ERP software - anything people actually LIKE?

[ExtraSlow]

I don't know much about ERP software, but thought you guys might. My company is looking at options to implement an ERP system. issues with inventory control and supply chain were the catalyst for this, but we would also like to integrate things like budgeting, project tracking etc. I think that's all regular ERP stuff.

I have worked for two companies that ran SAP, and honestly both were nightmares in terms of how difficult it was to use. Both required dedicated "SAP experts" who did little more than just help the regular employees complete simple tasks. That seems insane especially considering how easy to use most apps are.

Is there any ERP software out there that is simple, easy to use, and flexible? Ideally it's also be cheap and have support for chinese language. Mobile support would be nice too.

I know nothing, school me on ERP software options.

[killramos]

I think I have made up my mind that I never want to work for an organization big enough to need an ERP system.

I don’t have anything helpful to add, but I feel like I see someone new peddling a cloud erp system targeting to industries like yours on LinkedIn every few weeks.

[ExtraSlow]

Not all companies would benefit from ERP software. But I can see a few gaps in mine that need fixing.

Cloud ERP seems like what I want. All software should be cloud. Just don't know what one's are good and not an unreasonable pain in the dick.

[rage2]

Not a full blown ERP, but for your budgeting and project tracking requirements, we have several great systems that's very easy to use.

https://www.replicon.com/ptt/project-timesheet-software/
https://www.replicon.com/polaris-psa/

From basic time tracking + costing solutions, to a full blown PSA solution. And of course we can integrate into existing or other ERP solutions.

[ExtraSlow]

I had to look up what PSA software was. I think that's more geared towards "professional service" industries? Like lawyers and people who can bill by the hour to different projects/clients. the majority of our company is more focused on manufacturing physical products, R&D projects etc. Inventory management and supply chain stuff is the part that we have the biggest short-term need for. Like when you want to build a thousand units of widget "A", it will check your inventory and let you know what parts you are short of, and show you what suppliers you got those parts from last time etc. Costing of finished and assembled goods from adding up the cost of parts and the time spent on the various assembly steps. That kind of thing.

I'll admit, I don't know much about the various types of software for the various industries, so I'm open to being educated on this.

[legendboy]

KPI seems not too bad, we are doing late night training all next week to get managers up to speed. Seems fairly powerful

[ThePenIsMightier]

LoL, SAP. How do they have customers?!?
Systems Against People.

[Thaco]

just be like every other company, chnage ERP systems every 3 years when it takes 6 years to migrate everything, it's never ending fun!

[benyl]

The problem isn’t the ERP. The problem is that every company wants to customize the ERP. Most companies are running bastardized version that require full time on site support.

[ThePenIsMightier]

just be like every other company, chnage ERP systems every 3 years when it takes 6 years to migrate everything, it's never ending fun!

Or buy huge into something Oracle makes for about 70% of your biz and then refuse to buy the last 30% from them so you have some bastardized, cheap shit from an Australian prison for the most critical component of your business that's belligerently incompatible with everything.

Then get promoted to a VP because "delivering synergy".

[ExtraSlow]

Or buy huge into something Oracle makes for about 70% of your biz and then refuse to buy the last 30% from them so you have some bastardized, cheap shit from an Australian prison for the most critical component of your business that's belligerently incompatible with everything.

Then get promoted to a VP because "delivering synergy".

I'm listening....

[ThePenIsMightier]

I'm listening....

I checked if the local Kangaroo SweatShop was hiring.
Weird, just hemorrhaging layoffs. Hmmphh.

[Thaco]

"delivering synergy".

synergies are swell, much like outsourcing IT, that always goes over well.

[arcticcat522]

The problem isn’t the ERP. The problem is that every company wants to customize the ERP. Most companies are running bastardized version that require full time on site support.


Or buy huge into something Oracle makes for about 70% of your biz and then refuse to buy the last 30% from them so you have some bastardized, cheap shit from an Australian prison for the most critical component of your business that's belligerently incompatible with everything.

Then get promoted to a VP because "delivering synergy".

From what my wife tells me. This is the problem....also the guys selling, promise the world. The people who implement need to figure out creative ways to try and make the system do something it can't...buy AX. Need to keep the wife making more money than me.

[hampstor]

LoL, SAP. How do they have customers?!?
Systems Against People.

Send Accenture Personnel
Shutup And Pay
Suncor Ain't Paying
Satan's Accounting Program

You should see amount of money in S4/HANA and related work. If you have experience it's a license to print money.

