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General >> EziJobz/Next Generation >> What do you think of EziJobz?
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Message started by kkmfg on 12/30/03 at 07:39:02

Title: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by kkmfg on 12/30/03 at 07:39:02

I'd like to know what other peoples' impression of it is.

We just received a copy of it and installed it. So far no one here is impressed. It runs hideously slow compared to DBA, it's a whole lot less intuitive, and it seems (to us) to be set up very poorly. Whoever thought up of the 'make everything look like a spreadsheet' approach was WRONG.

On the slowness gripe, we DO use a 400MHz machine as the file server. However it works fine for DBA, UPS, credit card validation software, etc. 400Mhz is under the recommended processor for EziJobz but it needn't be. Our workstations are also 400Mhz machines which is slightly above the minimum recommended spec of 350Mhz.

To further elaborate on the speed issue, we've found that it takes something like 15 seconds to setup for making a new sales order. Clicking to bring up the list of customers or items (to put on the SO) takes about as long. Thats just not acceptable; unless something is drastically setup wrong (and I dont know how... DBA runs just fine on the same machine)

So far it looks to us as if DBA Software has committed suicide by means of trusting a company from New Zealand to create an ERP package for them... At least Lynn is still around to pick of the pieces and continue support for a product that DOES work. Is our company alone in being very disappointed with EziJobz?

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by aricon on 12/30/03 at 09:31:16

From someone who makes their business in software....

The spreadsheet idea....it is the way that virtually ALL other ERP packages are, and have been for quite some time, set up. So you won't get away from that. It is just a more effective and efficient method.

As far as the speed, a 400 Mhz server simply is not reasonable for todays software. You need to upgrade. EJ is not that much slower than DBA when run on a sufficiently powerful machine. My laptop is 4x that powerfull. :-/

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by kkmfg on 12/30/03 at 15:59:54

The spreadsheet idea, in my opinion, is a terrible idea. I don't really care how many other ERP packages use it. Can you explain to me how it's more efficient and/or better to make the software have tons of fields in a spreadsheet that's 12x wider than the screen? It's just annoying. The way DBA had most of the fields simultaneously viewable is, in my opinion, much better. I guess to each his own....

As for a 400Mhz machine not cutting it for todays software... There is NO reason that has to be. I have a 1.6GHz laptop that I use. Using EziJobz on this machine isn't so bad... Maybe a 1/2 second to second pause when trying to create a sales order, 1 second pause bringing up the list of customers, etc. But DBA runs fine on a 120Mhz machine yet I need to have a 1.6GHz machine to use EziJobz?!? No thanks! Pervasive SQL runs fine on the 400Mhz server. It seems like Firebird doesn't run too badly either because the bottleneck seems to be client computer speed. Haven't had a problem w/ DBA's speed on all of the machines here. EziJobz is doing much the same thing as DBA does, just w/ a little more flashy Gfx and lot more annoying interface. It should not be significantly slower.

Don't get me wrong, I like fast computers as much as the next person, maybe more. I use a 1.6GHz laptop and a 2.54Ghz desktop machine. But the rest of the users here don't. Sure, I could upgrade them to faster machines but I still fail to see why I should have to upgrade the machines just so we can use a software package that I feel is VERY poorly designed and that runs like a turtle unnecessarily... I guess we'll stick w/ DBA and maybe look into Evolution.

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by aricon on 12/31/03 at 10:32:01

Each to their own..... ;)

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by karaya on 12/31/03 at 15:11:33

You clearly have something setup wrong on your Ezijobz for it to take that long to bring up a SO. It sounds like it is not communicating with the Firebird SQL engine correctly. I had this happen and when I reinstalled the engine it was blazing fast!!

Can you provide me a few details as to your setup? I've installed several Ezijobz and some on crappy system with specs less than yours and it still performed outstanding with instant response.

