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Alemba Service Manager vs IFS Cloud Platform comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 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
6.8
Number of Reviews
668
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 (2nd), AI Procurement & Supply Chain (1st)
Alemba Service Manager
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
IT Service Management (ITSM) (33rd)
IFS Cloud Platform
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
CRM (29th), Customer Experience Management (12th), Field Service Management (2nd), Help Desk Software (22nd), ERP (20th), Activity Based Costing Software (10th), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) (4th), Local Government CRM (12th), IT Asset Management (12th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (16th), License Management (3rd)
 

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.
reviewer1099623 - PeerSpot reviewer
ICT Analyst at a energy/utilities company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Fulfills all IT management needs, simple setup, but could be more user-friendly
Unfortunately, we were not able to implement the mobility feature so I won't be able to provide feedback on it (and it was something that has been requested since we have field workers and given the WFH case due to the pandemic). This is due to results of security tests and which we were not yet able to address in our environment. We've been also trying to integrate our current system with discovery solutions but it was not easy. I am not sure if it is due to the fact that we still have an older version of the AlembavFire product. Also, users are also requesting that the current system's UI can still be improved. For those of our users who had experienced ServiceNow, they cited that they can do RFC chats via the tool. In our group, we are using AlembavFire for recording the ticket and do other discussions/alignments via Teams chat.
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

"We have been able to reduce our number of FTEs."
"Automation Anywhere consistently ranks at the top, matching our vision and strategy for implementing transformative solutions."
"Excel automation is one of the best features in Automation Anywhere. If we have to work with multiple excel sheets with lots of rows and columns, it gets really difficult to keep track of this is done manually. But Automation Anywhere makes it really simple and error-free."
"The product is easy to use. It is a good tool for developers and business users."
"We are working with one of the bots where we send claims through WhatsApp. Any user could take a photo in WhatsApp, then send that data to the organization. Now, whenever a photo is takes, different phones have different primary resolutions, and the data being captured is not clear data. At that moment, the data is automated to a very power system which centralizes the process to one point. This is what we are using for the insurance provider. They fill out the claims form and send this information to the organization, then we use automation tools to automate the process and come to a conclusion."
"We get positive feedback from the client regarding the processes that we have developed, as it saves a lot of their manual time and most of their work is done by the bot, without any human intervention."
"We've noticed time savings of up to 40 minutes, based on wait time and verification delays."
"Automation Anywhere has helped our organization to save human efforts on mundane tasks and shifted it to more analytical and interesting tasks."
"From the time we started using vFire, we were able to ensure continuity tracking of Service Tickets (incident and request fulfillment-related)."
"Incident Management is the most valuable feature of the solution."
"When we met with the Alemba vFire from Australia, it was a good discussion and they have a good feature roadmap."
"The workflow is very good, as well as customizable."
"Feature-wise, I like the way it provides inventory details...It is a stable solution."
"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."
"IFS has been completely rebuilt, modernized, and cloud-based so we don't need bulky software installations."
"IFS Applications' best feature is the user-friendly interface that has a .NET Framework application in the front end and an Oracle database and WebLogic middleware."
"IFS Cloud Platform has impacted my organization by allowing our team to spend less time reconciling data and more time executing business operations, as resources are utilized more effectively, reducing waste and improving productivity, while also resulting in reduced downtime and lowered maintenance costs, allowing management to make informed decisions based on actual data rather than historical reports."
"The most valuable feature to us was the capability to quickly identify the tickets we have open with people and follow up them."
"The product is quite flexible."
"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."
 