[hampstor]

My advise for ERP, don't think of it as software. It's a system of business processes that links how your organization does businrss. Finance, supply chain, HR are usually at its core. Then you'll get all the industry specific bolt ons to it.

Have solid business processes to start from on the corporate side first. This will be your foundation for any system, especially an ERP. Otherwise if you are going from nothing, you will spend a fortune on change management, customizations, or both.

Why do you even think an ERP is needed?

[suntan]

Your company can't afford SAP, nor any of the other large ERP providers. Just the patches can cost millions of dollars.

[ExtraSlow]

that was my guess. I missed a couple meetings on this topic over the last few days, so I'll go find out what the rest of the group has figured out. I'm not the lead on this project or one of the decision makers. I'm just a stakeholder, I think the term is.

[dirtsniffer]

I've used AX and IFS with reasonable success.

[ExtraSlow]

My advise for ERP, don't think of it as software. It's a system of business processes that links how your organization does businrss. Finance, supply chain, HR are usually at its core. Then you'll get all the industry specific bolt ons to it.

Have solid business processes to start from on the corporate side first. This will be your foundation for any system, especially an ERP. Otherwise if you are going from nothing, you will spend a fortune on change management, customizations, or both.

Why do you even think an ERP is needed?
Hampstor, didn't mean to ignore you on this. That's good advice. In our case, we are a company that has folded in several smaller companies in the last year or so, and the management has already decided an ERP system is required. I don't disagree. However, I do worry that we may need to do some hard work on what we want our internal processes to look like BEFORE we introduce any kind of "system" or software to assist us with those processes. Right now, it's quite informal and disorganized. As of today, we do not have well defined internal processes.

My dream, as someone who is impacted by this future ERP system, is a piece of software that comes with pre-built best practices or workflows for similar businesses, and our company would mostly adopt those without major modifications. I don't know how realistic that is on the software side, or on our side either.

[ExtraSlow]

Our China team has suggested this one, naturally from China. https://www.yonyou.com.sg/products/u8/
I think getting any application that is able to work inside China without a VPN as well as in North America, is going to be a huge problem. I don't know how crucial that requirement is, that decision is happening several levels above me.

[haggis88]

Used a few different ones in the past, SAP being the worst by far...as was said, multiple experts required to accomplish the most basic tasks.

I was part of the team who migrated parts of and old system into new format for SAP to read and it was just utter bullshit. The way its structured meant it would have been excellent if you did the exact same thing day after day with no alterations, but in the industry I was in (Aviation R&O) when there was any deviation, it couldn't have been more of a hassle.

In the power gen industry, I was using Oracle but only at a very basic level to order supplies and PPE, seemed a little out of date

I've also used Pegasus Opera II in the medical device industry, and it was probably the best out of the 3. It was a very old school interface and the newest one is probably way better, but each of the functions performed well, again until you needed to do something outwith the regular scope of business.

Don't know if that's any help to you :)

[ExtraSlow]

Ah, just got an update from someone who's much more plugged into this project than me, and after a short meeting with an SAP implementation consultant, it have been removed from the running as an option. Thank Allah.

Apparently one of the options they are looking at is Axelor ( https://www.axelor.com/). I assume the price was what first attracted them, hahahaha. Although it looks like the sort of package that does what we want. If we figure out what we want

[ExtraSlow]

Hahaha, well sounds like I missed a fun time at the meeting with the SAP consultant. After a lot of evasive answers about costs, I guess they were able to determine that to even get a written quote would be minimum 1 month of consuming work and $20k worth of billable hours. $20k for a quote!
One of the manager just walked out and the meeting was over pretty quickly.

Yeah, almost sorry I missed it.

[Neil4Speed]

The problem isn’t the ERP. The problem is that every company wants to customize the ERP. Most companies are running bastardized version that require full time on site support.

Very true.

On the HRM side, I have been using Ulti-Pro, and actually it's not bad. Doesn't have all the bells and whistles of SAP (which I liked in a way), but responsive, intuitive and cheap cheap cheap

[Xtrema]

LoL, SAP. How do they have customers?!?
Systems Against People.

Probably captured audience. Take a shit load of consulting fee to leave, and usually a career ender for anyone that tries it.


Hahaha, well sounds like I missed a fun time at the meeting with the SAP consultant. After a lot of evasive answers about costs, I guess they were able to determine that to even get a written quote would be minimum 1 month of consuming work and $20k worth of billable hours. $20k for a quote!
One of the manager just walked out and the meeting was over pretty quickly.

Yeah, almost sorry I missed it.

