Jacmo, I use Firefox and I haven't had any problems accessing interprisesuite.com or interprisesolutions.com. There's got to be something on your end. Try purging your cache or something. IS is definitely worth your attention, it would be a shame to pass it up because your browser was acting up one day.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jacmo
It is the cart, not the site. Didn't let me check out. I called. Asked them and was told that it is a bug their developers are working on. That their cart does not work with Firefox. Maybe I'll give them another call or attempt to checkout the free user version again.
RobbieB,
Thanks for the feedback about the programs you've tried. I requested a demo of VisionCore last week, but haven't installed it yet. As I mentioned before, my impression is that it is a .NET version of ImagePremier (which was half-baked in terms of fully implementing the features it contained). Hopefully they've fixed a lot of problems when rewriting it as VisionCore.
Since a couple people mentioned Zoovy, I just wanted to mention a competitor of theirs I came across -- http://www.kyozou.com. They sounded pretty good overall but had some limitations I didn't like such as only 2-level product tree navigation.
Jacmo,
You likely already know this, but the curent Interprise Suite website is being updated to run on the ASPdotNETstorefront web interface, but I believe their current site (as of 6/1) is still on some other platform. If you join their forum at http://www.interprisesolutions.com/forum they have a section strictly related to ASPdotNETstorefront integration. Also note that they to my knowledge they have not yet released the public version of the IS web module - I'd be very surprised if the final version didn't let people using Firefox use the cart. Just an FYI in case you were under the impression that what you currently see is what you'd get...
Chris, definitely try VC again. I wonder if your experience with them was like my first experience with IS... beta :D
Again, there are things I like about IS better than VC but so far the VC support has been pretty good at responding and forwarding the feedback to the devs. I actually feel like they are more on top of the support than IS right now but I wonder if that's because I haven't tired them with too many questions and suggestions yet haha. Although, I do wish their support forums weren't private. IS definitely wins on that because its nice to see what other people are experiencing.
Personally, I like VCs customer wizard better and their handling of addresses (contacts/sites etc). The app seems a little faster than IS too but I'm on an older dual 1.8ghz Xeon so I guess that doesn't say much :P
[edit]
Okay well, here's some more info I found out about VC...
Point of Sale and Timeclock icons are put inside the app but they don't work. Turns out the features aren't yet implemented and wont be for a few more weeks.
CRM/marketing not available within the program itself, they are planning to integrate with salesforce.com
No generic shipping module included but they have made one that works with ShipRush by Z-Firm.
So, looks like I'll be putting my research effort back into IS.
Thanks, Chris. I was under that impression. I like companies that 'eat their own dogfood.' I'm doing an InterpriseSuite Demo next week. Have had two courses of Mainstreet and am chatting with Devix which I must say I find quite interesting. Netsuite demo on Tuesday.
Has anyone heard of www.profitcenter.com? I saw them for a second at IR2007 and they said they do everything but payroll and HR.
Wow, been a little while since I’ve been here and I’m surprised by all the activity.
Chris_WI, wow you have probably done the comprehensive review of software on the market. Nice job! It reminds me back when I owned United Treasures and was looking for affordable software to run that business. To answer your question in the post we will continue to improve and we will add a “leave it for now” feature to the bank reconciliation later this year when we add the ebanking features.
Jacmo, Yes we had a firefox issue but that was fixed with our new website. Sorry for the inconvenience.
RobbieB, If you like VC you’ll love Adept Suite which is available for free. As you go through the features it will look very familiar : )
http://www.download.com/Adept-Accoun...ml?tag=lst-0-1
It is completely unsupported and installation is pretty “hit or miss” on newer systems since it is based on .NET 1.1 and MSDE technology.
Couple of things to keep in mind when evaluating VC against IS.
First, opening up the SQL port to the internet is not “web services”. Although you can get a program to operate over the internet that way it is not recommended because 1) it opens your company’s database to hackers / viruses 2) PCI compliance requires that your database server not be accessible via the internet if you store credit card number on them and 3) becomes very slow as the database size increases. IS uses true web services where all data requests are processed by the web services before being sent to the database. This allows you to have the web services in one location and the database in another protecting the database.
Second, if customizing or extending the application is important to you I invite you to compare the SDK’s. Our SDK kit is free www.connectedbusiness.com, allowing developers to see first hand how it works before spending any money with us. Already companies like AspDotNetStorefront (eCommerce) and Premier POS (Point of Sale) are using the SDK to create complimentary products and soon you’ll be able to purchase plug-ins from websites like http://www.interprisesuiteplugins.com/ to expand out the application.
Regarding the new customer wizard I posted a video for you on the Interprise forum so let me know if you need that link.
