Epicor Prophet 21 is an ERP for distributors, allowing companies to manage their supply chain with one ERP, with industry-specific functionality, cloud-based applications to modernize operations, connected ecosystems to ensure visibility across the organization and AI-infused solutions to drive efficiencies.
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Global Shop Solutions ERP
Score 8.3 out of 10
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Global Shop Solutions ERP software provides applications that help manufacturers to deliver quality parts on time, with applications that include Shop Management, Planning & Scheduling, Inventory, Accounting, Quality Control, and CRM.
Good for distribution organizations with warehousing. Can also support both Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable, although a more thorough Accounting package is recommended. Is strong when it comes to integrating bar codes and scanners, particularly for warehouse maintenance. Prophet 21 does include a basic CRM offering. However, it is very basic, and for any real Customer Resource management, a third-party tool is best (even recommended by Epicor.)
We've run Global Shop Solutions ERP in several different business models and all of them have worked well. Repair: this is primarily customer supplied material, always new situations that are assessed AFTER the product arrives. Job Shop: These jobs are less guesswork, but still different every time. Engineering BOM's: These are a lot of assembly, less machining, but a huge amount of work in setting up the BOM's. Repeat Jobs: There are slight variations, but the overall process remains the same for all parts. In all 4 business situations Global Shop Solutions ERP has been able to meet the need, albeit differently. This is the strongest indicator that Global Shop Solutions ERP will work in MOST situations. Their flexibility makes everything possible.
The fact that it is always live and updating constantly is very helpful to our processes.
The cross-module integration is seamless, allowing for what has been done in one department to populate into the fields of another screen quickly.
I cannot say enough about the support team both through the 800 number and through our CI Manager, and the weekly "Friday Features" learning opportunities. If you don't learn the system it is because you have not put forth any effort whatsoever.
Prophet 21 could use better management tools for its own data. The database has a tendency to bloat and over time can grow exceedingly large without administrative intervention.
The UI can be cluttered at times and the windows tend to jump into focus or drop from focus when it isn't expected causing user confusion and data entry errors.
Branding on forms and the UI is almost nonexistent. Customizations of screen aesthetics and form layout options should be easier and not require custom programming.
I've used Epicor Prophet 21 for about 12 years (in various iterations). It started out as CommerceCenter by Prophet 21 then became Prophet 21 by Activant and then Prophet 21 by Epicor. So frequently, when a software company is acquired, it stops being great. That has not been the case with Epicor Prophet 21. Over the years they've been under Epicor, the product has just gotten better and better, with major extensibility enhancements and new mobile components coming online.
I don't believe there is much you can't do in Epicor Prophet 21. Some of the processes, though, are fairly rigid with customizations and would either need to be tailored for another approach or the internal process would need to be changed to match how Epicor Prophet 21 is designed.
I would rate Global Shop Solutions ERP’s overall usability an 8 out of 10. The system is very capable and flexible once properly configured, but it does have a learning curve and some parts of the interface and navigation can feel a bit dated or complex for new users. Overall, after initial training and setup, it supports daily work efficiently and reliably, which is why it deserves a high score
When hosted locally, you don't have to worry about outages unless the power goes out and the battery backups fail. It can also be hosted in the cloud which is as reliable as your internet connection. There's really no concern for outages in the software by itself. Outages are controlled by external factors.
I do feel like there are some screens and reports that could be streamlined. Prophet 21 likes to load features all at once when going into a program but a quicker load time into order entry, for example, is worth having a little latency while a non-essential tab that doesn't get used very often is opened.
The support is some of the worst I've seen across all the 122 software vendors we work with. Everything is offshore and it is always vague answers, links to wiki's that don't apply, and when we pay for project support they charge $200 an hour for someone who works remote from Mexico to call you on a poor quality VoIP connection that isn't all that well trained and often doesn't have basic IT skills
While I'm able to handle most service questions from my users, if I'm not available, calling GSS is typically a 10-15 minute call and the problem is solved for them. I am a super user of GSS because I'm the ERP manager and I have been using it for over 10 years. With that said, if I reach out to service, it's a BIG problem. I appreciate that even in those instances GSS is quick to grab data and get me off the phone to research it on their own. If it's a problem stopping work, they're all hands on deck to get us back running, but in most instances, I don't need that. I need them to investigate, find a fix, and get back to me while I'm able to keep working on other things. They are very good at not wasting my time and for that, I really appreciate them.
The on-site training was great. I give it a 9 because the trainer was a chain smoker who had to excuse herself a lot to smoke. Kind of unprofessional. She was a very good trainer though.
I had a great time with the online training. Most of the online trainings were live which meant you had opportunity to interact with instructors. I liked trying to derail them by posting funny comments to the chat window. The only complaint I had about these is they weren't recorded for later use. Well, another complaint is that they were sometimes too short.
The overall implementation is smooth. Prophet 21 sends someone on-site for as many days as you need them to step through the initial implementation. Data conversion is the biggest trick. Make sure you get help with that portion of implementation. Also, be sure to offer plenty of training incentives to keep people coming back for more training. A little money spent up front will save you tons of headaches later.
I have not looked at them in detail, but have received a lot of positive comments through out the industry, we're on the fence in regards to viability of cloud based solutions, but from the information we have received it seems like NetSuite has developed a good solution for the industry.
We moved to Global Shop Solutions ERP from Visual. Even though the table structure in Visual was easier to learn, we gained a lot more visibility into things with Global Shop Solutions ERP. Visual was difficult to customize, you were required to use the consultant they assigned you, and anything not done by that contractor was not warrantied. With Global Shop Solutions ERP you have a ton of consultants to choose from, the pricing for them is very reasonable, and they are available readily. In our experience, Oracle was...horrible. I think if you have the need to take control of your ERP and be able to make changes on your own, Global Shop Solutions ERP is the only choice.
Prophet 21 is very reliable. The database is robust and well designed. The application is also hard to break. If there's one feature I don't like, it's that they haven't accounted for the dreaded single quote. That's kind of the bane of Microsoft SQL's existence. They need to escape that character in every field that will accept it in the system. Otherwise, the system throws all kinds of errors and many times will crash.
See instantly all information for part number, sales history, customer info, makes phone calls easy instead of having to say, let me look into that and get back to you
Save money on purchasing goods, see history, now inventory levels, helps make sure we don't run out of items
