OpCon Reviews

We love OpCon. I have been working with this credit union for five years, and we had it before I started working here. It is a great product. We are not yet using it fully. We are not taking advantage of everything because it is huge. It has a lot of different things that we can do with it. I am very happy with it.

OpCon gives us a single point of control for orchestrating workflows and file movements. This single point of control is very important because we can see all the jobs we have. We have 600 jobs, and we can view all of them within this single platform or a single dashboard. We have a lot of control over them.

OpCon enables us to manage complex schedules that span disparate systems. We have jobs where at least three to four servers are involved or at least two or three parties are involved. We have jobs where different departments need notifications and we have to wait for those departments to take some actions before another action takes place. There are different subjobs or dependencies. With the last job that we automated, there were so many things that we needed to do, such as decryption, waiting for other employees to do their part, notifying them, and then taking action. There were a lot of things. I did not think it was possible, but they could automate that. The tool can do it. That is why we have SMA Technologies because they have the experience in doing it. It would have probably taken us days to figure it out ourselves, but eventually, we would have got it done.

They free us from creating jobs or even monitoring them because they monitor the jobs. This gives us time to focus on other projects and gather information from other departments on what they are doing manually. We can then bring that to SMA Technologies and ask if they can help us with this manual process to automate it. Right now, we have a number of tickets open with them that are helping us to automate different manual jobs that other departments are doing. This is not just an IT product the way I see it. It is more of a company product that helps other departments to automate their jobs as well.

We have over 600 jobs. Our core financial system is a legacy system. It is a Linux system, but the way I see it, it is a legacy system. We have the majority of the jobs touching that system. We have our card processing system as well, and we have our data content management system. Every time our front lines scan receipts, checks, or documents, they automatically get sent over to a content management system that we have. OpCon automates a lot of the jobs, puts them in the right bucket or folder, and indexes everything in there. It tells the system where everything needs to go and indexes everything. That helps us as well from the point of doing it ourselves. We do not have to manually tell the system and index all this. It notifies the employees when the documents are already indexed and ready for them to view. We have at least three to four legacy systems that OpCon helps us with. The rest of them are more modern applications.

Per week, it probably saves us 30 to 40 hours. Per month, it saves 100 to 200 hours for my employees. The time saved can vary because there are months when we have to do more. At month's end, there is a lot of stuff to do and a lot more jobs to run. These jobs are run at different hours. Usually, they are run after hours, which helps my team and the company in saving money. We are not paying anyone overtime. Jobs are running automatically.

OpCon has helped to reduce errors when running complex processes. We do have some complex jobs that require talking to different services and external vendors. OpCon does help us with all of that.

Where I see it working best is when we are trying to automate jobs. For example, about a month ago, we had been running a job manually that had six or seven different steps. The steps included gathering the file, moving the file to a different location, and decrypting the file because it was encrypted. After the file was decrypted, it was moved to another server and a notification was sent to multiple people and multiple departments when the file was ready, waiting for those employees to do what they needed to do with the file. After the file was modified, we picked up the file again and SFTP it to another third party. So, there were a lot of different steps that we were doing manually. It used to take us at least an hour and a half to do a lot of this work because we were waiting for other people. We were sending the file. We were decrypting it. Sometimes we had issues with the decryption. We created or SMA Technologies helped us to create this job that automates all of this, and we do not have to do this work anymore. It is all automated, so it is saving my team a lot of time. The problem was that this had to be done between 4:45 PM to 6:30 AM. It was after hours, so we were paying our employees overtime. OpCon helped to save us a lot of money just in this particular job.

I needed some time, and it took me probably about a year to learn everything about it. Once I learned it, it was very easy to configure it. The reason why we had SMA Technologies do it for us is because of timing. I do not have the time to do it, but it is very easy to do it ourselves. I just do not have the time or resources. They are more knowledgeable in creating the job. They have done it for other clients. It takes them minutes to create a job, whereas it would probably take me an hour or two to create a job, but it is very easy to learn it. It is user-friendly. It gives you a lot of control over different things that you are doing. I find it very easy to create jobs, but I just do not have the time for it. However, we understand how things work. When a job fails, it could be a power outage or the server could have gone offline. We understand where to go and how to resume that job. It is very easy to understand and troubleshoot as well.

One problem that I had with them when we got SMA Technologies is that sometimes the jobs fail, but they automatically restart. SMA Technologies automatically gets a notification that the job has failed, and they restart it on their end, so now, we have the job restarting twice. There were times when we came into the office in the morning, and we had two files because the job ran twice. I do not know if the system can prevent a job from running the second time. If a job has run successfully, or it is running, it should not run again.

I started working with this credit union five years ago. I never used OpCon before that. It is a great tool for automating jobs. I do not know why I never used it before in my life. It is a great tool.

We never had any system crashes since I have been here. I have been here for five years. The upgrades go very smoothly. We never had anything crashing or reinstalling. I never had any issues with that. It is always available, which is very good for us.

We could use it for multiple different purposes. One that I am looking at is using it for our Active Directory, so it is very scalable with anything that we have put to the front. Anything that we have requested, they have been able to complete it.

I had to contact them a few times. Their support is excellent. Every time I got on the phone, they found the issue and resolved it within an hour. Sometimes, within minutes, they came back and said that they knew what the issue was. I am very happy with their support. I do not think my team has ever had a bad call with any of them. Opening tickets is great because we open the ticket, and they call us within minutes. Literally, within minutes, they are on the phone with us telling us how they can help us with the issue or they are looking for someone to help us to resolve the problem. Their support is excellent.

