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Epicor Kinetic

Epicor Kinetic
Formerly Epicor ERP

Overview

What is Epicor Kinetic?

Epicor Kinetic (the name of the former Epicor ERP) presents a wide feature breadth, customizability, and scalability, typical product-centric cloud ERP offerings. It is meant as a single, end-to-end software solution for businesses, and is available on-premise, hosted, or in…

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Epicor ERP is a versatile software that offers comprehensive toolsets and customization options to streamline the entire manufacturing …
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Epicor by Bob

10 out of 10
December 02, 2021
Incentivized
Epicor is used across all departments except R&D and outside sales.

Epicor streamlines all activity and helps communicate between …
Continue reading

Epicor for ERP only

3 out of 10
February 13, 2020
Incentivized
Epicor is being used as an ERP solution to manage and handle incoming and outgoing orders of machinery, parts, and production. It is …
Continue reading

Epicor Cheerleader

10 out of 10
October 17, 2018
Incentivized
Currently use Epicor ERP in all of our manufacturing, customer service, finance and engineering departments, some sales also included. Our …
Continue reading
Read all reviews

Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 66 features
  • Cost of goods sold (38)
    8.9
    89%
  • Order entry (39)
    8.0
    80%
  • Dashboards (36)
    7.9
    79%
  • Role-based user permissions (37)
    7.0
    70%
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Pricing

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N/A
Unavailable

What is Epicor Kinetic?

Epicor Kinetic (the name of the former Epicor ERP) presents a wide feature breadth, customizability, and scalability, typical product-centric cloud ERP offerings. It is meant as a single, end-to-end software solution for businesses, and is available on-premise, hosted, or in the cloud as a software…

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Product Demos

Epicor Collaborate - Software Demo | ERP | Epicor Kinetic

YouTube
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Features

Payroll Management

Provides for pay calculation and benefit plan administration, in addition to managing direct deposit, salary revisions and payroll tracking.

7.4
Avg 7.2

Customization

This addresses a company’s ability to configure the software to fit its specific use case and workflow.

6
Avg 7.3

Security

This component helps a company minimize the security risks by controlling access to the software and its data, and encouraging best practices among users.

7.5
Avg 8.1

Reporting & Analytics

Users can report on and analyze usage, performance, ROI, and/or other metrics of success.

8.4
Avg 7.0

General Ledger and Configurable Accounting

Financial management solution, including capabilities for general ledger and configurable accounting

7.1
Avg 7.6

Inventory Management

The ability to track and manage the flow of goods or materials into and out of an inventory.

9.9
Avg 7.9

Order Management

The ability to process orders, and track them from quote to cash.

8.7
Avg 7.8

Subledger and Financial Process

Revenue management solution including capabilities for subledgers and financial processes

8.8
Avg 7.4

Project Financial Management

Project financial management solution including capabilities for project budgeting, cost control, billing and contract management.

9.2
Avg 7.6

Project Execution Management

Project execution management solution including capabilities for project scheduling, resource management, and team member task management.

7.6
Avg 6.8

Grants Management

Grants management solution for higher education, public sector, or non-profits with capabilities for managing financial awards for program and project funding

7.8
Avg 7.6

Procurement

Procurement management solution with capabilities for sourcing, contracting, procure-to-pay and supplier management

8.2
Avg 7.0

Risk Management

Risk management solution with capabilities for managing controls, assessing control effectiveness, certifying controls, and addressing deficiencies

7.9
Avg 6.5

Logistics

Logistics solution with capabilities for transportation planning, transportation execution, trade compliance, customs management, warehouse management and warehouse workforce management.

7.3
Avg 6.9

Manufacturing

Manufacturing solution for managing manufacturing processes and costs.

8.1
Avg 7.5

Supply Chain

Supply Chain Planning solution with capabilities for planning, performance monitoring, change responses and execution.

9.4
Avg 7.2

Product Lifecycle Management

Product Lifecycle Management solution with capabilities for innovation management, product development

7.6
Avg 7.3
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Product Details

What is Epicor Kinetic?

Epicor Kinetic (the name of the former Epicor ERP) presents a wide feature breadth, customizability, and scalability, typical product-centric cloud ERP offerings. It is meant as a single, end-to-end software solution for businesses, and is available on-premise, hosted, or in the cloud as a software as a service (SaaS) solution.

Epicor Kinetic software offers a modular approach with robust capabilities focused on reducing costs, streamlining processes, and improving customer responsiveness across the enterprise. Given its modularity and customizability, Epicor Kinetic is able to solve a wide variety of business problems and needs.

Kinetic Modules

  • Epicor Asset Management - Users can record, track, and depreciate fixed assets with Asset Management, an integral module of Kinetic. It provides a register of all fixed assets used in the organization.
  • Kinetic Supply Chain Management (SCM) - For manufacturers, from sourcing raw materials to delivering finished products, it offers the visibility to transform the manufacturing supply chain into a results-driven value chain. SCM is a full suite of enterprise application capabilities.
  • Kinetic Planning and Scheduling - The Kinetic MRP module provides manufacturers and distributors with forecasting and master production scheduling (MPS) capabilities.
  • Kinetic Sales Management - Generates and tracks customer or prospect requests for quotation (RFQs)—from the time of receipt until an order is placed. Users can create estimates and get quotes out more quickly, with pricing.
  • Kinetic Customer Relationship Management(CRM) - Provides the information and oversight to deliver the best possible customer experience at every touchpoint. Connecting employees, departments, and supply chain partners with Kinetic capabilities.
  • Kinetic Project Management - Financial solution for project-based manufacturing.
  • Kinetic Product Management - Product Management serves as the central hub for processes, product data and history. It provides collaboration and data exchange among enterprise users who interact with these products, like product managers, engineers, salespeople, buyers, and quality assurance representatives. It controls the process to ensure the right product is built using the right bill of material, routing, and specifications.
  • Kinetic Global Business Management - For managing global manufacturing operations and multiple sites with centralization and visibility.

