What is our primary use case?
We have been using Unit4 Business World on-premises with 10 different research institutes for Finance, HR, Procurement, and Projects. This Unit4 product is no longer supported by Unit4. It is replaced by Unit4 cloud ERP CR and Unit4 SaaS ERP X.
We try not to do customization, but we do configuration. The configuration is extremely flexible. There are also many options for integrations.
Unit4 has a broader suite of ERP products that are fully integrated with the core ERP in the cloud. These include Unit4 FP&A for budgeting, forecasting, and financial analysis, but we are not using this product. We have integrated Unit4 ERP with the PowerBI gateway to enhance dashboards and to do further analysis.
As part of the Unit4 suite of products, they also have HCM for Talent management and employee engagement, and training management. The third product in the suite is Source to Contract, previously known as ScanMarket.
How has it helped my organization?
As global organisations the ERP is accessible to all our offices, regardless of their location. This ensures that the same policies and processes are followed throughout the organisation.
What is most valuable?
The Unit4 ERP product is very flexible and can be configured to fit most business processes. There are also many options for integration, especially when used on-premises.
What needs improvement?
Unit4 ERP7 will not be improved as it is no longer supported by Unit4. The cloud ERP CR and ERP X do have clear roadmaps available to customers. Many of the gaps have been filled by the ERP suite of products. New improvements will include AI agents to automate finance and HR processes.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Unit4 ERP, also known as Agresso or Unit4 Business World since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We manage the hosting of the ERP in AWS, and it is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We host the ERP on-premises product in our AWS cloud. This means the infrastructure can be easily expanded to scale.
How are customer service and support?
There has been a big improvement in customer service in recent years. Technical support for on-premise customers was limited, so we prefer to use official partners for all support apart from bugs that need fixing.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Our previous solutions were from a long time ago and are probably not on the market. We have been using Unit4 Business World for nearly 15 years, so anything before that us not relevant anymore.
We have conducted evaluations of other products and know there are definitely products with improved capabilities. However, the cost and the cost to migrate to a new product would be excessive for a nonprofit organisation at this time..
How was the initial setup?
My team installs and updates on-premise ERP which is relatively easy to do. But this version is obsolete and not available to new customers. All new customers will use SaaS or Cloud solutions. These are updated every 6 months.
What about the implementation team?
For the original implementation, 13 years ago we used consultants from Unit4. We now use Unit4 elite partners for support and consultancy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing is reasonable after negotiation. Consultants and partners are mainly located in Europe and North America. We struggled to get consultants to work in Africa, Asia and South America for our setup and further developement.
What other advice do I have?
If you are a new customer, you should look at Unit4 SaaS ERPX, which is where Unit4 is focusing most of its development. It has been designed and optimized for the cloud and is more affordable than some of the well-known ERP products. The focus is on the professional services, nonprofit, higher education, and local government sectors. I would rate the product a 7 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)