I know that this forum is for those looking for a “all-in-one” small business solution, but after working for the better part of the past decade trying to accomplish that I can tell you it is not possible. The problem is every software company only has a certain level of “core competency”. When I was part of the Adept .NET development team we wrote a rather poor ecommerce module and POS system in it. While our group was great at doing ERP systems, we did not have the same level of core-competency that eCommerce or POS software companies which “live and breathe” their market.
With Interprise we decided to spend much more time making an extendable platform so we can partner with the “Best of Breed” companies like AspDotNetStorefront and Premier POS (Point of Sale) to provide fully integrated solutions to the platform. It has taken us a lot more work than we expected to accomplish this, but we really believe that companies will be much happier with integrated “best of breed” applications that seamlessly work together.
Sincerely,
Newhaven doesn't actually run the ecommerce portion, its by a company called CommerceV3 and you can demo the product live with them. It actually integrates with many order management systems including MOM, Ordermotion, Stone Edge, Colinear, Newhaven, InOrder, Natural Order, and a few others.Quote:
Originally Posted by RobbieB
Thank you all for this very informative thread. I've knocked several options right off our list and added several others since I came here a few months ago.
I have some questions I hope someone can help me with:
1) Is all of Interprise's support and sales from overseas? I see a US office listed but the person we emailed with had "slightly" broken English. We understood what he meant, and he was VERY nice and helpful, but we are a little concerned about investing in something and then having trouble communicating if there is a problem.
2) Is anyone here actually using Interprise to run their business yet? I know they're new, which is probably why we're having trouble tracking down some "unbiased" customers. (Which is something we did with Everest and Netsuite -- we found people other than those listed on their Featured Clients pages, and several of them pointed us to this message board with their comments!)
Thanks for any help you can give!
Has anyone tried Zoovy.com? Your thoughts?
BrokenGlass - We are with Zoovy right now. We've been with them since 2003. They've done a fantastic job for us. You have to jiggle the handle here and there but they are a great bunch of people and have a pretty dang nice cart with good quickbooks integration. I don't consider them a true 'all-in-one' which is why we're most likely moving to Devix soon. Zoovy helped us grow leaps and bounds but now... we need something more.
Thank you, Jacmo! We're still trying to figure out what exactly we really need and this has been a great thread.
One of the components we can't find anywhere so far is an "all in one" solution that will also work with (or, better yet, includes) a way to manage our subscribers' subscriptions to our PRINT magazine.
Anyone know of ANY of these programs that can do that, too? We understand it isn't a common need and we'd be happy to pay for the added function to be programmed or included.
Netsuite and Everest both said, "Sure, no problem, we can engineer that" but given the things we've heard about them, we're hoping to go a different direction. Thanks!
Thank you, Barney! That's very helpful.
Two quick questions for you:
1) I see the deliveries can be scheduled "daily, weekly, monthly or annually, or on specific days or dates." We have a bit of a strange, flexible schedule. Is there anyway to trigger a delivery manually instead of having to schedule it?
2) We don't actually ship our publication from our office, we send a drop-ship list in the form of an excel file to our printer. Is this possible with Subscription Manager?
Thank you for your assistance!
I've been using NetSuite CRM+ for a month now on a $70/month/one-year plan and have very few good comments to share. First and foremost, the technical support basically doesn't exist. The downloadable software used for integration with Microsoft Outlook is not compatible with Windows Vista or Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0/6.0, which means you have to pay for an extra service to access data through your mobile phone. The representative neglected to mention this, even after explaining that it was an interregnal part of my business. The calendaring system is, for lack of a more creative term, a joke; the trial version I was given had scripting implemented that allowed extended functionality, so when I asked the sales representative if certain things could be done using NetSuite, he replied simply, “Yes, they can be done” but neglected to mention it required scripting. If you’re just looking for a simple web-to-lead CRM and calendaring functionality, I recommend the almost free SugarCRM on SiteGround hosting. Salesforce.com is a step in a better direction, but after looking into the workflow functionality, it costs more than my negotiate NetSuite package. I’ve taken the time to write this and other response to help people avoid the mistake I made by going with NetSuite from my small business. The company refused my request for a refund, so I’m stuck with them for a year. Research wisely and insist on a fully-functional trial of any CRM you’re considering.
Hi everyone.
I'm new to the forums, but I found this great post while searching the internet. A lot of the posts regarding Everest were from last year, or even a little more dated, so I'm wondering about more recent experiences.
After a little research, I've been looking at Everest, Interprise, Golden Accounting System & ManageMore.
I'm a small Wholesale company into our 2nd year in business. We're about 750,000 revenue this year, and forecasting 1.2mil next year. We have a small manufacturing side to the business where we hand-make all our POS displays. Most of our inventory is bought from one supplier overseas.
