Infor SyteLine Blog is 4 Weeks Old!

Hi to all!

I’d like to share to everyone some humble accomplishments of this site. I am also happy that with the recent topics posted, it was helpful to many organizations globally and somehow might be able to provide some headaches to SyteLine’s competition one way or the other.

My only commitment is to pursue accurateness in my posts, i hope you guys would still be around to read.

See ya all!

Key statistics since June 6, 2007 to July 6, 2007:

- at least 2,000 visitors – as of July 6, 2007!

- Visitors coming from at least 23 countries (Stats just started June 22, 2007). Unfortunately my free web counter only tracks the 100 last visits, i think conservatively, this is about at least 30 countries – including Singapore etc…

- 5 emails of appreciation which I replied and 1 blog comment which I answered

- At least 13 global locations which had at least 10-99 regular viewers each

- Top viewed useful posts (15 of 22) below based on ranking:
1. How Infor SyteLine Beats SAP and Oracle in Actual Engagements
2. Infor SyteLine vs Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formerly Microsoft Navision) – Part 1
3. ERP Solutions – Download Their Brochures Here!
4. Infor Syteline wins Treasure Island (Cebu) over Oracle and QAD
5. How Infor Syteline Will “Always” Beat QAD Enterprise Applications 2007 (a.k.a. MFG/PRO) – Detailed
6. Infor SyteLine vs Macola vs QAD
7. Infor SyteLine’s Easy Interaction with Spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice.Org)
8. Infor Syteline wins 3C Distributors over Oracle and Exact
9. Infor SyteLine vs Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formerly Microsoft Navision) – Part 2
10. Infor SyteLine wins INOAC over SAP and QAD
11. Infor SyteLine on Mac and Linux?
12. ERP Evaluation: Named vs Concurrent
13. ERP Evaluation: Tools!
14. ERP Evaluation: Modular / Granule or Complete System?
15. Infor Syteline Recent Wins

Country Share Stats

ClustrMaps Results

Infor SyteLine vs Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formerly Microsoft Navision) – Part 2

Wow! I did not really expect that the “Infor SyteLine vs Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formerly Microsoft Navision)” topic would be a hit! It was able to stay on top of the most viewed topic for the past week (since it was posted). Its very logical to follow it up with a “Sequel” right?

This comparison will cover each functional areas such as – Financials, Human Resources, Manufacturing Management, Inventory Management, Purchasing Management, Quality Management, Sales Management and Product Technology.

Although the document was published some years back, this will still be a good tool to start verifying if SyteLine is still a superior product against Navision. The attached document was an output from TecEval and was consolidated to end up with this report for easy comprehension. I am very sure that Navision came up with enhancements – but I am also very certain SyteLine also did its homework.

Download comparison here: Navision vs SyteLine – Part 2

There was a lot of search engine queries about Navision vs SyteLine that pointed to this evaluation site, i am very sure that Navision was being evaluated alongside with SyteLine in many countries right now. Good luck to both vendors!

I hope this will be helpful on your current evaluations – which I know my last post did!

Note: The full burden of evaluation will still be in the hands of the evaluator for verifications. This article is just a guide, not a basis for your selection.

Infor SyteLine vs Microsoft Navision – Part 2 – Summary:

ERP Evaluation: Modular / Granule or Complete System?

Hello!

This post was triggered by a comment on my recent post on “Infor SyteLine vs Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formerly Microsoft Navision)”. Please visit this post for your reference as well.

Thank you “Weddingspeech” for the comment.

So which is which? Modular / Granule or Complete?

I really think if a client is buying on a modular/granule basis, SyteLine should not be in that account – that specific client might probably need an accounting system at most.

In my opinion, it depicts the purpose of integration if a customer does not take advantage of having a unified system that connects the whole enterprise rather than implement by granule/module every other 6 months such as AP, AR, Inventory etc… a customer will still end up buying the whole system within the year or the next – to sum it all up – it costs more.

How can a customer get accurate real-time information in their AR (Accounts Receivable) if they were not able to invoice, deliver, or at least monitor inventory on what is available to be delivered – Revenue Cycle. Or how can they get information on their AP (Account Payable) if they where not able to make/send a PO to the supplier then accept the deliveries, and again monitor inventories? – Procurement Cycle – And most especially in Production Cycle, how can a customer get proper product costing if the business process is not complete in terms on making customer order – cross referenced to a job order – then triggered a PO – then tracking of WIP (work in processes) etc… At the end of the day, it will not be enough.

