Item: ConnectWise Automate
Rating: 7
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The IT team that I am involved with mainly use this product mainly for screen sharing access to either assist end-users or to manage servers remotely (more so nowadays). It has been invaluable with helping members of the team demonstrate issues with our back-office application so we can speed up support for those users, but equally its been a great help in remote managing servers when other means have been unable to work. We use this in an almost exclusively Windows PC environment so I cannot say how this performs no other platforms and the use is pretty well limited to the aforementioned desktop sharing aspect.

From a regular, IT support aspect, though this is quite a comprehensive asset inventory, support ticketing, monitoring, altering tool.

Pros and Cons

Desktop sharing / view with chat to the operator, file sharing and pass-through for keyboard strokes
Computer/server monitoring with thresholds and warning
Search - tracking down computers when you have many by name, logged in user, IP
End user ticket raising is built into the tray icon which make access really easy

Really minor niggle but login to the management website can be a pain at times
Would like to be able to access the remote desktop session as an option to manage rather than always accessing the console session on windows. There is command prompt option to manage computers without interrupting the user but sometimes its just easier to use a GUI.
The management website has come on leaps and bounds but occasionally we still have the odd issue, but nothing that really stops us achieving what we need to do.

Return on Investment

As mentioned briefly previous there have been a couple of times where accessing servers at different sites due to point to point connectivity going down where this has been a big life saver
Ease of management of servers
Made deployment of applications rule based easier

Alternatives Considered

AnyDesk and TeamViewer

So as you can see from this review my experience is mostly with its desktop sharing aspect; however the IT support team use this more comprehensively as a monitoring, inventory, reporting, even application deployment tool that the above-mentioned apps don't have.

Key Insights

Do you think ConnectWise Automate delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with ConnectWise Automate's feature set?

Yes

Did ConnectWise Automate live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of ConnectWise Automate go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy ConnectWise Automate again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Microsoft Teams, Microsoft To Do (formerly Wunderlist), Microsoft SQL Server

Likelihood to Recommend

Absolutely great alternative to RDP, and a lifesaver when operating across physically separate sites when point to point connectivity went down as its access to servers are routed through the internet.

For us it can be a bit intrusive at times when you're trying to grab logs off a computer running one of our bespoke apps when someone is using actually using it, hence it would be nice to be able to access a different session on windows, but there are ways around it.

ConnectWise Automate - great all-round support and access tool

Overall Satisfaction with ConnectWise Automate (formerly LabTech)