Suggestions on software

MelbourneDub

Hi Guys,

I hope someone can offer some advise.

I'm working with a company at the moment who is looking for a new catch all software to manage all aspects of the business. We are primarily a business to business company dealing in physicial items with a small amount of retail with websites and an online shop

At the moment we're using sage, excel and docket books but we're looking to put a much better system in place to hopefully take a lot of the stress away and be more transparent with easier reporting and accountability

From stock control (with barcode scanning), through hr, purchasing, invoicing, accounting, reporting, CRM and everything in between.

I'm looking at SAP business one (which is expensive) but I'm unsure if there is something else I should be looking at that would do the same thing or be more suitable for an SME.

I have an idea of what I would like the software to do on a daily basis but I'm not sure if some of the functions required would be an off the shelf option. Can SAP or similar be tweaked after purchase?

I'm fairly tech savvy but I'm unsure of business management software like this so I'd appreciate any advice.

Thanks

ironclaw

SAP software is very good but very expensive. Make sure it fully covers what you want to do as alterations can either be 1) Expensive or 2) void your software support from them. On the note of support, check what you are entitled to as you pay hefty amounts for higher tiers of support.

Mr Clonfadda

All of that should be possible with Sage as well but it will take a large investment.

gargargar

I guess if you are asking here about SAP then your company can't afford it Seriously though it is a very expensive piece of software. Effectively you have to change your business to work the SAP way. It tends to be very large organisations that go down the SAP road 100m+ turnover.

StupidLikeAFox

What you are looking for is ERP software. If you are tech savvy as you say, you can look at Open Source software and do it all yourself, this will be free but will also place a lot of repsonsibility on yourself or your IT department to get to know the product inside out and then support it afterwards.

If you have some money to spend you can get an IT company who cater for small and medium businesses to install, customise and support an off the shelf ERP system. Companies like Ergo or Datapac would probably be a better fit for you than SAP. They will specialise in something like Microsoft Dynamics but might have their own product.

mrawkward

I have yet to see a decent CRM system that is an OEM part of any ERP package, the rest of your needs are met by most proper systems, as another suggestion Irish company Intact have a good SME offering but again don't bother with their CRM. Any decent setup will have the facility to bolt on nicely with the better CRM packages.

StupidLikeAFox

Out of some weird coincidence, SAP rang us up yesterday pushing their new product for small and medium businesses called SAP Anywhere http://discover.sap.com/sapanywhere/en-gb/index.html

Its subscription based by the look of it. Entry level prices are €6k per per year for 5 users - way too complex and expensive for our operation but not sure how it fits in to the grander scheme of things

Gazzmonkey

Dealt with all CX, ERP & CRM's worth their salt ... CRMOD, OSrvC, SAP, SLX but to name a few,

It's hard to say but going by your first post and your an SME I would probably push OSrvC on you but not without some blueprinting sessions first to determine feasibility.

I know a few consultancy firms that deal in the above, would you like me to PM contact details?

WicklowTiger

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Mod: You already are breaking the rules. No advertising or promoting.

WicklowTiger

WicklowTiger wrote: »

Mod: You already are breaking the rules. No advertising or promoting.

Fair enough, apologies. My intention was only to provide information I thought the OP would find useful, similar to above.