What is Phocas Software?
Phocas has built its business model on exceeding customer expectations. We’ve operated on a subscription basis from the start and in the words of Phocas Group chairman and co-founder Paul Magee: ‘That puts the onus on us to perform’. And we like that. In fact, our whole company ecosystem is built around that ‘light bulb moment’ when customers achieve a breakthrough by seeing their business through fresh eyes. Phocas does things differently. Especially data discovery. To us, successful Business Intelligence is about more than data – and this is where we speed away from the pack. We have a track record of delivering successful BI projects, in which we empower customers to grow the business, increase revenue, raise profit margins, lower employee costs, take Friday afternoon off for golf... With offices in the UK, United States and Australia, our global presence continues to grow and a 97% customer retention rate tells us we’re on the right track. Successful Business Intelligence happens with Phocas because our entire culture is to deliver software that is more than just a tool; it is a solution.
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Phocas Software Reviews (48)
- ★★★★★48
- ★★★★★0
- ★★★★★0
- ★★★★★0
- ★★★★★0
Review Summary
Generated using AI from real user reviews
Phocas is overwhelmingly praised by its user base, with all 48 reviews giving 5-star ratings. Users consistently highlight ease of use as the defining strength—most emphasize that non-technical staff can create reports and dashboards within minutes of training, and that switching from manual Excel-based reporting has freed up significant time. The ability to drill down into data quickly and customize views to specific business needs resonates across reviews, with many noting improved decision-making around sales, customer behavior, and profitability.
The software's responsive support team and willingness to integrate with existing ERP systems earn repeated praise. Users also appreciate the modern web-based interface, fast data refresh cycles, and the community forum (PUG) where users help each other. Several long-term customers (some since 2003 or 2008) cite the product's reliability and evolution.
Criticisms, while minor and sparse, cluster around three areas: dashboard visualization and formatting options feel limited compared to some competitors, requiring users to export reports to Excel for final layout work; the learning curve on advanced features like the Nesting function can be steep; and some users note occasional performance slowdowns or bugs. A few mention that CRM functionality lags behind sales analytics, and cost per user can be a barrier for rolling out platform-wide. One reviewer wished for better options to manage and organize saved reports.
★★★★★
Sunday, October 13, 2019
“Overall: the data from using Phocas has driven many key…”
Overall: the data from using Phocas has driven many key marketing and sales decisions with only positive results. We are now moving forwards in obtaining more data from our stock and purchasing databases to assist our Operations teams. Pros: the ease of obtaining information in a usable way, and the speed at which we can get analysis of the data has been a game changer for our business! The dashboards are key for our teams and the alerts take the day to day thinking out of my hands! Cons: There is nothing negative about this software from my perspective!
★★★★★
Thursday, October 10, 2019
“Overall: Overall we are very happy with this product. It…”
Overall: Overall we are very happy with this product. It has opened the door for getting information to our teams much faster and it also created a new full time position for data analysis! The flexibility of being able to create our own databases, & adding to existing databases has increased our ability to share information to our teams in a easy to view format instead of sending spreadsheets that some people did not look at. Pros: It is very easy to use! I can show someone the basics in 5 to 10 minutes and they are off and running creating favorites and dashboards. The software is updated every month and their support and documentation is outstanding. The product gives us the information we need faster than doing it in our ERP system. With a couple of clicks you can analyze you sales data and then quickly change views to look at the data in a completely different way. It very robust in all the options you have. Cons: Would be nice to have support portal to check open cases.
★★★★★
Thursday, October 10, 2019
“Overall: Phocas software is great! We are just scratching the…”
Overall: Phocas software is great! We are just scratching the surface with what it can do and look forward to using this more. Pros: We have used Phocas since 2008 and have always liked how fast we can generate reports. The reports that I have setup to e-mail keep me informed on key indicators in our business. We started using CRM a couple of years ago and like how easy it is for our salespeople to enter calls on their mobile device. Cons: I would like to see a better way to track and run reports on leads in CRM. Sometimes upgrades and support take a little longer the we would like. Reasons for Choosing Phocas Software: We like how easy it was to use and customize. Reasons for Switching to Phocas Software: Microsoft was to expensive and to complex for what we needed.
★★★★★
Thursday, October 10, 2019
“Overall: My overall experience with Phocas has been excellent, we…”
Overall: My overall experience with Phocas has been excellent, we use the system to monitor growing and declining sales to protect out business and easily identify buying gaps to help increase sales. Pros: Ease of use, speed of reporting and level of detail available that can be accessed. Automated reporting saves a lot of time. Support from the account managers when required is excellent. Cons: Sometimes some of the functionality could be improved further to allow more flexibility. An example here would be multiple options for subscriptions i.e. a weekly report that you could also set to receive at monthend without the need to create a new favourite. Nest function is a fantastic addition to the functionality but due to the way Phocas works you have to start at the bottom layer of data then build layers above. Reasons for Choosing Phocas Software: Ease of use, level of detail and accuracy of reporting
★★★★★
Thursday, October 10, 2019
“Overall: We are an Electrical Distributor. We use Phocas in…”
Overall: We are an Electrical Distributor. We use Phocas in every facet of our business to pull data about sales, inventory, products. Pros: Easy to use and understand. Logical thought processes to pull your data. Cons: When using the Nesting feature you have to be right on the "Drag here" in order to have your other dimension stick. Sometimes you must try three or four times before it holds.
★★★★★
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
“Overall: It is giving us an insight we have never…”
Overall: It is giving us an insight we have never had before into our performance and the measure ability especially in terms of profit and there link to rebates. Pros: I am most excited about the ability to draw in different strands of information from the various software platforms we operate as part of the business. We generate so much data that frankly its too intimidating to consider analysis of it all without the services of Phocas Cons: I would like to see more integration in the CRM side of the software. For instance our ERP is ultimately our primary CRM system aswell, so we manage the contacts there, but they do not automatically sync through to the contacts tab of the CRM section. Some further automation from existing systems would be nice. Reasons for Switching to Phocas Software: It was a very inflexible system
★★★★★
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
“Overall: Managing a sales force performance is key and the…”
Overall: Managing a sales force performance is key and the data provided by Phocas allows quick and easy benchmarking. There is also a superb level of output for the sales force to use to be better account managers and category champions. Pros: The ability to dive into category data, and split by customers, customers groups, date ranges, sales rep, is excellent. Also the ability to present customers purchasing data to them via matrix reports and charts is very impressive. Cons: Writing custom reports is a great feature but can be tricky if you don't do it very often.
★★★★★
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
“Overall: I love it, since we really started using phocas(last…”
Overall: I love it, since we really started using phocas(last pug conference) I have decreased the amount of crystal reports by at least 75% or more. Pros: This software allows me to gather databases from all over the organization and present the, to our users via dashboard/report or let them drive their own reporting. Cons: It was a bit difficult to understand the Sync/dbdesigner part since documentation on this was a bit vague Reasons for Switching to Phocas Software: It gave visuals to our team to put a story behind the data.
★★★★★
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
“Overall: Use it everyday, helps service customers quickly. Pros: Find…”
Overall: Use it everyday, helps service customers quickly. Pros: Find out extended history on a customer; get transactional data over any specified time period; review usage by product category, vendor, customer, grade, order type, etc. Cons: Can view on iPad, but not real clean: limiting fields in some of the functions tend to overlap making it impossible to do. Would like to abbreviate column headings, but can't.
★★★★★
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
“Overall: The biggest benefit is not having our sales reps…”
Overall: The biggest benefit is not having our sales reps rely on our IT department to create a report from an old legacy system. They also don't have to rely on standard out of the box reports that can be limited in scope. Phocas allows them to instantly dive into their sales data and find anything they need. This applies across all departments including management. The ease and flexibility of finding info is incredible. Pros: Ease of use. Within seconds I can find the exact data I am looking for. It requires very little technical knowledge, however, I have set up many advanced sales-and even financial-reports using Custom Mode. The software loads quickly, and I have rarely encountered a bug. On the few occasions where I have emailed the support desk they ALWAYS respond quickly and have a solution implemented right away. This is definitely not the case with other software companies that I deal with. I love Phocas. Cons: Very minor but exporting reports could use some touch ups.
