Comparing OpCon with a Leading Automation Alternative

Transactional businesses like banks and credit unions are challenged to maintain growth in a rapidly changing, digitally focused world. Automation is a crucial way for financial services organizations to save time and maintain competitiveness as technologies become increasingly complex and customer expectations grow more demanding.

According to SMA Technologies’ 2024 State of Automation in Financial Services Report, financial services organizations rank automation’s importance to their future success at 8.5 out of 10, highlighting how critical automation has become for those in the industry.

Yet not all automation solutions are created equal. Their comparative value varies across a range of key factors, including features and functionality, ease of use, monitoring and reporting capabilities, service, and versatility.

OpCon is among the top modern-day workload automation and orchestration solutions in financial services for good reason. In contrast with the leading competitor, OpCon is purpose-built specifically for financial institutions. But it’s not the only choice.

As you decide which solution’s right for you, consider these five ways that OpCon stacks up positively against another leading workload automation solution, with actual user quotes taken from a PeerSpot comparison report of the two solutions.

1. Real-time visibility: OpCon Vision provides users with a simple dashboard that offers a high-level overview of all your automated processes in one place. It can also be upgraded to monitor service level agreements (SLAs) and automatically take corrective action when SLAs are in jeopardy.
   
   According to PeerSpot, “OpCon has been favored for its dashboard feature that shows running jobs, completed tasks, and any failures, enhancing real-time monitoring and reporting.”
   
   "My favorite feature is the dashboard feature,” says a Services Manager at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees, “which shows jobs that are running and completed, any failures, and provides dashboard reporting."
   

2. Enterprise-level power and scalability: OpCon is designed to grow with your organization—able to cost-effectively handle everything from simple job scheduling to complex multi-platform orchestration across multiple environments. It allows financial institutions of all sizes to streamline critical processes and seamlessly orchestrate workloads both within and outside the core. This means that you can scale intelligently to meet your organization’s growth targets and strategic goals, without adding headcount or resources.
   

3. Outstanding service: SMA Technologies' expert team provides OpCon users with outstanding tech support any time of day or night. Users note that SMA’s “fast response” and “effective resolution” places OpCon a step above the competition.
   
   This outstanding service record has helped propel OpCon to a top Gartner Peer Insights approval rating of 97% and an impressive Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 72.
   
   In contrast, users of the leading competitor note they have “faced challenges in contacting the support team.”
   
   "I rate OpCon support 10 out of 10," reports Shawn Goodrich, Systems Architect at Five Points Bank. "I've never had a problem with them. I've always been able to get answers quickly and always seem to find a knowledgeable person to assist with any questions."
   

4. Ease of use: OpCon’s low-code interface makes it easy to automate all workload checklists. Its innovative self-service option empowers end users and reduces IT requests. OpCon workflows are translated into a simple button interface, allowing non-IT personnel across the enterprise to trigger automated processes with a simple click.
   
   According to Robert Carter, Systems Engineering Manager at HAPO Community Credit Union, "Among the numerous valuable features, one standout capability is the implementation of self-service buttons."
   

5. Financial services expertise: Starting with our CEO, many of SMA’s team members have actually worked at financial institutions, where they personally experienced the power of OpCon. When you partner with SMA, you work with professionals who have been there, done that and understand your needs through and through.
   
   SMA’s implementation team has been through hundreds of deployments and is experienced in integrating OpCon with the software and technologies that banks and credit unions use every day. They have the expertise and desire to help your team achieve your automation goals, starting on day one.
   
   No matter what platform you’re currently running, SMA’s implementation team will help you make a seamless switch. The process starts by designing the migration and proving its viability and value to you in advance. Next, the team guides you through every detail of implementation, ensuring a fully clean cutover. SMA’s team is there to provide continuous support post-implementation as well. This is why SMA’s implementation success rate is 100%.

The power of integration

Beyond these advantages, OpCon also offers deep integrations with the leading bank and credit union cores, including those offered by Fiserv, Jack Henry, and Corelation. This means that implementation is simple and effective, and your institution will benefit from the full features offered by these core systems.

For example, although another leading automation solution has long been a popular choice for Fiserv DNA institutions, OpCon has emerged as the better-suited solution to serve DNA customers, based on our dedicated integration and deep experience working with the core.

OpCon also has pre-built integrations with other popular banking applications such as FICS®, ensuring that you can automate virtually any job to maximize efficiency and accuracy in your departmental workflows.

"I find OpCon's ability to monitor files and folders and its integration with other software to be the most valuable,” says a Senior Administrator, OpCon at a financial institution with 201-500 employees.

This deep integration with leading solutions is a big reason OpCon offers the highest ROI of any automation solution on the market. It helps to save time, increase productivity, and minimize errors in processes and workloads across the organization, leading to a significant reduction in operating costs. In fact, those organizations that use the full capabilities of OpCon as a comprehensive, end-to-end automation solution throughout their operations save $375,000 or more on average every year.*

An important choice

When deployed strategically, automation enables financial services organizations to achieve their top business objectives efficiently and cost effectively. That’s why your selection of an automation solution is one of the most important decisions you'll make as a technology leader.

For financial services leaders seeking scalable automation tailored to their industry, OpCon is the clear choice. According to PeerSpot’s report, “Users appreciate OpCon's flexibility, integration capabilities, self-service features, and graphical user interface. OpCon allows users to automate tasks according to their specific needs, reducing human error. The customer service and technical support for OpCon are highly regarded, with quick response times and effective solutions.”

To learn more about how OpCon’s industry-leading automation capabilities can help you get time back and support your organization’s strategic goals, contact the financial services automation experts at SMA.

*Based on conservative internal calculations by SMA Technologies for OpCon customers that automate at a pace of 105 seconds per task (i.e., 30 seconds to key a manual task, 60-second wait time between tasks, and 15 seconds to verify successful completion of the previous task) at a rate of $34.85 per hour (i.e., average hourly rate for a full-time employee assuming no premium pay for overtime, holidays, nights, or weekends). These calculations don’t include any expenses for errors, re-processing, or other manual operations-related items.