Epicor BisTrack is business management software for lumber and building materials (LBM) dealers and distributors based on technology acquired with SolarSoft Business Systems in 2012. It covers inventory optimization, delivery dispatch, financial management, customer relationship management, and more recently warehouse management, as well as supplying business analytics.
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M1
Score 7.4 out of 10
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M1, from ECI Software Solutions headquartered in Ft. Worth, is an all-in-one manufacturing ERP software solution, built for small and medium-sized discrete manufacturers.
Epicor BisTrack is well-suited for the following scenarios:
Lumber Yard Management: useful for managing lumber yards, including inventory tracking, order processing, and sales. It helps businesses optimize stock levels, streamline customer orders, and track various lumber products efficiently - can combine with other warehouse management software
Building Materials Distribution: It excels in businesses that distribute building materials, such as wholesalers and distributors. The software handles order management, pricing, and supply chain operations effectively - this is my company's main course of business Epicor BisTrack is not suited for the following scenario(s):
Epicor BisTrack is pretty specific to the lumber and building materials industry, so it won't be suitable for usage outside of this industry.
Epicor BisTrack is well-suited for the following scenarios:
Implementation is by far the weakest link in the ECI/M1 process. Although the tool is powerful, the client is expected to drive the process of learning the tool, planning the meetings with consultants, identifying risks and making mitigation plans, etc. without any samples, guidance or assistance on the part of ECI. The tool is best suited to high volume, standard product manufacturers who build to inventory or to order without much variation. The shop floor routing and time tracking are straightforward if you can master the convoluted Unit Of Measure calculations. The tool is either hosted locally or accessed through Remote Desktop. Shop floor is web enabled but the main desktop for M1 is still a relay which makes connectivity a potential issue. Moving this platform to a truly web hosted environment would substantially improve connectivity and eliminate compatibility issues with Apple products
Manage inventory counts. Good precision on quantities in and out, through shipping, MI, MR, and receipts.
Job costing shows great details on labor, operations, and materials to be used. I wished that would do better in outside operations that would return, but we still think it is great.
Ability to track changes (changelog), showing all changes that had in a particular place. Such as where, when, and by whom a line item unit price was changed in a PO.
Link, traceability, keeping history. If done correctly, it is amazing to keep the history of a part/lot.
The amount of user rights/customization is unbelievable. It can be hard to set up in the beginning, but it is great that you can give some very specific access to a user, and it is not (in general) as a package.
Some of the functions are pretty detailed - and so they take a while to generate screens and pages in reports.
We actually use it for 2 companies we own - and it would be nice if the inter company communication was a little smoother. It's hard to share some data, and not everything is possible to be shared.
Customized reports need to backed up before any updates to M1 or they're lost. It seems M1 overwrites the report folders everytime you run an update - so you have to keep track of what you've changed in Crystal Reports and restore it.
Epicor BisTrack is essential for those in the lumber and building materials industry, especially if they are in the wholesale/distribution side of things. I provided the rating because I feel that BisTrack has contributed a lot for my company and provided with essential information for decision-making on a day-to-day basis. The score also reflects that while BisTrack is an essential software for my business, there is also room for improvement so that the end users will be able to obtain what they need from the software.
M1 is highly customizable in my experience. The grids are very easy to customize as long as the user has a basic understanding of relational databases. The reports are also very customizable but are a little more difficult without being a heavy Crystal Report user. Also, the field names, input forms, etc. can be customized as well, but this requires advanced programming knowledge. I would recommend using M1's professional support staff to make any of these types of customizations.
Apologies, our company's IT department contacts support on our behalf. I have never contacted Epicor BisTrack's support myself; only through my company's IT team.
M1 does a good job of being able to handle our requirements. Some of our assemblies and sub-assemblies require a significant amount of detail and different levels in order to complete - and M1 handles that. Some of the other products I've used, or implemented else where fall short in being able to go as deep or as detailed as M1 is able to do.
