DEAR Systems, by Cin7 vs. Thrive Technologies

The production module systems that is offered by DEAR Systems is very good but a criticism is that it is tailored to non-variable production e.g., assembling a bike. If the output is variable e.g., dehydrating then the system is a bit challenging to use and can lead to inaccurate stock levels.

Incentivized

No solution is perfect, but I would say that Thrive is a particularly robust and complex solution that's intended to tackle major demand management and inventory forecasting problems. Smaller companies simply won't need a solution that's so all-encompassing. I would recommend waiting unitl you know that you need it before moving forward with a solution like Thrive.

Incentivized

• Xero Online Accounting Integration - 100% reliable
• Drop Shipment combined with Own Warehouse Shipment Processing is a dream
• Support - Really efficient dealing with technical issues and more generic issues equally well
• Financial control of delivery notes and purchase invoices provides excellent data integrity
• Easily add new cost variables such as shipping costs, managed easily

Incentivized

• Cloud-based, accurate forecasting system saves lots of time and can tangibly boosts ROI
• Robust demand management down to the SKU level
• Optimized replenishment prevents too much money from being tied up in inventory

Incentivized

• Support
• Bugs
• Website Functionality
• Down-time
• Glitchiness

• Although it's simpler than many alternatives, it's a highly complex system and at times we felt lost during the transition period.
• We didn't get the results we had imagined when looking at their case studies and marketing materials. I understand many factors go into those things, and their case studies are not necessarily indicative of typical results, but your mileage may vary.
• Inventory replenishment alerts about potential stockouts weren't always reliable.

Incentivized

It does what it says on the tin.

Incentivized

Terrible support, absolutely useless for anything more major than a simple navigational problem. They always provide meaningless responses that don't really address the issue such as, "our engineering department is working on the issue" or "we're working on some optimisation". These responses would be fine if anything actually resulted from them, but the same errors and problems have existed for 4 years so I don't believe they really amount to anything. In addition, they're quite pushy for me to "close your ticket" so it can be marked as resolved, but my issue hasn't been resolved. I don't exactly want to leave my ticket open for several months, but they send me consistent reminders to close the ticket which is obnoxious especially since their resolution was "our engineering department will work on it".

DEAR Systems is much better software compared to Xero. The inventory tracking within Xero doesn't record batch dates and isn't really capable of production modules. Additionally, Xero doesn't have pricing tiers within invoicing, which is a very helpful feature offered by DEAR Systems. If a business has any level of complexity than DEAR Systems is a significantly more capable software.

Incentivized

Abas ERP was what we had used previously, and though it did its job adequately, it lacked the forecasting, demand management, and inventory replenishment sophistication of Thrive. We reached a point where we felt it was untenable to supplement the previous system on our own which necessitated the switch to Thrive.

Incentivized

• Improved reporting for production
• Reduced invoicing admin
• Better cogs reporting

Incentivized

• We were able to reduce the amount of resources tied up in inventory
• Forecasting tools meant significantly less time spent trying to wrangle spreadsheets
• The transition was painful, causing initial doubts, but it was certainly worth the growing pains

Incentivized