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Epicor Prophet 21

Epicor Prophet 21

Overview

What is Epicor Prophet 21?

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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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Prophet 21 has been utilized by various departments within organizations to streamline and improve their operations. For example, Counter …
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Epicor Prophet 21

9 out of 10
April 16, 2018
Incentivized
Epicor Prophet 21 is being used throughout the organization to purchase, manage inventory, sales process, and accounting processes. …
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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
  • Order entry (25)
    8.0
    80%
  • Pricing (24)
    8.0
    80%
  • Standard reports (27)
    6.0
    60%
  • Inventory tracking (25)
    2.2
    22%
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Pricing

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N/A
Unavailable

What is Epicor Prophet 21?

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.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

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

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Product Demos

DCKAP Integrator - Distribution ERP Integration Platform Demo (Version 3.4.2)

YouTube

P21 Admin Demo

YouTube

Sales Portal Demo v2

YouTube

Epicor Prophet 21 + Avalara Demo

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.

6.6
Avg 7.2

Customization

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

9
Avg 7.2

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.

8.6
Avg 8.1

Reporting & Analytics

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

6.4
Avg 6.9

General Ledger and Configurable Accounting

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

6
Avg 7.6

Inventory Management

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

1.7
Avg 7.9

Order Management

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

8
Avg 7.8

Subledger and Financial Process

Revenue management solution including capabilities for subledgers and financial processes

4.2
Avg 7.4

Project Financial Management

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

9
Avg 7.6

Project Execution Management

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

1
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

4.9
Avg 7.4

Procurement

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

1.8
Avg 7.0

Risk Management

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

1.2
Avg 6.5

Logistics

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

1.1
Avg 6.9

Manufacturing

Manufacturing solution for managing manufacturing processes and costs.

1
Avg 7.5

Supply Chain

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

3
Avg 7.3

Product Lifecycle Management

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

1.1
Avg 7.3
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Product Details

What is Epicor Prophet 21?

Epicor Prophet 21 Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Reviewers rate Single sign-on capability highest, with a score of 9.3.

The most common users of Epicor Prophet 21 are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(64)

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!

Prophet 21 has been utilized by various departments within organizations to streamline and improve their operations. For example, Counter Staff have experienced faster and more efficient sales transactions when processing quotes and orders. The Purchasing Department has found value in using Prophet 21 to simplify the procurement process by submitting purchase orders from part vendors. Additionally, the AR and AP Departments have relied on Prophet 21 to ensure accurate and timely financial transactions, specifically by invoicing customers and paying vendors. With its integrated solution, Prophet 21 has enhanced inventory accuracy, reduced picking errors, and maintained optimal inventory levels. It has also supported various operations such as order processing, inventory management, customer information, and accounting as an ERP software. The open database structure of Prophet 21 has allowed users to access information in any format, aiding in informed decision-making. Customers have even used Prophet 21 to run their entire business, including accounting, sales, and inventory management.

Furthermore, Prophet 21 has facilitated seamless collaboration across multiple locations through its deployment throughout the organization. Pricing and purchasing management have greatly benefited from this software. With Prophet 21's help, wholesale distribution businesses have experienced growth. It has proven effective in managing wholesale stock by enabling users to efficiently process incoming and outgoing stock and inventory. Moreover, the software's compatibility with different business models has made it a valuable tool for organizations across industries.

While some users have mentioned that the software can be complicated at times, most find that it effectively manages inventory and fulfills its purpose well. The technical support provided by Epicor has been praised for being a good fit for supporting staff in resolving any issues that may arise. Prophet 21 has contributed to improved efficiency in various areas such as service order entry, machine and tooling order entry, CRM management, order entry inquiries, transaction processing, KPI tracking, decision-making support, inventory tracking across multiple warehouses, dynamic reporting dashboards, employee onboarding acceleration, rewards program creation and tracking, and consignment management. It has also proved valuable for website integration, reporting through Crystal and other third-party programs, customizing screens using Dynachange, and providing access to real-time data across all company locations. Overall, users have found Prophet 21 to be a valuable tool for their businesses, with continuous improvements based on customer feedback.

