Epicor iScala vs. Oracle E-Business Suite

Well suited for middle-size distributor and service provider.

Incentivized

Oracle eBusiness Suite is the best combination of CRM and ERP. Oracle helps us in managing the entire process of Sales and Marketing. The best feature is that it is highly user-friendly. We can easily manage the entire process of marketing from running a campaign to managing it and getting an interesting prospect than making a lead to making an opportunity by recording each and every conversation from day 1 to last day so that customer feels its valued by the company after that finally getting a business from the prospect.

Incentivized

• It's a fast system to operate.
• The database is easy to maintain.
• It's easy to customize views.

Incentivized

• The EBS Oracle Order Management and Shipping Execution solution allows the creation of an integrated, seamless order-to-cash process and accurately capture of customer orders across multiple channels.
• Orchestration of order details for seamless fulfillment execution.
• Efficient shipment planning and confirmation.
• Communication of order status information to customers throughout the order lifecycle.

Incentivized

• I believe that iSAT improvement will bring more benefit to all iScala users
• Longer support of the old Scala versions would bring more confidence for big Scala customers, because in big installations it's been very difficult and time-consuming to make version upgrades every 3-4 years.

Incentivized

• Because the application is working globally, it sometimes hangs and the connection is dropped.
• It should have more shortcuts to make it easier to develop macros. I create many macros and use the "sendkeys" command in VBA, due to the lack of these shortcuts, it is not possible to automate the process.
• For now I can not think of other areas that require improvement.

Incentivized

After almost 5 years, we have a full control of this ERP System. We are able to implement new functionalities and modules without any major "consulting" expenses. As of today we are making almost 90% of the personalization/customization and implementation all in house. Once [it] is tuned, [it] keeps running very well with no major issues.

Incentivized

The various forms - like order entry forms that allow the uses to enter sales orders and the ability to personalize the views based on end user needs - are easy to use and follow standard business processes. The new release has a big focus on usability and forms now have a familiar web look and feel which has increased usability considerably.

Because of the transactional nature of the system this software is available 24 X 7, and IT is responsible for making sure the system is available during normal business hours.

The performance of the product is very good. Given the transactional nature of the system one of the key focus areas for IT is to make sure performance is not affected for internal reasons. This can also depend on the server configuration and setup. For example, performance on Exadata machine is far superior to other Linux custom systems that companies choose to deploy. In general though, as already pointed out, the platform is now very stable and has few bugs. Whenever there are any issues, the cause is usually customizations that we have made to the platform, rather than out-of-the-box standard functionality.

In general, support has not been great - particularly standard (non premium) support . The main issue is that our IT staff has been using this platform for years and is very knowledgeable Whenever something goes wrong, we usually have a very precise idea of what the problem is. We are skilled at problem diagnosis. But the Oracle support process is very rigid and slow. Typically, we are required to go through a lengthy diagnosis process where they ask us multiple questions sometimes over several days and we are obliged to talk to different people with differing levels of knowledge. Since we already know what the problem is, we really just want a patch or a bug fix, but it takes days to get there instead of minutes. This can be very frustrating. This is a big part of the reason why we pay for premium support. But it's still a bit disappointing.

The instructors are usually precise and knowledgable, and it's convenient to take online classes whenever available any day of the year.

The key success factors for the implementation was project management, in-house expertise in IT and time. The implementation process started with the initial evaluation with the initial upgrade on a test system and mapping out the gaps and requirements. We did work with Oracle to understand the new functionality R12 had to offer and did another upgrade and researched solutions. With the use of software development cycle procedures there were conference room pilots with IT, business users. We then refined the project plan to the core key details, performed mock go-live implementations and finally upgraded the software. Overall, this was a very successful process.

I have experience with multiple ERP software and I must say that iScala is the fastest system to work in so far. It doesn't have the same fancy shell like some others but at the end of the day the most important thing is the functionality and here is iScala outstanding.

Incentivized

We explored Coupa, SAP, PeopleSoft, Salesforce. We chose Oracle based on value for money, features it offers and the easy availability of vast talent pool in the market. There are many trained Oracle product specialists readily available in the market. This helps us to tap experts when needed easily.
Coupa does not have a Project Accounting module. SAP was too expensive. PeopleSoft is more catered towards to human resources software, while Salesforce is for CRM.
Oracle has better financials and project portfolio management suite when compared to the competition and this what we needed.

Incentivized

As I mentioned, it's a good tool but not the best

Incentivized

• Definetly cost effective overall (within 12 years since starting the company).

Incentivized

• The tremendous amount of testing and time by the technical folks has a negative impact.
• We find we need a tremendous amount of customization within the standard functionality having a negative impact.
• Oracle certifications of related products such as the database, Demantra, JRE cause disruption having a negative impact

Incentivized