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ConnectWise PSA vs IFS Cloud Platform comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Automation Anywhere
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
659
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (2nd), Robotic Process Automation (RPA) (2nd), Process Mining (1st), Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) (1st), Agentic Automation (1st), Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (2nd), AI Legal & Compliance (1st), AI Finance & Accounting (1st), AI Procurement & Supply Chain (1st)
ConnectWise PSA
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (15th), Business Management Software (1st), Professional Services Automation (PSA) (1st)
IFS Cloud Platform
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
CRM (29th), Customer Experience Management (9th), Field Service Management (2nd), Help Desk Software (16th), ERP (19th), Activity Based Costing Software (10th), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) (4th), Local Government CRM (11th), IT Asset Management (12th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (16th), License Management (2nd)
 

Featured Reviews

Venkat Sivaprakash - PeerSpot reviewer
Management Consultant at Accenture
Has significantly improved document-driven workflows and reduced processing time across finance and HR functions
Automation Anywhere has evolved significantly and upgraded itself to provide agentic AI and AI-based automation solutions for document automation. The product has matured considerably over time. We can create workflows that can call an API. We can include prompts in particular workflows for ChatGPT-related functions, connecting to an LLM and RAG to perform tasks. For document automation, modern features are available to train documents, ensuring high accuracy and repeatability over time. The system is very easy to use. I recently completed a course in document automation, typically designed for people involved in coding and technical aspects. Though I understand coding comprehensively, I don't do actual coding. The course was very accessible. Currently, extensive coding isn't necessary due to the hybrid model incorporating GenAI aspects, low-code, no-code capabilities, APIs, and numerous pre-built objects in Automation Anywhere. The features include GenAI-driven prompting methods and workflow creation capabilities. In these workflows, we can create decision boxes and call APIs without coding. We simply pull objects, drop them, connect them, and add minimal coding when needed. The most crucial aspect isn't coding but rather sizing the automation and fleshing out the details. Automation Co-pilot takes notes and performs automated analysis. It can extract details from videos, summarize conversations, and provide detailed information. During calls, it identifies instructions and performs tasks such as preparing reports and reconciliation. Automation Anywhere can also connect with Microsoft Co-pilot. Through Co-pilot, real-time operations can be executed, allowing direct interaction between vendors and automation through this component.
SK
Associate Director at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
Centralized alerts and ticketing have improved SLA compliance and guided infrastructure decisions
For system monitoring and the alert system within ConnectWise PSA, we find it very useful, and its critical alerts are very important for us for ISOs and SOC compliances. The ticketing follow-up system is good, and there are many features that are very good in ConnectWise PSA. We use the time tracking feature with ConnectWise PSA, specifically for SLAs. The time tracking feature helps us improve billing accuracy, as it is really useful in improving the SLA of the tickets. We have different SLAs for different customers, including those who need a response within one hour and those who need a solution in one hour. According to those customer requirements, we have set the SLAs on the platform, and we get alerts if a ticket is going to be nearing the SLA. With the help of that, we improve the turnaround time and achieve the SLAs up to 90 percent maximum. ConnectWise PSA's reporting tools help our decision-making process a lot because, at certain points, we must make critical calls on moving and rebuilding servers. We can see the number of tickets and analyze server performance to make decisions, so it helps in that way.
reviewer2268153 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Operations Engineer
Integrated planning has improved production scheduling and now reduces downtime and costs
The biggest friction point I have run into with IFS Cloud Platform is user adoption, which has been the biggest challenge, as different users in the organization need to get accustomed to the new processes after years of using spreadsheets and legacy systems, requiring training and a mindset shift, along with challenging data migration and process standardization. My advice to someone considering IFS Cloud Platform with a similar workflow is to spend sufficient time understanding and standardizing their business processes before implementing it, as the technology is very powerful, but the real value comes when processes, data, and teams are all aligned. I would rate my overall experience with IFS Cloud Platform as a 9 out of 10.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"In most of the use cases, both time and cost are being saved, which is the reason they are using these automations."
"It is very easy to use, very easy to learn. That is the main advantage of this tool. You don't need to have very specialized skills to learn it."
"We're able to create reusable components. We don't want people to have to rebuild things from scratch. In this way, developers can take the reusable components and complete their development processes more quickly."
"When it comes to financials, Automation Anywhere has done amazing work in ensuring not only the speed and accuracy of the bot, but also the compliance and error controls through which the bot executes the job at very high satisfaction and tolerance levels."
"I would rate Automation Anywhere a ten out of ten."
"The addition of excel advanced to directly append worksheets, add formulas, etc was very beneficial and made the code development faster."
"We have automated every finance-based operation, from collections to invoice processing, and it has streamlined many manual processes, eliminating errors and inefficiencies while allowing us to introduce metrics so we can generate operational reports and improve our overall business."
"AA has good coverage in terms of out-of-the-box functionality for bot development and management."
"It's definitely one of those tools that is super powerful."
"ConnectWise Manage has made a difference in the connection to all of the other employees."
"We use this solution because it does everything we need as opposed to other programs that are always missing one feature or another."
"The product has been pretty stable so far."
"I like the search function up top where if you know what you're searching for, you can find it pretty quickly. Because you've got the option to change what the search parameters are, whether you're searching for a project, quote, ticket, or an invoice, you can kind of pick and choose what you're looking for."
"It's a nice ticketing system."
"We're using the solution for ticketing and billing, and those features are useful."
"Contains every feature that a VAR or MSP would want."
"There tends not to be a massive weakness in the product itself, as weaknesses can quickly be resolved in the next patch or the next release."
"Our client has benefited as follows: Reduced transaction time, better visibility, easier tracking, more control on business and automation, and better agility with the ability to move swiftly as times and market conditions change."
"The solution overall is very versatile and flexible, especially compared to other products."
"Some of the strengths are Enterprise Management Solutions and the series of Management solutions which is number one in Gartner's report and has been for the last five years."
"Individual user profiles that can be configured as templates to minimize data entry."
"The platform is reliable and stable."
"The most valuable feature to us was the capability to quickly identify the tickets we have open with people and follow up them."
"There are fewer fields on the user screen compared to other products. This makes the UI a little bit easier to understand."
 