I would rate their support a nine out of ten. I would not give them a ten because when we had that issue related to restarting the job twice, we, sort of, resolved that problem with them. Now, what they are doing is that they are calling us to verify whether the job was restarted or not, or sometimes they go into the system and see if the job has started or not, so I will go with a nine for them.

Positive

I have not used any solution similar to OpCon. This is why I was very surprised at the fact that in the other financial institutions where I worked, we never used anything like this. A lot of the work was manual. We had a lot more people. Here at Triangle Credit Union, I only have had two employees running OpCon, and now with SMA, there is only one person responsible for that job.

We do not have a cloud. We have it on-premises. We have the server on-premises, and we get to that server through the web browser. In the past, we had to install the client, but they are moving away from that. We now have to use a web browser, and it is very easy to learn. It only took me about a week to learn where everything was. There were some changes to it, but it took me about a week to learn where everything was. The web browser client is much easier to use than the application itself, but we do not have a cloud. We will be moving to the cloud, but that is not going to happen until 2026.

It was already implemented when I joined this organization, but we are moving it to a different server. It is like a new installation. We are moving it to a 2022 server and a newer database. I am getting experience in doing a new installation. We tried to do it on top of an existing server, but that did not work. We tried that about two weeks ago. It did not work, so they are recommending to create a new server. We have scheduled this weekend to complete that.

So far, we have deployed the server. The piece that we are doing this weekend is moving the jobs from the old server to the new one. When we tried about two weeks ago, it seemed pretty easy. We discovered what the issue was, but they recommended doing a new installation. So far, it has been easy. It is not a big overtake. We are doing it after hours and on the weekend.

Last time, it took four hours. I would give ourselves five hours just in case. It is pretty quick, but we are setting up an extra hour in case anything happens. I do not foresee going over that.

In terms of maintenance, it requires only updates. In the past, when we were using the client, we needed to upgrade the client at least quarterly. We do not do that anymore because we are using the web browser client.

I am the one who signs the contract. In the beginning, when I started working here, it seemed very expensive, but after I learned everything that it does, I found it worth the price.

I would recommend taking more time on the features that you or your clients want to use. I wish that I could only pay for the features that I am using, but once I buy the whole product, it is ours. I can use this product to automate a lot of different Active Directory processes that we manually do. Next year, we are going to use some of those features. The price is good for what it offers. The problem is more internal time and resources to take advantage of all those features.

I would rate OpCon a nine out of ten. It is a great product. Support is great. Just like any other company, they have some issues, but we have not encountered any problem where they said that we cannot do this. Their response has always been that we could do it. It may take longer, but they always come up with an answer. One good thing that I like about it is the many hours that it has saved us. It has saved us so much money and time, and that is why when I see the price now, I know it is worth it. It is really worth it because it saves us a lot of money.

In this credit union, we use OpCon for automation. That is the main use of it. We have over 3,000 jobs and schedules that process certain procedures that we have. These procedures touch our core system and other systems that integrate with it.

The biggest example is for our credit union ACH processing. We use OpCon to make sure that files are moved over automatically. We also use OpCon to connect with the Axway system, which is an application that the Fed uses to make sure that those files get over to them and are processed correctly. If there are any returns, we get those files back from the Fed through Axway, and OpCon helps us with that automation. So, we use OpCon very heavily here. 

We have over 3,000 processes. We do a lot here. We use our OpCon system to help us with our month-end processes. We make sure that our core system process gets automated in terms of a backup taking place, and then our month-end procedures happen. We make sure that there is an end-of-day procedure and postings and so forth to get us over.

We have the Solution Manager, and we use that a lot. It gives us a single point of control for orchestrating workflows and file movements.

Its benefits were immediate, and after some time, we saw even further benefits. Over ten years ago, this team used to manually run every single process. That meant that they were working 24 hours. They were working weekends. They were working through lunch. They were working dinner time, just to make sure that processes were running for the credit union. When OpCon came along and they started automating those processes, the team was able to have a work-life balance. That was a big benefit, and it happened immediately. We continue doing that so much that over 3,000 jobs are happening with OpCon.

OpCon in a way enables us to manage complex schedules that span disparate systems. We have a few other systems in which we have automated a file or process happening at one point in time and then moving on to being ingested by another system. We have processes where our core system may push out a report or something along the way. OpCon helps with the generation of that and also then pushes that report either to another system where that report needs to be generated, mailed, and printed out for someone or to another system where it needs to be held as a documentary repository system.

OpCon has freed up time for our staff to focus on higher-value projects. Using OpCon for ACH processes here at the credit union allows us to not only adhere to NACHA compliance and audit rules but also make sure that our membership is able to move their money and use their money as quickly as possible and as appropriately as possible with minimal impact to them and minimal impact to the organization. In terms of growing business on the vendor SMA side of things, there have been times when we have been asked to meet with other credit unions to share our thoughts and our experience with the product in itself and gain SMA more clients.

Using OpCon, we have automated 3,000 processes that were previously run manually. In terms of time savings, it is hard for me to put a number down, but per year, at a high level, it has probably saved us between 200 to 400 hours.

Using OpCon has helped to reduce errors when running complex processes. When we notice that there has been an issue, we ask questions about the process and find out if it is automated. We solutionize it with OpCon and have more controls and applications around it. It has been beneficial from that standpoint as well. A lot of times, one of the questions for a lot of our projects is whether there is anything that is happening manually that we could handle for them.

The biggest thing that we like about OpCon is how easy it is to trust it once we put the automation in place. Once we put whatever that job or schedule is, if we have the proper settings and conditions and we understand the components of OpCon in itself, we can go from a manual process to an automated process. We allow our team to get time to rest and have time to handle other things.