Epicor Kinetic Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux, Mac
Mobile ApplicationNo
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(115)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Epicor ERP is a versatile software that offers comprehensive toolsets and customization options to streamline the entire manufacturing process. Users have praised its ability to enhance data transparency and promote efficient workflows, allowing them to sell, engineer, and manufacture without the need for unique IDs. With its integration capabilities and master scheduling feature, Epicor ERP has proven beneficial for various departments such as order entry, sales, IT, finance, purchasing, and engineering. Customers have reported improved visibility between departments and increased collaboration within their organizations through this centralized database. The software's wide range of applications includes sales, accounting, production scheduling, supply chain management, and human capital management. By replacing multiple databases and streamlining processes, Epicor ERP has successfully reduced overhead costs while increasing productivity. Users have also highlighted its real-time data integration and user-friendly features, which enable efficient decision-making across different facets of the business. Additionally, it has been implemented in multi-site setups to combine manufacturing sites and sales offices across different locations. Overall, Epicor ERP addresses issues related to multiple databases and inefficient data management, providing a comprehensive solution that supports growth and enhances operations in various industries.

Highly Customizable: Users have praised Epicor ERP for its high level of customization, with many stating that it allows them to tailor the software to meet their specific business needs. This flexibility eliminates the need for extensive customization or reliance on Epicor for software changes.

Valuable Data Export Feature: The ability to export data to an Excel spreadsheet is seen as a valuable feature by users, allowing them to easily manipulate and analyze the data in Excel. This feature is highly beneficial for in-depth analysis and reporting purposes.

Useful Dashboards: Users find the dashboards in Epicor ERP to be highly useful and easily updatable. This streamlined interface enhances productivity and efficiency by providing quick access to important information and facilitating real-time decision-making.

Support Team: Unhelpful and Slow to Respond Many users have expressed dissatisfaction with the support team, stating that they have encountered issues with unhelpful support, slow response times, and a lack of understanding of the manufacturing process and the system. Some users have found it frustrating to receive canned responses from support and have struggled with upgrading due to lack of assistance. User Interface: Confusing and Inconsistent The user interface has been a source of frustration for many users, as they find it confusing and inconsistent. Users have mentioned difficulties in performing tasks due to the unclear layout and design. Some reviewers have also noted that certain functions within the software have different names but perform the same tasks, causing confusion. Navigation: Too Many Tabs and Non-Straightforward Links Several users have reported difficulties with navigation within the software. They feel overwhelmed by too many tabs and non-straightforward links, making it challenging to find specific features or information. This issue has led to frustration among users who desire a more streamlined navigation experience.

Users frequently recommend the following approaches when using the software:

  • Request structured and pointed demonstrations and speak to references who have used the most current version of the software. This helps in assessing the software's capabilities and suitability for specific needs.

  • Consider the flexibility of choosing between dedicated/single tenancy and multi-tenancy. Having the option to select the most suitable deployment model has proven valuable for different organizations with varying requirements.

  • Prioritize data standards and people readiness before starting discovery sessions. Taking this step ensures that data is standardized and users are adequately prepared, leading to a smoother implementation process and successful outcomes.

  • Maximize adoption from a wide user base to fully leverage the application's potential in achieving success.

These recommendations are based on feedback from users, which highlight these approaches as valuable when working with the software.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-21 of 21)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
December 02, 2021

Epicor by Bob

Bob Ladd | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Epicor is used across all departments except R&D and outside sales.

