Connectwise Automate

bigdunc · 21 Jan 2022 at 19:08

We are looking into this as our RMM solution in work and from the demo we've seen so far looks a good solution. Does anyone use it or have an experience of using it and what are your thoughts?

Cheers

Throrik · 25 Jan 2022 at 09:09

Overall, I much preferred N-Central/N-Able on a day-to-day usage and administration perspective. However, from a control perspective Screen Connect is a superior product. It has however been around 2 years since I worked with either product.

Vigoro · 25 Jan 2022 at 13:20

I've deployed and used it before. The demo's can make it look quite smooth, but you'll need to go through a lot of setup to get it monitoring exactly what you want and even more if you want to start automating certain tasks and ensure they work properly. Connect is brilliant for remote control though and I much preferred it to LogMeIn as it seemed quicker and more reliable. Are you looking at running it as an MSP?

bigdunc · 25 Jan 2022 at 20:31

Vigoro said:
I've deployed and used it before. The demo's can make it look quite smooth, but you'll need to go through a lot of setup to get it monitoring exactly what you want and even more if you want to start automating certain tasks and ensure they work properly. Connect is brilliant for remote control though and I much preferred it to LogMeIn as it seemed quicker and more reliable. Are you looking at running it as an MSP?

Yeah we are looking to run it as an MSP. Currently running N-Able but can't say I particularly like it that much

mejinks · 26 Jan 2022 at 13:42

Brilliant for remote control, but when you use the app version, if you get an update and aren't an admin of the pc you are on, it tends to break it, so you have to reinstall the app. It also forgets its settings such as which column goes where on a regular basis. The web version is fine, but getting people to type in companyname.screenconnect.com into the address bar instead of doing a google search seems to be beyond some.

pepp77 · 26 Jan 2022 at 14:12

We use it in house for our ticketing and sales system and Automat/Screen Connect for remote support. Works well enough.

Vigoro · 26 Jan 2022 at 15:56

bigdunc said:
Yeah we are looking to run it as an MSP. Currently running N-Able but can't say I particularly like it that much

I'd just check that it integrates with the products you are using as well, when I moved us onto it we found moving our password manager to something that integrates nicely with the Connect side made the helpdesk techs a lot happier, that and having automatic ticket creation/closure for incidents was useful.

nightmare99 · 31 Jan 2022 at 19:22

How large is your MSP headcount wise, what PSA do you use currently?

Wizzkidy · 3 Feb 2022 at 20:30

I have used Connectwise Automate and prior when it was Labtech. Its a great product but only great if you spend the time setting it up correctly, and that can take time and be tricky. You really need to understand the platform very well to get the most out of it.

When using Connectwise Manage with it, it can be very good indeed in not just an MSP but internal as well

Liquidfox · 16 Feb 2022 at 12:23

We use Automate, hosted ourselves on-prem, have done for the last 7 years. It's a great product, but it really does need someone who can devote a lot of hours learning how it works and developing it. It's good out of the box, but its true power comes with custom monitors and scripts.

There is a huge bug in it at the moment though, they changed the way the product talks to the backend MySQL DB and it's causing huge, system crashing issues. Still no fix, still no official mailshot from CW. I'm getting most of my information from MSPGeek Slack.

Also, a major issue... they outsourced their T1 support to Asia somewhere and it took an absolute nosedive. Response times increased, don't even try and log a ticket by email as you'll be waiting days. I logged a P1 server down issue, after 37 minutes of waiting for the chat to connect to someone, I ended up closing it and just fixing the symptoms myself.

When the issue started re-occurring, I logged a ticket. Told their tech what was happening, the workarounds I'd put in place based on their CPO's advice (official documentation that hadn't been sent out to anyone), then he still persisted on restarting the DBAgent service. This again fixes the issues, but not the cause. He closed the ticket as he saw the issue was resolved.

There was a thread in Slack where one of the senior guys at CW was asking for any ticket numbers for these issues. He had the ticket re-opened, escalated and one of their T2 techs (these guys are great, they're US based still) got in touch with some more things to check and workarounds to put in place. It's slightly embarrassing when it's quicker to log an issue via a third party companies Slack channel that it is via the official routes. Quicker resolution too.

On a more positive note - ScreenConnect aka ConnectWise Control - is a tremendous product. It's bundled for free with Automate. It's absolutely fantastic.