Spectrum (formerly Dexter + Cheney)

Pros

Document imaging is truly built inside the software. The image storage was built inside every module for anything you want to scan. All of our AP (invoices, vendor contracts, Insurance Certs), AR (invoice supporting documents, MSA's), equipment files (titles, registrations), etc. were stored electronically and very easy to review. When approving AP, right inside the pre-check register I could review an electronic copy of any invoice making approval on the road very simple. There were also reports that could be run telling you when contracts were to expire, registrations were due, etc.

The bottom line is that the designers not only listened to what the end users wanted, they also spent a lot of time making sure they designed it to make it easy for everyone. There are also a lot of user designed fields that allow you to customize things to fit your needs.

Cons

We had problems keeping the TB in balance. At least every three months, we had a transaction that only posted 1/2 of the entry, so when we ran a trial balance, it was out of balance (and the rebuild utilities wouldn't fix it), we then had to spend hours researching witch entry didn't post correctly, figure out the other side of the entry and then pay someone with backdoor access to recreate the missing entries. When we called Dexter and Chaney's support team, they had no answers as to why it happened; they would just help us figure out how to fix it (charged per hour). The financial report writer needs a lot of work. They do not support any of the better 3rd party systems like FRx, F-9, Hyperion, etc. Therefore, there was a lot of dumping to Excel and re-keying things into formats we could use. There was also zero drill-down capability. If you ran a TB and questioned what was in the line item, you had to run a detailed TB to see the detail. Then, if it came from another sub-ledger you had to run a report there to see the source document.

Our implementation consultant was not very good; her training seemed poor and her knowledge of the workings of Spectrum were great, but she had no experience with the every day use of it, so I frequently pushed back on how it would work in the real world. Eventually she would concede that it would work better the way I proposed.

Advice to Others

Hire someone who has a very detailed knowledge of how it really works, then implement it. You should also find an IT consultant who can fix the bugs you will quickly discover without having to wait on Dexter and Chaney. Dexter and Chaney's help desk is very helpful, but if you have an urgent issue it may take them a day or so to fix it. We had a scanner issue, and it took 3 months and a replacement scanner (at their request, but our expense), only for Dexter & Chaney to tell us they had no idea and it couldn't be a problem on their side; it had to be our computers. This was completely false because the full image was there, just using their image reader only allowed us to see the first page.

Our business has two divisions - Commercial Construction and Service Maintenance. We’re based in Pennsylvania and have been operating for about 28 years.

The computer system we had been using prior to switching to Dexter + Chaney was outdated for our uses. After carefully reviewing all the options, Dexter + Chaney was high on our list. One of the main functions we were looking for was something that would tie together both divisions of our company. We liked what the sales team told us about the software, and it seemed to better suit our needs than the system we had. We were told it had modules that would make it possible to tie in both of our divisions, with great customer support, reports that were easy to use, and to meet all of our needs, etc.

We started with Dexter + Chaney in 2005 (about 8 years ago), having high hopes that Spectrum (or Forefront as it was called at that point) could perform all the functions we were looking for, and more. We spent several months preparing for the change over/familiarizing ourselves with the screens/and inputting information. Every Vendor/Employee/Client had to be reentered manually, which was very monotonous, but relatively simple.

Some of the modules were similar to the program we had used prior, but others were more difficult and required calls to support. It took us several months to feel comfortable using Forefront, and probably a year+ until we felt like we really had a decent grasp of it.

Since we’re a smaller business, we have the ability to notice problems with reports/programs more easily than a company with hundreds of employees. After we went live with Dexter Chaney we came across several issues, but attributed most of them to new user errors. As we have become more and more confidence with Spectrum, we have found several major bugs in the system that were unknown to Dexter + Chaney, or they had thought were resolved. On a few of these occasions, we had to really push for them to investigate and resolve the issues. One of the biggest problems we’ve seen is that the new Versions seem to be released before they are thoroughly checked, and there are repeat problems.

We have received some good, and some lacking, customer support. There are several really knowledgeable reps who have helped us through our problems quickly. We have also spoken to other reps and management in support that have been very difficult, ignoring our concerns and refusing to listen or respond to our calls/emails. At one point, we were not getting updates on a problem and logged onto their website to see if anything new was posted for our issue. We didn’t get an answer, but instead found a string of emails they had accidentally posted, making it clear that our problem wasn’t being taken seriously on their end. Something as simple as calling in to support has proven to be a hassle since Dexter + Chaney only allows 3 people on the contact list, and we have 6 regular users.

Some of the programs cannot be used to the full extent of what they are shown. Example: Payroll is set up so you can do multiple check sequences in one pay run for an employee. The problem is that it’s not set up to calculate the correct taxes/deductions if you do this. If they are paying a tax/deduction that reaches the limit in the first check, it will also be taken out of the second check, and there’s a possibility for the reports to be wrong.

We purchased the Infolink module a few years ago to help us write reports in Excel using Database Query. We were told by the sales team that it would be easy to use and we could create reports with the exact information we wanted. The training we received on it barely covered the basics. It’s far from easy to use, and many of the reports that come up cannot pull the requested information.

Overall, I would say Dexter Chaney is average at best. We are able to use Spectrum for most functions, but not as easily as we were promised. Support in general is lacking, as is our confidence in the product any time there is an upgrade. It’s not as good as we were led to believe.