Epicor streamlines all activity and helps communicate between departments. Obviously, we couldn't run our company without Epicor.
  • Handling all types of orders - jobs, purchases, and customer orders.
  • MRP scheduling is very good and easily modified by part or group.
  • Easily getting other info about a key field by right-clicking and traveling to a new form.
  • RMA and DMR. Although it can handle these, the function seems like an afterthought. It isn't as smooth as the rest of Epicor.
  • Reporting is ok but it runs slowly. We are still using Crystal.
  • Barcoding in general but mostly the warehouse management part.
As stated before all orders are handled well but the Jobs [feature] still seem like it is for a job shop and not build to stock. We backflush and the setup and labor backflush is problematic. The accounting piece works very well but monthly reporting is very limited and needs improvement. One thing I love is all setup based on hierarchy. This allows for managing thing at a higher level.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Epicor ERP across all of our core business functions: sales, finance, engineering, supply chain and manufacturing.
  • Querying data is very easy with the built in business activity query builder. Deploying the data in useful dashboards is easy and highly valuable
  • It provides all the core functionality we need to run our engineer to order business
  • Recent addition of the rest API allows integrations and querying of cloud data with 3rd party BI tools
  • The shop floor data collection screens are not very intuitive and the gui is quite dated
  • Report building in the SaaS environment is very clunky - it is hard to test as you develop reports
  • It is still not fully mobile/web compliant - it is improving, but key functions like the manufacturing data collection still needs Windows based devices to work.
For us the cloud solution is a good fit as we have little in house IT support. We have also focused on using it out of the box as we did not have an existing system that was being replaced. Overall, it performs the core ERP functions well and I see the road map heading in the right direction to address mobility and add missing functionality.
Michael Palecek | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
TJ Hale currently uses Epicor ERP software to handle our supply chain and scheduling/manufacturing of our engineer to order items. We use the software to handle everything from the initial sales order through the manufacturer and the purchase of component items. We finally use the accounting features of the software to provide financial reporting. Everything that can be done through Epicor is currently being done.
  • Customization.
  • Scheduling.
  • Complicated customization.
  • Many of the functions which are used by most companies need to be added by users.
Epicor ERP is well suited for most manufacturing companies and the level of customization would make it a good fit for many companies. There is a pretty steep learning curve but most of the processes and data handling can be customized to fit just about every business. The level of sophistication of the software does demand either a company with IT resources or enough capital to outsource these changes.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Epicor is used by virtually every employee at our company. Our production department uses it to control orders, inventory, and quotes. Our Purchasing department uses it to control purchase orders, and our Engineering department uses it to view parts, assemblies, and projects. Our manufacturing department also uses it to view inventory, current orders, and keep track of shop floor hours. Finance has a large presence as well, viewing the cost of all of the above-mentioned items.
  • Connecting all features together and switching between screens.
  • No glitches or unexpected crashes.
  • Requires a very experience user/team to maintain.
  • Some features are not flexible and require change of process to conform.
Epicor is a great "all-encompassing" program that connects all facets of information within your company. Any user can easily pick it up within a few days and find which areas and which screens suit them and their needs. Epicor is very big and probably isn't necessary for a smaller company. It could seem pretty overwhelming.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is used as a whole through the entire organization. From start to finish our team uses Epicor, it is our only ERP system that we have in place.
  • Epicor has a great dashboard and reports capabilities.
  • Easily accessible from one module to the next, very user-friendly interface.
  • Ability to setup MRP and extremely user Data Management Tool to import mass amounts of changes or updates to parts and BOM.
  • Personalizations and customizations getting lost after updates.
  • Webex's should be recommended more often for users having issues
  • More tools for users to fix own issues
Well suited for an organization running jobs for multiple sub-assemblies. If the company sets up its business practices around Epicor's ERP functionalities the process is definitely more uniform and seamless. In some cases such as our own, we made the system work according to how we were accustomed to in our old system and we have run into some obstacles because of how we manipulated it.
October 19, 2018

Epicor Cloud Software

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is used across all departments. We use it for all aspects of our operations except payroll (sales, inventory, accounting, manufacturing, planning, purchasing, shipping, and receiving.)
  • Ability to create custom reports
  • Ability to tailor the software to current business practices
  • User friendly
  • Planning module is not intuitive
  • Engineering workbench is cumbersome when doing repetitive entries. Should have ability to copy and paste entries on a mass scale.
  • Whenever there is an upgrade there should be more detail on the changes.
Well suited for materials planning.Customer contact module too complicated. The engineering module could be more user friendly when creating large routings.
October 17, 2018

