Infor M3 vs. Microsoft Dynamics SL

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Infor M3
Score 6.5 out of 10
N/A
Infor M3 is designed for medium to large global manufacturers, distributors, and after-sales service providers—delivering flexibility to manage mixed-mode and complex value chains. M3 is designed with industry-specific functionality and flexible deployment options, and presents a multi-company, multi-country, and multi-site enterprise resource planning (ERP) cloud solution platform. M3 was originally developed by Intentia, which merged with Lawson (2005), and which in turn was acquired by…N/A
Microsoft Dynamics SL
Score 7.2 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Dynamics SL is one of the ERP products in the Dynamics family. This product was acquired from Solomon 2000. The product is typically used by SMBs, particularly in project-based businesses (e.g. construction). It has strong accounting and project management capabilities.N/A
Pricing
Infor M3Microsoft Dynamics SL
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Infor M3Microsoft Dynamics SL
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Features
Infor M3Microsoft Dynamics SL
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Infor M3
8.6
4 Ratings
18% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics SL
8.5
2 Ratings
16% above category average
Pay calculation9.04 Ratings9.62 Ratings
Benefit plan administration9.04 Ratings00 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.04 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Infor M3
8.0
4 Ratings
10% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics SL
6.0
6 Ratings
19% below category average
API for custom integration8.04 Ratings6.06 Ratings
Plug-ins8.04 Ratings6.04 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Infor M3
8.0
4 Ratings
2% below category average
Microsoft Dynamics SL
7.3
9 Ratings
11% below category average
Single sign-on capability8.04 Ratings7.49 Ratings
Role-based user permissions8.04 Ratings7.38 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Infor M3
8.7
6 Ratings
22% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics SL
6.8
9 Ratings
2% below category average
Dashboards8.05 Ratings7.15 Ratings
Standard reports9.06 Ratings7.19 Ratings
Custom reports9.06 Ratings6.19 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
Infor M3
8.4
6 Ratings
10% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics SL
7.4
10 Ratings
3% below category average
Accounts payable8.05 Ratings7.610 Ratings
Accounts receivable8.05 Ratings6.07 Ratings
Global Financial Support9.04 Ratings6.01 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers9.04 Ratings6.63 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations8.03 Ratings7.43 Ratings
Configurable Accounting8.04 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Standardized Processes9.04 Ratings7.32 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
Infor M3
8.8
2 Ratings
11% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics SL
4.3
5 Ratings
58% below category average
Inventory tracking9.02 Ratings6.05 Ratings
Automatic reordering9.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Location management9.02 Ratings1.02 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
Infor M3
8.6
2 Ratings
10% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics SL
6.7
3 Ratings
15% below category average
Pricing8.92 Ratings6.02 Ratings
Order entry8.02 Ratings6.03 Ratings
Credit card processing9.02 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Cost of goods sold8.02 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Order Orchestration8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Subledger and Financial Process
Comparison of Subledger and Financial Process features of Product A and Product B
Infor M3
8.1
4 Ratings
9% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics SL
5.8
3 Ratings
24% below category average
Billing Management7.03 Ratings6.01 Ratings
Cash and Asset Management8.94 Ratings7.33 Ratings
Travel & Expense Management8.02 Ratings5.01 Ratings
Budgetary Control & Encumbrance Accounting8.93 Ratings6.32 Ratings
Period Close8.02 Ratings7.43 Ratings
Project Financial Management
Comparison of Project Financial Management features of Product A and Product B
Infor M3
8.4
2 Ratings
10% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics SL
4.7
3 Ratings
47% below category average
Budgeting and Forecasting8.02 Ratings7.33 Ratings
Project Costing8.02 Ratings6.33 Ratings
Cost Capture9.02 Ratings2.12 Ratings
Capital Project Management8.02 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Customer Contract Compliance9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Project Revenue Recognition9.02 Ratings2.01 Ratings
Project Execution Management
Comparison of Project Execution Management features of Product A and Product B
Infor M3
8.3
2 Ratings
19% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics SL
-
Ratings
Project Planning and Scheduling8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Task Insight for Project Managers8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Project Mobile Functionality8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Definable Resource Pools8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Grants Management
Comparison of Grants Management features of Product A and Product B
Infor M3
8.3
2 Ratings
9% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics SL
6.3
1 Ratings
18% below category average
Award Lifecycle Management8.02 Ratings6.01 Ratings
Procurement
Comparison of Procurement features of Product A and Product B
Infor M3
8.4
2 Ratings
19% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics SL
-
Ratings
Bids Analyzed and Compared8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Contract Authoring8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Contract Repository8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Requisitions-to-Purchase Orders Integrated8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Supplier Management8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Risk Management
