Mid-Level ERP Suitable For Make-to-Stock, Make-to-Order, High-Volume Firms
Dr. Roberta Ann Jones, Ph.D., CPA
Assistant Professor of Accounting
Department of Accounting, 201 I Kelce
Kelce College of Business
Pittsburg State University
Pittsburg, Kansas, USA 66762
Fax: 620-235-4558
E-Mail:
Voice: 620-235-4581
The author would like to thank Weaver Leather, Inc. for the financial support of this project as well as assistance in identification and refinement of the evaluation criteria.
Abstract
A sample of ERP software suitable for high-volume make-to-stock, make-to-order software is evaluated. Software vendors evaluated include Adonix, Ecometry, Frontstep, JD Edwards, PowerCerv, ROI and TGI. All of these software packages, except Ecometry, have the standard functionality expected of ERP software: CRM, MRP, and Financials. Ecometry has partnered with Peachtree and Microsoft Great Plains to provide Financials. All of these products have real-time processing capability, run on standard relational databases, use standardized structured query language (SQL), and are ODBC compliant. Evaluation criteria includes vendor responsiveness, order entry process, customer maintenance, inventory maintenance, financials, reporting and operating system type.
Keywords
ERP, Make-to-Stock, Make-to-Order, Manufacturing Software
Introduction
High volume manufacturing firms require real-time access to inventory information for use by sales order entry clerks, marketing representatives, shipping clerks, and management personnel. Pricing information should be readily available without too much drill down because each drill down will take valuable seconds that matter when tens of thousands of transactions are being processed. Screen layout and exception reporting are critical in order to facilitate speed of transaction processing. In short, high volume mid-level manufacturing firms require ERP software with high-end functionality at an affordable mid-level price. This can be a tall order, indeed.
Nevertheless, the ERP market, today, is vast and such products do exist. A sample of these products evaluated for this article are Adonix X3 by Adonix Corporation (Adonix), Ecometry Systems by Ecometry Corporation (Ecometry), Syteline 7 by Frontstep Incorporated (Frontstep), JD Edwards (JDE), ERP Plus by PowerCerv Technologies Corporation (PowerCerv), Manage 2000 by ROI Systems, Inc. (ROI) and Enterprise 21 by Technology Group International, Ltd. (TGI).
Each package was evaluated using criteria developed with the assistance of Weaver Leather, Inc., a high-volume manufacturer of leather products. Evaluation criteria included vendor responsiveness, order entry process, customer maintenance, inventory maintenance, financials, reporting, and operating system. Also noted are any particularly excellent features unique to a particular package.
Cost Information
Cost information from software vendors can be tricky. Very few systems are so designed that they have only one level of costs. On can often buy more (less) expensive hardware, include more (less) software functions, provide more (less) training or documentation; all of these impacting both costs and benefits. Thus, comparing the cost/benefits of two or more systems is usually not a comparison of two points but rather a comparison of two curves. Cost per concurrent user (or named user in the case of Frontstep) is provided but this should be considered only a starting point in any negotiations with a particular vendor.
Methodology
Evaluation criteria was developed with the assistance of the management of Weaver Leather, Inc. of Ohio, USA. The full range of criteria is available upon request. A subset of the criteria is presented in Table I.
Take in Table I
After the criteria was agreed the internet was searched for ERP vendors advertising their applicability as suitable for the manufacturing environment. These vendors were contacted and invited to participate in this review. The evaluation criteria was provided to these vendors. Software vendors who thought that their product could meet most or all of the software requirements included in the evaluation criteria were invited to proceed to an on-line demonstration. During the demonstration the author elected not to pursue several packages that, in fact, did not meet the evaluation criteria. Thus, the line-up reviewed here includes those software vendors that responded to the initial query, agreed to proceed with a demonstration, and were able to meet most of the evaluation criteria.
The Evaluations
$3,500/concurrent user
web: www.adonix.com
Summary: The primary weakness of this software is in the Sales Order Process. The strengths are in the Business Partner set-up. Inventory set-up is adequate. This product originated in France and, as such, is well-designed for International sales. However, some of the terminology may be a bit different for USA users. For example, backorders are called shortages in this product.