Epicor Cheerleader

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Currently use Epicor ERP in all of our manufacturing, customer service, finance and engineering departments, some sales also included. Our next phase is to merge Epicor with Salesforce to have it be more seamless. Has addressed and taken care of manual record keeping, spreadsheets, communication and error. True MRP with exploded BOM instead of flat BOM which we had before.
  • Most important---Epicor ERP keeps technology up to date with meaningful updates and revisions so that we will never have another legacy system again!
  • Epicor ERP gives you the opportunity to have access to your data and just about do anything with it so that you can see and format how you need it.
  • Access other areas needed without having to find and open more menu options. Just right click and open with.
  • Being able to see and have excel manipulation and capability within Financial reporting instead of having to use Excel Connect.
  • Having to close the entire program to see new Menu items or data pool refresh.
  • Some windows need to be saved after each box within the window before you can continue-instead of one save per window when complete or auto save.
Personally believe that Epicor is the best company out there for ERP. Large company who is personable, accountable and genuinely cares to make your business successful. Always striving for ease of use while keeping up with the world of change. Epicor is more of an extension of our business than a supplier of a product.
Michael Pavlica | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Epicor ERP v10 is used at Omega Plastics, Inc. as our primary means of managing and tracking our day to day activities and planning for a great overall client experience. Epicor is used from quoting through shipping, including shop floor MES. Epicor was implemented at Omega to help support our growth in the Medical Device market and improve our real-time scheduling capabilities as we both build over 300 injection molds and provide development part runs as well as low-volume production runs requiring FDA CFR820 / GMP compliance. Epicor is easy to set up, modify, and customize to our business as well as link to 3rd party apps such as Power BI or Excel. Epicor allows for real-time data analysis and financial reporting to help make decisions faster. Epicor offers both on premise and cloud solutions, providing flexibility and control at a reasonable cost. Epicor continues to add features and modules, and has integrated Mattec for real-time shop floor machine reporting, XLConnect for custom integration with Excel to provide power analytics, DocStar document management, and Manifest for direct Fed Ex/UPS integration.
  • Epicor's user interface is easily customizable so that users can focus their main access screen to support just those functions that are relevant to their work day; helping to avoid menu clutter and confusion.
  • Epicor advanced scheduling provides true drag and drop customizable dashboard with real-time updates to allow users to easily track jobs on the shop floor in an easy to understand Gantt-style (MS Project style) graphical interface.
  • Epicor's customizable dashboards are also updateable, adding the ability for real-time collaboration and updates. From nearly every key field in Epicor, even on dashboards, the ability to drill down to source data is one "right click" away.
  • Epicor reporting uses standard Microsoft SQL SSRS instead of 3rd party add-ins such as Crystal Reports. This improves speed significantly during report generation, and ensures a common platform for upgrades without concerns about rewriting reports to incompatible versions.
  • Epicor has a "Google-like" search feature (Enterprise Search) that is top notch. It literally allows you to search on any key word in your data set and brings back relevant results in various groupings to make it simple to quickly get to the data you need. This is the favorite feature of new users.
  • Epicor's costing features could use improvement. Although excellent in either a make to order or make to stock environment, Epicor has trade-offs when used in a mixed-mode environment. Of particular concern is when partial shipments are made during a production run without the job quantity being changed when closed short and a new job issued. Unless this is done, Epicor may under or over-cost early shipments and then "reconcile" this at job closing, resulting in erratic financial results on 2 shipments from the same job.
  • Epicor's gross margin report stops updating with actual costs as soon as a "ship" transaction is created. For most companies this will not be an issue, however, in an environment where shipments may take place before all costs are in, this skews the margin reports greatly, resulting in much higher margins from the manufacturing reports than what can be expected on the financials. Fortunately, the production detail report will always be correct; however, there is no reason why the gross margin report can't be modified to include "ADJ-CST" transactions which would correct for this, however, by default, Epicor's standard margin report does not use this functionality.
  • Epicor has great flexibility in screen customization, however, it isn't intuitive in making these changes, therefore, this feature set, which could significantly reduce data input times, goes mostly unused.
  • Epicor has a built-in ability to generate quick queries, however, fails to take advantage of recent innovations in query development that would make it easier for novice users to generate their own results without IT help. With the advent of AI, this is a future improvement opportunity.
Epicor is an excellent system for most manufacturing customers and offers several features previously only offered on the very large (e.g. Oracle, PeopleSoft, etc) level platforms. Yet the pricing is mid-level, and the expandability through additional modules provides a great opportunity for future business growth. The architecture is easily scalable, fast, and offers great options for both on premise and hosted systems. Epicor is flexible, and large enough that regular updates and enhancements continue to be adopted to improve functionality and effectiveness.

It is however, not for everyone. Competition in this sector is very good, with several mid-level systems being available at a similar price point. If you are considering adopting a new ERP system and are in the plastics space, you also owe it to yourself and your team to consider IQMS, which is becoming a de-facto standard in this segment. Also, for specific medical sectors, you will find that Epicor software validation for CFR Part 11 compliance can be quite costly-- although the software is capable of supporting this with modification.

Overall, Epicor is a solid choice. Ultimately, it will be up to your team to determine what works best for your needs. You won't be disappointed with Epicor if you do the due diligence and take the time needed to properly review and demo the product. Remember though, demos are typically "best case" staged, so be sure to throw several curveballs at your vendor and bring out the unique requirements of your business.
May 28, 2018

Epicor ERP Review

Andrew Frank | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Epicor across our entire organization, covering our entire quote-to-cash process. Regarding business problems, we primarily use Epicor to manage manufacturing execution and provide financial analysis. Epicor provides data and reporting features that we use many functions.
  • Out of the box functionality -- one program with everything you need to run the business
  • Ability to build BPMs rather than full-scale customizations
  • Knowledgeable implementation team
  • More robust in-program training features
  • Better coordination between operational and financial implementation consultants
  • More robust purchasing/materials procurement module with an out-of-the-box capability to manage purchases by PPV
Epicor ERP is very strong for our multi-site manufacturing business, where we need to set up multiple machining resource centers within Epicor. I'm not sure it would be as appropriate for a services business or a business that is more project-based. For our product-based environment, Epicor ERP is a really solid solution.
May 01, 2018

