IBM Workload Automation vs OpCon comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 12, 2023
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Workload Automation
Ranking in Workload Automation
14th
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
OpCon
Ranking in Workload Automation
9th
Average Rating
9.2
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Market share comparison

As of June 2024, in the Workload Automation category, the market share of IBM Workload Automation is 7.5% and it decreased by 14.7% compared to the previous year. The market share of OpCon is 2.0% and it decreased by 46.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Workload Automation
Unique Categories:
No other categories found
No other categories found
 

Featured Reviews

SR
Feb 13, 2023
Great ability to pre-schedule jobs but unfortunately the simulation is complicated
We use this product for batch processing. We have hundreds of users and carry out 25,000-30,000 jobs per day The solution has helped us because we have multiple node servers and the workload is distributed between them. The key valuable feature is that jobs can be triggered in multiple nodes.…
DK
Feb 23, 2024
Provides a single point of control, helps save staff time, and automates hundreds of processes
OpCon provides a single point of control which is extremely important to our organization. The benefits of OpCon were seen immediately. It took a little bit of time to set up all of the automation, But once it was created, we began seeing benefits immediately. OpCon enables us to manage complex schedule steps and multiple systems. Between 25 and 40 percent of our staff's time has been saved to focus on higher-value projects. We've rolled out self-service buttons to the business units, empowering them to handle their requests without involving our department. This has been highly beneficial. We have used OpCon to manage legacy systems along with modern ones for file transfers. We have approximately 300 processes that were all manual before using OpCon to automate them. OpCon has helped save between 15 to 25 hours per week. Errors have been reduced when running more complex processes, resulting in a positive effect on our organization.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Jobs can be triggered in multiple nodes."
"This solution has a request feature where users can request the added features they need to have developed. Based on client voting for those features, these are developed and released."
"The most important feature is the creation of folders. It's a really great feature because you can organize the process with naming conventions."
"The support from Cisco is very good. I was with them as a company for 40 years"
"Provides a robust, full spectrum enterprise-wide WLA platform."
"The initial setup is easy."
"Technical support from IBM is very good."
"The project we worked on involved the running of nearly 24,000 job instances in a single day, so I would say that the solution is stable."
"The end code response allows us to evaluate how a process finished, set the termination/end code appropriately, and then trigger further processing based on how it ended."
"There are three features which are valuable: the automated calendar functions; the notification process for failed jobs or unscheduled events occurring, via email and text messaging; and the ability for the scheduling package to communicate across multiple platforms."
"Manual processing has been automated 99 percent by OpCon. With new processes, we give it at least two weeks manual so we can write down the details of how to do the steps, then we automate it. Within a month, it has been automated, then it's no longer a manual process."
"It seems like it would scale well."
"We particularly like the fact that it's graphical because it is Windows-based. Before, we were text-based on the mainframe. You can also produce flow charts. Because it's point-and-click, its ease of use is very nice."
"Auto-scheduling is the most valuable feature. We have the ability to schedule [batch jobs on our Unisys mainframes] seven days in advance, so we know exactly how we're running every night."
"The most valuable feature is the self-service because it has made it possible to provide simple and quick solutions in the handling of certain tasks."
"For us, the most valuable feature of the solution is the file transfer piece and being able to automate the moving of files around between our various vendors. It reduces the time involved versus somebody having to individually move the files around."
 

