Pros
We love Automate. We use it to manage patches and updates across thousands of computers. We also use it for customized monitoring and alerting on workstations and servers. Monitoring is really robust and granular. It does a great job of gathering a TON of data about the network, and that data is searchable. There are a bunch of different reports built in. Integrates with Manage, Control, and other applications. It does a ton of stuff out of the box, and has endless customization options.
Cons
It may not do quite as much as you want right out of the box, and it will take some work to set it up. You'll need someone on your team willing to invest the time and energy into making this software do everything you want.
I've been using it for 2 years now. Overall I'm impressed with the software. "Screenconnect" software is brilliant, fast and reliable connections to your managed agents.
Pricing is competitive for what it delivers however it is expensive. Make sure you NEED all of it's features before investing otherwise your potentially just burning money you don't need too.
However the learning curve required to get the best from this software is vast, documentation is sparse. The documentation that does exist is out of date. For example the knowledge base article regarding configuring the agent to utilise a proxy server doesn't seem to match up with the latest version. You're left either fending for your self on the forums or waiting in line for a chat with their tech support, which to be fair once you get there is very good.
Looking elsewhere simply because of two price rises in 2016 with more likely in 2017.
Pros
Screenconnect - A real asset to the platform.
Scripting
Tunnel options - Can tunnel into your customer network using the agent.
Powerful Automation and patch management
Cons
Complex
Growing expense
Out of date knowledge base / manuals.
Pros
Before Automate/Labtech 12 the best thing about this software was being able to see, at a glance, all the information you needed about a particular managed computer. They are moving back in this direction it appears. The scripting and monitoring systems are robust and allow you to do pretty much anything you can think of.
Cons
The GUI update that came with version 12 is not good. It uses a bunch of giant squares to present information and you have to drill into each one to find the specific info you are looking for rather than the at-a-glance experience I had before. Support leaves something to be desired. Just starting to chat with someone there can take 45+ minutes, then the person you are chatting with does not have the knowledge to fix the problem so you have to open a ticket anyway. Lots of time wasted there. Furthermore sometimes the inexperienced technician will offer suggestions to resolve the problem that have nothing to do with the problem which underlines the fact that they do not understand the problem.
Labtech, as it was previously known, is currently operating in our offices and infrastructures, operating correctly and providing an optimal service, over time we have applied favorable configurations such as the reproduction of events associated with ConnectWise Manage.
Its monitoring offers us remarkable performance by tracking any device that is in the network, from the installed applications to the events presented by an error in the system. Its powerful command system manages to facilitate the deployment of any patch you wish to perform.
Pros
It has a large interface composed of various options that enhance its use, it works well enough to carry a monitoring on your devices, you will have detailed information of each action that this takes, you can even display any action by means of commands.
Cons
CW Automate is a fairly complete software, but with a support team that leaves a lot to be desired for certain problems, the resolution of problems is not very complete.
Companies I have been working for have been leveraging this application for machine management for years.
Pros
This software provides multiple connectivity options.
It can show a lot of information (see least favorite list below)
Great organization!
Easy integration with Connectwise Control and Manage
Lots of option for Scripting and API connectivity to outside applications
Cons
The interface was changed to a much less intuitive environment about a year ago. I use it and have started to get used to it somewhat, but it still is not what I would call good.
There's problems if you don't run the Control Center as an Admin, but it doesn't want to run as admin by default
The uninstaller for the client can sometimes not uninstall.
Its a love/hate relationship, but mostly love. I fought to have this at my company and I can not do my job without it.
Pros
You can access it anywhere. If I am on vacation in Mexico and the office back in the states needs support, I just open up chrome and go to my custom made website that CW gave me and I am in. I can see everything about a persons computer by just scrolling side to side or double clicking. Their customer service is also 24/7 AND they assign you technicians to help with implementation along with connectwise university to ensure you are ready to use their product to the fullest extent!
Cons
Its sort of difficult to learn. They have the university that helps with that, but some of their classes are outdated and some just sprint through the lesson in the hopes that you might have caught a thing or two that they just taught you. Also, their scripting language is their own(proprietary) and you have to learn it. So if you already know Java, C++, Python, etc, it doesn't matter.
Used Kaseya before switching and love the overall layout, features and in-depth information you can retrieve very easily. Wish I could set a few things with some customization, which might be possible by working with connectwise engineers but that would be above my paygrade.
Pros
Set up monitoring alerts, script automated processes, control end user and servers remotely with a couple clicks. Ad-hoc sessions allow admin access remotely, even if the user does not have rights. Fantastic experience overall and only have minor pieces I wish I could see
Cons
Wish there was some more customization is some of the views. Would like to see some more basic information on the main screens, as opposed to having to dive into the properties to find. Seems that it can get a bit slow and unresponsive with certain actions. Not sure if this is our server or the software though.
