I’m Dylan Persaud , senior analyst at Technology Evaluation Centers. Due to the overwhelming response to our first ERP Showdown, we’re pleased to present another head-to-head discrete enterprise resource planning (ERP) comparison. Here, then, is ERP Showdown, Round 2! —featuring Exact Macola ES vs. Infor SyteLine vs. QAD MFG/PRO.

The chart below shows the overall rankings.

ResultsAs you can see above, straight “out of the box,” Infor SyteLine ranked first overall, with QAD MFG/PRO coming in second, and Exact Macola ES placing third. Overall scores are based on the average level of support the vendors offer across the entire ERP spectrum.As the chart below shows, Infor finished first in five of the eight modules, QAD finished first in two of the modules, and Exact Software finished first in one module.

Source: http://www.technologyevaluation.com/Research/ResearchHighlights/ERP/2007/04/research_notes/VS_ER_DP_04_11_07_1.asp-Dylan-Persaud&ERP-Showdown—Round-2!–Exact-Macola-ES-vs.-Infor-SyteLine-vs.-QAD-MFG/PRO.html

However, as with most aspects of enterprise software, it’s not that simple or clear-cut. Rankings, either overall or by module, do not tell you everything you need to know. What they do provide is a basic, high-level view of vendors’ general strengths and weaknesses right out of the box. However, the fact is, few businesses, if any, can use an ERP solution straight out of the box. Businesses have special needs and priorities that need to be supported by any ERP solution they use.For example, your business may require an especially robust human resources (HR) functionality. Even though Infor finished first overall, Exact ranked first in HR by a significant margin, and may therefore be a better choice for your organization. You’ll notice that QAD has a low score for the HR module, because the vendor does not offer HR functionality in its discrete ERP solution. In other words, it would be provided by a third party. Accordingly, if you want a separate best-of-breed HR solution that integrates into your ERP system, QAD may represent the best choice.The same applies within individual modules, where the top-ranking vendor may not necessarily be the right one for your organization’s needs. Although Infor was first overall in manufacturing management, Exact was strongest in field service and repairs, as shown in the chart below. If field service and repairs is a critical area in your organization’s business model, Exact may be a better choice than Infor.

ConclusionGiven that out-of-the-box rankings rarely, if ever, reflect the real-world needs of an organization.

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

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:

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.

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)

Although still not perfect, it will not hurt if we try to have some International Translations for our “Infor SyteLine Blog” right? Available translation incudes: Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Purtuguese, Russian and Spanish – thanks to Google’s translation services…

Enjoy!

Please select which language you prefer:

But to give you something to expect, below are my planned topics this coming weeks. I hope you guys would come back and read:

1. APS (Advance Planning and Scheduling) – Exposed

2. What is next with Infor SyteLine 7? Infor SyteLine 8? Should SAP and Oracle be worried?

3. What to ask during ERP Evaluations

Thank you very much for visiting!

I know that the subject is quite strong to some readers and arrogance is somewhat the first word that might be tagged to it. However, i believe that after reading this detailed comparison of Infor’s SyteLine and QAD’s Enterprise Applications 2007 (a.k.a. MFG/PRO) technology comparison/limitations – you will somehow agree, up to some extent what my point would be. On the term “Always” in my subject line, this is only my personal opinion if in case SyteLine would be in an account with QAD, it will still boils down to the salesperson, presales and the evaluator on how each plays their role.

To those who already visited this site and read my post about “Syteline wins Treasure Island (Cebu) over Oracle and QAD” – this is a 95% replica to it. I just changed the subject and modified some information for it to be more applicable and advantageous to our current evaluators. It will also be best if you also visit this recent post “Infor SyteLine vs Exact Macola vs QAD MFG/PRO”

As evaluators (you as readers), you will still need to verify the content of this article, QAD might have sudden changes on their system or the information that they have in their website just needs further clarifications.

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.

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://preview.tinyurl.com/39c684

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’s MFG/PRO Deficiencies vs Infor’s SyteLine:

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 from Progress

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 for services

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 as flexible as Crystal Report writer.

6. Workflow automation may not be included

8. Progress is not a common knowledge vs Microsoft. 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. (May depend on which country you belong)

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. And will still be Progress.

POINT 5

Why Infor Syteline over QAD’s Enterprise Applications 2007 (a.k.a. MFG/PRO)?

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

2. Strong global operations comparing with Infor’s Operations.

3. Concurrent User

4. After measuring its business process being fitted to any specific customer; Example – 95% Fit – the remaining deficiency can be done thru personalization to complete its 100% fitness. All can be done internally by the SyteLine customer.

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.

Note: Anyone can register and can leave a comment if there are any erroneous opinions that I was able to post. I will diligently modify the said post if required. Also, please read the site disclaimer.

I’d like to thank everyone who visited this humble site recently. I really did not expect that in just 2 weeks this site will already reach 500 unique visitors! For others, 500 unique visitors is very small, for me, its a huge milestone – especially that this is my first site. And also, quite honestly, i did not publish this site to search engines or Internet directories for everyone to see – it was really meant for personal use, for friends and for people I know that are currently evaluating ERP systems especially in the Distribution and Manufacturing industry.

I did not expect that Infor’s SyteLine competitive positioning against SAP and Oracle (or any other vendors) would be of some global interest – As per checking in my visitor location statistics.

Please also bear with me on my recent posts, i am the only one doing this as a – writer – editor – webmaster – administrator – presales – partly consultant – market analyst – all that you can think of on putting this site up and running. I also sincerely apologise on my occasional editing on some posts, this is to ensure that the information that is being published is as accurate as possible.

Personally, credibility is very very important, readers are very smart and they can smell a rotten egg thousand of miles away!

Rest assured that whatever I post in this site will be reviewed for accuracy. And if there are any erroneous entries, i will diligently modify.

3C was using Exact Software for their operations but were unable to provide functionalities in production and at the same time the needed management reports that was required – conclusively, Exact was not upgraded and was replaced by SyteLine. While Oracle also did their presentations but also was unable to present those required functionalities by 3C’s evaluation team – especially APS (Advance Planning and Scheduling).

3C’s main requirements is for a system to be flexible enough to adapt to their current business operations and at the same time – having the lowest TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) as possible. As recently posted – “How Infor SyteLine Beats SAP and Oracle in Actual Engagements”, SyteLine has this 1-2-3 punch that can knock-out the competition – Exact and Oracle just can’t take those heavy blows in this account!

Just to spread the credit – this win will not be possible without the added help of Mr. Stanley Lee of Infor (Singapore). Thank you Stan!

More wins to come! See ya all!