Cons

"Scalability-wise, it can be a little bit challenging."
"The configuration of IBM Workload Automation has some challenges. We have a difficult time customizing it, but it is similar to other solutions."
"Slow down on the releases a bit. I fully understand that IWA functionality is increasing at an amazing rate, but trying to keep up with the upgrades is rough."
"It would be helpful to have a mobile app that could be used to follow the job schedule."
"It is missing some features and can improve in areas where the competition is somewhat better like linking job dependencies."
"It should support other schedulers that aren't IBM products."
"The performance of the previous versions could be better."
"This solution does have bugs and could be improved in this regard. However, these bugs are resolved relatively quickly."
"Usage is a little complex. It's not like you can bring somebody in and they can just use it. They have to be trained... As far as complexity goes, it's right up there."
"It's not something you can just quickly grab, try, run, and play with. You have to get the knowledge and train yourself. It was easy for me, but I also took the time to throw myself into it. There is a learning curve to a certain extent. You have to learn the rules."
"We sometimes have a large number of jobs on the SQL Server and we can experience a very light lag in job starts. The lag can be a few seconds. It's never more than one minute, but sometimes we can experience some lags."
"The learning curve could be shorter. The problem is that it's difficult to simplify a product without taking away functionality. I would love to see OpCon become a little easier to grasp. However, my concern is that making things easier isn't always better for the product. If they can keep the integrity of the product while making it easier to learn, that would be an area of improvement."
"The UI refresh rate is really bad and needs improvement."
"I would like more web-based training from SMA. That would be nice. Our primary OpCon representative is phenomenal, but we would like some training opportunities for learning on our own. When I started utilizing OpCon, the sheer breadth of it made for a very daunting task. I was almost fearful to start, not to mention fearful to go change things and possibly hinder a job."
"Do your first install, your first upgrade, with SMA. It's simple, it's as per the manual, as per the training, but you need that little bit of confidence."
"The FICS integration is a little bit clunky. We've had some tickets with their support team, and sometimes they couldn't figure it out, but that probably has more to do with FICS than with OpCon."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing depends on the number of agents that you install."
"We transitioned from a server license to per job license, and that saved us a lot money."
"It is about one-third of the cost of a controller."
"The contract is with the customer with whom we are working, so IBM is not directly involved in this."
"To my knowledge, IWA is the only WLA product that will provide "parallel tracking" capability to assist in upgrading from one platform to IWA."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"The cost is based on the number of jobs. You pay for what you use. For us, the support cost is between €20,000 and €30,000 per year. It's too expensive."
"Scaling is pricey."
"While the base pricing is reasonable, the à la carte options are making the overall cost more complicated and potentially problematic."
"We currently renewed with one of their new technology bundles. It's around $36,000 annually. We run a query of our SQL in our SQL database to see how many jobs we run. They're charging us per usage and whatever add-ons you want to use with OpCon."
"The pricing is very reasonable."
"Cost depends on your environment. We are doing stuff now with failover and recovery, so we have boosted our costs."
"If we choose to purchase consulting hours, that is an additional cost. However, we've been lucky enough that we've not used all of our allotted consulting hours. Therefore, that is not something that we have had to purchase a lot of. The last time that we purchased consulting hours was roughly two years ago. We purchased a block of 10 for $2,500. It was $250 per hour."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
33%
Computer Software Company
9%
Insurance Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
33%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Insurance Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with IBM Workload Automation?
Sometimes we have issues with the solution's stability. So, stability can be improved. Reporting and visibility of the solution need improvement. These days, we need more visibility. We need to acc...
What is your primary use case for IBM Workload Automation?
We are using IBM Workload Automation to run batch operations. The development teams batches, and the team that makes a plan and schedules the batches to be executed, and keep track of the summary o...
What do you like most about OpCon?
My favorite feature is the dashboard feature, which shows jobs that are running, and completed, any failures, and provides dashboard reporting.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OpCon?
While the overall cost is reasonable, I'm interested in exploring options for making the managed automation solution, specifically the mass solution, more cost-effective.
What needs improvement with OpCon?
I would like OpCon to implement a reporting feature on the dashboard that displays historical data for specific jobs. Ideally, this feature would allow us to view the past seven days or the next se...
 

Also Known As

IBM Tivoli Workload Scheduler, IBM TWS
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Standard Life Group, Banca Popolare di Milano, A*STAR, ArcelorMittal Gent
LOHR, Carnival Cruise Lines, Herbalife, Digital Federal Credit Union, Synergent, Frandsen Bank & Trust
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Workload Automation vs. OpCon and other solutions. Updated: June 2024.
787,061 professionals have used our research since 2012.