Best IT Automation Software Tools

By Louis Sawyer – Many business owners wonder whether it is worth implementing process automation software. Today we are going to discuss useful IT automation software tools that could be a part of effective business planning in the Internettechnology industry.

Automation Software Tools As Business Strategy

The right business process automation with software solutions brings profit to an enterprise first and foremost. In one case, it can offload repetitive functions from an employee, replacing them in the process. In another case, automation frees up valuable employee time for more important and creative tasks. In both cases, it saves money on payments and speeds up work.

In addition, automation software tools also allow a large flow of information to be processed faster regardless of the time of day, making the business available to anyone at any time, in return receiving appreciation and customer commitment.

As for automation in IT, most often it is needed because IT companies are rapidly increasing turnover, and in the pursuit of success, they try to minimize the monotonous manual work which can be performed by software. Workload automation and work scheduling help IT departments achieve a high volume of work. IT automation extends efficiency to all departments of an organization and takes care of tedious tasks that no one wants to do.

Read: 5 Best Programming Languages for Test Automation in 2021

Testing As a Field Where Automation Software Is Involved the Most

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When creating IT solutions, errors are costly, especially in healthcare, where human lives depend on the quality of software, or in banking, where large financial losses are possible. Test automation allows you to organize a constant check of the product quality. The slightest error in the software threatens huge expenses. The better the development processes are built, the lower the risks are.

Automation software tools are used when creating large IT products with several teams (e.g. in banking applications), where complex algorithms and business logic are present.

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Selenium

is an open-source set of automated testing for web applications in various browsers and platforms. Several products are being developed as part of this project: Selenium WebDriver, Selenium RC, Selenium Server, Selenium Grid, Selenium IDE.

Testers use Selenium IDE as an independent product, without converting recorded scripts into program code. This, of course, does not allow you to develop sufficiently complex test suites, but simple linear scripts are enough for some.

Cucumber

is a framework that implements the BDD/TDD approach. As an infrastructure to bridge the gap between application developers and business managers, it is convenient because you don’t need to log in when writing tests, as every step and user action is already considered to log in. Description of tests is understandable even for business people, customers, which may be useful in demonstrating reports. The description of a bug is taken from the report by copy-paste. This is nice information for newbies.

Appium

is a free cross-platform open-source tool that helps automate applications for both Android and iOS. Appium takes the same approach as Selenium WebDriver, which receives HTTP requests in JSON format from clients and converts them depending on the platform it runs on. It is one of the most widely used tools for creating automated tests for smartphones and tablets.

Read: 3 Ways Automation Can Help Grow Your Business

Katalon Studio

To use this fairly simple tool you need basic knowledge of programming, preferably Java or its simplified version – Groovy. It’s a framework for automation testing APIs, web applications, mobile and desktop applications with a fairly rich set of functions and can run on Windows, macOS, and Linux platforms. Supports BDD Cucumber for Behavior Driven Testing (When-And-Then style) uses Selenium and Appium engines.

Manual testers with a basic knowledge of SQL will quickly master this tool. It allows you to solve almost any problem, develop an optimal working style and ensure the continuity of automation.

Read: 8 Programming Languages that Every Teachie Should Master

TestComplete

Very easy to use for beginners, those who are not particularly strong in programming. TestComplete is a complete system for automating the testing of Windows applications for desktop systems and web pages. TestComplete records and reproduces user actions on applications. Tests are recorded as commands or as instructions using languages: VBScript, JScript, DelphiScript, C++Script, C#Script.

In addition to testing, IT automation software can be helpful for the effective management of business.

ActiveBatch

Flexible workload automation and work scheduling tool. The external interface allows the administrator to create a workflow. ActiveBatch software interprets this workflow into command-line instructions for each of the applications involved in the workflow.

Control-M

Generic job scheduler and batch file manager for IT departments. Workflows can be executed through operating systems. They can also be applied to remote systems and cloud servers.

JAMS Enterprise Job Scheduler

Cross-platform batch job manager that is very easy to use. All notifications that occur during a process run are logged along with work details such as the start and end times of each job in the batch, and each script in the job.

Atera

Is a cloud-based software that supports MSP and includes workflow automation.

Redwood RunMyJobs

Task automation for ERP, reporting mechanisms, and migration projects.

Summary

Successful automation software tools can make a huge difference in productivity and benefit the company. First of all, process automation is not always a magic wand for business growth, but it is important what exactly is implemented, how exactly it is implemented, and how it is used.

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Never dream about implementing all the best solutions, because new and more perfect solutions appear every day, and chasing them can be very stressful and exhausting, without affecting the development of the business itself.

The most important thing concerning selecting a software solution for automating your business processes is the choice of functions it will perform. The main task is to really use it and get the maximum productivity, instead of wasting time and nerves to adapt it.

From a realistic point of view, the best automation software tools are the ones that integrate into processes and become useful. Therefore, in this article, we spoke not about what the best solutions are, but only about what worthy solutions there are, from which you can choose a useful one for your particular business.

About the author:

Louis Sawyer is a professional writer, editor and a web design expert. She loves writing about technology trends, web development, mobile games and business issues. Also, Louis works as a proofreader at Computools. Follow her on Twitter.