I rate Fortra Automate eight out of 10. To implement Automate, you need to understand that 100 percent automation does not exist. There are always exceptions and multiple factors in your environment that change different aspects. It's essential to have good governance when the report fails. It also helps to have proper documentation for when you need to solve problems.

It would be best if you were realistic about what you can achieve with automation, but you don't need to automate everything to benefit from it. Automating 20 percent of all your processes might reduce your work by 30 to 40 percent. That's a good start; you can study the cases to improve the bot after the fact. Don't try to develop a complicated robot that can deal with 90 percent of your cases. An RPA is good when you see the results after one month. 

We're currently using some version of release 8 or nine. I can't recall the exact version.

The company I worked for was a consulting firm.

I'd recommend the solution as it is it's a very good tool. If you want to try it, you can simply download it and use it contract-free for about a month. That can be expanded to maybe another 30 days if you really want to test the tool to see what it can do for you. It's very useful and easy to use.

I'd work to develop a relationship with the local representative as they can answer any questions a company might have and can give some really good advice as well.

Overall, I would rate the solution at a nine out of ten.

I give the solution a nine out of ten.

Automate has a recorder feature, but I don't use it much as most actions we can do with the recorder can be done with regular drag-and-drop actions. I don't think the recorder makes it significantly easier to use.

Our clients usually deploy in one location only. I don't have much experience with clients deploying in multiple locations, but the only thing I can say is that it is only supported for Windows, so there is no Mac or Linux support. However, I have only seen them deployed in a single location. I have seen them use multiple servers, but they are all local servers.

We served customers of all sizes, from enterprise-level to small and medium. The biggest selling point for small and medium customers is that they find solutions such as UiPath and Blue Prism to be too expensive for their smaller scale. In these cases, they find Automate's pricing to be more competitive. As I mentioned, we have provided services to customers of all sizes, from enterprise-level to small and medium.

We offer two pricing models: a subscription model, where an annual cost is paid each year, and a perpetual model, where an initial deposit is paid followed by an annual maintenance cost.

I highly recommend Automate as it is a great product at an affordable price, especially for small and medium-sized customers. My biggest suggestion is to invest internally in the organization so that employees can create their own bots for their own use cases. The great thing about Automate is that it is easy to use and learn, unlike many of our competitors where highly certified individuals are needed to develop. Therefore, investing in our people so they can develop is key. Our employees who do the day-to-day work know what they can and cannot automate, so investing in automation and embracing it fully, not just as a small part of the organization, is essential.

Fortra's Automate was deployed before I joined the company, so I have used it since 2008. However, we deployed the customer-facing element in 2012 when customers regularly requested things like inventory reports from customer reps. Instead of running a report from our warehouse management system, we could run an SQL query replicating the same report or drop it in our CSV or Excel file. Essentially, we created a full-customer service to automate regular reports, whether inventory reports, serial number level, item lot level, on-hand or available freight reports, summary transaction reports, or bill of lading reports. We were able to automate a lot of the reports that our customer servers sent to customers. The warehousing company is a third-party logistics company, so we provide many third-party services to our customers, and reporting is one of them. Being able to automate that process and simplify it for the end user, which is our customer service team, is when I realized the benefits of working with Fortra's Automate.'

Fortra's Automate is primarily on-prem, but we use a private hosted environment. Our servers are hosted on a VM platform by a vendor, but they all use an internal Internet network. VPN over the Internet.

We deployed two additional servers in addition to our primary original server, and we upgraded from one to the other to deploy new applications and services to our customer service department.

You do have to run regular backups because sometimes, for whatever reason, the scheduler may lose the schedule for all the tasks. It's a GUI, meaning it's a user front end. You have your schedules, tasks, and everything, but all those tasks are set to certain file types. It has a surface file with all the scheduled information and all the names of the tasks listed, and then you have the individual files with the actual tasks. The application is a user front that manages the schedules and tasks, so it's very user-friendly. And the scheduler runs the VB scripting in the backend. You have to make sure you regularly backup your schedules and your reports to ensure that, if the software stops running and it loses the file, or if there's something corrupted in the application, you can rebuild it, apply the same license you have with them, and then upload your schedule directly. It's really about securing the application for the Windows environment, making sure that whatever Windows update runs, it doesn't destroy the backend grid. It's always good to have good software management regarding backend support.

I have and haven't tried integrating Automate with other solutions I'm currently using because it's running an SQL query in the background. SQL has been the primary tool in which we work with it. If anything goes off or down, SQL will be the primary tool, so you want to ensure your SQL environment stays stable to work with Automate. When SQL works well with it, it's fine. But then, when you have a lot of different third-party tools or competing applications, such as a Microsoft plugin to work with Oracle or different things, Automate has had recent challenges with that. Other than specialized tools, like specialized Java tools, which I've got to update the APIs for. But primarily with Microsoft SQL, it's great and easy to work with. Especially if you're working with Excel files, You need an Excel license installed on the machine in which you're running Excel queries. It can pull CSV data, but if you want to read and write things from Excel, you'll need an Excel application to open it in the background to pull the data. There are some quirks and things you have to have with it to utilize Automate effectively.