A smart evaluator should already know what they will be needing for the next 2 to 5 years rather than change a system every 2 years. In my experience, SyteLine in many occasions was able to replace systems such as Accpac, Peachtree, Platinum, Macola, Exact to name a few – because of functionalties that lacks in distribution and most especially in manufacturing.

Normally if an organization has limited budget or wants to buy in a modular/granular basis, I recommend systems such as Peachtree, Quickbooks or maybe MYOB so that they will have minimal exposure – after 1 or 2 years – SyteLine will be a replacement long term system for them afterwards. Still, wasting time on implementing a system that will be replaced soon will be a heavy consideration.

Nevertheless, customers will still have the last say on which vendor to choose and it will also depend on how it was positioned to them by the vendor.

Infor SyteLine vs Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formerly Microsoft Navision)

Hello!

Anyone knows how Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formerly Microsoft Navision) competes with Infor’s SyteLine?

I hope this post will be helpful to those organizations who currently evaluate Microsoft’s Navision and still was not able to include SyteLine in their shortlisted vendors. You need to really stop and read the downloadable items in this post and then proceed in your evaluation and include SyteLine.

Although Navision is a very good product from Microsoft, especially it recently being a full .NET compliant application; It still lacks some major functionalities needed for Distribution and Manufacturing companies – plus not having the APS (Advance Planning and Scheduling) solution at all. Having said that, every product has its own special niches, Navision maybe just can’t compete within SyteLine’s domain – vice versa – SyteLine might not be able to compete within Navision’s niche – which is being a general financial accounting package.

Based on an assessment made by one of erpevaluation.com’s users, i managed to get this result in the past that might prove to be useful in your evaluation. This shows that out of 10 – Infor’s SyteLine scores 9.59 while Microsoft’s Navision is only 4.82 – download the document here.

It really puzzles me, why Microsoft did not acquire SyteLine in the past – SyteLine was one of the first ERP applications being on .NET; I hope someone can send me an email about it.

Note: The full burden of evaluation will still be in the hands of the evaluator for verifications. This article is just a guide, not a basis for your selection.

Infor SyteLine vs Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formerly Microsoft Navision)

How Infor SyteLine Beats SAP and Oracle in Actual Engagements

After all those marketing smokes, campaigns, fancy brochures and other stuffs – it will now come to actual solutions that are really essential to the end customers. Please find time to read this post.

I think this is a much awaited topic/subject for SyteLine’s competition and evaluators globally; and for me, this is a hard subject to write as well.

Some of the information in this post can be seen in SyteLine7.com forums so this is not really a secret. This is where the power of the Internet comes to place and evaluators take very huge advantage.

To add, I also feel that those online evaluation tools that you can find in the Internet are rigged (in my opinion – maybe not all). ERP Vendors who pay huge advertising money to that site are better positioned in their download materials – who knows? Bottom line, nothing beats face to face interaction with ERP Suppliers rather than fully relying on online tools specially if huge money/investment is at stake.

Ok, here we go.

Top 3 SyteLine KO’s:

1. SyteLine’s forms personalization is a very powerful tool that any user (if given access) can do. ALL you see in SyteLine is modifiable. Yes! This is true! Most of the time, users have a tons of wish lists that needs to be served, imagine if all those wish lists can be served by themselves (if given authorization) and not by the vendor or their IT department? With just seconds of navigation, users can add fields, modify the actual look and feel, combine 2 or more forms into 1, create field triggers without the need for heavy programming. Imagine the lowest possible TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of never ever to call the ERP supplier if you need to change ANYTHING in the system? Imagine all the remaining deficiency of the system can already be done inhouse – to make it 100% fit!

Note: .NET based ERP Solutions can easily do this. Unless those solutions were already updated and offer such functionalities. Please verify to the vendors concerned.

2. SyteLine’s easy interaction with spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel or open source office applications – please refer to this post.

Note: .NET based ERP Solutions can easily do this. Unless those solutions were already updated and offer such functionalities. Please verify to the vendors concerned.