Epicor Review

Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Epicor is being used across the business in two of the countries where we operate. We have a plan to roll out to all countries. While the implementation has brought us many benefits, it is fair to say that we have a lot of continuous improvement to work through to realise all of the benefits an ERP solution can deliver.
  • Provides mostly error-free key functionality.
  • Provides tool kit to enable us to develop our own queries and reports.
  • Consultancy - we are still suffering from the poor advice by Epicor consultants we were given during our implementation.
  • Consultancy - it is near impossible to get prompt consultancy support from Epicor.
  • Account Management - I don't feel like a valued customer of Epicor and my requests are not dealt with promptly.
  • Epiccare - some tickets are handled promptly and well, but sometimes the responses feel like delaying tactics e.g. we report a problem that has caused a data anomaly that we say we cannot replicate and the reply comes back to ask us to replicate it!
Epicor works well for key business functions, raising POs, raising manufacturing jobs, performing accounting transactions etc. Some features exist but are not used e.g. there is a facility to record an expiry date on a lot. However, MRP is quite happy to suggest we use the product beyond its expiry.
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is being used across the whole organization from online ordering to production to quality to shipping to financing. It was implemented to address the need for reducing the multiple systems and spreadsheets that existed previously. Our flow of information needed to be better, from entering data all the way through to detailed reporting.
  • Allowing access to the back-end data through BAQs and MSSQL is very important for pulling reports and making sense of data
  • Epicor DMT Tool for importing data is very important because manual entry is time-consuming
  • Make customizing screens easier. Epicor places importance on the fact that Epicor is very customizable, however, it is very hard for the average user to customize anything. You need a programmer/admin and it's very costly to hire someone to do it. Needs to be easier.
  • The whole Epicor experience is not very user-friendly. i.e. why is there a customer entry and customer tracker screen? That's 1980's thinking. It should be one screen with permissions based fields.
  • Epicor's search feature is not very good. They call it the "Google" search for Epicor. It's nothing like Google. It doesn't provide suggestions, you have to select menu search or enterprise search. It only updates once a day. It's not even accessible from the home screen!
  • The menu is a waste of time. Like I said before, who uses a menu these days? Since when did you go on Amazon.com and drill down to the products from the menu? Google killed menus years ago.
  • The SSRS reports are garbage. Ugly and unusable out of the box, and very hard to customize.
Epicor is suited if you have multiple systems and want to join into one. It actually works very well but you'll need a dedicated person or persons to manage and customize it and deal with the multiple user complaints. If you are used to an online system like QuickBooks or something that is easy to use, you will not enjoy it!
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Epicor ERP covers the entire company. From office personnel to shop floor employees. Epicor addresses all the day to day functions from entering quotes/orders to scheduling how the shop floor works. Every employee uses the Epicor ERP system in some sort of way. Whether it is tracking or entering some kind of data.
  • Giving the users the ability to customize. This helps because everyone likes to see different things.
  • The scheduling Modules. The ability to global schedule gives the shop a better look at real time information.
  • The ability to create custom dashboards and reports. It lets a company look at information that means more to them. The standard reports don't always give the best information or the detail that is needed.
  • Lack of detail in reports. Some reports don't show all the detail that is needed.
  • The time it takes to get support. They take a couple of days to respond to issues the are a high priority
  • List views having too useless information in the default view. Some of the list views in some modules have a lot of useless information, but don't include some of the more useful information. This is just for our company though could be different for others.
The best thing about Epicor is that almost everything can be customized to the user. This makes things easier to track, which saves people time from trying to look for items. Epicor could do a little better of a job in the standard reports and list views. Only showing information that is important to it's user
April 04, 2018