Right now we're using Quickbooks, but very unhappy with the very basic options it offers and we're looking to work our way into a more CRM solution for our business to take advantage of marketing opportunities.
Most important issues I'm trying to address within my business are:
1. Integrating bar-code scanning to Shipping & Receiving
2. Detailed Sales Commission reports for Sales Rep Comapnies
3. Comprehensive quantity price discounts for both Purchasing and Invoicing (each/case/carton)
4. Kit/Group items without a limit on items into the kit/group (or a very high limit)
5. Extensive marketing campaigns - bulk e-mail, bulk fax, promotional opportunities that link through the entire system (incl. ROI on promo's and leads/sales generations from them)
6. Order & customer procurement tracking/documenting
7. Credit Control/Maintenience for our Net customers with easy Finance Charge & Statement implementation into the customers account
8. RMA's!!! Quickbooks does nothing for RMA's! I'm looking for a great system for this.
9. Improved Backorder management.
Those are my biggest concerns for now. Other features aren't as important right now, but I don't want to ignore a potential programs scalability.
We only have 1 warehouse/shipping location.
We don't serialize/bin anything now, but we will in time.
We don't drop ship now, but we may look into it if a program makes it simple and profitable enough.
Anyway. I'm looking for a little guidance on the programs I listed, or possibly some alternatives. I don't want to attack a fly with a machine gun and go for something way beyond my needs at the moment, but I don't want to buy something I'm going to outgrow in a year or two either. Perhaps a good middleground that can last me 5+ years.
Thanks,
Matthew Birchler
Switchables
edit by admin:no contact info permitted on the forum thank you
I looked at Golden Accounting as well - however it is visual fox pro and a few folks in the know suggested I stay away.
Managemore I was told doesn't work with remote order scanning which is crucial for us.
Accountmate looked good - but with a price tag of $42,000.
Everest - I'd like to hear comments from more recent users.
Interprise - this is the one I've been waiting over 2 years for. An Interprise pro has said it still isn't quite ready for a high transaction business like ours.
Have you looked at Peachtree, MYOB or Quickbooks Enterprise?
Louie
You may also want to take a look at OpenMFG and its kid-brother, PostBooks:
http://ww.xtuple.com
One benefit of these apps is that they run on Mac and Linux as well as Windows. They offer CRM, Accounting, and ERP.
I want to second the advice to be careful with NetSuite. They have a technologically beautiful system but we discovered alarming errors, omissions, and shortcomings. To make a long story short, they signed us up cheap, made clear promises that they failed to deliver, and attempted to raise our renewal fees at alarming rates. I wish others better luck; NetSuite has potential to be an awesome system for some companies.Quote:
Originally Posted by sf954
I wonder what would happen if SME's everywhere started demanding service level agreements. I.E., at the same time you sign a contract with a software vendor, create your own addendum that specifies what happens if they don't deliver. For example: "We are tendering your contract in consideration for the future value that we will derive from features X, Y, and Z that you have promised. If you do not deliver features X, Y, and Z by January 1, then you will refund us all monies paid..." If they blink walk away and await their next move. (Consult your attorney for the exact wording and tactics to use here...)Quote:
Originally Posted by tww
Also, never sign any agreements that include an arbitration provision.
If they made clear promises that got you to sign up, I'd say sue them in small claims court to recoup your costs.
Also, I'd consider using open source software like SugarCRM or PostBooks ERP - that way, if the vendor renegs on a promise, most other competent IT shops can continue to support you.
Cheers,
-J
Volusion or Yahoo Merchant Services Experience?
Does anyone have any experience using Volusion? I'd love to get some discussion going regarding its relative strengths and weaknesses. I'm just starting a small customized gift business and trying to find the best hosted, SEO-optimized cart and catalog that will allow me to get up and running quickly. Of course I'm also looking for a platform that's open and extensible and thus capable of growing as my business grows. (I'll worry about implementing a more robust accounting/ERP/CRM/order management system once my business gets some scale and the market proves that there's demand for my products).
I reviewed Netsuite and found its feature set (and pricing) to be a bit overwhelming given that my business is just starting.
I'm also considering Yahoo Merchant Services and would value any thoughts on the extensibility of their cart/catalog product as well.
My thanks in advance to this very helpful community of experts.
The two all-in-one solutions I am currently evaluating are Interprise Suite (www.InterpriseSuite.com) and Evolution business management software (www.DarwinProductions.net).
They each appear to be relatively new startups with their own strengths and weaknesses attempting to gain traction in this space.
However, unlike the bigger brands (NetSuite, Everest, etc.), they seem to be geared more towards smaller businesses and with pricing structures that seem to be much more affordable.
Cheers!
