The Business Edge

Pros: The hardware and software are top-notch. They are always adding new features, and the support is phenomenal. Not many issues come up, but when they do, the team is on it.

One of the biggest advantages is that you do not need Windows. The Business Edge can be used on virtually any operating system, which is huge for us. We use Macs and Linux throughout our companies with no issues.

I run two companies using The Business Edge, and switching between them is seamless and can be done on the fly. I can even run both companies side-by-side on the same screen.

Cons: Not many cons.However we have to use a 3rd party to process ACH payments. It would be great to have a module for this. Having only one choice for credit card processing is not ideal.

Overall: After 16 years of using The Business Edge, it remains the number one best software decision I have made for my businesses.

Pros: It is built for the way fastener distributors actually work: part-number-heavy inventory, quoting, order entry, and high SKU counts that generic ERPs handle poorly. They understood our industry out of the box, so we didn't have to bend an accounting system into a distribution system. The team knows the fastener business, and support came from people who understood what we were asking, not a ticket queue. Most of all, they are truly good, honest people who care about your business.

Cons: Honestly, nothing significant in 23 years. Any issues we had were handled quickly by their staff.

Overall: I ran my fastener and MRO distribution company on The Business Edge for about 23 years, until I sold the business. We had an e-commerce app and website many years before most of our competitors, along with barcode scan-to-cart and cloud server hosting, and they supported us when we did. All of that is common now, but it wasn't when we did it 15+ years ago. While we were with them, our sales grew 15x (1,400%), a 16% CAGR sustained for 18 years, not just 5. They grew with us, and they served us extremely well.

Pros: Intuitive layout with all the information you need displayed in grids in every view. Lot tracking, material cert system, package labeling, and customer documents are second to none and work extremely well with parallel lot tracked commodities such as pipe, fittings, and valves.

Cons: N/A

Overall: Developed for the fastener industry, but should not be viewed as limited to just that. It has easily been expanded to handle any lot tracked commodity product and has proven to be superior over other ERP's outside of the niche industry of fasteners.

Pros: We purchased Business Edge in 1998 and launched it on January 1, 1999. It has been incredible to see the improvements and enhancements over the years. The platform's capabilities for managing inventory, customer quotes, orders, vendor purchasing, internal and external processing are comprehensive and flexible. Additionally, the retained information in both the database records and documentConnection is extremely useful during our ISO 9001 audits.

Cons: There are very few downsides, as their focus on the fastener industry is key to their success.

Overall: Overall, their exceptional support and continual improvements remain fundamental to our own success.

Pros: Dennis was able to get the situation resolved quickly and with no additional information needed from me.

Cons: There wasn't anything that I didn't like except for the fact that the column wasn't there when I originally went to pull the report.

Overall: I was looking for a vendor aging report with the account numbers and couldn't find one. I emailed Angela, who then reached out to Dennis and he had that added as one of the columns that I could select within minutes. Super fast, reliable, and it was easy to communicate my needs.

Pros: I enjoy working will all the people at BE. I have dealt with them for 12+ years and have always had my questions answered.

Cons: Not much. The people there have always been very accommodating! When a problem has occurred, they usually figure out how to solve it.

Overall: Business Edge is great software. Newbies coming into our company learn how to use it quickly! If you can type, you can use BE.

Pros: Very easy to use and simple ways to look up products. The Search Tree Menu is a huge help for navigating the system.

Cons: Too many ways to do the same thing. Other than that, no issues.

Overall: Very pleasant experiences. Everyone at Computer Insights is very professional and responds quickly to any issues that might come up.

Pros: There are too many pros to list them all, but my favorite part of the system is the Vendor Managed Inventory. We are able to set bin labels for our customers and scan items they need and it puts the order right into our system. With Quickbooks Enterprise (which we previously used), we had to write up orders (pencil and paper), bring the orders back and then write them up line by line. My other favorite part is the ease of seeing everything you need on one screen. What was the last price we bought it at and sold it at is right there. In QB, I had to get out of an order, go back and find it, and then come back in. These two things have saved me hours a day!!

Cons: My least favorite part of The Business Edge is the accounting, but it is just different than what I was used to and takes time to learn. Luckly their customer support staff is amazing and helps us through any issues we have.

Overall: Overall our experience has been fantastic. I can't praise the team there enough because they are great to work with, even if I have to call 50 times a day. I would highly recommend this to another fastener distributor because it has everything you need to manage all aspects of your business.

Pros: Ease of utilizing the keyboard navigation and shortcuts makes the system user friendly. This ERP system encompasses every aspect of our business from Distribution, to Manufacturing, Quality, MRP, Certifications, payment solutions etc. Everything is integrated in 1 solution. No 3rd party add-ons.

Cons: As with any software there can be areas you don't care for. Everything is usable and consistent.

Overall: We've been with The Business Edge for over 15 years. I love the fact that the developers are constantly making new features and new functionally as business in general changes all the time.

Pros: It is feature packed and if you want to do something, it's probably there somewhere. It is relatively bug-free, which compared to some other products is critical. It lets us get the information we need quickly and accurately. That means we can focus on selling. You can export almost anything to Excel to make reports; I love that part. Their support team is readily available and I like that also. It's really customizable and you can turn on/off different fields, boxes, and re-order layouts too. It's even got themes.

Cons: My biggest complaint, personally believe it or not, is if you're a really fast typist (I'm over 100wpm) sometimes on a new screen it'll miss the first one or two characters. Most users will never experience this. It is not the fault of the software but the framework. The biggest universal dislike here is that it can't handle negative inventory, which we find mystifying. (We were a FASPAC user before this, and as clunky as it was, it handled it gracefully.)

Overall: The learning curve is very low and that's great when bringing on a new team member. I was really against replacing FASPAC to be honest, but TBE won me over rapidly and now I sing its praises far and wide.

Pros: Speed - even with 400,000 SKU's my reports run quickly
Design - the ease of customization and the ability to put all of your frequently used items in your My Menu
Export and API's - we have no trouble getting information out into any of our data or custom software products

Cons: Because there are so many canned reports and different ways to do things it's hard to keep track, and hard to know if you're using the most efficient method to get your work done

Overall: Excellent. The robustness of the program means it rarely goes down, and when it does (and we are a 24/7 operation) it's fixed within 30-45 minutes of reporting the problem. The responsiveness of the family owned company behind The Business Edge is extraordinary.