SYSPRO

Pros

The GUI is solid and intuitive. The support is responsive and positive facing. The ability to do a SQL install is good. Third party offerings are helpful as well.

Cons

International development across countries ends up producing a varied interaction with the product. Lack of consistency in the interface that is sometimes bothersome. Sometimes it seemed they didn't debug well with new releases.

Pros

Right out of the box Syspro implements many best practise recommendations and for most businesses that's a great start. You can get up and running very quickly without having to customize Syspro. A key feature though is the extensibility of the software.

We all have that internal process that no one could call best practise. It's unique to us, it's ugly and painful but we just can't live without it. Fortunately, Syspro gives you a very robust business object framework to deal with these situations. You can easily create customized features and external applications using your own programming tools like Visual Studio but that integrate seamlessly with Syspro.

Business objects allow you to enforce strict data schemas so you can be confident that inbound data meets the Syspro standards - you only want good data going in! We have been able to develop numerous add ons and custom applications that add real value to our Syspro implementation.

Like any major ERP software, Syspro cannot be everything to everyone. While the core functionality is extensive and varied the ability to quickly build new features that tie directly into Syspro is a sure way to improve your ROI.

Cons

Patching is always a challenge. Syspro allows you to heavily customize the core product with custom scripts, screens and add ons. As a result, a solid testing strategy is needed to make sure that all customizations are properly tested in your dev environment before deploying to production.

Things can occasionally go wrong with a specific port (patch) and core functionality can be impacted. Syspro are quick to respond to these issues though. Syspro doesn't publish hotfix availability for every known issue so be sure to ask your VAR when patching if there are any that are relevant to you.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to SYSPRO

Pros

There customers support is phenomenal and they go above and beyond if you need help

Cons

There isn’t anything I disliked about them

Pros

Our installation of Syspro uses SQL, which allows for a great amount of reporting options. The data can also be extracted to Excel or an Access database. You can also utilize SSRS to generate reports.

Cons

1. We are unable to receive inventory in a prior period. We are a repair service and subcontractor. We will order equipment and parts on the last day of the month. However, we will not receive invoices for those parts until the next month. If we roll our period forward, then we are unable to receive inventory in that prior month. As many of our customers have service budgets, often we have to bill items through a month end; billing in a different period can mess up our customer budgets. But if we are unable to receive inventory in our prior month, then we have to "hold" the month open. That throws off our AR. Although AR and Inventory can be closed separately, it will not work as no new Sales Orders can be open due to a period mismatch between Inventory and AR. That essentially means that we have to choose between Cash (AR Receipts) or Inventory being correct. The other will be off unless we juggle daily processes (like stop recording AR Cash Receipts in the ERP). This is a huge problem as often the prices on our inventory purchases can vary daily. As such, we often do not have an exact cost until our invoice is received from our vendor. As such, inventory is often required to be received in a prior period.

2. There are multiple ways in which to set permissions for users. We upgraded a few years ago from Syspro 6.1 to Syspro 7.0. Upon doing so, many users lost permissions. We have a service contract with Syspro (directly, not through a VAR), and they told us it should not have done that. They worked with us and could not find out why that occurred. After a few weeks, we ended up opening all permissions to everyone in order for people to perform their duties. Syspro never provided us with a resolution. This is not an optimal setup.

Pros

Having previously worked on SAP I found Syspro to be a more understanding programme, nothing was as rigid and applications were easier to manage

Cons

Within the sales order if contract pricing hasnt been input, we cannot save an order, upload a price for same customer and then update the processed order at one go...order needs to be updated manually line by line the system cannot recongnise the changes to the customer prices

Pros

I enjoy the overall ease of use that Syspro provides for importing customer's orders in to our system. We are able to quickly take a customer's purchase order and convert it to a streamlined format. Another useful feature of Syspro is being able to access our inventory at any given moment. Being able to have an up to date look at our inventory when dealing with clients is essential and Syspro makes this possible in an easy to understand format.