I've been working for a company that uses Everest (prior to that, we also used Accware) for about 6 years now. It's far from perfect - probably at least partly due to the fact that we access it through a VPN over the internet via TS (RDP) - but it does a good job and keeps track of things. I've recently been given the opportunity to buy out the store I'm managing and take over as owner. I don't have the money to invest heavily in software like Everest, but I'd like similar functionality for some things at least. I may even have to forego anything fancy for a few months (maybe go with an OS program linked earlier in the thread), just until I get a decent revenue stream built up.
I'll basically be buying the existing customer base, and as it stands we do about 600k/yr, and do anywhere from about 10-50 transactions a day, depending on the day. Those transactions range from simple transactions (cash-and-carry), to service work and also building complete systems. I need something to control inventory, handle POS/Sales Orders, and would like to do all my accounting through it as well. Though I suppose that's not a heavy concern, as there will only be two of us to start. I've looked at a couple of programs so far.
Dynacom, which was kind of clunky, and didn't seem very easy to handle inventory with (a major consideration for me). I had the same problem with MYOB. Quickbooks was better, but I'm still not sure if it's what I'm looking for. I've downloaded some of the OS programs linked to earlier, but I haven't installed them yet to play with them. Maybe I've been spoiled by Everest's inventory management, but I really don't want to regress on this feature. I'd like something which gives me a lot of control while keeping things relatively simple.
I'm considering Interprise Suite, though I'm a little concerned when I try to download the demo and get an error when I click "add to cart". However, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, and will check with their sales dept. tomorrow (Monday) to see about getting that demo another way. In the meantime, what do you guys feel would be a good solution for a 2-man operation of this size that can handle the features I mentioned?
Great thread. I have learned tons about the various programs out there.
I'm currently evaluating software for my new business and ecommerce integration is a must. I can't find something decent for my needs. I looked at the Interprise Suite, but it's very young and not yet solid project. It has no import-export functions (a must if you work with large quantities of inventory). You can't do basic customers-orders csv import (from paypal or eBay or anywhere else), can't do export-import of current orders in bulk (to import them to shipping manager and print labels in bulk and import tracking numbers back?) etc. What about if I have to export some reports? NONE! And as fas as I understand, they do not plan to implement those features. Look like they have them, but they sell them as plugins(maybe I'm wrong) :)
So I'm highly stressed right now - I like Interprise Suite, but lack of functionality scares me. (very sad, if it had fully featured import-export, I'd buy it)
I tried Peachtree, Abmis, Quick Books, etc - they do have some functionality, but not even close for someone who's willing to do ecommerce.
********* is using access, sorry, it's really stone age.
I looked in to ManageMore, it does look ugly, but seems like most functional piece of software I used.
In post #144, I saw Evolution software and will try it (if demo available) and see what it worth.
Any suggestions for good piece of software for eCommerce?
I would strongly warn those considering Everest. I work for a company using Everest, and the problems are numerous.
- upgrades and fixes cause problems. often the problem is fairly serious.
- ecommerce integration is there, but there are too many oddball errors that prevent orders from happening that support is stumped by.
- there are also oddball and quirky problems with the core application.
- cost is very high
- the wording of the licenses, user agreements, etc., is so tipped toward everest it borders on ludicrous. if something happens, you have no recourse, I mean NO recourse.
- great big promises and carrots dangled before you, very few actually delivered.
They are pushing so hard for sales sales sales they are not addressing serious problems reported by many many customers.
There is a SQL version of Stone Edge as well. If you're small, you can get away with the Free version, SQL Express.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rayzak
Sometimes the old solutions are still the best. With our Access application you get: open source code with hooks for custom functions and other tools to support customization, a widely supported language (VBA) and complete access to your data from anything that supports ODBC. So any import or export functions that are not already included can be added pretty easily. True, there are issues with using Access for data storage, particularly for higher-volume situations and those with more than 10 active users. So look at our Enterprise version and think of it as a Visual Basic front end to a SQL Server database.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rayzak
Rayzak,
PostBooks by xTuple has csv import capability, and they are working on integration with eCommerce applications. The API is also very easy to use for any platform with database connectivity; they provide an example on how to use Excel to examine and create invoices on-the-fly.
Best of all it's free for as many users as you want. It's here:
http://www.xtuple.org
Cheers,
-j
Can you elaborate on that either here or in a PM to me?Quote:
Originally Posted by tww
If you need an all-in-one system but don't need e-commerce, Soffront (www.soffront.com) is worth a look.
I've spend the the last 5 months on and off looking at the different packages (I defy anyone to do this continually, it's depressing work dealing with pushy salesmen and trying to sift through the marketing to find out what a product actually does). Eventually it came down to a shortlist of NetSuite, Aplicor, Entellium, Evolution, Everest iCode, vtiger (based on SugarCRM), Interprise Suite, SalesBoom, Salesforce and RightNow.