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by kkmfg on 01/02/04 at 07:04:35

A few more setup details:

Server is a 400Mhz PII w/ somewhere around 360MB of RAM running WindowsNT w/ SP6a and security patches released after SP6a. The server is connected to a 10/100 switch w/ QoS set to HIGH for the port the server is going into. The machine I was testing EziJobz on is connected to a 10 base hub that is in turn connected to the 10/100 switch the server runs into. The machine I was testing on is also a 400Mhz machine running Windows NT Workstation. It has SP6 installed.

I don't believe any protocol other than TCP/IP is installed on the machines. They are setup on a domain (obv originating at the 400Mhz file server).

One thing I did notice is that there's a lot of traffic when using EziJobz. Starting an SO seems to cause around a megabyte or so of network traffic. Granted even 10 base should transfer that in a little over a second... It makes me wonder: Why on God's green Earth do the EziJobz and DBA programmers not believe in creating a client/server architecture where the executable for the program is stored locally on each client machine? It's just silly to have to transfer the program over the network. This might be causing some of my speed problem as the client machine I was using was hooked to a 10 base hub.

Even if the speed problem were fixed we still probably would not use EziJobz. No one here likes it's design. Everyone here who has seen it (and yes, I'm not kidding when I say everyone) has hated the spreadsheet layout. It's a truely terrible program design. I understand that because of windows controls a trained monkey w/ a limp could code up a database app w/ the dataview control (in Visual Basic and Delphi at least... I know they both have the dataview control which is a spreadsheet view just like EziJobz uses). However, the easy way isn't always the best way.

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by aricon on 01/02/04 at 11:01:56

So...I take it you aren't going to start an EJ fan club anytime soon..... :o ;D

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by kkmfg on 01/02/04 at 15:08:41

I suppose not... ;-)

I don't try to be a jerk about EziJobz but I waited for a long time to see it and it was a big letdown once I did. I guess I, and everyone else here, were just expecting something totally different.

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by karaya on 01/03/04 at 10:32:21

Keep one thing in mind about Ezijobz. The version you have is not the version that will be released as a so-called working version. Best put this is a pre-release to take a look at what Ezijobz is and how it performs.

Currently there are major changes being completed on Ezijobz and you can expect some annoucements as to this in a few days. So on the horizon there are numerous changes in store for Ezijobz much like DBA went through in its early days.

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by kkmfg on 01/05/04 at 06:50:55

Thats all well and good but keep in mind, I believe the ENTIRE way that EziJobz was constructed was wrong. I doubt that they plan to totally re-code it. ;-)

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by David Waldmann on 01/12/04 at 12:00:08

I am disappointed with the interface. Especially that there seems to be great disregard for the keyboard to move around a screen.

The restriction to a single company was somewhat surprising. Not that I use DBA for more than one company, but I do maintain a copy of my current configuration as a "SandBox" for testing new ideas, and for verification on unfamiliar procedures.

I'm sure that a lot of things I don't like are a result of it being a new piece of software. However, I found getting DBA set up childs play compared to what it SEEMS like Ezijobz will be. Maybe part of it is also that DBA came with a several hundred page manual.

At this point I don't think we'll be switching to Ezijobz. I don't know that I'm even going to take the time to make a full evaluation.

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by Carla Woodcock on 01/14/04 at 14:01:55

I installed Ezijobz two weeks before the end of the year and started to enter data in purchasing and in Sales. I have since stopped entering anything into Ezijobz and have started back using DBA. I still need DBA for Payroll since they have not added payroll to Ezijobz yet. Also, I do not like the reports from Ezijobz (or lack of reports). DBA is much better and I like the looks of the Purchase orders, invoices, etc. I am still trying to figure out how to put our company logo on the invoices and purchase orders (in Ezijobz). DBA was a piece of cake in comparison to Ezijobz so far! I am not sure what we'll be doing. :-/

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by karaya on 01/15/04 at 08:27:08

Carla, you may want to hold up on Ezijobz for a short spell. Currrently all of the forms are being changed out and there are major changes being worked on for the manufacturing areas of Ezijobz. It is my understanding that part of this will be on a new build that is scheduled for release any day. This should be build 66. I will post a notice here when build 66 is available or you can check on our web site at: http://www.44group.net

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by wjlx on 02/03/04 at 15:40:43

I agree with kkmfg's posts. I was really excited about the prospect of moving from DBA, but Ezijobz is still too much
a work in progress. They do seem to be addressing some of the issues.