Evaluation:
Responsiveness: The Adonix marketing people are very responsive. It can be difficult, however, to obtain information from their website.
Order entry: Sales order entry is a good fit for high-volume firms but it could be improved. The most obvious elements missing being (1) different price structures are not shown on the sales order and (2) a matrix with color/size choices is also not shown on the sales order. These can be accomplished with the built-in “tool-set” and the configurator but other packages do this better.
Customer Maintenance: Adonix uses the concept of Business Partner as opposed to Vendor, Customer, etc. There are business partner roles and types for customer, carrier, sales representative, factor or miscellaneous, prospects, and vendors. Setting up a business partner is done by checking the appropriate field in the master record.
Business partner numbers are 10 alpha-numeric digits. Changing numbers is extremely simple.
You can have unlimited contacts and addresses per business partner. The addresses are labeled 1, 2, and 3 but you could use these fields labeled “invoice-to”, “bill-to”, etc. In addition to the addresses tab, there is a second tab which is linked to the address tab for specifying the “ship-to” customer.
There is a lot of built in flexibility that can be used in a number of ways. Yet, the Adonix representatives say that their CRM is only about 85% done. As is, their CRM functionality is more than adequate. When completed, this CRM will be awesome.
Inventory Maintenance: The inventory products are laid out in a similar fashion to business partners. The user interface of Adonix is well-thought out and consistent throughout. There is a place for a picture link, UPC code, when the product is introduced, and a search key on the main screen.
There is no field available for catalog page number or items such as color or family code. Family codes might be done using “group pricing.” Royalty codes would have to be an added field. Case pricing looks possible but was not demonstrated.
They have an actual MRP module that is really special with more than adequate functionality for most needs.
Financials: Financials are fairly standard. They don’t have a fixed asset module, nor do they have statement cycle printing, which is a tad unusual. You can have up to 24 open periods per fiscal calendar.
Reporting: is done primarily through Crystal Reports; a standard in the industry but not particularly easy to use. Power users won’t have a problem generating their own reports but less sophisticated users will have to rely on systems people to build custom reports.
Operations: Database choices are standard: Oracle or DB2 on Unix; SQL Server 7 or Oracle on Windows NT and Windows 2000. Real time or batch processing is at the user’s choice.
This product can be implemented as a completely integrated system or you can install individual modules or subsets of modules. This latter approach might make a transition easier to do.
Supports 2 or 3 versions back but source code is not sold.
Special Features: Most applications within Adonix have a “workbench” to walk you through the process. These workbenches can be thought of as similar to “Wizards.” There are also interactive displays that the user can set up. The screens are clean and uncluttered. A “right-click” or F12 key will generate a list to fill-in any given field. The interface is very consistent.
Take in Figure 1
Ecometry
$3,600/concurrent user
Plus ≤ $61,000 for Great Plains
web: www.ecometry.com
Summary: This is a “Best of Breed” solution with Ecometry providing most of the functionality and financials being provided by an interface with Microsoft Great Plains Dynamics or Peachtree. Their strength is in customer relationship management.
Evaluation:
Responsiveness: The sales people are very responsive and eager to please.
Order Entry: On the order entry screen there can appear memo’s about the customer or the product. Multiple ship-to addresses are possible and will appear in the bottom right screen as selected. Information about the customer appearing on the sales order screen comes directly from the customer master file.
Customer Maintenance: The campaign management module is nicely designed and unique in the line-up presented in this report. This is very well organized and well thought out.
Inventory Maintenance: Inventory items are referred to as “Content” throughout Ecometry. Because they do not have financials the only vendor information kept within Ecometry is here. All other vendor information would be stored in Great Plains or Peachtree. There is a field for “Minimum Price”. This is where one would ensure that the price could not be set to zero.
Ecometry does not allow for selling a partial unit. Shipping is integrated within the product.
Financials: At this time they have chosen to discontinue providing financial accounting choosing, instead, to partner with Peachtree for smaller firms and Great Plains for larger firms. Within Ecometry there is no General Ledger, no Accounts Payable, and no time card capability. Ecometry does support Accounts Receivable.
