Overview
What is M1?
M1, from ECI Software Solutions headquartered in Ft. Worth, is an all-in-one manufacturing ERP software solution, built for small and medium-sized discrete manufacturers.
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M1 ERP System Review
ECI M1 System Review.
Disappointing Implementation...Here's Hope the Tool is as Powerful as Reported
M1 works
Easiest software I've ever used
M1 Software Review
Manufacturing made simple with M1
M1 - A Decent Way to Manage Your Business
Newbies in middle of Installation phase
Sophisticated solution in need of better support.
M1 for Machinery
ECI M1 provides efficiency from quote to cash!
M1 well-rounded MRP system.
How M1 Differs From Its Competitors
Analytics for Efficiency
Analytics for Efficiency
Analytics for Efficiency
Analytics for Efficiency
Analytics for Efficiency
Analytics for Efficiency
Analytics for Efficiency
Analytics for Efficiency
Analytics for Efficiency
Analytics for Efficiency
Analytics for Efficiency
Analytics for Efficiency
Analytics for Efficiency
Popular Features
- Role-based user permissions (13)8.989%
- Dashboards (12)7.979%
- Custom reports (12)7.676%
- Standard reports (13)7.272%
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
What is M1?
M1, from ECI Software Solutions headquartered in Ft. Worth, is an all-in-one manufacturing ERP software solution, built for small and medium-sized discrete manufacturers.
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos
Uncover Hidden Manufacturing Costs and Boost Profitability with M1 Job Costing
Features
Payroll Management
Provides for pay calculation and benefit plan administration, in addition to managing direct deposit, salary revisions and payroll tracking.
- 8.7Pay calculation(3) Ratings
Pay calculation provides for computation of employee pay with state and federal deductions.
- 10Direct deposit files(1) Ratings
Direct deposit is the ability to electronically transfer pay to an employee’s personal bank account.
Customization
This addresses a company’s ability to configure the software to fit its specific use case and workflow.
- 7.9API for custom integration(9) Ratings
An API (application programming interface) provides a standard programming interface for connecting third-party systems to the software for data creation, access, updating and/or deletion.
- 9.3Plug-ins(4) Ratings
A number of third-party plug-ins are available to expand the core functionality of the software.
Security
This component helps a company minimize the security risks by controlling access to the software and its data, and encouraging best practices among users.
- 9.4Single sign-on capability(7) Ratings
The software system supports a centralized authentication mechanism allowing the user to access multiple systems with a single, centrally managed password.
- 8.9Role-based user permissions(13) Ratings
Permissions to perform actions or access or modify data are assigned to roles, which are then assigned to users, reducing complexity of administration.
Reporting & Analytics
Users can report on and analyze usage, performance, ROI, and/or other metrics of success.
- 7.9Dashboards(12) Ratings
Users can create, customize and share dashboards, which provide an overview of the most important metrics.
- 7.2Standard reports(13) Ratings
The software offers pre-built reports with metrics standard to the category.
- 7.6Custom reports(12) Ratings
Users can create custom reports.
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Financial management solution, including capabilities for general ledger and configurable accounting
- 8.5Accounts payable(9) Ratings
This includes the automation and tracking of payment to vendors and suppliers, with features such as payment scheduling, check printing, open purchase order alerts, document management, direct ACH bill payment, and vendor records.
- 8.5Accounts receivable(10) Ratings
This includes the management and automation of invoices and collections, with features like statements, invoices, receipts, payment reminders, customer records, auto billing, and refund checks.
- 7.8Global Financial Support(4) Ratings
Account using multiple ledgers, multiple currencies, and multiple entities
- 8.4Primary and Secondary Ledgers(5) Ratings
Record and report across multiple currencies and accounting standards with primary and secondary ledgers
- 7.5Journals and Reconciliations(9) Ratings
Automate and synchronize ledgers and processes
- 7.2Configurable Accounting(6) Ratings
Configure accounting rules and segments for each chart of accounts
- 8Standardized Processes(7) Ratings
Centralize financial management to facilitate standardized financial processes
Inventory Management
The ability to track and manage the flow of goods or materials into and out of an inventory.
- 8.4Inventory tracking(12) Ratings
The software syncs orders and stock to maintain a real-time picture of inventory and supports multiple methods such as LIFO and FIFO.
- 7.3Automatic reordering(6) Ratings
The software can be set up to automatically reorder a good when it falls below a certain threshold.
- 8Location management(10) Ratings
The software can track multiple goods across multiple locations.
Order Management
The ability to process orders, and track them from quote to cash.
- 8.2Pricing(11) Ratings
Users can set up complex and unique pricing requirements.
- 8Order entry(11) Ratings
Users can enter an order once, and the data flows to all the necessary units such as fulfillment and billing.
- 8.2Credit card processing(5) Ratings
The software facilitates credit card processing.
