Ridder iQ is a manufacturing ERP, from ECI Software Solutions. Ridder iQ includes customer relationship management functionality that is fully integrated, and includes an integration with Outlook for email.
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Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
Score 7.9 out of 10
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Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (formerly Dynamics NAV) is one of the ERP products in the Dynamics family.
The technology is based on the Navision product acquired by Microsoft in 2002. This product is the best-selling Microsoft ERP platform, and is often used by companies in the manufacturing and distribution verticals.
Ridder iQ is very good to use for normal processes in the making industry. You can easily customize it with calculated and custom fields and widgets. But more extensive customizing is more difficult. You need to be able to programm and the integration of other software/webapps is difficult. Therefore the no/low code functionality and api endpoints of Ridder iQ should be extended. Ridder iQ is unfortunately not to use on a smartphone of something like that.
It addresses well some integration and connectivity issues with other software and adapted technologies: formulation and manufacturing batching software, scanners and bar codes, inventory, financials, emailing of invoices and statement, sales and purchasing... etc. I believe it to be better suited to a medium to large company. Not as simple and seamless as we expected for migrating from another Microsoft Dynamics software product (we moved from GP to NAV). Our staff is going through a tougher time than we thought to learn some procedures. Normal growing pains?!
Automate the creation of bills of materials for production. We can now generate a BoM from a sales order.
Organization of all data pertaining to thousands of parts, assemblies, and finished goods. Engineering and purchasing have a common portal.
We can create sales orders from quotations instead of re-entering them (this did require some bolt-on software). Less redundant work with fewer entry errors.
Accounting can provide reports based on specific criteria stored in NAV. We can pull better and more detailed intelligence.
Trouble shooting/call center is worthless. In the past we had a question and this will be solved. Now we have a question and we are called back a couple of days later and very often they can solve it but are not allowed to solve it and you need to pay for a consultant
Pricing is very high, for every stupid things we need to pay the top price
Information is not always good. We bought a new system and wanted to install this (Kronos). Asked several times to have some information about the installation. I received nothing and the asnwer was that we needed a consultant (read we need to pay). At the end I solved it by myself and that was rather easy.
The version of software that we currently use isn't compatible with Windows 7, therefore we had to install it using the virtual computer under Windows XP. This created a few additional steps that the users had to go through in order to access the software which generated more calls to our IT Helpdesk.
We did research how much it would cost to upgrade the software so that we could get a version compatible with Windows 7, but the cost was way too expensive for our organization. Also, when we need to make updates or changes to the software, there are very few consultants who are familiar with the software so we are limited in who we can use for consulting services. Since we are limited in choosing consultants who can make updates and changes to the software the fees are usually really expensive for their services.
There is a .zup file that we constantly have to delete in order for the database to work properly and update. Users get a pop-up about once a week asking if they want to replace the .zup file and if the file is not deleted then the opening page for the software will not show up correctly and the database will not have the most up to date information.
We've already decided to continue using this software. It is too expensive for us to upgrade so we made a workaround by using the virtual computer with Windows XP installed on it. We did research replacing this software, but it was a better financial decision to keep what we had instead
Overall Ridder iQ is good to use. You can easily do small customizations to fields, screens, widgets, etc. There is also room for improvements to be able to easily adapt rights in roles, more no/low code functionality, webbased iQ, api endpoints, etc.
It has simplified all processes and reduces turnaround time for month end processes. You can easily navigate through the dashboard which is very user friendly and easily guides you to different functionalities. Duplications of Invoices is avoided because NAV rejects posting of an invoice number already in the system so you increase accuracy.
It provides one to efficiently be able to manage bookkeeping and inventory without much challenges. One can easily navigate through workflow processes while managing usages and budgets. Being able to produce reports in Word, Excel or PDF means one is able to have a working document to produce trends and graphs or produce pivot tables.
Ridder iQ is specialized for our business and has people who bring a lot of knowledge to the table, so Ridder iQ is far more suited than a ERP solution which is not specilized in the make-industry. Furthermore, the customizability of Ridder stands out compared to solutions like ISAH. Therefore, the choice was an easy one, because knowledge and customizability are important criteria.
I have personally supported all of the Dynamic family of ERP systems and made the decision to concentrate on NAV as the solution of choice. From a support and development standpoint there are few if any packages that can compare. It is not uncommon for most of the companies that I support to only call me once or twice a month after the first year. This is due to the ease of tracking down problems and errors and the ability for a developer to provide the end-user with routines that automatically correct the most basic kind of error
Some employees continue to find it a difficult program and I think this is partly because the options seem endless and it is sometimes difficult to find the right layout. This also applies to me as an administrator, many options, which is of course also positive. with the downside that it is sometimes difficult to search within Ridder IQ
