Likelihood to Recommend Any large business or organisation that wants to manage their workload effectively and with the least amount of room for error might choose the ActiveBatch Automation tool. Being a consultant I feel that It aids in task automation and has the flexibility to change in response to varying company requirements. It helps to save huge time by doing all the repetitive tasks on daily basis. During the patching activity the schedulers can be stopped. It also help by alerting us if any system/job is down so that SLA can be saved. Overall ActiveBatch Automation stands as a dependable cornerstone for ensuring the seamless operation of our tasks.
Read full review VisualCron does accommodate continuous file processing. Like packing and unpacking compressed files, splitting or merging files, sending E-mail's and executing queries on databases. VisualCron in less suitable for performing very complex operations on files like, arithmetic with numbers, dates or amounts. Very complex job scripts become cluttered. Debugging Job scripts is not easy.
Read full review Pros Businesses can use ActiveBatch to plan tasks based on parameters like frequency, dependencies, and the time of day. By automating typical actions like backups and data transfers, businesses can make sure that crucial operations go off without a hitch. Multiple systems and apps can be used in complicated workflows that ActiveBatch can automate. For instance, it can automate a workflow for processing orders from beginning to end, from the customer order through inventory control and delivery through the processing of invoices and payments. Files can be sent between many platforms and systems safely with ActiveBatch. Transfers to cloud-based storage systems like Amazon S3 and Microsoft Azure are also included in this. SFTP and FTP transfers are also included. Read full review VisualCron can pack and unpack files from many types of packing methods. Clear job scripts with complex constructions can be written in VisualCron VisualCron provides a clear graphical overview of the situation of all jobs. VisualCron clearly indicates when a job has run into an error. Read full review Cons On RARE occasions, have seen scheduling properties changed that don't take effect. Simpler to understand/more robust reporting options would be nice to have. Maybe I'm missing something, but why doesn't the Instances view show completion time? Just execution time and duration. Read full review VisualCron should more specifically indicate the root cause of an error. If copying a file goes wrong, VisualCron reports 'can't copy file'. I expect 'no read permissions from original' or 'no write permissions from destination'. VisualCron offers no way to execute a Job script line by line In VisualCron, nested loops cannot be created. Read full review Usability We can easily add new plans/jobs in our batch schedules. Also, coordination with reporting and QA jobs is simple to do. Building schedules, restarting jobs, triggering dependencies is easy to understand. The system is very stable and allows us to easily see overall processing times.
Read full review Support Rating My colleague contacted them directly, I only know hearsay on this but it was not good.
Read full review Questions and problems can be addressed to VisualCron 's support department via E-mail. I usually get a good answer from them fairly quickly. There is also a VisualCron forum where you can ask questions that will be answered by other VisualCron users.
Read full review Alternatives Considered The workload automation solution is based on the specific needs of an organization, as well as the features, capabilities, and costs of various solutions. A thorough evaluation process and consideration of these factors can help ensure the selection of a solution that aligns with overall business objectives and meets the specific needs of the organization.
Read full review For simple processes, VisualCron is easier to use and maintain. For complicated processes,
Quadient Inspire offers more options. The graphical representations of waiting, running or completed jobs is adequate for both products. The logging of job actions is better in Quadient Inpire as in VisualCron.
Read full review Return on Investment I have not run numbers to determine hard impact, but a quick estimate is that at least one job is running for a average of about 6 hours per day - that 6 hours, if done by hand, would equate to about 30 - 40 hours per day (and in some cases, could not be duplicated manually, as the job repeats faster than a person could accomplish one cycle.) Read full review With VisualCron, I need 3 times less time to get file processing right. If a VisualCron job goes wrong I need twice as much time to find the problem. Visualcron does not run on Linux but on Windows which can make an upgrade and reboot take up to 6 times as long. Read full review ScreenShots