Epicor without a net

Steve F Cooper | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is used as a standard corporate ERP to replace various site ERP/MES systems as a result of acquisitions. One corporate instance will help enable multiple key business strategies including vertical integrating finance, operations, logistics.
  • Inside out architecture provides consistent and required function integration (ie. no bolt on's) while providing integration with most popular software where required.
  • Fairly robust and flexible material (MRP) and job scheduling functionality. Provides flexibility to use many key scheduling criteria to fine tune capabilities to match business/site requirements.
  • Flexibility to enforce same or modified business rules, security model, reporting, etc for each business/location.
  • Job costing and analysis is flexible and easy to set up and maintain.
  • Standard implementation methodology needs to be modified to better address use of company data for robust testing and improved data migration.
  • Consulting bench (a number of highly experienced and available consultants) not large enough. Some third-party implementation partners need better and more up to date training.
  • Data collection very tailored to discrete manufacturing; need more flexibility to meet specific requirements/processes for business with other manufacturing and/or services models.
Well suited for: MFG to order, MFG to stock.
Less suited for: Engineered to order, straight services model (no inventory & different costing)
Travis Kenworthy P.E. | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our company is an engineering design firm that supplies large, custom equipment. Each project takes 8 months to 2 years to complete. We use Epicor to handle all the project management, purchasing, shipping and accounting needs. At the risk of sounding like an Epicor ad, here is the good stuff: Before we had Epicor we did all our accounting in Quickbooks and used spreadsheets to handle our project planning. It was a huge challenge to keep track of costs associated with the projects. Now, we have a well defined process where all costs are accounted for. We try to manage our finances on a monthly basis, and before it would take 2-3 months after the month was completed to know how we did on that given month. Now, with Epicor ERP, all of our project managers can see live accounting information for their projects and make more informed decisions. Our project managers can do their monthly finance close-out in just a couple of hours. where before it would take days of work for each project manager and lots of waiting for communication between them and the accounting and purchasing departments.
  • Epicor has a pretty good project management module. We are able to set up projects with multiple phases as needed and track costs at both a phase level and top project level. You can use the system to assign tasks to employees working on the project and track assignments that way. Under each phase we create an Epicor "job" that can store all the parts that we need to purchase or fabricate for a project. Then we can track what parts have been purchased, received, and shipped for the project.
  • Epicor is set up to have a lot of features that most users probably aren't going to use, but it is convenient to have most of what you need available. Then, you can hide parts of the program you won't need.
  • Possibly the best thing about Epicor is that it has a lot of customization tools, and the system allows you to customize it in a lot of ways so you can make it look and behave how your organization needs. One very strong area of the customization is the ability to create information dashboards where you can show any type of data that you like to see. A great example of this is a Project Management Dashboard we built that allows all our employees to see how the projects are doing and what their assigned tasks are.
  • Expandability. This is another great way that Epicor is customizable. As an ERP system Epicor is primarily a bunch of tables. And thankfully, Epicor allows you to add new fields to the tables, so when we want to show what kind of paint goes on our parts, or if a part is purchased or fabricated, we can add fields for those items to the part table, and use it as if those were built in fields. You can add new tables, so we have a place to store lists of all the paint choices (or anything else you want to keep track up).
  • Maybe this was really smooth, but it seemed like implementation was a lot of work. As part of a 4 person implementation team, it took us a month or so of going through tutorials, the help files, and meeting with Epicor consultants to learn how we wanted to use Epicor (that month was pretty light, maybe 5-6 hours per week for each of us). Then it took about 3 months setting up Epicor to meet our needs. (The 4 of us each worked 25-30 hours a week during those 3 months on the implementation since we still had production work to do)
  • Epicor can be overwhelming for new users. Our normal users have a hard time at first getting used to it because there is so much to see, learn and do in it, epecially for people with less technical expertise.
  • As the person on the implementation team in charge of customizations, my biggest complaint is the lack of documentation on programming in Epicor. While they do have great documentation on how to use many of their built in customization tools, they give you the ability to write code in C# that should allow you to do anything. But, there is very little to no documentation on the API (Application Programming Interface). Most other programs will have a large help file where users can see the thousands of functions available to program within the system with info on what the functions do, how they are accessed and what inputs they need and sample code for each function. With Epicor.. nope, nothing. Maybe if you buy their SDK for another $24,000 they will have a help file included with that. I don't know.
Epicor could be a good fit for companies that have grown out Quickbooks and need something with more accounting functions and ways to integrate project management, purchasing and accounting into one place. Small companies that can make do without it could save a lot of money by not having everything as organized as it will be in an ERP system though.
Don Johnson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Epicor ERP to run all aspects of our business including finance, shipping, receiving, purchasing, AP, AR, and production.
  • Reporting on time and material
  • Tracking job activity
  • Handling hundreds of purchase orders daily
  • I would like to see more mobile presence
Epicor ERP is more suited for companies that wish to centralize all data and aspects of their business. I don't think its as suited for just the use of one module.
Richard Bird | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Epicor ERP (9.05 & 10.0) has been used by my current employer across the organization since 2013. My previous employer used Epicor Vantage 8.03 and now Epicor ERP 9.05, starting in 2008. Epicor ERP serves as the primary software package used to run and manage the organization, Quote to Cash. Epicor ERP is modularized software solution available on premise or hosted, which uses MS SQL, IIS and C#. Modules I have used include, Quote Mgmt, Sales Mgmt, Case Mgmt, Field Service, Product Configurator, Equip Maintenance, Production Mgmt, Job Mgmt, Advanced Scheduling, ECO/Engineering Mgmt, MRP, Data Collection (MES/Handheld), Quality Assurance, Project Mgmt, Asset Mgmt, Inventory Mgmt, Shipping/Receiving, Purchase Mgmt, Financial Mgmt, Multi Site, Multi Company, Multi Currency, etc.
  • Business Process Management - Every company needs to customize their ERP software, but that comes with many risks, including getting 'version locked' and not being able to take advantage of newer versions. Epicor BPMs make changing how the system behaves easy for admins while removing this risk. BPMs provide Pre and Post Directives around most Methods in most Objects. There are also Data directives that trigger on data updates.
  • BAQ Query Builder - With Epicor there is no need to manually write queries, BAQs make this easy, leveraging most of the MS SQL/T-SQL features and function (including sub queries). The Query Builder interface makes building complex queries quite easy. While a novice at SQL query writing, I have been able to build many complex BAQs with the Query Builder, many times not knowing where to start. The BAQs can then be used in many different ways in the software, including Dashboards, Searches, etc.
  • Dashboards - With BAQs in hand the data can be published to dashboards you build to display the data in many different ways in grids or graphs. The dashboards can even be configured in a drill down fashion by using the row selection in one grid to filter the data in another grid. Field criteria input fields can also be set up to filter the data. Dashboards can even be set up to be updatable so data can be updated directly.
  • Third Party integrations - Since Epicor is built on IIS as a service architecture, it can be called and used by other APIs and third party software. The list is long but some of my favorites include, Service Connect, DMT (Data Management Tool), Magneto, etc.
  • Bugs - Epicor has a history of releasing versions with more bugs than most are used to. Since I first started working with Epicor software this has improved dramatically and now Epicor releases patches every two weeks or so, much like Windows updates, which usually can be applied with minimal impact. This new model has really helped to address bugs much quicker.
  • Performance - While old AS400 systems set the bar for performance, nothing else can really compete, and that goes the same for Epicor. Depending on how your environment is set up and configured performance results can vary dramatically. With Epicor ERP 10, most of the business logic layer bottlenecks have been eliminated and most performance issues seem to come down to the SQL server performance (more RAM the better) and poor query design.
  • Complexity vs. Function - I would say that Epicor does a good job of adjusting the product to customer requests, however having a broad functionality tends to introduce complexities that can be mind melting to configure properly to match business needs. Though most of the time it can be done, just takes careful critical thought and problem solving.
In my experience, I have found that Epicor ERP has been well suited for almost every business scenario I have encountered. However, if speed is what you want, Epicor (nor most modern ERPs) is not for you. In most cases the challenge is understanding exactly what the business needs, and often what the business needs and thinks it needs are not the same. I would encourage businesses to give the software design a real try before trying to modify it. Just because you can modify with BPMs and customization, doesn't mean you should. In many cases business users were surprised by the improvements when they let go of 'way we've always done it' and really gave it a try.
Chris Wineinger | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Epicor ERP solved an issue with visibility between departments. We are using it from design to shipping and billing and everything in between. As Epicor progresses in its advancement of the software, we can see the future capabilities and like where they are going. The company is gearing up for an update to Epicor's latest version which will add more flexibility and productivity increases.
  • Custom engineering and manufacturing are supported extremely well because of the engineered to order system coupled with the "part on the fly" capability.
  • The data can be easily exported to an Excel spreadsheet, if necessary, and manipulated there for analysis. Updatable dashboards allow data to be viewed/changed/entered using a grid type of layout so multiple records can all be seen at one time.
  • Toolsets that allow us to customize the software as little or as much as we like to meet our business needs.
  • Maintenance costs are higher than they should be.
  • The switch to SSRS reporting was difficult to say the least. Abandoning Crystal reporting after 10 years is hard to get over.
  • Support is a hit or miss. Financial support is good while technical support some times (not always) can take days or longer to resolve an issue.