I run a small distribution company with offices in the US and Sweden. Our main requirement was to find a web-hosted SFA/CRM system that from any PC would allow us to access the system, send and receive emails (with attachments stored on the server), create quotes/orders/invoices, had a strong self-service customer portal and would allow me to monitor the kPI of the companies.
We weren't interested in a full accounts package because we use external part-time bookkeepers who didn't want to learn new software. In the US, QuickBooks is used and in Sweden a local swedish program.
- RightNow weren't interested although we were willing to pay for a minimum 10 user license as stated on their website.
- Aplicor, which was my preferred choice, were only interested in 50+ licenses according to the salesman I spoke with. Still at least they were honest and didn't waste my time.
- Interprise Suite, after sending them my 5 page RFQ, received the reply from their UK office "I will have to decline to offer as we do not have the legislation in place for Sweden at this moment in time.". The reply didn't make a lot of sense (especially as we had made it clear that we wouldn't use the full accounts module) - so my impression was they are only interested in fast sales and don't have the internal or external resources to modify the program to suit the client. I had downloaded their trial and did find it easy enough to use at first look.
- Darwin Productions, Evolution : didn't reply to the RFQ
- Entellium : received an online demo and was quite impressed by the ease of use and underlying strategy. However, the deal killer was that it had no facility to generate quotes/order/invoices online (QuickBooks was recommended). The salesman I spoke with was polite, helpful and not pushy. Although he did follow up quite often, it was not overbearing.
- Everest iCode : was a close runner up except for two reasons. The comments on this forum and the CRM organisation - it felt like an accounts package with CRM added later (which of course it is). When the account is displayed, you have to right-click or use a menu drop down to access linked quotes, notes, etc. Just didn't feel comfortable. The salesrep I spoke with was not pushy, but very helpful.
- vtiger : one of our supplier companies uses the CRM element of this open source software and is quite happy. However, they also have the internal skills to manage a Linux server and modify code if required, which we don't. I didn't look too deeply into this as having looked at their Forum I could see that some questions had not been quickly answered by their support staff. Also a little nervous to base our company functions on a package that is largely developed and is supported out of India.
- SalesBoom : looked easy to use and had most of the features we needed. Those it didn't have we received a quote for development work with a resonable price. People were again helpful and not pushy.
- Salesforce : over a three month period we had three different salespeople. Pushy attitudes (like their jobs depended on sales which it seems they did), too ready to say yes, it can do that, without stating how. Reached a point where I couldn't trust them.
- NetSuite : pretty much the same experience as Salesforce. Multiple pushy salesreps. I really wanted to buy this software at the beginning - it looked perfect for us. But the attitudes of the reps and the avoidance of quoting prices just made me feel I was being lined up to be suckered. I also found comments on other forums regarding their poor (non-existent was the most common phrase) support and price gouging. The final straw was the disclosure during their IPO they they didn't have redundant systems.
Which left Soffront. I liked the salesman who talked straight and even admitted some of the products failings. He has been very helpful and peformed two online demo's. Prices were stated upfront and once we had decided which modules were required a written quote that included the cost of customising work was supplied quickly.
So we made the decision to go ahead three days ago. Two days later they had the software online for us - just the standard installation at this stage together with demo data. However, good enough to start looking deeper and reference the manuals that I downloaded and printed. Yesterday they have provided a deeper online training so that we can decide what needs to be modified to suit our company procedures and workflow. Another training follows on Friday on the QuickBooks synchronization and next week they will train our web developers on their API so they can integrate the website with the Soffront CRM and Customer Portal.
It's early days, we have to import our data (seems easy enough with their import and field mapping tools), customize a few fields, create some new fields and they need to create some quote/ordr/invoice templates to our specification.
The feeling right now is that this was the best decision. They've been very responsive after getting the order and I found out that the sales guy who was our contact had been with the company for more than 5 years - which gave a good impression.
Once we are up and running, the next step will be to integrate this with a shopping cart. Most likely we will use the module within the EZ Publish CMS our website is based on as we only have simple demands for this.
I'll provide an update in a few months. Thanks to everyone who contributed previous comments as these were very helpful.
Has anyone checked out Visioncore by Comtech? Seems like a nice program.
http://www.comtechsolutions.com
Thanks.
Benjamin Cohen
www.azardisplays.com
Checked it out. Seems solid in most areas. Clean interface. The ecommerce integration could be tighter. Also, you'll need PCCharge to charge CC's in the system and ShipRush for shipping integration.
Is anyone actually running their company with 10+ users using either Visioncore or Interprise?