Cons

I'd like to see Syspro start to implement some automated features in their upcoming releases. A lot of steps have to be done manually in order to get results. Another improvement that would be greatly helpful is adjusting the overall discount for material when entering line items. This has to be done by each individual line when it would be a huge time saver to adjust the entire order at once.

Pros

Syspro is the perfect ERP for small organisations that simply do not need to scale-ability of much larger and better marketed ERP systems. The software, using its MS-SQL database will give you almost any report you require, otherwise you can extract the data you need, import it into your favourite spreadsheet program and compile those reports you need. Using SRS (Syspro Reporting Services) you can easily compile forms and reports and make them look how you want.

Cons

Without a good and easily accessible local resource/service agent, the customisation possibilities are terribly daunting.

Pros

Powerful software that is not reliant on online servers. Almost everything can be exported to excel for easy reporting functions. Integrates well with sharepoint, which is a big plus to our company.

Cons

Steep learning curve and requires significant training for most of our team. Although it is good at what it does, but programming for additional reports and functions requires a lot of our team both in training and our IT department in creating solutions.

Pros

It is a very user friendly application, easy to extract data to excel for fitter analysis.

Cons

The erp has been design mostly for the manufacturing industry but it does not come with the equipment maintenance module manufacturing industry is equipment intensive and the cost of maintaining equipments is very high syspro lacks the capability of tracking equipment maaintenance cost syspro clients are forced to look for third party apps which are expensive and challenging to interface with syspro this is frastuating most of us please work on this.

Pros

You can pretty much get a module for about anything you want to do.

Cons

Some modules are written in different countries and so the data validation and user interfaces are not always uniform.

Pros

It's a massive piece of software with enormous capability.

Cons

Highly technical and can be very difficult to use. Requires a lot of training and setup, and lots of support to maintain and troubleshoot. Not very user-friendly.

Pros

This is an ideal enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for small to mid-size manufacturers and distributors.

Cons

We had a tumultuous implementation experience, primarily due to the third-party vendor, but afterwards it was fine.

Pros

A plethora of functionality and data collected. Can perform modifications of limited functionality by user.

Cons

Very expensive to setup and maintain the data. Requires constant technical support for users and data.

Pros

I love the stability. The software runs without major issues. If an issue does arise there are multiple outlets to look for help; forums online as well as VAR and Direct Syspro Support. The software covers everything we do, from purchasing to sales, customer and inventory management, it does it all.

Cons

Sometimes you have to rely on an outside product like Access to get more detailed reports than what is provided. If you have someone on site who knows and understands how databases work then you're ahead of the game. If not, your VAR can help a lot in this area.

Pros

Syspro integrated all the necessary information as you need it. I like how I handle its customization feature to be more understandable.

Cons

A little limited based on its features. Fixing on some updates should be properly affixed to be more competitive.

Pros

The support is great and they are always enhancing the product. Our CRR is awesome and very helpful.
The manufacturing side is great and the BOM function works very well with formulas and batching in the food industry. The lot functions and traceability is great as well.

Cons

Having to upgrade our custom modifications every time there is a major release. This is self-inflicted somewhat.. but it keeps us behind in the upgrade cycle. And the custom programming is expensive!

Pros

Flexibility, detail. You can use the mass options it offers or just the ones you need.
I am sure we could use more than we do.
You have support you can use as much or as little as you need.
I have used Syspro for 20 years. I am still happy with the choice for accounting, inventory and manufacturing.

Cons

We did require special detail down costing. NOT available on any software.
Manual not as user friendly as it could be.
Updates are not automatic.

Pros

Syspro is highly customizable and can be configured to fit just about any business structure, from process manufacturing to ecommerce retail. The online help is robust, and the online forums are available for technical help.

Cons

The downside of the product being highly customizable is that configuration must be well planned and well thought out prior and during implementation. A bad implementation can lead to a bad experience with this product.

Pros

Very comprehensive ERP software with a lot of capabilities and customization opportunities

Cons

The permissions are very complicated. This is both a positive and a negative. There are many options for different user tiers, which is a good thing, but it can be difficult to find exactly what you are trying to give access to a particular user and sometimes they overlap in multiple places. Some kind of wizard would be helpful.