OpCon has benefited us a lot. We have a FICS process, which is First Mortgages, and we have used OpCon to automate all the manual processes there. That happened about two years ago, and we saved our organization well over 200 hours per month by the business units and allowed them to do other work as things were automated. Our favorite thing is just the ease of it. Once it is set up, we can trust it. We can move forward, and we can put our hands and our focus on something else.

The only thing that we have been talking about with the vendor is the Solution Manager tool that we have. It is a great tool. It is getting replaced by another tool that is probably called Enterprise Manager. We just had a few complaints about it. The navigation of that new tool is a little bit more arbitrary than what we have been used to. It may be because we need more training and more time and experience, but that has been the only issue recently. We have talked with our rep, and I am sure they are hearing us when we say it often.

It is my understanding that we have been using it for over a decade now. I joined my operations team in October 2022.

I have not seen issues on the OpCon side. We have seen a few failures that we cannot speak to. We do have a ticket open now, but it has not been impossible for our production system.

In terms of automation, it is quite scalable, and it allows us to touch other systems. There might be some more future integrations, but I am not sure what the vendor's roadmap is for the product in itself. For now, for our credit union's business needs, scalability is decent.

We have contacted tech support via phone and ticket. We mainly contact them via ticket. Our ticket management, from my experience so far, has been decently well. There have been some things where it could have been faster, but that is when I messaged our rep and got her attention. She then gets on it and makes sure that the ticket is addressed, but it has only been a few times when we had to open up a ticket for any issues that we could not understand ourselves.

Positive

I have not used a similar solution before.

It is deployed on-prem. Our OpCon upgrades have been very quick and easy for us. There is no hard burn there. We essentially start with our staging systems first. It takes us less than a day to get that working. We test it ourselves with a few automation processes, and then we coordinate production with our change management tier and get that going.

It does not require too much maintenance. Obviously, we have so many notifications put in place with the processing that helps us with the maintenance. We know if we have to go into the system or not. We have successful and failure notifications. If there is a delay and we know that by a certain time, something should have happened, we have notifications there to let us know to get in and either restart a job or pull something together within OpCon and get it fixed. The maintenance of it is on the easier side, especially when you put safety nets and notifications in place for you and your team.

In the past ten years, there has been one dedicated resource to this OpCon system with maybe a few knowing bits and parts of it. Since I took over the team in 2022, I have cross-trained my entire team on OpCon, so we have six individuals working with it.

It is at a decent price for the work that it does for us.

It is always wise to make sure that you talk with the vendor about what the proper training is for this product. It is also wise to talk with the vendor about BCP and DR procedures to understand what your failover capabilities are. It is also good to talk with the vendor about making sure that you have an understanding of what your costs are and if you have any fixed rates with the contract. These are the things that almost everybody does before they get committed to a product or service, but these are the high-level things you always want to make sure you do.

We have not necessarily used OpCon to manage legacy systems along with modern systems. Once a system here turns into a legacy system, it is a legacy. We are really tight with security, so if it is a legacy, we try to dismantle it and decommission it as quickly as possible and not have any ties or actions going on with it. Right now, everything that we have for our processes and connections is in active systems. There is nothing in older servers or anything like that.

We have not used OpCon Cloud. We are not there yet. We may be there in the future. Right now, we have been focusing on making sure that our OpCon continues to be healthy, and we continue leveraging the tools so that we can build more automation.

I would rate OpCon a nine out of ten.

I do a lot of administration of the product. I am also in development. I create jobs and maintain roles for end users, so I take care of administration and scheduling.

OpCon provides centralization like most of the schedulers. It has pretty much the same functionality from a centralization point of view.

OpCon enables us to manage complex schedules that span disparate systems. This functionality is native to OpCon.

OpCon has not freed up time for our staff to focus on higher-value projects.

I have used OpCon to manage legacy systems along with modern systems. It works fine with legacy systems and modern systems.

We have automated pretty much every manual task with OpCon. We have very few manual tasks left. The scheduler is there, so we have to do all the work using the scheduler. If we still have to do manual work, there is no point in having a scheduler. In other words, we automate every task that we can with OpCon. We have automated about 80% to 90% of tasks.

OpCon has helped to reduce errors when running complex processes. We use it for Linux, Unix, AIX, and Windows. It is used as a point of entry to every system that we use. It is the central point of automation for every system we use, such as ETL, managing databases, and patching Linux systems. Everything is under the responsibility of the scheduler. That is why it is very important for us to have a scheduler, and that is why we use OpCon as the main product in our production systems.

Coming from the Control-M world, one of the things I like about OpCon is that I can sometimes do complex tasks with simple jobs. That is native in OpCon but not in Control-M. In Broadcom Dollar Universe and BMC Control-M, to do some complex jobs, we need a lot of duplicated jobs, whereas in OpCon, it is native. Most specifically, when it comes to the frequency, in the same job, we can specify different frequencies and classifications of the job. OpCon is more helpful than other solutions.

Also, OpCon is much easier to use with Kubernetes as compared to other schedulers, such as Control-M.

I live in Paris. Here in France, OpCon is not very known for big clients. I like Solution Manager, but it is not yet as well developed as Control-M.

The GUI is very old-fashioned compared to Control-M, for example. They should prioritize the GUI. For administrators, they should provide more native commands to do some complex tasks, such as CI/CD tasks, through the command line.

With Control-M, there are also more possibilities for integration with other systems than with OpCon or Dollar Universe. There is better communication with other systems such as gateways, add-ons, cloud services, ERPs, and CRMs. They have done a lot of work on that.

