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IBM Robotic Process Automation vs. Salesforce Agentforce Sales

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM Robotic Process Automation

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/AIBM Robotic Process Automation with Automation Anywhere is a robotic process automation solution combining business process management tools from IBM with Automation Anywhere's bots and automation capabilities.

    $840

    per month

    Agentforce Sales

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/ASalesforce' Agentforce Sales (formerly Salesforce Sales Cloud) is the company's flagship CRM platform. The AI CRM for Sales features data built right in.

    $25

    per month

    Pricing
    IBM Robotic Process AutomationAgentforce Sales
    Editions & Modules
    IBM RPA On premises
    Platform starter pack, starting at USD 840.00 per month
    per month
    IBM RPA Software as a service (SaaS)
    Platform starter pack, starting at USD 840.00 per month
    per month
    Starter
    $25.00
    per month per user
    Professional
    $80.00
    per month per user
    Enterprise
    $165.00
    per month per user
    Unlimited
    $330.00
    per month per user
    Agentforce 1 Sales
    $550
    per month per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM Robotic Process AutomationAgentforce Sales
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM Robotic Process AutomationAgentforce Sales
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    Salesforce
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    88 Answers
    91%
    Would buy again
    209 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    79 Answers
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    179 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    91 Answers
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    216 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    61 Answers
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    143 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    93%
    Implementation went as expected
    68 Answers
    81%
    Implementation went as expected
    125 Answers
    Features
    IBM Robotic Process AutomationAgentforce Sales
    Sales Force Automation
    Comparison of Sales Force Automation features of IBM Robotic Process Automation and Salesforce Agentforce Sales
    Feature
    IBM Robotic Process Automation
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Agentforce Sales
    8.2
    268 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Customer data management / contact management00 Ratings8.6268 Ratings
    Workflow management00 Ratings8.6258 Ratings
    Territory management00 Ratings7.5211 Ratings
    Opportunity management00 Ratings9.0258 Ratings
    Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)00 Ratings7.7243 Ratings
    Contract management00 Ratings8.0214 Ratings
    Quote & order management00 Ratings7.6197 Ratings
    Interaction tracking00 Ratings8.9228 Ratings
    Channel / partner relationship management00 Ratings8.0190 Ratings
    Customer Service & Support
    Comparison of Customer Service & Support features of IBM Robotic Process Automation and Salesforce Agentforce Sales
    Feature
    IBM Robotic Process Automation
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Agentforce Sales
    7.7
    104 Ratings
    0% above category average
    Case management00 Ratings8.3102 Ratings
    Call center management00 Ratings7.782 Ratings
    Help desk management00 Ratings7.286 Ratings
    Marketing Automation
    Comparison of Marketing Automation features of IBM Robotic Process Automation and Salesforce Agentforce Sales
    Feature
    IBM Robotic Process Automation
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Agentforce Sales
    7.8
    243 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Lead management00 Ratings7.8238 Ratings
    Email marketing00 Ratings7.9205 Ratings
    CRM Project Management
    Comparison of CRM Project Management features of IBM Robotic Process Automation and Salesforce Agentforce Sales
    Feature
    IBM Robotic Process Automation
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Agentforce Sales
    8.0
    247 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Task management00 Ratings8.3235 Ratings
    Billing and invoicing management00 Ratings7.078 Ratings
    Reporting00 Ratings8.7200 Ratings
    CRM Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of CRM Reporting & Analytics features of IBM Robotic Process Automation and Salesforce Agentforce Sales
    Feature
    IBM Robotic Process Automation
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Agentforce Sales
    8.3
    260 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Forecasting00 Ratings7.8228 Ratings
    Pipeline visualization00 Ratings8.5247 Ratings
    Customizable reports00 Ratings8.7257 Ratings
    Customization
    Comparison of Customization features of IBM Robotic Process Automation and Salesforce Agentforce Sales
    Feature
    IBM Robotic Process Automation
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Agentforce Sales
    8.4
    251 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Custom fields00 Ratings9.0248 Ratings
    Custom objects00 Ratings8.7238 Ratings
    Scripting environment00 Ratings7.7175 Ratings
    API for custom integration00 Ratings8.5209 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of IBM Robotic Process Automation and Salesforce Agentforce Sales
    Feature
    IBM Robotic Process Automation
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Agentforce Sales
    9.0
    282 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Single sign-on capability00 Ratings9.0220 Ratings
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings9.0254 Ratings
    Social CRM
    Comparison of Social CRM features of IBM Robotic Process Automation and Salesforce Agentforce Sales
    Feature
    IBM Robotic Process Automation