With this software we are able to not only sort users by client, but also location. The network scans and ability to distribute software is killer. When working I am able to easily assist multiple people because of the features of this product.
I can remotely connect to a computer, run command line scripts, create custom scripts, and check general health. That's all in the console view. If you want to setup the alerts to prompt you for specific actions, it's all there.
Pros
The amount of features that you have at your fingertips to remotely assist users is phenomenal. I can't count how many times this software has made life so much easier.
Cons
When the app is slow to load, it's slow to load. It's the only downside I've had with this application.
RMM, Scripting, Easy MSP setup and management of our clients systems.
Pros
If you can imagine it, you can do it. It really does have all the tools to do whatever you desire remotely. You can access almost any aspect of a managed machine without even interrupting the end user. The built-in ignite monitors are pretty amazing on their own.
Cons
It can be incredibly slow at times, you have to have a lot of patience. The script editor being object and mouse based is very clunky, I'd prefer to learn the syntax and just type it all out, but that option isn't readily available in the GUI you have to dig into the guts to do that. If you use ignite monitors you'll need to parse out the noise they create for items you don't want to be notified about. Integration with Connectwise Manage is still a bit quirky but it works.
We chose Automate over everything else for a reason; Price and functionality simply could not be beat.
Pros
- Mostly intuitive GUI
- Packed with tons of functionality; Been using the product a little over 2 years now and still learning neat tricks/tools to use
- Great asset management
- Great at pushing remote commands
- ConnectWise University offers tons of training on their products
Cons
- Because it is so powerful, there is a lot of training that needs reviewed to become proficient in working and navigating
- Been experiencing an issue where I need to re-launch the control center because otherwise the agent tree will refresh forever
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We've been using Labtech to manage our 70+ computers across multiple clients for a couple years now and it's been very worth the price to have a remote management software to take care of windows updates and be alerted on hardware issues from the event logs. The integration to other software is pretty flawless as well, such as webroot AV and ScreenConnect. It's cut down management time by 80%!
Pros
I like that the management of a lot of computers
Cons
Not really much to not like about it, but sometimes the windows updates aren't always working correctly, and sometimes it reports disk space critically low when there's is 50+GBs left on the system
Pros
The ease of setup and installation for customers is substantial when considering this tool for MSP. New customers can be setup with ease, configured and once agents are installed Automate can significantly reduce information gathering for system resources, and discovery of behind the scenes issues. Scripting and Automating are easy to do with the built in examples and wizards, which makes customizing alerts and monitors a breeze.
Cons
The monitoring will come with lots of defaults right out of the box, so there will be a lot of "noise" to sort through and remove/adjust after initial installation.
Lоts оf mіnоr іssuеs аnd mаіntеnаnсе tаsks аrе аutоmаtеd whісh hаs hеlреd frее uр tесhs.Wе hаvе hаd sоmе іssuеs whеrе LT hаs lеt us dоwn аnd асtuаlly dіdn't саtсh а fаіlurе thаt wаs іmmіnеnt, саusіng dаtа lоss аnd thе соst оf dаtа rесоvеry.
Pros
Hаndlеs аlеrtіng оf сrіtісаl аnd mоdеrаtе іssuеs. Intеgrаtеs wіth оur PSA sоlutіоn. Allоws fоr rаріd rеmоtе ассеss wіth аn іntеgrаtеd іmрlеmеntаtіоn оf SсrееnCоnnесt. Wе usе іt tо mаnаgе сlіеnts' sеrvеrs аnd wоrkstаtіоns. Thе sеrvісе dераrtmеnt usеs іt ехсlusіvеly. It аllоws us tо еffесtіvеly suрроrt vаrіеd іnfrаstruсturеs.
Cons
Thе GUI оf thе рrоgrаm соuld bе а lіttlе mоrе "usеr-frіеndly"
Pros
Clients and Locations are organized in an easy-to-view tree, which allows easy access to a customer's inventory.
Several dataviews are available from a Client or Location to quickly gather information of an environment. For example, a list of 'scheduled tasks' configured on every system can be gathered from all systems to determine why a particular event occurs every Saturday at 4am.
Remote Control of a system can be envoked with standard tools such as VNC or RDP, as well as ConnectWise Control (formerly Screen Connect).
Reports of client environments are just a click away, whether a question regarding system health is of issue, or if all systems have the latest patches and Anti-Virus updated.