- 8.1Cost of goods sold(9) Ratings
The software calculates the direct costs attributable to a finished product, such as materials and labor, and includes roll-up pricing.
- 8.4Order Orchestration(5) Ratings
Define and execute order fulfillment processes for products as well as services on the same order.
Subledger and Financial Process
Revenue management solution including capabilities for subledgers and financial processes
- 8.3Billing Management(8) Ratings
Access role-based billing work area, perform discrete and recurring billing
- 7.4Cash and Asset Management(7) Ratings
Manage liquidity and cash requirements, asset transfers, disposals, reclassifications, and financial adjustments
- 10Travel & Expense Management(1) Ratings
Enter expenses from mobile devices, integrate credit card and travel booking, configure policy enforcement
- 5.3Budgetary Control & Encumbrance Accounting(3) Ratings
Control spending at any budget level or time interval
- 7.8Period Close(8) Ratings
Sustain fast close with integrated subledgers, intuitive dashboards, embedded collaboration
Project Execution Management
Project execution management solution including capabilities for project scheduling, resource management, and team member task management.
- 7.4Project Planning and Scheduling(7) Ratings
Interactive Gantt chart for establishing tasks, durations, and delivery schedule
- 8.2Task Insight for Project Managers(4) Ratings
Project manager visibility into task progress of team members
- 5Project Mobile Functionality(2) Ratings
Capabilities for project functions such as updating and monitoring task progress and timecards from mobile devices
- 6.7Definable Resource Pools(4) Ratings
Definable and hierarchical resource pools of potential project resources
Procurement
Procurement management solution with capabilities for sourcing, contracting, procure-to-pay and supplier management
- 9Bids Analyzed and Compared(2) Ratings
Evaluate, compare and recommend across multiple bids in real-time using diverse user selected criteria and graphical analytics
- 9Contract Authoring(2) Ratings
Document authoring with guided navigation, negotiation templates and productivity tools for reviews and collaboration
- 8.5Contract Repository(2) Ratings
Secure and searchable contract repository leveraging standard company language components, structures and formats
- 8Requisitions-to-Purchase Orders Integrated(4) Ratings
Create touchless purchases using purchase orders generated automatically per rules from approved requisitions
- 7.1Supplier Management(7) Ratings
Broadly manage and report comprehensive supplier profiles, capabilities and performance; identify bottlenecks; balance allocations, workloads
Risk Management
Risk management solution with capabilities for managing controls, assessing control effectiveness, certifying controls, and addressing deficiencies
- 10Risk Repository(1) Ratings
Idenity, document, and manage business risks in a unified repository
- 10Control Management(1) Ratings
Establish and update risk and controls matrix, control test plans, and instructions
- 10Control Efficiency Assessments(1) Ratings
Assess control effectiveness on criteria such as geography, business unit, compliance requirements, etc
- 10Issue Detection(1) Ratings
Detect and create issues as part of the assessment flow
- 10Remediation and Certification(1) Ratings
Create and update remediation plans and certify controls
Logistics
Logistics solution with capabilities for transportation planning, transportation execution, trade compliance, customs management, warehouse management and warehouse workforce management.
- 10Transportation Planning and Optimization(1) Ratings
Plan shipments across all modes of transportation via lowest costs/highest service
- 10Transportation Execution Management(1) Ratings
Execute and track shipping orders
- 7.5Trade and Customs Management(2) Ratings
Manage duties, tax rates, customs documents, and other data required for products shipped in and to specified countries
- 7.7Fulfillment Management(4) Ratings
Support for multi-channel demand and execution fulfillment processes
- 7.8Warehouse Workforce Management(4) Ratings
Set goals, measure actuals, and analyze productivity for warehousing tasks and activities
Manufacturing
Manufacturing solution for managing manufacturing processes and costs.
- 7Production Process Design(10) Ratings
Define data for plant hierarchy, process standards, work areas, calendars and standard operations
- 7.7Production Management(10) Ratings
Centralized critical status information for production supervisors
- 7Configuration Management(8) Ratings
Capture and process customer configuration orders
- 7.8Work Execution(9) Ratings
Monitor procution status, manage work orders for standard and non-standard production, enforce tight controls on serialized products
- 7.8Manufacturing Costs(11) Ratings
Estimate, plan and monitor costs and variances by plant. Capture resource costs using standard, actual, LIFO, FIFO or multiple costing methods.
Supply Chain
Supply Chain Planning solution with capabilities for planning, performance monitoring, change responses and execution.
