Automation for everybody.
December 09, 2017
Automation for everybody.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Automate Plus (formerly Automate BPA Server)
Overall Satisfaction with HelpSystems Automate
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.
- 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.
- AutoMate's Windows interface can be quite buggy at times. We are using the latest and final build of AutoMate 10. It took many iterations to get this most stable build, but there are still many little issues that happen when building tasks. Copying and pasting too much causes GUI errors and can crash. Things don't indent properly, success/failure arrow lines in the Job window don't flow perfectly straight, etc. There is a newer version AutoMate 11, but it's so buggy we can't even use it properly.
- Memory management is terrible on Aut 10 and 11. Just working in the program for a little bit building tasks has memory leaks that don't resolve until you close out of the program. You'll be using several GB of ram in no time.
- Dashboard reporting could be better. We'd like a better way to track how jobs are running, when failures occur, etc. You can do that now, but the interface is cumbersome.
- 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.
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.