Microsoft Dynamics SL vs. QuoteSoft

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.

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Quotesoft again is very well suited to any estimating department. I recommend a large screen monitor, but it's far more convenient than the old quick pen table or other methods. It's been great for jobs post mortem as well, we'll go back over as builds and make sure we captured and adjust estimates or change orders. It's also great for illustrating changes, and having all be very accurate.

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• 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.

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• Once you're over the learning curve, it's fantastic at getting accurate material takeoff. Because one is working off the real PDF prints of the project, it's very easy to get a good material list and takeoff.
• Excellent for giving options of transitions and allowing the user to account for the actual 3rd dimension of the project by being able to click and add the sections needed to transition between floors.
• The speed in which the user is able to takeoff is so much faster than traditional methods, and more accurate and easier to use than the other options on the market. Prints out great reports showing materials and hours, and lets you color code the systems while estimating so you know you aren't duplicating efforts.
• Very flexible as far as how it adjusts for your desired estimate. You can identify per floor, side of the building, system, etc.
• Allows for fast on the fly adjustments of sizes, materials and types of transitions with ductwork.

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• 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.

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• I'd prefer an 'all in one' as opposed to modules. I believe it's offered in that fashion but it was a touch more expensive. I was able to negotiate a footage takeoff tool for piping, to make it easier and more economical to our specific use, which is 95% dry side hvac estimating.
• Would be great if it could be preloaded with Smacna or MCA factors for labor, and also would be great if there was a faster way to update material costs. You do need to stay on top of your material factors and make adjustments per the price of steel and other consumables. The industry has been stable lately, but if for some reason you were lax in updating labor and material factors, you could be off on the estimate. That's true of ANY software or even standard old school estimating approach.
• It does require a dongle and a per seat license. The one drawback I don't care for, in a small company with tight cash flow, I do have estimators sharing the seat and scheduling takeoff around each other. Pretty standard though.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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We were looking at this, as well as quick pen, and other industry standard programs like Wendes. QuoteSoft was far more versatile, user friendly and has proven to be the right choice. No specific equipment outside of a bigger monitor, ease of use, and tech support as well as the online training aspect was fantastic. Felt well supported while we rolled it out.

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Since the backbone of the database is MS SQLServer, the database can be easily scaled.

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• 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.

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• First positive impact is time saved. We're able with our small team to estimate..ACCURATELY far more projects, thus winning more projects.
• Accuracy once we had our factors programmed is fantastic. It's tightened up our material and labor hours and made us more competitive
• Definitely has had a great return on investment. Helping to land more projects out of the sheer amount of available time to bid more, as well as being more confident in material costs.

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