Comparison of Risk Management features of Product A and Product B
Infor M3
8.7
2 Ratings
29% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics SL
-
Ratings
Risk Repository9.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Control Management9.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Control Efficiency Assessments9.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Issue Detection9.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Remediation and Certification9.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Logistics
Comparison of Logistics features of Product A and Product B
Infor M3
8.3
2 Ratings
19% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics SL
-
Ratings
Transportation Planning and Optimization8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Transportation Execution Management8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Trade and Customs Management8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Fulfillment Management8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Warehouse Workforce Management8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Manufacturing
Comparison of Manufacturing features of Product A and Product B
Infor M3
8.6
2 Ratings
13% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics SL
6.0
1 Ratings
23% below category average
Production Process Design9.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Production Management9.02 Ratings6.01 Ratings
Configuration Management9.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Work Execution8.92 Ratings00 Ratings
Manufacturing Costs8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Supply Chain
Comparison of Supply Chain features of Product A and Product B
Infor M3
9.0
2 Ratings
22% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics SL
6.0
1 Ratings
19% below category average
Forecasting9.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Inventory Planning9.02 Ratings6.01 Ratings
Performance Monitoring9.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Product Lifecycle Management
Comparison of Product Lifecycle Management features of Product A and Product B
Infor M3
7.9
2 Ratings
9% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics SL
-
Ratings
Proposal Management7.12 Ratings00 Ratings
Product Master Data Management7.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Infor M3Microsoft Dynamics SL
Small Businesses
Acumatica
Acumatica
Score 8.7 out of 10
Acumatica
Acumatica
Score 8.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Infor VISUAL
Infor VISUAL
Score 7.4 out of 10
Infor VISUAL
Infor VISUAL
Score 7.4 out of 10
Enterprises
SAP Business ByDesign
SAP Business ByDesign
Score 7.5 out of 10
SAP Business ByDesign
SAP Business ByDesign
Score 7.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Infor M3Microsoft Dynamics SL
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(7 ratings)
6.6
(17 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
5.4
(8 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(3 ratings)
1.8
(6 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.9
(2 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(3 ratings)
9.5
(4 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(4 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
1.4
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
Infor M3Microsoft Dynamics SL
Likelihood to Recommend
Infor
Manufacturing: Infor M3 is designed specifically for manufacturers and provides robust production planning and supply chain management features. The software can help optimize production processes, improve inventory management, and automate purchasing and order fulfillment.Distribution: Infor M3 offers advanced supply chain management capabilities, including inventory management and order tracking, making it an ideal solution for distribution companies.Large Organizations: Infor M3 is a scalable solution that can accommodate the needs of large organizations with complex supply chain and production requirements. The software's modular design allows organizations to customize their implementation to their specific needs.Global Operations: Infor M3 provides multi-language and multi-currency support, making it a suitable solution for organizations with global operations.
Read full review
Microsoft
For a small to mid-size business, MS Dynamics SL is effective. We are capable of managing our finances with a very low risk of error. We have worked with MS Dynamics for almost 15 years and have more than doubled the size of our business in that time with very few issues from the program. We have exponentially increased our revenue and reporting demands and have found SL to be very dependable and stable. The program does have the occasional glitch and those are sometimes outside of the realm of expertise of our IT department. SL support is excellent, but their timeliness is not as urgent as ours.
Read full review
Pros
Infor
  • Very stable product. Some of its weaknesses are also its strengths. The lack of web services seems to actually increase stability.
  • No software vendor in this space is perfect. Lawson does perform as advertised.
  • Again, a weakness of this (limited functionality) is a hidden strength as well. In software there is a complexity/feature tradeoff. Where Lawson lacks in features, it does give you a more simple setup for your organization.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Provides flexibility for complex project based cost accounting
  • Strong and flexible allocation processer for cost allocations, markups, and pricing
  • A "Flexible Billing" module under the project controller series that allows for multiple billing formats ranging from fixed price schedule of values, T&M or Cost Plus, and scheduled billing.
