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Automate vs IBM Sterling File Gateway comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
8.0
Automate saves time and resources, achieving ROI quickly by reducing manual tasks and IT staff needs through automation.
Sentiment score
7.7
IBM Sterling File Gateway offers cost-effective, reliable file management for retail operations with user-friendly features and strong support.
Fortra's Automate has effectively replaced the workload of an entire employee, saving us significant time and money.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.4
Automate customer service is praised for responsive, effective support despite occasional communication issues, with knowledgeable and helpful staff.
Sentiment score
5.9
IBM Sterling File Gateway's support is responsive and reliable, despite occasional delays and complexity complaints; 24/7 availability is valued.
They don't always understand the processes I'm trying to implement.
They are very responsive and have been able to resolve any issues I have encountered.
I would rate the technical support as a nine out of ten because it is quite fast and courteous.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Automate offers scalable, cost-effective deployment with support for load balancing and high availability, although scaling complexity exists.
Sentiment score
6.8
IBM Sterling File Gateway offers scalable, configurable solutions supporting large volumes and protocols, despite potential licensing and configuration constraints.
It is easy to increase one bot or one studio without needing to buy another orchestrator, which can be quite expensive.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Automate is praised for stability and performance, despite occasional errors, connectivity issues, and recommendations for server improvements.
Sentiment score
6.6
IBM Sterling File Gateway is generally stable, but can face performance issues with upgrades, high data volumes, and resource limits.
The stability of Fortra's Automate is excellent.
It has very robust features, and it is not prone to instability.
 

Room For Improvement

Users seek improvements in web automation, UI, security, OCR, integration, documentation, stability, AI, cloud functionality, and community access.
IBM Sterling File Gateway needs user interface enhancements, better stability, more storage support, and improved user management and licensing.
Integration with Amazon S3 is somewhat lacking.
I would prefer not having to log in to update a ticket; being able to respond via email would be beneficial.
I find that most important features are strong, however, there is a lack of good development for artificial intelligence, such as machine learning.
 

Setup Cost

Automate offers a cost-effective, scalable pricing model with lower costs per bot, unlike UiPath and Blue Prism.
IBM Sterling File Gateway offers secure file transfers, considered costly yet valuable, with varied pricing based on specifications.
Competitors are often more expensive than Automate.
It offered what we wanted at a good, competitive price.
It does a lot but also costs a lot.
 

Valuable Features

Automate offers easy task development and integration with AI resources, efficiently handling tasks with strong support for secure transfers.
IBM Sterling File Gateway provides secure, adaptable file transfers with strong encryption, protocol support, user-friendly interface, and centralized management.
Automate's non-reliance on additional orchestrators makes it quite cost-effective.
The most valuable features of Fortra's Automate include its FTP functionality and file manipulation capabilities.
I really like the API functionality; it's a slick aspect of the solution when I'm using it.
 

Categories and Ranking

Automate
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) (5th)
IBM Sterling File Gateway
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Managed File Transfer (MFT) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

Automate and IBM Sterling File Gateway aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Automate is designed for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and holds a mindshare of 1.6%, up 1.0% compared to last year.
IBM Sterling File Gateway, on the other hand, focuses on Managed File Transfer (MFT), holds 10.3% mindshare, down 11.8% since last year.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Managed File Transfer (MFT)
 

Featured Reviews

Anabel Marco - PeerSpot reviewer
Automates processes efficiently with cost-effective scaling and robust customer support
Web scraping is quite good since it offers a lot of possibilities. Another important feature for me is its compatibility with MBI, the Power that is ISEQUADO Centers. I appreciate the ability to scale and increase the number of bots or studios without additional expense. Automate's non-reliance on additional orchestrators makes it quite cost-effective.
Vinutha Gangadhara - PeerSpot reviewer
Ability to customize on top of the inbuilt processes, user-friendly and well-categorized
I’ve been part of this client for the last seven-plus years. It’s been close to 70 to 80 continuous improvements we have delivered. The priority ones which we always shortlist are the recurring incidents or recurring issues, which came in the initial phase of the year when we took this entire landscape under our maintenance. One such incident I can recollect is with respect to performance tuning. We committed to our users 99.99% and above as the availability metrics for Sterling Integrator. This has acted as a high-availability system, but we treat it as mission-critical. When it comes to the commitment we give to users, we have to ensure the system is kept most stable. So, the majority of the problem was in the communication channels. Whenever we enabled additional logging for the communication channel, the system used to have hiccups. So we worked with the vendor, stating that the visibility channel framework needs to be changed because the moment we enable more logging, it literally brings the system down, or the system doesn’t work as it should. They took our input and delivered a better framework in their next releases, which helped us after upgrading to have that stability intact. As the system grows, we ensure to have performance tuning triggered and optimize the business process wherever required. For example, by default, Sterling Integrator business process will have full logging enabled. We took care of those things. Not all business processes or workflows require full logging enabled. Only a few critical ones require every step logs. For the rest, we categorized and reduced the logging for those workflows. That actually helped us to increase the IO overall from ten milliseconds to six milliseconds. That was a good achievement. Apart from that, in terms of queues, how we maintain the queues, how we defined all file queues across the critical business process is one thing we felt was done better. The threads we assign for the priority queues and the business processes were configured to those priority queues, whatever is critical, so that it gets high priority to allow the threads to process. So that queue thread Sterling was taken under the performance tuning. Apart from that, I think some of the best practices which IBM recommends is what we usually run through every year. We just have the health check done through IBM, and we just ensure that all the best practice recommendations are added in the system.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
35%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about HelpSystems AutoMate?
We use it for specific cases, mainly secure file transfers, which are vital for us. And it works for us.
What is your primary use case for HelpSystems AutoMate?
I am a consultant and I am making a lot of processes in human resources, payroll, certifications, trainings, web scraping, pre-reporting, and many processes that need to be automated on the web. My...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortra Automate?
The pricing is quite good compared to its competitors. Competitors are often more expensive than Automate. I would rate the pricing as an eight out of ten.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Sterling File Gateway?
The cost-effectiveness of IBM Sterling File Gateway was a major factor in our decision to use it, in comparison to the higher costs associated with DataPower.
What needs improvement with IBM Sterling File Gateway?
The product itself wasn't very easy to comprehend. I required a lot of customization that didn’t meet my needs. I resolved more issues than IBM did. Sterling needs better testing for larger custome...
What is your primary use case for IBM Sterling File Gateway?
I utilized Sterling primarily for SFTP and Connect Direct. I have a complicated system involving ZOS mainframe, data power, and various complex rules as I was trying to replace everything with Ster...
 

Also Known As

HelpSystems Automate, Automate
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Aldergrove Financial Group, Preferred Health Professionals, Mindbeam Technologies, First Credit Union in British Columbia, Vestcom International, Prime Liberty Benefits, University of Tampa, CNLBancshares, World Precision Instruments, BJ's Restaurants, Globe Pequot Press, Accudata Technologies, Norton Healthcare, Pacific Toxicology Laboratories
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