Cons
Software runs on a MySQL backend, but only on Windows. Keeping MySQL tuned properly for environment size can be chore, whereas DB Engines such as MSSQL are a bit more automated and forgiving. As you bring more agents into the system, it's a good idea to run performance metrics on the MySQL server to see if any adjustments are necessary to maintain best performance of the system.
Telephone Support for the MySQL backend tends to yield different answers from each representative you talk to, and in my experience it was best to use general MySQL tuning documents that are available from Oracle.
It makes managing thousands of machines easy.
Pros
It is a very powerful tool to manage our clients machines. It can run custom scripts and do a lot of proactive maintenance.
It is very fast when remote controlling other computers
The scripting engine is very powerful
It pulls a huge amount of data
It is very customizable
Cons
It can be a little complex for new users
The integration with Connectwise: Manage can cause some issues with ticket entries
Customizing it for your needs can be time consuming
I
We run all of our managed client workstations with Automate.
Pros
Intergration with so many services, multiple service boards, permissions and project management. BILLING and managing agreements? I've yet to find a replacement for the sheer amount of features Automate brings to our business. There is even a web interface that can be dispatched to users!
Cons
It can be a little fiddly when it comes to custom applications and processes - there are often changes that completely change the way the software looks and feels.
I run my company on it.
Pros
Very powerfull management software. They continue to add value to the product by incorporating new features.
Cons
I much prefer the old interface to the new one. It seems that the company is not listening to the users and trying to make the software pretty at the expense of functional. Support is so, so, and often tells me that my "problem" needs to be sent to their custom programming department at additional cost.
Remote monitoring and alerting as well as some automated remediation. More efficient usage of engineering time.
Pros
Once setup and configured properly does a great job of monitoring devices and alerting of potential or real-time issues.
Tons of options that can be configured.
Cons
Very difficult to set up and tweak all of the settings to meet your needs. Sometimes common things that should be setup out of the box are not and need to be manually configured
Would recommend to my friends. Very useful and catches a lot of failures before things get out of control
Pros
Seamless PSA Integration, Scripting and automation. Pricing is moderate. Can provide customers with valued reporting and upgrade recommendations based on built-in reporting capabilities.
Cons
A lot of bells and whistles that I don't use. You have to pay for it as well. Uses MYSQL in the on premises implementation.
Pros
After using a lot management tooling, I'm now using ConnectWise Automate (former Labtech). Monitoring, manage, implement manually or thru scripts, almost everything is possible with this software.
Cons
Setup is easy with their support, but getting completely up and running is a differnt story. Especially in small IT companies where maintaining this software is just very small part of your job it sometimes getting complicated. Adjusting reports can be improved. A simple report where you select the begin and end date in the past is not possible.
I would recommend this product to anyone managing more then 100 computers especially if they are not on a domain.
Pros
Single place to manage your workstations. Great patching product, great control product, awesome scripting engine.
Cons
Most of the rich automation is done in a fat client that is heavy and slow to launch. Once in the product everything performs well it's the startup that can take some time.
We have changed our business model based on this software and increased ROI on all services by 35 % in less then 3 years.
Pros
Once setup it does what it does well.
Very few issue after setup and config.
Gives a wealth of information on devices managed.
Cons
Can be a burden to setup and config
Takes a good amount of training to really use it well
Being good a scripting is a must
Pros
ConnectWise Automate solutions is a remarkable ITSM Solution that has a strong and accurate agent that will make a complete inventory of all the IT assets of your organization. Strong scripts capabilities to automate tasks of maintenance and preventive support. Provides simple, fast, and powerful remote access capabilities.
Cons
For Junior IT Admins has a higher complexity to achieve proficiency to manage the tool. New versions are kind of unintuitive and sometimes difficult to figure out.
Pros
It does a lot of things and helps us keep tabs on hundreds of clients. Remote access, patch management, remote diagnostics, integration with ConnectWise PSA and a host of other third party products.
Cons
Setup time can be cumbersome and some of the advanced features you really need to work with a lot in order to become a master at it.
It's been positive, but I would recommend shopping around to get the best tool for your firm.
Pros
It packs a bunch of features and it's integration with ConnectWise manage is nice. The scripting is powerful.
Cons
Tool is very complex and even simple tasks can be tricky. Support for Automate is not nearly as good as with Manage. The product is expensive.
I work for an MSP, and we have the luxury of having a full time guy that is our Automate administrator. He's amazing, and has made this software do some really incredible stuff for us. It had good functionality out of the box, but we've been adding scripts and automation to it for 5 years at this point. The sky is the limit on what you can do, but you will need to invest the time and energy into doing it.