- 6.3Forecasting(6) Ratings
Statistically forecast based on historical patterns and sales input, monitor accuracy and estimate new demand
- 7.1Inventory Planning(9) Ratings
Establish projected inventory levels, monitor actual levels and compare with projected levels
- 6.8Performance Monitoring(6) Ratings
Analyze business metrics and compare actual performance to plans, identify issues, prioritize demands and respond to changes
Product Lifecycle Management
Product Lifecycle Management solution with capabilities for innovation management, product development
- 8Proposal Management(1) Ratings
Capture budget, resource, and benefit expectations for proposals
- 8.2Product Master Data Management(4) Ratings
Create, classify, and manage product items, BOMs and product changes
Product Details
- About
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is M1?
M1 Screenshots
M1 Competitors
M1 Technical Details
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
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Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
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Reviews and Ratings
(23)Community Insights
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
Users have found M1 to be a versatile tool for various business functions including accounting, finance, quotes, and sales orders. The software's automation capabilities streamline documentation tasks and enhance project tracking, making day-to-day operations more efficient. Despite encountering challenges with implementation and customization, organizations use M1 as their primary ERP system to manage key functions like manufacturing planning, purchasing, and shipping.
Customization options in M1 allow users to tailor entry screens, grids, and reports to meet their specific needs. The software's ability to handle projects, inventory management, job tracking, costs, and labor makes it a valuable asset for companies. Additionally, features like KPIs and Reports assist in monitoring user activity and analyzing data effectively. Transitioning to M1 may involve a learning curve; however, online resources and training sessions support users in adapting to this powerful and customizable program.
Customization Flexibility: Users have praised the system for its high level of customization, allowing them to tailor entry screens, transaction reviews, and reports according to their specific requirements. This flexibility has been instrumental in enhancing user experience and meeting diverse business needs effectively.
Comprehensive Job Cost Analysis: Reviewers have highlighted the detailed job cost analysis feature provided by M1, which facilitates accurate determination of estimating, training needs, and efficiency issues when consistently utilized. This analytical tool has proven invaluable in identifying cost-saving opportunities and improving overall operational efficiency.
Efficient Inventory Management: Customers appreciate the ability to automate documentation processes and easily locate related documents, streamlining inventory management tasks effectively. The seamless integration of document automation has led to significant time savings and reduced errors in tracking inventory levels accurately throughout various stages.
Outdated User Interface: Some users have expressed the need for a more modern design in the user interface to enhance the overall experience. They feel that an updated and visually appealing interface would greatly improve usability and satisfaction.
Complex Invoice Management: Users highlighted difficulties with invoice creation and management. Users note the difficulty in making changes or fixing errors once an invoice is saved.
Challenges in Implementation Process: Several users reported negative experiences during implementation, citing delays, lack of structured onboarding, unqualified project managers, and a generic project plan.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-14 of 14)Customize your data
- Data structure handeling
- Customize service
- Data protection
- Some Ui issue with navigation can be fixed
- Performance issue loading
M1 ERP System Review
- Ease of use
- Low IT burden
- Most company information in one system
- User interface
- Performance
ECI M1 System Review.
- Automate documentation processes.
- Keep all related documents together in an easy-to-find format.
- Better inventory management.
- A more modern user interface.
- A change to the user training setup online is glitchy.
- Less clustered layouts with easier scrolling on screens.
- Allows for component parts to be scheduled independently through the plant
- Once parts are built, it is easy to duplicate/reuse parts across they quoting and ordering modules and customers
- If used properly and consistently, M1 will provide accurate job cost analysis to determine estimating, training, efficiency and other issues.
- M1 is not designed for short run/custom manufacturing. It is difficult to "change sizes" of parts used in production because you have to re-generate the part and recalculate the Unit of Measure
- Configured parts (auto calculations to address the above point) are not easily understood and need to be custom coded by consultants. This can become costly very quickly and requires the client to create all of the calculations and possible variations before any coding can be completed.
- My experience with their implementation left much to be desired. Despite claims of there being a "highly structured onboarding process", my project was 18 months past due, there was no onboarding tool or "what to expect from the implementation" session, the project manager assigned (and billed to my client) was not qualified/non-value add, the project plan was a generic task list template and included modules we had not purchased and did not account for various adaptations we required. There were no "best practices" implemented for our industry/custom manufacturing application. There were no project risk assessments or business requirements development sessions conducted despite multiple requests to do these exercises.
- Escalation through ECI's customer experience office and to various Directors/SVPs yielded more meeting attendees with little to contribute. Little leadership/accountability/drive to resolution was demonstrated on the part of ECI. My client had to push for credit for 6 months of hosting services to cover some of the schedule overruns.
- Several customizations/adaptations that were addressed repeatedly in the sales cycle were not effectively communicated to the implementation team. Even after these needs were clarified, numerous delays and resource reassignments (5 different outsourced contract developers were assigned during a 12 month period to address the one customization needed for M1 to communicate with our legacy MIS system), the implementation missed the (4th) GO LIVE target date. The customization was not completed for Go Live and may mean manually closing the division's Feb and March month ends.
