Help please! Need crm & sale, invoicing & stock control system

RoB_Fernandez

Hi Guys & Girls,
Have not been on here is a long time. Looking for some help. Basically I am getting a lot more enquires & sales. I really have no system in place to cope with more numbers of customers using a paper based, very basic system. Cannot keep track of warehouse stock properly, on the plus side sales are coming in and profit being made. But no proper way to run a business.
I need a proper computer system in place to handle everything CRM, Sales, invoicing, stock control & deliveries. Basically everything.
I have been looking at the following:

SAP (way to expensive, I am not making that much at the moment!)

Microsoft Dynamics (not sure about this? And price unknown?)

Sage (not sure about this? And price unknown?)

Mamut Enterprise (Which I found in FSB Magazine, the price looks good compare to others)

I would really appreciate anyone’s recommendations on the above? or other software to consider?

Thank you.
Best Regards,
Robert

paulwf

Are you selling B2B or B2C? How many sales a day, number of till points and what sort of industry? The *best* EPOS system can vary widely depending on your needs.

RoB_Fernandez

Dear Paul,
Thank you for your reply. Sales are B2C, over the phone (via the internet). Enquiries are around 90 per month at the moment, and about 45% go to sale. I sell furniture & purchase directly from factories overseas & UK, so potential to wholesale or via sales agent going forward. We only have one card processing machine! We have a web-site but no online sales facility! We handle most deliveries in-house. I have a lot of work to do.
I would like a system that going forward I can use for other businesses & products I want to sell, just finding my feet at the moment with the business, more work needed, but more millage also.
Best Regards,
Robert

ukbill69

Microsoft Dynamics is good, ive seen it in action in many stores. I think you better off getting in a reseller, find on the Microsoft Dynamics website and get them to quote up, dont think you'll get much change from 2 grand. Sage will try and sell you ACT, thats a load of crap. SAP is for the enterprise I think, that why the cost.

paulwf

My experience is more on the EPOS side of things but as they provide an overall package as well I think my advice is still valid.

Firstly make sure you demo anything before you buy, what works for one business doesn't work for another. I also now prefer to stay away from very small companies, so many have come and gone and you can easily be left with an expensive piece of software and no backup.

Make sure you look at where the data is actually stored. Some basically run it off a central server which I'm not a fan of: if you don't keep paying your subscription they can block access to your data, if the company goes bust or their server goes down you've had it, if your net connection goes down you lose functionality etc. I always look for a database that is running locally (just make good backups).

Mircrosoft RMS fitted my criteria last time with the added advantage that being Microsoft it is fairly compatible with most software combinations and any generic hardware (this sounds straightforward but sadly in the world of EPOS it isn't). Once you buy the product it is yours forever with no more fees, though I found it sensible to pay the subscription fee for updates and for the first year it is probably worth paying for support. Your license is per selling terminal (by that I mean till) but you can run as many copies as you want to run reports on. Try not to get locked into products with expensive ongoing fees.

Do a lot of research first, once you've put several thousand items on the stockfile it makes it a major headache to ever change EPOS systems again. Also companies like Microsoft and Sage generally use resellers, get the cheapest quote possible then take it to the one that gives the best service, then you can get the cheapest price and best service