Is One advanced about to discontinue upgrades?
Rumours abound that there will be no more upgrade to the cloud-based solution, “One advanced”. This flagship offering was developed to bring an up-to-date ERP software into the fold, as an alternative to their established desktop experience of Exchequer. We have heard from a number of users that they have been told unofficially that there will be no further upgrades to the product. If true, this is an early warning sign that the product maybe sunsetted which means existing customers may have to find another solution. This has already happened to the likes of Mamut, TradeGecko and Sage 100 and is part of the risk when committing to a particular software.
Why is some Software Discontinued?
As most software houses have found, simply recreating a desktop solution and dumping this on to the cloud is not at all straight forward. Software need to be built from the ground up for both on premise and data center platforms as they are completely different environments. As this solution costs a lot of money to develop, in an already crowded marketplace, some are bound to miss the mark. Now with a recession looming many software houses are reviewing whether they will make a return on their investment.
One Advanced has had its own share of problems.
Although it has begun to make inroads within the UK market, One Advanced has had its own share of problems along the way. The system is locked down within its own environment, so providing links or building APIs to other solutions has been nigh on impossible. The exchange rate mechanism was locked to one online source provider, so users are unable to leverage variances to their advantage. Stock movement and valuations are limited to FIFO which does not suit everyone’s accounting costing methods. In August they suffered a cyber-attack which also didn’t help matters. From our exposure to the software, we have found that if your business model is a perfect fit for the package, then you are probably fine. If you need more tweaking, then you may find some issues.
What are the alternatives to One advanced?
For those of you who are concerned then you may wish to start your research into other alternatives that are available. For those who just deal with stock, then modular software such as Dear Systems (with advanced manufacturing) or Unleashed which link to Xero or QuickBooks for accounting, may be sufficient for your needs. For those who need more in-depth management accounts, then SAP Business One may be your thing and for larger international ventures you would need either SAP by design or NetSuite. Each step up comes with its own price tag and implementation costs, so you need to make sure that your business matches the appropriate level of software. Otherwise, you may end up cracking a walnut with a jack hammer. For those who want impartial advice please feel free to contact us on the above email or use our implementation vendor comparison chart designed for business owners to visualize the pros and cons of each choice.
Special Offer:
For any One Advanced users affected by this we will run a one days workshop which will document your business process’s and highlight software issues involved. This will place business owners in a much better position to make decisions regarding their digital transformation.
About the Author:
Malcolm Ford has been involved with ERP implementations for the past full 10 years and has assisted companies to digitise their stock movements for a variety of sectors. If you have specific need please raise your enquires to the email above.
