Infor VISUAL vs. ProShop ERP

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

For the most part I love everything about this system. The one thing that's a little confusing about it is the Carts system for creating purchase orders and batching them together. Seems to be a few extra steps to accomplish work that has essentially already been done. Other than that though, I love this system and highly recommend it!

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

Incentivized

• Estimating
• Time Tracking
• Documentation
• Tracking Profitability

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

• While support staff will be quick to help very advanced features still don't have all the documentation needed at times to solve problems on our own.
• Elements of the interface are could be polished for a more appealing aesthetic.

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.

They continue to make the most affordable and complete ERP on the market for our company size and industry

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

It was built by people who ran a job shop and it shows

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

Incentivized

Amazing support. Weather small bugs a large feature requests. ProShop's team is always there willing to help assist with any problems.

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

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

We had a custom-built Microsoft Access program before. While it did keep track of some information without a lifetime of development we could not expect it to do what ProShop does for us.

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

Incentivized

• ProShop has kept us organized reducing costs in expediting fees.
• ProShop has allowed us to stay one step ahead of the job to ensure on-time delivery.