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Agentforce Sales
    7.7
    160 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Social data00 Ratings8.0158 Ratings
    Social engagement00 Ratings7.4156 Ratings
    Integrations with 3rd-party Software
    Comparison of Integrations with 3rd-party Software features of IBM Robotic Process Automation and Salesforce Agentforce Sales
    Feature
    IBM Robotic Process Automation
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Agentforce Sales
    7.9
    216 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Marketing automation00 Ratings7.9212 Ratings
    Compensation management00 Ratings7.9146 Ratings
    Platform
    Comparison of Platform features of IBM Robotic Process Automation and Salesforce Agentforce Sales
    Feature
    IBM Robotic Process Automation
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Agentforce Sales
    8.3
    231 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Mobile access00 Ratings8.3231 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    IBM Robotic Process AutomationAgentforce Sales
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Salesflare
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    UiPath Automation Platform
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Kintone
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    UiPath Automation Platform
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Oracle Sales
    Score8.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM Robotic Process AutomationAgentforce Sales
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.2
    (94 ratings)
    8.9
    (470 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.8
    (7 ratings)
    9.1
    (61 ratings)
    Usability
    9.1
    (17 ratings)
    8.4
    (166 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (29 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (20 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.1
    (18 ratings)
    9.0
    (98 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (12 ratings)
    Online Training
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (15 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.9
    (2 ratings)
    9.0
    (19 ratings)
    Configurability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.8
    (9 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (5 ratings)
    Data Sources
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (5 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.9
    (85 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.3
    (8 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM Robotic Process AutomationAgentforce Sales
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IBM
    While it can be applied to various scenarios, its suitability can depend on the specific requirements of a given task or process. Here are some scenarios where IBM RPA is well-suited and scenarios where it may be less appropriate: Well suited: 1.Data Entry and Data Migration: RPA can efficiently automate data entry tasks, such as copying information from one system to another or migrating data between databases, reducing the risk of human error 2. Report Generation: RPA can generate routine reports by extracting data from various sources, formatting it, and delivering the reports to the relevant stakeholders, saving time and effort. 3. Email and Message Handling: RPA can help manage and categorize emails and messages, such as routing customer inquiries to the right department or processing routine email requests.Less suited for: 1. Cases where there is High Variability: RPA may struggle with tasks that have a high degree of variability, where each case is unique and difficult to standardize. 2. For Complex Decision-Making: RPA is rule-based and not designed for complex decision-making processes. It cannot replace the judgment and decision-making capabilities of humans. 3.Tasks Requiring Creativity: RPA is not suitable for tasks that require creativity, innovation, or problem-solving skills, as it operates based on predefined rules and logic.
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    Obviously, for any business, there are two main areas to focus on — the sales path and the service path. Sales Cloud wouldn’t be suited for a company that’s primarily into support services. For those kinds of companies, Salesforce has a different product — Service Cloud. So, for anyone in the support or service space, Sales Cloud isn’t the right fit.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    IBM
    • accessing local system
    • It was programmed to navigate to the web page requiring reCAPTCHA verification, locate the reCAPTCHA challenge, and generate a screenshot or other data to present to a user for manual input.
    • It was programmed to extract employee data from emails or forms, update the employee record in Workday, and send automated notifications.
    Incentivized
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    Salesforce
    • The customizations - We have an organization that operates differently from most companies, so we’ve had to implement quite a few customizations — and Salesforce allows us to do that quite quickly. Most of the time, delays come from dependencies on other internal parties rather than the system itself.
    • From my perspective as a consultant, one of the biggest advantages is that everything is in Salesforce — all the details, all in one place. The ability to customize it easily is a big plus; there’s really a lot you can do with it.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    IBM
    • Security and data privacy: IBM RPA may not have the strongest security features, which can leave sensitive data vulnerable to breaches or hacking.
    • Scalability: IBM RPA may not scale well to accommodate larger businesses and more complex processes, which can lead to performance issues and increased costs.
    • Customization: IBM RPA may not provide as much customization options as some users would like, making it difficult to tailor the software to specific business needs.
