Does anyone have knowledge of the ERP product SYTELINE?
Stephen Helfrich (CFO/Consultant, In Transition/Consulting/Interim CFO)
| Oct 10, 2010
I am in the interview process with a company that uses Syteline as an ERP System but they haven't kept up with the various upgrades over the years. It is estimated that upgrades are in arrears approximately $125K worth and whoever is hired is going to have to decide whether to do the upgrades or acquire another system. I have never encountered Syteline before and so I'm wondering if there are any group members that can give me opinions on system functionality, scalability, cost to maintain, etc.
As always, thank you in advance for any help that you can provide.
Answers
Company: Supersine Duramark Ltd
Syteline is a flexible and versatile system ERP system originally produced on a database and language called Progress but latter versions run using Visual Basic on Microsoft SQL server.
There are Syteline user groups in the US, UK and Australia which may be worth talking with, depending where you are.
It largely depends what is done with SyteLine currently and the new companies ambitions whether SL is a good fit for the business.
It is generally a bad idea to engage in company-wide change programs without getting a good idea of where the company is going. If Syteline is used for everything from general ledger, through project management, basic CRM, materials management, job and labour control it is deeply embedded so the effort to upgrade or replace will be significant.
The cost of licences for either approach is going to be a small part of the total cost of the system change so unless there are significant savings to be made it may be better to stick with what you have.
One influencing factor ref. Syteline: It is increasingly based on the Microsoft tool stack.
Company: Adams Automation
Stephen,
Infor has a licensing program called Infor Flex, recently under the program they have been granting maintenance "Amnesty" to bring companies like the one you mention back into the Infor fold. They may have the opportunity to upgrade with little to no back payment cost. I am not affiliated with Infor, they will need to find out if the program is still in effect and if they qualify. It is worth a look.
I am in agreement with Tony, software cost is a small amount relative to total investment for an ERP implementation, upgrade or reimplementation. Done correctly, it will be well worth the effort. Done badly, it will quickly become a money pit.
Take your time, prepare yourself, and talk to as many companies you can that have been through it. My experience is that organizations underestimate the man power commitment by a factor of 5-10.
Best Regards,
Kurt
Company:
Ugh, Flex licensing! Brings back bad memories. Works well, but inflexible. But clearly, you gotta pay for what you use...