The hooks are already built-in to their product for Great Plains and Peachtree. If they demo the product for you they will show you both Ecometry and one of these financials already integrated.
It is interesting that they have also chosen to keep the financial statement details in Ecometry. Detail is summarized within Ecometry and passed to Great Plains. Because the two products are seamlessly integrated, it may not matter where the detail is kept. Ecometry uses a 3rd party vendor to seamlessly integrate the two packages for you.
Reporting: They have over 800 standard reports. Any new reports would probably require the assistance of systems people. It would not be easy for the average end-user to build their own reports. With over 800 standard reports it may be difficult to find the exact report one wants.
Operations: The package runs on Windows 2000 or UNIX. All modifications are supposed to be forward compatible. This runs on an Oracle database.
Supports 1 version back and source code is available.
Special Features: Ecometry is in transition from a non-graphical user interface product to a GUI product. This is always a difficult period for a software vendor.
Take in Figure 2
FrontStep (Syteline 7)
$2,700/named user
web: www.FrontStep.com
Summary: The ease with which new user-defined-fields (UDF’s) can be added to any screen you like is extraordinary. This software is, by far, the easiest software to modify of any ERP reviewed by this author. In order to have a complete ERP, a firm would need to purchase the standard package, the Instant Order Fulfillment module (IOF) and the CRM module. This, plus named user pricing, would make this the most expensive option in this lineup.
Evaluation:
Responsiveness: It was difficult to schedule a demonstration. Once scheduled, however, the people are very easy to work with.
Order Entry: Order entry is adequate but not outstanding. Modifications would be required to allow the order entry clerk to view different price structures. To see a matrix with color/size choices would require the use of the configurator. Credit card processing would require a separate license. A modification would also be required to force a minimum quantity on the sales order. Drill down will take the order entry clerk to inventory item availability.
If there are memo’s attached to the customer or the inventory item a check mark will appear in the upper right hand corner. Clicking on this check mark will bring up the memo. This is a very nice feature.
Back order processing can only be done with the IOF module.
Customer Maintenance: There is nothing particularly wrong with customer maintenance except that merging multiple customers into one customer would require a modification. They have a cross-reference feature, that can be used in several places throughout the system that allows for easily specifying relationships between two items. For example, ensuring that only certain customers can order certain items can be done with the cross-reference screen. Special pricing by customer can also be done using this type of screen. This is a unique feature that works really well.
Pricing is one of their weak spots. It would take a modification to do case pricing, mix and match pricing and 30/60/90 day terms all on one invoice. These probably would not be easy modifications.
Inventory Maintenance: This is one of their stronger areas. The fields they are missing could easily be put in place by using UDF’s. Items that need to be treated differently could be put into different virtual warehouses. Each warehouse can point to a different General Ledger account.
It would require modifications to keep work orders open until time is added or to renumber inventory items. A separate license would be required to use their radio frequency (RF) product but they do have hooks built in to the software for other RF products.
Kit Processing can only be done with the IOF add-on module.
Financials: They do not have the capability of converting or linking customers with vendors; finance charges would require running a report to calculate, and the software does not support volume rebates. Other than these issues, the financial module is adequate.
Reporting: This is done primarily through Crystal Reports. Once again, power users won’t have a problem generating their own reports but less sophisticated users will have to rely on systems people to build custom reports.
Operations: The product uses standard Windows running on SQL Server. The CRM module is an add-on that runs on a different SQL D/B, but is fully integrated with the core product. The reason the CRM runs on a different database is to provide additional security for the on-line access used by the CRM. The software can handle up to 400 concurrent users.
Supports many, many versions back and source code is available.
Special Features: The ease with which user defined fields can be added and current fields modified cannot be stressed enough. For example, there is a user-defined tab in every form already in place to hold UDFs. A tool is available with a mouse-click to add and/or configure fields as needed. This is unquestionably the best part of this software. Additional tabs are also very easy to add. Anyone who has done this in Access or SQL Server can do this in Frontstep. New updates of the code do not affect these changes as they are stored in a separate “section” of the Database.