanks to backward compatibility. We haven't needed major code changes due to version upgrades.

I was part of the requirement gathering and development but not the installation. Upgrades are handled by the admins with some initial testing from me.

Currently, it is deployed on-premises, we are exploring cloud options. We'll always need on-premises for some things, so it's a hybrid approach for now.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten.

The advice is for a customer and a vendor. Do a proof of concept, get a trial version, and play around with it. Have your solution architect or support walk them through some use cases. And most importantly, make sure you're trained! Without proper training, this product will be a failure. Offer them all the resources – training materials, videos, and community links. That's the recipe for success.

We use it for running reports.

It gives us a central place to schedule tasks and run them distributed. 

It's fairly important to us that it's based on a drag-and-drop, form-based development. It required very little training.

It has helped to reduce human errors. I can't provide the metrics, but humans are prone to creating errors when doing things manually.

It hasn't recently helped reduce our organization's need to hire more people to process repetitive tasks. That's because it's a mature instance that we're supporting.

Some of the monitoring features and the dashboard are valuable.

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've been using this solution for about four months.

It's fairly stable. We're seeing some issues. I'd rate it a seven out of ten in terms of stability.

It seems scalable to an extent. We've 15 users using this solution.

I've contacted them. They were very helpful. I'd rate them a ten out of ten.

Positive

I've used other solutions, but there wasn't another one I know of doing this work at this company.

I wasn't a part of the deployment process. It was done several years ago, and I joined the team just this year.

In terms of the setup and the environment, it's virtualized on-premises. We have three EXE servers, one service box, and one server that we run the client on.

In terms of maintenance, I'm not aware of any maintenance requirements.

To those evaluating this solution, I'd advise having your migration plan in place.

I played around with a few of the things, and it seems like a viable option for building and creating automation using no-code automation, but it also depends on the use case.

I'd rate Fortra's Automate an eight out of ten.

Adaptive Growth is a reseller for HelpSystems' AutoMate Robotic Process Automation software system. Our primary target markets are manufacturing and distribution companies. We also feel that nursing homes and trucking companies are markets that RPA will provide tremendous benefits in operational cost reductions. HelpSystem's PDF and email integration into business software workflows is a great benefit for most any company. 

As a reseller of HelpSystems' AutoMate RPA the product will grow our business because of the dramatic operational cost reductions it offers to our customers. Especially when a buyer of AutoMate can grow their business without the associated cost of hiring new employees--a tremendous benefit of RPA. 

Companies that take the time to learn and understand AutoMate RPA will want to invest in the product for the benefits it offers, the operational cost reductions it provides and its quick ROI.

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

Technical support and marketing support is terrific.

The documentation is online and it's very good.

The integration is excellent. For example, it will integrate with SAP very easily. It's  API 

(application programming interface) is easy to use when and where where required.

Adaptive Growth finds that AutoMate satisfies the workflow and repetitive business processes of most any company we would address. The product's improvement will come mostly from its users which has been the case. 

Adaptive Growth has been working with HelpSystems AutoMate for about nine months.

This is a very stable product.

AutoMates scalability will satisfy most any company's growth requirements.

Technical support is terrific.

We worked with company a company that sold and implemented UiPath and AGI had a trial version of Kofax RPA

The initial setup is straightforward and very easy. A user company just needs to follow the the implementation steps. 

Adaptive Growth implemented AutoMate without outside help. 

Customers of AutoMate will realize their ROI within 90 to 120 days from their go-live date. However, that is dependent on the business requirements for a specific project's workflow is properly defined and documented so it meets that workflows business expectations,

We especially like the way AutoMate is priced. Our customers can license it or pay a one-time purchase price dependent on the number of users. 

We were looking at UiPath and Kofax, and we chose HelpSystems and AutoMate because the product is so Windows like and easy to use.

Our advice for any company who is implementing RPA including AutoMate is to make sure that the requirements for a specific process are clearly defined and documented.

Overall, we find that this is a good product and it's easy to learn and implement. A buyer of Automate RTA never has to become dependent on an RPA implementation company or a consulting firm and its associated costs. 

That said, the principals at AGI have been in the software industry for 35 plus years selling and implementing software systems that address critical business requirements and expectations, we know that a software project will fail when those expectations are not met. 

We would rate this solution a eight out of ten.