3. SyteLine’s Constraint Based Planning and Scheduling engine a.k.a. – APS – Advance Planning and Scheduling. Now, this is a knock-out! This is where SyteLine’s domain expertise comes to play. In almost all cases, ERP Solutions only have MRP. Do you know what’s the difference between MRP (Material Resource Planning) and APS (Advance Planning and Scheduling)? here is some of the reasons on why you need to know APS and why you dont hear APS from Non-SyteLine Providers.

a.) MRP uses finite planning while APS uses constraint-based planning even at order entry.
b.) MRP can only check inventory (available-to-promise) but if no stock is available, you have to wait for the MRP run before you can know if you could truly deliver an order.
c.) MRP normally runs at night because you need to freeze inventory (no transaction happening) which means you will not have immediate information of changes to the plans, normally the information will be available the following day already.
d.) APS will check both inventory and capacity, presenting the feasibility of fulfilling a requested order at order entry-point.
e.) Distribution and manufacturing companies nowadays need APS for them to be competitive since at present JIT or Kanban is a must practice at present.

For a Non-SyteLine Solution to be able to compete, they will need to add systems such as those coming from Adexa, or if evaluating SAP – they need to add APO (Advance Planning and Ordering), i2 Technologies – Rhythm, Manugistics – Manugistics supply chain suite, Numetrix – Schedulex, Oracle’s – Oracle APS.

SyteLine’s APS is already integrated in its core system – this is not an add-on meaning – no integration problems – all real-time and in its natural coding.

This is where SAP, Oracle, QAD, Exact, Scala, Microsoft Dynamics (Navision) or any other ERP provider find very hard time to answer, maybe because competency of APS is very hard to find; SyteLine’s APS comes natural in its regular implementations. I just don’t know why Non-SyteLine providers find this complicated.

To know more about APS, please read “The Goal” maybe the second edition is retitled “Theory of Constraints” by “Eliyahu M. Goldratt“. – This was suggested by an APS expert/friend, he is in Malaysia.

SyteLine’s Easy Interaction with Spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice.Org)

This is one of SyteLine’s WOW! features that is truly an indispensible function to users or corporations who is trying to acquire an ERP software!

Can you find an ERP solution, even from those popular ERP packages that can:

1.) Copy batch transactions from the ERP solution – like copying from Microsoft Excel.

2.) Paste the transactions to a spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice.Org)

3.) Edit the transactions within the spreadsheet software. – Offline

4.) Paste it back to the ERP Solution

5.) ERP solution will automatically validate those pasted transactions from the spreadsheet if there are errors!

6.) Post all those transactions ALL at once!

7.) Without the help from an I.T. personnel!

I have been around in the ERP industry for quite some time and I have NOT yet heard this from any ERP Provider in the Philippines such as SAP, Oracle, Exact, Platinum, QAD, Greatplains, ERIC (Local Based) (to name a few – i will think of other vendors that i was able to bump to) – Unless they already have an “Add-on” module that needs to be attached to the system. SyteLine’s .NET environment can do this with SUPER-EASE and with few seconds of navigation.

Note: .NET based ERP Solutions can easily do this. Unless those solutions were already updated and offer such functionalities. Please verify to the vendors concerned.

You will normally hear a contradicting response from your ERP Vendor (Non-SyteLine) such as: ===> Will that be essential to your business requirements? Its not important in your evaluation and should not be prioritized! Our system will have this functionality “maybe” on our future versions.

Ok, now this is SyteLine’s response!

Having this functionality is one of those essential solutions that an organization should get because:

1. Imagine that organizations can save licenses/users by not logging on initially, while encoding data from an spreadsheet (EXCEL/OPENOFFICE) and later do batch pasting or processing! (take note – this is not a import function that are normally being done by IT, this is purely pasting data from excel [CTRL C and CTRL V]) to the ERP System. Wow!

2. Imagine that users will not need to encode one-by-one the transactions to the system. If a user already have a data masterfile such as vendors, customers, unposted job transactions, chart of accounts without the need for IT! Its easy as copy and paste!

3. Imagine to see happy faces of users! of not having to find hard time of training users to use the system… If they want to use EXCEL, “let them use EXCEL, by ALL MEANS!”.

4. Imagine on having the shortest learning curve as possible on trainings!

5. By the way, having this feature added in any solution will require the overall system to be re-written. Will any vendor want to re-write their software? I think not. This will more-likely to be an add-on in the future. Just dont forget what problems arise in add-ons. Its always not its natural coding – if that is the case, there will always be problems.