Before a company begins the selection process for ANY new ERP system, they need to look at each business process they have currently and document each one (what are the steps necessary to get the process completed) - i.e., how do they do a quote, how do the do an order, etc. Make sure every step is documented, especially the unique steps for your company.

During the selection process, ask the people from Epicor to show you how this could be accomplished in Epicor, knowing that there may be more than one way. If there are any processes that are unique to your business, explain them and ask the sales rep to demonstrate how those processes could be done using the Epicor software. An Epicor consultant that sits in on your discovery sessions can help point you to the correct areas of the software for better success.

Rashell Bustamante | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Our company creates custom manufacturing systems for the medical industry. We upgraded to the new version of Epicor ERP because it integrated with SolidWorks. We also needed to implement one master scheduling system for the entire company. Pretty much everyone at our company uses the system – order entry, sales, IT, finance, purchasing, and engineering. We use the system to manage all aspects of the supply chain.
  • SSRS to generate reports, and the ability to add fields on the fly, makes presenting data a lot easier.
  • User interface with immediate access to information with ability to export to Excel.
  • Master scheduling capabilities within the system let us process more orders using the same amount of resources.
  • In most screens, the delete button is right next to the save button.
  • The software doesn't handle different manufacture types per part very well.
  • Receiving a part requires several additional steps that don't make sense for our company.
Even with its shortcomings, we still recommend EPICOR ERP quite frequently. The modules are fairly intuitive and flexible to handle our processes. The support is good to great. There are numerous solutions we get to keep in mind to grow into. We have found that Epicor has truly listened and done their best to accommodate their customer's needs.

William Parson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Epicor ERP is used to manage projects and their associated manufactured items from inception to completion. As a single source for information it helps minimize duplicate data entry and the errors that come with transcribing data. As an integrated ERP system all operations are reported on during real time; accounting, purchasing, manufacturing, receiving and shipping. Typical ERP systems require unique part identifiers while Epicor has the ability to use parts on the fly to sell, engineer, and manufacture anything without assigning a unique ID to the item.
  • Custom engineering and manufacturing are supported extremely well because of the engineered to order system coupled with the "part on the fly" capability.
  • Using the configurator module you are able to create products with a myriad of features and options without the need to engineer them individually and account for each possible configuration until it's needed.
  • Off the shelf integration with engineering tools like AutoCAD and SolidWorks gives Epicor an advantage over other solutions that would require extensive customization.
  • Epicor ERP is one of the top 5 ERP vendors so the development community is healthy and growing.
  • Feature documentation is confusing and needs refinement. There is crossover between certain modules such that you may be paying for something twice without realizing it.
  • Client licensing can add up quickly if you are unable to take advantage of some of the more advanced features like subscription reports or SharePoint dashboards.
  • Support is hit or miss. Financial support is usually very good while technical support can take days or longer to resolve an issue.
  • Native CRM is a bit lacking however there is direct integration with Salesforce.com.
Build to order or engineered to order manufacturing business are best suited to Epicor ERP. If you can't give every item you make a part number there are only a few options for ERP and Epicor is the best of those options. It is not a good fit for a high-volume catalog type business that relies heavily on order entry. Epicor does have other product offerings that are better suited to that environment.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized

Epicor is being used here across the whole organization from quoting to receiving cash from our customers and then reporting the results of manufacturing by our accounting department to the management team and others.

We are at the tail end of the implementation stage and have had multiple users using the system to enter and update data, as well as contribute to the customization process to mold it to our way of doing business. We have been able to "scrub" data in our current system through this process making it stronger and more useful as we go.

The Epicor ERP system addresses the current business problems we have with having multiple databases that don't always talk to one another so we end up having to enter data several times and risk entering it incorrectly in one of the databases as well as not having the ability to mine the data efficiently and effectively.

