Epicor CMS vs. Viewpoint Spectrum

Through daily use of Epicor, it is apparent that at it's basest level, it favors a stock-based manufacturing model (your company has established SKUs and Production works to replenish stock levels when a KANBAN or other system triggers a re-order point). While it excels at that, ours is a custom-order industrial manufacturing model (we produce to customer specification or repeat orders), meaning there is no stocking of finished components, only the materials it takes to make them. It's taken some finesse (and the purchase of additional modules) to get to where we need to be.

Incentivized

The Installation team is amazing. They provide clear guidance at the beginning of the process regarding what is expected and what needs to be done. The implementation manager follows up monthly with you to make sure you are on track and if you need additional help. They are very helpful and responsive in resolving issues.

Incentivized

• EDI Order Processing
• Serialized Inventory Tracking
• Order Processing

Incentivized

• Job Costing - Viewpoint Spectrum handles job costing per project, per work order, per site, and gives us an up to date analysis of the project.
• HR - helps to keep all of the training certifications and HR incidents in a consistent and manageable order for all Managers to use.

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

• Support isn't readily available. You can submit a ticket and wait days before it's picked up. Even critical issues (system outages) can wait an hour or two before someone responds.
• Large companies will feel limited. This product wasn't designed to handle large amounts of data, and performance seems to slow when there are more than 80 concurrent users.
• The new developments are limited. HR Management is less robust than a third-party product specializing in HR Management. Viewpoint Analytics is nowhere near as robust as Power BI or Tableau.

Incentivized

The product is working for us and the cost to implement a new system does not warrant the expense.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

There's a little bit of a learning curve, but once you've been working in the system for a while, it becomes second nature. I would say that out of all of the other software that I've personally used, Spectrum has been the easiest one to pick up and learn quickly

Incentivized

I've never seen Spectrum down

For the most part the product is very reliable. Since we are hosted we sometimes have connectivity issues but I would say that is more our ISP than Spectrum.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

The support has recently changed. Last year, you could call in and get an immediate response. Now that doesn't seem possible unless you have an urgent situation with access to the software, payroll or payables. I have found that using chat or e-mail works nicely for the most part, but sometimes I feel it would be easier if someone from support would jump on our site and take a first-hand look rather than going back and forth

Incentivized

Our trainer was excellent and navigated the time zone differences expertly. She gave us test assignments to complete and was available for questions at any time.

Incentivized

My only insight would be to take time in your implementation and training process; ours was six weeks from start to finish.

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

I have previously used Sage Masterbuilder, another construction industry software. This has been a number of years ago. The company I am working for already had Spectrum and have been using it for as long as it has been around when it was known as Forefront. Based on conversations I've had with the personnel that were here at the time of purchase, Spectrum clicked off all the boxes they were looking for.

Incentivized

You can grant user specific access which is nice. Project managers do not need all the same modules as Accounting. But Accounting does need access to PM modules as well

• 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

• [In my opinion,] it takes at LEAST twice as long to do our jobs now.
• [I feel like] we are paranoid about something not being printed correctly because of [what I believe are] buggy text fields.
• [In my experience,] we still have to refer to a physical file cabinet with paper, even though a main point of switching was to go paperless.
• [In our experience,] screens can now be "locked", so we can't see something if our coworker is also looking at it.
• [I believe that] the financial hit our company took from this switch was astronomical. [In my opinion:] Beware!