Based on user reviews, the ERP software has received several recommendations:

Users recommend thoroughly researching options before selecting an ERP system. This would help in understanding the software's suitability for the business needs and avoiding any potential issues in the future.

To navigate the software effectively, users suggest taking advantage of online training resources provided by the software company. Additionally, leveraging professional services can be beneficial during setup and training to ensure a smooth implementation process.

It is advised to carefully consider the specific requirements of the organization, especially related to point-of-sale (POS) and manufacturing processes. This would help in ensuring that the ERP software aligns well with these areas and meets the unique needs of the business.

Users also suggest having patience during the rollout process, assigning someone who understands both the software and business practices, limiting customizations, and investing in support packages for assistance. Furthermore, benchmarking against other top solutions in the market is recommended to make an informed decision.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 28)
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Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Epicor Prophet 21 replaced our existing ERP software about one year ago. As a manufacturer and distributor of industrial products, we use Epicor Prophet 21 to enter order information along with inventory management, customer information, and purchasing information. The data from Epicor Prophet 21 is used mainly by our accounting and finance department but all other departments use it when needed.
  • It works well with Microsoft-based products, specifically SQL Server.
  • It is easy to view all inventory data and customer information down to specific detail.
  • The software is easy to customize based on our needs.
  • It is not as expensive as other competing products.
  • It can be complicated at first to understand how to use it.
  • The information stored in the database can be difficult to locate or understand.
  • The CRM system can be slow at times and hard to navigate.
  • Difficult to export data from the application.
Epicor Prophet 21 is great for a midsize distributor. It is great for tracking sales and inventory data along with customer and user information. Because it connects well to Microsoft-based products, we can easily use SQL to generate reports and queries for our use.

However, learning to use and modify Epicor Prophet 21 takes time and may not be great for companies that want to implement it very quickly.
Theodore Burt | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Prophet 21 is the ERP for our company. It is integrated into all of our systems from order entry to accounting to inventory management. Most of our invoicing and RMAs are done through P21.
  • Nothing, it does many things but does NONE OF THEM WELL.
  • There is no functionality for automating orders entering into the system.
  • There is no way to enter data into the system.
  • Nearly any change to the UI will break something. (EX P21 cant automate faxing if you put a parenthesis in the fax number which is absolutely ridiculous)
  • There are thousands of reference constraints on all data fields.
Any company that wants to move forward into the modern age of automation should never consider using this software. You will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to automate ANYTHING which could be extremely easy if the system was less complicated. There is no chance that your company will ever even use 10 percent of what they are selling you and there is no reason for most of it to be there. The data is terrible and the software is SLOW. We can't even remove old data from our system by ourselves because deleting one row in one table affects 10 to 20 other tables. In our system, there are over 2700 tables! Of this number only 750 are used by our systems and of those 750 only 250 have more than 5 rows. There are hundreds of duplicated data rows and many tables end up with 200-300 columns where only about 15 to 30 are actually used.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Epicor Prophet 21 is being used across our whole organizaton for Customer Relationship Management (CRM). We are a Distributor of Safety Supplies (PPE) and can easily identify stock levels and place orders for our customers. We are also able to handle all accounting and shipping functions as well. Prophet 21 allows our company to function in a well organized manner.
  • Houses all pertinent customer information: Address, Phone, Contacts, Ship To locations.
  • Allows Customer Service to enter orders for customers based on Purchase Orders.
  • Allows Purchasing Manager to purchase inventory to stock in warehouse as well as fulfill customers orders.
  • Allows the Warehouse to properly ship and track items being shipped to customers.
  • Allows the Accounting Department to accurately invoice and receive payments from customers.
  • Prophet 21 has features for every aspect of business and constantly improve software based on new technology and customer requests.
As Operations Manager, I am able to log into Epicor Prophet 21 and see exactly what is being done for the day. I am able to see all Open Orders entered. I am able to see all Purchase Orders entered by the Purchasing Manager. I am able to see inventory levels in real-time. I am able to see how many shipments have been completed. I can easily identify where help is needed and move team members accordingly.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
This is our ERP system. We use it for ordering our products, inventory, accounting, vendor and customer information, to the sales process back to the warehouse where it prints the pick tickets and ships the products. We have other 3rd party software that can pull information from this and be used for reports and other analytics. Since it's a standard SQL database, it's easy to work with. Their technical support is a good fit with our current support staff.
  • Does its basic job well with growth potential
  • Compatible with 3rd party software
  • Use of AI
  • Reporting and Dashboards
Very solid software and has the ability to run a small to large company that moves small items to large boxes with ease. It's not a small mom and pop shop software but medium to large businesses can run their entire business from this. From ordering your products to shipping them out the door and keeping track of inventory, full accounting, customers, vendors, and getting it shipped out the back door. Very professional and they are moving forward slowly with new addons and products so they are staying up with new technology. The CRM side needs some attention to keep up with other software companies that are out there.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our organization uses Prophet 21 across the entire organization. We are a distributor of irrigation products, with Front Counter sales as well, and Prophet 21 (P21) is used by our Counter Staff to process quotes and orders. Our Purchasing Department uses P21 to submit purchase orders from our part vendors. As well, our AR and AP Departments use P21 to both invoice customers and to pay vendors.