With Epicor, everything is integrated as well as being real-time. There will be no more waiting for someone to enter the days work before we can analyze the results. Dashboards will be created so managers have the data they need, when they need it.

We are already seeing benefits from the system every day through finding new ways to look at the data thus helping us with decision making!

It has already given our management team insight to the possibilities of what they can expect in the future.

  • The Epicor ERP system has the ability to be as customized as the business using it wants to customize it. If you want to see a particular field on a screen, you can add it. If the piece of data you need is something that is unique to your business, there are user defined fields in each table to add it where appropriate and display it where you want to see it. Each and every area is customizable without having to pay someone from Epicor to add it to the software and because of the way the customizations sit on a different layer from the base code, you don't have to worry so much about upgrading the base software each and every time a new release is available. Just upgrade and go. You may need to update your customizations, depending on when they were created but it shouldn't stop you from doing business and keeping up with the latest changes.
  • There are multiple ways of looking at the data either through reports or through dashboards or both. The data can be easily exported to an Excel spreadsheet, if necessary, and manipulated there for analysis. Updatable dashboards allow data to be viewed/changed/entered using a grid type of layout so multiple records can be worked on at one time without having to access them one by one.
  • Epicor listens to their users and they are continually working on improving their product while still supporting those that are not ready to jump to the next level. The latest version of their software, E10, addressed the issue of performance measured by the speed of transactions in the system. By looking at the architecture of the language it was initially structured with and seeing the problems with the exchange between Progress and SQL, they chose to move to an all SQL platform, thus improving the throughput and eliminating the handshaking process.
  • Through partnering with their user groups, both internationally and regionally, Epicor is helping to educate their users in by providing staff that is knowledgeable in the software to present at programs (Insights Annual user conference, regional user group meetings, virtual/regional summits, etc.) and/or training sessions. Users are encouraged to participate and are gaining valuable knowledge.
  • Their software support team is still needs improvement though they have come a long way from where they were 5 years ago. Difficult support questions can take a long time to get a resolution and then is "fixed" in the most current version of the software. To upgrade for some is a difficult chore because they have not taken on the task staying up-to-date and are several versions behind. Major upgrades such as from Vantage 8 to Epicor 9.05.xxx, can take months of testing because of the structure changes.
  • Epicor does a great job at selling the software and showing what it can do, but it does not do a good job at showing the path needed to getting there. Most companies think that it is just a piece of software and all they need to do is put their data in then it will work. That is far from the truth. The system is an open design and each process can be done in multiple ways, so a company has to review each process and set up how they want to use it which takes time and can't be done "overnight". Epicor does not do a good job in explaining this to potential customers. This sets the customers up for a huge disappointment and failure when they want the software to act the way it did in the demonstration right "out of the box" and it won't because it was customized for the demonstration.
  • Epicor's consultants are not the best choice for a company who is in the process of planning and implementing the software. Most of the Epicor customers I have talked to who have used Epicor's consulting team have not had success with them. Almost all of the companies have chosen to hire another 3rd party consulting company to help them complete their implementation.
  • Epicor comes with some standard reports/dashboards, but most have to be developed by the customer who purchases Epicor. Most customers that I have talked with have expressed that they would like to see more reporting whether in report form or dashboards that can be customized, if necessary, to meet the business' needs.

Before a company begins the selection process for ANY new ERP system, they need to look at each business process they have currently and document each one (what are the steps necessary to get the process completed) - i.e., how do they do a quote, how do the do an order, etc. Make sure every step is documented, especially unique steps for your company.

During the selection process, ask them to show how this could be accomplished in Epicor, knowing that there may be more than one way. If there are any processes that are unique to your business, explain them and ask the sales rep to demonstrate how those processes could be done using the Epicor software.

Rob Bucek | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Epicor ERP is a very powerful end to end business system that assists in streamlining our entire manufacturing process from quote to cash. Few off the shelf ERP systems are as comprehensive with regards to the toolsets available within Epicor that the end user can utilize to form fit the software to an individual company's needs. Whether those needs are data and information transparency across the entire organizations, to customized and automated/self guided work flows that help individual users accomplish their tasks in a streamlined, efficient and accurate manner that is repeatable. The end result is useable data that we can analyze to make timely and accurate business decisions to leverage resources for profitable activities throughout the organization. Over the past seven years our experience with Epicor has reassured us time and again that our decision to invest our time and money into the product that runs our business has helped us grow and prosper.
  • Scheduling and production management from planning to execution on the shop floor.
  • A solid costing system that allows us to manage our margins from operations to finance.
  • Toolsets that allow us to customize the software as little or as much as we like to meet our business needs.
  • Access to Epicor executives and decision makers is relatively good.
  • Some modules have not been upgraded or enhanced significantly in sometime (payroll, scheduling engine, subcontract shipping etc).
  • A couple newer modules available to the system are a bit green such as Maintenance Management and Asset Management.
  • Maintenance costs are a bit high.
This is very subjective based on an individual company's needs. Our key selection factors were an advanced scheduling system that would adequately meet the operational needs of our company, toolsets that would allow us to customize and automate tasks within the software, and a strong engineering component for quoting and maintaining methods of manufacturing. Epicor ERP was selected for its ability to provide those functions and features.
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