The short answer
Choose NetSuite if you want one platform carrying finance, distribution, manufacturing, ecommerce and multi-entity consolidation, with lumber-specific tally, random lengths and dual units of measure handled natively by Consule’s LumberSuite. Choose Agility if you are a pure distributor or pro dealer in North America, with no milling or remanufacturing to account for, and no plans for a second entity or a different line of business.
Weighing DMSi Agility against NetSuite
Agility does not reach shortlists by accident. Fifty years in the trade shows in the product: tally and random lengths, board feet and thousand board feet alongside pieces and units, split purchase orders for direct shipments, landed cost projection, counter sales, dispatch with route optimization, proof of delivery on a phone, installed sales, and electronic ordering into Andersen, Marvin and Ellison. That is a lot of trade-specific work that a horizontal ERP does not have out of the box.
The comparison is not about whether Agility understands lumber. It does. It is about scope: what the system covers, what it does not, and how many DMSi products it takes to run a business that both makes and sells.
If you mill as well as sell, count the systems
Grading, tallying and kiln management are not in Agility. They sit in DMSi Log, a separate product. A business that saws, dries, treats or remanufactures and then distributes is buying two DMSi systems and integrating them, which is the exact problem a single platform is supposed to solve.
| What you need | DMSi | NetSuite with Consule |
|---|---|---|
| Distribution, counter, dispatch | Agility | One account |
| Grading, tally, kiln | DMSi Log, a second product | Same account, LumberSuite |
| Routings, work in progress, standard costing | Not documented publicly | Same account |
| Second entity or currency | Not documented publicly | Same account, OneWorld |
Timing note if you are also looking at Epicor BisTrack: Epicor announced final on-premises release dates in January 2026, with BisTrack Desktop active support ending 31 December 2028. Those dates were announced as tentative, so verify them with Epicor before relying on them. See our NetSuite vs Epicor BisTrack comparison.
NetSuite
Real-time general ledger, multi-book accounting, revenue recognition, fixed assets, and OneWorld consolidation across subsidiaries, currencies and tax jurisdictions, with published country localizations maintained by the vendor.
DMSi Agility
Accounting for a distribution business is covered. What is not documented publicly is multi-currency, subsidiary consolidation, multi-book accounting or any non-North-American localization. That is absence of documentation rather than proof of absence, so ask directly, but ask before you sign rather than after.
NetSuite
Consule’s LumberSuite adds tally, random lengths and dual units of measure natively inside NetSuite, so a unit of two-by-tens carries pieces, lineal feet and board feet on the same record as the ledger, the purchase order and the invoice.
DMSi Agility
Excellent, and this is what the product is bought for. Pieces, units, board feet, thousand board feet, lineal feet and cubic metres, with lot, tag and content-level tracking across warehouses and barcode tally and tagging on output. This is not a gap in Agility.
NetSuite
One log or one board yields several graded outputs, and NetSuite handles that in the same account: bills of material, routings, work in progress, standard costing with variance analysis, and co-product and yield allocation through Consule’s CoYield and YieldCraft.
DMSi Agility
Agility includes remanufacturing with work centres, resource scheduling, cost allocation and cull material identification, which is real. What is not publicly documented is routings, work in progress accounting, standard costing with variance analysis, or co-product and by-product yield allocation. Grading, tallying and kiln management are in DMSi Log, a separate product.
NetSuite
Quotes, orders, contract pricing, customer-specific price lists, credit control and approvals on the same records as inventory and the ledger, with mobile access for outside sales.
DMSi Agility
Configurable point of sale, OrderPad, quoting and project management, all built around how a pro dealer and a yard actually sell. Strong, trade-specific and well proven.
NetSuite
Dispatch and routing are configured, or delivered through a specialist partner from the SuiteApp ecosystem, integrated to the same order and inventory records.
DMSi Agility
Dispatch, routing and logistics with Mobile POD, route optimization and signature and photo capture. This is a genuine strength and one of the clearest reasons dealers choose a vertical product.
NetSuite
Demand and supply planning, reorder points, drop ship, landed cost and vendor scorecards in the base suite, with purchase approvals routed by workflow and EDI available through the app ecosystem or a partner of your choosing.
DMSi Agility
Demand forecasting, suggested purchasing with configurable reorder logic, split purchase orders for inbound and direct selling, and landed cost projection, plus electronic ordering interfaces to suppliers including Andersen, Marvin and Ellison. Well fitted to the trade.
NetSuite
Handled through configuration, project accounting and the product configurator, with the job, the labour and the margin all in the same system as the ledger.
