Infor SyteLine Reviews

“Terrible tool”

Pros

There are a few inventory control features that I've found somewhat useful and on paper it's supposed to help with order tracking and keeping the warehouse organized but it doesnt really work that way

Cons

Honestly this software is terrible across the board. I've never dealt with an implementation this frustrating and somehow it ends up taking at least 10 times more effort and time than if we had just tracked everything manually in an Access database or even a bunch of Excel files. Even the simplest shipping task turns into a ridiculous process with more than 200 steps and if one tiny thing is off, the entire warehouse operation grinds to a halt. Need to insert more than one part at a time? Then you're stuck building a convoluted set of Excel sheets that have to be perfectly formatted just to make it work. Need to update pricing for multiple items? Be prepared for you and several coworkers to spend three full days battling the system and manually entering 1,000 lines one by one. And search is a joke. There's no real fuzzy search at all. You have to type * ITEM* and hope it shows up or switch to a completely different window just to search there, where you still have to use * around what you're looking for. The RMA process is basically not worth using because what little it does is useless. Lot tracking technically exists but the way it works seems to be a mystery even to the people who implemented it. I could keep going but I already lost an entire day trying to load just 25 items from engineering into inventory and the system still made it far harder than it should have been. Now tomorrow my whole team gets the pleasure of manually entering pricing by hand.

“powerful tool”

Pros

It comes with a very powerful set of tools that I've seen support a wide range of business processes.

Cons

The learning curve is pretty steep some of the older GUI workflows feel awkward to use and customization is very expensive.

“all-in-one production control”

Pros

Before we started working with Infor, everything was handled manually for us and the processes were scattered. Document management, stock operations, production management, inventory and production workflows were all separate from one another. In a short time, I've seen it bring all of these areas together in one place and turn them into the foundation of a much more current organized structure. Stock management is more accurate, document handling and distribution are much more convenient and order processing and tracking are far better controlled. APS also helped shorten production timelines and made those processes much easier to manage for us. It connected sub-parts, suppliers, sales and purchasing into the same system, while inventory management became more dynamic and up to date. It also supports all kinds of data transfer and integration. Most importantly, I find being able to copy Excel and other text-based information within seconds really sets it apart from competing products because that level of data transfer convenience is a major advantage.

Cons

One downside is that it uses a considerable amount of resources and the accounting side still needs further improvement.

“missing reports and limited tracking”

Pros

At least it lets me export data to Excel and that ends up being necessary since a lot of the reports and information I need just aren't available in the system.

Cons

The feature set is extremely limited. There's no real way to track efficiency, productivity or shipping properly. The built-in reports are frankly terrible and many functions that are standard in other platforms are completely missing here. Even a basic report like daily shipping by customer has to be requested as a special report and I've been waiting a year for it. Efficiency reporting still isn't available. Realistically, you need to be very comfortable with Excel because you'll be exporting everything and building your own reports outside the platform. One upside is that they can create custom forms but the cost for that is very high.

“Great inventory”

Pros

It works well for us as a web-based system for managing inventory, supporting demand planning and tracking materials through the full production cycle all the way to shipment.

Cons

It falls short when it comes to handling the more detailed sides of the business, like nonconformances (NCRs), engineering changes (ECNs), process reviews, deviations and supplier-related issues such as purchase orders or quality concerns.

“helpful documentation but login hassles”

Pros

The online interactive help and documentation have been useful in my experience and I've seen the implementation completed before manufacturing startup. We're still in the process of aligning the actual manufacturing workflows with the system's process flows.

Cons

The login setup has been a challenge especially with Mingle compared to the smart client. There are also separate user IDs to manage between CSI and Factory Track.

“flexible setup and excellent support”

Pros

It has been very customizable for our needs and I've found the customer support excellent. Moving over from our old software was also very easy and simple for us to manage.

Cons

Like most out-of-the-box software, it still needs some customization to fully match our processes and a few of the financial features are not as powerful as we would like.

“user-friendly work order tracking”

Pros

It is very user-friendly and simple to work with in my experience. I've seen it give my technicians a reliable way to stay on top of their work orders and keep everything organized.

Cons

I honestly can't point to anything I liked least about INFOR.

“feature-rich visibility but tough transition”

Pros

One thing this system does really well is provide a feature-rich, data-heavy and transparent environment. I've seen our setup configured as a globally planned multi-site system which gives the sales team top-down visibility across the full supply chain.

Cons

If your company depends a lot on customizations, moving to CSI can be a difficult adjustment because you'll need to redefine business processes to fit the way CSI works. Customizations can be done in CSI but they generally aren't encouraged and with the cloud version you may not have access to those customizations at all.