Truly, SyteLine is a must have system for Distribution and Manufacturing companies alike. How can you live without this feature? I just dont know how any ERP vendors can rebuke such functionality! Bring em on!

Happy evaluation you guys!

ERP Evaluation Tools!

I uploaded some evaluation tools that will be very helpful during any selection process of an ERP system. Normally you can buy this for hundreds of dollars online. Well, you can just download it here!

Its found in the left side of this panel. You can see Round 1 and Round 2. Normally you start with 3 vendors (Round 1) then shortlist to 2 (Round 2).

regards!

Syteline wins Treasure Island (Cebu) over Oracle and QAD

Yep! Syteline won Treasure Island over Oracle and. SAP was considered by Tresure Island Industrial Corporation (TIIC) at the start but was kicked out in the initial phase of the evaluation. Oracle made some demos but did not pass those tedious requirements of TIIC. QAD made some visits and demos but in the end – Syteline came on top!

TIIC has lots of business units that they manage, which includes – paint, chemicals, tin can, packaging are among others and have dealers nationwide and at the same time branches that looks over those dealers. QAD was our closest competition at time, they made a good presentation on their JAVA based and .NET GUI but at the end of the day, they hit the wrong buttons. QAD’s MFG-PRO has outgrew its potential and being their customer will already pose a lot of problems. I made some candid analysis on QAD’s functional/software deficiencies that i am very sure you will try to verify:

POINT 1

QAD Extends Solution Suite to Microsoft Platform. Business Wire, May 9, 2006.

To serve even more of the world’s manufacturers, QAD Inc., a leading provider of enterprise applications for global manufacturers, is now shipping its flagship ERP software with a Microsoft .NET Framework-based user interface and will offer support for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 database technology in the near future. As a result of close collaboration with Microsoft, current and future releases of the QAD software suite will take advantage of the Microsoft platform.

The extension will help manufacturers worldwide make the most of their technology investments, whether they are planning to deploy the latest QAD ERP suite, Global Enterprise Edition, QAD GXE into an IT environment standardized on the Microsoft platform or extending their present QAD implementation to new sites using Microsoft database technology. In both cases, customers can expect seamless operation across sites using a mix of Microsoft and other database and platform technologies

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/?epi_menuItemID=989a6827590d7dda9cdf6023a0908a0c&epi_menuID=c791260db682611740b28e347a808a0c&epi_baseMenuID=384979e8cc48c441ef0130f5c6908a0c&ndmViewId=news_view&newsLang=en&div=464472337&newsId=20060508005571

Conclusion: QAD recognizes that .NET is the future. For them to somehow look in that deficiency they have only managed to create a UI (user interface) not the full .NET created application. QAD’s front and backend is Progress.

POINT 2

QAD Deficiencies (Philippines):

1. Drag and Drop to MS Excel to Application (vice versa)

2. Progress based, maybe a technology limitation “NOT .NET”. This is why Syteline moved to .NET

3. APS is not fully integrated. Need to buy from ADEXA or their “The Planner”. SYTELINE’s APS is tightly integrated with core ERP. This will also entail additional costs on Progress modules and additional man-days

4. Forms personalization not available. This is done thru an EXPERT PROGRESS PROGRAMMER. Just to add a field already needs modification. Every move is a modification.

5. Report Builder is the standard report writing tool (may have limited functions). Not Crystal Report writer.

6. QAD’s partner in the philippines just started recently. Ask them what implementations they succesfully completed under their company.

7. Workflow automation may not bundled

8. Progress is not common knowledge. Skills availability is a constraint. Progress programmers costs higher and harder to find. Turnover is a problem. To be independent with progress, this will be a problem.

9. Find/filtering options is less compared to Syteline.

10. A customer must be trained to 3 language sets – JAVA, .NET and with PROGRESS

11. User Interface priority is not clear. Character? JAVA? .NET? PROGRESS?
POINT 3 (Reference can be found in the internet)

To be “AT PAR” with Syteline (without additional modules) using QAD. A customer must buy these additional modules/extentions for QAD. Not mention other pre-requisite requirements of the Progress Platform: (Syteline already has this modules “as standard offering” on the base software. No need to install separately.)

1. QAD .NET UI provides a rich client framework for QAD Applications—giving users state-of-the-art user interface features, such as ad hoc management of windows, tree view menus and drag-and-drop capabilities.

