Extreme Utility with Poor Interface Design
What do you like best?
The complete customization of any and all applications and reports is phenomenal within JDE. Being able to tailor a screen to be exactly what you need it to be is amazing. The system is also relatively lag-free if well maintained, and can process large amounts of data quite effectively, which is crucial in a manufacturing environment.
Another point that reduced friction was the ease of exporting large amounts of data to CSV or excel in consistent layouts that allow rapid, repeatable reconciliations of on-hand to perpetual inventory.
JDE is also a phenomenal software for ease of audit trail. If your organization is looking for the best way to quickly follow the numbers in a manufacturing environment, JDE is your best bet.
Ease of JE posting in this software is also very well done when compared to alternative Oracle Applications such as fusion.
What do you dislike?
Not being able to add bookmarks after searching within FastPath is a huge downside, and makes onboarding more painful. Also a sticking point is the occasional obtuseness of positive and negative number affect on ledgers and rolls that will be affected by inputs. These are occasionally counter-intuitive. Application names can also be quite confusing.
This software is best for a user that doesn't depend heavily on intuitive interfaces. With great utility comes great detail on many of the screens.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
I recommend having a high-skilled IT team. I am only able to use the software effectively because of the excellent support I receive whenever I'm not sure what's going on in the system, and a high-powered software troubleshooter is necessary even in enterprise-level applications.
What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?
As a cost accountant, JDE allows us to combat common issues in the manufacturing pipeline quickly and effectively. Be it an inventory adjustment or on-the-fly cost roll update, the software allows rapid adaptation to information from the floor.
