Oracle E-Business Suite is a comprehensive suite of integrated, global business applications. The suite includes cross-industry capabilities spanning ERP, CRM and supply chain planning.
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Vista
Score 7.8 out of 10
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Viewpoint’s Vista is a construction accounting software. Vista’s core accounting features include accounts receivable and payable, general ledger, payroll and time management, and cash management. It also provides tools for document management, including document templates and reporting.
Oracle eBusiness Suite is the best combination of CRM and ERP. Oracle helps us in managing the entire process of Sales and Marketing. The best feature is that it is highly user-friendly. We can easily manage the entire process of marketing from running a campaign to managing it and getting an interesting prospect than making a lead to making an opportunity by recording each and every conversation from day 1 to last day so that customer feels its valued by the company after that finally getting a business from the prospect.
The company has made a commitment to the use of the Vista products and continue to move forward trying to implement more with the Vista HR Management. From timekeeping to onboarding in the near future we strive to look for better ways to utilize the products for our accounting and payroll purposes.
The EBS Oracle Order Management and Shipping Execution solution allows the creation of an integrated, seamless order-to-cash process and accurately capture of customer orders across multiple channels.
Orchestration of order details for seamless fulfillment execution.
Efficient shipment planning and confirmation.
Communication of order status information to customers throughout the order lifecycle.
Because the application is working globally, it sometimes hangs and the connection is dropped.
It should have more shortcuts to make it easier to develop macros. I create many macros and use the "sendkeys" command in VBA, due to the lack of these shortcuts, it is not possible to automate the process.
For now I can not think of other areas that require improvement.
Their payroll module is terribly slow and very clunky.
Job costing parameters are very strict and limited.
Each module interface has too many forms and screens.
There is too much flexibility regarding where to put information into the system. There isn't one place to do anything, which creates confusion for staff.
After almost 5 years, we have a full control of this ERP System. We are able to implement new functionalities and modules without any major "consulting" expenses. As of today we are making almost 90% of the personalization/customization and implementation all in house. Once [it] is tuned, [it] keeps running very well with no major issues.
It is extremely customizable and tracks so many complicated costs very well, more-so than other construction software programs out there that we've used in the past. It is also not an easy program to use for those even slightly not comfortable with a computer. The help sections/knowledge base could be better organized and updated more. It is a very powerful software program for our business and we rely on it hugely to see how our projects are running in real-time.
The various forms - like order entry forms that allow the uses to enter sales orders and the ability to personalize the views based on end user needs - are easy to use and follow standard business processes. The new release has a big focus on usability and forms now have a familiar web look and feel which has increased usability considerably.
I think that Vista's is an easy program to use very user friendly with lots of help features to allow the user to fix an issue without having to put a support call into Vista. The reporting and exporting capability's are strong.
Because of the transactional nature of the system this software is available 24 X 7, and IT is responsible for making sure the system is available during normal business hours.
Only issue is when there is an upgrade - it takes several times to get back logged in. Otherwise no issues with getting on to the program. We are set up on lap top or on the remote desk top. Works 90% of the time
The performance of the product is very good. Given the transactional nature of the system one of the key focus areas for IT is to make sure performance is not affected for internal reasons. This can also depend on the server configuration and setup. For example, performance on Exadata machine is far superior to other Linux custom systems that companies choose to deploy. In general though, as already pointed out, the platform is now very stable and has few bugs. Whenever there are any issues, the cause is usually customizations that we have made to the platform, rather than out-of-the-box standard functionality.
No issue downloading the reports - I do find sometimes it is easier to export and save than it is to print to a pdf. Options on the different reports not consistent. You can print a couple projects on the JC Contract Status Report - but you have to do each project for the JC Cost by contract item - when neither one is a drill down - not a big deal
In general, support has not been great - particularly standard (non premium) support . The main issue is that our IT staff has been using this platform for years and is very knowledgeable Whenever something goes wrong, we usually have a very precise idea of what the problem is. We are skilled at problem diagnosis. But the Oracle support process is very rigid and slow. Typically, we are required to go through a lengthy diagnosis process where they ask us multiple questions sometimes over several days and we are obliged to talk to different people with differing levels of knowledge. Since we already know what the problem is, we really just want a patch or a bug fix, but it takes days to get there instead of minutes. This can be very frustrating. This is a big part of the reason why we pay for premium support. But it's still a bit disappointing.
When privately owned, it was very good, then dropped when owned by Bane Capital Investments. Now that it has been bought by Trimble and has a home, support is back up again. Response time is better than most software companies, and the information provided is good. They have Chat support for quick answers, and a good Knowledge Base and video libraries.
Excellent training! They keep you on track to insure your implementation is going as planned. There are ample ways to receive additional training and training can be provided by position type. If you put on the effort, the training is there.
The key success factors for the implementation was project management, in-house expertise in IT and time. The implementation process started with the initial evaluation with the initial upgrade on a test system and mapping out the gaps and requirements. We did work with Oracle to understand the new functionality R12 had to offer and did another upgrade and researched solutions. With the use of software development cycle procedures there were conference room pilots with IT, business users. We then refined the project plan to the core key details, performed mock go-live implementations and finally upgraded the software. Overall, this was a very successful process.
The trainer Viewpoint sent did not understand the processes, he only knew where the modules were located. He had no understanding of the actual process itself.
We explored Coupa, SAP, PeopleSoft, Salesforce. We chose Oracle based on value for money, features it offers and the easy availability of vast talent pool in the market. There are many trained Oracle product specialists readily available in the market. This helps us to tap experts when needed easily. Coupa does not have a Project Accounting module. SAP was too expensive. PeopleSoft is more catered towards to human resources software, while Salesforce is for CRM. Oracle has better financials and project portfolio management suite when compared to the competition and this what we needed.
I personally have not used another ERP system other than Viewpoint Vista. I am sure there are others out there, but from listening to my managers experiences before Great Basin Industrial implemented Viewpoint, the other options were less superior to what Viewpoint offers. I think if you are looking for an ERP system in the construction industry, then Viewpoint is the way to go
For a small business - this program is well used in the accounting and operations. The two different work plans are set up for success. Alot of the programs we do not use - but like the reports that are generated - one disadvantage if you do not know crystal reports you cannot edit your form to meet your needs so there is a lot of printing different several forms to get all the information you need.
Not sure I can speak to this as the company moved to Viewpoint before I began here. I think it is helpful for the Project Management and Superintendent staff to easily review how specific job items went, which we do in the PM contract drilldown analysis
