Phocas

Avantages

Phocas provided an ideal solution for producing the same views of information for Different job roles using the permissions in the background. This reduced our dependance on Excel reporting by around 60%

Inconvénients

Phocas is more a visualisation tool rather than deep dive and planning is necessary to ensure output views meet the expected results, particular around columnar structure. That said it has had nothing but a positive impact on the Business reporting consumption by the masses.

Avantages

We have used Phocas since 2008 and have always liked how fast we can generate reports. The reports that I have setup to e-mail keep me informed on key indicators in our business. We started using CRM a couple of years ago and like how easy it is for our salespeople to enter calls on their mobile device.

Inconvénients

I would like to see a better way to track and run reports on leads in CRM. Sometimes upgrades and support take a little longer the we would like.

Avantages

Once you have been shown how to use this software, it can be a very useful tool, especially for us as CEs who aren't directly involved with the Sales side of the business.

Inconvénients

Unless someone is a pro on Phocas, it is difficult to navigate your way around it and completely understand how to use it.

Avantages

This software allows me to gather databases from all over the organization and present the, to our users via dashboard/report or let them drive their own reporting.

Inconvénients

It was a bit difficult to understand the Sync/dbdesigner part since documentation on this was a bit vague

Avantages

The ease of use of Phocas is what puts it at the top of our list for BI software. The set up of the data was quick and easy (with great support from the Phocas guys) and ability to drill down from top line data right into the detail of a transaction is what makes Phocas a great tool for us. Phocas is widely used across our business to track and analyse sales data, finance data and purchasing data with future plans to add more modules. The PUG Forum is also a good feature for me, if there is something that you don't know how to do then you'll find the info there or someone can point you in the right direction. It's also a great place to suggest the feature that you'd like to see and Phocas review and add on to their product road map, so you know they are listening to your ideas.

Inconvénients

I'd say the visualizations and widgets on the dashboards could do with abit of updating. The charts aren't always a flexible as you'd like with axes labels and adjusting the axes to suit the chart, plus you have to be quite specific with the data in the first place to get the chart you want.