ERP Systems

[Beem]

We're looking at getting an ERP system and am looking to find out what people think about Jobboss and E2.  Does anyone have experience with either of these?  Pros/cons?  

[ToolMan184]

We have had both. JobBoss is way way way better than E2. E2 is still on version 7 and has been for well over 10 years. your maint. will get you eye candy and their bug fixes. They have promised version 8 since IMTS 2006 if that tells you anything. Everytime you ask its always sometime after the first of the year.

[RaiderX]

We have had both. JobBoss is way way way better than E2. E2 is still on version 7 and has been for well over 10 years. your maint. will get you eye candy and their bug fixes. They have promised version 8 since IMTS 2006 if that tells you anything. Everytime you ask its always sometime after the first of the year.

thats not good. helped implement E2 for a company many years back and it was the shizzle. I have heard they are looking to move into something else tho.

as to the question, what is the size of your organization now and projected?

[The Cathedral]

We use Jobboss. It does its job and it does it well but the interface is dated to say the least. It's based off Microsoft Access and if you've ever designed a database with Access, you can appreciate quirks you'll see in Jobboss. .

[Beem]

Toolman - How long ago did you have E2?  

 

We're not big - 12 employees.  Looking for something to help us find our true cost, help with scheduling, and integrate departments more through flow of information. 

[ToolMan184]

We used it until the middle of 2014 and ended it and went full Job Boss starting 2015.

 

Job Boss now is based off of SQL and is much better. E2 was still Access or you could upgrade to the SQL for a pretty penny.

 

E2 will sell you enough to get started and get you hooked then ram it in you once you see the other modules you need.

[Thee Awbade™]

We use Fusion ERP right now, it's not too bad and is able to handle our 100 person team, but We're looking to switch soon to something a bit easier to work with.

 

No input on those, but I can tell you to stay away from Fusion!

[Beem]

Thanks for the feedback.  Our sales guy for E2 was pretty up front and they matched any pricing that Jobboss had.  I've heard from some other people that it's pretty much a horse a piece as far as differences go.  

 

As with any of them, what you put in is what you'll get out!

[ToolMan184]

Yeah, Job Boss will match as well.

 

Ask E2 if you can do decimal quantities. It rounds everything to whole numbers. It bit my a** a bunch of times. If you want 10.400" it will round it too 10".

 

With E2 you DONT get out what you put in. But, you have to do what you think is right for your company. I just got tired of the promises E2 never delivered on for over 8 years. With an ERP system if your looking to cheap out you will pay for it everyday.

[Tinyfxds]

We have Job Boss and from what I hear from the guys that use it is that it's "ok".  They still have some problems with it but I guess nothing is perfect.  The other place I worked at had Vanage? (sp)  I never heard anything bad about that software

[gms1]

Garbage in, garbage out. In the end I am sure all these systems are fine but none of them will be if you don't use and maintain the system. We used E2 at a place I worked and it just turned into a time clock that looked like it came straight out of microsoft database circa 1994.

[Jespertech]

2 hours ago, gms1 said:

Garbage in, garbage out. In the end I am sure all these systems are fine but none of them will be if you don't use and maintain the system. We used E2 at a place I worked and it just turned into a time clock that looked like it came straight out of microsoft database circa 1994.

Currently going through the same thing .. What frustrates me most is when I plead with management about how there are better ways to utilize E2 I am told I'm wrong by people who just don't understand and have never been formally trained to use the product. 

[AHarrison1]

3 minutes ago, Jespertech said:

Currently going through the same thing .. What frustrates me most is when I plead with management about how there are better ways to utilize E2 I am told I'm wrong by people who just don't understand and have never been formally trained to use the product. 

Not that i want to flog this horse any deader than it is...

Get how 'wrong' you are in writing, i.e. a confirmation e-mail or something. That way when the poop hits the fan

and people want to blame you, you now have something in writing stating how 'wrong' you were.

[Colin Gilchrist]

My favorite ERP System is ProShop. It is cheaper and much superior to the other systems mentioned in this thread. Plus, they are US-Based, and their system makes is sooo easy to integrate your Quality System, and actually helps you to become AS9100 certified, because that is how the system is designed.

1 hour ago, Jespertech said:

Currently going through the same thing .. What frustrates me most is when I plead with management about how there are better ways to utilize E2 I am told I'm wrong by people who just don't understand and have never been formally trained to use the product. 

The best utilization of this system is to bite the bullet, junk it, and install ProShop. (Technically, install ProShop in parallel, get it working, see how much more amazingly productive your company becomes, and phase out your old ERP sooner, rather than later.)

[Jespertech]

9 minutes ago, Colin Gilchrist said:

My favorite ERP System is ProShop. It is cheaper and much superior to the other systems mentioned in this thread. Plus, they are US-Based, and their system makes is sooo easy to integrate your Quality System, and actually helps you to become AS9100 certified, because that is how the system is designed.

The best utilization of this system is to bite the bullet, junk it, and install ProShop. (Technically, install ProShop in parallel, get it working, see how much more amazingly productive your company becomes, and phase out your old ERP sooner, rather than later.)

I hope one day to find myself in the position here to do just that, until then I'll be doing as much research as I can to ensure a smooth transition for me and the team. There's just so many redundancies,  it pains me to put effort into what I know is just an inevitable dead end for my company. I assumed when E2 announced that it was discontinuing updates to move forward as "jobboss" they would take the hint and switch it up.. but alas, here we are.. for now at least. 

[Leigh @ Kodiak]

We are currently transitioning over to Proshop, and so far, I like what I see. The Mastercam integration looks promising, and I LOVE the idea of going paperless. Our prior system was MieTrak, which I would avoid at all costs.

[Colin Gilchrist]

1 hour ago, Leigh @ Kodiak said:

We are currently transitioning over to Proshop, and so far, I like what I see. The Mastercam integration looks promising, and I LOVE the idea of going paperless. Our prior system was MieTrak, which I would avoid at all costs.

Sweet, and as a bonus, you're close to Bellingham!

[Bob W.]

We use Microsoft's Business Central.  We had JobBoss and Business central is a much stronger, more capable ERP tool for manufacturing.  It isn't cheap and it is a significant effort to set up.  At the end of the day it boils down to what your goals are as a shop.  If you want to grow to $5M+ per year or better and value hard data, Business Central is the right tool.  If you want a solid tool to manage a smaller shop, JobBoss is a good tool.  Business Central is almost too configurable which can be a challenge if you don't know exactly what you want.  We have it interfacing with several of our apps we programmed to determine part profit, cost per operation, tooling costs, etc...  100% in the background and fully automated once set up.