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CA Asset Portfolio Management vs IFS Cloud Platform comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 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
6.9
Number of Reviews
641
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 (1st), AI Legal & Compliance (1st), AI Finance & Accounting (1st), AI Procurement & Supply Chain (1st)
CA Asset Portfolio Management
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
IT Asset Management (14th), License Management (4th)
IFS Cloud Platform
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
CRM (33rd), Customer Experience Management (9th), Field Service Management (2nd), Help Desk Software (21st), ERP (20th), Activity Based Costing Software (10th), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) (3rd), Local Government CRM (13th), IT Asset Management (13th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (18th), License Management (2nd)
 

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.
reviewer1998918 - PeerSpot reviewer
Enterprise systems management team lead
Integrates well, highly stable, and scalable
CA Asset Portfolio Management can improve the uploading of batch information. I have to upload large amounts of information and it can take a long time to finish. There are some other solutions that are better, such as Micro Focus. We have approximately 10,000 PCs that we are busy processing and we have to upload information to them but when we use this solution it is complex. When we use Micro Focus it is better.
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

"It is very user-friendly. The AI capability that nowadays I am seeing in Automation Anywhere is very good. They have plug-and-play AI solutions."
"It is easy and simple to use with its drag and drop functionality."
"The robust and flexible nature of the product gives it the capability to automate almost all rule-based processes in each and every ERP application that is currently available in the market."
"Toward this life cycle, we have a very structured approach of governing, monitoring, and tracking, that's the approach we have taken. Insights we gain from this governance, we apply towards automation strategy and implementations. We've done this for many clients across the globe. We are happy to share those experiences with some of you as well."
"We are able to satisfy our clients in ways that we did not think was possible."
"Our workforce has limited capacity, and by adding this solution we can increase the amount of work coming in without adding to our workforce."
"I have been using Automation Anywhere for the past five years and it is one of the best tools to automate manual tasks."
"With Discovery Bot, we can even have our business people enabled with process finding and do an evaluation on whether it can be converted into an opportunity."
"Cost, time, and risks that relate to auditing of compliance are greatly reduced with the use of IT asset manager."
"You build the items one time and then you have your discovery that's coming in and the system will let you know whether or not you're out of compliance."
"Enables me to know where an asset is at any point during its lifecycle: How old it is, who it belongs to, and where it's at within that lifecycle."
"The most valuable feature of CA Asset Portfolio Management is the full integration with our Service Desk, as it allows us to work both sides of life cycle management."
"From an implementation standpoint, and what we've seen so far of what it can do, I'd say we're extremely satisfied."
"IT asset manager simplifies the management and administration of the life cycle of IT assets thus lowering the capital and operational expenditure."
"Reduces software cost. Reduces the risk of software audits."
"You could also look for software that is no longer being used and you can re-deploy the software, so then you save from a purchasing standpoint because you don't have to buy the software again."
"The main reason for the ERP project was to bring together our fourteen sites, which had until then worked in separate silos."
"The workflow of the solution is very good."
"I like the connectivity and interfaces. In V10, it's easy to modify the interfaces and layouts, but it's becoming more complicated in the cloud. IFS is excellent at asset maintenance and incident management. They have specialized modules for IFS that cover incident and asset management and everything else connected to finance. The reporting in IFS is also easy to use."
"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."
"The product is quite flexible."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten since it is an extremely scalable solution that can be used for various use cases with thousands of users."
"Individual user profiles that can be configured as templates to minimize data entry."
"IFS Applications is very user-friendly and easy to deploy, and it's suitable for small and medium enterprises."
 

