Infor M3

Avantages

M3 is a stable, robust, proven ERP system that fits a wide variety of industries well, handles international business requirements and has the flexibility to support both the front office and the back office.

In recent years, this has been supplemented with a modern UI toolset, allowing for workflow design and management, along with browser-based homepages and widgets that present users with the information they need to act on, focusing on exceptional situations instead of repetitive, routine tasks.

Inconvénients

The basic user interface for functional programs is still designed in the old AS400/RPG style, with a series of panels and a method of proceeding from panel to panel and program to program which can seem counter-intuitive to the user. Output management (for forms such as customer invoices or packing lists) has long been a weak spot but that is being addressed with new tools being developed. API's are available for many programs which allows for the development of custom user interfaces via Infor OS Homepages and Widgets, but there are significant gaps where API's have not been published.

Avantages

flexibility, easy of use and a lot of functionalities ready to use (that had to implement custom with other products)

Inconvénients

I see mainly 2 points:
1. enterprise structure has got some lacks, do not manage structured sales organizations (it doesn't exist a concept like it, which is usefull when you have same customer managed in different sales organization within the same company which could have different price list, discounts, payment terms)
2. all accounting is inherited through order, in example when I post good receipt I need to have cost center in purchase order and I cannot change during good receipt. And also for sales, all accounting are inherited from order. Workaround exists, but it is still a limitation

Alternatives envisagées 

Pourquoi passer à Infor M3

Avantages

This is the best ERP software for manufacturing industry with some of the top notch functionalities to serve in a better way, i like the customer purchase order management feature, which i think the best feature in this software also the implementation within very much less time.

Inconvénients

User interface is still looks very old and even in the updated versions also due to the old UI, features are not look promising. UI need be corrected

Avantages

It has many more features than we currently use, that we can grow into.

Inconvénients

We are an unusual rental operation and initially it didn't have all the functionality that we required, so our 3rd party implementer made modifications to our base code, so when infor came out with the similar feature, we could not move to it. There are some feature fixes that can not be retrofit into our release.

Avantages

M3 is a system that is configurable to almost any circumstance. It seems is you can think of a process that you would like to have the system perform, Infor has though of this also and there is a way to make it happen inside of me

Inconvénients

The system has so many options and programs making it a hard to know what all you can do or how to do or navigate.

Alternatives envisagées 

Pourquoi choisir Infor M3 

Pourquoi passer à Infor M3

Avantages

Highly configurable product. Support from Infor is very good. Investment in the product by Infor continues to be significant and is showing results!

Inconvénients

Ironically, highly configurable! this lead to complexity in the initial set up to meet business process needs. However once established and implemented the product is stable and performs well.

User interface is not premium but hoping for improvements when we move to Infor OS and homepages.

Avantages

I liked the information that was available

Inconvénients

How hard it was to remember what screen each information used was in

Avantages

Cover all most area in industrialization process, M3 provide a variety way of configuring each process.
Covering almost all departments, except HR, allows A-Z control of the live cycle of process, especially in the supply chain issues. In this sector Infor M3 is probably the most capable ERP to respond to the different processes of each industry.
It has this elasticity without having to make changes to the source code, this allowing an easy system update.

Inconvénients

There is not yet a level of consultants acceptable in all ERP modules. However, it is a great bet of INFOR in the last 5 years, in which the offer has improved a lot.

Avantages

Stock Transfer through Distribution order.
Sales making through customer order.
Shipment receiving through PO.
Stock Allocation.
Purchase order print through PPS600.
Etc.

Inconvénients

When the system is suddenly turned off while creating customer orders, the customer order gets locked and sometimes there is a variation in the total amount also.

Avantages

This ERP software has a lot of capabilities, you can develop multiple environments (production, acceptance, test, ...). Create users for giving access, giving them specific access rights to open specific applications, etc. Also ways to import bulk information.

Inconvénients

It can very complex, because it's a very big environment with alot of capabilities.

Avantages

The M3 Product and the related Suite of Products are mostly very intuitive once you get to use it.
People tend to get hesitant when initially introduced, but after having used M3 for a while, expanding into additional areas becomes fairly easy since it is consistent in the way everything looks, feels and behaves.
There have been iterations of the side product (i.e. Mashups) that have been replaced without a fully viable replacement, but mostly there are only improvements that expand on current functionality or introduces new and exciting functionality (and sometimes even provided without any extra cost as part of your current licensing).

