Mule ESB vs. SPS Commerce

Well Suited for:

• REST APIs.
• Rapid API Development.
• Most suitable for integration with SFDC.
• Batch processing.
• Parallel processing.

Less appropriate for:

• Integration with Database.
• Exposing SOAP services.
• Small organizations, because it is super costly.

Incentivized

Run as far away from this company as possible.We looked into using SPS Commerce as an alternative to TrueCommerce for our EDI integration software. After initial discovery calls that claimed functionality built into the service, we decided to make the switch from our current provider as it claimed to be more expansive. Upon signing our initial contract (which they will not do a full consultation without a signed contract - GIANT RED FLAG), it was discovered that the functionality would not work with our current systems and there was no benefit of switching from our current provider to SPS Commerce. However, they claimed that "you signed a contract, regardless of whether you use the software or not you owe the money." Long story short, we ended up in mediation costing a small business significant amount of money and legal fees. SPS Commerce is deceptive and cares more about short dollars than customer experience. Look at the BBB website for more information

• As an ESB it provides great flexibility to add/remove systems in the integration easily. Highly scalable.
• Supports any kind of system to be integrated, Supports Java.
• Lightweight.

Incentivized

• We can easily create and send order confirmations.
• We respond to the corresponding receiving departments with timely and accurate ASN's.
• Once the order has shipped, customer service utilizes the invoicing function.

Incentivized

• Logging the Database query in production with out changing the log4j level

Incentivized

• We have quite a few people here who use this portal, and we have it set up to receive an email when an order is available to print. As of now, you can only add a few recipients to receive those emails; it limits you.
• Invoicing is challenging at times as you have to remember to go in and invoice. If you forgot, it is hard to find the order to invoice, as it seems to disappear.
• We still haven't figured out how to have some of the invoicing features auto-populate, so there isn't so much to fill out. I wish some of those features were easier to use, or find if you have them.

Incentivized

If I can drop it, I will this year. We gave it a decent try for over 4 years and it has gotten worse with each added connection.

Phone support is generally very good and you can get a person on the phone within a few minutes. Their emailed customer support however is very poor and often goes several days or longer before receiving a response, if ever at all

Incentivized

Hands down, Mule is more cost-effective than Informatica, either on-prem or cloud, and the value only goes up form there. Reusability and ease of creation makes in-house training simple and the end result is we leverage Mule for much more than what we initially considered it for. Having used Oracle and TIBCO before as well, I find they are the tools of yesterday, not able to keep up in terms of functionality or price. Jitterbit would be a more relevant comparison, but Mule won out in the bake-off we did between them.

Incentivized

We reviewed many, SPS Commerce Fulfillment was the best "bang for our buck" with the level of growth we have been experiencing. The list of services they offered were exactly what we needed to be able to move our business to that next level of professionalism where we were growing faster than we could prepare ourselves for.

Incentivized

• Created a means to have a synergy with developers - quickly made us productive
• Ease of integration with Mule connectors - quicker releases
• Initial configuration was a challenge. Would have been more challenging without Mule Support

Incentivized

• I enrolled in a product I ended up not using because the vendor that required it ended our working relationship and SPS refused to offer a refund. After I canceled it, they continued to charge our account for three more months of service.
• The interface is simple and easy to understand and use, so it saved time when preparing shipments.

Incentivized