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JAMS pros and cons

Vendor: Fortra
4.4 out of 5
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Pros & Cons summary

JAMS streamlines scheduling by eliminating Excel dependencies, offering centralized automation that enhances efficiency and focus on creative tasks. It ensures seamless data processing with disaster recovery, robust security, and flexible scheduling. However, some users find the client unintuitive with poor search functionality. Documentation for custom methods is lacking, and the absence of a comprehensive web-based version limits remote access. Nevertheless, JAMS improves productivity through failover capabilities and diverse execution support.

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

JAMS enables centralized management of batch jobs, reducing reliance on Excel spreadsheets and improving workflow coordination.
The system automates a wide range of tasks, allowing staff to focus on more creative and intelligent work, enhancing efficiency and scalability.
JAMS offers robust disaster recovery capabilities, ensuring seamless failover to a DR site if necessary.
It provides highly targeted alerting and security options, allowing specific notifications and access settings at a granular level.
JAMS offers features such as interactive agents and automated file transfers, improving data management and third-party integration.

CONS

JAMS has inadequate simulation processes, necessitating improvements for better planning capabilities.
The lack of a web-based version makes accessing JAMS difficult for Mac users and those who prefer browser access.
Documentation and support resources for JAMS need enhancement, particularly for tasks like custom execution methods and broader user assistance.
There are significant limitations in search functionality within JAMS, restricting efficient job queries and navigation.
JAMS lacks robust features for implementing SOC controls needed for audited transactions, impacting compliance efforts.
 

JAMS Pros review quotes

Rob Grafrath - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 18, 2023
It has definitely drastically improved our capabilities to scale our automation. Before JAMS, there were a lot of manual processes. We had a couple of operators who spent all day doing that. A lot of the time with human intervention and human processes, it is as good as the person who may be following a procedure and human error is a big problem.
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Chris Waring - PeerSpot reviewer
May 23, 2022
It makes everything that we want to do so much easier. We have had a number of instances in the past where we have had developers who have been working on a project, and even though we have had JAMS for all these years, they will create some SQL Server Agent job, or something like that, to run a task. When it is in code review and development is complete, the question always comes around, "Can JAMS do this?" The answer has always been, "Yes." Pretty much anything we have ever developed could be run by JAMS.
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Kammy Olive - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 27, 2023
The code-driven automation for more complex scheduling requirements frees up time because it's really easy to use... It's almost like a stand-alone software that we can't live without.
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JAMS
April 2025
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BM
Mar 23, 2023
We looked at other companies, like VisualCron, that were cheaper, but one of the main sticking points was the fact that they wouldn't have provided a central location for us to monitor across all servers. That was one of the biggest selling points of JAMS.
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YC
Oct 17, 2021
Our company is based on data. Everything we do is data-driven, so it has been very valuable having one place where we can process all of the data and do batch schedules with chunks of data.
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VK
Sep 7, 2021
The fact that we no longer need to use Excel spreadsheets is huge. Before JAMS, every group was keeping track of their own batch jobs. Nobody really knew what the other jobs were. So, if jobs failed, other groups wouldn't necessarily know. With JAMS, everything is done through a single scheduler. You can choose who to notify.
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IR
Oct 26, 2021
The alerting in it is really targeted... you can set specific alerting so that if jobs in a given folder fail, certain people are alerted. You can also set security at the folder level, so that only people in those areas can go set them. That means that the alerting and security can be set at a very granular level.
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reviewer2270991 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 5, 2023
The product is easy to use.
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DT
Mar 24, 2023
The feature or capability to import a job is most valuable. We can import an existing job from different platforms, and all the configurations get migrated as well without modifying the code, job schedule, etc.
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reviewer1687347 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 4, 2021
The most valuable feature for us is that it's DR-ready. With respect to disaster recovery, it has the built-in capability for failover to our DR site. If all of the required ports are open, it can be done seamlessly.
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Show 10 more reviews (out of 35)
 

JAMS Cons review quotes

Rob Grafrath - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 18, 2023
The biggest area with room for improvement is the area that my organization benefits the most from using JAMS, and that is in custom execution methods. I happen to have a very good C# developer. Ever since we got JAMS, he has spent a lot of time talking to JAMS developers, researching the JAMS libraries, and creating custom execution methods. He's gotten very good at it. He is now able to create them and maintain them very easily, but that knowledge was hard-won knowledge. It was difficult to come by, and if I should ever lose this developer, then I would be hard-pressed to find anyone who could create JAMS custom execution methods quite as well as he can since there really isn't all that much help, such as documentation or information, available on how to create custom execution methods.
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Chris Waring - PeerSpot reviewer
May 23, 2022
All my machines at work are Macs. JAMS client is a Windows-based thing. It is all built on .NET, which makes perfect sense. However, that means in order for me to access it, I need to connect to a VPN, then log onto one of our Azure VMs in order to access the JAMS client. This is fine, but if for some reason I am unable to do so, it would be nice to be able to have a web-based JAMS client that has all the exact same functionality in it. There are probably a whole bunch of disadvantages that you would get with that as well, but that is definitely something that would make life easier in a few cases.
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Kammy Olive - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 27, 2023
We have had a lot of people working from home who can't always connect to the JAMS server. We use VPN, as most companies do, and we have it set up so that everybody can access the JAMS server. But many times, our people cannot access it... JAMS could do a better job of telling you what the problem is when you try to log in to the server.
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Buyer's Guide
JAMS
April 2025
Free Report: JAMS Reviews and More
Learn what your peers think about JAMS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
DOWNLOAD NOW
850,671 professionals have used our research since 2012.
BM
Mar 23, 2023
The documentation is not super... It's not as quick and slick as I'd like it to be.
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YC
Oct 17, 2021
JAMS handles exceptions fairly well but there are some areas where it might improve a little bit. It has to do with being able to automatically handle exceptions, out-of-the-box, rather than having to code them.
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VK
Sep 7, 2021
The client is horrible. Every time JAMS puts out a survey on what they can improve, I always say, "The client: When you are setting up jobs, it is quite horrible." The response has been, "Well, we are just using the Windows foundation," and I am like, "Why isn't it only your product?" We can get around it now that we know its quirks, but it is not the most user-friendly of tools out there. The UI is completely unintuitive. We had to go and open up a support ticket with JAMS just to get something back. It is not user-friendly at all.
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IR
Oct 26, 2021
The only thing that they could improve on is the fact that they don't have a browser version of JAMS. They've got all the bits and pieces there if you want to build your own web version of it. It does come with a web client, but it's pretty clunky. They could improve on that.
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reviewer2270991 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 5, 2023
The product does not allow the users to cut and paste the job names from the screen.
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DT
Mar 24, 2023
The ACL or access permission area needs to be improved. When it comes to defining and providing security permissions, it's a bit confusing if you are new to JAMS. JAMS needs to improve the features for security access or permissions.
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reviewer1687347 - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 4, 2021
The search capability needs to be improved because when we try to search for a job, it's hard to do.
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Show 10 more reviews (out of 34)

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