A shop running Global Shop Solutions or JobBOSS needs one IT provider that owns everything the ERP sits on top of: the server or the internet connection that reaches the vendor’s cloud, the PCs in the office and on the floor, the network between them, the backups, the calendar for updates, and the security around all of it. The ERP vendor supports the software. Someone has to support what it runs on, and that someone has to pick up the phone when the vendor says “that’s not us.”

If you own or run a shop between Peoria and Bloomington, you have probably lived some version of this. The ERP is slow every afternoon. The vendor says the software is fine. Your IT person says the network is fine. Orders still take twice as long to enter. This post is about closing that gap.

At a glance:

Global Shop Solutions and JobBOSS support their software; neither one supports your server, your PCs, your network, or your backups.

Global Shop Solutions’ own guidance says the ERP should have a server to itself, not one shared with your files and email.

If the ERP runs in the vendor’s cloud, your internet connection becomes the server, and a second connection that takes over automatically is the difference between a hiccup and a lost afternoon.

Vendor cloud security protects the vendor’s platform; the PCs, logins, email, and network that reach the ERP are the shop’s to secure, wherever the ERP runs.

Panorama Consulting’s 2026 ERP Report found more than a quarter of ERP projects ran over budget, most often because of an unexpected need for additional technology.

Facet Technologies supports Central Illinois shops on both systems and takes the vendor call with you when something falls between software and infrastructure.

Who do you call when the ERP breaks?

It depends on what broke, and the time to figure that out is before it happens. An ERP, or enterprise resource planning system, runs quoting, job costing, scheduling, inventory, purchasing, and shipping from one database, so when it misbehaves the whole shop feels it. The vendor’s support line can help with a report that will not run or a module that is acting up. They cannot help with a server that is out of disk space or a switch that died in the back of the plant, and they will tell you so.

The row that matters most is the one where both sides could point at each other. A good IT provider does not make you referee that. They take the vendor call with you, on the same line, until it is resolved.

Why does the ERP get slow every afternoon?

Because something underneath it is too small for the load, and the only honest answer comes from measuring instead of guessing. The vendor will check their software and tell you, correctly, that it is working. The slowdown lives in one of four places: the server, the wiring and switches between the office and the floor, the shared connection your people log into if they work that way, or the PC in front of the person complaining.

The most common cause we see in Central Illinois shops is a server doing too many jobs. The ERP shares a machine with the company files, maybe email, maybe the camera system. At 2 p.m., when shipping runs reports and the office is entering orders, everything on that box fights for the same disk. Global Shop Solutions’ own guidance for the environment it runs in leads with this: the ERP should have a server to itself. Shops skip that to save on hardware, and the savings show up as slow order entry for everyone, every afternoon, for years.

Your IT provider should be watching that server at 2 p.m. when it happens, not asking you to describe it later. Facet monitors client servers around the clock so those numbers already exist. We described how that works in our post on IT monitoring.

Should the ERP be on a server in your building or in the vendor’s cloud?

There is no single right answer, and Central Illinois shops run well both ways. The decision starts with the facts of your situation: how reliable the internet is at the plant, how many shop floor machines talk to the ERP, whether you handle defense or other regulated data, and how old the current server is. Once those are accounted for, it comes down to how you would rather own it, as a server you control in your building or as a monthly service someone else maintains. What changes with the choice is what your IT provider has to protect. JobBOSS² from ECI Software Solutions can run in ECI’s cloud or on a server in your shop. Global Shop Solutions offers an on-premise version and a cloud edition where, according to the company’s Cloud ERP Trust Center, the vendor handles the servers, updates, backups, and monitoring of its platform.

If the server is in your building, it is yours: the hardware, the Windows updates, the backups, and the decision about when to upgrade. Global Shop Solutions says exactly that on its on-premise page. Your IT provider owns all of it on your behalf, and the server should be replaced on a schedule you both agreed to, not when it dies.

If the ERP is in the vendor’s cloud, the vendor owns the server and the backups, and your internet connection becomes the thing everything depends on. A shop with one consumer-grade internet line and no backup connection will lose the ERP every time that line does. The fix is a second connection that takes over on its own, a firewall that makes that switch without anyone noticing, and a plan for what the floor does during a 20-minute outage. Estimators still need working laptops. The far bay still needs Wi-Fi. That part never moves to the cloud.

One owner-level detail about Global Shop Solutions: it stores its data in a database called Actian Zen, which is not the Microsoft database most business software uses. It works well, but it has its own rules for backups and troubleshooting, and an IT provider that has never touched it will guess wrong at least once. Ask yours whether they have worked with it.

