Abas ERP is an ERP with relatively extensive capabilities from supply chain optimization to customer relationship management
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Epicor Kinetic
Score 7.7 out of 10
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Epicor Kinetic (the name of the former Epicor ERP) presents a wide feature breadth, customizability, and scalability, typical product-centric cloud ERP offerings. It is meant as a single, end-to-end software solution for businesses, and is available on-premise, hosted, or in the cloud as a software as a service (SaaS) solution.
ABAS by far offers the most bang for the buck. We are able to handle all of our business functions through ABAS and also have additional features like Business Apps, Business Intelligence, Vendor and Customer portals, as well as many other features that many other ERP packages didn't have. It has allowed us to consolidate our software packages and also provide visibility since everything is now connected.
Epicor is an excellent system for most manufacturing customers and offers several features previously only offered on the very large (e.g. Oracle, PeopleSoft, etc) level platforms. Yet the pricing is mid-level, and the expandability through additional modules provides a great opportunity for future business growth. The architecture is easily scalable, fast, and offers great options for both on premise and hosted systems. Epicor is flexible, and large enough that regular updates and enhancements continue to be adopted to improve functionality and effectiveness. It is however, not for everyone. Competition in this sector is very good, with several mid-level systems being available at a similar price point. If you are considering adopting a new ERP system and are in the plastics space, you also owe it to yourself and your team to consider IQMS, which is becoming a de-facto standard in this segment. Also, for specific medical sectors, you will find that Epicor software validation for CFR Part 11 compliance can be quite costly-- although the software is capable of supporting this with modification. Overall, Epicor is a solid choice. Ultimately, it will be up to your team to determine what works best for your needs. You won't be disappointed with Epicor if you do the due diligence and take the time needed to properly review and demo the product. Remember though, demos are typically "best case" staged, so be sure to throw several curveballs at your vendor and bring out the unique requirements of your business.
Epicor has the best product configurator that I have seen on the market. This was one of the main reasons we went with Epicor, and have not been disappointed at all.
Epicor is also one of the easiest ERP system to learn, and has many ways for users to get training. Epicor University, on-line courses, or class room settings, also user conference every year, and user support groups.
The Enterprise search ability in Epicor is great, can find parts, customers, suppliers, etc. so easily. And if you can't remember where a report or task that you want to do is on the menu, you can search for that also.
ABAS is headquartered in Germany with a US based headquarters in Virginia. Some of the programming structures were based on European methods that differed somewhat from the way business is done in the US. ABAS-USA has worked to modify the system so that it is in tune with US business practices and has made great strides in this effort. For the average user, the structures may go unnoticed, but for the more advanced user, some of the field names that are used for advanced reporting might be in German. However, ABAS-USA has recently been updating the programming language to be fully in English.
Because ABAS is growing rapidly, more complex customizations might take longer to complete than normal. ABAS appears to be bringing on even more technicians to handle the increased workload so the concern is waning.
If the answer to your problem is not readily available in an answer book, your response or solution will take months, if you get one at all. Problems need to be sent to support and duplicated by them before they try to fix it. This is extremely frustrating because you have to prove to Epicor that you are having an issue. If by some miracle you get by this barrier, your problem is submitted to development for review. You can't speak to them or communicate in any way directly. This group appears to be completely unconcerned about user issues or customer service. Our experiences have been negative across the board.
These other software packages all have strengths but for what we were looking for in one system, to handle most of our business processes, but also allow the flexibility to be customized (without the need to be placed on a "like to have" waiting list), ABAS gave us that ability, hands down.
Everyone at our organization really appreciated "made 2 manage" because of all of the quick access and some of the capabilities in accounting. So far, Epicor is much more advanced but the two can stand side by side. These two programs cannot really be compared just because it's just not fair to compare an on-site server ERP system to a cloud-based one.
The software is pretty easy to use. Things are pretty clear on how to do them and if you don't know how to do something they have instructions on how to do them or you get an error code telling you exactly what to do. I have been satisfied with my overall experience.
The ROI can be hard to quantify. We spend more time setting up and entering information up front, but we spend less time than before trying to track project costs so that evens out. Purchasing the system and implementing it was very expensive, but the benefit is the the better information can save money on projects as we know where best to spend our time and identify potential problems earlier on a project. We believe it will have a positive impact, but I'd say it will take a few years (3-4) to be worth it.