M1 works
- Open access DB makes it easy to customize the on-prem solution
- Lots of built in data analysis and data retrieval that the average user can access
- We use the 'lot tracking' ability for detailed material traceability
- No alternate materials or operations concepts
- Plant scheduling is hard to achieve in a dynamic manufacturing environment
- There is no built in maintenance or quality systems
Easiest software I've ever used
- Ability to customize entry screens
- Ability to review all transactions on any given item id
- Ability to customize reports
- When an address is deactivated, it should not show up under the entry screen when searching for an address to add to an order
M1 Software Review
- Inventory Management
- Bill of Materials
- Financial Accounting
- Easier to create custom reports
- More flexible when performing physical inventory counts
- More user friendly scheduling function
Manufacturing made simple with M1
- Quoting products for us to sell.
- Tracking our production hours and jobs costs.
- Collects and stores data to refer back to repeat sales.
- Gives us an accurate aging report to determine who is behind on invoice payments
- It’s difficult to undo an error made. Once an invoice is posted you can’t undo it.
- We receive errors or glitches in sales orders or invoices.
- When researching “how to” do something on the tech support page it isn’t as straightforward as I’d like for it to be.
M1 - A Decent Way to Manage Your Business
- Manages inventory parts and assemblies very well.
- Tracks the orders from inception thru the build process and shipping.
- Manages our payments to vendors.
- Manages our outstanding invoices.
- Some of the functions are pretty detailed - and so they take a while to generate screens and pages in reports.
- We actually use it for 2 companies we own - and it would be nice if the inter company communication was a little smoother. It's hard to share some data, and not everything is possible to be shared.
- Customized reports need to backed up before any updates to M1 or they're lost. It seems M1 overwrites the report folders everytime you run an update - so you have to keep track of what you've changed in Crystal Reports and restore it.
Newbies in middle of Installation phase
- Customization
- Workflow Capture
- Inventory
- Hover Help. (Mouse over a field with automatic help or units display)
- Easier Automatic Image Display on Parts Page
- Much Longer Titles. Some are limited to 6 characters.
Sophisticated solution in need of better support.
- Manage inventory counts. Good precision on quantities in and out, through shipping, MI, MR, and receipts.
- Job costing shows great details on labor, operations, and materials to be used. I wished that would do better in outside operations that would return, but we still think it is great.
- Ability to track changes (changelog), showing all changes that had in a particular place. Such as where, when, and by whom a line item unit price was changed in a PO.
- Link, traceability, keeping history. If done correctly, it is amazing to keep the history of a part/lot.
- The amount of user rights/customization is unbelievable. It can be hard to set up in the beginning, but it is great that you can give some very specific access to a user, and it is not (in general) as a package.
- Inventory item specifications. It would be great to have more options and/or fields to add particularities of an item. Not needing to make different part IDs.
- The lot selection screen should be customizable. This is a huge flaw of the system, causing several man-hours loss.
- Although Crystal Reports is great, it would be great to see a 'report generator/editor' incorporated into M1.
- Although SQL is not very complicated, some of the grid customizations should be easier for a regular user.
- Inventory unit cost is not done correctly, not sure if it is our fault or if it is M1.
- Backflush material in a job should work better. It not only with time cards associated with it, but should also work with a lot of trackable items.
- Possibility to default decimal cases per item. Some have to be integer only, whereas others could be with several.
- On Jobs and assemblies, could be better to specify the quantity needed. Quantity per assembly is not the best way always. Several times it will not work and/or will have a conflict with decimal cases.
- Editing text fields is pretty annoying and comes with several errors.
M1 for Machinery
- M1 does a great job in setting up securities as the permissions are not just blanket wide. You are able to give permissions down to the individual field which helps when duties blend between departments.
- The general ledger tracking and setup work well.
- The system does not appear to be able to be easily manipulated, helping prevent opportunities for fraud.
- When going to v9 the purchasing manager was replaced by the purchase planner which has given us many issues. The time needed to purchase has increased significantly.
- The email integration does not always work in my opinion.
- The part allocation numbers are not always accurate between modules in my experience.
ECI M1 provides efficiency from quote to cash!
- Organize Data
- Simplifies Company Transactions
- Helps Monitor the Shop Floor
- Fix Bugs in Software
- Add Error Codes to Help Resolve Technical Difficulties
- Inform Customers About Packages
+Assists in scheduling jobs and making sure things are done on time.
+ Helps keep track of material and hardware.
- Lengthy start up time.
- Can be very buggy at times.
- Unknown errors can really slow down processes.
M1 well-rounded MRP system.
- Job planning and estimating.
- Inventory purchasing.
- Inventory managements.
- Labor tracking.
- Cost of sales.
- Accounts payable.
- Accounts receivable.
- General ledger.
- Simplified reports in Excel.
- Easy to build reports and filters.
- Data pool to build reports within M1.
- User friendly format to upload entries.