ConnectWise Automate Reviews

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.

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Out of date knowledge base / manuals.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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Pros

This software is robust. Management of assets within this software seems endless. Company locations can be organized as groups ("locations") and further broken down into subgroups. Hardware and software on each machine the agent is installed can be closely monitored. Alerts can be configured for just about anything, then delivered in a preferred method of logs or emails. Can also be integrated with Chocolatey to provide IT professionals with the ease of installing and updating software remotely. It can also be configured to handle Windows updates!

Cons

Slow to load. I recommend loading this software at the beginning of the day, because you never know when you have to immediately ScreenConnect to a machine and resolve an issue. There is also a huge learning curve. My company contracted someone to come out and train us and help us configure it.