Arena PLM and QMS vs. QAD Adaptive ERP

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Arena PLM and QMS
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Arena, a PTC business, helps companies to design, produce, and deliver innovative products with a unified cloud-based PLM and QMS platform. Arena understands modern product companies rely on distributed teams and global supply chains to develop products, ensure regulatory compliance (FDA, ISO, ITAR, EAR, and environmental compliance), and respond to customer demands. Arena states that they have more than 1,400 global high-tech electronics and medical device customers.…N/A
QAD Adaptive ERP
Score 9.6 out of 10
N/A
QAD Adaptive ERP supports the core business processes and operations of global manufacturers, reducing the number of required add-ons and thereby lowering software costs. The platform is presented as ideal for medium to large-sized companies. QAD Adaptive ERP focuses on the six industries QAD serves: automotive, consumer products, food and beverage, industrial, high-tech and life…N/A
Pricing
Arena PLM and QMSQAD Adaptive ERP
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Arena PLM and QMSQAD Adaptive ERP
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional DetailsArena's cloud-based PLM and QMS solutions include role-based subscriptions to meet diverse team needs with the necessary security to protect product information. Their fixed-fee QuickStart™ implementations supports rapid deployment.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Arena PLM and QMSQAD Adaptive ERP
Considered Both Products
Arena PLM and QMS
Chose Arena PLM and QMS
Arena is much better than QAD in terms of BOMs and ECOs and Revision Control. We use Arena concurrently with SAP and they integrate very well together, which is nice. The integration team was really helpful in making sure that the SAP to Arena functionality runs smoothly, and …
Chose Arena PLM and QMS
Arena has been faster IMO and creating BOM structure was easier. It's slow at first when setting it up, but once the structure is set up, anyone can upload files.
Chose Arena PLM and QMS
The price was the biggest reason why we selected Arena.
QAD Adaptive ERP