Cons

"We have used the technical support. I am quite unhappy with the support part. The higher priority tickets are not getting resolved within the SLA. Higher priority tickets for production issues should be looked into immediately. However, until they get escalated, tickets are not receiving higher priority. I would like to see this improve."
"The IQ Bots need more out-of-the-box models to lessen the time required for model training. Their competitors provide more built-in models, which enhance capabilities in document processing."
"It has been challenging integrating Automation Anywhere with other solutions, due to all of the controls, as we are a bank."
"The Automation Anywhere University courses have helped us, but it could improve some things, like how the courses are designed."
"The bot scaling process was painful, when you go beyond a few bots, and because we had stability issues. We had to work through the issues, and they took us a long time."
"We would like to have more ease of use for the operations team."
"We have explored the AI Agent Studio in our automation process, and we have done some POCs with a couple of use cases that created value for us. However, we have encountered some technical challenges, which is why we haven't proceeded with production yet."
"Another feature that would be cool to see in Automation Anywhere is more use of artificial intelligence."
"All other ticket systems can search previous tickets, whether they were homegrown in Oracle or something else. I'm talking about searching the actual contents of the discussions in the ticket. In ConnectWise, you can only search the summaries. It's ridiculous."
"A lot of times, it'll take a couple of moments for things to go through. If you're not patient about it, it may seem like things aren't working."
"The speed could be better, and the reporting could be a lot better."
"The only area of ConnectWise PSA that I find could be improved is in configuring everything, as we have to take help from support or raise a ticket with helpdesk@connectwise.com to get it forwarded."
"The cloud platform has some slow days, which is an issue."
"The UI needs a lot of improvement. ConnectWise has a very outdated 90s interface and it's difficult to access from the mobile app because of the limited number of features you can access."
"The login issues with the cache always needing to be cleared."
"ConnectWise Manage can improve third-party integrations and the UI. The UI is good but it could improve in the graphics."
"Some kind of bot assistance, some kind of artificial intelligence to help people solve the problems, would be interesting."
"Customization can only be done by IFS and not by the clients themselves."
"IFS uses Crystal Report mostly, which isn't too user-friendly. Developing reports isn't easy and requires a lot of dev time. Since SAP bought it, Crystal Report has become more complicated to use on IFS. You have a dashboard for reporting that is good, but it's incomplete. Most of our clients use Power BI or some additional tooling for BI."
"The product requires heavy administrative work."
"Customization needs to be improved."
"We would like to see AI-driven CSI functions built into the tool that would allow us to quickly tie our improvement goals to metrics and activities, so Assyst will suggest the next steps to help us get closer to our goals."
"The solution's reporting tools still require improvement."
"There should be some improvements in the predefined templates in IFS Applications."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Subscription for Automation Anywhere (AA) is paid yearly."
"We only deal in annual licenses. There are no pay-as-you-go licenses."
"If we talk about the automation RPA. it definitely has worked very well for us. I'm talking about giving good savings, about more than 180 FTE savings, after implementing more than 200 plus bots. It has worked well. As an organization, it has supported us very well, and also for our customers."
"They all are very competitive today. At the end of the day, it boils down to the negotiations that happen and what type of partner you are."
"I am using that Automation Anywhere Master Certification for version 11. Recently, this has been updated in Automation Anywhere University. Until this month, it's free to use. There are no charges. That's why I would like to complete it this month."
"One of the key features that we chose, the bot as a service or the BotFarm, when they launched version 11.3, they decided not to have the BotFarm anymore. This put us in a situation because we expected to have bots on demand, just like our cloud software. This would have been cost efficient for us to use. We hope to see this again being realized with A2019. I hope the scalability from an on demand basis improves."