I want to increase the usage of automation because every software vendor has its way of doing things. I do want to make sure our team doesn't get too complacent. I'm making sure we have regular maintenance planned while using the software. That's the challenge when the software works too well, and you're lulled into a false sense of security, and if something happens, you're like, "What do we do now? Oh, my god!" You need to ensure you always have a support plan built in, backup and recovery, and structured backups, and ensure those things are working and are alive.

Because Fortra's Automate can run SQL queries, you can automate any SQL-based tasks. Type in the query, customize it, and set it up, and it'll do everything there. It'll pull in data, parse it, write data to SQL directly, and create custom reports. You could do a lot of stuff directly with SQL with Fortra. It's not just the tool itself but the APIs that the solution can work with in different pieces of software. You can upload things and pull them down from websites. There's OCR stuff from PDF. It's great. I like the tool. It's really helpful.

I rate Fortra a strong nine out of ten.

Before choosing Fortra Automate, start with what you're trying to solve. Ultimately, a tool like Automate, unless you have specific problems to solve, you wouldn't know what to do with it. It does so much. If you have a particular problem you're trying to solve, you get an idea about what you're trying to do, whether it's moving, reading, or updating a file, moving, or pulling data. If you're trying to send data, it can do SMTP upload a secure FTP. The solution can do AS2 plugins. It can connect to Oracle SQL, T-SQL, and MS SQL. It could move files on a server, log into your network, and put things in a secure location. The solution is ridiculously helpful. Fortra's Automate is a force multiplier, so if you're one person in an IT team and you have a whole bunch of automated tasks you need to do, this can take care of most of it. Automate is proprietary software that you need certain GUI access for. For the most part, if you can put it in a file, Automate can take care of it.

I'd definitely recommend it. It's a very good product. It's a very affordable product, especially if you're a small or medium-sized organization. My biggest suggestion is to invest internally in your organization so that your employees can build and develop their own bots for their use cases. That's the biggest thing that customers who are looking to buy Automate can do. It's very easy to use and very easy to pick up. It's unlike most of the competitors where you need to have a highly certified individual to develop. So, invest in your people or employees who are doing the day-to-day work because they know what they can automate and what they cannot automate. Embrace automation fully and not just as a small part of your organization. 

It's pretty easy to automate any manual tasks that are currently repetitive. So, you can see a very quick return on investment with Automate. I also advise companies that are planning on doing automation to also invest in maintaining and scaling it. Don't just be satisfied with automating a single process, but take it further and set up an automation center of excellence and also look at other departments, such as HR and finance, that can use automation. It doesn't have to be just in IT. You can do this for almost any business flow that you have. You need to embrace it and invest in it more than just having a consultant come in and do one project and leave. You don't need to have too many technical or certified people to start working. It's very easy to use compared to other competitors' solutions.

In terms of training required to use Automate, HelpSystems offers Automate Academy on its website. It's free of cost, and anyone can access it. It has got multiple modules and hours of videos going over from the very basic concepts to more advanced concepts of Automate, including workflows and other more technical features. You can go through that, and you can also get certified through it. Those resources are freely available. Any of our customers can use them. That's one place where you can get support for training. There's also something called Bot Store, which is provided by HelpSystems. You can just go there and download prebuilt bots, and you can freely modify them, edit them, and use them for your use case. They are also mostly free. When you combine both of these, there is a fair bit of support for the developers for training. In terms of the amount of training required, it varies on a case-by-case basis. Some people learn it faster, and some people learn it slower. It also depends on your technical background. For example, they still have the concepts of loops and if statements. Even though it's drag-and-drop, you still need to know those concepts to develop with Automate. You need to have that kind of algorithm thinking. If you come from a development background, it's very easy to pick up and use. With a couple of hours of training and just playing around with it, you should be good to go, and of course, there are all the resources from the vendor side to fill in many gaps.

There is the Recorder feature in Automate, but I don't personally use it that much because anything that you can do with the Recorder feature can be done with the regular drag-and-drop actions. Recorder doesn't make it a lot easier to use than it already is.

Overall, I'd rate Automate a nine out of ten.

I would rate the solution eight out of ten.

We had about four hours of training, and then we were able to get the solution up and running.  

I like the product; it provides the same functionality as other products but makes the process easier and more user-friendly. The tool is suitable for developers or operators moving files around or creating workflows.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten.

