Way, way back on July 20, 2004, the following post was submitted to the ERP Vendor Selection Forum on Toolbox.com:
Hi,
I am currently evaluating 3 [ERP] solutions for a fabless semiconductor startup company looking for a package sufficient for a mid-sized organization covering inventory, standard costing, multiple lines of product (ICs and end products) with good analytic and consolidation tools. They are:
MAS 500
Navision
Great Plains
Any feedback on the pros and cons of any of these packages? Thanks a lot! New to the group, btw… this is a great forum!
Regards,
Ed
This post received 70 replies over the course of two years, most of them in the first few months. As often happens, many of the replies were from companies recommending the products that they represent, not from actual customers of the products. In fact, quite a few replies were simply criticisms of other replies, and some of those deteriorated into outright flames. Only the rare forum member actually provided helpful information and insight into the three vendor solutions that the poster was asking about.
One of those rare replies in the “helpful” (as opposed to “self-serving”) category suggested that the poster look into solutions specifically designed to handle the rather unique needs of the fabless semiconductor industry. Here’s a portion of this reply from July 21, 2004:
Hello Ed,
Hopefully we can redirect this thread back toward your initial question. As a slight change in direction on the advice down this path so far, another option you may want to look at is a solution developed specifically for fabless semi. There are a number of them out there with varied capabilities and costs that have been integrated to one or more of the back-office business software platforms you mentioned in your original request. A couple I have run across are published by CA based firms…
Best of Luck!
Jack
Jack’s post was quickly buried by other responses, but Ed soldiered on, replying politely to each poster and asking for clarification. On September 2, 2004, Jack provided Tensoft’s name in a reply to Ed’s request for the name of the “CA based firms” that Jack had mentioned in an earlier post. The thread stopped at the end of that month, but was resurrected almost two years later by a poster who asked for an update. In addition to all of the other replies, Ed responded with this post:
Hi Tommi,
You’d mentioned the thread from 1.5 years ago. I’m the one who posted that inquiry, so I thought I’d reply to share the outcome.
After a very lengthy and intensive evaluation that involved our team in the US and in Asia, we chose the integrated Microsoft Great Plains/Tensoft Fabless Semiconductor Management solution. Tensoft service and support has been great. We chose to implement in 2 phases, so we’re now starting our second phase.
Tensoft has a strong commitment to the fabless industry, and is the only vendor that we found (other than Oracle, which was out of the question due to their high Total Cost of Ownership) that has a significant number of successful installs at fabless semiconductor companies. Tensoft Fabless Semiconductor Management includes all the features that Jack mentioned in his post, plus some very sophisticated costing capabilities, a Booking-Billings-Backlog dashboard report, etc.
Tensoft’s strongest selling point for us is that they provide out-of-the-box integration, which is critical for any total ERP system, but especially for start-ups who need to plan towards an IPO or other exit strategy, when SOX compliance becomes an issue.
Regards,
Ed
The point of this story? Don’t settle for “good enough” when the exact fit for your business might well be out there somewhere! Fabless semiconductor companies like ClariPhy Communications are still finding that Tensoft’s Fabless ERP solution is the best fit for their needs. Read more about how Tensoft FSM helps streamline operations for these companies in our customer case studies for the semiconductor and high tech industries.
For more information about Tensoft’s products and services, please contact us. If you’d like to comment on this article, I encourage you to Tweet, post to Facebook or blog about it!