abas ERP

Comentarios: I have enthusiastically recommended abas to several other businesses. The abas-USA team is great to work with. Even at the highest level (owners and executives) they take a personal interest in their clients and have a deep understanding of their product. It would be expected that someone in my position would interact with several consultants and technicians at abas-USA but over the course of the last five years I have also come to personally know the over/President of abas-USA as well as the VP of Operatoins, the VP of Information Systems, and pretty much the entire US-based management team. I have also had the opportunity to meet several of the German executives, company officers, and programmers to discuss the system. You can't fake the enthusiasm these guys have for their customers and for their product.

Puntos a favor: It's a complete solution - you won't be asked to pick and choose between dozens (or hundreds) of modules that can be included or not during implementation. This program was also not cobbled together from disparate programs and modules purchased by some corporate entity and bundled for sale.
Abas technical support is excellent (more on that later).
Abas user support and training is also excellent - they run what they call the "abas academy" out of their Virginia offices. They have frequent multi-day training courses focused on different aspects of the software. The best are the technical training courses where they teach 'higher-level' users (like the system admins from their clients) how to program customizations for themselves. Some of our most useful processes were programmed by me in-house.
Abas is always getting better and changing with advances in technology.
The program is remarkably stable. It runs (preferably) on a linux server and uses a custom designed database (that is a big $ savings over an erp running on a windows server using an SQL database). In four years, the only time our ERP system has been down has been during power failures or when I did something to break it. When I did disrupt the system, during non-business hours, the support team had us up and running again withing an hour.
In general, support tickets are handled very promptly. Urgent or critical tickets are addressed immediately.
There is a group on LinkedIn where users communicate and help each other out. Many of the members are "IT Manager" types who use/administer/customize abas where they work.

Contras: On the technical side, getting into programming the proprietary database means a bit of a learning curve for anyone who is used to using SQL.
Mobile applications aren't fully implemented but more are constantly being developed. The mobile app server addition is a significant investment.
The system had no built-in capacity to close idle sessions (to free up licenses for the pool) so I had to program a work-around.
I have had a couple instances where a fairly green support tech got assigned to a ticket and wasn't much help.

Puntos a favor: ABAS has the ability to connect to design software such as Solid Works. This connection allows our engineers the ability to create parts, work orders and bills of materials with a click of a button. This is a huge improvement over the manual systems we use to use. ABAS is also very customizable. This allows us to fit the ERP system around the way we like to operate instead of settling for methods that may not be exactly what we wanted.

Contras: As with any ERP system, there is a ton of content, screens, reports and applications. For a new user, this can be overwhelming and typically takes some time to understand the navigation and how to utilize the system. ABAS has done a good job making navigation similar between all screens but this also can cause confusion as to what screen the user is working in. With practice and training this becomes less of an issue but is a real challenge for new users. The addition of a central reporting system with pre-made reports that can be modified as needed, would also be a welcomed addition. Currently reports are embedded within info-systems and not always obvious to the user.

Comentarios: Pankl Racing Systems, based in Austria, specializes in developing and manufacturing engine and drive-train components for racing cars, high performance vehicles and the aerospace industry. Pankl is a global organization with worldwide subsidiaries in Austria, UK, USA, Slovakia and Japan. In Austria we've been using abas ERP since 1995, in the USA since 2002, in the UK since 2004 and in Slovakia since 2008. At the moment we are running abas ERP version 2009r4n11 at all the Pankl subsidiaries. We decided to use abas ERP because it provides all the necessary functions for a mid-market manufacturer like Pankl and from our point of view it has a really good cost/performance ratio. Another benefit is the flexibility of abas ERP. If your company needs customizations, like additional fields in screens to enter data or personalized reports, abas can make that happen. I was not personally involved in the abas ERP implementation process in Austria and the UK, but I never heard anything negative about these projects. The implementation process in the UK and in Slovakia took 3 to 6 months at each subsidiary. It took us a little bit longer in Slovakia compared to the UK, because we are running abas ERP in Slovakia in 4 different languages: Slovak, Czech, English and German. Both software vendors, in the UK and in Slovakia, were really helpful during the whole roll out process.
We received all the help we needed during the implementation process and I really appreciate the fast response time of abas USA when there are problems or just user requests. In a demo system, which is actually a copy of the live database, each department receives special training in abas ERP. This approach has 2 major benefits:
1. The user has the chance to increase his knowledge of abas using familiar examples from the live system
2. The user is already in contact with the abas ERP system, but in a "save" demo environment, where he cannot damage anything in the live database.
Based on our experience such lessons are more efficient for a new user than just classroom lectures. Our users usually learn to use abas ERP really quickly after these training sessions. As with each software solution, abas ERP has "special" features and functions, but if you are aware of them you gain a big advantage in handling the abas ERP software. The biggest benefit is to have all the relevant data from purchasing and sales, production, materials management, production planning and control (PPC) and financial accounting combined in one system.

Puntos a favor: This ERP software is very flexible and customization to fit our needs. It also contains many "cutting edge" features like integration with Solid Works engineering design software, E-Business, Document Management and Business Apps that many of the others did not have or were "bolt" on third party add-ons. Working with ABAS through the install and continued support I have to say the feeling that we are part of the "family" is what I like best about this vendor. They take the time to listen to what you are trying to accomplish and work with you to solve your issues all while maintaining a positive attitude.

Contras: The source coding is in German. While this doesn't affect the average user since all screens are translated to the native language it makes it a little more difficult for advanced users who wish to do their own programming or screen adjustments.

Comentarios: It is great to have an ERP solution that has so much capability to provide for unique business solutions. The problem with the ease of use, is tracking these changes and creating more maintenance and upgrade work in the future. Make sure to check functionality in the core product before you add custom solutions, often you can meet your requirements with just a little bit of training and small changes to your process.

Puntos a favor: * Highly customizable interface that allows for adding additional functionality and improving users experience
* Easy to learn programming language
* Modern web services available for web based applications
* Functionality and flexibility of the big ERP providers, without the high cost

Contras: * Tracking and updating customized solutions is not very smooth
* Small user base in the US makes collaborating with other companies hard (this is improving)