With Automate, as an example, if I have a supplier that provides me with items in bulk, the bot of the system will take the bulk order and divide it into individual units for sales. If the company that supplies me also charges for transportation, the system will divide those costs among each item so that I am invoicing and charging correctly when I am selling items on an individual basis. It does this based on the rules I set up on my end. It basically takes the work of many people and automates it.

The solution integrates well with Microsoft Azure. We get AI, artificial intelligence, resources from the solution and it's working very well for us. 

The pricing is excellent. I would give them perfect marks in that regard.

The deployment is not too complicated. It's pretty easy.

The forms are very good.

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

The OCR (optical character recognition) capacity could be improved a bit.

I have about two years of experience with the solution. It hasn't been too long.

The stability is very good. As far as I know, we haven't had any issues so far. It's very reliable. The performance is good.

The scalability has been very good so far.

We have been using it in a Home Depot-like organization in Costa Rica. It's deployed in over 42 stores there, across different servers, and it is working very well for them. They love the solution and plan to use it more and to increase usage as well.

Typically, we work with medium and large-sized organizations.

Technical support is a bit of an issue.

We have our technical support team from Argentina. We can't even speak the same language. That aspect is quite bad. 

However, we have been trained by them, and we had some RPA experts. We were given very good training and they provided it to us.

I found the initial setup to be quite straightforward. It's nice and easy. It's not an overly complex process.

The deployment is pretty fast. We got it done in under one day.

The pricing of the product is reasonable. We don't find it overly expensive. It's very competitive.

We've compared the solution to, for example, Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, and UiPath. And we have done a lot better with HelpSystem. It offers much better pricing, for example, and offer very good forms.

We are a representative of the company. We are integrators and HelpSystems partners and we sell the platform to companies in Costa Rica, Central America, and Puerto Rico. We do the integration for clients. Therefore, we do the mapping, and we do the bots also.

We are using the latest version of the solution. However, I'm not sure what the exact number is.

I would advise others to have an expert that understands the solution assist in the onboarding process. The platform can be very good. It is really good. However, if you don't have experts to train your people and also to implement the solution properly within your company, it's likely the project will fail.

Overall, I would rate the product at a nine out of ten.

We primarily use the solution either for uploading and downloading files on vendor SFTP sites, reading data and files and looking at files to alert and take action, and internally moving files such as data extract and reports from one destination to another, including moving into a network folder or server.

We also use it for data transformation and manipulation, such as converting files from text to Excel or CSV, unzipping files, leading rows and columns, reformatting rows and columns, and combining files.

And then we also use the solution to connect them to databases to execute SQL statements to produce reports.

We've automated all the vendor processes so that we don't have to manually load any files. Basically, it just automates the entire process for over 70 vendors, which is great.

The file interaction features are the most valuable aspect for us. We use them a lot and data interaction is our main use case.

Technical support is responsive.

The initial setup is straightforward.

The stability is very good.

We have found the pricing to be very reasonable.

The OCR needs improvement. 

The solution needs image recognition to integrate front-end and back-end workflows. They need to offer better organization of image capturing for image recognition.

The documentation is not that great. There have been times where I've had to reach out to HelpSystems to just try to accomplish what we're looking for. I've used other solutions that have much better documentation available.

I've been using the solution for five years. It's been a while. 

The solution is stable. It's reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.

We haven't really tested the scalability. We haven't tried too many integrations, for example.

We have six full-time users on the solution right now.

I've used tech su[pirt in the past and I have found them to be helpful and responsive. I'm satisfied with the level of service they provide. 

The initial setup is probably pretty straightforward, or, at least, that's my understanding. We had people System Engineers that we're able to set up pretty easily.

The biggest part about deployment is setting up the dedicated servers, which we're actually installing on the services, and therefore it is pretty painless.

We have seen ROI in terms of saving and cutting down on resources related to specific workflows. You don't have to have IT staff to manipulate files or pick them up or automate some things for end-users. Since they don't have to perform those actions, we get ROI savings there.

We pay the licensing fees on a yearly basis. The pricing is good.

We're just a partner and an end-user.

We don't really use the reporting or the dashboards within the product, although they are available. 

There are other solutions that companies can use to integrate with AutoMate. I would recommend that organizations also look to pair it with other solutions like the AutoMate Intelligent Capture Solution as that can integrate very well with the RPA product.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. We've been very happy with its capabilities.