  • Flexible reporting with options using Crystal Reports, SSRS, a Quick Query tool, and ability to tie into MS Office tools such as MS Access and MS Excel
  • Tight integration with Financials, but also the ability to integrate with modules such as Sales Order, Inventory, and Field Service
  • Customization abilities ranging from a VBA (visual basic for application) foundation to allow customizing existing forms to the ability to use the SDK (Software Development Kit) to build more complex customizations that integrate with Dynamics SL.
Read full review
Cons
Infor
  • Not intuitive at all, difficult to learn.
  • System is archaic, seems to be largely unchanged since the early 2000's.
  • Reports are all in PDF form, which for financial reporting purposes is tedious to turn back into Excel sheets.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Reporting in the Project module is lacking functionality. I understand that most companies have specific needs when it comes to tracking project information but the standard reports are not good.
  • I would recommend a product like Management Reporter that is for Projects only. Project Reporter should allow users to pull in all Project related data into reports.
  • Fixing suspended batches. Obviously all of us users have experienced this mess. SL knows what needs to be corrected and there could be some step by step fixes in a separate repair module to do the steps we do in Query Analyzer.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Infor
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Unfortunately, Dynamics' lack of ability to smoothly integrate with our CRM system is causing us to look at other solutions. The efficiencies that we gain by using Dynamics for our day to day accounting are lost in the constant headaches of getting sales quotes to import properly into the system for invoicing. Another major issue for us has been budgeting and reporting. We currently do all of our budgeting and board reporting in Excel, which is too time consuming and inefficient, especially when a system as robust as Dynamics should easily be able to handle this relatively simple task.
Read full review
Usability
Infor
This is a highly configurable product. Where all available support provided by [Information] is very good and exceeds our expectations! The investment in this product by Infor continues to be significant and is showing results! Infor is going a long way and is here to stay! No doubt about that!
Read full review
Microsoft
I rate it a 10 because we have removed the fields we don't need so users can really crank the data into the system. The software was designed for the professional services firm in mind but does a tremendous job for construction firms and "blended" companies that are both distribution firms but project centric as well. Perhaps they drop ship inventory to a project where their employees or subs need to work on a project for example.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Infor
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
We have had only one unplanned outage for 2 hours in the last 30 months. We shut down for 30 min to 1 hour once a month, but that is for Microsoft OS updates to the servers. Being a 24/7 world wide operation, the reliability is really important. We do get an 8 hour window on the weekend that we can be down for a short period to install Microsoft Dynamics SL updates, but we do not have many of those. On our last version upgrade, we shut the users out at 9:30 am and were fully operational in less than 6 hours. The upgrade was New SQL server, New SL server and 2 new Citrix servers.
Read full review
Support Rating
Infor
The support is satisfactory, given the large user base of the product. We had no issues to meet our reporting deadlines with Lawson. The organizational support team internally are well trained and hence only on exceptional basis issues are escalated to Lawson support team. We had no negative experience so far with the support of Lawson.
Read full review
Microsoft
Support is only used when needed, so unfortunately ,they get all the odd issues. It's a difficult business, but Microsoft and our firm do a great job of meeting customer needs. We get routine feedback that our support services are very good.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Infor
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Just to let it take its course. The implementation for me once I became a part of my former organization was pretty seamless. Just get to know the basics and call the support team to ask questions if you need help on an issue, should they arise. They are ready, willing, and able to help!
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Infor
Lawson is comparable to the other ERP's I have used. Similar functionality and interface. Usability is comparable.
Read full review
Microsoft
Of the comparable mid-range ERP systems, Dynamics SL competes at the lower end based on price, but also above the high-end based on flexibility, data, and reporting. Being able to stay with the same core accounting from a $100 million dollar company to a $3 billion dollar company shows the range of capabilities.
Read full review
Scalability
Infor
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Since the backbone of the database is MS SQLServer, the database can be easily scaled.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Infor
  • I wish Infor M3 (formerly Lawson Intentia) were more detailed. But, this actually may be a weakness of my employer and not Infor M3 (formerly Lawson Intentia).
Read full review
Microsoft
  • More time is spent on manipulating reports which can and should be automated.
  • Lack of electronic invoicing process and other green technology features creates more cost on printing and storage costs.
  • The lack of a user friendly interface requires more training and a bigger learning curve for staff.
Read full review
ScreenShots