Who is responsible for securing the data inside the ERP?

You are, wherever the ERP runs. The vendor secures its software and, if you use its cloud, its servers. Global Shop Solutions’ Trust Center describes multi-factor authentication for cloud access, continuous vulnerability monitoring, and outside penetration testing of its platform. ECI’s Trust Center shows SOC 2 Type II attestation for its hosted services. Both stop at the edge of the vendor’s platform. Neither covers the PC your estimator uses, the password your office manager reuses, the email inbox where the phishing message lands, or the network in your building. For the on-premise version, the vendor’s cloud protections do not apply at all.

Think about what is in that database: every customer, every price you have ever quoted, every drawing, your margins, and often your employees’ personal information. If you supply defense primes, some of it is Controlled Unclassified Information. A stolen login on an unprotected laptop gets all of it, and a SOC 2 badge on the vendor’s data center does nothing to stop that.

Securing the ERP means securing everything that touches it. Every login, including remote access for estimators and salespeople, needs multi-factor authentication, the second step beyond a password that a stolen password alone cannot pass. Every PC that opens the ERP needs protection that catches an attacker already on the machine, not just a virus scanner. Email needs filtering, because that is where the attack arrives. The shop floor machines that cannot be updated need to sit on their own section of the network, away from the server. The server itself, if it is yours, needs to be patched and watched. Those are the layers Facet Technologies builds for every managed client through our security stack, and they are the same layers that satisfy cyber insurance questionnaires and the NIST controls that defense suppliers are self-assessing against.

What happens to the ERP if the server dies or you get hit with ransomware?

You find out whether your backups were real. The ERP database is the one file in the building that cannot be rebuilt from paper, and most shops have never tested restoring it. A backup that has never been restored is a hope.

The IBM 2026 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index ranked manufacturing as the most attacked industry again this year. Ransomware goes after backups first, so the ERP backup needs a copy kept somewhere the attacker cannot reach from your network. Facet Technologies builds backups that way, with instant recovery, so the ERP can be brought back up on a temporary copy of the server within hours while the real one is rebuilt. If you supply defense primes and your ERP holds drawings marked as Controlled Unclassified Information, the backup of that data is CUI too and has to be protected the same way. We covered that in our CMMC guide for manufacturers.

Who decides when the ERP gets updated?

The plant manager, with the IT provider doing the work. Cloud customers get updates on the vendor’s schedule. Shops with their own server choose their own timing, which is a benefit right up until nobody chooses and the server has not been updated in three years.

The update itself is rarely the problem. The order of operations is. The server and every PC that runs the ERP have to be on the same version. One PC gets updated and tested before the other thirty. Windows updates on the server get scheduled so it does not restart itself at 10 a.m. on a Tuesday. Panorama Consulting’s 2026 ERP Report found more than a quarter of ERP projects ran over budget and almost a quarter ran over schedule, and the top budget driver was an unexpected need for additional technology. That is usually a server or a network nobody looked at before the software was bought.

How does Facet Technologies support shops on Global Shop Solutions and JobBOSS?

Facet Technologies has supported Central Illinois manufacturers since 1989, and we support shops on both systems today. Our helpdesk is in our Peoria office, staffed by people who know your network and have been on the Global Shop or ECI support call alongside you before.

If the ERP is on a server in your building, we own the server, its updates, its backups, and the network from the office to the floor. We size the server to the vendor’s guidance, keep it dedicated to the ERP, and test the backup. If the ERP is in the vendor’s cloud, we own the connection: two internet lines, the firewall that switches between them, the PCs, printers, scanners, and the remote access your estimators use from home. Either way, we put the same security around the ERP: multi-factor authentication on every login, protection on every PC that opens it, filtered email, a separated network for the floor, and backups an attacker cannot reach. We schedule updates with your plant manager and take the vendor call when something crosses the line between software and infrastructure.

A server replacement or a move to the cloud is planned and budgeted with you in advance, never dropped on you as a surprise. To see what that looks like when a shop’s environment has been neglected for years, read our manufacturing IT stabilization case study, or start with what manufacturers should look for in an IT partner.

Frequently asked questions

Let’s talk about what your ERP is running on

If your shop runs Global Shop Solutions or JobBOSS and you are not sure who owns the server, the backups, or the update calendar, that is worth a 30-minute conversation. Call (309) 689-3900 or schedule a conversation with Facet Technologies. We will look at what the ERP is sitting on and tell you what is fine, what is aging, and what would keep the floor running on a bad day.