Great Product - Needs Polishing
September 24, 2018

Great Product - Needs Polishing

Michael Clayton | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Arena

We are using it in the manufacturing control process of ME and EE.

Pros

  • Syncing between CMs in Asia and our ME and EE departments here in the States.
  • Documentation of rev control and file management.

Cons

  • I'd like to have control of what columns I see and the order in which they are arranged. For instance, on a BOM the item PN and description are next to each other which is standard but the item quantity is on the opposite side of the screen. The PN and quantity are the most important pieces of data on the screen so it is not useful to have them one foot apart. Most of my users have complained about this.
  • Reports could be easier to use and more dynamic. This may be my inexperience with them but I and my team have a lot of trouble getting the report to pull the correct data.
  • Arena has helped greatly with the organization, documentation, and communication within our company and CMs. But because we are a new company and an even newer user of Arena I can't speak to this question yet.
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Prior Experience with the Product
  • Existing Relationship with the Vendor
As stated previously we are a startup so price had a lot to do with which system we choose. Arena won out for three reasons: First, Price. Next, one of our OPs contractors had experience with Arena and thus recommended and arranged a discount. Lastly, the introductory training provided by Arena was very attractive.
As we were new a new company and first to market the implementation of our product and thus Arena was delayed. Arena was pretty simplistic to deploy with the help of our implementation person. The delays were on our side only.
The two main complaints are centered around the ridged user interface and the reports feature.
Arena is a fantastic tool when compared to Excel BOM and file management. I am very happy to have made the switch but as stated in the previous two questions it needs a little polishing of its already implemented features. I'd like to see a more dynamic user interface. This is a great first tool for a startup company which I'd like to see grow into the last tool we need.

Comments

  • Scott Reedy | TrustRadius Reviewer
    Thanks Michael for sharing your feedback. We appreciate the favorable review and positive statements about how Arena is helping you manage BOMs and share information with your contract manufacturers. We also know there are things we can do better and will consider your input regarding areas you would like to see us improve.

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