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Fortra’s Automate

Fortra’s Automate
Formerly HelpSystems Automate

Overview

What is Fortra’s Automate?

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…

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Learn from top reviewers

The super tool that makes any IT professional a Super hero for their company

Rating: 10 out of 10
August 17, 2019
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
HelpSystems Automate is an essential part of our everyday work. It not only the primary tool for EDI and data transfers, but it is also our primary automated reporting tool. I...
Continue reading
Kwame H. Baptiste
Team Lead - Information Technology
IT Dept. Manager
P. Judge and Sons, Inc - The Judge Organization
Fortra’s Automate10 years of experience

Automation for everybody.

Rating: 8 out of 10
December 9, 2017
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
We use Automate BPA Server just in our department to manage a number of tasks. Our primary jobs are essentially ETL related. Retrieving files from an FTP server, importing tho...
Continue reading
Verified user
Analyst
Fortra’s Automate1 year of experience

Automate - does what it says

Rating: 9 out of 10
April 3, 2017
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
[It's] mainly used as a platform for FTP jobs - approximately 30 vendors. It's also used to check completion of processes and to copy files. It has a very flexible job trigger...
Continue reading
David Croney
Program Manager - Information Technology
Operations Analyst Senior
FIS - Fidelity Information Services
Fortra’s Automate7 years of experience

AutoMate Integration and alternatives

Rating: 5 out of 10
April 8, 2016
IncentivizedVetted ReviewVerified User
We have a customer who is using AutoMate. They wanted us to see the functionality provided by AutoMate. They were using it for wiki pages and blogs etc. They were using it to ...
Continue reading
Farjad Habib
Team Lead - Information Technology
Senior Software Engineer
Xelleration
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Pricing

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Fortra’s Automate

Fortra’s Automate

N/A
Unavailable

What is Fortra’s Automate?

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…

Entry-level set up fee?

  • Setup fee optional

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Product Demos

HelpSystems Automate v11.4 New Features - API Enhancements

YouTube
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Product Details

What is Fortra’s Automate?

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.

Processes commonly streamlined with Automate include:
  • Automated file transfer
  • Report generation
  • User provisioning
  • Data extraction
  • Data entry
  • Terminal emulation
  • SharePoint processes
  • Website interaction
  • Data transfer
  • Job scheduling
The software's robotic process automation capabilities allow it to manipulate applications and web interfaces at the presentation level, meaning it can also be used to automate homegrown applications and highly customized processes. This solution provides the functionality and flexibility needed to run automated processes on a single machine, while the Automate Plus (formerly BPA Server) allows for the administration of workflows across multiple servers.

Fortra’s Automate Screenshots

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Fortra’s Automate Integrations

Fortra’s Automate Competitors

Fortra’s Automate Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows
Mobile ApplicationNo
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(16)

Reviews

(1-4 of 4)
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The super tool that makes any IT professional a Super hero for their company

Rating: 10 out of 10
Incentivized
August 17, 2019
KH
Kwame H. Baptiste
IT Dept. Manager
P. Judge and Sons, Inc - The Judge Organization (Transportation/Trucking/Railroad, 201-500 employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
Fortra’s Automate
10 years of experience
View profile
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
HelpSystems Automate is an essential part of our everyday work. It not only the primary tool for EDI and data transfers, but it is also our primary automated reporting tool. IT does both running of custom SQL reports directly and sends automated reports generated by other systems. It lifted the burden of manual reports run by our customer service team, it sends exception alerts to our management team from everything from inventory changes, time and attendance, and system stability reports when machines crash. It even does reminders when certain data criteria are met and things need to get done based on a schedule. It's just amazing. It's also refreshing that it's a fully-featured tool that doesn't limit the tools behind a paywall. The next level up is due to management and complexity. It's just amazing.
Pros and Cons
  • SQL queries.
  • FTP communications.
  • Email/SMTP communications.
  • File transfers and augmentation.
  • Office to SQL conversions.
  • Office file management.
  • Scheduling and timing/exceptions and triggers.
  • Logic-based tools.
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
Return on Investment
  • It has removed many redundant tasks from everyone at the company.
  • It provides alerts and reminders and helps maintain stability company-wide.
  • It dramatically increases our bandwidth of tools and services we provide to our customers.
Alternatives Considered
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 this version." As an IT professional who needs approval for every purchase, I can't keep asking for upgrades to existing tools.
Support Rating
10
Support is very helpful and responsive, although using the tool is very user-friendly, so I hardly use the service.
Usability
10
It's just very easy to use, extremely versatile, and very reliable. It's hard to find use cases where it won't work.

