SYSPRO

Perfect ERP system on a tight budget

Pros:

Syspro is the perfect ERP for small organisations that simply do not need to scale-ability of much larger and better marketed ERP systems. The software, using its MS-SQL database will give you almost any report you require, otherwise you can extract the data you need, import it into your favourite spreadsheet program and compile those reports you need. Using SRS (Syspro Reporting Services) you can easily compile forms and reports and make them look how you want.

Cons:

Without a good and easily accessible local resource/service agent, the customisation possibilities are terribly daunting.

Simple to use and reliable ERP

Comments: Syspro was implemented to give us a solid, robust and scalable ERP solution that met the majority of our needs. We needed a system that would meet our core needs but also allow us to create the functionality that didn't exist without significant reengineering costs. Syspro was able to do this for us. The Syspro teams, and the VARs, all have experienced business analysts, project managers, and devs. They will work alongside you to develop a solid strategy for success.

Pros:

Right out of the box Syspro implements many best practise recommendations and for most businesses that's a great start. You can get up and running very quickly without having to customize Syspro. A key feature though is the extensibility of the software. We all have that internal process that no one could call best practise. It's unique to us, it's ugly and painful but we just can't live without it. Fortunately, Syspro gives you a very robust business object framework to deal with these situations. You can easily create customized features and external applications using your own programming tools like Visual Studio but that integrate seamlessly with Syspro. Business objects allow you to enforce strict data schemas so you can be confident that inbound data meets the Syspro standards - you only want good data going in! We have been able to develop numerous add ons and custom applications that add real value to our Syspro implementation. Like any major ERP software, Syspro cannot be everything to everyone. While the core functionality is extensive and varied the ability to quickly build new features that tie directly into Syspro is a sure way to improve your ROI.

Cons:

Patching is always a challenge. Syspro allows you to heavily customize the core product with custom scripts, screens and add ons. As a result, a solid testing strategy is needed to make sure that all customizations are properly tested in your dev environment before deploying to production. Things can occasionally go wrong with a specific port (patch) and core functionality can be impacted. Syspro are quick to respond to these issues though. Syspro doesn't publish hotfix availability for every known issue so be sure to ask your VAR when patching if there are any that are relevant to you.

Syspro is feature rich, complex and does not fit our industry or our company

Comments: It seems that there are basically two camps of Syspro users: those that love the ERP, and those that hate the ERP. That is evident in both the official and unofficial forums on the web. Overall, we can see the reporting advantages, but we are in the camp that Syspro is just not a good fit for us. We are the rare company that is in the middle - we don't hate Syspro, but we don't like it either. We definitely have more cons than pros.

Pros:

Our installation of Syspro uses SQL, which allows for a great amount of reporting options. The data can also be extracted to Excel or an Access database. You can also utilize SSRS to generate reports.

Cons:

1. We are unable to receive inventory in a prior period. We are a repair service and subcontractor. We will order equipment and parts on the last day of the month. However, we will not receive invoices for those parts until the next month. If we roll our period forward, then we are unable to receive inventory in that prior month. As many of our customers have service budgets, often we have to bill items through a month end; billing in a different period can mess up our customer budgets. But if we are unable to receive inventory in our prior month, then we have to "hold" the month open. That throws off our AR. Although AR and Inventory can be closed separately, it will not work as no new Sales Orders can be open due to a period mismatch between Inventory and AR. That essentially means that we have to choose between Cash (AR Receipts) or Inventory being correct. The other will be off unless we juggle daily processes (like stop recording AR Cash Receipts in the ERP). This is a huge problem as often the prices on our inventory purchases can vary daily. As such, we often do not have an exact cost until our invoice is received from our vendor. As such, inventory is often required to be received in a prior period. 2. There are multiple ways in which to set permissions for users. We upgraded a few years ago from Syspro 6.1 to Syspro 7.0. Upon doing so, many users lost permissions. We have a service contract with Syspro (directly, not through a VAR), and they told us it should not have done that. They worked with us and could not find out why that occurred. After a few weeks, we ended up opening all permissions to everyone in order for people to perform their duties. Syspro never provided us with a resolution. This is not an optimal setup.

Excellent product! Been using it since 1999.

Pros:

We have been using Syspro since 1999 and have found it to be an excellent product to run our business. We utilize Syspro to run all of our domestic and international business and to seamlessly tie our businesses together. At any point and time we have complete visibility across the entire business. We use almost all of the core component modules (accounting, inventory, sales, WIP, Purchasing, etc.) that Syspro offers and we find the software fast, stable and extremely accurate. This is the thing I like best about this product; that it is extremely stable and accurate. I would think anyone in the market for an ERP would consider this a number one criteria and I have seen too often where other products miss this mark. With Syspro, I have found that things just work. I run a distributed system across a WAN with many users in different locations; and everything works and ties out. I rarely have any issue with the functionality of Syspro. A close second to its stability is its openness of its data. There are numerous applications that we have written to augment functionality to closer align the software with how we conduct business. This is only possible because we are able to access the data utilizing their E.NET features which allows us to execute transactions without bypassing the business logic.

Cons:

We are a 24 hour shop situated across the globe. Because of this, we have users in the system effectively all the time. End of Month closures and balancing functions require exclusive access in order to perform those functions. It would be better if we could perform those functions without exclusivity of the databases.

Syspro

Pros:

I enjoy the overall ease of use that Syspro provides for importing customer's orders in to our system. We are able to quickly take a customer's purchase order and convert it to a streamlined format. Another useful feature of Syspro is being able to access our inventory at any given moment. Being able to have an up to date look at our inventory when dealing with clients is essential and Syspro makes this possible in an easy to understand format.

Cons:

I'd like to see Syspro start to implement some automated features in their upcoming releases. A lot of steps have to be done manually in order to get results. Another improvement that would be greatly helpful is adjusting the overall discount for material when entering line items. This has to be done by each individual line when it would be a huge time saver to adjust the entire order at once.