JD Edwards was an independent ERP vendor which was acquired by
PeopleSoft in 2003. PeopleSoft, in turn, was acquired by Oracle in 2005,
and the JD Edwards product line became Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne. The
product is primarily aimed at medium-sized companies. Like many ERPs,
it combines a wide array of functions in one platform. The Financial
Management capabilities contain the familiar general ledger along with
expense management, accounts payable and receivable…
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Viewpoint Spectrum
Score 7.9 out of 10
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Viewpoint Spectrum is a cloud-based construction ERP suite with project management, accounting, resource management, and reporting and analytics. Key features include workflow automation and collaboration tools, document imaging and sharing, cost estimating tools, and RFI management tools.
I have used more than 15 or 20 different programs in my 25+ years. Some good and some not so much. This one is great for those that can justify the size and cost, as it will grow with your needs. Small companies with limited revenue would be better with a simple ERP.
If there are lot of complicated systems this might not be the best system. If you have only some complexity Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne is a product a technical or application person can wrap their hands around and understand the whole system.
Viewpoint Spectrum would be fine for small to medium-sized companies. It would be great for transitioning from an in-house paper-based process, especially since it's designed with small construction companies in mind. They're making it even easier for smaller companies by offering additional features that you'd normally have to find in other products. However, companies can easily outgrow this system. We have about 15 years of data in the system, over 300 active jobs, and nearly 1,500 employees. In the past 3 years we've noticed slower performance and frequent locks in the system that require intervention from a system administrator. We moved to the cloud about 2 years ago and this has made troubleshooting even more difficult as we don't have the same access that we did before to resolve performance issues.
The new versions (9.2) of JDE has so much open functionality and really gives the user control over the screens and what they want to see. Love that the layout of the screen is really up to the user and what they want to see it along with freezing columns and creating favorites for way access.
It is so flexible with the system platforms that it can run on and so easy to customize since it supports so many databases.
It is intuitive and does not need to have a lot of training on how to use the software.
It's just a great ERP software and one of the better ones I've seen.
Oracle is FINALLY starting to listen to the users and SIGs and putting enhancements into the system which makes life easier for us business users.
The Configurable Network Language (CNC) is a proprietary protocol, and it can be difficult to source resources that understand this language well.
It has some inherent limitations with generating PDF or printable files. Most organizations use a third party platform like Creat!form or Bottomline to solve this.
No built in credit card processing solution, and no plug-and-play eCommerce or webstore capabilities available.
Subcontract Kiosk can be glitchy - allows subs to overbill on subcontract billing items
Document Imaging can be glitchy - often says users do not have adequate security to view/add documents, but they do - if they sign out and back in, it works fine
At times, support can be lacking - sometimes case responses are delayed or you get an incorrect answer
Some things in Spectrum are NOT that intuitive, but I think knowledge of the software just comes with time. There are still some things I need assistance with in Spectrum but I'm very comfortable with my day to day items now that I've been using it for years. However, if there is something I don't do often or haven't done before, I don't find the software to be that intuitive, I actually find the logic on some things to be a little weird but it's fine once I know how to do it.
For the most part the product is very reliable. Since we are hosted we sometimes have connectivity issues but I would say that is more our ISP than Spectrum.
The support has recently changed. Last year, you could call in and get an immediate response. Now that doesn't seem possible unless you have an urgent situation with access to the software, payroll or payables. I have found that using chat or e-mail works nicely for the most part, but sometimes I feel it would be easier if someone from support would jump on our site and take a first-hand look rather than going back and forth
We currently use ADP and Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne. Because Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne is so costly for payroll processing we have had to use ADP to finish up the processing of payroll. We use ADP for direct deposits and recording manual checks. ADP is not as user-friendly but is still a good software.
I have previously used Sage Masterbuilder, another construction industry software. This has been a number of years ago. The company I am working for already had Spectrum and have been using it for as long as it has been around when it was known as Forefront. Based on conversations I've had with the personnel that were here at the time of purchase, Spectrum clicked off all the boxes they were looking for.
You can grant user specific access which is nice. Project managers do not need all the same modules as Accounting. But Accounting does need access to PM modules as well
Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne's advantage is significant cost savings and operational improvements when you run Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne in the Oracle Cloud. Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne offers the only no-compromise enterprise cloud platform for moving Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, its associated database systems, an ecosystem of apps to the cloud. Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne's One-Click Provisioning tool allows you to deploy Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne on the Oracle Cloud in hours, not days while maintaining the integrity of existing customized apps.