I have been using OpCon for about a year and a half.

We have not seen any issues happening very frequently. It is pretty stable. It depends on what we do with our production systems, but OpCon is stable. There are no crashes every day or every week or even every month. It could only happen once in a quarter or year.

I have not had any problems with scaling using OpCon or Control-M. We do not have any issues with most of the modern systems. I did not have any problems while adding more services or more agents.

They were quick to respond.

Neutral

I have used three schedulers. Among them, Control-M is the best for me because they have done a lot of work on the GUI for using it on a daily basis. They also have the command line, which is not much developed in OpCon. In OpCon and Dollar Universe, you can use the command line, but it is not much developed. Control-M also has better integration with different kinds of systems.

I was not there for the initial deployment, but from what I heard from my colleagues, it was done with the help of SMA. It was not difficult, but it took time because not all the deployment phases were automated. With Control-M, we can do all the work from a single script. Of course, we have to customize some scripts in the beginning, but with a simple script, we can deploy whatever we want. This is not the case with OpCon.

In terms of maintenance, we have to upgrade OpCon agents, servers, databases, etcetera.

I do not have information about the pricing. I have seen some contracts, and it seems that Control-M is a lot more expensive than OpCon, but I do not know the pricing of OpCon. Control-M seems to be four or five times more expensive than OpCon.

I would recommend getting trained on OpCon first. You can go through some courses on SMA's website. You can start with the basic one and then have more training. You should be interested in learning about schedulers and how they work. Know how it works, what to expect from OpCon, and how to manage and use the functionalities of the product.

Its benefits can be realized immediately, but it also depends on the project that you are working on and the experience you have. If you are a central administrator and you do not do any development, you might pass all the benefits of OpCon because you never found out how to do some specific tasks. I am currently doing a migration from Dollar Universe to OpCon. These two schedulers are very different. It is very difficult to migrate from one scheduler to another because each scheduler level has its own functionalities and way of working and conceptualizing.

I have not used OpCon's Self Service feature. I have experience working with OpCon for two different clients in France. One is a big insurance client and one is in the luxury domain. Neither of them is using this functionality.

I have not used OpCon Cloud. Here in France, I do not know of any client who is using the cloud version.

I would rate OpCon a seven out of ten.

The primary reason behind implementing it was its integration with our new core banking system, serving as the designated task scheduler. Our core system lacked this capability inherently, leading the core vendor to incorporate OpCon to address this gap. Initially introduced as part of the package to fulfill the role of a task scheduler, we subsequently embraced and significantly expanded its usage. It is now an integral component of our operations, seamlessly integrated into our core banking system. Its implementation coincided with our core banking system upgrade, and since then, it has been instrumental in managing a myriad of daily routines and schedules. 

Beyond its role in executing numerous jobs critical to our core operations, we leverage OpCon for broader infrastructure automation. Whether it's handling routine maintenance, conducting audits, or generating reports, the versatility of OpCon enables us to efficiently run thousands of diverse tasks across our organization.

OpCon plays a pivotal role in consolidating control for orchestration workflows and file movements into a centralized point, a critical aspect of our operations. This centralized control is immensely significant. 

When I initially joined the organization, the automation landscape was only a fraction of its current size, and it was scattered across our computing infrastructure. The challenge was identifying the location of actions like report generation or file movements. Now, we have achieved a transformative shift – everything is seamlessly managed through a unified interface, providing a comprehensive view of all automation control. 

It empowers us to handle intricate schedules that span disparate systems, and some of these schedules are exceptionally complex. It has liberated our staff's time, allowing them to concentrate on more high-value projects. It's important to acknowledge that automation involves an initial investment of effort in terms of building, implementing, and maintaining the system. Despite this upfront cost, the efficiency gains achieved after the automation is established are substantial and challenging to quantify. 

The time saved across multiple organizations through the presence of automation is significant. Monthly, across all organizations, it likely saves several hundred hours. The time savings facilitated by OpCon have enabled our Information Services department, despite our relatively modest staff size, to undertake a significantly increased workload. The automation seamlessly handles tasks in the background that would have otherwise required manual intervention. As a result, we've been able to successfully manage a multitude of additional projects on an annual basis. 

It has proven instrumental in managing a mix of legacy systems and modern platforms. As mentioned, we execute thousands of jobs across a diverse range of systems, encompassing both outdated and contemporary technologies. OpCon has transformed numerous manual processes into automated ones, totaling in the hundreds. We've systematically automated virtually every identifiable process, and the initiative is ongoing. 

Collaborating with various organizations within the credit union, we're methodically determining the daily, weekly, and monthly tasks that can be automated for each. While we've already automated thousands of jobs, the process of identification and automation is ongoing and requires time.

Among the numerous valuable features, one standout capability is the implementation of self-service buttons. This feature has proven immensely beneficial across the enterprise. 

Essentially, self-service buttons enable the integration of a website, allowing us to construct backend automation. Users throughout the credit union can then access this automation effortlessly through buttons on a web page. This functionality empowers users to initiate or kick off jobs with a simple button press, decentralizing automation control and mitigating the need for them to interact directly with our critical infrastructure. This not only enhances efficiency but also provides a powerful means of controlling user access to sensitive systems. 

The self-service feature is an incredibly powerful tool, and its significance cannot be overstated. This functionality allows us to empower various departments within the credit union by giving them control over their own tasks, schedules, and internal processes. 

With the automation seamlessly operating in the background, this feature extends OpCon's reach across the organization, providing everyone with the ability to manage their own work. It has been instrumental in minimizing errors during the execution of complex processes. The inherent strength of automation lies in delivering consistent results, ensuring that the process and its outcomes remain consistently accurate.