We also do not have enough powerful hardware to run Ezijobz right now. I am a little concerned how they implement their views because we have so much data.

I am looking forward to their changes and hope they have
something I can convert to by mid 2005.

Does anyone have an insight on why DBA gave up on converting their program?

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by aricon on 02/03/04 at 21:34:16

Legal reasons as well as the base technology was just not sufficiently upgradeable and they were looking for a language and a platform that were more mainstream rather than so obscure and proprietary.

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by kkmfg on 02/06/04 at 10:08:35

For what it's worth, I really do hope that they get their act together and make EziJobz what it was supposed to be. Sometimes the biggest mistake a company can make is to release their product too soon. That is exactly what they did... They showed us a terrible 1/2 baked program and now no one wants to use it. It might not even matter anymore that it COULD be better later on. Granted, I seem to remember them floundering around for quite some time trying to figure out whether to use VB or Delphi. That couldn't have helped the project timeline.

Why they used Delphi I may never know. I had practically thought that Borland had fallen off of the face of the Earth.... Then EziJobz came along.

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by shadowcaster on 05/25/04 at 12:59:51

Legal reasons ? dont they own the code ?

JW

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by aricon on 05/25/04 at 13:22:41

Huh??

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by Theo on 01/06/05 at 16:20:13

We have an extremely large database with a large number of Items and BOM's (approx. 25,000 items & 8,000 BOM's). DBA handles these files amazingly. I am currently evaluating Ezijobz and find that the software cannot handle the size of the database. It literally takes up to 4-5 minutes to the load an average BOM into the multi-level inquiry tab or tree view tab. Our average BOM is approximately 3-5 levels deep and contains approximately 50 items.

Ezijobz is running on Win2k advanced server with dual 1.8G processors and a Gig a memory. This long delay is the same if I am using ezijobz directly on the server or from my workstation. I also did a separate install on a laptop and get the same results.

I created a ticket on the ezijobz support center last April of 2004. A consultant viewed our database and did not find any problems with it other than it was large. Since then, they continually mark the issue as resolved and I reopen it every few months with them closing it and stating that they are aware of the problem without giving me any realistic time frame and reassurance that they are actually working on the problem.

I guess my question is: Are there any other users that are having similar problems with Ezijobz(DBA NG) and large BOM files?

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by aricon on 01/07/05 at 08:06:53

Yeah, I believe they are using an ADO connection to the DB, and I had talked directly to Mike a loooong time ago and he was aware then that this might be an issue. I guess they haven't chosen to address it.

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by Xeyes on 02/13/05 at 03:06:44

Interesting.

We're looking at it, too. First time we tried a full costed m/l BOM on one machine (older) it locked up. Tried it on mine (AMD2200+ economy model ;) ) and it finished, but 54 pages at maybe 4-5 secs / page is a long time. I wasn't impressed.

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by rvallier on 06/30/05 at 11:47:40

I just wanted to add two cents into this thread.

We were on Classic, went to Next Gen in February (had to purchase a new windows server since we were on linux). Two months later my boss says we don't like it.

Some of the issues I see other people have here - not keyboard friendly, inability to show a deposit on a sales order, and I've been told the accounting side of things is really convoluted. There just seemed to be a lot of additional steps involved to get some things accomplished. We feel that the software is still in an infancy stage and has a long way to go.

We were also concerned about the issue of programming going on in New Zealand, do these people have a clue of what we really need, because it didn't seem like it.

Now we are re-analyzing our situation, and will probably go with purchasing IS Tech Support upgrade.

Title: Re: What do you think of EziJobz?
Post by aricon on 07/05/05 at 17:38:14

Actually the programming has moved back to the US. That is also why things no longer seem to be happening. The dimbots at DBA central are acting normally. Normal for them anyway... :o