Epicor CMS vs. Infor VISUAL

CMS is well suited for automotive manufacturing businesses.

Incentivized

The original version of Visual Manufacturing (Lilly Software) was intended for mechanical manufacturing. It was adapted at our facility (we were not the first) to accomodate electronic manufacturing. For electronic manufacturing process control it is not ideal when referencing in-line or custom processes used to build product. For material control it is excellent unless a modification to a standard product is required (and we did this on 60% of product going out the door). The co-product feature that removes material from an assembly requires the creator of the work order to calculate the percentage of cost the removed items are from the completed product. On the business operations side regional tax reports were difficult to extract and an external module to go into the data base and extract that had to be created. The system itself was stable for the most part. Occasional "data collisions" corrupted transactions at times. The accounting procedures in place found them by the end of the month .where they were corrected. For a small business with less formal processes Infor Visual can be used with little training for the operators. If the processes need a higher level of accountability and control the processes can be formalized with workflow scripts to ensure that higher level of control.

Incentivized

• EDI Order Processing
• Serialized Inventory Tracking
• Order Processing

Incentivized

• Part/BOM libraries
• Traceability from customer order to work order
• Job status representation

Incentivized

• Too "modular"
• Each task involves opening a new window.
• Slow to process orders (despite upgraded fiber-optic internet).
• More geared towards stock-based manufacturing rather than made-to-order, without requiring additional modules.

Incentivized

• At times a "shadow part" is necessary in the manufacturing process. This shadow part does not require an inventory transaction but is made a as a separate process - sometimes out of sequence to the general process flow. Infor Visual ver 6.3.5 does not have that capability.
• When generating forms for business and manufacturing operations Infor Visual ver 6.3.5 has a limited number of options. To change or add forms requires an unsupported editor. When the stock and custom options are depleted an outside programming module is required as well as programmers to develop the forms.
• While free software upgrades to the main operations modules have been part of the maintenance agreement. One upgrade required database and hardware support not justifiable for the current business model. The system was frozen at the current version at that time.
• There is no easy way to differentiate between engineering documentation and production documentation.

Incentivized

Good Technical and Customer Support during and after implementation tasks. Good Project Plan and Management support for implementation and post implementation. Financial functionality could be more comprehensive particularly with Budgeting and Cash Management. Inventory Management capability was adequate but could be more comprehensive as well. "Out of the Box" functionality was adequate but requested add-ons and enhancements seemed to be a bit pricey.

CMS takes time to learn and use the menu driven green screen. However, once you are familiar it makes for fast navigation.

Incentivized

Because of use cases and easy implementation and the vertical and horizontal scaling.

Incentivized

Support is getting better but can still be slow to respond.

Incentivized

As we have seen the live environment and the use cases where we implement.

Incentivized

Could have used more hands-on approach. There are multiple webinars and information sessions but until you actually use the system, these are not very helpful.

Incentivized

Epicor CMS had a UI that was deemed more aesthetically pleasing than (subjective, naturally!) Sage, for which we attended a presentation/orientation session. Our Team felt Epicor (once outfitted with the necessary add-ons) would be better suited in the long run for longevity and ongoing support (especially considering our outgoing software was Sage).

Incentivized

We unfortunately did not evaluate any other ERP software. VISUAL was a legacy system and we determined that changing systems would be too difficult, and not cost effective. We reached out to our local VISUAL rep who knew how the software functioned, but not how to apply it more appropriately to our business model, so we continued on with what we had rather than looking elsewhere.

Incentivized

• Epicor has necessitated dedicated "Staging" personnel, as multi-line orders are generated as individual orders to Production/Manufacturing, meaning someone must ensure they all come together upon completion prior to shipping.
• Payroll and Accounts Payable/Receivable have noted improved integration and tracking compared to the legacy/outgoing software (Business Vision).
• Inventory tracking is vastly improved over the outgoing software, with detailed reports/tracking of remnant/off-cut materials, which benefits Material Handlers as well as the Purchasing Manager for keeping the inventory budget in line with targets.

Incentivized

• Good Billing provided
• Easy to implement and use
• scales vertical and horizontal

Incentivized