I believe there's room for improvement, and while I think it's something they are considering, I would welcome seeing OpCon integrate with a broader range of systems and third-party products.

We have been using it for the last five years.

In terms of reliability, it has performed exceptionally well. Rarely do we encounter issues—perhaps once or twice in a calendar year, and these are often minor and resolved with a simple reboot.

It handles thousands of jobs, demonstrating its excellent scalability. Even with the substantial workload, we haven't observed any negative impact, indicating that it scales very effectively.

Technical support has been consistently helpful, and I have no complaints. Their responsiveness and the ease of submitting tickets have been commendable. Unlike many organizations, OpCon keeps the process straightforward. I would rate it at least an eight out of ten.

Positive

Previously, we relied on native Windows job scheduling tools, but they pale in comparison to OpCon.

Deploying OpCon is relatively straightforward, but upgrades can pose some complexity. During upgrades, we opt for redeploying a new instance and migrating everything over instead of directly upgrading the existing product. This approach is taken to avoid any downtime during the upgrade process. While the deployment itself wasn't challenging, the more intricate task was establishing the initial automation, particularly constructing critical jobs to run against our core. OpCon provided on-site assistance for the initial wave of jobs related to our core, and from that point forward, we continued managing it independently. Initially, we had a team of four or five people working on it from our side, and from OpCon side, we had one person involved in the process. Regarding the maintenance part, aside from upgrades, there's not much else to attend to. OpCon is largely self-sufficient, operating reliably without frequent issues.

The time required to realize the value was not immediate in a substantial way, but rather, it unfolded gradually. Upon deployment alongside our new core system, we initially concentrated on building jobs specifically tailored for the core. This focused effort resulted in a relatively small-scale usage during the early stages as our priority was bringing the new core online. However, post that phase, OpCon's usage has significantly expanded and continues to grow consistently. We are continually engaged in building new automation with it.

Operating OpCon comes with a cost. While one could always argue that everything is expensive, especially given the array of products we use, I don't find any significant issue with it. The value proposition of OpCon, in my opinion, is tremendous. It is currently delivering value that justifies the cost.

Before integrating OpCon into your environment, it's crucial to ensure that your team receives training on the product. OpCon isn't a deploy-and-go type of solution that you can easily grasp on your own. Training is highly valuable for success with this product. Once you've acquired the necessary education and skills, using it becomes much easier. While it may not be the most intuitive product initially, it becomes user-friendly once you've gained familiarity and understanding through training. Overall, it is a game-changing platform and a critical tool within our infrastructure. It consistently performs as intended, and I would rate it a nine out of ten.

I use OpCon to automate processes in a financial institution.

OpCon provides a single point of control to orchestrate workflows and file moments which is incredibly important.

With the implementation of OpCon, we require minimal to no staffing on weekends or nights. The automation enabled by OpCon has streamlined our operations, reducing the number of personnel required while simultaneously enhancing our operational capabilities.

OpCon has enabled us to manage more complex schedules. We have seen a mass reduction in error rates and a lot of time savings in the target business units and operations.

I don't have a dedicated staff. Instead, I collaborate closely with a wide range of individuals. OpCon has enabled us to accomplish more with a smaller team by empowering project management teams to direct the processes. Consequently, we prioritize tasks that they deem valuable.

In the rare instances where we utilize the self-service feature, it empowers our end-users to handle their tasks independently without the need to submit tickets or contact the operations team. They can complete their processes at their convenience, allowing for flexibility in their workflow. This flexibility ensures that they are not required to execute tasks at a specific, predetermined time point.

We use OpCon to manage legacy systems alongside modern systems, which has allowed us to maintain functionality and efficiency. While some legacy software can be cumbersome and we are unable to eliminate all of it, OpCon enables us to make the most of these systems. Integrating OpCon with new components has streamlined our operations, creating a cohesive and user-friendly system.

Our company has implemented OpCon for over a decade, and we currently execute more than 2,000 processes daily. Achieving this level of process automation was not a sudden accomplishment; it has been a steady and gradual growth process. Quantifying the precise impact of OpCon is challenging due to its long-term integration into our policies, procedures, and processes. However, we estimate that OpCon has saved us hundreds of hours per week.

OpCon minimizes errors regardless of the task's complexity or whether it's a repetitive task with a predictable outcome. Therefore, complexity is not the primary factor contributing to errors; repetitiveness is.

The time to value with OpCon is immediate because it instantly frees up one person's workload. That's a win right there. No matter how big or small the automated process, it's one less manual task that someone has to do. While we may not see an immediate return on investment at the corporate level that executives crave, the positive impact on employees is immediate and tangible.

I find OpCon's ability to monitor files and folders, and its integration with other software to be the most valuable.

The UI is very dated, click heavy, and has a very unintuitive layering with in some screens. It is often difficult to see all aspects of what is entered on a given screen. 

OpCon's pricing model has become increasingly à la carte, with numerous individual components available for purchase at varying price points. This fragmented approach could be improved by implementing either bundled pricing or a more streamlined pricing structure.

I have been using OpCon for ten years.

I would rate the stability of OpCon ten out of ten.

OpCon is scalable.

Unfortunately, we can no longer reach their technical support by phone. They now only assist through email or their ticketing system. While we miss the convenience of phone support, their email and ticketing system responses are notoriously slow. However, when we do connect with a representative, they are extremely knowledgeable and helpful. It's just that there's no sense of urgency, and we're left waiting for a response indefinitely.

