ActiveBatch Workload Automation vs. JAMS

Any large business or organisation that wants to manage their workload effectively and with the least amount of room for error might choose the ActiveBatch Automation tool. Being a consultant I feel that It aids in task automation and has the flexibility to change in response to varying company requirements. It helps to save huge time by doing all the repetitive tasks on daily basis. During the patching activity the schedulers can be stopped. It also help by alerting us if any system/job is down so that SLA can be saved. Overall ActiveBatch Automation stands as a dependable cornerstone for ensuring the seamless operation of our tasks.

Incentivized

It's currently one of the best of the lower entry cost options out there, as it currently is a set license cost, not based on the number of jobs executed. In the hands of a good script writer and users with workflow experience, it's a powerful tool to accomplish just about any process that you have a need to complete.

Incentivized

• Makes scheduling easy to understand, follow, and rerun jobs when necessary.
• Allows for cross-team coordination of scheduled tasks which reduces errors.
• Makes stopping jobs easy when needed for server/database downtime.
• Scripting enables us to easily change email addresses for failed job alerts.
• Nested plans/jobs make creating and changing dependencies simple.

Incentivized

• The Activity Monitor clearly shows the Running Jobs, and Jobs that are to run soon. Successful Jobs can be viewed as well. The Refresh of this monitor is completely customizable to your liking.
• Job Definitions are very well organized by use of Folders. This simplifies the structure of how to best Implement JAMS Jobs, including the ability to provide specific properties on each folder - whereby Jobs will inherit these properties.
• Connectivity to servers is well thought out by having Shortcuts to include Credentials and Connection Store for server information.
• JAMS Jobs can be controlled via System Resources. This is very powerful and is a very useful configuration found in JAMS.

• String handling / parsing. I find myself using PowerShell to do a fair amount of text parsing (particularly if manipulations are needed) - not necessarily a bad thing, but certainly a place where ActiveBatch could be improved.
• Debugging - or lack of it! With no stepping debugger, it can be a longer process than many other programming / scripting environments: rather than simply stepping through and observing state changes, I find myself inserting logging steps to excess, then having to clean them up once the error is found.
• The perennial - Documentation! While a near-universal complaint for *any* software, ActiveBatch's developer documentation is somewhat spotty - just where I need detail, I find summary-level info. There is lots of documentation (as there should be for a tool with such a wide range of applications), but it is in mixed formats (some PDF, some CHM), and the descriptions of specific fields within job steps is often little more than I can get in a tool-tip in the GUI. Allowable ranges, expected formats for string data, and similar helpful details are inconsistent.
• The KnowledgeBase at ASCI's web site often has examples which answer the questions I have, but not always - and not always under the search terms one would think to use.

• It would be very helpful if the application had the ability to display help text based on where the cursor is hovering on the screen. There are many times when a brief explanation of an on-screen prompt would be very handy. For example, when you attempt to Cancel a job from the Monitor, you are presented with the checkbox that says "Reprocess completion?" It would be very nice if you could hover over the prompt and see a pop-up help screen that explains what happens if you check this checkbox. The same applies to all the checkbox options presented when you attempt to "Release" a job from the Monitor.

Incentivized

We have built JAMS into our scheduling process. Its a great scheduling tool. I'm not 100% on the execution side as we have had issues with what i'll refer to as compatibility issues with ssis variables, but it executes sql agent jobs perfectly, so when i have an issue i create a sql agent job and have JAMS execute the sql agent job on the schedule from JAMS

We can easily add new plans/jobs in our batch schedules. Also, coordination with reporting and QA jobs is simple to do. Building schedules, restarting jobs, triggering dependencies is easy to understand. The system is very stable and allows us to easily see overall processing times.

Incentivized

9/10 as there are so many features I have not tried as of yet. It is easy to get started but as jobs become more complex you tend to employ more and more features - Some of which can be complicated at first. This all comes down to experience using the system. Out first setup and current setup are vastly different as we learn how to use the full power.

We didnt really encounter any downtime, no issues encountered during 2 years of use of JAMs also our client barely raise an issue with JAMS, mostly the issues is on the batch jobs that jams executes. So I would gave it a perfect 10, very reliable hardly encounters any error and bug

Incentivized

JAMS performance is very great, there are no issues raised with the performance, it just like nothing happens on the job after integration it gives you this monitoring capability, no reports and bugs raised on the performance, we didnt do integration with other software only database and with use of JAMS agent to different servers

Incentivized

My colleague contacted them directly, I only know hearsay on this but it was not good.

Incentivized

I am giving support an 11, the turn around time is insane. At times I get a reply in minutes. The directions to fix are precise and easy to follow. They are personable and friendly and never treat me less than they would a fortune 500 company (which I am not one of).

Incentivized

People that were involved in the POC found the training a lot easier to follow. I think most people would have preferred to just get the training material and run through themselves.

Incentivized

I Was not part of the original Implementation, and the persons did that are no longer with the Organization. But I was part of the recent Upgrade process a year ago and I am the JAMS admin and was very pleased

Incentivized

The workload automation solution is based on the specific needs of an organization, as well as the features, capabilities, and costs of various solutions. A thorough evaluation process and consideration of these factors can help ensure the selection of a solution that aligns with overall business objectives and meets the specific needs of the organization.

Incentivized

We chose JAMS because it was the best solution for our business needs, a major factor being the licensing model and the simplicity of the app. We needed to migrate things fast too and this was simply plug and play without too much headache

Incentivized

By installing Agents on servers throughout the organizations, you can run a DB Script on a DB Server, move files around the network and kick off jobs on servers in different parts of the organization: JAMS Runs on its own server, isolated from others. Through an agent on a Processing Server (work Server) files can be picked up, processed and moved to a destination server to be processed into another application on another server. You don't need an agent if you are just moving files around, you need an agent if you want to run a process or API Call on the destination server.

Incentivized

• ActiveBatch can automate intricate procedures and minimise manual involvement, which can boost an organization's production and efficiency.
• Organisations can save money by using ActiveBatch to automate operations, which lowers the expenses of manual labour and potential mistakes.
• Implementing ActiveBatch could come with hefty up-front expenses including licencing, instruction, and consultancy fees, which could have a short-term negative impact on ROI.

• SOX auditing has been part automated saving days of work for the people involved.
• The ability for jobs to react to different failure values has enabled us to do away with overnight human monitoring ultimately contributing to saving us in the 6 figures.

Incentivized