Portland, Oregon

  • 1.  Opinions on ERP Solutions

    Posted 03-05-2020 15:27
    Hello all!

    We are currently in the planning and evaluation stages for migration to a new ERP.  We've managed to run on QuickBooks so far and make it work, but we're definitely at the point of outgrowing it now. 

    I would love to hear any opinions and/or experiences with different ERP solutions. 

    At this point, the only ones we have been evaluating are:

    • Sage 100
    • Viewpoint Vista
    • Viewpoint Spectrum

    Does anyone have any thoughts they would like to share about any of these? Or even suggest other alternatives?

    Some background for context:

    • We currently use Procore for project management and would prefer something that integrates well with Procore. If not, it would have to provide a project management alternative that is just as good if not better. 
    • We are a fairly typical CM/GC with a wide variety of projects. 
    • We are signatory to carpentry and laborer unions and do self-perform a fair amount of work, but the vast majority of our work is in the CM/GC role, so I'm mostly interested in experiences from a GC perspective vs. a self-performing trade perspective. 
    • We are in the $10M - $25M range and average 30+ employees. 
    Would love to hear about anyone's positive or negative experiences with any of these solutions or any others! Thanks so much!




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    Jack Kiperman
    COO / CFO
    Viking Engineering + Construction
    Portland OR
    (503) 987-0570
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  • 2.  RE: Opinions on ERP Solutions

    Posted 03-06-2020 19:48
    Hi Jack,

    We're a somewhat similar size in terms of role, project diversity, revenue range and headcount.  Currently running Sage 300 CRE (forever?) and Procore (as of Oct 2019).

    From a personal standpoint, I came over from using QB and learned Sage in mid-2019.  While I enjoyed the setup of Quickbooks more, I am now comfortable with Sage and it feels like more of a 'big leagues' program than QB.  There will be a 2-4 month learning curve.

    As far as Procore and Sage 300 CRE, here's my feedback:

    - ERP Integration between the two is great where it exists - primarily jobs, vendors, commitments, change orders, budget / prime contracts.  Procore has a team committed to ERP integration and they're fairly responsive - usually a same-day response.
    - Procore does not yet feed AP invoices to Sage via ERP Integration, but this is in development and due out "sometime in 2020."  We have continued utilizing Sage for all AP purposes until this development is released in an effort to avoid redundancy in the workload / tracking.  I'm expecting this to add great value in terms of efficiency when introduced.
    - Owner billings are not integrated between the programs meaning you'll need to update each system.  Interestingly, since we've added ProCore we have improved our billing cycle turnaround time.
    - Sage support is great, always quick to respond and will do live 'remote login' calls to fix your issue.  Have never had a poor experience in all my interactions with them (which when I first started learning the system, was often!)
    - Sage reporting capabilities can be limited, although there are options to mitigate this impact (Crystal Reports, Add-ons, Custom Reports).
    - We are and will continue to move towards utilizing Procore more, but Sage will continue to be the 'home base' for our accounting activities.  

    Feel free to reach out with questions.



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    Taylor Schmitz
    Controller
    JHC Companies
    Portland OR
    tschmitz@jhc-companies.com
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