iCode Everest or Netsuite? - Looking for an "all-in-one" small business solution

[cyberdov]

I am also mystified by Icode's strategy. It does appear that they are moving towards a breater reliance on the VAR channel, which will be good for them as well as the customers (and of course the VARs). A 10 user license should be less than you stated - total (including implementation/training but without new hardware or customizations) should be $30K. Thanks for your reply.

[wedwsd]

Nice Posting

[mutahman]

Last week in this forum (via a different thread) I learned that ASPdotnet and Interprise Suite are no longer working together. I have been trying to find more detail on this but neither site has any information (yet the ASPdotnet website now has NO mention of Interprise Suite on the site) and literally 5 minutes ago just called ASPdotnet to learn what is going on, and was told that Dan Van Kuren (their head honcho) was not in town and no one there had any info on this.

Now that this "cart issue" has come to light, I will share with this long and informative thread, our experiences with Interprise Suite + ASPdotnet.

If you read through this thread you can see that we are a Netsuite shop and were looking for a replacement to Netsuite simply because we continue to add the number of international websites we run, and Netsuite (as a cart) does not give us the most flexibility we would like to have AND cost is certainly an issue (because we run each international website through a different international company, which requires us to buy separate instances of NS and this is quite costly).

so we have been on the search for a number of years, and looked SO many different ERP/e-commerce combos. Early in 2008 we chose Interprise Suites with the ASPdotnet shopping cart. Even though I felt at the time they were not ready for prime time, I knew we had 3 more years on NS and we could get Interprise/ASPdotnet set up to run one of our international sites, and as they progressed the software, we could add more sites.

We chose to first set up out Canada website on IS/ASPdotnet and it didn't work properly (did not calculate taxes properly and there were issues with the CC gateway). After 8 months of working on the set up and issues, working with IS customer support, ASPdotnet's customer support and the gateway's customer support. we realized that we were getting nowhere, and the site that was scheduled to launch in July, then August, then Sept., then Oct.---was not ready to launch.

So I contacted the IS and ASPdotnet guys and after a month of e-mails where they (a) said they would not provide a refund (b) said there were no issues that they knew of (c) said would work to fix the problems (funny because they first said there were no problems) at no cost to me.

So a month and a half later, I have heard nothing back from them....I sent them a mail 2 days ago (copying ASPdotnet guys and IS guys) and have yet to hear back from them. In my mail I simply asked (a) for an update on the "fixes" and (b) for an update to the word on the street, whereby I'm hearing there is no more partnership between IS and ASPdotnet.

So, obviously, I'm not at all happy with the fact that the software doesn't work (which I expected), but I am extremely dissatisfied with the fact that after 8 months we could not get a basic website to properly process orders and most dissatisfied that the companies have chosen to (seemingly) stop their working partnership without ANY notice to existing customers.

Gary Harrison you may want to chime in here before it gets ugly.

[RobbieB]

Well hopefully they work somethings out but maybe it's for the better. I think it was a good idea to find a partner who already had a solid shopping cart but options are good too. It would be nice if able commerce or perhaps some open source cart paid some attention to IS but I can certainly understand why they'd hesitate to devote resources to what is still a "start up".

[noblenull]

Last week in this forum (via a different thread) I learned that ASPdotnet and Interprise Suite are no longer working together.

Interprise never passed my "smell test". It is unfortunate that they seem to have great ideas, but poor execution.

[mutahman]

Noblenull

Interprise did not pass my test of being market ready either, but based on what was working and the fact that the platform was .net and open source, and the fact that ASPdotnetstorefront was an established and reliable software, we figured we could get a couple of our smaller sites up and running on the platform, work with it for a year while we improved the system and Interprise came out with updates.

When we tried to go live and there were issues, it seemed the issues were based on roadbumps between the cart and the system. They should be fixable, but now that ASPdotnetstorefront and Interprise are no longer "actively" working together (IE ASPdotnetstorefront no longer sells the I.S. version, and after speaking with Dan at ASP he confirmed they will no longer work on an I.S. version and the partnership is done) we are left here on an island, with no update/info from Interprise (despite me chasing them for 2 weeks now).

