Likelihood to Recommend I recommend it to all IT colleagues; regardless of the size of the PCs with which you work most of the time, the application allows connection stability between computers that make it possible to continue working or taking care of the infrastructure from afar.
Read full review We have been able to integrate our ISM system with Active Directory using API calls to automate user account creation and user Moves, Adds, and Changes. This has helped us make the employee onboarding and offboarding process much more efficient and less error prone. We cut down on mundane work for the account creation team and freed them to do more tier 2 and 3 tasks. Where the system has been less appropriate for us is trying to integrate non-IT service processes. We haven't gotten a lot of buy-in from groups that aren't used to using an IT related system to receive tasks. It will take some time for us to make a more user friendly, non-IT, Support role.
Read full review Pros Desktop sharing / view with chat to the operator, file sharing and pass-through for keyboard strokes Computer/server monitoring with thresholds and warning Search - tracking down computers when you have many by name, logged in user, IP End user ticket raising is built into the tray icon which make access really easy Read full review Very good at allowing a service line to configure the product to suit its needs. This is important so as to not have to craft operations around the technology, but the other way around! A high level of flexibility to implement a great deal of automation. The product gives end users access to pre-defined or custom business rules and workflows as well as the ability to implement other forms of time savers! There is a very comprehensive Help guide for end users and administrators alike. Quite often I have found the most obscure 'How To's' in this guide rather than needing to call into support or search out information on the Ivanti site. Read full review Cons They have conflicting scheduling paradigms. When scheduling patching for clients, the 1st Friday is interpreted as the very first Friday of the month, even if this is the 1st of the month. For scripting, the 1st Friday of the month is interpreted as the 1st Friday of the 1st FULL WEEK of the month. This makes no sense to have two different interpretations, and makes it unreliable to schedule recurring scripts to fall when recurring maintenance does. The scripts need to be done manually because of this. There is no way to dictate reboot orders for patch policies. This tied directly in with my first point. We have some clients that require reboot orders. This is not possible without having different patch policies for each server and specifying a time this way. But, there aren't small enough increments of time to make this reliable, plus patching duration might vary. Excluding reboots with patching and scheduling reboot scripts fixes this. However, this can't be done once on a recurring schedule due to the different scheduling paradigms already discussed. We have to schedule these manually each month. Read full review Had a little trouble sending some files remotely a few times, but it could have been on our end. The system was a little different from what we were used to. We had to drill down into the program a bit more than expected. We couldn't tell if some of our older machines were having problems with it, or if it was the program itself. Read full review Likelihood to Renew The primary reason for this rating is that ConnectWise Automate is currently so integral to our operations that moving away would involve more man hours than we would realistically have to invest. However, ConnectWise Automate is also completely capable of meeting all of our business needs and customizable to the point where if something is not meeting those needs out of the box, it can be modified to do what we want. From only installing software on machines if a different software package exists, to push a new version of that software is available, to check if credentials for user/machine have been updated to our new standards and then updating them if they have not, ConnectWise Automate is capable of doing everything we ask of it.
Read full review We are fully committed to this system. After customizing it for the past 3 years we have no plans to change
Read full review Usability Basic use of the product is fairly easy. Information about the machines you manage can be found in customizable dashboards, which can be unique for each user, and, therefore, properly suited to the users' needs/job function. This is not a 10 because some of the interfaces are very clunky (Patch Management), and some features are not intuitive and not well documented (reporting). Scripting and Patch Management have a fairly steep learning curve (For structure in patch management and syntax in scripting), but once learned, they work well.
Read full review There's two sides to answering this question. From an Agent/Admin perspective, it's great. You can do a lot of really cool things and have a lot of options and tools available to you. From a customer perspective, you're not quite as spoilt for choice. Ivanti has been working on and improving their new mobile-responsive customer interface but in doing so have really limited the features they allow admins to configure. We've found this limiting but not unworkable. I hope this continues to improve.
Read full review Performance It used to be great, but then they broke reporting, speed and responsiveness with version 11 and the new Patch Manager. It's really bad and their support people are way behind on fixing so many bugs. They have really gone downhill. If they don't get it together soon, we'll start looking around.
Read full review Support Rating ConnectWise Automate lets you manage more endpoints, with enhanced productivity and improved service, all without increasing expenses. It can manage patches and updates across thousands of computers. We also use it for customized monitoring and alerting on workstations and servers. Monitoring is really robust and granular. It does a great job of gathering a TON of data about the network, and that data is searchable. There are a bunch of different reports built in. Integrates with Manage, Control, and other applications. It does a ton of stuff out of the box, and has endless customization options.
Read full review Support has been amazing. They are knowledgeable, respectful, efficient, and friendly. When something doesn't go according to plan, they go above and beyond to make sure your issues are resolved. I have come to think of them as an extension of my team!
Read full review Online Training The Online training has been re-done and needs a lot more work. When you look at training in different roles, it shows a lot of the same topics but no explanation to what is different about them. Several times that topics are the exact same, but they make you re-take the same information for a different topic, instead of marking that you have already completed that portion of training.
Read full review Implementation Rating Start small and learn the in's and out's before making policies and rolling things out company wide. Ask the questions of why if you don't agree with something or your company does things a different way. Usually they are done a certain way for a reason. Start simple with roll out and slowly enable or add on the functionality that is needed.
Read full review Alternatives Considered I believe the monitoring and alerts in Continuum command is better, but [ConnectWise Automate (formerly LabTech)] does have stronger scripting, and perhaps a better interface. N-Central is inferior on all fronts to both. I did not make the purchasing decision. I would myself likely pick Continuum if I had to make a on the spot choice.
Read full review Ivanti is far more user friendly than ManageEngine, and has more features than
Jira Service Management. It takes longer to get used to Ivanti because of the extra features, but once you're on board with how it works and how to make changes, the possibilities and configuration options are almost endless
Read full review Contract Terms and Pricing Model On-premises vs being in Ivanti's Cloud is about 3-5 times the cost.
Read full review Professional Services There are many companies for you to choose from. Many have expertise in specific areas. I highly recommend making sure you find one that can work for your specific project needs and then be willing to go in a different direction if needed. There are a few companies that have the personnel to cover everyone's basis but truthfully not many.
Read full review Return on Investment We found we were able to provide good monitoring of our customers sites which was an objective. However, that came at a significant time investment that never seemed to be finished. We were able to negotiate a price that worked for us for an up-front purchase which was nice. We found the pricing to be very competitive. Bottom line for us was despite the pros of the product, we found other RMM solutions to be a better overall "value" due to not having to dedicate technicians to maintaining the product. Read full review In the Classroom Support department, this has provided a quick access system available via tablet for technicians on the go and has improved response time. In the Helpdesk, this has assisted in the automation of repetitive tasks and assisted with providing better accountability for the completion of an assigned task. Read full review ScreenShots ConnectWise Automate Screenshots