“smooth customization”

Pros

Having it deployed in the cloud was a huge advantage for us. Unlike many on-premise systems that limit access to people inside the organization's network, I've found CSI lets our teams across the country use the software without needing a VPN. Another big plus is Mongoose and I've found being able to quickly tailor modules and forms gives us a real advantage over competitors using less flexible systems.

Cons

Our corporate office runs SAP for financials and getting CSI connected to SAP was challenging, although it was still doable.

“modern updates and user independence”

Pros

Navigation is easy for me and I can get to the data I need without having to rely on a system admin every time. Since we're in a multi-tenant cloud setup, I've seen the monthly software updates keep everything current without the hassle of major version upgrades.

Cons

Getting the system to fit into our business processes went pretty well because the design already matched most of how we operate. In the areas where it didn't, we either adjusted our processes or used the built-in functionality to tailor CSI more closely to what we needed. The only downside is that the documentation and help resources are sometimes incomplete which makes them less useful than they should be.

“convenient forms”

Pros

Choosing a cloud-based service back in 2012 has been something we've never regretted. Not having to maintain servers or any other hardware on site takes away a lot of complexity and helps lower the total cost of ownership. I've seen Infor handle our data security, backups, ongoing maintenance and monthly update patches which is a big plus. The forms are simple and exporting them to Excel is very easy. Overall I've found users needed very little training to get comfortable with the software.

Cons

Older versions of the software especially before 9.10, lacked a strong enough reporting toolset for customizing form reports like invoices, supplier statements and Accounts Receivable reports. That has been mostly improved with the arrival of Mongoose 10, although the toolset still needs more development to make report customization more user-friendly. It would also be helpful to have the ability to export reports directly to Excel instead of being limited to PDF.

“powerful features and customization”

Pros

The flexibility to customize things and the depth of functionality are excellent in my experience.

Cons

The standard report layouts aren't very clear which makes reports harder to read.

“useful forms but slow downloads”

Pros

One thing this software does well is offer a wide variety of forms that help with different inventory management tasks. I've found being able to export data to Excel really helpful when it's time to review information in more detail. It's also very useful that we can set up multiple sites for each business location which makes managing more than one location much more practical.

Cons

At the same time, going through each form takes quite a bit of time which ends up making the system less productive and harder to use when you need to get things done accurately and on schedule. I'm also not a fan of how long the forms take to load inside the software since that delay slows everything down even more and hurts productivity.

“Aligned database operations”

Pros

Working with a database can get very complicated but I've found CSI really simplifies the process in a way that makes it easy to use and just as easy to train others on.

Cons

On the job side, moving items around is very hard to manage. Right now, the only way to move a job is to delete it first. It would be much more helpful if things could be moved between different operations without having to unlink them.

“user-friendly ERP experience”

Pros

Right from the start I found this ERP solution very user-friendly and the interface feels well designed. The forms are self-explanatory so working with them is easy and comfortable for me.

Cons

One downside is that this ERP system is not very flexible when it comes to customization so having a consultant available is usually necessary to help with custom changes.

“flexible setup and personalization”

Pros

I've seen the software offer a lot of flexibility and customizing it to fit specific needs is pretty easy.

Cons

At times, Infor seems to push out releases before they're fully ready for production environments.

“costly add-ons and weak support”

Pros

The interface looks modern and clean to me and it was sold to us as a system that could solve all the problems we were having with our previous ERP. What we were not told upfront is that it would take a long list of expensive enhancements for us to actually get there.

Cons

What really hurts is how many enhancements are needed just to make the software function the way it should. Those extra costs pile up fast and upgrading later feels like a nightmare because of them. On top of that, the support from Infor has been extremely disappointing. In one case, they applied a fix to deal with a major lag problem but that change ended up breaking our paycheck printing module. After that, Infor technicians spent more than three weeks trying to diagnose it and still never resolved the issue.

“core platform with broad functionality”

Pros

It sits at the center of our business and handles just about everything for us, from setting up customers and entering orders to manufacturing and accounts payable. That broad range is one of the things I value most about it. We really make use of it across the company and try to get as much out of the system as possible. When we add extra applications, I've noticed they tend to integrate in a way that feels fairly convenient for the people using the software.

Cons

The biggest downside in our setup is the performance. We're running a version that isn't particularly fast and that can be frustrating. Upgrading to a newer release is also a major project whenever it becomes necessary. Since the system is used so extensively across our workplace, an upgrade ends up taking a lot of time, effort and internal resources.

“powerful reporting”

Pros

This software does an excellent job supporting the needs of a large organization in my experience, connecting work across departments and delivering high-quality reports. It's one of the strongest systems I've used in that regard. I've also found performance very great, with no crashes or glitches and everything runs quickly and reliably in real time.

Cons

Getting started with it takes a serious amount of time and effort and both staff and management need to be fully committed to training before new employees can use it confidently. On top of that, connecting it with other tools, even something basic like Excel, felt inconsistent and harder than it should have been.