Pros

As our company grows our technology needs change. Syspro meets our demands and grows with us. Syspro vendors have an array of experts to assist users in creating system solutions, both simple and complex.
Syspro provides us with the "edge" we need to be competitive in a rapidly changing market place.

Cons

The product is so feature rich that I know we can take better use of it. We have just scratch the surface.

Pros

The software is flexible enough to be tailored to meet your needs. Many customizable fields and functions and access to the data through ODBC connectivity allows users to report on data and update as necessary. The vendor is very responsive to the needs of the user and quick to resolve issues that are presented.

Cons

Help files could be a bit more detailed for individual fields in the system.

Pros

Syspro is highly intuitive and offers an impressive level of customizability. Several of our staff members who've come from companies that use other ERP applications have remarked about how comparatively quickly and easily they've learned Syspro.

Cons

Some add-ins offer surprisingly little functionality for the relatively high price tag.

Pros

The flexibility to view information differently by user as well as the quickness of the system to retrieve information or statistics.

Cons

We have issues from time to time recently with the updating of JAVA and it's interfacing smoothly with the Syspro SRS system. It requires some additional editing on our part when JAVA updates.

Pros

Syspro has made efforts to help us move forward. I oversee three companies and each one has a different business plan. Syspro works with all three with minimal problems.

Cons

The support can be hard to reach at times. They do call back but the main issues is that I am east coast and they are west coast.

Pros

We are a manufacturing company and we have a complicated Inventory. Syspro is a great program for managing our inventory. It also has a great product configurator. All other modules works very well too.

Cons

Syspro constantly has updates and I wished the updates would install automatically.

Pros

Sales Order Processing for adding orders

Cons

Reports are limited when trying to pull information out

Pros

It produces solid reports that are very useful in making everyday business decisions. Journal entries are easily done and retrieved. The audit trail is maintained, and it allows for easy tracking of users.

Cons

The bank reconciliation feature needs an update to make it more user friendly.

Pros

We have been using Syspro since 1999 and have found it to be an excellent product to run our business. We utilize Syspro to run all of our domestic and international business and to seamlessly tie our businesses together. At any point and time we have complete visibility across the entire business. We use almost all of the core component modules (accounting, inventory, sales, WIP, Purchasing, etc.) that Syspro offers and we find the software fast, stable and extremely accurate. This is the thing I like best about this product; that it is extremely stable and accurate. I would think anyone in the market for an ERP would consider this a number one criteria and I have seen too often where other products miss this mark. With Syspro, I have found that things just work. I run a distributed system across a WAN with many users in different locations; and everything works and ties out. I rarely have any issue with the functionality of Syspro. A close second to its stability is its openness of its data. There are numerous applications that we have written to augment functionality to closer align the software with how we conduct business. This is only possible because we are able to access the data utilizing their E.NET features which allows us to execute transactions without bypassing the business logic.

Cons

We are a 24 hour shop situated across the globe. Because of this, we have users in the system effectively all the time. End of Month closures and balancing functions require exclusive access in order to perform those functions. It would be better if we could perform those functions without exclusivity of the databases.

Pros

SysPro is a complete ERP solution for both distribution and manufacturing companies, which is my experience with this software. However, I don't see any reason why a service company cannot use this product as the software is licensed by the module and overall implementation can be custom tailored to the needs of each organization.
The accounting and finance section is robust and complete and the general ledger can serve large organizations.
Inventory and warehouse menaagement are comprehensive and should only require minor customization for most companies that use it. I imagine most of the customization can be done in-house using the power-tailoring capabilities.
Another powerful set of features allow each user to have a custom and unique user interface with only the needed functionality and using personalized colors, fonts, and other graphics.

Cons

Browsing capability is limited to a relatively small number of records if you don't want to wait a very long time to see results. Alternatively, you can query the data you need using MS-Query or SQL Server Management Studio to get quick and accurate results.
Many of the system reports are not very useful. Here again, you can design your own reports or use your own queries.

