Aras PLM vs. Infor CRM

Aras PLM works for our company, yet I don't have experience with any other software system. The system does not refresh and update quickly. Often times users need to force a refresh or logout and logon to verify changes and updates. The Lock and Unlock feature needs getting used to.

Incentivized

If you have a mobile workforce, it likely wouldn't be as appropriate (keep in mind we're using the desktop client, and have very limited experience with the web app). It is well suited if your business needs lots of custom processes- find a good vendor. We utilize SimpleSoft out of Ohio, and they have been excellent. Key question: think about where your business is going to be in 5-10 years, and will this CRM solution be able to grow with us?

Incentivized

• Aras PLM definitely controls documents and provides the approval levels needed to be compliant.
• Aras PLM makes organizing and structuring libraries logical and intuitive.
• The search tools in Aras PLM provides quick and efficient access to documents

Incentivized

• It has an improved interface which is fairly intuitive for end users.
• Available in both on-premise and in the cloud.
• Mobile is a particular strong point of the system and is blazing fast.
• Advanced Analytics is available which provides a suite of out-of-box BI tools.

Incentivized

• Aras PLM uses terms and labels that can be confusing like Subsystem / Subsystem Version, Project Record Number (PRN). Companies need to understand these terms and develop business processes to set user standards.
• I personally use Aras PLM to manage information technology project documents. In my opinion, Aras PLM is more geared to product and engineering. I would like to see a general project management Aras PLM version with terms and labels that I am familiar with.
• The description field should be made required. Many of our engineers have created records and left that blank because it was not required. This would help with the context or background of each record.

Incentivized

• Speed - SalesLogix tends to operate rather clunky (could be my company's deployment) in that it hesistates for long periods between clicks and frequent lockups occur.
• User Interface - Difficult to read data at times, the UI is tired looking.
• Group View Creation - While a positive, the creation path is very technical for the average user to understand and almost must have programming language capability to complete.

Incentivized

Our company is moving from repositories like IBM Notes, MS Sharepoint, and plain network file share directories to a more controlled system of recordd like Aras PLM.

Incentivized

We have too much invested in customizations to walk away from it. Once again, the ability to customize Saleslogix is both a positive and negative attribute. Saleslogix is offering a cloud based solution so they recognize where the future is moving to. Unfortunately it is still an enormous amount of cost, training and functionality to move to that solution. At the time of this writing CustomerFX doesn't have a cloud solution for that quoting module our sales staff depend on. And if we move that direction we will have to pay again to get the cloud based modifications performed. We're on the hamster wheel of technology.

It can be a bit slow at times. Its that refresh don't always need to refresh slowing down the user.

Incentivized

We utilize the support of a local-ish vendor. SimpleSoft is their name. they are great, and very responsive

Incentivized

Our company developed numerous IBM Lotus Notes databases to perform document control. Aras PLM is the better choice to IBM Notes databases and home grown databases.

Incentivized

We selected INFOR CRM over Salesforce simply because it was affordable and didn't have so many 'bells & whistles' that Salesforce has that we were not using. We didn't realize that the compatibility with upgrades were going to be such an issue.

Incentivized

• Aras PLM has kept our company compliant and on the right side of audits with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
• Aras PLM keeps our project document history readily available and works well without stage gate review and approval processes.

Incentivized

• We're launching a new project where we will be building a sales funnel, including sales metrics and KPIs, sales process, and reporting/dashboarding. This is going to be a huge shift in our thinking and how we manage our sales. I'm expecting a substantial ROI on this work.
• We've automated a lot of tasks that required attaching items to emails and duplicating work. For example, instead of attaching sample order picks to an email then sending it to our fulfillment group, we assign them the ticket. All communication is done via the ticket process. Once the order has been shipped, the UPS information is added to the ticket and it is assigned back to the original user for tracking. This has saved us so much time, not only in errors, but in missed orders and trying to get tracking information after the recipient has already not received their package.
• We really needed to build in functionality that would allow separation between the different types of teams (procurement, certification, sales, etc) that we've had all trying to use InforCRM vs investing in multiple platforms. This is our fault more than InforCRM, but again, being able to have different 'views' based on department and role would be a really nice improvement for the next update.

Incentivized