The advice is for a customer and a vendor. Do a proof of concept, get a trial version, and play around with it. Have your solution architect or support walk them through some use cases. And most importantly, make sure you're trained! Without proper training, this product will be a failure. Offer them all the resources – training materials, videos, and community links. That's the recipe for success.

I would rate the solution an eight out of ten because we never received any training or exposure to Fortra's Automate. We had to learn it through hands-on experience with a mentor when we started. We weren't given any resources to help us learn, so we had to figure it out on our own.

We have two people that directly use the solution.

The biggest issue we face is failure when attempting to use the ERP system at times, so we have nothing to maintain.

Potential users without experience should view demonstrations of how Fortra's Automate works to gain an understanding of its capabilities.

We are a distributor - a value-added distributor that has the knowledge and expertise. We will combine products of HelpSystems and give to clients the tools as they require them. Many clients have more than one HelpSystems product, for example.

Overall, I would rate the solution nine out of ten.

I give Fortra's Automate an eight or nine out of ten.

Creating the logging is easy enough. We have to do our own logging in Automate. Maybe that's just how it has to be, but I need to understand how to diagnose problems better. Overall, I'm happy with the product so far.

I recommend taking advantage of the training that Fortra offers on its website. It is good quality training. Fortra requires us to complete 20 hours of training, followed by their formal instructor-led training (via Zoom) and certification. I believe that a lot of this instructor-led training could have been delivered through video from their website and that more time could have been spent discussing real-world use cases for the company. I don't know if this is possible, but the training costs $1500, so I think a more personalized experience would have been better value for money.

To those evaluating this solution, I'd advise having your migration plan in place.

I played around with a few of the things, and it seems like a viable option for building and creating automation using no-code automation, but it also depends on the use case.

I'd rate Fortra's Automate an eight out of ten.

We're just a partner and an end-user.

We don't really use the reporting or the dashboards within the product, although they are available. 

There are other solutions that companies can use to integrate with AutoMate. I would recommend that organizations also look to pair it with other solutions like the AutoMate Intelligent Capture Solution as that can integrate very well with the RPA product.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. We've been very happy with its capabilities.

Firstly, it's crucial for individuals to understand the essence of automation and why it's necessary for their tasks. Many express the need for automation without a clear vision of their existing processes or the roadmap towards automation. It's essential to have a clear understanding of current workflows and the desired destination before considering solutions to facilitate that transition.

Overall, I would rate it 8 out of 10.

We are a representative of the company. We are integrators and HelpSystems partners and we sell the platform to companies in Costa Rica, Central America, and Puerto Rico. We do the integration for clients. Therefore, we do the mapping, and we do the bots also.

We are using the latest version of the solution. However, I'm not sure what the exact number is.

I would advise others to have an expert that understands the solution assist in the onboarding process. The platform can be very good. It is really good. However, if you don't have experts to train your people and also to implement the solution properly within your company, it's likely the project will fail.

Overall, I would rate the product at a nine out of ten.

HelpSystems is a smaller company, so they are able to give their customers a lot of attention. I would say that on a small scale, this is a good low-code alternative. On the other hand, if you are looking for something more mature then it is not the right company.

I would rate this solution a four out of ten.

Our advice for any company who is implementing RPA including AutoMate is to make sure that the requirements for a specific process are clearly defined and documented.

Overall, we find that this is a good product and it's easy to learn and implement. A buyer of Automate RTA never has to become dependent on an RPA implementation company or a consulting firm and its associated costs. 

That said, the principals at AGI have been in the software industry for 35 plus years selling and implementing software systems that address critical business requirements and expectations, we know that a software project will fail when those expectations are not met. 

We would rate this solution a eight out of ten.

We are just a customer and an end-users.

I would recommend the solution. It's one of those solutions that are helpful in terms of reaching our goals and we've mostly been quite satisfied with its capabilities. 

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

There are third-party applications that integrate with AutoMate, although we did not have a need to use any of them.

Overall, this is a pretty nice product and I really recommend it because it is very easy to use. We also save a lot of money, just with one bot.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

This solution is quite easy to install and to manage for most processes between environments. Everything related to usability and automation is really quite close to the leading candidates, and using this product has been a good experience.

My advice to others who are implementing this solution is to start small. This is something that we always tell our clients. Rather than look at the larger responsibilities, start small to test and to gain confidence from several areas within the organization. Once you have three, four, five, or even ten processes automated, start looking at everything that is related to governance. At the same time, do not be afraid to start, even if you don't have everything planned from the beginning.

I would rate this solution an nine out of ten.

I'm not sure which version of the solution we're using.

So far, from my limited experience, I would recommend the solution to other organizations.

However, based on my limited understanding of the product, as I haven't used it for too long just yet, I would rate it at a seven out of ten.