Sounds about right. Same with Oracle's JDE. If they pick either of these, get ready to pay.

My advice is if you are merging companies, make sure you sort out all the business processes and consolidate before going out for a quote. OR the reverse is pick the one you think offers the closest/best process in the field and move everyone there to adopt the processes.

Just make sure avoid customization if possible. That's where cost goes way up and a few individuals will end up having you by the balls.

[hampstor]

Hampstor, didn't mean to ignore you on this. That's good advice. In our case, we are a company that has folded in several smaller companies in the last year or so, and the management has already decided an ERP system is required. I don't disagree. However, I do worry that we may need to do some hard work on what we want our internal processes to look like BEFORE we introduce any kind of "system" or software to assist us with those processes. Right now, it's quite informal and disorganized. As of today, we do not have well defined internal processes.

My dream, as someone who is impacted by this future ERP system, is a piece of software that comes with pre-built best practices or workflows for similar businesses, and our company would mostly adopt those without major modifications. I don't know how realistic that is on the software side, or on our side either.

Having spent about a decade in the SAP space, despite its costs, and mutual hate amongst its users, it's very powerful and important to help large organizations organize their business processes coherently, and deliver key information for decision makers in their specific areas (not just back office HR/SCM/Finance, but also in line of business areas). It's not for every company and i'd say for most companies, it's significantly overkill.

I can't stress the business processes enough when buying any application. Many many companies view software as a 'tool' and not a business process, or a workflow. While the 'tool' analogy is good for something like MS Office, management will often extend it to department, and then organizational wide business processes. How often have you heard "We need to implement ServiceNow" or "we need to buy a tool to do this" in the software space. If you don't know what you're trying to do, you're going to live in hell through epic implementation costs and scope creep, and then epic sustainment costs. My last organization spent hundreds of millions of dollars going back to vanilla SAP R3 so they could be ready for S4. They didn't want to change their business processes enough and customized the living shit out of it when it was originally implemented.

Since your management is focused on the ERP route (not a bad choice), make sure your requirements are simply not just functional requirements, but business functions and workflows. It'll at least get peoples eyes open that they have to change how they work, and think about what works best for their areas. You may find that you may only want core-ERP functionality with one platform, and then bring in another platform for other business functions.

Best of luck. May the odds be ever in your favour.

[ExtraSlow]

I probably can't talk in much more detail about business processes or organizational structure in a public forum. But we have identified some issues, and I think as we formalize some of this we will identify many more.
We aren't starting from a position where we'll be able to do this perfectly. I think we have a good shot at doing this clumsily and still coming out ahead.

[J-D]

Friends don't let friends buy SAP. It's like the software version of that old guy who doesn't want to share anything he does with anyone, convinced they will keep him employed because he's the only one who knows how to do things.

[Xtrema]

Friends don't let friends buy SAP. It's like the software version of that old guy who doesn't want to share anything he does with anyone, convinced they will keep him employed because he's the only one who knows how to do things.

That's basically all software with customization. Once everyone is accustom to it, it's hard to change and get out. SAP just get shit on because anyone competent in this suite charges more than lawyers does.

[hampstor]

Friends don't let friends buy SAP. It's like the software version of that old guy who doesn't want to share anything he does with anyone, convinced they will keep him employed because he's the only one who knows how to do things.

"no one ever got fired for picking SAP, in fact they often get promoted for it"

[suntan]

Having spent about a decade in the SAP space, despite its costs, and mutual hate amongst its users, it's very powerful and important to help large organizations organize their business processes coherently, and deliver key information for decision makers in their specific areas (not just back office HR/SCM/Finance, but also in line of business areas). It's not for every company and i'd say for most companies, it's significantly overkill.

I can't stress the business processes enough when buying any application. Many many companies view software as a 'tool' and not a business process, or a workflow. While the 'tool' analogy is good for something like MS Office, management will often extend it to department, and then organizational wide business processes. How often have you heard "We need to implement ServiceNow" or "we need to buy a tool to do this" in the software space. If you don't know what you're trying to do, you're going to live in hell through epic implementation costs and scope creep, and then epic sustainment costs. My last organization spent hundreds of millions of dollars going back to vanilla SAP R3 so they could be ready for S4. They didn't want to change their business processes enough and customized the living shit out of it when it was originally implemented.

Since your management is focused on the ERP route (not a bad choice), make sure your requirements are simply not just functional requirements, but business functions and workflows. It'll at least get peoples eyes open that they have to change how they work, and think about what works best for their areas. You may find that you may only want core-ERP functionality with one platform, and then bring in another platform for other business functions.

