Global Shop Solutions ERP vs. Sage 500 ERP

We have already met with three companies in our region and hosted them for several hours to see how we utilize Global Shop Solutions ERP in our daily work. This speaks to our satisfaction with the software, as well as our ongoing commitment to the notion that if you want to learn something well, learn to teach it. We have a great group of users here who participate in the weekly Friday Features and who try to utilize all of the modules to their full effect to benefit not only individual workflows, but to help the entire company output. It is well suited in our experience for manufacturing. That is the only scenario where we have experience or where we feel we can make a judgement call.

Incentivized

Sage 500 ERP is great for companies with core accounting needs, distributors, and discrete manufacturers. Some areas, such as process manufacturing, would require a companion product from an ISV for the software to be truly functional. Some areas, such as construction or retail apparel, may simply not be well-served.

Incentivized

• The CRM has really advanced and allows us to track the efforts of our sales staff, as well as identify trends. We are heavily using this system to track our sales team's progress and utilize the events, opportunities and to-do tasks as well as identifying the customer history all in one spot.
• Supply and Demand section is used by pretty much everyone. This allows us to identify what is on-hand and the history of the parts' use. It is easy to follow and make changes.
• Order Entry allows us to track all orders in an easy fashion. This is very straightforward and simple to use.

Incentivized

• Sage is the one-stop-shop for all of our needs. We're able to control contracts, subcontracts, and field reports from the program.
• Another strength is the ability to database all the information and export it to excel. This makes data-based investigations a breeze.
• The ability for Timberscan to be imported to Sage is a huge help with invoice management. Prior to this it all had to be done manually and slowed the process to an essential halt as there are thousands of invoices per month.

Incentivized

• When releasing new screens, they are not complete and you end up using the legacy screens instead of fully integrating to a new screen
• when they release hot patches, we usually end up with more things to fix and were fixed in the hot patch.

Incentivized

• The biggest concern/complaint of Sage 500 users is speed. Some of the screen take a while to load.
• The user interface needs some refreshing. Screens need to be updated to take advantage of shortcuts and to be more intuitive.

Incentivized

It's too pricey for our size of company.

Incentivized

I would rate Global Shop Solutions ERP’s overall usability an 8 out of 10. The system is very capable and flexible once properly configured, but it does have a learning curve and some parts of the interface and navigation can feel a bit dated or complex for new users. Overall, after initial training and setup, it supports daily work efficiently and reliably, which is why it deserves a high score

Incentivized

I have been using Intacct for almost 10 years in 2 different companies and I just simply love it. I tried SAP (GUI) and Netsuite and they dont come close to what Ive seen.

Incentivized

The online training courses are not up to date. We experienced technical issues with two of the classes.

Incentivized

Keep your database and application in different servers.
Install Microsoft Office on your application server so you can use some of the data analysis tools in Sage.

Incentivized

This works the best for a manufacturing business. Any other type of business, I would look to other products.

Incentivized

500 seems much smoother at handling some of the basic accounting tasks, for example both issuing and later reconciling checks in Dynamics AX seems a little tedious.

Incentivized

• See instantly all information for part number, sales history, customer info, makes phone calls easy instead of having to say, let me look into that and get back to you
• Save money on purchasing goods, see history, now inventory levels, helps make sure we don't run out of items

Incentivized

• Positive: The program allows for a lot of data entry and splitting of information. It has the capability of replacing multiple programs and therefore saving cost.
• Negative: The modules are cumbersome and not user friendly at all. As a result not many user are comfortable using it. This means that the program is not being used to its capacity.
• Negative: Although the program has the capacity to be great, the user interface destroys that potential. Sage needs to seriously work on their program to simplify it. It's as if it still uses Command-line entries from 1995. Needs to be updated ASAP.

Incentivized