M1 ERP Reviews

Pros

The ability to drill down between modules is wonderful. I've never used a software that allowed this so seamlessly.

Cons

The lack of online inquiries through the internet from fellow users that might have experienced something that isn't typical to help others figure it out. This can be technical or a way to resolve a process issue.

Pros

Improvement of inventory tracking coming from an Excel-based, manual process that'd grown to be quite cumbersome. MFG's capabilities eliminated many spreadsheets and many hours maintaining those spreadsheets.

Visibility throughout the organization of order status; pieces completed, what's in-process, what's already shipped, etc.

Searchable criteria in MFG is quite robust. Prior to MFG we were only able to search via customer part numbers, this left a lot to be desired. Now we can search based on many, many more variables.

Cons

The biggest hurdle/challenge in learning and implementing MFG was understanding a whole new terminology; allocations, transfers, material/job requirements, processing, etc. and how those functioned in MFG specifically. As well sometimes, certain terms are used interchangeably in certain places and this can lead to temporary confusion.

There are many ways to accomplish a single task. This flexibility is nice once you're used to the system but can be overwhelming in the beginning.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing M1 ERP

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to M1 ERP

Pros

User friendly and suites our manufacturing process

Cons

The customer service and the fact that we can not have an end-to-end solution discussion with anyone at ECI

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to M1 ERP

Pros

We really enjoy the way that we can customize the system to our exact needs. Also, it is very user friendly and easy to learn. We use it for multiple departments and love that it is integrated for inventory, production, purchasing, etc.

Cons

The sales and engineering departments have difficulty with quoting - it's a bit complex. Also, the inventory for issuing materials can be manual and complex.

Pros

Helps immensely with organization and the customization options are excellent.

Cons

It does not allow for a user to have more than one order open at a time, which makes it difficult for multitasking or referencing a previous order. This is one feature that we greatly miss from Job Boss. Also, the training provided could have been better, there was a lot of situations that the training did not cover and we had to learn on our own.

Pros

The Manufacturing organizational aspect of the software is great! Helps keep the manufacturing workflow running smoothly without much intervention from administrative staff.

Once the software is learned, it is a pretty intuitive and easy to use product.

Cons

Ability to modify standard document layout should be included in the software and should not be an add-in. Especially working from a French/English Province we need the ability legally to have 2 languages shown on the documents but shouldn't have to pay for it.

It would also be useful to have a basic functioning walkthrough tutorial for when you first start up E2.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing M1 ERP

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to M1 ERP

Pros

This software is very detailed and makes it easy to make changes that keep production going. There are a lot of different steps to assist with making sure changes are correct, which helps with accuracy and decreases human error.

Cons

I wish there was a grid in the Order Entry tab to search for the Part Number. When I need to see what orders are open on which parts, I have to use the binoculars to search and there is no part number available until I go into edit those orders.

Pros

The most helpful feature is that M1 is all connected and integrated. Everything is in one place and is easy to do everything we need. Next, while we do not do our accounting in the system, it is very helpful in generating the reports we need for our accountants.

Cons

In the inputs for materials in the quoting feature, it sometimes is difficult to change the inputs to exactly what I want. For example, I want to talk in terms of price per pound per material, where the system wants to talk in a different metric other than pounds.

Pros

What I like most about the software is how easy it is to stay on top of the General Ledger on a daily basis. If something goes wrong, I don't have to wait until closing to find the problem. M1 makes it possible to make corrections immediately.

Cons

1. We were told the job costing module would apply labor & burden properly. It doesn't.
2. We were told the BOM would upload to the job. It doesn't. That was an expensive lie for us.
3. When the guys make mistakes, it can be difficult and tedious to find and correct mistakes.
4. We made it clear from the start that one customization would be needed and would be VERY important. Numerous attempts have not gotten a result.

Pros

All the data you could ever need about your business can be housed in M1, between the data and the custom reports that can be made, it is a valuable tool to have.

Cons

Its clunky to use, most things take too many clicks to find and it feels like you have to go out of your way to find what you are looking for. It takes some work to make it user friendly in the least bit

Pros

This is the most customizable ERP I have ever dealt with or implemented. Love, Love this as it easily can modify to serve the challenges of about any size company, growth rate, and experience levels. This is the best feature of this software.

