AIMS 360 Apparel ERP vs. Microsoft Dynamics SL vs. Wikku

AIMS 360 has significantly streamlined our daily data entry inefficiencies — we now have everything integrated into one system and no longer need multiple people to manually enter orders. By using AIMS 360 as our EDI partner, we have saved significantly on EDI charges monthly as we no longer are charged by line.

For a small to mid-size business, MS Dynamics SL is effective. We are capable of managing our finances with a very low risk of error. We have worked with MS Dynamics for almost 15 years and have more than doubled the size of our business in that time with very few issues from the program. We have exponentially increased our revenue and reporting demands and have found SL to be very dependable and stable. The program does have the occasional glitch and those are sometimes outside of the realm of expertise of our IT department. SL support is excellent, but their timeliness is not as urgent as ours.

Incentivized

Wikku has given us the possibility to order our company without any hesitation and without having the possibility to make any mistakes. Despite the short time we have been using Wikku we recommend it 100% because it is an excellent working tool and gives us the possibility to organize all the files, images, and documents in a fast, safe, and reliable way. With Wikku Partner we feel safe and comfortable using this tool on our main servers.

Incentivized

• Integrations with third-party B2B and B2C
• Allocating and picking orders
• Style detail set up for costing

• Provides flexibility for complex project based cost accounting
• Strong and flexible allocation processer for cost allocations, markups, and pricing
• A "Flexible Billing" module under the project controller series that allows for multiple billing formats ranging from fixed price schedule of values, T&M or Cost Plus, and scheduled billing.
• Flexible reporting with options using Crystal Reports, SSRS, a Quick Query tool, and ability to tie into MS Office tools such as MS Access and MS Excel
• Tight integration with Financials, but also the ability to integrate with modules such as Sales Order, Inventory, and Field Service
• Customization abilities ranging from a VBA (visual basic for application) foundation to allow customizing existing forms to the ability to use the SDK (Software Development Kit) to build more complex customizations that integrate with Dynamics SL.

Incentivized

• Wikku provides us with a powerful search engine when we finish importing the client templates in order to be able to control all the projects or jobs that clients send us by email.
• Wikku provides us with basic tools to create a product sheet to make the respective assignment to any customer who wants it under any image of any product in question.
• Wikku allows us to have a technical library where we can download and save from logos to necessary files.

Incentivized

• Accounting integrations with QuickBooks Online would be nice

• Reporting in the Project module is lacking functionality. I understand that most companies have specific needs when it comes to tracking project information but the standard reports are not good.
• I would recommend a product like Management Reporter that is for Projects only. Project Reporter should allow users to pull in all Project related data into reports.
• Fixing suspended batches. Obviously all of us users have experienced this mess. SL knows what needs to be corrected and there could be some step by step fixes in a separate repair module to do the steps we do in Query Analyzer.

Incentivized

• At the time of managing Wikku with some integration, this became somewhat slow, although it is possible that the support will give you SAT management immediately.
• You have to request certain functions that Wikku itself does not have, for example, in the editing table you need the Siser color chart to be able to edit to taste.
• It takes a lot of adaptation for new customers, many tutorials are needed at the beginning to be able to understand from the beginning the operation of Wikku.

Incentivized

Unfortunately, Dynamics' lack of ability to smoothly integrate with our CRM system is causing us to look at other solutions. The efficiencies that we gain by using Dynamics for our day to day accounting are lost in the constant headaches of getting sales quotes to import properly into the system for invoicing. Another major issue for us has been budgeting and reporting. We currently do all of our budgeting and board reporting in Excel, which is too time consuming and inefficient, especially when a system as robust as Dynamics should easily be able to handle this relatively simple task.

Incentivized

I rate it a 10 because we have removed the fields we don't need so users can really crank the data into the system. The software was designed for the professional services firm in mind but does a tremendous job for construction firms and "blended" companies that are both distribution firms but project centric as well. Perhaps they drop ship inventory to a project where their employees or subs need to work on a project for example.

Incentivized

We have had only one unplanned outage for 2 hours in the last 30 months. We shut down for 30 min to 1 hour once a month, but that is for Microsoft OS updates to the servers. Being a 24/7 world wide operation, the reliability is really important. We do get an 8 hour window on the weekend that we can be down for a short period to install Microsoft Dynamics SL updates, but we do not have many of those. On our last version upgrade, we shut the users out at 9:30 am and were fully operational in less than 6 hours. The upgrade was New SQL server, New SL server and 2 new Citrix servers.

Incentivized

Support is only used when needed, so unfortunately ,they get all the odd issues. It's a difficult business, but Microsoft and our firm do a great job of meeting customer needs. We get routine feedback that our support services are very good.

Incentivized

Just to let it take its course. The implementation for me once I became a part of my former organization was pretty seamless. Just get to know the basics and call the support team to ask questions if you need help on an issue, should they arise. They are ready, willing, and able to help!

Incentivized

Customer service is far superior and the integrations are much better in AIMS 360.

Of the comparable mid-range ERP systems, Dynamics SL competes at the lower end based on price, but also above the high-end based on flexibility, data, and reporting. Being able to stay with the same core accounting from a $100 million dollar company to a $3 billion dollar company shows the range of capabilities.

Incentivized

Since the backbone of the database is MS SQLServer, the database can be easily scaled.

Incentivized

• Saved money on EDI
• Saved money on data entry

• More time is spent on manipulating reports which can and should be automated.
• Lack of electronic invoicing process and other green technology features creates more cost on printing and storage costs.
• The lack of a user friendly interface requires more training and a bigger learning curve for staff.

Incentivized

• Wikku has a very low learning curve for the experience it gives us, even so, we have achieved a return of more than 4% in the time we have been using this tool.

Incentivized