CMiC Project Management is a construction project collaboration and management solution. It centralizes project-related communications and documents onto one platform, and connects the job site with the back-end office.
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Microsoft Dynamics SL
Score 5.4 out of 10
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Microsoft Dynamics SL is one of the ERP products in the Dynamics family.
This product was acquired from Solomon 2000.
The product is typically used by SMBs, particularly in project-based businesses (e.g. construction). It has strong accounting and project management capabilities.
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Xactly
Score 8.6 out of 10
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The Xactly platform is a revenue intelligence ecosystem that by consolidating forecasting, incentive compensation, and sales engagement workflows into a single source of truth, provides high-fidelity visibility into the revenue lifecycle.
CMiC is a robust platform best suited for large companies with resources for implementation and management of the program. One analogy is CMiC is like a droid phone where the user must decide how to use all the features of the program (as opposed to an iPhone where most configuration decisions are made for the user). Smaller companies with limited resources can struggle with CMiC both with the expense and configuration.
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.
The software is well-suited when it comes to tracking and monitoring your commission estimates. It's an easy, user-friendly way to understand what sales went through, and what sales disappeared. I think it could also be improved by showing what changed. So if I log in one day and I have a sale and the next day that's gone. I think an updated running log on what changed is important, even what's been added, like if I log in, show me like plus, you know, 5,000 in sales or something like that.
The user interface is similar to that of other project management software applications so folks in our company that had previously used other applications have been able to switch over fairly easily.
I really like the software and it was much less expensive than other applications.
I like the mobile application so that our superintendents can view the documentation on their phones.
I really like the punch list capability mobile field, however, we have a hard time getting our superintendents to use it for some reason.
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.
Needs to be more user friendly on the mobile side of the platform. Ease of use is key here.
There is not much instruction or support in standing up some programs like deploying ECM for outlook, making Collaboration Gateway work, or setting up the system for getting Plans available on the mobile devices.
Security configuration is extremely detailed and spread throughout the system. It is extremely hard to make adjustments to a person's security unless you know exactly where to look, which requires years of experience but shouldn't.
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.
This is a platform that would continue to be in the best interest for our company. I just hope that CMiC support removes the gaps between the enhancements that they create to better the system to what they currently have
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.
We have been using Xactly as a primary application to calculate the commissions payout on a daily basis and would continue the same as Xactly Incent meets our requirement. It keeps the process automated and reduces the manual effort to calculate commissions.
I believe it isn't easy to use and is unintuitive. Undecipherable error messages appear throughout the application without indicating what is wrong or how to correct it, in my experience. The terminology on the screens is specific to Canada, which adds to the confusion.
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.
From an admin perspective, the software's usability is high. The different components are organized in a way that is easy to figure out, for example, all elements of a plan are under the Plan Design section. There are some areas where searching within the system is a bit cumbersome because after clicking into a result and back out it clears your filter. I found the software easy to navigate when I first started and the amount of documentation and helpful videos they have on the community and within the University make the system even easier to learn.
Sometimes since this is a cloud based product the system can become slow but we haven’t had any issues of availability without CMiC first letting us know it would be down
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.
In general the system is nearly always available. But the daily achievement calculation takes a hugh amount of time. therefore it was in the past month sometimes only from midday onwards completely updated and usable for Sales employees. Xactly support was and still is working hard to get it available early mornings. Availablility time has increased a lot. It's now down to around 10 am in the moring
Xactly Incent performs extremely well. I have not experienced it "slowing down" when usage is heavy. This is particularly true when it comes to the regular recalculation of credits and commissions. It is not uncommon for Xactly to be dealing with hundreds of thousands of orders/credits in a pay period, but the system handles it well. Xactly recently changed their calculation engine and the speed for regular refreshes increased significantly.
The support team [has] been in touch with our deployment team and has given them effective guidance up to completion. It has helped us in [the] best methods of resource allocation and secure record-keeping process. We have tracked all our billing information and made the right payments with documentation and avoided [unnecessary losses]. [The] support team has [to] lead our teams to the right channels and empowering our team with the right skills for maximum production.
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.
They take the time to understand the system. They keep us updated on the status of our cases. Finally, their continued follow up ensuring the initial issue was resolved is very nice. They will not close the case out until they have confirmed that our issue has been completely resolved and fixed.
The training was on system functions and not really how best to use it for our business. It would have been nice to be provided recommendations for use rather than just a blank slate of functionality.
Awesome product, easy to use during daily activities. Reporting and user experience are very well organised. The sales team also likes this tool for reviewing their commissions at any time, which provides real-time updates. For new hires or mid-hires, the commission calculation is working very efficiently. Every sales-side organisation must have this tool.Awesome product, easy to use during daily activities. Reporting and user experience are very well organised. The sales team also likes this tool for reviewing their commissions at any time, which provides real-time updates. For new hires or mid-hires, the commission calculation is working very efficiently. Every sales-side organisation must have this tool.
Xactly offers training on new releases on a monthly basis and training on basic principles regularly via registration. My experience with both is that they do not provide the in-depth knowledge necessary to truly master the system and advanced courses still do not go to the level needed to autonomously manage the system and plans. Professional services are a large part of any cloud based service such as Xactly and I feel a reliance on such paid consulting services is a great money-maker for Xactly.
Lots of confusion between sales and implementation regarding what was included and not included...the security encountered a "bug" and made it extremely difficult to set up roles and individual responsibilities
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!
Go into implementation knowing how you will handle churn, if there are claw backs, treatment for every type of commission payment (i.e. new business, renewals, etc.) and know your average customer life. You'll also want details by customer for as far back as you can go (within reason).
CMiC Construction Platform is the best price point in the market. Others are revenue-based billings, and the annual fees reflect as such. CMiC Construction Platform support staff is generally amazing and offers real-time support on critical issues. The imaging and workflow functions are real-time savers. CMiC Construction Platform is generally a smaller and in touch organization that treats your team like their own and stays with you after the purchase.
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.
Ignoring the contractual issues that we had, Optymyze is very different from Xactly Incent. I would say that both offer high degrees of flexibility, but Xactly requires greater technical knowledge to customize. Optymyze allows administrators to manipulate data in a way similar to Domo or Tableau, allowing someone who is less technical to customize it. Xactly's connect module, on the other hand, requires strong knowledge of SQL to be able to manipulate data. I've been looking to take the training for Connect, so I can't comment on the limitations or flexibility beyond that.
It's very flexible. In most cases it can be adapted to your needs by programming which may cost extra money. We have a lot of different complans and close to 1.000 employees using Xactly in EMEA. It's mainly used by Sales and Finance
I am not aware of the company investment, but the overall result is fantastic. Employees visibility to commissions and components of their commissions is great. They have much more accessibility to their numbers and better understanding of how commissions are calculated. They can also review commissions at their convince on the application.
There seems to be more employee engagement and satisfaction with the overall commission process and reporting with Xactly Incent.
