Infor VISUAL vs. Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP

The original version of Visual Manufacturing (Lilly Software) was intended for mechanical manufacturing. It was adapted at our facility (we were not the first) to accomodate electronic manufacturing. For electronic manufacturing process control it is not ideal when referencing in-line or custom processes used to build product. For material control it is excellent unless a modification to a standard product is required (and we did this on 60% of product going out the door). The co-product feature that removes material from an assembly requires the creator of the work order to calculate the percentage of cost the removed items are from the completed product. On the business operations side regional tax reports were difficult to extract and an external module to go into the data base and extract that had to be created. The system itself was stable for the most part. Occasional "data collisions" corrupted transactions at times. The accounting procedures in place found them by the end of the month .where they were corrected. For a small business with less formal processes Infor Visual can be used with little training for the operators. If the processes need a higher level of accountability and control the processes can be formalized with workflow scripts to ensure that higher level of control.

Incentivized

Oracle Fusion Cloud is best suited if a customer moves from Oracle eBusiness Suite (on-prem) to a SaaS offering. The transition is comparatively manageable to implement. However, the customer must understand that we cannot have too many customizations in the SaaS model, so many heavily customized on-prem applications would need to be incorporated in the Cloud by using Cloud tools like Oracle Integration Cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Autonomous Database, Oracle APEX provisioned on OCI, etc.

Incentivized

• Part/BOM libraries
• Traceability from customer order to work order
• Job status representation

Incentivized

• By utilizing technology, we were able to maintain our efficiency ratio which gives us a huge advantage over our competitors.
• It offers us sets of dependable apps to increase productivity, enhance control
• and lower operating costs.
• Oracle has been an amazing, reliable, and powerful analytical tool that has streamlined budgeting financials planning, and data infrastructure across the entire enterprise.

Incentivized

• At times a "shadow part" is necessary in the manufacturing process. This shadow part does not require an inventory transaction but is made a as a separate process - sometimes out of sequence to the general process flow. Infor Visual ver 6.3.5 does not have that capability.
• When generating forms for business and manufacturing operations Infor Visual ver 6.3.5 has a limited number of options. To change or add forms requires an unsupported editor. When the stock and custom options are depleted an outside programming module is required as well as programmers to develop the forms.
• While free software upgrades to the main operations modules have been part of the maintenance agreement. One upgrade required database and hardware support not justifiable for the current business model. The system was frozen at the current version at that time.
• There is no easy way to differentiate between engineering documentation and production documentation.

Incentivized

• Wide localization process.
• Automated (without a human) business operations, better rpa solutions, scanning, mobile app, etc
• Central systems for the company re using more than one erp systems.
• Better reporting tools
• Developer source also not such enough maybe to support them in each (in their market) countries.
• Price policy also

Incentivized

Good Technical and Customer Support during and after implementation tasks. Good Project Plan and Management support for implementation and post implementation. Financial functionality could be more comprehensive particularly with Budgeting and Cash Management. Inventory Management capability was adequate but could be more comprehensive as well. "Out of the Box" functionality was adequate but requested add-ons and enhancements seemed to be a bit pricey.

This is the product we have chosen to standardize the ERP system throughout our European subsidiaries. We had been operating blindly with each location using their own ERP system. We relied on them to accurately report to us in the US. But now that we are beginning to roll out ERP Cloud, we have much better visibility into day-to-day operations.

Incentivized

Because of use cases and easy implementation and the vertical and horizontal scaling.

Incentivized

I like the program, but it is only as good as the initial implementation and the user support required after go-live. I don't think pre-implementation training needs to be too much of a focus, but once you're live, there needs to be an intense focus on working with users and providing high-quality resources to help.

Incentivized

Yes availability was initially an issue but like I said it has evolved and stabilized a lot better these days. We get hardly 1 or two unplanned outages in a year. That too during off peak hours and would get resolved before we even realize it. If Oracle could resolve even the sporadic unplanned outages then it would be awesome and highly reliable for customers.

Incentivized

The performance of the application is good. Incase of any issues, one has to work with Oracle support. We enabled auditing on certain tables and experienced performance issues. We immediately raised with Oracle support and they helped in improving the performance.One has to proactively work with oracle support to identify the issues.

Incentivized

As we have seen the live environment and the use cases where we implement.

Incentivized

Support is always providing step by step details to resolve any issue we encounter. If the issue is currently not a functionality or feature of the application they are supportive in offering guidance on submitting an enhancement request. Currently there is an enhancement that will be rolled out by Oracle that was designed for our organization.

Incentivized

The inperson trainings from Oracle University are effective. The trainers have vast experience and teached thousands of students. In person training will make people sit in a class and do the exercises. One can also learn from other students, who come with different background, industry etc. In person training will be an immersive experience and helps learn more in a short period of time.

Incentivized

We bought online training subscription from Oracle University. The subscription allowed our team to learn the nuts and bolts of the application.The subscription model helps access to all the modules as opposed to buying training for one module. We also leveraged guided learning subscription from Oracle. Guided learning is a state of the art learning application from Oracle. It resides within the application and guides the users on each and every step. This is learning by doing and is very effective. Once you buy guided learning, oracle keeps updating it with the release of new functionality in the quarterly upgrades.

Incentivized

Could have used more hands-on approach. There are multiple webinars and information sessions but until you actually use the system, these are not very helpful.

Incentivized

Try to use the system as true to generic form as possible and cut over quickly. Parallel implementation is not recommended. If the numbers are accurate and materially similar to prior period - cut over. A small accounting adjustment is much better than millions in project overruns or dual system maintenance.

Incentivized

We unfortunately did not evaluate any other ERP software. VISUAL was a legacy system and we determined that changing systems would be too difficult, and not cost effective. We reached out to our local VISUAL rep who knew how the software functioned, but not how to apply it more appropriately to our business model, so we continued on with what we had rather than looking elsewhere.

Incentivized

Oracle is more reliable than other immature products in the market. Oracle has multifold resources available in the market for each and every technology. Oracle support has made available many solutions to the existing problems and their fixes. The database is of high performance and quality as compared to the other products in the market. Oracle solutions for finance and supply chain are compared to none.

Incentivized

Orcle ERP Cloud transformed and stabilized in this past 2 years since it was implemented. We have past the auditor reviews and 24 month end closes and 8 quarter closes and 2 FY closes. Above all we do have SEC reporting with all this data. Having said that our ERP subscription is a worthy investment and highly reliable source of information for our organization's needs

Incentivized

• Good Billing provided
• Easy to implement and use
• scales vertical and horizontal

Incentivized

• A tool that has made us able to get much ROI by the bank account integration, management of cash, and controlling business unit.
• Project management is made easy with its module and tracking with the exact time and issuance makes it more convenient and compatible for the return.
• Automation in pay and expenses improve the company’s visibility in the market.

Incentivized