We were using two separate “on-demand / hosted applications” – one for ERP and one for e-Commerce. (NetSuite & Infopia) We initially made the selection based on what we perceived as low cost / low risk. We took the approach of purchasing the functionality we needed at the time for the lowest price … but we failed to select vendors that could keep pace with our growth. The hosted application from NetSuite was always crashing and because we did not manage the system directly, we had limited control and visibility into problem resolution. The frequency of vendor issues & outages was negatively impacting our bottom-line.
After issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP), we selected Everest to drive our back-office ERP and our front-office internet store front business. As with any installation, we had a few bumps in the first month or so, but after only six-months the benefits speak for themselves. We have had record-breaking revenues, which we largely attribute to Everest. Everest is quite scalable – increased our total brand inventory by 1/3 – more products has equated to more sales. We can tailor the storefront without requesting customizations, which can be costly and time-consuming, and we redesigned the navigation of www.planetshoes.com, which now lets users find products online faster and easier. We also have far greater control enabling better SEO which has driven more traffic to our site.
If you like Visioncore be sure to checkout Adept Suite. Adept Suite is 100% free but unsupported. Also works with PC Charge and Shiprush...
http://www.download.com/Adept-Accoun...html?tag=lst-1
i've read this entire thread. lots of good info. has anyone checked into Allbase or ECI2? these are 2 my boss is looking at now. we are also very small, new company. 4 employees, we import/distribute hand-crafted mosaics from Europe. any input much appreciated.
WOW!! It's great to see how this thread has progressed over the past 3 years!! I was one of the original posters on this thread and since my original post in Feb. '05 (when we were first looking for a software to support our inventory, CRM, acctg. and e-commerce) our business is now 4 years old and in this time we've grown our revenues by 4X. 3 years ago when I was first in here looking for a solution this forum was a very big help, so I figured that since I am in "renewal mode" I should post our experiences in here, as they may help others.
We have been a Netsuite user now for just about 3 years and there is plenty of good about the system and a few shortcomings. We are a wholesale company (consumer goods) that wholesales internationally, wholesales domestically in the USA and we also have 2 e-commerce websites (www.slappa.com and www.slappa.co.uk The UK site is NOT on Netsuite but on Monster Commerce)
Netsuite has done a very solid job helping us manage our CRM, basic accounting, and e-commerce. Their user interface is very clean, their dashboards are very good, the ability to drill down on information from every section/report is great, the reporting is sufficient (you could add on crystal reports for additional fees), the CRM is good and we have NEVER had an issue with security OR downtime. Also with Netsuite, I have never worried about disaster recovery because I know they have things covered….this is one thing that I don’t think many buyers consider when trying to choose a solution. Their inventory management does a solid job at providing the basics (multi-locations, reorder levels, real-time levels for the sites). Their sales commissions capabilities are nothing special
The biggest issues we have encountered with Netsuite are:
(a) they are not an open system which creates serious challenges when trying to use Netsuite along with other software (IE they currently do NOT work with outside analytics software because they have an advanced analytics package of their own, yet their analytics cannot provide us with accurate ROI on our PPC campaigns). We have contacted 4 Netsuite integrators and none of them have a sure fire solution to this issue. 2 integrators told us they are now working on an integration, and according to Netsuite they will open the cart code sometime in 2008, but currently there is nothing Netsuite customers can implement to get accurate ROI information on PPC campaigns. This is a very serious issue for any companies that rely on PPC campaigns to drive e-commerce revenue. Another challenge is our desire to implement social networking aspects into our sites. Netsuite needs to address this in a cost effective manner
(b) the cost to add on new licenses or modules is very expensive (we were able to negotiate a great price for the first 10 licenses, yet their costs to add more licenses and modules are absolutely crazy).
Even though we are 80-85% satisfied with Netsuite, our current license term is about to expire and we figured it made sense for us to look at how the market, the players and the offerings have progressed over the past 3 years, and as such we have been, over the past 2 months, scoping out other solutions that may be a better alternative to Netsuite. One thing to point out here with regards to our assessing our options; we value (when evaluating all these companies) who they are. In other words, their management team, their track record and their customers are all factored into our initial decision as to whether or not a company "warrants" our serious consideration. I have seen a few posts in here “assuming” that Netsuite has the potential of being bad because they are a “bigger” company and in my opinion this is a very wrong attitude to have. Netsuite has been around, is backed by Larry Ellison (which certainly has it's bad points) but does tell us that they have the resources to continue to make their product better and unlike some of these other offerings, Netsuite is not going to be a flash in the pan that can go away in the next 12 months. Also now that they are public they are under heavy pressure to grow their business, which means they will have to get aggressive to keep their customers. It’s great that so many new companies have popped up in this space over the past 3-4 years yet we have to try and figure who has staying power and who doesn’t. As such, there are MANY newbie companies that offer solutions in this space that we just cannot consider because we see them as too risky.