Automation for everybody.

Rating: 8 out of 10
Incentivized
December 09, 2017
Verified User
Vetted Review
Verified User
Fortra’s Automate
1 year of experience
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We use Automate BPA Server just in our department to manage a number of tasks. Our primary jobs are essentially ETL related. Retrieving files from an FTP server, importing those files, processing, then sending email notifications on the results. Due to the vast number of jobs each day, AutoMate solves most of our issues and allows us to be less hands-on throughout the day.
Pros and Cons
  • 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.
Likelihood to Recommend
Anything where automation would be helpful, I'd recommend. If you're doing a task over and over again, Automate can likely work and do it for you. It helps to keep things running exactly the same so that when failures occur, they can easily be traced to their source.
Fortra’s Automate Feature Ratings
Return on Investment
  • 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.
Alternatives Considered
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 (including SSIS itself) and is much quicker to integrate and troubleshoot.
Other Software Used

Automate - does what it says

Rating: 9 out of 10
Incentivized
April 03, 2017
DC
David Croney
Operations Analyst Senior
FIS - Fidelity Information Services (Restaurants, 5001-10,000 employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
Fortra’s Automate
7 years of experience
View profile
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
[It's] mainly used as a platform for FTP jobs - approximately 30 vendors. It's also used to check completion of processes and to copy files. It has a very flexible job triggering capability...either schedules or files can trigger a job. While programming knowledge is not required, a knowledge of programming principles is recommended (If/then, loops, etc.).

Pros and Cons
  • FTP jobs. Flexible scheduling and file watching options (send a file when added to a folder). Also flexible file naming capabilities - when a vendor wants a file with a different format (or vice-versa) Also the new encryption steps are handy.
  • File watching capabilities - If you have files that have to be somewhere by a certain time this is very handy. You can pair this with Automate's email capability (easy to use).
  • File Copying - If you have a lot of files that have to be sent on a schedule this is the way to go. You can also filter by date so only recent files are copied.
  • File Purging - like copying you can use date filters to purge old files - no more clogged folders!
  • Conditional statement functionality - If/Then, Loops, etc. Easy to use and makes the tasks MUCH more useful.
Likelihood to Recommend
  • A medium to large sized company where there are a lot of similar tasks (FTP, purging, etc.) that have to be done on a regular as needed basis.
  • Also good where you don't have a dedicated programmer or they are too busy to dedicate time to these types of jobs. Creating the tasks is almost an object-oriented scenario. i.e.: drag what you need to where you need it.
Fortra’s Automate Feature Ratings
Return on Investment
  • Positive: Reliability on FTP jobs - really important on bank files.
  • Negative - annual support a little pricey - but not unusual for this level of software.
  • Positive: Does not require a dedicated administrator, especially after the jobs are created and tested. I perform other job duties and this rarely interferes with them.
  • Positive - Since it is easy to learn and use it makes it easy to have a back up administrator
Other Software Used

AutoMate Integration and alternatives

Rating: 5 out of 10
Incentivized
April 08, 2016
FH
Farjad Habib
Senior Software Engineer
Xelleration (Computer Software, 11-50 employees)
Vetted Review
Verified User
View profile
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We have a customer who is using AutoMate. They wanted us to see the functionality provided by AutoMate. They were using it for wiki pages and blogs etc. They were using it to automate the publication and approval process. They were also using the triggers component of AutoMate. Overall they were using the minimal components.
Pros and Cons
  • Wiki pages
  • Blogs
  • Articles
  • Triggers
  • Building crons
  • Automating daily tasks
Likelihood to Recommend
AutoMate is well suited to automate daily manual labor.
Fortra’s Automate Feature Ratings
Return on Investment
  • Productivity and communication is way better with automate
Alternatives Considered
Other Software Used
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