Mom User Groups

This is one of the best communities for MOM support that I have seen. The users respond quickly and give sage advice and technical know-how. If you are thinking about purchasing MOM you should join this user group to see what the bugs are before you buy. http://groups.google.com/group/momusers

MOM keeps its bulletin board private and this is as close as you are going to get to something like it with MOM. You have to be a MOM user (have already purchased their product) to gain access to their boards. Stone Edge, on the other hand is really transparent and allows you to read their boards with an easy to get log-in. Here is a link to Stone Edge's forum in case you are looking: http://www.stoneedge.net/forum/

MOM Salespeople Wear Me Slick

I haven't been with Mail Order Manager that long, but I have already dealt with their salespeople more than I care. MOM will negotiate with you on their upgrades and service contracts. They will make you a better deal at the end of the month when they want to hit their "numbers." Dealing with them is like buying a used car once or twice a year. You have to negotiate upgrades and then negotiate service contracts and their people are aggressive and will tell you whatever they feel will get the deal closed.

I am thinking very hard about going to a non-affiliated company that also offers consulting and they only work with Mail Order Manager. From talking to them I feel like they have their stuff together. I will let you know what I plan on doing.

Yahoo Real-Time Link & MOM

We use the Yahoo! real-time link with MOM. This is supposed to be a relatively easy setup in MOM and it is--when you see the set up materials. However, you will find out really fast that importing orders from Yahoo! into MOM isn't that easy. You will need a secure site with SSL certificate and it must be able to handle .asp files. There is a lot to this setup that you have to figure out on your own. Of course, MOM either cannot or will not walk you through this process because they will only support their product. I could have never gotten this set up by myself. Luckily, I have a friend who is a professional IT guy and he helped us set it all up. Even now some data will not migrate into MOM like gift wrapping and customer messages. It sure beats manual uploads of orders, though.

Dydacomp (M.O.M.) New Telephone Technical Support

Dydacomp has instituted a new protocol for handling their technical support calls. Not too long ago when you had a MOM technical issue you would call in and wait on the phone for upwards to an hour to get a technician. That was bad, but their new system is worse!

The new system uses some kind of call center that writes down your issue (makes a support ticket) and then Dydacomp will call you back. I have made two calls and have not been contacted yet. On Friday, I had a production stopping issue and immediately called Dydacomp. I placed the call at 4:00pm Eastern time and still have not heard back from them.

At least with the previous system I could have waited until they answered and had my issue resolved. Now, MOM users are at the mercy of Dydacomp. Luckily I have an IT guy I can call in to help me. He was able to resolve the issue. Still, I have not heard anything from Dydacomp other than the email telling me a support ticket had been created.

Still Integrating my data into MOM

For the past week I have been importing stock into MOM and appending "buy tables" nonstop. With MOM you have to set up buying levels for every item you sell to be able to order from your manufacturers. It takes a while to get them in the system. Have tech support teach you how to append to the tables in the database because you could spend a month doing them manually.

I have been on the phone with them this morning for over an hour. I am on hold now as I type this. I called so we could set up credit card processing and waited on hold for 45 minutes...again. I wonder if Dydacomp is getting a cut from AT&T on all my long distance charges?

My experience this time around has not been great. They have an integration specialist assigned to me and he is good, but super busy. It is hard to get with him, so I feel a little isolated. If I didn't already have a little experience working with the MOM program I would be really frustrated and feel really lost. I am doing most of this alone. Maybe they found this blog and they are punishing me...hehe. By not having an integration specialist "at the ready" I am behind schedule for going live with this program.

MOM Technical Support Takes Way Too Long

If you are considering purchasing Mail Order Manager be advised that MOM technical support takes at least 30 minutes to answer the phone. From my past experience this is a relatively short hold time. They also do not have a toll free number to call for tech support. Frustrating! I realize that phones get clogged, but they could do much better in this area--at least give you an estimated time of how much of your life you will have to waste waiting for them to answer. With OrderMotion I could get through immediately.

I also sent in a customer support email about this same situation I was having. Their disclaimer on emails is that they can take up to 48 hour to respond. Upon reading this I immediately called tech support. It only took them about 30 minutes to respond via email. They told me to call into tech support! Funny, I was already on hold.

Anyway, I talked to a very pleasant young lady who was very helpful and was able to resolve my problem quickly. I like her, but the hold time sucks big time. She gets an "A" and MOM telephone hold time on my dime gets a "D-".

Round 2 - The Beginning

Dydacomp sent me a list of system requirements to run their MOM program effectively. I do not know why we were not given this list before. Dydacomp's sales department is the most aggresive that I dealt with when I was looking for a new order management software. Don't believe the sales guys. Talk to an integrator or a tech guy for what you need to get up and running with any order management software. I was told by a sales guy that MOM would work fine "out of the box" on a peer-to-peer basis for the amount of users I have--he was WRONG. We found that out the hard way.

After getting new information about what is needed to successfully run MOM, I have spent around $7,000 for a basic server, battery pack backup, upgrades to XP Pro for 8 machines, ram upgrades for all machines and a new switch. This is what is needed to run MOM Enterpise version with 10 users. In total, we have spent around $20,000 all together. I estimate another $1,000 in labor to pay my local IT guy to get everything installed.

Dydacomp's integration team captain called me last week and I went through the specs of the new server and other upgrades. He said with all the changes MOM would now work beautifully. Why wasn't I told about this in the beginning? This information would have saved a lot of stress and anxiety. Once we get everything set up on our end we are supposed to call them and they will start on the integration. They told me we could go live with MOM in 45-60 days from the date I contact them to start.