
Ask: ERP/CRM software for small businesses - h34t
I'm helping out a consumer goods startup mfg in China, and selling in US/Canada.<p>We're looking at solutions to manage inventory, warehousing, order tracking, finance, customer relationship management, ecommerce, etc... the whole package.<p>Does anyone have experience in this and have some recommendations/thoughts? Our top two options here are Everest and Netsuite, which are "all-in-one" systems.<p>I've just started researching this today, so I'm all ears! Thanks..
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edw519
I just converted a client OFF of Everest to something 20 years OLDER and much
easier to use. Frankly, I was stunned to see how difficult Everest was to use
and how poorly it was designed.

Examples: Even though Everest maintains 160 columns for each Order Header,
"Time Entered" is not one of them. So go ahead and try to schedule a call
center with no Time Of Day history. To review a single customer's history (and
presumably answer their questions while they're on the phone), you have to
open up 6 different windows!

My general suggestion: Write a "Test Drive" based explicitly upon your
client's business. Have them enter an order and take it through every stage of
it's life (reserve or commit inventory, print, pick, ship, confirm, bill,
collect, post, etc.) The test drive should also hit every function needed to
do this, setup a customer, SKU, GL Chart of Accounts, etc. Then have the
appropriate person working for your client do their job on that system. DO NOT
touch the mouse or keyboard. DO NOT let the vendor touch the mouse or
keyboard.

If they can't enter, ship, and bill an order in a couple of hours with less
than one day's instruction, eliminate the system and save yourself a lot of
expense and headaches down the road.

Naturally, most sales people will object to this approach and use any tactic
to avoid it. Make it clear to them and your client that this must be the plan.
The test drive method is infinitely more effective than the old RFP approach.
When the poor systems are clearly failing the test drive, the saleman may
object with questions like, "Are you going to train your people or not?" which
you'll calmly answer, "Not if it takes until 2012." Good luck.

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subwindow
This is exactly the problem my startup is trying to solve.

We'll have the materials management portion (purchasing, inventory,
warehousing) soon- June is the tentative target.

There seems to be a pretty big gap between excel spreadsheets and huge
business ERP/MRP/SCM/CRM software. Unfortunately, I think what you describe is
right in the center of it.

My first client is transferring off an amalgamation of Intacct Small Business
and Salesforce.com. I wouldn't recommend it based on my experience, but it has
worked out OK for them for about two years. They're at about 8M/yr in sales
right now, and if you're under that, that pair might work OK for you.

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wave
Take a look at the following two solutions:

Compiere is open-source system of software applications that provides ERP,
CRM, SCM for the small and medium-size enterprise. Versions are available for
Linux, Unix, Windows, and Mac.

Openbravo is a web based ERP for small to median sized business. It's function
include finance, supply chain, project management, manufacturing

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izak30
A company I worked for a long time ago was called TDCI,
(<http://www.tdci.com>) They are big into manufacturers. I can get you in
contact directly if you want, e-mail in profile.

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adrianwaj
SugarCRM (a LAMP-based CRM)

I set it up a company that also runs ZenCart (an OScommerce derivative)

It's pretty good, but you need to work out the business processes that it
should support.

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thinkcomp
Check out Exponent Enterprise on my web site. It's better than the others at a
fraction of the price. (I've spent the past seven years building it.)

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alaskamiller
I had to use Everest for a year and it was the most painful thing ever. The
website integration for it that I made was also really painful.

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davidw
You might have a look at Apache OFBiz.

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chaostheory
<http://www.compiere.com/>

This is pretty mature and open source

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ra
Have you checked out TinyERP?