DMSi Agility
A native Installed Sales module and millwork and door-shop configuration through the Millwork Development acquisition. Note that Installed Sales is documented as available to hosted Agility customers, which is worth confirming if you are on-premises.
NetSuite
SuiteCommerce runs on the same item, pricing, inventory and customer records as the ERP, so a contractor portal shows real availability with no sync, and direct-to-consumer and trade can run from one catalogue.
DMSi Agility
Agility Commerce Cloud is a native B2B storefront with real-time integration to the ERP. This is not a gap and we will not claim it is one. The question is scope rather than existence: it is built for the building materials trade, not for a general commerce operation.
NetSuite
One multi-tenant cloud version, browser-based, two vendor-applied releases a year on the same date for everybody, with no upgrade project and no upgrade invoice.
DMSi Agility
Built on Progress OpenEdge and delivered hosted by DMSi, which is a single-tenant model, with an on-premises install base still in service. DMSi publishes no release cadence, no version numbering and no upgrade commitment, so ask who upgrades you, how often, and what the last three upgrades cost at customers your size.
NetSuite
SuiteScript, SuiteFlow and SuiteTalk are publicly documented, the SuiteApp marketplace carries hundreds of vetted applications, and there is a deep pool of certified consultants and administrators to hire.
DMSi Agility
Agility does publish a documented REST API covering receivables, payables, orders, inventory, purchasing, shipments, dispatch and remanufacturing, which is more than many vertical products offer and should be credited. What does not exist is an on-platform scripting or workflow framework you can build in, or an app marketplace. Integrations are point partnerships. Public review coverage is also very thin, roughly six reviews across the major sites, so independent diligence is harder than usual.
One system if you make as well as sell. Milling, drying, treating and remanufacturing, where one input yields several graded outputs, live in the same account as distribution. With DMSi, grading, tally and kiln management sit in a separate product.
Real manufacturing accounting. Routings, work in progress, standard costing with variance analysis, and co-product and yield allocation. Not documented publicly on the Agility side.
Multi-tenant cloud, not single-tenant hosting. One version for everybody, two vendor-applied releases a year, no upgrade project. DMSi publishes no release cadence or upgrade commitment at all.
Growth in any direction. A second entity, a second currency, a services line, a subscription product or an overseas subsidiary is configuration rather than a second system.
A platform you can extend. Agility publishes a REST API, which deserves credit, but there is no on-platform scripting framework and no app marketplace. NetSuite has both, plus a hiring market.
Independent evidence you can check. Thousands of public reviews and analyst coverage against roughly six public Agility reviews in total.
Where DMSi Agility still fits
Being fair about it, because this is a well-regarded product built by people who know the trade. If you are a pure distributor, a pro dealer or a yard operating in North America, Agility gives you a great deal on day one that a horizontal platform would have to be configured to match. Board feet and thousand board feet alongside pieces and units. Tally and tag-level tracking. Split purchase orders for direct shipments. Landed cost projection. Counter sales built for a counter. Dispatch with route optimization and proof of delivery on a phone. Native installed sales. Millwork configuration. Electronic ordering into the suppliers you already buy from.
DMSi is also independent and family owned, coming up on fifty years in the trade. In a market where the competition has been through several private equity owners, that is a legitimate thing for a buyer to value, and it usually shows up in how the support relationship feels.
Where it stops fitting is when the business is bigger than the yard. Milling and remanufacturing that needs proper work in progress and grade yield accounting. A second legal entity. A currency that is not the dollar. A line of business the vertical did not anticipate. Those are not features you can request, they are scope decisions the product made a long time ago.
Choose NetSuite if you…
Mill, dry, treat or remanufacture as well as distribute. Need routings, work in progress and standard costing rather than cost allocation. Run or expect to run more than one legal entity or currency. Want one system rather than an ERP plus a log product plus whatever comes next. Would rather the vendor ran your upgrades.
And especially if you…
Need tally, random lengths and dual units of measure and assume that rules out a horizontal platform. It does not. Consule’s LumberSuite delivers exactly that natively inside NetSuite, on the same records as the ledger, the purchase order and the invoice, which is what makes one system realistic for a business that both makes and sells.
DMSi Agility may still fit if you…
Are a pure distributor, pro dealer or yard with no milling or remanufacturing to account for. Operate in North America, in one currency, under one legal entity. Want counter, dispatch, installed sales and supplier electronic ordering working on day one without configuration. Value an independent, family-owned vendor. Have no plans for a line of business outside building materials.
