Infor VISUAL vs. JobBOSS²

The original version of Visual Manufacturing (Lilly Software) was intended for mechanical manufacturing. It was adapted at our facility (we were not the first) to accomodate electronic manufacturing. For electronic manufacturing process control it is not ideal when referencing in-line or custom processes used to build product. For material control it is excellent unless a modification to a standard product is required (and we did this on 60% of product going out the door). The co-product feature that removes material from an assembly requires the creator of the work order to calculate the percentage of cost the removed items are from the completed product. On the business operations side regional tax reports were difficult to extract and an external module to go into the data base and extract that had to be created. The system itself was stable for the most part. Occasional "data collisions" corrupted transactions at times. The accounting procedures in place found them by the end of the month .where they were corrected. For a small business with less formal processes Infor Visual can be used with little training for the operators. If the processes need a higher level of accountability and control the processes can be formalized with workflow scripts to ensure that higher level of control.

Incentivized

Jobboss2 helps with creating routings, tracking hours towards those, and tracking inventory for discrete orders. It does not work well for blanket orders, consignment, or long-term agreements-type contracts with customers. Raw material tracking is completely ineffective with Jobboss2. Costing is quite ineffective with Joboss2. Production/lot planning & scheduling is ineffective and is a huge limiting factor. All of these items require manual tracking in spreadsheets. Jobboss2 has helped us get away from tracking routings with pen and paper and timesheets with pen and paper... but we're still having to use Excel to track consignment, blanket orders, job planning/when to launch new travelers, and costing/quoting. Going from pen and paper routings to digital has been a huge help overall, but the other limitations are incredibly concerning, which has led us to research & possibly switch ERP platforms.

Incentivized

• Part/BOM libraries
• Traceability from customer order to work order
• Job status representation

Incentivized

• Estimating is great once you learn how to use it, and it makes repeat estimates easier than ever.
• Time tracking is amazing for us. It has taken some time to figure out exactly how we want to use the tracking parts, but it's only because it has multiple ways to do the same thing and finding out what works best for us took some time.
• Billing and Purchasing are a breeze. The full package is worth the money to fully integrate the entire business into JobBOSS² since it can handle it all.

Incentivized

• At times a "shadow part" is necessary in the manufacturing process. This shadow part does not require an inventory transaction but is made a as a separate process - sometimes out of sequence to the general process flow. Infor Visual ver 6.3.5 does not have that capability.
• When generating forms for business and manufacturing operations Infor Visual ver 6.3.5 has a limited number of options. To change or add forms requires an unsupported editor. When the stock and custom options are depleted an outside programming module is required as well as programmers to develop the forms.
• While free software upgrades to the main operations modules have been part of the maintenance agreement. One upgrade required database and hardware support not justifiable for the current business model. The system was frozen at the current version at that time.
• There is no easy way to differentiate between engineering documentation and production documentation.

Incentivized

• Custom reports - support for this should be included, and not an added cost.
• Margin Summary cost data is broken, duplicating costs. Cannot be used for analysis.
• Scheduling module is difficult to use, difficult to adjust for changing team size and capacities.
• Subassembly jobs show $0 Job Value; this creates a mess when trying to gauge the $/hr profitability of individual job numbers. Because all of the profit is in the parent assembly, most of the hours are stuck with the child jobs showing $0 in sales value.
• My customer service rep cannot answer any technical questions, I'm referred to a support queue.
• Support reps are quick to call an issue DONE and close out my ticket, without verifying that my problem has been addressed.
• I cannot look at my sales backlog and show how many dollars from jobs are scheduled due for this week, next week, the week after, etc.

Incentivized

Good Technical and Customer Support during and after implementation tasks. Good Project Plan and Management support for implementation and post implementation. Financial functionality could be more comprehensive particularly with Budgeting and Cash Management. Inventory Management capability was adequate but could be more comprehensive as well. "Out of the Box" functionality was adequate but requested add-ons and enhancements seemed to be a bit pricey.

The staff enjoy the use of JobBOSS2. We don't have many complaints or issues with the software that are not solved. Support for the product has been improving and that is important for long term success. The cloud application is continually being developed and updated. New abilities are being added to assist with the customers that have strict requirements things like governance items

Incentivized

Because of use cases and easy implementation and the vertical and horizontal scaling.

Incentivized

It is extremely easy to learn and use E2 Shop System. It provides everything a manufacturing company might be looking for, starting from entering a new PO to shipping parts. Routers that get created from E2 Shop System also help track parts on the shop floor and is accessible from every where. E2 Shop System also now has an app, which is great when it comes to scanning router steps directly from your phone.

Incentivized

Have had no issues with availability

Incentivized

Have only had minimal issues with slow processing

Incentivized

As we have seen the live environment and the use cases where we implement.

Incentivized

Ashlee Ware- Product Support Specialist. We had a wonderful experience with support from Ashlee Ware and she has since become a hero in our company. Ashlee helped us research and clear several open Purchase Orders from 2015 and beyond that were still showing on the open purchase orders report in 2023.

Incentivized

Our trainer was very knowledgeable and helpful.

Incentivized

The videos and live seminars were helpful but not all were as in-depth as needed.

Incentivized

Could have used more hands-on approach. There are multiple webinars and information sessions but until you actually use the system, these are not very helpful.

Incentivized

I assumed there would be more assistance from JobBoss for implementation of the software. I felt it was very independent on my part and I felt unsure a lot of the time

Incentivized

We unfortunately did not evaluate any other ERP software. VISUAL was a legacy system and we determined that changing systems would be too difficult, and not cost effective. We reached out to our local VISUAL rep who knew how the software functioned, but not how to apply it more appropriately to our business model, so we continued on with what we had rather than looking elsewhere.

Incentivized

JobBoss is much more user-friendly and cost-efficient. JobBoss also allows for greater shop visibility by enabling shop employees through mobile devices to track costing. JobBoss seems to be a better fit for us as a fabrication firm to be able to plan and track shop functions.

Incentivized

• Good Billing provided
• Easy to implement and use
• scales vertical and horizontal

Incentivized

• We have seen improved visibility of our jobs and on how we quote our products to our customers.
• It is nice to be able to see what is running on each station, who is running it and what part of the process the job is currently at.
• I also like the Data Collection module as I can see in real time what all the employees are currently doing.

Incentivized