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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    e-automate

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AECI Software Solutions offers e-automate, an ERP for office technology companies to automate business workflows and increase contract profitability.N/A

    Microsoft Excel

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Excel is a spreadsheet application available as part of Microsoft 365 (Office 365), or standalone, in cloud-based and on-premise editions.

    $6.99

    per month

    Pricing
    e-automateMicrosoft Excel
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Excel with Microsoft 365
    $6.99
    per month
    Excel for 1 PC or Mac
    $139.99
    perpetual license
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    e-automateMicrosoft Excel
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    e-automateMicrosoft Excel
    Considered Both Products
    ECI Software Solutions
    Chose e-automate
    E-Automate is the industry standard for contract management, but it lacks the ease of editing transactions and the drill-down features of QuickBooks.
    Incentivized
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    91%
    Would buy again
    48 Answers
    99%
    Would buy again
    78 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    40 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    70 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    89%
    Happy with the feature set
    47 Answers
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    76 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    81%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    22 Answers
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    46 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    85%
    Implementation went as expected
    29 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    54 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    e-automateMicrosoft Excel
    Small Businesses
    Kickserv
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Stackby
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    Google Sheets
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Google Sheets
    Score8.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    e-automateMicrosoft Excel
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.4
    (54 ratings)
    9.0
    (78 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.7
    (8 ratings)
    9.9
    (7 ratings)
    Usability
    7.7
    (4 ratings)
    8.5
    (23 ratings)
    Availability
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    6.3
    (6 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    2.3
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    e-automateMicrosoft Excel
    Likelihood to Recommend
    ECI Software Solutions
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    I don't really know another program as powerful as Excel. I've used Google Doc programs but do not feel they come close. So far, anytime I've needed a table of some sort for data, whether it's budget oriented or information off a survey, the best system has been Excel. We do web audits on occasion and we create an Excel worksheet featuring every URL of the pages we're auditing, notes, data about the content, information about files attached to the page and other information to help us determine what pages need updating, deleting or otherwise. We also use Excel primarily to export our Google Analytics to in order for us to create reports for clients that need to see specific information about their traffic.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    ECI Software Solutions
    • 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • It is very good at embedded formulas and tying cells to one another
    • It allows me to compare deals terms on a side-by-side basis and talk my clients through it easily.
    • It is very helpful as well in terms of allowing me to filter/sort results in many different ways depending on what specific information I am most interested in prioritizing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    ECI Software Solutions
    • 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Excel offers collaboration features that allow multiple users to work on the same spreadsheet, but managing changes made by different users can be challenging. Excel could improve its features by offering more granular control, better tracking of changes, and more robust conflict resolution tools.
    • Itcan be a barrier to productivity when importing and exporting data from other applications or file formats. To improve its features, it should offer better support for standard file formats and more robust error handling and reporting tools.
    • Excel can be challenging for finance students and working professionals, but it can be improved by offering more robust tutorials, better documentation, and more user communities and support forums.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    ECI Software Solutions
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Excel remains the industry standard for spreadsheets and has maintained simple and straight-forward formula writing methods. Although there is a learning curve to do more complex calculations, there are countless help sites and videos on the Internet for almost any need.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    ECI Software Solutions
    The user interface may be slightly outdated, but it is very intuitive and easy to navigate. Once you have learned one module within the system it is very easy to apply that knowledge to any other module. It makes using the system much easier, and it makes training another person on the system quick and efficient.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    I'm giving it a 7 because it is my go to. But the fact other prefer Google Sheets when working with a team does get irritating. I've used the online version of Microsoft Excel that other teams can get into and it still seems behind Google Sheets. It's a little clanky and slow? If that's even a term.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    ECI Software Solutions
    Mostly available, sometimes down for issues but usually there when we need it
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    I have rarely, if ever, had issues with its availability.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    ECI Software Solutions
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Excel load and performs calculations immediately. It integrate well with all Microsoft Office applications and does not slow them down.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    ECI Software Solutions
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    I have not had to use it often, but it is good.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    ECI Software Solutions
    I did not participate in implementation
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    ECI Software Solutions
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Out of Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, IBM SPSS, and Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel is by far the most common tool used for anything data-related across organizations. Accordingly, our organization has also implemented Microsoft Excel as a first-step tool. We recently adopted Microsoft Power BI (the free version), and use it occasionally (mostly for creating dashboards), but it is less commonly understood by stakeholders across our organization and by our clients. Accordingly, Microsoft Excel is more user-friendly and because of its popularity, we can easily look up how to do things in the program online. Google Sheets is a comparable alternative to Microsoft Excel, but because it's cloud-based and we have sensitive data that needs to be protected, we chose against using this software. Finally, a few users (including myself) have access to and utilize IBM's SPSS. For my role, it's a helpful tool to do more rigorous analyses. However, because of its cost and limited functionality as a simple spreadsheet, we only use it for more complex analyses.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    ECI Software Solutions
    I was not involved in the sales process
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    N/A I was not involved in this process.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    ECI Software Solutions
    Every department we have does use e-automate to some degree with most being successful.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Each user can use it to whatever level of expertise they have. It remains the same so users can contribute to another's work regardless of whether they have more or less expertise
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Professional Services
    ECI Software Solutions
    I was not involved in the sales process
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    ECI Software Solutions
    • 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.
    • The vendors that do have modules are costly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Excel has positively impacted the business as it has increased our efficiency.
    • It also saves us the time that we would have spent on making the calculations that it does for us.
    • Since it works on all devices and is compatible with both Windows and Mac, we do not have to invest in any other alternative.
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    e-automate Screenshots

    Screenshot of an item search, in e-automate