Infor VISUAL vs. Oracle PeopleSoft ERP

I struggle to identify a scenario where VISUAL is an appropriate solution. We used VISUAL because it was a legacy system and the cost/complexity of changeover seemed daunting. The user interface is poor as is the interconnectedness of the various screens and menus. This might be an acceptable piece of software for a continuous manufacturing environment with little variation of basic design, but we have had to write multiple add-on macros in order to get VISUAL to work effectively for us.

Incentivized

You really need a big enterprise to take advantage of PeopleSoft. It is not entirely user-friendly, and it often requires massive amounts of customization to make it work for layers if you will. Business experts can figure it out, but if you are expecting someone to easily learn how to use the timekeeping modules without heavy customization, it's really not for you. You need to know going in, that this is not for a small business at all, and not even a medium-sized enterprise. It's geared to massive organizations that need to integrate business processes over geographic areas and multiple departments.

Incentivized

• Infor Visual has a standard way of addressing business operations: sales orders, invoicing, reporting. It is easy to train operators used to using a manual or other ERP system.
• Material control is easy for production runs, R&D material lists and repairs. The process of receiving, issuing and returning material to inventory is facilitated by standard interfaces that are easily learned by material control operators.
• Engineering changes to bills of material are facilitated by the "engineering Master" flexible editing capability. The version control for the BOM's can be as detailed or vague as the process designed dictates. One item of a BOM or the entire BOM can be changed quickly and approved for production that day.

Incentivized

• One of the best thing it does is it is customizable. You can implement any business logic you need. This is one of the very key assets of PeopleSoft Financials.
• PeopleSoft Financials's accounting methods are in line with industry standards. You can use the process as is and ledger will be taken care of.
• It supports multiple ways to integrate with other systems.

Incentivized

• VTA has been extremely unreliable. I would not recommend it. It is not customizable at all. There is no logical way to handle shift differentials which is a huge issue with a company that runs 24/7.
• If you do not have a schedule set up, they cannot clock in. This poses a problem for anyone that gets called in on a shift they don't normally work on.

Incentivized

• PeopleSoft Financials does not address the needs of small organizations that do not have a large enough staff to maintain the software or utilize the features it provides as it requires a moderate staff to keep track of all of the transactions and processing
• PeopleSoft licensing costs are significant, which are relative to the features provided but in many cases those features may not be necessary
• PeopleSoft licensing structures can be frustrating at times when certain modules would allow you to perform the complex task needed but it would require the entire module to be licensed for just that one feature (e.g. Cash Management for loading bank statements in certain formats)

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.

PRISM is a great tool to track and watch numerous financial documents. I would like to see more of an integration platform that would control tracking for specific project details. There is currently only a little section for job notes which I would like to see improve. I think navigation could be improved, but isn't the worst compared to some platforms I have worked with as it provides a tree like structure on the backend which helps synchronize information together for fiscal financials.

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

Incentivized

The usability is very outdated In my opinion. The screens resemble those of Windows 3.1. Too many clicks and drop-downs or clicks to go to a new screen. The business logic also appears dated and requires an update. Overall, it does not have a pleasing User Interface and should be refreshed, or a new interface should be built from the ground up.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

I can't give them a perfect rating because it does often take a long time and usually more [expensive] to resolve trying issues that cannot be solved by our in-house team. PeopleSoft is complicated, and the mix and match of user-created and stock modules cause problems very often. These usually require more customization to completely fix, requiring more money spent with

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

I recommend that everyone pay special attention to developing a solid testing and training plan if you are even thinking of implementing PeopleSoft. Be ready to obtain good trainers and developers, otherwise, your journey can be unnecessarily painful and much more expensive. Try to stay with an implementation partner who really has your needs at heart, and actually takes the time to understand your organization!

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

PeopleSoft is much more appropriate for large organizations than the software programs listed here. I'm involved in a project to bring billing and accounts receivable functions out of "shadow systems" like those listed here and into PeopleSoft, and PeopleSoft is more robust, flexible, and standardizable. We've found it to be an excellent solution.

Incentivized

• I cannot comment on business impact.

Incentivized

• Provides better controls to ensure that spend does not increase beyond the PO amount.
• sPro reverse invoicing provides a mechanism to only pay our staff aug firms for only the hours that entered into PeopleSoft. There is no more reconciliation between the vendor invoices and the hours that were charged within the internal time tracking system.
• PeopleSoft Financials increases employee efficiency through the use of dashboards and work centers.

Incentivized