What I am extremely pissed about is the fact that Interprise has made NO mention of this to it's customers, they still promote on their site that they have "a cart" but don't clarify if it's the ASPdotnet cart OR if they acquired the code from ASPdotnet OR if it's new code. what probably aggrivates me most is Gary Harrison and the Interprise people at the top always struck me as leaning towards the shady side (talking more then delivering) and I expected that to change somewhat after Taylor Corp. bought them in 2008. BUT, this current issue with the cart and the way they are handling in (or not handling it) is a indication that as a management team, the people who are currently running Interprise are clowns. Have the balls to tell us that there is an issue, that the partnership is done but you are working toward a solution. Don't hide in the weeds, because not only does hiding in the weeds turn-off your customers, it gets them talking negatively on boards like this...where many others read and are influenced by the posts.

Now, let me tell you about my feelings on ASPdotnetstorefront. Dan did the right thing. I spoke with him on the phone, he explained the situation with me and agreed to refund me for the 3 carts we purchased. Because of this I am very willing to do business with them again, and WISH there was a back-end ERP system that tied into their ML cart. The way he handled this makes me want to do business with him again. The way Interprise is handling this, I want to see them dead.

Through all of this, I'm very happy I have Netsuite. They signed us up for another 3 years, honored their contract with us (there was a clause in our original contract that they could only increase their price by X&#37 and even though I wish their cart had more flexibility and access to the code, they still (IMO) provide an excellent product for a company that is running a business not just a web business, but a B2B and e-commerce business.

I hope that Netsuite finds a way to make their product more cost effective for the small business with multiple websites AND makes their cart more flexible/robust because after all this time I still believe they have the best solution in the market.

[Barney Stone]

Because of this I am very willing to do business with them again, and WISH there was a back-end ERP system that tied into their ML cart.

There is a back-end system that ties into AspDotNetStorefront. I know it does not have all of the all-in-one-system features that you are ideally looking for (such as a built-in accounting system), but it is real, has been around for about nine years now, is used by about 2,000 merchants, and is a heck of a lot less expensive than NetSuite. It is also written in a popular (although older) language, and shipped with mostly open sourcecode. I won't name the program, so hopefully this post won't get deleted. And, in the interest of full disclosure, I will add that it is my company's product. There is a section for it in AspDotNetStorefront's user forum, so you should be able to find it there.

[InfoSourcing]

Regarding Aspdotnet storefront, yes they did have a hiccup with licensing and support issues with Interprise Suite, but I guess that's all taken care of now and IS has its own ecommerce module called ISE, which makes it even easier for them to integrate more features ...

Do read this blog about Inteprise http://InterpriseSuite.blogspot.com for more updates on IS and its new version ..

Any more questions do feel free to ask we are here to help ...

Note: This thread started with differences between Everest and NetSuite and it turned into Interprise Suite, which shows that IS (Inteprise Suite) is becoming a prominent player in ERP sector and with its new version 2009 it will still grow stronger for small and medium business.

We don't pitch just one product we look at your business requirements and pitch the right solution which fits your business and budget..

[JudithDolling]

This thread is informative. Thanks to you guys! These information can be used in home based business. Keep the useful information flowing. Thanks again!

[Lex87]

You could go to elance.com and look for a developer. The nice thing is you can put in your spending limit and interested parties will bid on the contract. It would probably end up being way cheaper than buying something pre-manufactured.I know there are Epos developers on the that site.

Just a thought!
Cheers
Lexi
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touch screens

[InfoSourcing]

Hey,

I thought of pitching in my view to this thread since I have been long associated with ERP and Small Business Computing, what is the current trend of ERP softwares, where are all the vendors and what should small & medium business look for?

Let me answer these questions by saying "One size doesn't fit all" neither "One software runs for all"

NetSuite - Best of all the ERP software and costliest of all too

Everest Software - With new acquisition the Company is heading in entirely new direction I guess south its a pretty good integrated software but with its new management and insane support prices they are not going to survive longer. I have been tracking their development and blogging abt it

SAP Business One - If you have sufficient budget then consider this else read on

Interprise Suite - It's good and bad depending on what features you want and who implements the solution, its moderate in pricing and features to run your business from backend, POS and eCommerce. We had few success with this product if you read my other posts on this forum or on my Interprise Suite blog

TradePoint360 - It used to be called Evolution and they are surfacing with new name after their merger with another company, so read more abt it on my TradePoint blog. It's the next best to Interprise in terms of integrated ERP for small and medium business.

Read more about ERP software comparison

Regards

[dlatzman]

As a small business "all in one" solution, you should consider Brightpearl. It has many of the functions of a traditional "ERP" but it is aligned with small businesses. It is a UK product but has just opened an office in the US. It is a really strong alternative to Netsuite for SMBs.

<i>[Personal contact information not allowed in posts]</I>.

Thanks!