Prophet 21 addresses the typical problem of managing wholesale stock so that users at all facets of the organization can properly process incoming and outgoing stock, and inventory.
  • Comprehensive customization of many fields and screens
  • Offers a fairly robust API that allows external connectivity
  • Provides connectivity to Crystal Reports for improved reporting capabilities
  • Some background technologies are still a bit behind the current development technologies in the market.
  • Only started offering a Web-based front end to Prophet 21 in the past year, and it still has a number of limitations not present in the client-based program
  • When new iterations/version are released, there are often significant bugs that require opening Support Requests
  • Epicor (P21) Support is still not the most responsive or efficient
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.)
Aaron Pace | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Prophet 21 in every area of our business and use it to solve everyday problems like providing accurate and timely price quotes to customers and getting purchase orders in the hands of our suppliers in time to replenish inventory. As a wholesaler, we rely on Prophet 21 to help us make good business decisions to help our distributors succeed. Really. The open database structure means we can get the information we need in basically any format to help us and our customers make more informed decisions.
  • Ease of use. Prophet 21 application designers have put a lot of thought into making Prophet 21 simple to use yet powerful enough to meet the demands of thousands of distribution businesses.
  • Open database. I love the open database architecture. It allows me all the functionality I need to write custom reports for my business.
  • Fits a wide range of business requirements.
  • Lots of stuff in there we just don't use.
  • Can sometimes be slow aggregating data.
  • Artificial limit on the number of windows that can be open in the software at one time. Most computers today are more than capable of handling a much higher limit.
Prophet 21 is a great application suited to managing, in particular, the financial aspects of our business. It is easy to get financial reports from the system and because of the open database structure, the sky is the limit on other reports needed to manage the overall financial health of the business.
Lindsey Merritt | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it across our entire company. It streamlines all that we do in each department. We use it for service order entry, machine and tooling order entry, CRM and so much more.
  • I love the Item Master Inquiry screen. Anything and everything you need to know about items can be found in one location. I like that each area has its own tab so you can quickly go to the area that you need to find. Sales History or Purchase History are two that I frequently use.
  • PO Requirements Generation is also a great powerful tool to utilize for purchasing. If you set up your ABC Classes, Safety Stock and utilize Up To as your replenishment method the system can basically do your purchasing for you and you can feel comfortable with the way it purchases.
  • I love Dynachanges and Dynachange rules. It truly allows you to customize the screens to meet your department or companies needs. You can move things around and if you have a function that is always repeated you can make it happen automatically with Dynachange rules.
  • PO Requirements Generation - We need the ability to add items on the fly in PORG.
  • In Order Entry - You have one Carrier ID for the entire order. Sometimes items need to ship different ways. It would be extremely helpful to have a Carrier by item option to be used to change one item to UPS Red, one to will call or whatever is needed. We struggle with this daily and it adds time for our takers and often due to this shipping is confused by the instructions and things are shipped incorrectly.
  • When doing imports if something errors out the error log is very hard to read and understand. Better descriptions and maybe not such technical wording would help us to understand it better.
  • When sending acknowledgments more options to select multiple contact. You can manually type them but would be nice to just select multiple contacts. Many times we are sending to more than one person so we have to manually type the email address for the second person.
  • When sending an email out of P21 add the ability to add an attachment on to that email.
I think it works great for the distribution industry. Buying and Selling functionality works great.
May 14, 2018

