Sage 100 vs Infor Visual

sage-100-vs-inforvisual

The sheer number of ERP software solutions out there is overwhelming. As a result, the task of choosing the right ERP software for your company can be extremely difficult.

ERP systems are not “one size fits all.” What works perfectly for one company may not be a fit for you, your users, your objectives, or your workflow processes.

So to help break it all down for you, here’s how Sage 100c vs Infor Visual– two popular manufacturing solutions (especially for job shops) – stack up against one another.

Both products have proven longevity in the market, with origins dating back to the 1990’s.

 

Market Focus and Viability

NOTE: Market focus and company viability is important because it represents how publishers like Sage and Infor manage their expenses, the availability and allocation of funding to R&D, and likelihood that the publisher will continue investments that enhance the customer experience.

Sage (The Sage Group, plc) is a publicly-held company currently traded on the FTSE 100 and has posted steady, predictable growth year-after-year since 1989. Sage is the 3rd largest ERP software provider worldwide in terms of revenue ($2.2B) and #1 with a base of more than 6M customers worldwide. Sage offers a suite of products for businesses ranging in size from startup through scale-up to enterprise.

Sage 100c, with a modernized UI and the recent infusion of new manufacturing capabilities, is a strategic solution in Sage’s portfolio with tens of thousands of customers. With hundreds of vibrant partners in the channel supporting Sage 100, customers have the freedom to choose among partners based on geography, industry expertise or other preferences.

Infor is a privately held company with revenues in excess of $2B and expectations to go public, but is debt-leveraged across multiple investors. Infor’s global customer base is 90,000 companies and even fewer, less than 5,000, rely on Infor Visual. Like Sage, Infor has grown through acquisition of solutions over the years.

Infor Visual is one of 125+ products in the portfolio and lags behind other ERP products like Infor Syteline, Infor M3 and Infor LN for investment and mindshare.

Advantage = Sage. With more midmarket ERP customers than any other publisher in the world, Sage is singularly focused on expertly developing, enhancing and supporting its ERP portfolio practice and customers every day while relying on a strong partner community to maintain local relationships.

Core Product Strengths

Sage 100c delivers out-of-box functionality for Financials, Distribution and Manufacturing capabilities. The Manufacturing modules include Bill of Materials (BOM), Work Order, MRP, and Job Cost for discrete manufacturing and light assembly operations.

There are hundreds of Sage 100c add-ons supported by Sage partners including some of the most popular for Multicurrency, Warehouse Automation, Alerts & Notifications, and JobOps. Sage 100c is not a multinational solution, delivering only US GAAP to English-speaking users in North America.

Infor Visual is marketed as a solution for diverse manufacturers from engineer-to-order to make-to-stock. Infor’s portfolio strategy is vertical which means Infor Visual specifically targets the industries of equipment manufacturers, metal fabricators, medical devices, and aerospace & defense. The product is best-known for its introduction of a graphical drag-and-drop scheduler in the 90’s but its user interface hasn’t been maintained.

Advantage = It depends. Both products offer a strong manufacturing feature set that midmarket manufacturers and job shops require. The differences become subjective when comparing the workflows, navigation, usability and business intelligence toolsets of the two products.

Technology

Sage 100c supports an on-premises or private hosting deployment through its subscription price-model using a Microsoft SQL database.

Private hosting options provide the customer freedom of choice to select its datacenter, configuration settings and service levels. There are Sage recommended hosting providers in addition to Amazon WebServices (AWS) for customers to choose from. A refreshed web-like user interface provides a platform for customers to launch and access Sage 100c from mobile devices.

sage-100c-screenshot

Web-based Interface and Screens of Sage 100c

Infor Visual is an on-premises solution supported by the Infor CloudSuite initiative of Infor.

Products within the Infor ION middleware (deliverables include workflow, event management, etc.) mask the technology updates of Infor Visual. Components of Infor ION demonstrate colorful and feature-rich tools but are limited to reporting, workflows and other navigational highlights that don’t extend into the day-to-day transactional use of Infor Visual.

infor-visual-screen-1

Infor Visual Production and Job Cost Screen

Advantage = Sage 100c. Only Sage 100c provides the flexibility of an on-premises OR cloud deployment with an easy subscription-pricing model. The freedom to choose creates options for how to record the investment on a company’s books, the impact on its IT resources, and the ongoing cost of ownership.

Pricing / Cost

Both Sage 100c and Infor Visual offer multiple purchase options.

With either product, there are a range of variables (module configuration, support plans, user counts, and user license types) to consider when calculating your final software license cost (excluding implementation services).

Sage 100c pricing begins at $50/user per month before considering a la carte module options and add-ons. A one-time setup fee is additional and calculated per user. Cost is representative of an on-premises deployment and does include monthly private hosting which starts at $200 per month based on the datacenter of your choice.

Pricing of Infor Visual for a 5 user system starts at $12,000 with a multitude of purchase options available directly from Infor.

Advantage = Sage. While Infor touts its loosely-coupled architecture of Infor ION and relies on its attractive reporting and business intelligence displays to appeal to customers, its adoption by Infor Visual partners and customers has been slow due to its overlapping capabilities and expensive price point. Looking past Infor ION, there’s a tired UI and lack of web forms expected from modern ERP solutions. Both Sage 100c and Infor Visual run on Windows platforms and leverage Microsoft Office interfaces with plug-and-play operability.

*Note: cost calculations performed based on information available as of June 2016. Please check with a Sage or Infor authorized partner for a quotation of current pricing and implementation.

OTHER HELPFUL RESOURCES
Sage 100 vs QuickBooks Enterprise
Sage 100c vs. Microsoft Dynamics GP
Sage 100c Product Features

How to Reduce Costs with Subscription Pricing
Sage 100 System Requirements

boxing-gloves-cropWho’s the Winner?

Sage 100 vs Infor Visual

You decide! Contact us for an ERP software consultation or to see a demo and you can decide which product delivers the knock out blow for your company.

Leave your name below and one of our consultants will follow up with a personalized quote, a product demo, or to answer your questions.