SYSPRO

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.

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.

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.

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.