Globe3 is developed by Asia Pacific Business Intelligence (APBI), a Singapore software company founded in the mid-1990s. It is one of the few locally developed ERP systems still actively sold and supported in Singapore. That local provenance is both its biggest selling point and the lens through which to evaluate it.
What Globe3 Is Good At
Globe3 handles Singapore-specific finance well. GST f5/f7 reporting, multi-currency transactions, and Singapore SFRS accounting standards are built in rather than bolted on. For companies with multiple legal entities — a holding company, a trading arm, and a manufacturing entity — Globe3 consolidation works without expensive consulting.
Inventory management is solid. Bin-level location tracking, FIFO/FEFO lot management, and reorder point alerts are standard. For distributors or traders managing fast-moving stock, Globe3 covers the core workflow reliably.
Local support is a genuine advantage. APBI has a Singapore office with trained consultants. Implementation and post-go-live support do not route through a regional hub. For SMBs that need hands-on local assistance, this matters.
Where Globe3 Falls Short for Manufacturers
Globe3's manufacturing module is procurement and inventory-oriented rather than production-execution-oriented. You can raise production orders and record material consumption. What you cannot do natively is manage shop floor jobs in real time, track operator-level cycle times, record machine downtime by cause, or link quality inspection results to specific production runs.
For precision engineering, metal fabrication, or electronics assembly — where production status, first article inspection, and job cost by work order are daily operating needs — Globe3 requires significant customisation or a separate MES layer. That gap erodes the cost advantage.
BOM versioning is basic. Engineering change orders, where-used tracking across BOM levels, and phantom assembly handling require workarounds. For engineer-to-order manufacturers, this is a material gap.
InvoiceNow and E-Invoicing Gap
Globe3 can generate standard invoice PDFs and export structured data, but native Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 submission is not built in. Manufacturers who bill government agencies or large corporates requiring InvoiceNow-compliant submissions need to integrate a separate Peppol access point. IMDA mandates InvoiceNow for all GST-registered businesses billing government agencies from 2025. This add-on cost and complexity is worth factoring into total cost of ownership.
Pricing Reality
Globe3 licence costs typically range from S$15,000 to S$60,000 depending on module count and named user licences. Implementation adds S$20,000 to S$50,000 for a mid-sized deployment. Annual support runs 18 to 22% of licence cost. Total five-year cost of ownership for a 20-user deployment with manufacturing modules often lands between S$150,000 and S$250,000 — which is more than a custom-built ERP for the same scope.
Globe3 vs Custom ERP for Manufacturers
The case for Globe3 is strongest when your processes map closely to its standard modules: Singapore finance, multi-entity consolidation, inventory, and basic production orders. When you need manufacturing-specific features — job card management, cavity-level tracking, real-time shop floor visibility — Globe3 requires customisation. At that point, the cost-effort ratio often favours purpose-built custom ERP that is designed around your exact workflow from day one.
A Start Canyon Discovery engagement (one week, S$1,500 to S$3,000) benchmarks Globe3 against a custom ERP scope using your actual process requirements. It produces a comparison on total five-year cost, implementation risk, and fit score before you commit to either path.