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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Fortra’s Automate

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AFortra'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.N/A

    Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk

    Score8.2 out of 10
    N/ASpiceworks offers a set of free tools for IT network management and help desk support ticketing. The inventory management system essentially provides comprehensive device information for asset management.

    $0

    (free for 1-5 Seats)

    Pricing
    Fortra’s AutomateSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Core Plan
    $0
    Premium
    $6
    per month per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Fortra’s AutomateSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Fortra’s AutomateSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Considered Both Products
    Fortra
    No answer on this topic
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Would buy again
    35 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    35 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    34 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    27 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    31 Answers
    Features
    Fortra’s AutomateSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Fortra’s Automate and Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Feature
    Fortra’s Automate
    -
    Ratings
    Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    8.1
    56 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings8.855 Ratings
    Expert directory00 Ratings5.548 Ratings
    Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings4.943 Ratings
    ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings9.346 Ratings
    Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings10.055 Ratings
    Ticket response00 Ratings10.054 Ratings
    Self Help Community
    Comparison of Self Help Community features of Fortra’s Automate and Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Feature
    Fortra’s Automate
    -
    Ratings
    Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    9.5
    53 Ratings
    17% above category average
    External knowledge base00 Ratings9.549 Ratings
    Internal knowledge base00 Ratings9.549 Ratings
    Multi-Channel Help
    Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Fortra’s Automate and Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Feature
    Fortra’s Automate
    -
    Ratings
    Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    8.7
    53 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Customer portal00 Ratings9.847 Ratings
    IVR00 Ratings4.512 Ratings
    Social integration00 Ratings9.028 Ratings
    Email support00 Ratings10.047 Ratings
    Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings10.029 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Fortra’s AutomateSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Help Scout
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    IBM Robotic Process Automation
    Score8.4 out of 10
    LiveAgent
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    UiPath Automation Platform
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Front
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Fortra’s AutomateSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    10.0
    (84 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (29 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.8
    (10 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.7
    (26 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (7 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Fortra’s AutomateSpiceworks Cloud Help Desk
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Fortra
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    It's a great helpdesk solution - we currently have five years of data within it, roughly 25,000 tickets. The older edition is a great inventory and software license tracking tool. It is easy for users to use the interface and submit tickets and requests on the web, and its email integration is solid. The new version is a below-average system monitoring tool, only giving up/down status and a few other metrics.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Fortra
    • Very detailed task builder. Easy to read step by step a task's operation even if you don't have much programming knowledge.
    • Scheduling for automation jobs is very flexible. Allows us to create all kinds of job schedules as needed.
    • Organization of jobs, tasks, conditions is done well. Allows us to easily manage our items.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    • It helps to multitask, even on the go with the mobile App.
    • We can customize to meet your needs with automated responses, notifications, and templates.
    • Detailed reports allow managers to keep track [of] and analyze data.
    • Allows for a database to store notes helpful for future tickets.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Fortra
    • A reporting capability on tasks: enabled, disabled, by folder, by trigger, etc. Currently there is none.
    • An "OR" in their conditional statements - currently there is only "AND".
    • Some kind of temporary backup when changing a task - separate from the current back up/restore functionality (which works well).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    • I have always wanted a way to redirect a support request into another IS bin, such as a development task.
    • It's possible to extract the data from the Spiceworks database, but it would be helpful if the process to do so were easier.
    • Improved ability to customize the system generated emails to improve the formatting and company branding.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Fortra
    No answers on this topic
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    Spiceworks is a free tool, so there would be no hesitation if we are required to upgrade it. We have installed Spiceworks on a dedicated server with more than enough resources to get the most from this tool, so we will have this running in our department for years to come.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Fortra
    It's just very easy to use, extremely versatile, and very reliable. It's hard to find use cases where it won't work.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    Spiceworks is user friendly and easy to set up. It can be customized to suit your needs. If there are any problems, you can go to the community forums for support and be in contact with many IT Pros, as well as the Spiceworks support staff and development teams who are always happy to help users out
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Fortra
    No answers on this topic
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    We use it both locally on our own server so up time is decided by us and we also use the hosted help desk. We have never had an outage of that.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Fortra
    Support is very helpful and responsive, although using the tool is very user-friendly, so I hardly use the service.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    Spiceworks has been working out of the box, and some of the basic customizations have been successful with just our internal staff handling. We don't have any other issues with the tool. It provides us with the inventory information we want in a quick and concise report in a variety of formats for our team.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Fortra
    No answers on this topic
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    If you can spin up a VM to run it on, you'll thank yourself later. If you have remote sites, set up a local server (or dedicated computer) at each site and set them up as remote collectors for the main site. You'll save time and bandwidth
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Fortra
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    EGroupware UI is clunky and hard to use, Jira is great but the pricing is expensive in comparison with spice works that has a free version and you can test it out properly before buying and make a correct decision based on your business plan and company objectives with the right software.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Fortra
    • 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Spiceworks Ziff Davis
    • Positive - Allow organizations to implement structured Help Desk procedures.
    • Positive - IT can begin to quantify their tickets and uncover needs within the organization.
    • Positive - IT can develop a solid roadmap with [the] management of future needs, equipment refresh schedules, etc.
    • Positive - IT can pinpoint employees who may need extra training or updated equipment based on historical ticketing data.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Fortra’s Automate Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshot