AIM Reviews

Pros

We have been using the contract module side of AIM for our instrument rental contracts to keep track of monthly payments since the beginning of our business in 2004. We pulled away for a brief stint to try another company and it was a disaster. The instrument rental contracts are the bread and butter of our business. If it fails, we fail. If the customer doesn't feel like they can trust us with their personal info because the system fails, we fail. It's a reflection on us. We came back to AIM in 2019 and went all in with the full point of sale system and we've never looked back. We highly recommend AIM.

Cons

We do wish that there weren't so many steps to follow. Seems like there is a huge learning curve to this program. Once you live it and breath it like it do it's one thing. But my employees tend to make mistakes often because they miss a step.
And for example: having to get out of one frame and into another one for the same customer with a different question about their account is sometimes frustrating.
Also. I really wish that an email went out immediately to my rental contract customers on autopay when their card is declined. The ability is there, as they receive an email immediately when the payment goes through, but not when it declines. This would help our collection dept out tremendously if this option was implemented.

Pros

I don't have to have multiple systems running to achieve everything we need to do...AIM does it all

Cons

learning curve....set up and learning the system takes time

Pros

The feature set for the rent-to-own business is good. So far as we have been able to discover, there is no other product at any price that supports our business. (If there was, I would be on it like a duck on a June bug.)

The support staff is excellent!

Cons

I would have fired an experienced programmer or seriously chewed out a beginner 30 years ago if they designed a user interface that was so poorly implemented. You never know from screen to screen what you have to do to do a "find." Sometimes you have to hit Tab for the program to work, sometimes you have to hit Enter. The mere fact that in a good many places the programmers apparently elected to use the tab key or enter key events rather than the OnExit event is inexcusable. (Click the OK or Save button without first tabbing out of a field and there is a great chance that the changes to the field you were last in were not saved.) Things as simple as standard naming conventions for naming reports are just an example that someone either didn't understand design or didn't care. (The reports aren't in report name order because some inept person decided to put "Print" or "List" in front of the report name, thereby making the lists sort out without rhyme or reason. Having a table of variables to STORE system options is fine. It's even okay for a first release. However, how a system that has been on the market this long without having a user interface on said table indicates a huge lack of caring. The user interface flaws cannot be excused by the fact that the programs are old. The design flaws would not have been acceptable in a DOS or even a CP/M program.

The back end modules are simply sad. The fact that they decided to write the back end all over again in the new system that they plan to release someday indicates a huge lack of judgment. Why the devil would one reinvent the wheel, especially after doing such a poor job the first time around, when one could interface to any of several well-written, mature, user-friendly and well-supported G/L, A/P, A/R, etc. systems and focus on the specialized modules that make me use AIMsi to start with? (QuickBooks immediately comes to mind.) Doing so would save well into six figures of development cost, give one a solid base on which to build, and even give one a huge marketing opportunity by being an enhancement to a widely-used system rather than being a home-rolled thing. It would also give me some hope that the new release would be available in my lifetime. They are simply burning man-years of programming effort and stretching lead times unreasonably.

As bad as the G/L module is, their "Purchase Order" module simply boggles the mind. They make a sad effort to somehow combine P/O and Customer Order Processing while making both the COP features and the interface to A/P damned near unusable. One need only looks at the database design to see that whoever wrote the COP programs had never actually worked on one before. No Order Header and Order Line Item tables? Really? They sort of sludge everything together in something that they dreamed up from scratch. Even the terminology used for field names and labels is non-standard. "Picked" has a very well understood meaning in the COP industry. They have a whole new definition.

I could go on forever...

Pros

For a small retail store this is excellent! Helps manage inventory, as well as daily and weekly check out.

Cons

There was quite a learning curve for us. We had no POS before AIM.

Alternatives Considered

Quickbooks Point of Sale

Reasons for Switching to AIM

AIM was a better choice for a Retail/Service business

Pros

I enjoy the easy of being able to create things and customize the POS easily. The system does all I need plus more that I probably don't know about. Seems like I learn new things about it all the time. My most recent call was with [SENSITIVE CONTENT]. He was very knowledgeable and the questions he didn't know the answers to he was very speedy at finding them. I enjoyed my early morning conversation with [SENSITIVE CONTENT] while he helped me work on multiple issues I was having. We got them all fixed in under an hour (I was expecting it to be a multiple hour kind of call). I look forward to working with [SENSITIVE CONTENT] again.

Cons

The worst part about this POS was the set up. Although I believe that is mostly the fact that we were transferring information from a system that was very VERY old and outdated system. But the service team was there for me whenever I had questions; and boy I had a lot of them. Those first few months most of the service people knew me by first name.

Pros

I do like that there are many features available. Scheduling, rentals, repair, short term rentals, etc. They are always trying to update and get better. I believe the repair and rental contracts are the strongest features of the software. A lot of the active e features are nice as well.

Cons

With what I like about the software is also where some of its problems arise. There are some parts of the software that lack features within its functions. Short term rentals is confusing and not completely ready in my opinion, not many ways for loaners to be customized ( no options for automated late fees or charges), Package deals are not easy to update. There are tons of features but some have issues.

Pros

Easy to navigate through the menu options. Simple layout among the different screens.

Cons

We have not upgraded our software to version 12 yet. That being said, the version we are currently using is not online integrated as far as the lesson module goes. If that has changed with the newer version, then I have no cons

Pros

It is the app that we use for every aspect of our business. From POS to inventory control we have it all in one place. The straight forward menus and feature with in each module is user friendly.

Cons

I do feel that the system is a little over complicated with so many pop up windows. Also, tranactions seem to have too many steps for simple procedures.

Pros

User friendly, tech support is good and a fair price.

Cons

Integration with previous inventory got messed up and we had to do much more work to get corrected.

Pros

We use the software for consignment of books. It is fairly easy to use to consign and sell.

Cons

It would be helpful to create an inventory that our customers could use to look up our inventory.

Pros

Does not have glitches or communication errors. Data that has been input stays there forever. Interface has never changed, ever. So if you are familiar with it, there is a comfort factor.

Cons

The user interface has very few, if any, task stream allowances or cross linking between data entry areas.
The typical interaction with Aimsi requires starting from the home screen and navigating the "Module" you need, selecting the "Find," searching for the correct customer account, pulling up the relative info about them.
Then...
Restarting from the home screen, module you need to add or edit part of the changes that are needed, "find," find that account again..
Then...
Restarting from the home screen, module you need to add or edit the other part of the changes that are needed, "find," find that account again...

While there are hot keys to speed up this process it is still a very primitive workflow. Newer systems have you choose the customer account first, then proceed to enter new data, while Aimsi requires finding the module, and then the account, over and over again.

Networking your store for Aismsi to work off of one of your local PCs requires above average networking skills. Backups and hardware upgrades are your problem and responsibility. You will need someone on call unless you happen to have above average IT skills.

Pros

The customer support was great. It seemed the easiest to use. We are not a big company and this seemed to work best for us.

Cons

Tech support is a little confusing. I described below, when you call customer support you talk to a different person. That can cause an issue because each person has a different way to fix the problem you're having.

Pros

For an all around software, for several different industries, this software is well thought out. We have used this software for many years, and have gone through several of the upgrades. When there has been an issue, tech support is right there to help resolve problems or to escalate to developers to create what we need. The training tutorials are a huge help. The software is very customizable for our needs.

Cons

We have not really run across any negatives. Tri Tech is always improving the software. The one downside is not having tech support there on weekends if we have an issue. We have only run into one or two times we have really needed them on a weekend in all the years we have used the software.

Pros

customer contact capture and credit card processing .

Cons

modules priced individually and that updates aren't discounted for current customers.

Pros

There are many POS on the market today but not very many geared to our industry. It is flexible and customizable. It is so easy to use.

Cons

There are very few things I like least because when we do , features can be implemented. I guess at this point I like least is we have no way to print a claim check when customers drop off their vacuum. That said I created a feature request that they are working on as I type this review.

Pros

It's very easy to use for all point of sale needs including transacting sales, sales history, band rentals, gear rentals, powerful customer account features, ordering and receiving. We used it to track salesman commissions and it worked great for that as well.

Cons

No real cons from a salesman/user perspective. It functioned to meet all of the needs of a small, local music store.

Pros

The team at AIM gave me all the support I could ask for with setting up the software. I can barely turn a computer on and they were able to set it up for me so that I could start using it immediately. Customer support is flawless. The price was well below competing software and still had all the features I could ever use plus some.

Cons

We have experienced some lagging issues, but the team at AIM is working with us to resolve this at no cost.

Pros

The interface is very easy to understand and use, and customer support is great. It is a feature-rich program, I only wish we had a newer version.

Cons

When printing statements, it prints old accounts with no address. Apparently there is no way to filter the ones with no address out so I have to manually remove them. Occasionally one slips past and they are returned to us by the Post Office.

Pros

User Friendly
Continually being developed and upgraded
A true all in the box solution (point of sale, built in accounting program, built-in gift card program, contact management, B2B and C2B capable, and everything else a business needs to run the front, middle, and back office).

Pros

From POS to backroom accounting and inventory management the software integrates seamlessly. Also support is crucial and they have that covered well.

Cons

Seems to need a lot of updates to fix issues.

Pros

that's its an electronic POS software that is windows based and uses my existing computers.

Cons

not able to accommodate the needs of my industry (firearms) and is constantly having issues that can only be resolved if the customer service rep sees it happening. customer service can not make alterations to the program or system, they always have to get sent to the programmers. Programmers wont make changes and expect us to change to accommodate their system. Not the way it was sold to us, nor the way the law makes us operate.

Pros

Product is easy to use and the technical support has been wonderful!

Cons

We have requested a few additional options to be added to AIM and the programers declined.

Pros

The software seems reasonably stable and we are able to preform most of our basic tasks without any undue effort.

Cons

There are some noticeable shortcomings in both basic processing functions as well as the reporting system. Help and Tech Support are an issue.

Pros

functionality and ease of use plus great customer service!

Cons

Too many updates. If it is necessary to implement updates every week or so... Can you set the system to do automatic updates?

Pros

It was manufactured by a small company so I thought the support would reflect that.

Cons

The system crashed a few times. It is difficult to learn. The support was not great.