    Incentivized
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    Salesforce
    • We still need to include the production part. We started using Salesforce to sell the seeds — our inventory is in SAP — and from there we handle sales and track the process of planting, harvesting, selling, and then collecting payments. But we don’t yet manage the earlier production processes, like production planning. We handle allocation, but not full production planning, and that’s an area where we still have room for improvement.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    IBM
    By implementing IBM Robotic Process Automation, we realized that they are digital robots with a great impact on our manual tasks, generating good automation capabilities that are beneficial to the entire company.
    Incentivized
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    Salesforce
    There are days when I wish we hadn't switched, but I know that if we put in the time, we will get to where we want to be with the software and that it has many more capabilities than anything else we looked at. However, the amount of time and onboarding we need to do is also far greater than we realized/were told when we originally bought the product. They told us we should hire onboarding support, but at the end, after we had already reached our budget maximum for this, so it's been slower than we had hoped.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    IBM
    IBM RPA is a very powerful tool, it has almost all the features that are necessary to build, implement and manage highly functional robots. The learning curve is very fast, so excellent skills are acquired. It is not necessary to have strong programming knowledge because its use is very easy. It is just drag and drop commands. By adding rules and logic, wonderful robots can be achieved.
    Read full review
    Salesforce
    Because I think it could be easier. We have different standards today since we’re used to interacting with consumer apps like Starbucks, where all you do is scan your card. Then, when you use Sales Cloud, there are still a lot of manual inputs. So my mission with AI is really about figuring out how to make that easier.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    Salesforce is always available securely from any internet-capable device anywhere in the world, UNLESS you choose to set security measures so that ONLY trusted IP ranges may access the system at certain times of the day. It's all about choice and flexibility with Salesforce products.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    Salesforce performance in general is excellent. "The cloud infrastructure beneath Force.com has been fine-tuned over the past 10 years. It powers nearly 100,000+ businesses running more than 185,000 applications that 3 million users count on every day."
    Points per Salesforce -
    1) Multitenant kernel - With a multitenant platform, each business that uses the app doesn’t have its own copy. Instead, all businesses share a single copy and then customize it for their specific needs.
    2) ISO 27001 certified security - You can’t compromise when it comes to enterprise-level security. Force.com is road-tested and trusted by nearly 100,000+ companies, including many of the world’s most security-conscious organizations, such as banks and health care providers.
    3) Proven reliability - All Force.com apps run on world-class data centers with backup, failover, and disaster-recovery facilities. Force.com has had a proven 99.9 percent uptime record for years.
    4) Proven, real-time scalability - Force.com is used by many of the world's largest enterprises, including Cisco, Japan Post Network, and Symantec. Applications can automatically scale from a few users to millions of page views, as needed.
    5) Real-time query optimizer - You need fast access to your data. The Force.com query optimizer delivers under 300ms response time, at a massive scale.
    6) Real-time transparent system status - You can always see real-time system performance, availability, and security information at trust.salesforce.com.
    7) Real-time upgrades - Unlike traditional software platforms, our upgrades never break your customizations, code, or integrations. We upgrade the platform for you 3 to 4 times each year. As a result, you’re always on the latest version, with access to the latest features, performance, and security enhancements.
    8) Real-time sandbox environments - With a single click, you can create copies of your applications, configuration, and data in separate environments for development, testing, and training.
    9) Three global production data centers and disaster recovery - Force.com runs on three geographically dispersed, mirrored data centers with built-in replication, disaster recovery, a redundant network backbone, and no single points of failure
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    IBM
    IBM has done a great job with enablement for the product. There is documentation for use-cases, development videos for beginners, and a community forum that has proven useful for getting started with the application. Although the resources cannot solve every problem a developer comes across, they have been very beneficial to our technical team.
    Incentivized
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    Salesforce
    The overall support has been good. More and more features are being released quite frequently. Very small features are also making big difference in how the tool can be adapted and used better. If there is anything we need or are stuck, the support team sets up a call and helps in resolving the issue/provides workarounds.
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    In-Person Training
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    I attended two training sessions. I would rate them a 4 as an advanced user. It was very basic – great for someone new – would give 8+ for new person.

