Make Symix Better

[Chris Kelleher]

In light of Gus' "Request for comments" wouldn't it be great for Symix to do the
same? Many people changed/modified/improved/added Symix programs - why not ask
them about their solutions?

Is Symix really willing to do that?

For years I am trying to offer my solutions for free - it benefits me not to
modify over and over each new Symix release we have to install - not that my
solutions are good or bad - they do not want to listen! They rather develop new
programs or fix most outrages bugs but have no time (or will) for what they
consider an enhancement.

It probably sounds harsh but it is really not my intent - I would like Symix to
have at least one dedicated person who does not only listens but welcomes and
solicits user input and then works with the developers to address the issues.

On the paper they have it: Quality Control, Customer Service, lavish user group
meetings, slogans, etc.

In reality Customer Service (who are yet to solve a single issue we raised)
wants to close the case within minutes of its arrival. Are they being evaluated
by the quantity or by the quality?

Jake Kacher

 

[Chris Kelleher]

If you have suggestions, especially about GUI screens, send your e-mail to
Joel Baskin from Symix. He is a User Interface Designer; and welcomes
input from users. His e-mail is joebas@symix.com. He asked for input from
the PEG before, but said he got very little response. We made a lot of
suggestions to Joel, which he faithfully recorded, but only time will tell
how many actually get into the product. Unfortunately, it takes a long
time to get from suggestion to actual release.

 

[Chris Kelleher]

Jake and Symixers,

That would be very nice ... Some products/area manager at Symix do have an
ear to ground for user issues ... At times, I found Symix development to be
more driven by "comparative" studies than user needs ... Symix has been so
poor in Order Entry/Distribution, Syte Distribution was "overdue" but that
add-on is MS-SQL-based as most of the new add-ons ...

The theory is they "rely" on user goup for input and direction... The Symix
User group website and Symix website do offer Webboard for discussion ... I
do believe they could benefit from something akin the ERS ... Another
thing, a big part of Symix success was being able to provide entry-level mrp
SCO/Intel based solution ... From the little information trickling down
they don't seem interested by a Linux-based solution ... Even if most of the
SCO-NT migrations had major difficulties in Background Processing and
Printing ... It still amazes me that many Symix sites were running 7.3C01
until most of them had to upgrade to 7.3E11 for Y2K compliance ... And to
this day I still wonder if dropping SCO because it was "a support hog" (and
not in running SCO on *Intel Clones* is a support hog) ... But the SCO
debate is dead now, Progress is trying LINUX, will Symix follow suit ? ...

An ERS with voting system could help steer where customer want the products
to go ... functionnally ... Symix was a Market Leader according to several
MRPII/ERP software review ... It is still ackward that when people go out of
the BOPSE (Baan, Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, JD Edwards) the next ERP
mentionned is SSA or Lawson , in 3 years I never saw Symix name in print
outside a Symix publication ...

I am looking forward to the SL upgrade next year ... And it would sure be
nice to have a "suggestion box" put up on the Web by then and reviewed by
either user groups or System Product manager or clearly use and indepedent
body like symix@peg.com to that effect ... I just wonder how many Symix
customers needed a 25K$ good distribution/warehopusing module instead og the
50K$ APS ... but I guess their marketing department did a business case on
that ...

We will see in the next year if Symix becomes an NT-Centric ERP ... I'm
saying that because their gospel in '97-98 was "UNIX is dead!" ... I sure
think that Progress shipping a LINUX 8.3 version put a dent in that view ...
I am sure some will answer that Windows2000 will be the answer ... to which
I'll add "Maybe! and to what cost!!!" ...

So Jake, yes, a company that says it is promoting "Customer Synchronized
Response" should have a better way of communicating with its user base ...
How ? Well I think it is very well worth to discuss ... Kind of like the
Archbishop leaving the Cathedral for a walk in the Bazaar ;-) ...

Have a nice weekend all,

Eric.