E-Max ERP

Pros

The full visibility of every detail and the flexibility it offers

Cons

Nothing.

Pros

E-Max is well suited for our needs. We have a clear overview of all our orders in E-Max. Our on-time delivery has improved significantly since we introduced E-Max as we can track the progress of every order through the business as it happens.
The inventory control has been great. This has been useful for quoting future jobs. E-Max also has a number of reports available through the system from the everyday order acknowledgment and invoices to stock valuation and forecasting reports which saves us a lot of time.

Cons

Not many. It does take time to train and learn the system but once you become comfortable with the process it is much quicker than how we previously did these tasks.
Getting the correct reports for our process did take a bit longer as we really needed to use and understand the system to work out what reports we needed but the E-Max team were helpful in offering us advice on this.

Pros

All though we, like others in our area, decided to abandon the E-Max implementation (after around 18 months) there were some positives. The support team in Glasgow were found to be very responsive and did try very hard to sort issues, however, were many time let down by the basic system therefore leading to an unsatisfactory outcome.

Cons

Simply, after 18 months of trying, we and E-Max could not get this system to work in our business. at around 9 months the technical director personally took hold of our system and eventually we offered them 6 re-attempts at configuring the system and getting this to work, however, every new system failed testing in some fairly critical ways (either stock control or accounting being the main factors). We were unique in that we have three brands under our our group company and I do believe this may have been a contributing factor to the eventual withdrawal. However, at quotation we were assured this would not be an issue. Additionally were are in conversations with another 3 businesses who are more simple in their set up and they found similar issues and have either pulled the implementation or reverted to the older E-Max system which does seem to work much better but is not a true ERP solution.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to E-Max ERP

Pros

As it's been designed for Manufacturing, Emax works in all areas of our business, we use 80% of the system whereas other ERP systems which aren't manufacturing-based we would only use 30% - Value or money

Cons

I would like to be able to change the wording in some sections, this would save time Additional training that's LIVE as you usually have issues whilst using EMax and having someone that you could contact straight away and discuss instead of raising a ticket as normally you have either dealt with the problem i have done something else to get around the problem! I think an APP would be good.

Pros

The flexibility of the software really helped us phase the implementation process over a longer period of time to ensure disruption of work was limited. The system is also able to evolve with industry change and improvements to best practises.

Cons

Most major issues we've come across with E-Max have been able to be rectified. We have experienced small inconsistencies with regards to fonts and sorting of data when using the search function. The introduction of spellcheck would help too.

Pros

SFDC (Shop Floor Data Collection) is very easy to use. We use this everyday to clock in and out and on and off jobs. APE has been using E-max for 15 years and we are extremely happy.

Cons

There is so many different reports inside E-max that it can be confusing finding the correct report without contacting support for advice.

Pros

Switching to Emax has revolutionised our business. It allows us to analyse real time data in order to improve our productivity and efficiency. Although we operate in a bespoke industry, the system is flexible enough to allow changes to help our ever changing operations.

Cons

Creating reports can be tricky sometimes.

Pros

Before e-max we were using many separate spreadsheets and access databases, which were not linked, so having a single system to run the business has helped us become more efficient and we like the way the system links from enquiry to invoice.

Whilst im sure we aren’t using it to its full potential yet, the dashboard and reporting functions of e-max are making a big difference in helping our staff manage the business along with access to live and useful data.

Cons

The general feedback I have received from staff is that the system requires a lot of “clicks” to make transactions which takes longer than our previous system (Sage manufacturing) and all the screens looking the same can cause confusion when first training.

Pros

It can do a variety of tasks to aid our business, stock control, manage working hours, raise works orders, purchase orders, invoice and send to sage for payment. We can get analysis of materials used, hours worked for each project.

Cons

Because we are bespoke, it has to be tailored to our needs,

Pros

One of the biggest pros of the E-Max system was the format and feel of the system, offering complex information and breaking it down into simple data. This has enabled the introduction of the system within Appletree with ease for new users.

Cons

We have not experienced any cons with E-Max.

Pros

Cost-effective system for traceability of materials and products, SFDC is easy to use for employees on the shop floor.

Cons

Takes time to set up the system, customers should be made aware of the timescales and resources required to implement the systems.