M1 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

M1 is incredibly visual; whether you prefer traditional forms or spreadsheet views, you can customize the navigation and data forms with ease. Search features are robust in the spreadsheet style views. M1 is also fairly flexible for customization regardless of programming skills. We can easily add fields to any module and forms can be manipulated to match our information flow. In our business every order is a custom order yet the straight forward manufacturing module makes planning and scheduling simple. Dashboards on the start screen are great to monitor daily activities. While most ERP implementations require significant work, the visual nature of M1 really helped us keep the project on track. The M1 implementation specialist spent time to learn our business and specific information needs. 9 months running and we are very happy. We have added several additional modules since the implementation and have linked M1 to our sales tax service provider. The suite of included reports are handy, though they need some customization when you start up. Export to Excel is very easy. We added Spreadsheet Server option to really increase the capability to share data with Excel. Security controls are very robust.

Cons

At times customer service response is a bit longer than we would like though once they are working on an issue, they are great at resolving. Some of the included reports are fairly complex yet require customization in Crystal Reports. Best to have some working knowledge of Crystal reports. Some modules in M1 are not consistent with others - probably different programmers or different schedules for upgrading - however that slows the process just bit when you move module to module.

Pros

Their sales team made a really good pitch, then went radio silent the moment we signed up, and quit 6 weeks later.

Based on their pitch, we engaged them to provide version 8 of the core system seven companies, and a couple of optional modules for a couple of those companies, and a few custom modifications, we were assured this would be straight forward and ready to use in 8-12 weeks.

It has been over 2 years and they been unable to even get one of those companies up and running as per the our agreement with them.

Cons

The worst part about this experience? Everything that happened after they had our money...

In all of my professional life I have never before experienced such intentionally dishonest behavior in a professional setting. Deciding to use ECi M1 has been the worst business decision that we have ever made.

If you are in Australia, or if you intend to rely on the Australian support team, I cannot urge you strongly enough to stay away from ECi M1. They have repeatedly proved themselves incompetent and dishonest.

Pros

This software is highly customizable and provides freedom for the many integrations that we implement regularly.

Cons

This software is not the most user friendly for a sizable chunk of our end users. Customers with limited computer experience find the interface difficult to use outside of tasks they perfomr regularly. This issues are largely easily solved by regular attention from the software administrators or super users.

Pros

Once you understand the features and how to navigate, it is a fairly easy software to use. Information is easy to find. It is also easy to query for information.

Cons

There are not any modules available that we know of that can assist in training to understand the features that M1 has to offer. There are several features that we don't use. Features that we wish we knew more about are scheduling and the possibility of integrating a bar code scanning system. Our IT admin has been working on this with M1.

Pros

Abilty to customize per user and not effect others.

Cons

Clear upgrade evaluation from V 8 to V 9.2

Pros

The training and implementation was fantastic. The product is well suited for our needs and the cost tracking functionality is great. The greatest strengths of the software are inventory control, cost/labor tracking, and reporting.

Cons

The accounting functionality and process can be burdensome. While it does get the job done, incorporating a FIFO system with real time cost of goods sold entry would be much more advantageous. Currently M1 only offers average, standard, or last cost of goods sold, which can really make things difficult if inventory costs change. Additionally, not having "real-time" financials is frustrating. You don't get the "actual cost of goods sold" until an accounting entry is made, so you cannot track financials daily or weekly unless your accounting department has time to make this entry and reconcile it on that same interval. Granted, moving to the COGS program could fix this issue, but the additional work and potential for mistakes makes it easier to wait for financials.

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

We have been using this software for 10 years and I don't know how we ever survived without it.
Product Configurators really helped us streamline our estimating and planning processes.

Cons

We have tuned M1 to a point where we have very little issues. It took some time to really figure it out but we realized that the core system didn't really need a lot of the customizations that we thought it did.
I'm not good at cons...

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

M1 has helped us track serial and lot numbers effectively and allowed us to streamline many processes across the company. Have used it for five years now, we rely on the data it generates to run our business in the most efficient and cost effective way possible. Our implementer took the time to learn our business and made suggestions on how the software could assist us in areas we had not even considered. We definitely choose the right software!

Pros

We have been using this software for over 13 years and the fact that it is an open system allows us to implement special features that is only relevant to our business and it is very easy

Cons

The quality management in regards to the inventory was lacking when we implemented the software and I don't know if it was improved since then

Pros

It's easy to customize, which is good because - you are going to be doing a lot of customizing.

Grids - basically an onscreen report are easy to create - also good because this subs in for the lack of workflow.

Cons

If you want an accounting system that routinely can't do basic math you'll love M1 (simplified example - $100 payment to $100 invoice resulted in a -$200 balance - and M1 doesn't even allow negative invoices).

Screens are overloaded with fields you will never, ever, ever use. There's no workflow for any process - making it easy to "lose" a sales order or a work order or skip a step (complete a work order without issuing the raw materials - sure why not - and no warning). No built in alerts (that's an extra module - but you have to create the alerts yourself). The canned reports are nearly useless. The support team is terrible. The company itself outside of support is also awful to do business with and won't refund us for our unused implementation hours, or an extra module we purchased that we immediately decided wouldn't work for us (didn't even install it).

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

Overall architecture is well thought out from a flexibility, customization and IT standpoint. It uses standard database (MS SQL), reporting (Crystal reports) and customization (VB) languages. You can use their resources or find your own to dive as deep as you need to but you also can do quite a bit without being an IT professional.

Cons

Support experience ranges widely from good to very slow to respond. They have made efforts to improve and you see benefits slowly but it still isn't a good consistent support experience.

Pros

We replaced Global Shop with M1. We like M1 because is quick and efficient. We are working on more customized reporting and moving to the newest version - very exciting for our company!!

Cons

Getting new downloads up and running is a little difficult. Hard to coordinate M1 Support with our outside IT Consultant

Pros

The outside service function is fully developed to allow for estimated cost and lead time to roll up for quoting, and actual to roll into job cost.

Cons

Server based - not internet accessible. Would prefer links rather than the "where used" functionality. Works very well, but you have to dig a little for connected items.

Pros

I like this software because it is very effective and efficient to my team. This is a software with complete package. The functions and features are very nice.

Cons

When I'm starting to use this software I can't experienced any negative. Very recommended to all type of organization.

Pros

Systematic logical sequence of steps from the time an order is placed to final shipment of the products.

Cons

Forecasting needs to be improved. The way sub-assemblies are scheduled could be improved although very flexible.

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

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

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.

Pros

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

Cons

Support - they are the worst

Pros

The low cost of overhead to run M1 is its best feature. It is very robust, and runs day after day with minimal support required. M1 is very user friendly and intuitive. Also, the use of Crystal Reports on an SQL database allows for easy modification and development of reports that then are easily run from inside M1 giving users a seamless feel. We have had excellent support during implementation and post implementation.

Cons

I am anxious for continued development of the manufacturing floor scheduling.

Pros

I love how everything is tied together. When in doubt I right click and see where that PO, Sales Order, Receipt, etc. has been used and what it is linked to.

Cons

Mostly it's a cosmetic thing. I've never been overly fond of how it's laid out but the next version should make that better and truly with time you just get used to it.