Neutral

We utilized a significant amount of Azure's native functionality. Azure offers a wide range of services, with some having multiple designations. Primarily the Azure automation.

OpCon is far more functional for us because not all of our applications are hosted on Azure. Therefore, OpCon's cross-platform compatibility allows it to connect to our legacy system, while Azure automation is limited to the Azure environment.

The initial deployment was straightforward. I can complete the deployment myself.

OpCon's pricing is quite fair. The task-based model is appealing because it allows us to scale up or down as needed. We're primarily focused on scaling up, and the model has been working well in that regard for some time now. However, the introduction of à la carte offerings on top of the base price is becoming a concern. While the base pricing is reasonable, the à la carte options are making the overall cost more complicated and potentially problematic.

I would rate OpCon a nine out of ten.

Regular maintenance is necessary for OpCon, encompassing updates, patches, and server reboots. These activities are similar to the standard maintenance required for other software applications.

We have OpCon deployed within our production environment and development environment.

Before implementing OpCon, it is crucial to have a thorough understanding of our current processes. The processes we intend to automate must be well-defined and documented to ensure a successful automation endeavor. Additionally, a realistic commitment of time and resources is essential for automation projects. As we gain experience and expertise in automation, the process will become faster and simpler. However, allocating appropriate time and resources remains paramount throughout the entire automation lifecycle. This includes time for understanding the processes, integrating them into OpCon, and conducting thorough testing to validate the processes within OpCon.

We use OpCon to automate daily operational jobs.

We implemented OpCon to remove risks associated with manual processes and improve efficiencies to reduce the time for those operational jobs to complete.

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.

My favorite feature is the dashboard feature, which shows jobs that are running, and completed, any failures, and provides dashboard reporting.

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 seven days, but with a specific focus on highlighting instances where a particular job has historically failed, particularly on Saturdays over the past year.

I have been using OpCon for nine years.

OpCon has been completely stable.

The scalability of OpCon is reasonable.

The technical support is excellent.

Positive

There was a lot of work involved in the deployment but it was straightforward.

The implementation was completed in-house.

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.

I would rate OpCon ten out of ten.

Maintenance is required for licensing and periodic updates.

It's crucial to review current manual tasks and prioritize those offering the greatest potential cost savings, considering both risk mitigation and time efficiency. To determine if automation is worthwhile, we need to assess the time users currently spend on these tasks.

We initially used it for core job scheduling, but our focus shifted to managing file movements with vendors through FTP as tasks were outsourced. It now functions as a comprehensive server monitoring tool, overseeing file transfers, scheduling jobs based on received files and managing dependencies. OpCon facilitates efficient updating of our internal database with vendor files and plays a vital role in failure notifications, job holds during issues, and alerts via email or text. Currently, we handle around twelve hundred unique jobs, resulting in sixty to seventy thousand job runs monthly.

The primary advantage lies in labor savings and the capability to monitor and respond to task outcomes effectively. OpCon facilitates not only scheduling but also provides continuous communication through email or text notifications. This ensures real-time updates on the status of critical processes, whether they have run successfully, encountered failures, or require attention. 

The notification feature enhances control and allows prompt responses to operational events. 

OpCon has empowered us to handle more intricate schedules that span diverse systems, especially during our transition to a new platform. Some schedules are quite complex, involving sub-schedules within them. For instance, a single job for the data warehouse comprises around two hundred and fifty unique tasks. This flexibility allows us to break down jobs individually, making it easier to address failures at a granular level, simplifies troubleshooting, and facilitates more efficient processing by releasing the next job once an issue is resolved. 

It has freed up our staff's time, enabling them to engage in higher-value projects. While we still encounter occasional failures, their frequency has significantly reduced. Instead of the manual check-off sheet approach, where someone would meticulously oversee processes, we now have the freedom to work on diverse projects. 

We've successfully automated numerous processes that were previously carried out manually. While I can't provide an exact count, the estimate falls within the range of hundreds, potentially around a hundred and fifty to two hundred unique items. 

Quantifying the time saved by OpCon is challenging, but to justify its purchase and ongoing maintenance, I would estimate it frees up the equivalent of at least two full-time positions. 

The cost savings are significant, considering the annual hours and salaries involved. While the platform requires ongoing maintenance and updates, it has effectively replaced the need for two full-time staff members engaged in manual processes. 

Implementing OpCon has significantly reduced errors in executing complex processes. Previously, relying on manual checklists left room for typos, sequencing issues, or overlooked details. OpCon addresses this by allowing a one-time setup and comprehensive review, minimizing possible errors. 

The platform supports various actions, including job submissions, file copies, and native execution of PowerShell scripts, eliminating the need for manual intervention. As a result, failures are now less frequent, with most issues attributed to file-related issues or occasional user errors, rather than OpCon-based job errors. 

We observed benefits right from day one, especially in terms of scheduling automation. Upon going live, the advantages were significant due to the automated calendars and frequencies. 

The most impactful feature was the ability to handle dependencies. In cases where one element failed, others could proceed, minimizing disruptions.

The most valuable feature of OpCon is its scheduling capability, particularly for automating file transfers with vendors. Before OpCon, this process was manual, requiring someone to log in to vendor websites daily for file transfers. With OpCon, this task is automated based on specified frequencies and calendars, reducing the need for constant manual intervention. This scheduling feature has extended to other areas within the credit union, allowing staff members to trigger automated processes by submitting files or using a self-service feature. OpCon is a significant labor-saving tool by automating formerly manual functions and streamlining operations across the organization. It is a centralized control hub, managing operations and consolidating tasks across five instances, including two for production and others for documentation, service, and development. The organization plans to expand this centralization to involve additional IT areas and departments seeking to automate manual tasks. We utilize the self-service feature for specific IT tasks, and we've extended its use to several departments within the credit union. The impact of the self-service feature on our processing and business efficiency has been significant. Rather than manually scheduling or relying on complex processes tied to specific criteria, the self-service button is provided to departments. It offers the capability to support older systems if needed.

