Fortra's Automate (formerly HelpSystems Automate) is a robotic process automation platform for desktop applications. According to the vendor, it offers the ability to automate almost any business process, and no technical expertise is required—IT and business users alike can understand the drag-and-drop interface.
It has similar usage cases and functions. However, many tools are stuck behind paywalls and always try to upsell you to the next version. It's very upsetting. Even if it's cheaper, whenever I try to replicate the functionality, I get that annoying message, "not available in …
At an older job we used to use SSIS as kind of an automation tool as well as it could also be used to connect to FTP sources, read files, etc. AutoMate is simply centrally designed to be true automation software. It is much more robust, can work with a variety of software …
It's great for repetitive or regularly scheduled activities like reports or file transfers. However, it's not so good for on-demand activities. It doesn't support task shortcuts to run specific tasks. If it did it would be perfect.
It's been a net positive as AutoMate requires less eyes on specific tasks so that people can focus attention elsewhere and do more analysis.
Less manual work also decreases the chances of mistakes and/or missed jobs. Since Automate can schedule everything, send email notifications, etc., there is less time wasted.