Cons

The main con from my exoperiences has been the support personnel and the lack of knowledge of the product and the response. With that said, let me say that it is not complelely fair as the compaqny has experienced a rapid growth and with that comes new personnel and the years of experiences are just not there.

Pros

Visibility is key for us, and with this software you can follow an opportunity through from initial stages of quoting through final stages of billing and everything in between. And Customer Service is Top Notch!

Cons

It can be difficult to make changes to orders once in process, but hopefully that is something their team recognizes and will help to rectify in the future.

Pros

The most we like about E2 is the following,

1 user friendly , specially the help line
2: database module an bill bill of married module and part search engine
3: project setup and process routing
4: real time cost capture
4: we envoy the accounting module

Cons

The most we like least about E2 are,

1: Converting proposal to order
2: Lack of creating report to show the Balkance of non invoiced for any particular order

Pros

Ease of use, functionality, reporting, scheduling.

Cons

Nothing yet. We've been using V7 and are getting ready to switch to V9, looking forward to the upgrade.

Pros

After months of appraisal we chose M1 because of its ability to to be configured exactly to our requirements, as opposed to the one size fits all approach of so many other ERP packages.
M1 straight out of the box was immediately able to satisfy most of our needs, however, with its ability to be easily customized to suit our various processes, the system is intuitive to use from shop floor requirements through to full financial reporting and control.

Cons

Same as any other system out there, rubbish in, rubbish out. Once we had that sorted out though by ensuring that all users had an understanding of how their inter-reaction with the system was a benefit to all, themselves included, we gained a complete buy in from all staff along with the required real time and accurate data input on which the system depends.

Pros

No ad-dons, no cost for view users, i.e. unlimited clock card entry PC's.

Cons

Absolutely poor support if any. Referred to external consultants as ECi M1 could not supply technical support.

Pros

Good Sales Team :) Might be good for very small company but wouldn't recommend to any company. After trying other ERPs have almost no Pros except how they did Part Revision.

Cons

Software failed when was put to load. Worked fine in pilot but when needed to manage 1.4k POs on daily basis it couldn't do math. At one point had daily meetings with development team from Australia on issues but still couldn't resolve all issues. About twice a week were getting orphan records in DB, development team were no help on this.
ECi started promising us new version but promise was sliding.
After 8 month of deployment time and about 6 month after go live hard decision was made, search for new ERP. When ECi was asked to give us partial refund because their product didn't perform as advertised they revealed themselves as very bad partner.
M1 also has major security issue.

Pros

The integration is well done, there are many facets to the software setup that enhance the integration.

Cons

I wish the training video's were more up-to-date on some of the advanced features like scheduling and the web interfaces.

Pros

The software makes it easy to find a lot of data that can be exported and used as necessary

Cons

It is more difficult to set up reports and customize fields for users that do not want to see all fo the background data and only want specifics

Pros

Vendor has awesome support. We love how it brings all of our activities together in one program. We also like how we can customize the program to fit our needs since we are a very unique manufacturer that does many products under one roof. It has many 'cross checks' so we are making sure each department is doing exactly what they are supposed to which leads to accurate financials and job costing.

Cons

I feel like some of the modules we purchased were not fully explained enough or applicable to our usage. Fortunately, they recognized this and helped us to direct our purchases in a more advantageous direction for our business. There are also adjustments in the financials that everyone could benefit from and should not be made to customize it.

Pros

Ease of use. Navigation of windows. Ability to run many custom reports in Hotspots.

Cons

Cost of additional users can be expensive.

Pros

Excellent promises by the sales people - they never eventuate though!

Cons

Support - they are the worst

Pros

I like the speed and the accuracy of this software. Its easy to navigate through and get the job done a lot quicker than other software(s) I've worked with in the past.

Cons

Sometimes can be not so user-friendly, I often get confused when orders don't want to "Process".

Pros

Work stations and scanning job orders was good

Cons

Reporting and finance
Reporting difficult and Ul was not good

Pros

This ERP software is very intuitive and very flexible relative to the previous software from Made2Manage that my organization ran for the past 24 years. The input of transactions is straightforward with minimal training, and searching for almost any data is substantially easier.

Cons

The only issue we've had any challenge with so far is with the conversion of our old Made2Manage data, which was an old FoxPro version into a pure SQL format. Some data came across easily, and some data didn't come across at all. We could have come up to speed running the new software much faster if we'd have been able to convert our M2M data in a more timely fashion.