JD Edwards EnterpriseOne

JDE E1 is highly flexible, highly configurable and allows for granular security. Once users become familiar with the interface, it becomes an easy tool to master. We have been able to solve every business challenge needed, mostly through configuration, but some through customization. It runs on the Microsoft stack as well as Oracle's stack. There are dozens of modules that cover most every business process including general accounting, inventory management, job costing, real estate management and more. The code is extremely stable and documentation is very good on how each module is configured (although it may take a lifetime to know how your business wants it configured).

It is very expensive and requires significant training and knowledge to manage (or an expensive partner). Oracle does not seem to like it when you run E1 on any stack other than Oracle's. Their licensing makes it difficult to run in a typical virtualized environment (Microsoft, VmWare).

The JDE E1 software will run on multiple database platforms. Several years ago we choose SQL Server as our database of choice and we were running E1 on Oracle. The actual migration from Oracle to SQL Server was completed over a weekend. The bulk of that project focused mainly on retro-fitting the external interfaces to point to the SQL Server database. The E1 database does not use stored procedures or referential integrity at the database level. Data integrity is maintained programmatically. In 20 years we've never had a data integrity issue. Not implementing business\application logic into the database via stored procedures means the database is very fast and very efficient. Distributing application processing across web servers, application, and databases means it's easier to troubleshoot performance problems.
The software has a complete lifecycle management tool for customizing the application to our specific needs. We have written several custom modules. The tool is very easy to learn.
I am impressed with the continual investment by Oracle in this product and they are making great strides in having the whole application mobile ready. I can easily foresee us continuing to use E1 for another 10 to 15 years.

Security setup is cumbersome at times and must be well thought out so it does not become a maintenance headache.

What I like most about Oracle JD Edwards is the ability it offers in terms of documents availability, even over an international and outsourced organization. For example, a user in the US within a company can share documents with another associated user contracted but essentially outside the company from an internet security perspective can essentially link to Oracle JD Edwards resources with a separately-assigned User ID and Password log in since this is an add-on to JD Edwards ERP.

What I least like about Oracle JD Edwards is that it does not reject illegible documents nor blank documents scans.

The only thing I like about JDE is that you can extract a lot of information from it to use it to make your own reports. You just need to know basic data extraction concepts.

I don't like several things about JDE. It is not user friendly at all, you need to click several times to navigate to the final table or screen you want to see or to generate reports. To be that expensive it lacks on concepts love like Kannan in the supply chain module, it is hard to find support in certain modules and it is basically necessary to train somebody as internal support.

JDE has various features from creating a work order to ordering parts, searching for parts, setting up a maintenance data base of equipment life cycle to PM program. I specially like the work order program which allows you to create work orders, execute them, review them and finally automatically archive them. The system also allows to create a data base for parts. You can create a part, check its price and inventory and order as needed. It also allows to setup access levels within the organization so not everyone can modify the system and only trained individuals have access to do that. You can also run various reports and metrics from the data in JDE.

One of the Cons of the software is that it can be very slow and requires intense training to master the application. With a good training program this application can be mastered. Also there is limited space availability for writing part descriptions.