A few years ago we started implementing Epicor 9. We chose it because of the flexibility we were told was there and the level of customizations that were allowed as we knew no ERP system was going to fully fit our company and we knew a lot of customization was going to be required. About a year into the project we realized that Epicor was not going to work for us. The development tools were extremely lacking, the support was less than stellar, and the system was very buggy. Although we had a very experienced developer on-staff, even the simplest customizations were a challange and full of risk.
We then went back to the drawing board and ended up selecting Dynamics AX. Although it is not without its challanges, we have been very happy with it and feel that we would not have been able to accomplish the level of integration and customizations we have done if we had continued with Epicor 9.
I would say our biggest issue is the partner model. We started implementing Dynamics AX when AX 2012 was first released and it was next to impossible to find any partners that had the product knowledge. Microsoft does offer Premier Support contracts which are pretty expensive but at least gave us a way to work directly with Microsoft rather than with a partner. Since then, I believe the partner base has gotten more educated on the newest version and I think there are probably some better options for parters out there.
The biggest benefit we have gotten from going with Dynamics AX is the development framework. It is integrated with Visual Studio so most of our development is done in .Net and using tools we are familiar with. It also integrates with TFS which allows us the version control that is necessary to manage and rollout customizations. This customization framework is significantly different from the Dynamics CRM customization framework (which we are just starting to look at) and is a lot more robust.
Also, the user base is growing significantly and there is a very active community forum with a lot of knowledgeable people.
All in all, I am very happy with our decision to go with MS Dynamics AX and I would highly recommend it over Epicor 9 as long as the framework is there to meet your business requirements.
We then went back to the drawing board and ended up selecting Dynamics AX. Although it is not without its challanges, we have been very happy with it and feel that we would not have been able to accomplish the level of integration and customizations we have done if we had continued with Epicor 9.
I would say our biggest issue is the partner model. We started implementing Dynamics AX when AX 2012 was first released and it was next to impossible to find any partners that had the product knowledge. Microsoft does offer Premier Support contracts which are pretty expensive but at least gave us a way to work directly with Microsoft rather than with a partner. Since then, I believe the partner base has gotten more educated on the newest version and I think there are probably some better options for parters out there.
The biggest benefit we have gotten from going with Dynamics AX is the development framework. It is integrated with Visual Studio so most of our development is done in .Net and using tools we are familiar with. It also integrates with TFS which allows us the version control that is necessary to manage and rollout customizations. This customization framework is significantly different from the Dynamics CRM customization framework (which we are just starting to look at) and is a lot more robust.
Also, the user base is growing significantly and there is a very active community forum with a lot of knowledgeable people.
All in all, I am very happy with our decision to go with MS Dynamics AX and I would highly recommend it over Epicor 9 as long as the framework is there to meet your business requirements.
--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, "b_ordway" <cooner_55421@...> wrote:
>
> >> intriguing thing about the most recent versions of AX and CRM
> >>is they come out of the box as an online and/or hosted solution
> Don't know too much about AX except that it was Axapta before MS acquired it in 2002.
>
> I have been working on a Dynamics CRM project for a few months now.
> Using the online version.
> While the base online product seems decent & I actually like it...
> I haven't been too excited about the support community and customization tools. The built-in tools looked good at first but I soon discovered their limitations. The 3rd party tools are available but appear to me very expensive with limited options. Partners can really break the bank too. Finally the MS online yearly "subscriptions" are adding up pretty fast.
>
> I'll be glad once MS has grown their user base and the ERP products have matured a bit.
> Right now their stuff kind of reminds me of where SSRS was a few years ago.
>
> --- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, Mark Wonsil <mark_wonsil@> wrote:
> >
> > Joshua wrote:
> > > similarly to Vic at my previous company we had Dynamics and we spent about 500K a year on consultants and customization and we did reports in house. For a 5 Mill a year company 500K is pretty significant.
> > >
> >
> > Holy cr@p! $500K a year?!
> >
> > Where was most of that money spent? I know that with large Oracle
> > installations, you need a person or two just to manage the database.
> > Was that true for the MS SQL on AX as well?
> >
> > The intriguing thing about the most recent versions of AX and CRM is
> > that they come out of the box as an online and/or hosted solution (or
> > both in some configurations). I would also think that there would be
> > better support for MS technoligies like the newest operating systems,
> > databases, development tools - but maybe not. Both products were
> > purchased from other companies and thrown under the Dynamics label.
> >
> > Still, wow. $500K...
> >
> > Mark W.
> >
>