The only feature we're anticipating is the ability to access and control OpCon through devices like the iPhone or iPad. Currently, when a failure occurs, we receive an alert, but to take corrective action, the on-call person needs to remotely access the software. Looking ahead, we hope for the capability to initiate tasks remotely. It might be beneficial if OpCon offered a more streamlined version at a lower cost, focusing solely on core functionality. The current software is robust and powerful, but a lite version with essential features could be a cost-effective option for organizations that don't require the full range of functionalities provided by the comprehensive solution.

I have been using OpCon for fifteen years.

The software remains stable, effectively monitors servers, and executes jobs, and I can't recall the last instance of it encountering any significant issues. It's highly stable and reliable for the range of tasks it handles. Considering the volume of processes we run each month, the occurrences of failures or issues requiring attention are typically job-based or related to user errors from other departments. I would rate it ten out of ten.

OpCon is highly scalable, offering a wide range of capabilities. If they adopted a pricing model per module, it could further enhance scalability as numerous functions can be performed with the software. Its complexity is flexible, allowing users to customize it based on their specific needs, making it suitable for both simple and intricate tasks. I would rate it ten out of ten.

The customer service has always been excellent, and we recently added managed services to our contract, allowing OpCon to assist us remotely for up to fifteen hours a month. It consistently excels in customer support, standing out among the various vendors we interact with regularly. Their support team is knowledgeable, responsive, and provides accurate solutions. Even in cases where further assistance is required, the option to pay for additional support is available. I would rate it ten out of ten.

Positive

We conducted a review for purchase several years ago, initially opting for MOVEit as it aligned better with our older core system, which was more tech-focused rather than GUI-based. However, we soon identified a significant limitation with MOVEit—it lacked a dependency component. After six months of in-house use, we recognized the weakness and transitioned to OpCon. Since changing vendors in 2005, we have exclusively used MOVEit and transitioned to OpCon.

The deployment of OpCon has been straightforward, and we initially handled it internally for several years. Their server setup and configuration instructions are clear, contributing to a smooth implementation. Over the past four or five years, we've opted for their paid support for implementations and software updates. At the time of deployment, there were likely two individuals involved in the process.

The pricing is reasonable. Given our plan, which allows us to run two productions and multiple failovers and development boxes, we find it to be a fair investment. While it suits our needs well, I'm aware that smaller credit unions may have found the cost challenging in the past. However, if an organization processes enough jobs and can justify the cost by realizing savings in employee roles, OpCon pays for itself.

I advise others to consider the benefits in terms of failure reduction, dependency management, and labor savings. OpCon's value becomes evident in the streamlining of operations and the automation of tasks. While it can be as straightforward or intricate as needed, having individuals who truly understand it can unlock its full potential and enable credit unions to achieve more with the platform. Overall, I would rate it ten out of ten.

We use OpCon to automate tasks like moving files around, starting jobs on our mainframe, alerts, etc. 

OpCon's biggest benefit is cutting down on the workload. It reduces human interaction and the risk of human error. It has freed up employee time by automating some repetitive jobs. We save about 20 hours a week or roughly the equivalent of half a full-time employee. 

We use OpCon to automate stuff across the board, including some legacy solutions that vendors haven't quite been able to upgrade. We're currently running thousands of jobs. 

OpCon removes the human element from routine jobs, taking the potential for human error out of the equation. OpCon provides a single point of control for orchestrating workflows. There's a GUI to build and schedule jobs. You can set up your notifications, review error logs, and troubleshoot through there.

 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.

I've only worked with OpCon for about nine months.

I haven't experienced any issues with stability.

OpCon is scalable enough for our purposes. We've got several thousand jobs running through it with no problems. 

I rate OpCon support 10 out of 10. I've never had a problem with them. I've always been able to get answers quickly and always seem to find a knowledgeable person to assist with any questions.

Positive

We previously had a solution just for moving files, but OpCon can do a wider range of things.  Both have their place. Our other solution was easier to use, but the capabilities were limited. 

I rate OpCon 10 out of 10. I recommend taking advantage of OpCon's training courses. They have two levels. The entry-level course is free with your license. You need to pay for the advanced course, but it's worth it. 

We are using it to schedule work across different platforms, including Windows, Linux, and z/OS.

OpCon certainly costs us less than the product we were using before. So in practical, financial terms, it improved things. It has also improved the productivity of the administrators because it's much easier to use than a text-based product.

And when it comes to streamlining operations, with the flowcharting we can now visually see the flow of jobs going through our system and that has exposed some complexity that was unneeded. For example, we discovered processes that have been around for years and people realized that we didn't need to run those anymore. It helped us to improve our throughput by exposing inefficiencies.

It has also saved time for our IT team, particularly for our programmers who use the interface to monitor their systems and their jobs. They have found it easier and more reliable than what they were used to in the past. It has probably saved our developers 20 hours a month. And in our organization, overall, we have realized a 10 to 15 percent increase in productivity, thanks to OpCon.

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.

The learning curve was not very steep. When we converted to it, SMA held some classes, and they even held classes that were specific to our environment and where we were coming from. People were functional in it within a week.

The one area it needs some help in is the mainframe area because that is not its strength. They support the mainframe but it's not something that they are good at.

I have been using OpCon for about two years.

