Infor VISUAL vs. SYSPRO

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

If your company is an ISO or AS9100 type company that needs to maintain traceability of your products throughout the manufacturing process this is a good fit. Additionally, it performs well with inventory tracking and warehouse management. If you as just a basic job shop that just needs basic functions such as inventory, scheduling, work orders, etc...I would recommend using a product more manageable and less expensive such as ShopTech E2 Systems.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

• Integrations with peripheral applications e.g. eCommerce websites.
• SYSPRO does this very well through the use of it's web services and e.NET business objects. This makes integrations very easy.
• Non-stocked configurable product production and management.
• Through the use of SYSPRO's product configurator, configurable products are easily set-up and managed by the use of selections, criteria and tying it to parts. This is particularly useful for companies that produce configurable products and want to give their customers the ability to customize.
• Document Management.
• Out of the box, SYSPRO provides document management through crystal reports (Syspro Reporting service Reports and Documents for invoices, order acknowledgements etc.).
• Accounting functions like Nightly Processing, Month end closing, General Ledger set-up etc. are easy to set-up and manage in SYSPRO.

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

• Their Projects and Contracts module is not as good as other ERP systems I have used. Tracking by Project for Sales and Purchases is cumbersome as it uses Jobs as the connecting point for the Projects and not the Project ID itself.
• They do not have a way to have system to allow Non-Stock Part Codes to be kept in a table that you can use in Purchasing that go to a particular GL code which you can use over and over again. It only has stocking items, and all Items in a Warehouse go to that Warehouse GL code.
• Similar to above the GL coding is not on the product but on the Warehouse that product is located in. I prefer it to be by Product not Warehouse.

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.

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

Incentivized

I've heard many reports from our users stating how difficult Syspro is to use and navigate. From an average standpoint, the Syspro Administrator has to invest a lot of time in setting up the user for success. Once the groundwork is applied, SYSPRO's overall usability becomes fair easier to the average user.

Incentivized

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

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

I believe Syspro has more meat to it than the other software I have used in the past. I have worked with software programs that were in-house written and prepackaged programs as well. Our company is unique in many ways but is also pretty standard for manufacturing. We are too large for a program like QuickBooks but too small for a much bigger ERP. Syspro is about the right size program for our company. The program has the ability to turn modules on that we need and customize whatever we choose we want at the time.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

• Our resent upgrade from Syspro 6 to Syspro 7 has had a few bumps in the road and the response time from the support time can be frustrating at times.
• The reporting systems are a powerful tool that we take advantage off often.
• The rest of the product is working as the people that use it.

Incentivized