MYCO Suite: Manage Your Company Easily Online

With the advent of cloud-based computing and the ever-progressing steps in the technology world, businesses are turning much more to Internet-based programs to help them operate efficiently and keep all their resources organised. Just look at the recent rise of web-based software that is aimed solely at businesses (especially project management software) and you can see that people want to be able to access the IT resources of their business no matter where they are in the world and no matter what device they are using.

But is there really a solution that can run a company completely? Well, MYCO Suite thinks it can. It is an online ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system aimed towards small and medium sized businesses which is designed to run almost every single department of a company, from the purchasing and procurement side of things to the sales and human resources side. Unlike conventional ERP systems, which often require a refresh of the entire IT system and can often be a financial burden on companies, MYCO Suite is low-cost ($15 monthly for each user) and is entirely Net-based, meaning that businesses do not have to spend thousands on refreshing their entire IT system.

MYCO Suite may well be a fantastic solution for some companies who need access to their resources not only from the office. To find out whether it is a great tool or not, I signed up for the 7-day free trial and tested it for myself. Here are my findings…

First Thoughts

On loading up the home page of MYCO Suite you are greeted by the rather unprofessional looking splash screen for MYCO Suite, which looks like it was knocked together in a couple of minutes. Sure, you never get a second chance to make a first impression but then again you don’t judge a book merely by its cover, and MYCO Suite has plenty of features hiding underneath its (amateur) interface.

MYCO Suite has two pricing plans: a Basic version which allows only one user and has a number of limitations (however it’s free) or a Premium version, which allows as many users as you want (each one costs $15 monthly) and there are no limitations whatsoever. The 7-day trial (which is a little short, to say the least) allows up to 20 users and lets you test out all the features of the program.

When you sign up for MYCO Suite you are asked to choose your own company host (which usually takes the format http://yourusername.mycosuite.com). This unique URL allows you to log-in to your site easily from any location. During setup you can also define whether your company has simply one or multiple branches (which can also have different currencies if, for example, they are located in different countries) and you can add your colleagues easily to the team via an e-mail invite.

You can always skip the setup wizard and return to it later. Once you have setup your MYCO account, then you are directed to the Home screen, which gives you an overview of your company along with easy access to each individual part of MYCO Suite.

Now we’ve gained an overview of MYCO Suite as a whole, let’s take a look at each individual section and what it can do for your company.

Project Management

Project management allows you, as the name suggests, to administer all ongoing projects in your company without the need for additional software and MYCO Suite includes a variety of tools to help you accomplish this. The Time Categories tab allows you to create categories which can be assigned hours. This is useful if, for example, you want to set up a project which only requires a couple of members of your team, not the entire one.

Adding a project is also relatively straightforward. You simply choose a name for the project and a manager and team leader for it. You can choose start and end dates for it and even assign it a budget – MYCO Suite will then ensure that the project does not overshoot its assigned budget.

MYCO Suite lists all your projects under the tab My Projects, allowing you to see which company the project is assigned to, its deadline and its current status. If you prefer, you can also view all your current projects in a Gantt chart instead, which often gives you a clearer overview on what’s going on.

Customer Relationship Management

Customer relationship management, or CRM, allows you to manage everything to do with your customers, including contact information, financial information and any other information that you feel relevant is necessary (such as any specific product information or allocation). MYCO Suite divides your contacts up into five different categories, namely Customers, Prospects (i.e. potential customers), Suppliers, Other companies and Partners. These different “categories” of customer allow you to keep track of your clients a lot easier as well as distinguish them from one other.

To facilitate the move to MYCO Suite you can import existing data from LinkedIn, Google, Microsoft Outlook or Excel via the Configuration tab. You can also manage your company and contact labels from the configuration menu as well as integrate with external services, such as Mailchimp and LDAP servers.

Finances

You can also use MYCO Suite to keep your company’s financials in order and although it does not contain as many features as a full-blown accounting software such as Kashflow or Crunch (both of which have been reviewed here as well), it still gives you some basic tools. The advantages of doing this is twofold:

1. Collaboration: helps users in the company to report their expenses and helps the financial team to collaborate on managing and creating invoices (more on this in a bit).
2. Transparency: your company’s management can keep track of the company’s financial situation and doesn’t have to ask the account manager every single time for financial information.

It is important to remember, though, that MYCO Suite is not a fully fledged accounting suite however its data can easily be exported into a variety of formats which can be viewed by a range of accounting software.

To start off using the Finances section, you have to add your company’s bank account information into MYCO Suite and this can be used to generate an income and expenses report, which is displayed on the main page.

You can also set the starting balance of each bank account you enter in MYCO Suite which can then be used to track your cash flow by account. MYCO Suite can also help with the invoicing in your company. You can create invoices for each customer and these can be tracked (i.e. whether they have been paid or not). Invoices and their components can be customised to suit each customer (for example payment conditions).

Final Thoughts

MYCO Suite is a great piece of software with clear intentions and plenty of features, however it is unfortunately let down by its tedious and slightly unprofessional interface, which can make it sometimes a difficult program to use. This is a real letdown as I found that MYCO Suite is an extremely flexible program which could be adapted to a wide range of business settings. Its low monthly cost (and the fact its free if you’re a sole trader) makes it that more attractive and it is certainly one of the cheaper options if you are a very small company.

However, for larger companies, there are solutions out there which, in my opinion, represent far-better value for money. MYCO Suite is a very good program but without a significant interface overhaul, it will remain only a very good program and will only appeal to sole traders, which is surely not what the developers are aiming towards. This is certainly a program to watch for future updates.