ECI Software Solutions offers e-automate, an ERP for office technology companies to automate business workflows and increase contract profitability.
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Kickserv
Score 9.3 out of 10
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Kickserv is a field service management solution, headquartered in Austin, Texas. It includes features such as dynamic scheduling optimization, invoicing and online payments, and detailed reporting.
If you need a system to place and track sales quotes, sales orders, purchase orders, and service calls then E-Automate is perfect. However, if you want to be able to easily bulk upload customers and contracts or if you want to be able to quickly and easily track contract profitability, customer costs, etc, then you'll likely want/need a secondary or different system to do so.
We use KickServ for nearly every aspect of our operation and cannot think of a scenario when it is "inappropriate" or "less appropriate". It is the backbone of our operation and is used for everything from data gathering to estimates to invoices to payments and accounts receivables to reports to tracking to storage of photos and past invoices. Better searching abilities would be good instead of having to create tags for things we don't know we are going to need later.
Sending Invoices out to customers via email or printing.
Keep track of ordering and inventory.
Sales Tax reporting.
Monitoring customer payment activity/setting up and removing credit holds.
Calculating payments to process each cycle.
Excellent aging reports.
I like the fact that when I am looking at one item, such as an invoice, I have the capability to switch to the customer menu rather than having to exit out of invoices and then enter into customers.
I love the flexibility of the search menus - being able to sort on several factors at once.
Organization - keeps everything organized nicely and has several different filters that you can use to view only the information you need.
Simple website - this was important because you want it to load quickly when you are in the office and on the road.
Database - keeps track of the things that you enter. This is nice when trying to get information on a product or a price when requested by the customer.
Make sales invoices not require serial numbers, or be more flexible with it.
Make contract invoices have some sort of flexibility in terms of editing. Our end users complain that QuickBooks made it very easy to edit invoices, and in e-automate, for them, it is practically impossible. (I do personally understand why it has to be as it is myself, I'm just forwarding their observation.)
Make the API actually useful. I spent days looking at the functions and the functions available are not really useful.
Its really the only option for the industry that does enough of what we need for it to function . I'm not sure if there were better options out there if we would have to renew our subscription. With the addition of AI, hopefully something will be able to become more useful.
It is intuitive enough, but there is some training that will be necessary because of a perceived redundancy within their workflow. It can be hard to distinguish which stage a customer is in (thus what the most important thing to be working on, if you are in sales, for instance) without some training.
Reports are the struggle the most with the information being extracted in a way that you need to copy and paste it into a new document so some of the information is not covered
Sometimes when you need answers quickly, a voice on the phone is far better than having to wait for email support or a callback. I have found this to have delays and feel ECI e-automate should invest more in its support infrastructure.
Very good technical help. The team is well-versed in their product and what to look for, particularly when interacting with other software platforms. You nearly always get a live person when you call, and if you don't, they will return your call promptly. This is another factor in my client's decision to move forward with their solution.
E-automate is much better at understanding the needs of the office equipment industry and provide the necessary tools. SAP Business One has limited features specific to the office equipment industry and includes things that are not useful. E-automate is also priced much better and provides the best value for your investment.
The e-automate will stop working if we stop paying each year. We chose not to go to the cloud and buy the software. QuickBooks and other software are a one-time fee.
E-automate has very few outside vendors for add-on modules.
We are essentially paper free. No paper work orders.
We've been able to avoid a layer of middle management by supplementing this layer with technology. KickServ is a part of that layer.
Negatively speaking, like all technology, it has created a void of human level connection. Because we know that we can deliver work orders to our foremen remotely, we are less likely to drive up to the shop and shake a hand or see someone face to face. We had to learn that lesson the hard way, that both technology and human connection are necessary to maintain our culture.