We haven't had any issues with its stability or performance. It has been perfectly stable so far.

It is easy to scale in that we can add agents very easily to it. When we get a new machine and we go into what's called Enterprise Manager, which is where we manage the system, we add the machine and off we go. We are not a huge shop, but we've been able to add systems to it very easily and have not felt any bad effects from that.

I'm very pleased and impressed with SMA's technical support for OpCon. They're responsive and they've done a very good job in fixing problems that we've reported.

Positive

We were using ASG-Zeke, which is now Rocket Software. We got away from them because we did not care for their support and they were, frankly, expensive.

The initial deployment was complex because we were migrating from our previous product and that's always going to be complex. But they did it almost seamlessly, in about six months, which was really impressive to us. We shut down the old system and turned on OpCon in one day and we were off.

The solution is used almost exclusively by the IS department to schedule our work and it's in one physical location.

The install/deploy time of our old solution and this one was pretty much the same. The process to install the software isn't much different from one product to another, generally.

As for maintenance, it is typical with any product to perform upgrades. In my role, I handle the mainframe piece, and that's pretty straightforward. We contracted with SMA to help us with maintaining the pieces that run on the other platforms, and it's all pretty straightforward and easy to do.

SMA worked with us directly. They came out to our site on cut-over week. Most of the deployment was done in the midst of COVID, so everything was remote. But they came out for the planned cut-over and were with us for the whole thing.

On our side, four employees were involved in the deployment, along with the two OpCon people.

ROI is hard to quantify, but we have increased our productivity by about 15 to 20 percent, as an estimate.

A primary factor for us was cost. Given what it's doing for us, versus the price that we're paying for OpCon, we feel that it's extremely beneficial to us in terms of the total cost of ownership. But quantifying that is somewhat difficult.

Within two months we were realizing the advantages that we had, with OpCon, over our old product. 

It was substantially less expensive than ASG-Zeke. We bought a five-year contract after the initial license fee, and then it's maintenance for five years.

I would suggest that someone who is only looking at price when evaluating workload automation tools take a very hard look at OpCon because it is well-priced. OpCon is in a market where there's a lot of competition and they're trying to really get a foothold in it. If price is one of your primary concerns, consider OpCon.

There were a number of vendors that we looked at but OpCon was the best fit for us.

I was that person who was researching workload automation tools but who had never heard of OpCon. I came across it somewhere on the web. I would recommend that someone like that reach out to SMA and ask for a demo. That's what we did. They even used a sample of our own data to show how they could convert it and what it would look like in their system.

We automate everything we can with our core banking software, including daily and nightly processing and any other recurring IT jobs that can be automated. A lot of our employees access OpCon via its self-service feature. We're a financial institution, so various business units use it, including some people in our mortgage or insurance department. It's mostly used to start processes or run reports on demand and that sort of thing. It's a set-it-and-forget-it solution. 

The most significant benefit is time savings, which translates into money savings. It's hard to quantify how much time we've saved. When we first installed it, we could maybe calculate that, but at this point, we rely on it so much that I have no idea how many person-hours it would take somebody to do these tasks anymore. 

With the processing time freed up, we could focus more on the other business units to implement what they need and work on other special projects. In general, it made us more productive while reducing calls to our IT help desk. The users can do what they need to do without opening a ticket with our IT department or waiting on IT resources to be available. They know they will use the same criteria, so there will be consistency in what they do.

The most valuable feature is the automation in general. We don't have to rely on somebody to manually do the same process over and over again, risking human error. We like the consistency. It's the same way every time. Moreover, it integrates well with our core software.

I'm sure there's plenty that could be improved, but some of the biggest pain points aren't necessarily a fault of OpCon itself. For example, 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. If there were room for improvement on the SMA side, it would probably be cross-training. They have a person, maybe two, who deals with FICS. Nobody else knows it.

I've been using OpCon for probably four or five years.

OpCon is stable. We've only had issues with problems we probably should've known how to prevent, so the solution itself is stable.

OpCon is highly scalable. We don't necessarily have a need to scale it beyond what we have now, but it's easy to see it scaling up. However, we don't have any plans to scale up significantly. We'll scale but not a massive amount.

I'd rate SMA support an eight out of 10. We haven't had to contact them much aside from FICS integration and support. If it's a simple issue, they can knock it out without any problem. However, when we've called with more complex problems, we haven't gotten those fully resolved. 

Positive

I think our previous solution was called AutoMate. It wasn't nearly as robust as this, and it relied on on-screen scrapes, etc. It was pretty dissimilar to this, and we retired it as soon as we had this in place. 

The setup was relatively straightforward, but we had someone from SMA on-site, so they walked us through it and showed us how to automate some of our more complex processes. I think the whole setup took two weeks. 

For maintenance, it only takes two or three people in IT. Everybody else has access to it, but we have a core group that maintains it, and then there are around half a dozen to a dozen self-service business users. But from a day-to-day perspective, it's low maintenance. If you're not changing anything, you don't have to do anything. If you're setting up new processes, that takes a little work, but you don't have to babysit the solution.

I'm certain we've seen an ROI. I haven't run the numbers myself, but I'm sure it's probably reduced the number of full-time employees we need by at least one person.

The licensing and pricing model changed this last year, so we're getting used to that. I think it's ultimately going to end up being more expensive. It depends on the scale of the business. It used to be per machine, so we had X number of devices licensed. Now it's not. If we had a lot of machines, the new license might have decreased the cost. Unfortunately, we didn't see the same gains. There wasn't any consolidation of licensing with the shift.

I rate OpCon eight out 10. If you're considering it, I don't think you'll regret it.