Pros

The software is easy to navigate and use and contains everything we need out of an ERP. In situations where more complex or different functionality is needed, Syspro makes it very easy to integrate with third-party softwares. There are lots of companies that offer Syspro integration out of the box, and the user base is a great community. There are also lots of customization options within Syspro that allow you to tailor the product to your company's needs without worry of those customizations not being supported by the software or the next upgrade. Administration of the software also is pretty easy.

Cons

If you don't run the latest version of the software that supports the browser-based interface, remote use for sales people is a little clunkier since you would have to access a windows PC either via VPN or remote desktop. But the browser-based product seems like it will work much better on mobile devices on the go.

Pros

I strongly believe the SYSPRO ERP is a powerful solution, able to perform functions well beyond what most users will require of the system. What I like most about the system is, if initially set-up properly, the ability to query data that meets any company's reporting requirements. You can use Access, Crystal Reports and even dump list views into Excel.

Most companies are different, in some way, shape or form. It's hard for software developers to iron out all wants and needs. I feel SYSPRO overall listens and cares about what their system can provide and is easy to work with to help find solutions that fit your business. I highly respect their California development and support teams. They've always been responsive to our needs.

Cons

I think what we like least about the software are some of their stock and non-stock features. As an example, some of the pain points for our business was ATP (Available to Promise), MRP, Landed Cost Tracking and EDI, to name a few. We currently do not use ATP or MRP as they are written, because it doesn't fit our business. Landed Cost Tracking is a great tool, when set-up properly. EDI is also a great tool but unfortunately this product generally ties into their shipping solution, which is basically a third party solution. We continually struggling with EDI Shipping Solution, basically due to this "add-on".

In addition, forget about "stock" reporting. The report are not very useful. The good thing is that it is easy enough to query data to your liking to make and create your own reporting.

Pros

App Orders we’re a blast. Agents in the field could submit orders and you ca receive within 1 to 2 minutes process them in no time. I also like the fact it can be navigated strictly on th keyboard.

Cons

It’s easy to undo the setup of the layout. I wish it had more prompts to warn you so no mistake could be made in that way.

Pros

Syspro is constantly evolving and striving to leverage the latest technology without forcing you to frequently retrain users so you are able to focus on implementing the features that bring you the greatest benefit. There are numerous resources available and a large pool of users that have been using the product for many years. They provide a depth of practical knowledge to draw on which has been invaluable. The ability to pick and choose only the modules you need is huge. Syspro recognizes that they cannot possibly develop a perfect solution for every aspect of every business globally and so provide accessible interfaces to specialized software. Flexibility coupled with low maintenance and ease of implementation have been key features for us.

Cons

The data integrity checks (or balance functions as they call them) can only be run with no other users accessing the software. Whilst they may be automated to run in the evening there are times we need to run them during the day (for example after a power failure at a remote Branch). This may cause 20+ minutes of downtime. I believe this will be addressed in the next release.

Pros

The manufacturing costing (BOM), and Financial modules are at the core of our business. Straightforward integration with other products (you need a good VAR) is a plus. Highly customizeable too. Excited for their upcoming web-based product update!q

Cons

As with all ERPs, it is a massive beast that requires tons of resources to deploy in your organization. It does not have any built-in warehouse management functions, but can integrate with other WMS systems.

Pros

Its good for procurement and just regular accounting. Doing a journal is simple and easy and the company can have different level of approval for each journals.

Cons

There are many features of syspro that are lacking. The main is the bank reconciliation feature which is too complicated and doesn't allow for easy use.

Pros

Keeps track of most everything with little effort. There is the standard trackers that can account for inventory and process planning. major customization abilities.

Cons

Pulling data that would seem logical is just beyond your reach, requires a lot of customization to retrieve common data that is a logical default field.

Pros

SYSPRO allows for a variety of screen customization and scripting in order to get the desired behaviour. 3rd party software integration through Business Objects allow us to achieve virtually any functionality and any desired level of automation.

Cons

Documentation on 3rd party interfacing is not thoroughly documented. There's sometimes a bit of guesswork required to achieve that taks. New port releases are usually a bit uncertain and best to wait a few weeks before upgrading.