So, while this is not an exhaustive list, here are the companies we have considered this time around:
Interprise Suites- I think we all want to love this company. Their website looks slick and gives us the impression that they know what they're doing, they are already on .net and FINALLY here is a software company that says they are for a small business and have actually priced their solution for a small business. But I have read far too many customer issues that seem to all revolve around the fact that this software, while on the right track, is not ready today to "cleanly support" a business like ours. One place from which I have gathered this info is the forum on their website
http://www.interprisesolutions.com/forum. One issue we have encountered with them is trying to get their folks to respond to a request for a demo, and after 2 weeks we still haven’t been able to get a response.
Gary have sent you a PM you so you and I can talk about some of these issues I have read about.
Everest- We have again looked at Everest, and they are still attractive from the standpoint of their software and the pre-sales effort/attention. They are open source so we can do any customization we like, they have a stronger e-commerce offering then Netsuite and they are moving to the .net platform in 2008. I'm not crazy about their user interface and their drill downs are clunky (or I should say not as clean as Netsuite), but to us the biggest issues is still their pricing! while they pitch themselves as a solution for "small" business's, I believe they are priced for companies who are doing at least $4-5 million in revenues. I just read this interview with the Everest president which seems to support this notion http://s29294.gridserver.com/archive...r-choice.html). Relatively speaking, $4-5 million in sales is small business, but I believe these guys, as many other companies offering such software solutions, fail to recognize how many $1-$5 million business's there are who need such a solution. I respect that they feel strongly about their software and as such they take the "we only offer very limited discounts" position, but they still fail to recognize (as do many other vendors) that a $50,000++ initial investment + training, hosting and maintenance fees is a very large investment for a $2million company. I believe if their sales OR marketing group did a study on how many deals they lost to pricing they would take action to correct this.
Based on the great post by Chris_WI on page 8 of this thread, we are now in the process of looking at http://www.mainstreetcommerce.com (haven’t heard back from them yet but when we do I’ll update this post)
Evolution (www.darwinproductions.com): I have been playing with their demo version the past 2 days and have a demo set up with them tomorrow AM. So far I like what I see with these guys. It’s an open system and except for the fact that I have to get familiar with their user interface (obviously I’m now very familiar with Netsuite so everything we look at will require some time) I like what I see. Also they have been VERY responsive to e-mails and initial questions (I have received 3 e-mail responses today—which is a Sunday)
http://www.comtechsolutions.com: I have downloaded the Vision Core demo but cannot get it to work. I’m waiting to hear back from them regarding getting the demo to work + them scheduling a sales demo for us. I’ll update this once we hear back from them.
www.corezon.com: we’re waiting to hear back from these guys also.
www.devix.com: also waiting to hear back from these guys, although their cost has us concerned
So while we are not yet sure that we are moving away from Netsuite, we are looking and will be making a decision over the next 2 weeks. I’ll post an update on our findings as we make progress.
Dom
mutahman,
feel as though i know you, having read everything you've written here. timing is everything, isn't it? thank you for the update. glad your biz is going so well. will look forward to more from you.
Happy New Year!
I've received many private messages asking for a status report, so here it is.
Evolution (by Darwin Productions): We used the demo version for a week, had a demo with them and it's a pretty good solution that is affordable. My e-commerce director didn't like the fact that the shopping cart is their own code, so we have taken them out of the mix. This seems to be a pretty good solution that doesn't have many customer references, which makes us uneasy with regards to this software having been used in prime time and as such makes us wonder what (if any) issues can pop up when implemented. Here are the customer references we were provided with (a few of these sites are still not working at the time of this post). http://www.eiki.com/, http://www.firstmobe.com/, http://www.eworldbuyer.com/, http://www.fromeco.org/, http://www.vpodsecurity.com/, www.zwickerevanslewis.com, www.sawaskty.com, www.feltrim.com, www.firstmobe.com
Vision Core (by Comtech): We have used the demo for 2 weeks, had 2 demo's with them and like most of what we see. this is .net based and on SQL server database, and is very open for customization. With that said, most small companies (we are in this position) will have to have an integrator help with customization (in other words if we want to take advantage of this "openness" we have to have someone outside write the code). Their shopping cart (Able Commerce is the software that seamlessly and in real time integrates with Vision Core and provides the e-commerce capabilities) seems to be very strong, and everything on the back end (Acctg., Inventory, CRM is also pretty solid. They have most of what we need, multiple currency, we can add as many companies as we want, multi warehouse. The way we would set up price levels is a bit whacky, and the fact that we have to "post" documents even after they are saved (IE if we create and save an invoice, it still is not posted to the system and as such I can see that some transactions can go "missing". Another thing I don't like at all (and this is probably because I have grown accustomed to Netsuite) is the customization of reporting. When you click on a report you have to always set the date range (before a report pops open) and to customize a report seems a bit complicated. Also, most of the reports are an "end point", where the information from that report cannot be drilled down further. For example, today in Netsuite I have a Daily Sales Report, when I open it it shows me each transaction as a line item and I can then click on one particular sale and it takes me to the detail of that sale, I can then click on the customer name to have it take me to that customer, I can then click on "transacctions" to see all the transacctions of that customer. My point is that most all of the content in Netsuite reports remains dynamic in that I can continue to drill down from the report to find supporting information. In Vision Core I will have to run multiple reports to drill down (Vision Core does some drill down in some of their out of the box reports, but not much. Also, my e-commerce director tells me that he can do some customization work to some of our custom reports to make them web based, this way we can pull info from the Vision Core database and have hyperlinks on chosen reports. The total cost of ownership makes this package very attractive, where a 8 user license with 3 websites and maintenence is about $12,000. This doesn't include implementation and migration of data (we have 3 years worth of data on Netsuite and it's a MAJOR job to bring all the static and transactional data over), yet it's a very affordable price for what seems to be quite a strong solution.
