Epicor Kinetic is a customizable, scalable, product-centric cloud ERP designed specifically for manufacturers.
N/A
Infor VISUAL
Score 7.3 out of 10
N/A
Infor VISUAL is an ERP software focused on manufacturing companies with business intelligence, planning and scheduling, and pricing, quoting, and estimating capabilities, among others.
I think it depends on the industry and complexity of the company. In our situation, we primarily use Epicor for financials, in a relatively simple manner. I don't think that Epicor is the most intuitive or simple to set up for our situation. I think Epicor is better suited for its target industry of manufacturing, where building out the multiple layers let's Epicor's strengths come to bear.
I struggle to identify a scenario where VISUAL is an appropriate solution. We used VISUAL because it was a legacy system and the cost/complexity of changeover seemed daunting. The user interface is poor as is the interconnectedness of the various screens and menus. This might be an acceptable piece of software for a continuous manufacturing environment with little variation of basic design, but we have had to write multiple add-on macros in order to get VISUAL to work effectively for us.
Infor Visual has a standard way of addressing business operations: sales orders, invoicing, reporting. It is easy to train operators used to using a manual or other ERP system.
Material control is easy for production runs, R&D material lists and repairs. The process of receiving, issuing and returning material to inventory is facilitated by standard interfaces that are easily learned by material control operators.
Engineering changes to bills of material are facilitated by the "engineering Master" flexible editing capability. The version control for the BOM's can be as detailed or vague as the process designed dictates. One item of a BOM or the entire BOM can be changed quickly and approved for production that day.
In Application Studio, there are quite a few things that you just have to know in order to really get it to work right. Such as when you are updating a dataview you have to save them refresh and then go back to the wizard to get the added fields that you may have added from a BAQ.
When running MRP it has a tendency to stall or not finish on occasion. This is a problem as we do not get any PO Suggestions when this happens.
VTA has been extremely unreliable. I would not recommend it. It is not customizable at all. There is no logical way to handle shift differentials which is a huge issue with a company that runs 24/7.
If you do not have a schedule set up, they cannot clock in. This poses a problem for anyone that gets called in on a shift they don't normally work on.
Good Technical and Customer Support during and after implementation tasks. Good Project Plan and Management support for implementation and post implementation. Financial functionality could be more comprehensive particularly with Budgeting and Cash Management. Inventory Management capability was adequate but could be more comprehensive as well. "Out of the Box" functionality was adequate but requested add-ons and enhancements seemed to be a bit pricey.
There is always room for improvement! I've used Great Plains ERP/MS Dynamics and Epicor my entire career. both do some things really well. Both could learn from each other. The KInetic user interface is much better than the classic windows overall. Please keep adding more functionality to the core financials!!! You need the accountants to be on your side.
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.
Could have used more hands-on approach. There are multiple webinars and information sessions but until you actually use the system, these are not very helpful.
Most of my histories with SAP directly. I didn't really have any negative experiences. The only thing I could say is that I always had to go to somebody else to solve the problem that I can solve first person now with Epicor Kinetic.
We unfortunately did not evaluate any other ERP software. VISUAL was a legacy system and we determined that changing systems would be too difficult, and not cost effective. We reached out to our local VISUAL rep who knew how the software functioned, but not how to apply it more appropriately to our business model, so we continued on with what we had rather than looking elsewhere.
Using the word Scalability usually implies an increase of use, or adding the use of other features. Making the product put to good/proper use for small companies without the need for full-time support, whilst integrity is maintained it is an entirely different topic. In my view, the current company may have acquired a full truck with options, where initially a small pick-up may have been better suited.