Moving from Agility to NetSuite
Most moves start with a manufacturing or structural requirement rather than dissatisfaction: a mill or reman operation the distribution system cannot cost properly, an acquisition, or a decision to stop running two systems. Consule proves the lumber inventory model first, because if tally and units of measure do not work, nothing else matters.
Talk to a NetSuite Alliance Partner
Consule Solutions implements NetSuite for lumber, building materials and wood products businesses, and builds the tally, random length and dual unit of measure capability that makes it work in the yard. If you are weighing DMSi Agility against NetSuite, we will give you a straight read on which one fits, including when the answer is not us.
Whichever way you lean, ask both vendors to show these in a live system with your own data, not a slide.
Lumber and building materials businesses usually start looking when the operation stops being purely distribution. A mill, a reman line, a treating operation or an acquisition adds costing requirements the yard system was never designed for, and the workaround has quietly moved into spreadsheets.
Consule runs the move in four stages. Fit assessment: we score your real requirements against NetSuite plus LumberSuite and say plainly where the gaps are, including any we would have to build. Data and design: items, species, grades, dimensions, tallies, tags, customers, contract pricing and open orders, with the unit of measure and tally model designed before anything is loaded, because that is the expensive thing to get wrong. Build and prove: tally, random lengths and dual units of measure go up first and we run your real receiving, counter and delivery scenarios in a sandbox, so the yard is signed off before finance cutover is scheduled. Cutover and stabilise: a dated cutover with a parallel period, then a support window sized to your season rather than a fixed number of weeks.
We do not implement NetSuite and treat lumber units of measure as a phase two problem. If a unit of two-by-tens does not behave correctly at the counter on day one, the system has failed regardless of what else works.
DMSi Agility comes up in lumber, building materials and the pro dealer trade, usually alongside Epicor BisTrack. These are the pages where it shows up in our deals.
Working out the budget. The NetSuite implementation cost estimator walks through the scope and a consultant comes back with the range.
It depends on whether you only sell or also make. For a pure distributor or pro dealer in North America, Agility arrives with a great deal of trade-specific capability configured on day one. For a business that mills, dries, treats or remanufactures, or that runs more than one entity or currency, NetSuite with Consule LumberSuite covers materially more in one system.
Yes, through Consule’s LumberSuite, which adds tally, random lengths and dual units of measure natively inside NetSuite. A unit of two-by-tens carries pieces, lineal feet and board feet on the same record as the ledger, the purchase order and the invoice. That is what makes a single system realistic for a lumber business rather than a compromise.
Not within Agility. Grading, tallying and kiln management are in DMSi Log, a separate DMSi product. Agility itself includes remanufacturing with work centres, resource scheduling, cost allocation and cull material identification. A business that mills and distributes is therefore buying and integrating two DMSi systems.
It is delivered hosted by DMSi, which is a single-tenant model, and there is still an on-premises install base. It runs on Progress OpenEdge. NetSuite is multi-tenant, with every customer on the same version and two vendor-applied releases a year. DMSi publishes no release cadence or upgrade policy, so ask who upgrades you, how often, and at whose cost.
Yes to both, and it would be wrong to suggest otherwise. Agility Commerce Cloud is a native B2B storefront with real-time integration, and DMSi publishes REST API documentation covering receivables, payables, orders, inventory, purchasing, shipments, dispatch and remanufacturing. What Agility does not have is an on-platform scripting or workflow framework you can build in, or an app marketplace.
BisTrack tends to lead on pro dealer retail footprint, packaged analytics and UK and Ireland presence, with Epicor’s partner scale behind it. Agility tends to lead on two-step wholesale distribution, hardwood and millwork, remanufacturing and specialty trades, and DMSi is independent rather than private-equity owned. Both stop at the same place on full manufacturing and on multi-entity international operation. Our NetSuite vs Epicor BisTrack page covers that comparison in detail.
DMSi publishes no documentation on multi-currency, subsidiary consolidation, multi-book accounting or non-North-American localizations, and its newer Frameworks product was launched for North America specifically. That is absence of documentation rather than proof of absence, so ask directly. NetSuite OneWorld handles all of it as standard with a published localization footprint.
Neither publishes reliable list pricing. The published third-party estimates for Agility are implausibly low for a hosted vertical ERP and should be ignored. The comparison that matters is five-year total cost for the whole footprint. If you mill as well as distribute, count both DMSi products and the integration between them, plus every upgrade in the window, then compare that against one NetSuite account with LumberSuite.