Inconvénients

There is a lack of intuitive development documentation and especially when it comes to setting up your own development environment, it is sometimes quite cumbersome, although once you pass this hurdle it is, almost, always worth the effort.

Avantages

Infor M3 is a multifunctional ERP software suite of applications to help manage several different key areas of any company's performance. There is a lot to like about Infor M3. The Financial Management application provides better visibility into your General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable(as well as invoice aging), Expense Management Control(includes Travel Expense Reporting), and compliance to the company's T & E policies) and also includes helping to track Asset Depreciation expensing. The Human Capital portal includes good Human Resource functions, managing Payroll and Employee Benefits, and is also helpful in HR Recruiting of new employees. But I feel that the Supply Chain function is the real star of the Infor software(especially for product driven companies who need to track products by SKU from initial production sourcing all the way through sale to their customers.) The Supply Chain portal is also helpful in procurement of new suppliers as well as measuring the performance of your current vendors.

Inconvénients

The initial implementation and learning all the functions and screens of Infor M3 is somewhat daunting and a bit cumbersome.

Avantages

We are running the 13.4 on premise version of M3. M3 is able to be configured to about any business process. The ability to run multiple lines of businesses with different business processes is tremendous. The product isn't intuitive but it easy to use once it is set up properly. The implementation of the product is a process that needs to be carefully thought out and executed. Infor and their business partners are a huge help in that.

Inconvénients

Because the software is so customizable, it is extremely complex. This can cause problems if the person configuring it does not understand all of the processes and how they work. Transitioning from an in-house product to packaged software is always challenging but Infor was helpful in the process.

Avantages

It's very customizable to meet your needs without loosing any performance.
Infor OS makes it even more easy to use and more intuitive, alerts for tasks that you need to do are just great.

Inconvénients

Configuration and deployment is not that easy, a lot of consultant was needed to deploy the application or even to update it.

Avantages

It's easy to use, doesn't need much customization. Good support both from consultants and web portal. Very good documentation available, lots of details on the setup.

Inconvénients

Not easy to customize if you have that need. Development it's also quite expensive. Infor should improve this in order to make this ERP perfect.

Avantages

The ability to customize your experience is almost limitless assuming you have the resources on the dev side to do so.

Inconvénients

In order to make the system work for our business, it requires full time staff and constant work arounds. Not ideal for a business tool.

Avantages

allways newest version, because cloud system.
no installations, just web.
flexible views and possibilities to use external software products for special purposes

Inconvénients

enhancement requests need to much time to be realized

Alternatives envisagées 

Pourquoi choisir Infor M3 

Pourquoi passer à Infor M3

Avantages

The integration with Manufacturing process works well.

Inconvénients

The lack of documentation and the basic architecture of the solution.

Avantages

At the beginning it is not the easiest thing to use but after some time and practice it is surprisingly easy to use. It is a very complete ERP and easy to customize. We use it in almost every department. It has a really good client support and INFOR promotes a lot of events and trainings.

Inconvénients

Except from the initial time that takes a little bit to figure it out i have nothing negative to point.

Avantages

Probably one of the most customized ERP on the market.
Open to external world and always on evolution mainly from 13.4 version

Inconvénients

Some Moduls has been published but are not really "ready" to use, such as QMS, IFT, Eco-contribution.

Avantages

The best ERP system that I've used so far. Every thing is so neat and tidy, and once learnt, this is the easiest system to work with. Has a very user-friendly interface and has the ability to change the appearance with a limited selection.

Inconvénients

There's nothing that I dislike about this software. I enjoy using this software application at the moment.

Avantages

A lot of activity is possible to track via M3. Now with cloud solution it is easy to acces from many points around the world.
Quite fast in operations.

Inconvénients

Had some trouble with communication in China (servers in Sweden) - possibly problem for everyone outside China.
Many modules but not so easy to get precisly what you want - Quality module configuration for example.

Avantages

Easy to use ERP with stable and efficient features with native functionality that addresses nearly all primary business needs

Inconvénients

Getting enhancements or features and functionality that are not engineered into the base software can take a long time and the process of "socializing" them is less than ideal.

Avantages

Flexibility to match the real image, easy to configure.

Inconvénients

sometimes implementation time drags on for objective reasons.

Avantages

Various possibilities and extensive cover of the business needs
Allows in a single software to manage all activities from production, to stocks, finance, sales.
Extended functionalities are available using APIs

Inconvénients

Still recent software which means that the knowledge of APIs and new ways of using it are limited in both our organisation and in the consulting world