"We save approximately 10,000 hours per year."
"Our annual licensing costs are around $100,000 a year."
"The cost can be the main barrier. It's not a solution for a three person company. It just isn't going to be cost effective. Because ConnectWise Manage does have everything there, the licensing is a little bit restrictive as far as how they want to granularly assign licenses rather than having more of an all-inclusive package."
"We're paying $940 a month for 14 users."
"There are some different add-ons and benefits that are optional and come at an additional cost."
"The pricing of ConnectWise Manage is reasonable."
"I have one monthly license for all of the ConnectWise products I use, and it's $85 per user."
"The pricing is not based on my clients so much as it is on how many people I have accessing the system, and I think it's pretty good."
"It is better to buy implementation services from IFS than from partners"
"Compared to SAP, the pricing for IFS Applications was very affordable. People using the solution would find that it's worth the money."
"The product is reasonably priced."
"The pricing of the solution may appear to be expensive for smaller companies with only tens of users; however, for larger and mid-size industrial companies, IFS is able to win deals and the pricing is competitive in the market."
"I consider it to be a well-priced solution compared to other mid-range or high-end ERP solutions."
"IFS Applications is expensive software, but it's on par with SAP and Oracle. It's for large enterprises and government entities and not for small and medium-sized enterprises. They have one licensing model, but if you want to have a module-specific license, they provide component-based licenses. Unlike SAP and Oracle, it doesn't have different levels of licensing. It's one level of licensing."
"There's an additional yearly cost for support."
"We pay for a license to use the solution, which is not very expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Construction Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
7%
Construction Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Performing Arts
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Construction Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business157
Midsize Enterprise83
Large Enterprise551
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
It depends on your use case. Is it simply to automate a couple of processes? Is it to augment a human team? AA is ver...
How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
From my experience using AA tool, it depends on the applications that you want to automate, because there some applic...
How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
It is a highly preferred RPA tool. You can check my Automation Anywhere Review to know more.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ConnectWise Manage?
We are purchasing 1,000 seats per year, so I am aware of the pricing and we are getting it at a dealer's price. The p...
What needs improvement with ConnectWise Manage?
The only area of ConnectWise PSA that I find could be improved is in configuring everything, as we have to take help ...
What is your primary use case for ConnectWise Manage?
I have been working with ConnectWise PSA for the past four years, and we are using the platform for our ticketing sys...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IFS Applications?
The product is reasonably priced. The costs are justified by the value provided, considering the comprehensive featur...
What needs improvement with IFS Applications?
When it comes to AI, I feel that is the area where we expect something more from IFS Cloud Platform. They are working...
What is your primary use case for IFS Applications?
Currently, I am working with Arcwide, which is a service industry that predominantly focuses on IFS consulting, inclu...
 

Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)
ConnectWise Manage
IFS Applications, Assyst, IFS Cloud
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
IT Connexx, High Standards Technology Inc, Solvere One, MyIT, ConnectWise, Simpatico Systems, Fred IT Group, ECS, OneStop, K2 Technologies, Clark Integrated Technologies, Jmark, Geek on Wheels
China Airlines, Electrolux Group, Babcock, Cimcorp, Sky, Multiplex, Veolia. 
Find out what your peers are saying about ConnectWise PSA vs. IFS Cloud Platform and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.