Cons

"It is a bit wonky with HTML when I'm working with it. There are times when it's not able to detect the technology that we are using. I don't know whether it's an Automation Anywhere issue or an internal issue. I want it to work smoothly with more technologies."
"There was a time when I would have rated it at around fifty-fifty percent, but now Automation Anywhere uses AI for customer support."
"I want the tool to be more stabilized. After three or four hours, the navigation keeps changing. We will be running error handling for 8,000 process and the system will fail. We need it to be more stable."
"There should be more available Data Analytics and more AI Front and Deep Learn concepts."
"Scaling from small to medium automation works well, but if building out very big applications, sometimes the code can be too lengthy and uncontrollable."
"They will need much more support, because it is a new thing and it’ll never fail because of productive partners. It will fail if people on the “gemba” don’t adopt it."
"Accuracy to process handwritten documents should be improved and more analytics and intelligence-related capabilities should be added."
"If I build a bot today and don't use it, however, in several months, someone tries to use it, there's a 30-40% change the bot will fail in one or two areas."
"The product should improve its ability to integrate with third-party tools."
"We had issues with the user interface, the way it was structured wasn't that user-friendly. The chat features could improve. For example, in change management, all the chat discussions can be done via ServiceNow. We are using two separate solutions, such as Teams, to chat, and the Alemba vFire tool to process."
"The reporting needs to be improved."
"We had issues with the user interface, the way it was structured wasn't that user-friendly."
"There should be some improvements in the predefined templates in IFS Applications."
"Some kind of bot assistance, some kind of artificial intelligence to help people solve the problems, would be interesting."
"Pricing is comparatively or sufficiently higher than maybe all other IT solutions."
"The user interface can be improved. When you're clicking through the screens, there are some icons or symbols that really need updating and would be more useful and noticeable if they are aesthetically pleasing."
"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 pricing could be a bit better. It's a little high."
"The solution's initial setup process was complex...The technical support my company receives from the implementation partners of the solution is not that great."
"An area for improvement would be transactions, which can be tedious to complete as the process is very complex."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"From my experience, I can say that the initial setup cost is easily recovered over a period of time once the bots start running in production."
"It has good licensing costs which are average for the market."
"I would rate the price of Automation Anywhere a six out of ten, with ten being the most expensive."
"Based on what I've heard, it's costly, but I don't know much about its pricing."
"It's the best RPA tool, but the pricing could be improved."
"It saves on the quality of work, because the quality can be bad when somebody's doing it. If a bot does the work, it's faster and comes with good quality. These are two important things along with the cost saving in the long run. That's where the value is."
"Pricing is too high for small-scale groups. The Control Room yearly fee is high, making it difficult to break even."
"Cost is the biggest area in need of improvement for Automation Anywhere. Annually it's $250,000. That's what deterred us right away."
"The product is much cheaper than ServiceNow."
"Alemba vFire is more affordable than the other solutions on the market. The solution changes for the number of customers not per user or module. The price was reasonable overall. We paid for support and it was a fair price."
"Ask for all-inclusive pricing, as they are pretty flexible if you ask for custom models."
"We pay for a license to use the solution, which is not very expensive."
"The product is reasonably priced."
"Compared to SAP, the pricing for IFS Applications was very affordable. People using the solution would find that it's worth the money."
"It is better to buy implementation services from IFS than from partners"
"IFS Applications are competitive in terms of pricing compared to other vendors, such as SAP, Oracle, and Epicor. They are generally cheaper, especially for licensing costs."
"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."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
19%
Government
11%
Construction Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business162
Midsize Enterprise86
Large Enterprise565
No data available
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.
Ask a question
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What needs improvement with IFS Applications?
There are features that came up during implementation that we are not actually using today, such as field service man...
What is your primary use case for IFS Applications?
My main use case for IFS Cloud Platform is for production planning, where I typically use it for production schedulin...
What advice do you have for others considering IFS Applications?
The biggest friction point I have run into with IFS Cloud Platform is user adoption, which has been the biggest chall...
 

Also Known As

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

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Hiscox Liverpool City Council Karachaganak Petroleum Operating (KPO) PPG Barnardo's Victoria University of Wellington
China Airlines, Electrolux Group, Babcock, Cimcorp, Sky, Multiplex, Veolia. 
Find out what your peers are saying about Alemba Service Manager vs. IFS Cloud Platform and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.