Global Shop Solutions ERP software provides applications used to deliver quality parts on time, from quote to cash and everything in between including shop management, scheduling, inventory, accounting, quality control, and CRM. Available in the cloud or on premise, the solution aims to give its manufacturing customers real-time inventory accuracy, improved on-time delivery, lower administrative costs, increased sales and improved customer service. Headquarters in The Woodlands, Texas includes…
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Microsoft Dynamics GP
Score 7.4 out of 10
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Microsoft Dynamics GP is an ERP software with accounting capabilities. It includes various packs for customizability and features tailored to specific industries’ needs. GP is offered as a perpetual license or subscription.
We need an all-in-one ERP system, and it suits basic needs. If you are looking to utilize reporting or utilize the CRM you will have to learn to format the information you are able to pull to make it manageable and easier to read. This ERP uses a Crystal Reports system that needs to be converted into Excel or another software program to sort and identify anything. There are a lot of advantages and I am sure the issues we are having are because of how our staff is using this system or has set up this system for our needs.
A large company where users have one function- for instance, where someone only receives or works in payables. That minimizes the number of windows they need. A smaller company where one user does multiple functions will require a lot more training and user knowledge to navigate, and it makes it harder to secure users. You also have to understand that GP started life as Great Plains, designed for accountants. The other modules were added on after Microsoft bought Great Plains, which means that modules like Manufacturing are red-headed step children with much smaller support ecosystems. So, if you're starting fresh, you may want to look at something built for the mobile world. D365 and Business Central are a lot more money, buggy, and hard to customize and essentially still vaporware. Microsoft is heavily investing there, leading to the previously mentioned question about the future of GP. If I was starting today I would be hard pressed to justify jumping into GP in a world where Salesforce ties in with so many programs. GP has MRP but it is limited so it's hard to justify a manufacturer starting with GP today.
Able to be extended into multiple areas of your business
One feature we have been using for a few years is EFT for payables - it has significantly reduced the time spent paying vendors and reduced our check printing and mailing costs. It is very easy to setup and use.
The layout is dated and hard to navigate at times. You need to go into different sections to access functions of the system, which can be confusing - this is one of the largest frustrations we face because we need to search for sections that are not commonly used.
Updates seem to cause issues with the overall system and it takes several attempts with customer service to get issues resolved. We are behind in our updates because of this. Each update push causes us to shut down because sections then don't work correctly due to patches needing support to completely update them. We were unable to access customer transactions for a good part of the day because of the last update.
Errors happen more often than not. We have random errors pop up that cause us to have to close out the system in its entirety, losing any work we have done. We need to restart the system and hope other errors don't populate before we can move forward. Calling customer support is not helpful with this, we are told that these errors happen sometimes. There is not a fix.
Part/Router numbers randomly disappear. The Router/Part number will need to be rebuilt before we can move forward. It's frustrating. Again, customer support can not tell us the root cause of the issue.
Help section of Global Shop Solutions is not helpful - it has a lot of technical jargon and at times is not easily understood. There are many sections that look to be more IT-based than user-based. Also, there are out of date sections so you might not be able to find what you are looking for. Training modules available for an extra cost.
With respect to the allocations, once the expense is entered into the allocation account, you lose the ability to run any detail on just the total of the expense. It would be nice if you could run a trial balance on the allocation accounts the same way you can with regular accounts.
I've always thought security set up could be a bit simpler. It actually has gotten better through the years. Specifically, with eight separate entities, it would be nice to have a "master" setup where you could call up one group entity, assign the users rights, and then be finished. Currently, whenever I have a new user, I have to call up each individual entity and select all of the features I want the user to have. That means I have to do eight steps for each user.
Due the economic challenges that Puerto Rico is having, the company has had to merge some companies in order to be more efficient. It has been easy in GP to process those merges, even thought we had to spend days to accomplish that the process was smooth and accurate. In addition we were able to streamline the purchasing and sales process and the organization is confident to keep renewing GP for the future versions.
Though it is a basic accounting package, I believe some users do not find the old style menus and navigation options intuitive. There is also a great lack of training resources in the market, so users have to learn the product without guidance a lot, resulting in inefficient workflows and misuse or misunderstanding of many features.
Basically the challenge with this implementation was the Business Portal, too many errors and even the aplication is up and running the users are still having issues. We will start planning the migraton to GP 2015 soon.
I come from a strong background of using SAP. SAP doesn't have the flexibility of GP, an example would be SAP doesn't allow core mods, if they catch you, you lose support. Microsoft doesn't really care about mods, but they will be quick to have the vendor you used support your issue if it is caused by those mods. With SAP your company adapts to the software, where with GP you adapt the software to you.
We have used the CRM for the last 9 months to support our sales team. Now we can see interactions, followup practices, opportunities and adjustments in one section. This has allowed us to better service our customers and make sure that followup is done.
Microsoft Dynamics GP allows my clients to move from a paper or spreadsheet based company to an integrated, electronic, streamlined business. I love being able to help clients gain efficiencies through the use of Microsoft Dynamics GP.
Microsoft Dynamics GP allows for better customer service because everything is at our fingertips. If someone calls questioning an invoice, we can easily look it up. If someone calls stating they paid an invoice with a certain check number, we can quickly run a query to find that particular check number to see where it was applied.
Having everything on a single platform provides ease of use for upgrades, backups and end user training. There is only one software to learn!
