ConnectWise Automate, formerly LabTech, is a remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform. It provides powerful automation to discover and manage devices, monitor for problems, and scripts repetitive action.
$700
TeamViewer
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
TeamViewer provides software for both remote management and online collaborations. With TeamViewer, users have access to fully integrated online conference solutions for audio and video communication, including interactive screen sharing and remote access features.
So as you can see from this review my experience is mostly with its desktop sharing aspect; however the IT support team use this more comprehensively as a monitoring, inventory, reporting, even application deployment tool that the above-mentioned apps don't have.
Before LabTech, we used Kaseya 6, which was terrible. Currently with LabTech, we use ConnectWise for our ticketing, PRTG and Auvik for network monitoring. We selected LabTech, because it met our price point and they are a local company, that we can easily work with to meet our …
TeamViewer is lightweight and the installation is easy compared to ConnectWise which requires an expert to install and maintain. ConnctWise requires about three servers to be set up and users to be trained to use it. TeamViewer has an easy GUI and is very intuitive, making it …
The TeamViewer software is very ubiquitous and versatile as it runs on all major operating systems and this helps it in eliminating the need for finding different solutions on various platforms. As such, it is very well equipped to fight competitors and stacks up against them …
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.
Its great for providing remote tech support, troubleshooting issues on client systems, or managing servers in different locations; it's hard to beat its reliability and security. However TeamViewer is less ideal for when you have limited bandwidth. If someone needs a solid remote support tool the works across devices, it's an easy yes, but it's not the do-everything solution.
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.
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.
We need this tool in our day to day business. It is what we do all day remoting into clients devices. In this day and age we can access devices all over the world as long as we have secure internet connection. It certainly saves money in gas, and even if you are away you can help.
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.
Compared to other products I've used (ConnectWise Control), TeamViewer is harder to set up and get connected. It is especially difficult to set up "permanent" unattended remote access, where you want to be able to connect to and control a remote computer without having to exchange codes and passwords every time you connect.
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.
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.
the few times i have had to contact teamviewer support, they were very responsive and give me quick answers and seemed to understand my problems quickly and easily. I did not have to sit on the phone for hours on hold or get passed around to multiple phone support techs before finding a solution to my issues, so i would rate their support very highly.
As expected without any problem! Alternate in-person training is another efficient way to learn how a product works. There are many third party supporters for TeamViewer courses available that can give additional ideas how to use TeamViewer for specific functions and features as we did require in respect of our usage.
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.
I have never used the online training either. I have watched a few informational videos that were helpful when learning how to do a specific procedure within TeamViewer and get the most out of the software by utilizing one of the many features that are available with the software. Again, 5 if for neutral.
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.
Starting two months ago, I began to see tangible economic benefits from using TeamViewer. Quickly, the travel cost reduction and increased productivity overcame the initial investment cost. However, it wouldn't work until everyone understood the software features, and success was contingent upon the complete training of all team members.
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.
Horses for courses they say but all around, TeamViewer is the best software for remote management, period. Pulseway's remote desktop can work well on the phone app but on a desktop, it is often unreliable and drops connections. AnyDesk is not appropriate for our business and is only good on a case-by-case basis.
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.
Limits travel to remote locations or from remote employees by being able to manage and troubleshoot remote computers without having to have hands on the machines physically.
It limits the need for shipping machines for testing or troubleshooting and lets us focus on sending and receiving the parts needed only.
Increasing the ability to remotely manage retail locations so that each one doesn't need an IT person on staff with 9 locations is a tremendous cost savings to the organization.