Cons

"I would like to be able to look at the steps that are completed as a process is running."
"Extracting customer addresses from Google that are not in a standard URL format is a challenge for Automation Anywhere."
"There's a loss of overhead on the computing resources in Automation Anywhere. If you have an encrypted bot, the Automation Anywhere software has to read it first, decrypt it, and run it. So there is a potential that, if the logic of the bot isn't good enough, a lot of CPU and memory overload will happen. This is something which Automation Anywhere should look at because it takes a lot of computing resources. I have seen CPUs running at 100 percent."
"I have been using IQ Bot, and its accuracy can be improved. It could be more accurate."
"I don't find a lot outside of the internal community forum."
"The IQ Bot has not yet succeeded in living up to its reputation due to its high cost, low ROI, and its inability to meet client requirements."
"It should be easier to use."
"The debugger is also a weakness of the tool, forcing the developer to use error handling or message box to map errors. Few applications take more time for loading when integrated."
"Initially, each upgrade, the process for it was a little different. Having to go, this upgrade was going to be different from this one, going to be different from that one, that was a bit of a headache."
"There were a lot of things that we had to prepare for that we weren't thinking about with this installation. I think from a CA standpoint, the software was good. But us preparing for that, we had a lot more work to do."
"Needs a stronger reporting component, and more integration with CA Client Automation."
"Keeping the catalog updated and having more titles in the catalog is helpful, because the more items that are in the catalog, your process goes faster because you don't have to manually build all the entitlements."
"I would like to see more control over audit trail features, where you can turn on and off fields."
"It was much more complex than we were anticipating. Definitely a complex and very resource-involved setup."
"It needs ​stronger rebooting components and the ability to develop our own software metrics."
"One additional improvement – the reporting aspect in SAM is poor; we need different reporting for different purposes – compliance reporting for executive management and the product teams."
"IFS uses Crystal Report mostly, which isn't too user-friendly. Developing reports isn't easy and requires a lot of dev time. Since SAP bought it, Crystal Report has become more complicated to use on IFS. You have a dashboard for reporting that is good, but it's incomplete. Most of our clients use Power BI or some additional tooling for BI."
"There are some stability issues."
"Customization can only be done by IFS and not by the clients themselves."
"The product requires heavy administrative work."
"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."
"IFS Applications is not robust enough to handle high-volume transactions, so it's not suitable for larger enterprises."
"Technical support could be improved."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The enterprise version is expensive for small businesses and individual users."
"Yearly, our licensing costs are about $90,000 to $100,000. There will be additional licensing costs when we add more Bot Runners to our infrastructure."
"The starting price, which is a one-off fee is a bit high and this may deter mid and small-sized companies from acquiring and decide to shun the platform."
"The cost is high for small-scale businesses but it is fine for medium and large enterprises. Its high licensing cost may affect small-scale businesses. Reducing licensing costs would benefit many users."
"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."
"Roughly, as of today, it is around $250,000 annually."
"The licensing needs to be made simpler or shortened."
"The cloud-based version comes at an increased cost, although our clients are happy with the new features and have not complained about the pricing."
Information not available
"Licensing is on an annual basis, with no additional costs."
"Pricing is an area that could be improved. They could be more competitive."
"The additional cost that comes with the solution includes the overhead of the people who are trying to fix the tool issues. These people are trying to reproduce the issue and report it to the technical support and testing with them which is huge. It is the cost of quality in the end."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"There are varying license levels that you can purchase."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Construction Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
7%
Construction Company
23%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Construction Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business154
Midsize Enterprise82
Large Enterprise536
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Large Enterprise8
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.
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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IFS Applications?
The product is reasonably priced. The costs are justified by the value provided, considering the comprehensive featur...
What needs improvement with IFS Applications?
When it comes to AI, I feel that is the area where we expect something more from IFS Cloud Platform. They are working...
What is your primary use case for IFS Applications?
Currently, I am working with Arcwide, which is a service industry that predominantly focuses on IFS consulting, inclu...
 

Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)
CA IT Asset Manager, CA Asset Manager, ITAM, IT Asset Manager, CA SAM, CA Software Asset Manager, Asset Portfolio Management, Asset Portfolio Manager
IFS Applications, Assyst, IFS Cloud
 

Interactive Demo

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
First Horizon National Corporation, Logicalis, Racing and Wagering Western Australia
China Airlines, Electrolux Group, Babcock, Cimcorp, Sky, Multiplex, Veolia. 
Find out what your peers are saying about CA Asset Portfolio Management vs. IFS Cloud Platform and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.