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Arena PLM and QMSQAD Adaptive ERP
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Arena PLM and QMS
-
Ratings
QAD Adaptive ERP
10.0
1 Ratings
32% above category average
Pay calculation00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Benefit plan administration00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Direct deposit files00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Arena PLM and QMS
-
Ratings
QAD Adaptive ERP
10.0
2 Ratings
32% above category average
API for custom integration00 Ratings9.92 Ratings
Plug-ins00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Arena PLM and QMS
-
Ratings
QAD Adaptive ERP
10.0
4 Ratings
21% above category average
Single sign-on capability00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Arena PLM and QMS
-
Ratings
QAD Adaptive ERP
10.0
3 Ratings
36% above category average
Dashboards00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings10.03 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings10.03 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
Arena PLM and QMS
-
Ratings
QAD Adaptive ERP
10.0
2 Ratings
27% above category average
Accounts payable00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
Accounts receivable00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
Arena PLM and QMS
-
Ratings
QAD Adaptive ERP
9.3
4 Ratings
17% above category average
Inventory tracking00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
Automatic reordering00 Ratings8.04 Ratings
Location management00 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
Arena PLM and QMS
-
Ratings
QAD Adaptive ERP
9.0
4 Ratings
15% above category average
Pricing00 Ratings8.04 Ratings
Order entry00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Credit card processing00 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Cost of goods sold00 Ratings10.03 Ratings
Order Orchestration00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Manufacturing
Comparison of Manufacturing features of Product A and Product B
Arena PLM and QMS
-
Ratings
QAD Adaptive ERP
9.2
1 Ratings
20% above category average
Production Process Design00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Production Management00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Configuration Management00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Work Execution00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Manufacturing Costs00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Supply Chain
Comparison of Supply Chain features of Product A and Product B
Arena PLM and QMS
-
Ratings
QAD Adaptive ERP
8.3
1 Ratings
14% above category average
Forecasting00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
Inventory Planning00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Performance Monitoring00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Arena PLM and QMSQAD Adaptive ERP
Small Businesses
PTC Creo
PTC Creo
Score 7.9 out of 10
Acumatica
Acumatica
Score 8.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PTC Creo
PTC Creo
Score 7.9 out of 10
Infor VISUAL
Infor VISUAL
Score 7.4 out of 10
Enterprises
SAP PLM
SAP PLM
Score 9.3 out of 10
SAP Business ByDesign
SAP Business ByDesign
Score 7.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Arena PLM and QMSQAD Adaptive ERP
Likelihood to Recommend
8.4
(201 ratings)
9.0
(6 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(5 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Usability
8.4
(16 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
8.0
(3 ratings)
8.0
(2 ratings)
Performance
9.4
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.5
(16 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
6.6
(2 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.9
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.7
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Arena PLM and QMSQAD Adaptive ERP
Likelihood to Recommend
Arena, a PTC Business
Arena PLM is well suited for part number, BOM and file management. Processing changes (ECNs, ACOs, DCO's, etc.) in Arena is very easy to do and provides great visibility on the status of submitted requests. The ability to communicate with Suppliers and grant them access to files in Arena is extremely helpful. Arena does not appear to be the best suited system for managing software
Read full review
QAD
If you're setting up operations where you have to manage manufacturing builds from raw components to finished goods, I would recommend QAD. It's nice to have subassemblies part numbers for your builds and enter in the number of accepted quantities and rejects. QAD is very helpful if you have a lot of parts floating around. I would not buy QAD if you only have to manage less than ~20 parts... just use Excel.
Read full review
Pros
Arena, a PTC Business
  • It provides easy, 'login-anywhere' internet cloud-based access to fundamental PLM functions.
  • It provides secure access control for employees & vendors (but you pay per person for access licenses).
  • Data is effectively 'always backed up' in the internet-cloud.
  • There is an option to attach thumbnail graphics representative of each item and create a Bill of Materials view that also displays the graphics to help provide item recognition for BOM readers.
Read full review
QAD
  • The QAD Enterprise application is great, we only started using this application a few years ago. The Master Scheduling Workbench has been a great improvement to our daily operations.
  • The Web-based QAD Supplier Portal has also been implemented recently in our company and has been a huge help to our purchasing and materials department.
  • The QAD support that we receive has helped our company grow and is a major asset in upcoming projects.
Read full review
Cons
Arena, a PTC Business
  • In my opinion, the Help Pages clearly do not realize that a picture is worth a 1,000 words; need illustrations and screenshots!
  • I think the 'Save' button when editing Quality Processes needs to "float" on the active page, not lurking at the bottom.
  • In my experience, the Arena PLM and QMS Training programs need to be revamped to include "real-world" examples and working through examples, not simply reading through a training manual.
Read full review
QAD
  • Needs more flexibility to add/configure new indexes (if using the Progress Database) as the current indexes on key tables like transaction history are not helpful
  • Need a better support system for the TMS/Precision interface
  • Need better KnowledgeBase articles to understand the innerds of Pricing functionality
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Arena, a PTC Business
We have so much time and effort invested into Arena. The history of approvals, revisions, etc. are necessary for many of our customers. We also have entire device histories recorded. Having to re-create that on another platform would be a feat requiring years of effort. But mostly, Arena just works. It's transformed our business into a much more streamlined system, resulting in a massive cost and time savings.
Read full review
QAD
The cost / benefit of changing to a different ERP will create a high cost and low benefit that's why I believe that we'll continue renewing QAD for a long time.
Read full review
Usability
Arena, a PTC Business
Arena has improved their UI over the years that I've used it to make it more user friendly. Additionally, there is a lot of redundancy within Arena (multiple ways to achieve the same end), which makes it easier to learn.
Read full review
QAD
Easy to use, zero or minimum cost to maintain the database (DBA etc) , no issue with OS ( Linux), stable database
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Arena, a PTC Business
Seems like when I need to access our workspace for an emergency situation, this is when maintenance is scheduled, just the luck of the draw, I guess, and I just wait until the maintenance is complete, and then can proceed
Read full review
QAD
No answers on this topic
Performance
Arena, a PTC Business
We use a few other software or systems (Silicon expert) and it is seamless to us, pages load quickly and efficiently.
Read full review
QAD
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Arena, a PTC Business
Upon initial observation, Arena Solution appears to possess a rather intricate nature, yet this complexity was effectively navigated during the initial configuration phase with the invaluable assistance of an expert well-versed in Arena, a factor that greatly contributed to our comprehensive mastery and autonomous handling of Arena Solutions thereafter.
Read full review
QAD
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Arena, a PTC Business
The On line training was easy to understand and was very efficient for most of our users. We used the training tools to make sure we use all of the features to their fullest and correctly! After a few weeks mos of our users were very proficient with ARENA PLM and were able to work on their own and use mos of the sections and PLM capablilities.
Read full review
QAD
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Arena, a PTC Business
Pretty straightforward, from OOB
Read full review
QAD
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Arena, a PTC Business
Arena is much better than QAD in terms of BOMs and ECOs and Revision Control. We use Arena concurrently with SAP and they integrate very well together, which is nice. The integration team was really helpful in making sure that the SAP to Arena functionality runs smoothly, and when there are any issues, they are very responsive to help make changes to fix the problem that might be there.
Read full review
QAD
QAD is very easy to use once it's set up. It's basically an Excel sheet that can handle a lot more data points and faster. It's nice that you can dump the data stored in QAD to a CSV file and analyze in Excel. Careful narrow down the data searches to a limited number of points or Excel will crash. QAD is much easier to set up than Arena and SAP. And the numbering systems you can create in QAD is more customizable.
Read full review
Scalability
Arena, a PTC Business
Arena is easy to customize and therefore easy to scale. Different user groups with access restrictions can be easily created and new training plans can be created to support different user bases. Suppliers can also easily be added or items can be shared with them
Read full review
QAD
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Arena, a PTC Business
  • Decreased the company's time to market for release of its second generation flagship product.
  • Decreased the turn around on non-conformance reports (NCRs), supplier corrective action reports (SCARs), and corrective and preventative actions (CAPAs).
  • Better organized the company's process maps, DHF, and other regulatory related information so that major audits are completed faster and with fewer findings.
Read full review
QAD
  • It help us to reduce the inventories (FG and RAW)
  • It reduce the time to adjust to the constantly changing international customs laws
Read full review
ScreenShots

Arena PLM and QMS Screenshots

Screenshot of Arena Bill of Materials (BOM) Management. Indented BOM displaying "in production" item status.Screenshot of Arena Engineering Change Management.  Engineering Change Order (ECO) approval with redlines.Screenshot of Arena Projects. Project schedule with status and progress.Screenshot of Arena Quality. Quality process showing a Corrective Action Report (CAR) with the issue details, affected items, and resolution progress/status.Screenshot of Arena Requirements. Tracks requirements and related product development issues for a complete product picture.