    I had 3 years of experience at the time. I skipped basic and went onto advanced and still not helpful. A lot of it was best practices that didn’t feel relevant for our business
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    Online Training
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    I have gone through multiple. The content that’s delivered is quite basic – I wish they had more advanced training.

    We are grandfathered into premium support plus training. We get unlimited access to instructor led and online training for free. We have taken advantage of this
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    Implementation Rating
    IBM
    I am main developer of the this implementation. I have faced many chanllenges in implementation as IBM RPA not provided direct commands to automate Excel. I enjoyed in finding solution and best approach for the implementation
    Incentivized
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    Salesforce
    Just from an organizational standpoint - we standardized our data prior to moving to Salesforce. But we essentially standardized it wrong. That's created a big disgusting mess for us know that I'll have to deal with as the Admin. Be sure you think through use cases prior to doing something like that - seek outside opinions on how the data will work best, especially depending on what else you're going to integrate with Salesforce.
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    Alternatives Considered
    IBM
    I've always had excellent service and had no trouble communicating. It has aided in my understanding of how I can continue to use the bots. Reading peer assessments reveals that while IBM RPA demands a substantial initial financial commitment, it justifies its cost, unlike Blue Prism RPA, which does not.
    Incentivized
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    Salesforce
    So I've evaluated, implemented Microsoft Dynamics in the past. I've used Oracle CRM solutions. I've used Daylight, which is a very niche CRM system the last couple of years. And I've evaluated a variety from Legacy Microsoft Ones to Zoho and Sugar when making implementation decisions at other companies. But usually I've gone with Salesforce. I'd say it's better than most. The only one that I generally prefer, and last time I chose an implementation from scratch, I did Microsoft Dynamics. And the reason is for small mid-size organization, Microsoft Dynamics, if you already have Microsoft Office products, it's much better integrated to all of the Excel, Word, OneNote, Outlook email than what you get from Salesforce. And so that's the only one that if someone's a Microsoft organization and small sized company, it'll save a lot of integration things, a lot of security, a lot of login and access and IT management by just sticking within the Microsoft ecosystem. But outside of that, if you don't use Microsoft or if you're a large organization or have other needs that you want, Salesforce I'd say is better than all of the other CRM offerings out there. It's the easiest to use and the most robust and the most vendors and products for the ecosystem.
    Incentivized
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    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    Salesforce is the most widely used CRM system. Professionalism tends to increase when things go wrong for market leaders. Salesforce considers us as users because they own the market. Having all of our data in one place and all of our teams working within Salesforce. Anyone who uses Salesforce is impacted by it, even if they don't.
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    Scalability
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    It's very scalable as it has a ton of features (but you do need an admin who understands how to leverage these features). Because of the various features, we've also needed to host onboarding sessions with our users so that they can familiarize themselves with the platform, which isn't always super user-friendly or intuitive.
    Incentivized
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    Professional Services
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Salesforce
    Using Salesforce.com has made my daily routines more efficient and simplified the manual tasks I had to perform independently. I can now access data from any device, online or offline, and provide better guidance to my team about the forecasts provided by the built-in artificial intelligence (AI). A chat with a Salesforce support specialist would be great. The knowledge base has a community forum where Salesforce users can ask questions and learn more about the product.
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    Return on Investment
    IBM
    • IBM Robotic Process Automation has helped save on cost and time as it is able to automate tasks that are repetitive and routine tasks.
    • IBM Robotic Process Automation has helped us increase productivity. This is because it is able to perform tasks with a high degree of accuracy and speed.
    • It has enhanced compliance as it is able to automate compliance-related tasks. This has helped us improve our reputation.
    Incentivized
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    Salesforce
    • It allows me to keep a close eye on all of my performance metrics through the Dashboard Reporting, ie what my sales pipeline looks like, how much it's changed in the last 60 days, new opportunities created in the last 7 days, # of emails sent for the week, etc. The ease of the design and output make it really easy to check my progress throughout the day to find where I have holes and am falling short on my personal and work goals. It's resulted in greater transparency with my Mgmt Team and shorter 1-on-1 mtgs with my boss as he can see exactly where I am at all times (to be fair, I'm a senior sales rep, so he pretty much lets me do my job completely unfettered), but it does prove that I am continually producing which recently resulted in a raise I didn't even ask for.
    • The SF repository is so detailed that I don't have to spend tons of time finding frequently used websites attached to a client or see what all interactions with the company look like. Even though I don't use SF for my bulk emails and email sequences, SF provides me with an email to use in the bcc of these emails which links everything back to SF. I find that extremely helpful. This really impacts my efficiency and I can honestly say that once I started using all the functionality of data management, it saved me about 20% of my time/week that I could then allocate towards other revenue-generating tasks like prospecting and account management. The more time I have for those, the better. My year-over-year on accounts 1 year and older just grew by 17% this last year.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    IBM Robotic Process Automation Screenshots

    Screenshot of IBM Robotic Process Automation Demo: IBM RPA StudioScreenshot of IBM Robotic Process Automation Demo: Watson Engine in IBM RPA StudioScreenshot of IBM Robotic Process Automation Demo: IVR Debug in IBM RPA StudioScreenshot of IBM Robotic Process Automation Demo: HTTP Request in IBM RPA StudioScreenshot of IBM Robotic Process Automation Demo: Knowledge Base Training in IBM RPA Studio

    Agentforce Sales Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot