What type of business are you?
Hi Phil,
I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience. As a competitor of iCode, I'm just curious what type of business you are running and what your requirements are to go live. I'd just like the feedback on important issues for customers.
Thanks,
Rebecca
Comtech Solutions Worldwide, Inc.
www.comtechsolutions.com
Icode/Everest, Interprise, Mainstreet, Devix, Coresense, others
We too tried Icode's Accware (now Everest) in 2002. The implementation attempt failed, and shortly after we told them we were abandoning their product they tried to sell me the *new* Everest Advanced for only twice what I paid for Accware.
Five years have passed and we're revisiting the whole Ecommerce/CRM/ERP topic. I've spent many hours researching the various options, and here's a quick run-down of companies I've talked to so far:
http://www.mainstreetcommerce.com - Looks like a very good program. Very customizable. Written with the latest technologies in mind. As of now, a flat $15,000 license if they host it, or $20,000 deployed. Their intention is to meet 80% of your needs "out of the box" and customize the other 20% (at $125/hr) to your liking. Even the $15,000 is more than I want to spend, but they are either number 1 or 2 on my list right now -- does anyone have any experience with them? I spoke with the CEO and others, and have gotten good impressions from each person I've spoken with so far.
http://www.devix.com - This is the other company at the top of my list. If it were'nt for the $60,000+ price tag (they will lease it for 60 months), I think I'd already be a customer. This software seems to do everything but wash the dishes, and the customers I've spoken to seem satisfied (I called customers I found on my own, NOT customers from their referral list!). A MAJOR feature they have is something call the Business Process Accelerator, which they say allows you to set rules for any business function or process that can be logically defined. For example, send an email to any wholesale customer that purchased x product in the past but not in the last x days, then set a phone call followup for 7 days thereafter. They said they support all the price engine data feeds, multiple sites with one database, purchase automation, warehouse management, rma's, accounting, etc. They also have a 2-way API that integrates with QuickBooks if you prefer. Hosting starts at a reasonable $300/month, considering the size of the application and data files, and the high-end nature of their hosting. I'm also interested in hearing from anybody using Devix.
http://www.corezon.com - Has a quite flexible web site. I think they will quote you whatever price they feel you're willing to pay through, so be careful. I spoke with customers (again, customers I found through Google) who paid from $2,000 to $20,000 for essentially the same software. One customer stated they have to "hound" their support department to get problems resolved. Their backend is pretty powerful, but doesn't have as high-tech of a feel, and certain things aren't thought out as well as I'd like. They don't "integrate" with Quickbooks - only export to csv files and the like. Many features advertised online are "add-on" modules, and some advertised add-ons don't work (according to one customer, they bought Amazon integration 6 months ago and their support department still doesn't have it working with their site).
http://www.darwinproductions.net - This software -- Evolution -- is currently 3rd on my list. What I like about it is the affordable price tag -- currently $750 per seat for the backend solution, plus $2500 for the ecommerce module. Most things are well thought out, and it is also built on the latest technologies and with security and customization abilities at the forefront. A couple features that are critical to some ecommerce stores and that are commonplace in high-end standalone carts do not exist. For instance, each product can only be placed in a single product category, and product categories can only be 2 levels deep. Also, when doing a search in their backend software, it only searches from the beginning of a customer or item. So if you search for a customer with "Roofing" in the name it will not pull up "Quality Roofing Company"! I'm not convinced that customizing this software would be as simple as with some of the other solutions.
http://www.coresense.com - From conversations and demos, this looks to be very good software. However, it is expensive. They said to figure $30,000-50,000 for implementation, and then maintenance/support/hosting is about $2,000/month (they are strictly a hosted solution). They don't have an accounting component to their software.
http://www.bizautomation.com - probably a good choice for some people. Looks nice overall; they don't fully integrate with Quickbooks or other accounting software, yet they are still building their own general ledger application. I've generally seen that version 1.0 of any GL app is not completely thought out and is therefore cumbersome to use. Not nearly as big of an application as some of the others, but then again not as expensive.
http://www.interprisesuite.com - These folks have a really nice start on a great package. Best of all, their single user license is currently FREE! Unfortunately, version 1.0 SP1 was just released May 2007, and I had a very bad experience using version 1.0 of a product by Comtech Solutions. Ironically, a principal from Comtech at the time is now one of the lead players at Interprise Solutions. I'm serious, though, when I say they have a very nice product. Great framework, new technology, an unbelievable number of features, and an affordable price. As of May 2007 it is a flat $500/user, and add $1295 for the ecommerce module developed jointly with AspDotNetStorefront. Since I could get the free 1-user version, I had a chance to spend a lot of time with it before deciding it isn't polished enough for use at my business. I can't really point to 1 thing - just a bunch of "little" things, such as a lack of a "leave for now" button on the bank reconciliation screen. Without it, I could be 1 transaction away from finishing the reconciliation, and if I had to return later I'd have to restart from scratch. Mr. Gary Harrision, if you read this post, I'd probably have already purchased your product if you offered a 2-way API integration with Quickbooks. This way I could benefit from all of the wonderful features of your CRM/Ecommerce/Purchasing/etc without having to put up with the shortfalls of the verson 1.0 General Ledger like I described above.
http://www.comtechsolutions.com - This is the company that wrote Image Accouting Premier, Adept.Net, and now VisionCore. They are all 3 basically the same program, except Image Accounting is Access-based and VisionCore is .NET based and essentially a renamed version of Adept.Net, which was strictly a .NET version of Image Accounting. In 2005, Version 1.0 of Adept.Net was so bad that I asked to be switched to Image Accounting (VisionCore was not yet released). I can't speak for VisionCore, but the other 2 programs were essentially a lot of unusable eye-candy. They had a "built-in" dayplanner module that was actually a separate application that opened and closed every time you accessed it. Their web module was essentially non-functional. Now with VisionCore I see they partnered with AbleCommerce, which has a good reputation. On almost every screen was a half-implemented feature. They introduced a "loyalty" program, but it forced you to redeem points by writing a check to the customer, and ALL customers qualified for the program if you turned it on, with no exceptions based on specially discounted prices that some customers received. In other words, implemented just enough to say they included a loyalty program but not enough for most companies to actually use it. Sorry, I guess I rambled a bit there...
http://www.dydacomp.com - tested their version 4.0 several years ago. The whole program had an antiquated feel to it, and customers still complain wildly about their Sitelink ecommerce module. Now they are on version 6 or so, and when you read forum postings it seems most are complaints about speed, customization, integration, stability, technology (its written in FoxPro), etc. Unless it does exactly what you're looking for, I wouldn't recommend it.
http://www.*********.com - I haven't even called this place, and they aren't really ERP/CRM software (they are an order management solution), but I've read so many positive posts about Barney Stone and their customer service that I had to give him a mention.
http://www.netsuite.com - This company is just too big. They scare me because as a rule the larger a company gets the dumber it gets. They lose touch with what customers need. I've read posts about Netsuite quoting one price, then drop the price 50-70% though negotions. I've also read about customers having their monthly fees doubled or tripled after a contract period ended. They just seem way too unpredicable.
There you have it. My quest for a high-end ecommerce system integrated with CRM and Accounting, starting with ICode/Accware/Everest.
My only hope now is that I don't get kicked off the forum for such a long post. Anyone have feedback on any of these solutions?
Other options if you're in the Office Products Industry
Being in the office products industry, these are other packages I've looked at:
http://www.thalerus.com - Quite good, quite pricey, very rigid website structure.
http://www.digitalgateway.com - the new kid on the block, new technology, nice feature set, instead of doing their own ecommerce, they partnered with Structured Web.
http://www.structuredweb.com - I wasn't impressed by them. A lot of flash, but missing very basic web features. Very modular price structure (for example, $1200/yr to put your product catalog online (browse only), ANOTHER $1200/yr to enable your customers to PURCHASE products online, ANOTHER $1200/yr for access to a tool that lets you manage your own online content instead of going through their support department. Give me a break!
http://www.redcheetah.com What the do, they do nicely. But they're basically an expensive website.
http://www.omd.com - Has a nice new web module, but the back end is written in DOS.
http://www.eci2.com - Also a nice new web module, but the back end is written mostly in DOS. A few screens are still TEXT BASED without a Windows-style GUI!
http://www.varstreet.com
http://www.flashecom.com
For reference only, I'm listing these because they are related to this topic, but it took me a lot of searching to find them. they are easy to overlook:
http://www.ingeniasoft.com
http://www.escalateretail.com
http://www.ordersuite.com
http://www.tekinteractive.com
http://www.cuttingedgecomputing.com
http://www.colinear.comhttp://www.newhavensoftware.com