Interprise Suites. these guys have solidified out initial opinion that they are not ready for prime time. My e-commerce director did an initial demo, and then asked for a second demo. He didn't hear back from them for about a month, and then just 2 days ago received a mail from the guy he was communicating with telling him "sorry I was in the hospital for a month". I don't doubt that the guy was in the hospital, but I have lived and worked in Asia for 15 years, and worked for 2 years in the Philippines and in my experience, reliability and the Philippines are 2 words that just don't go together. In this forum I sent a private message to Gary Harrison and still haven't heard back from them. Lastly, I spoke with an integrator of theirs, who told me that he nearly went out of business because he waited for a year for them to get the product ready for prime time, and despite many 2007 release dates having been set by Interprise, they consistently missed the dates. He told me he finally got an e-mail from them in December (I believe it was Dec 18) where he was told SP3 was ready to roll. We're going to do one more demo with them in the next week or so (because I have not seen them do a demo) but right now I feel there is no way I would consider these guys.
Netsuite. I wish these guys would wake up and smell the coffee with regards to pricing. Yes their e-commerce needs work, specifically they need to open up their cart. I have talked with 3 integrators who are now converting Netsuite customers to other solutions and all 3 told me 1 of 2 reasons why each customer was leaving Netsuite....it was either because of pricing OR because their cart was not open. It's a shame that they are not addressing these issues because I believe Netsuite offers the absolute best back end solution for us small business's. I hate the idea of moving away from these guys, and will have more talks with them this week to see if there is any way we can negotiate a way to stay with them.
Everest. Solution good. Implementation a nightmare (spoke with 2 of their integrators). Pricing stinks. They are going to be moving to .net which means there could be problems with this new release. In short, we have taken them off the list because they simply fail to recognize that they are priced out of the market.
Mainstreet commerce: Again open platform is very attractive and these guys are the most customizable amongst everything we have looked at. but we need general ledger and they don't have it (we would have to plug in something like Quickbooks) and I don't like the idea of that. I have received a PM from someone who had a terrible experience with Mainstreet. I think these guys are onto something, but need to beef up their support and sales team (it seemed weird that the CEO was the guy who responded to our mail and gave us a demo....it's not that I don't want to talk with the guy who is at the top of the totem pole, but if he's doing demo's all day that makes me a bit uncomfortable as to the size of the company and their ability to support us down the road).
Corezon never replied to a request for demo.
The skinny is, we like Vision Core the most but I'm not sure if we like them enough to leave Netsuite. We're going to continue digging deeper and if there are other solutions that you guys suggest are "definitely worth a look" let us know.
I hope this all helps
Muthaman,
Did you try PostBooks?
http://www.xtuple.org
xTuple just released PostBooks 2.3.0, which works with the Yahoo! shopping cart. This product is backed by a company with many years of solid product use in production environments.
Best of all, it's free; in fact, it's open source. You can buy support contracts for $600 per user per year, but you aren't required to do so.
It also has a unique advantage in that you can use Windows, Mac, or Linux for the server OR client. What these companies implementing on the .NET platform don't seem to realize is that Windows won't be the dominant platform forever. When Microsoft stops selling XP and Vista is the only thing you can get, and folks realize that they can hand over lots of money to buy a machine with enough power to run Vista, and more money for Vista itself - or just use a more reasonably-priced machine with Linux - many folks will opt for the Linux route. If you use PostBooks you can do this; with many others you cannot. xTuple has a case study of a company using all Macs and no PC's here:
http://www.xtuple.com/news/casestudy-moline.php
(Note that OpenMFG is the 'big brother' to PostBooks and offers much more ERP functionality...)