Best of luck. May the odds be ever in your favour.The advantages of having consolidated data is extremely valuable.

- - - Updated - - -


That's basically all software with customization. Once everyone is accustom to it, it's hard to change and get out. SAP just get shit on because anyone competent in this suite charges more than lawyers does.

I can say for a fact that they don't. Because holy fuck lawyers charge a TON.

[legendboy]

The advantages of having consolidated data is extremely valuable.

- - - Updated - - -



I can say for a fact that they don't. Because holy fuck lawyers charge a TON.

At the end of the day, accurate data will drive success in an erp system and can make or break a business. Need to have everyone buy in to make it work.
If you don't have accurate data things will eventually fall apart

KPI is proving to be a powerful platform (so far)

[ExtraSlow]

Hey, have a slightly different question on the same topic for a different company that a friend of mine runs. What's the "lightest" cloud-based ERP system? Just needs to do really basic functions like inventory tracking, maintenance schedules, work order/ticket system, material tracking etc.
doesn't even need financial side, just the sort of things you'd need to run a couple warehouses basically. You could probably do it all in access with azure front-end or something.

[mr2mike]

"no one ever got fired for picking SAP, in fact they often get promoted for it"

Also a lot of free shit. Trips to Monaco, booze, hookers, blow...
I'm just extrapolating based on what I've heard.

[redline]

Hey, have a slightly different question on the same topic for a different company that a friend of mine runs. What's the "lightest" cloud-based ERP system? Just needs to do really basic functions like inventory tracking, maintenance schedules, work order/ticket system, material tracking etc.
doesn't even need financial side, just the sort of things you'd need to run a couple warehouses basically. You could probably do it all in access with azure front-end or something.

IBM Maximo does all that very well and is class leading

[killramos]

ERP’s are for people who wake up one day and think to themselves.

I wish my business ran more like the government…

[ExtraSlow]

There is some truth to that statement.

IBM Maximo looks to be built on the SAP business model, hire a consultant to start the process of getting a price quote. Eventually avoid high consulting costs by hiring them as employees! Probably appropriate for some companies, but not for any I'd want to run. Gross.

[ThePenIsMightier]

Very much truth.
We bill to a client who still writes paper cheques and they can handle Net 14. We also bill to a listed company with over $10 billion in annual revenue and they can't manage to pay in 60 days.

[bigboom]

Hey, have a slightly different question on the same topic for a different company that a friend of mine runs. What's the "lightest" cloud-based ERP system? Just needs to do really basic functions like inventory tracking, maintenance schedules, work order/ticket system, material tracking etc.
doesn't even need financial side, just the sort of things you'd need to run a couple warehouses basically. You could probably do it all in access with azure front-end or something.

If you're looking for something simplistic you could look at something like ECI E2. As long as you don't want to get too fancy with it the functionality is decent and affordable, before our big growth we used it and did everything fine. With some of the growth we've had it started to falter and had to look for a better solution. The one thing I will say is don't cheap out and be very aware of your business needs otherwise you will end up with a less than ideal solution and be shopping again in a couple years which is where we are right now.

And stay the fuck away from Global Shop Solutions.

[suntan]

Odoo? Saw some of their ads the last while.

I was thinking of becoming an Odoo consulting once my current career finishes.

[bigboom]

Odoo? Saw some of their ads the last while.

I was thinking of becoming an Odoo consulting once my current career finishes.

Went through the Odoo path just a couple months back. Very interesting capability but requires a lot of customization which can turn what seems like a relatively affordable venture expensive really quick and given the knowledge of some of their consultants it was actually quite worrisome.

[vengie]

We are about to implement Acumatica.

CFO chose it, I'm told it will solve a lot of the issues/ bottlenecks I currently have... we shall see.

[suntan]

Went through the Odoo path just a couple months back. Very interesting capability but requires a lot of customization which can turn what seems like a relatively affordable venture expensive really quick and given the knowledge of some of their consultants it was actually quite worrisome.

Every ERP requires a lot of customization, and if a vendor tells you otherwise they're straight out lying. Pepper your angus.

[bigboom]

I don't disagree about the customization although a lot depends on the industry and client workflow, I used to be a partner at a SaaS company implementing various accounting/workflow tools so I've been involved in some very intricate implementations. Odoo seems to be a very interesting setup, very basic functionality that is tailored to uniform production but really falls down for custom manufacturing and job shop type set ups.

Although they have started billboard advertising on Glenmore/Blackfoot.