Prophet 21 from Epicor is a distribution ERP providing SCM capabilities (warehouse, inventory) as well as the ability to streamline quote-to-cash cycle, improve margins, and fulfill orders.
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Infor ERP
Score 5.1 out of 10
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Infor ERP is an enterprise ERP platform focused on the needs of manufacturing and distribution sectors. The product was traditionally offered on-premise, but is now available in a cloud version.
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.)
It is well suited for accountants that know what information they need for accounting transactions and financial reports. It is well suited for manufacturing since the progress from raw materials to finished goods is easy to track and analyze. The software is well suited to handle individual jobs but then roll up reporting for families of products that are similar.
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.
Infor ERP is a great stand alone ERP system but add-on software packages are often needed to attain a greater level of detail. Our organization has recently teamed up with ScottTech to implement a warehouse management system called PickPro. PickPro will provide us with up-to-the-minute inventory information driven by the many transactions and movement of material that occurs throughout our processes.
The Human Resource module is not used by our organization as it lacks functionality.
Reports and background tasks/updates often need to be run after-hours as speed is a serious issue and can hinder other parallel users.
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.
Their support has been second to none. Quick to respond, knowledgeable in their help. Whenever our clients have a new need or strategy change, Infor is there to help us implement that for our client in an efficient manner. Cost continues to be a prime mover for our renewal of this product.
Overall, I love using Prophet 21. With a few rare exceptions, functions within the application have been streamlined so they can be used with as few clicks and key presses as possible. That's not to say they've given up any functionality. The platform is incredibly powerful; just easy to use.
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
We always go thru our own IT team first. However, when they don't have the answer Infor support is always ready to resolve any question you would be asking, and they always get back to you promptly.
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.
In my opinion, Infor ERP lacks in a lot of customizable features and navigation through the system. I believe If you are using this for the recruitment process in your organization, the system is very slow to navigate, does not accommodate for high volume of applicants, and you can experience a lot of issues with communication between systems. In my opinion, Infor ERP does not collect or transmit data easily between other systems, even when integrated.
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.
Huge efficiency gains, faster response to customers, far reduced costs from improved effective process management, reduced labor costs - doing more with less