2. QXtend simplifies the transfer of data between QAD products and also simplifies the import and export of data between QAD products and other enterprise external systems.

3. QAD Desktop provides quick and easy access to the full functionality of MFG/PRO and within a Web browser, in an intranet environment.

4. Q/LinQ is a developer’s toolkit for enabling the exchange of data between MFG/PRO applications and/or other external applications.

5. Data Synchronization is a flexible solution with processes that can be deployed to automatically replicate critical data across sites, domains, and databases within an enterprise.

6. QAD Production Scheduler is a Web-based application that increases scheduling efficiency by leveraging MFG/PRO demand, supply and MRP data from several report, inquiry, and maintenance screens into a single screen.

7. The Planner provides finite capacity planning and scheduling tools for managing production through capacity-constrained resources.

POINT 4 (Reference can be found in the internet)

Support by Progress for the Microsoft .Net Client

An important feature within the OpenEdge Release 10 product that allows for native support of Microsoft .NET is the ProDataSet. The ProDataSet provides mapping between a set of database tables or other data sources and can be passed from one procedure to another as a single object. It can be shared with .NET and other open technologies and maps directly on to a Microsoft ADO (ActiveX Data Objects). ADO is a Component object model object for accessing data sources. It provides a layer between programming languages and databases, which allows a developer to write programs which access data, without knowing how the database is implemented. Progress’ support for the .NET client is the major reason why the next generation User Interface for MFG/PRO is based on .NET and it leverages much of the existing Progress technology that allows a seamless integration between the .NET environment and the Progress environment.

Conclusion: QAD is not native .NET. Only interfaced!

POINT 5 (Reference can be found in the internet)

Refactoring efforts with Progress

QAD is currently migrating its application architecture towards a full Service-Oriented Architecture model. This effort entails refactoring and restructuring existing code to remove dependencies on the user interface. Numerous efforts are underway to discover the most cost effective and highest quality means of this refactoring effort. Progress Software has been involved with this effort in cooperation with QAD engineers. They see this as an opportunity to learn from us and help their other customers in their migration efforts as well. Again, another example of the proactive collaboration between the two companies.

Conclusion: QAD is currently redesigning, meaning, the end result could be a different product at the end of the exercise. This could lead to an another upgrade, re-installation or reimplementation.

POINT 5

Why Syteline?

1. Latest .NET Microsoft Technology => Choosing Syteline will already equip the customer a base technology for at at least for the next 10 years. Tested and Used already in the Philippines.

2. Strong Philippine Operations => Have more than 80+ staff for Syteline Product for more than 10 Years

3. Concurrent User

4. 90-95% fitness based on proof of concept activity with customr. The remaining deficiency can be done thru personalization.

5. Microsoft skillset is easy to find

6. It was also clear that Syteline’s Customizability on almost all posible areas in the system is already one of the return on investment factors.

7. Features such as Advanced Planning and Scheduling is an indispensable factor that will truly benefit a customer in the long term.

8. Transfer of Technology

9. Having backed up with the #3 global software provider and #1 manufacturing ERP provider, any customer will surely feel comfortable that its system will surely be supported in coming years ahead. QAD is too small compared to Infor.

Want to know more? email me at whitemonkey@hotpop.com

Disclaimer: The views expressed on this site are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employers or affiliated entities.

Syteline Recent Wins

Before I’d be posting the latest wins of Syteline in the Philippines. I think its worth to mention the recent ones so that the readers would see how SyteLine is being accepted here in the Philippine. In total, SyteLine has more than 40+ manufacturing sites all are reference-able. As far as statistics are concerned, Infor has the biggest customer base in terms in manufacturing sites that uses its Production functionality. Compared to competition – their customers only use their financials, purchasing, sales and inventory. Production is being left not implemented or not being included in their offerings. Maybe due to the difficulties and tedious work in implementation.

To mention, below are those recent wins:

Silgan White Cap South East Asia Inc. – win over Platinum
Aichi Forging Company of Asia, Inc. – win over QAD
Yutaka Mfg. (Phils.), Inc. – Win over QAD
Gracepark International Inc. – Win over Microsoft Dynamics – Navision
Ohtsuka Polytec Philippines – Win over QAD and Eric
Philippine Kenko Corporation – No Competition
F – Tech Phils. Mfg., Inc – Win over Macola

I will still need to update this post since i forgot those other competitors within those accounts.