Pros

Fairly user friendly. A lot of features for the cost.

Cons

The version I am using (not the most current) is not modern in its look or feel and takes a lot of time to train.

Pros

syspro is userfriendly, safe and reliable.

Cons

syspro is a perfect software and there is nothing i dislike about it.

Pros

I have found Syspro to be an excellent middle level enterprise resource planning solution for our company.

Cons

Some inconsistency between the modules as a result of development occurring globally in various countries.

Pros

The database is very well structured. It was easier to create reports and custom applications because it was unambiguous and followed best practices

Cons

The actual UI left much to be desired. You have to click, a lot and some of the menus are confusing. There were no links to other records, you had to manually open the right module and start over again to find related records.

Pros

It's good at managing inventory, keeping track of everything and providing reporting into excel that allows one to work in and create and look for whatever is needed.

Cons

I found it at first a little hard to know how to use it, I found I would accidentally delete fields in my search area screen and not know how I did it and how to get it back. But other than that once you know how to use it, its fairly user friendly.

Pros

Most modules look the same and are customized the same. This makes it easy for users to navigate a variety of modules. This also helps administrators customize the software because each module gets customized the same way.

Cons

There are almost too many ways to customize the software. This software has been designed to handle workflow and business practices of many types of companies in many industries. As a result it can be easily customized to fit your needs. Unfortunately because it can be used in so many different ways, there are a lot of visible fields and settings that aren't relevant to every industry. It can take a lot of time to go through and clean up every window the users see so that they don't get lost. This is the same with the security settings. While parts of the security settings are grouped, it can take a lot of time to select which programs operators can access among other controls you have over operators.

Pros

Different levels of access
Allowing each user access to information for their position

Cons

Some areas of the different levels in the program were set, not able to be fully customised for specific positions

Pros

As with any system bugs that pop up, but I have found they are fixed in port releases, shortly after I find them. SYSPRO is allows you to customize which I find to be very beneficial for our company. Also since you can access your own SQL database on your own server, you can write any reports needed with the Crystal Report Writer they provide with the software.

Cons

Their quoting module leaves a little bit to be desired, but I believe they are working on updating that module. Also they do not offer “Non Stock” part codes that can be kept in an inventory file as an expense item, as an inventory item GL code is based on Warehouse.

Pros

Easy to use

Cons

Issues have come up that updates have not fixed

Pros

The varied modules that can be tailored to suit our business model. Being a house account is by far a better experience as we receive stellar tech and customer support as opposed to the non responsiveness of our previous VARS

Cons

New product rollouts that only put a band aid on previous issues instead of enhancements that fix problems with existing versions. Complex KB that requires drill down that does not provide practical solutions to more common issues experienced by end users with the software. I am not impressed with the VAR program as it has never worked for us in the past, however, being a house account has negated that aspect.

Pros

There is a lot of functionality, both within the basic modules and the add-ons and partners. The Personalization is key to using it throughout our process as we can change up the screens to the particular user's needs or job requirements.

Cons

I am not really sure how to answer this question. I feel the product is easy to use and understand. Once you are familiar with one module, you are basically okay in all the modules. The true dislikes I had with this program, in the early days, have been corrected and are no longer an issue. I have a few small petty issues, but they do not affect the performance or the resulting data.

Pros

The vendor is constantly making improvements to their ERP package, and isn't standing by idle. They are very proactive in being a market leader and offering cutting edge technology other ERP packages haven't thought about offering.

Cons

The ERP package has a lot of features and abilities that sometimes work against it as the package has many ways to accomplish the same task. Sometimes it feels that all of the options makes it harder to use. The nice things is that I would rather have these options exist and be something that I could use should the need arise rather than not have a solution.

Pros

It is a very reliable system that is easy to learn & operate. Vendor support is great that helps you to move along with the fast pace of industry & market volatile needs. It is indeed a best-suited ERP system.

Cons

Syspro is up to the mark however sometimes it does not run seamlessly & takes time to run reports which is quite nerve-wracking.