P21 Review

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized

We are using Prophet 21 across the whole organisation; it's one ERP system that gives a solution to all the company requirements and has all the required modules.

It's very vast and there is so much to learn I would say we only using 50% of what is available in there.

  • We can log every customer correspondence and anyone can see anytime which reduces the dependency on personnel.
  • Detailed reporting feature which allows you to pull out different useful reports.
  • Easy to learn and work.
  • More transferability, with more drill down techniques especially in accounting.
  • Better and systematic rebate functionality.
  • Easy alert setups on different things to remember.

I would like to say P21 is very good at customer service or CRM part. And I will be recommending others as well to use P21 for the customer service part. Stock maintenance and warehouse options with the consignment options are also very handy.

Accounting needs improvement like more drill downs and easy to access and better reporting.

May 11, 2018

Epicor P21 Review

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
P 21 is our ERP system. It is used across the whole organization. It gives us access to all of our sales information.
  • P 21 integrates easily with our CRM software.
  • From a marketing perspective, P 21 allows us to enter prospects and convert them so we can track history.
  • From a marketer's perspective, it would be nice to have a way to pull contact lists directly from P 21. Now we are able to use our CRM software for this, but before CRM, I would have to ask our business systems analyst to pull customer lists.
I probably use P 21 once every couple days, but in my experience, it's user-friendly and intuitive. I can usually find everything I need.
Michael Gonzalez | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our whole organization uses P21. We are a distribution company. We were looking for a faster way of getting work done. A more efficient way of getting more work done without the need to hire more people.
  • The system allows us to pretty much design it to work the way want it to work. It is a very flexible system for the most part.
  • The system doesn't let you make too many shortcuts with getting something processed. It forces you to go through the proper steps.
  • The system keeps track of everything and can be easily retrieved through history searches. Detailed reports, graphs, ....
  • CRASHING, the system crashes too frequently for me. 3-5 times a day, support can't figure out why it happens. Extremely annoying when in the middle of a transaction.
  • Overall support from P21 technicians is poor. If they or you can't replicate a problem, they can't help. Even if the problem is frequent.
  • Cycle counts are a concern. Not much of a real cycle count report to check inventory daily, we had to create our own.
  • Crystal Reports and how they can link with documents are challenging. Especially for packing lists and commercial invoices. As well as certs that are created for some items.
P21 would be a very good program if it didn't crash, if the technical support was better, if the initial installation and set up was better.
Sue Dziedzic | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Prophet 21 is used across our entire company. We use it for tracking orders, a/p, a/r, purchasing, plus we use the service module for tracking technical service processes for our customers.
  • I process machine orders that are shipped directly to our customers. Prophet 21 allows the ordering and billing to be tied together and handled as one transaction.
  • We have a technical service team that services our customers in a large geographic area. The Prophet 21 service module allows us to track the serial numbers of the customer equipment and what work is being done, has been done, and should be scheduled in the future. Each technician can have their schedule available to all concerned parties.
  • Tracking our customers' multiple ship-to addresses is easy. Some even have different company names, but the same bill-to address. Prophet 21 handles this seamlessly.
  • The service module could be more integrated into the Prophet 21 program. It is a separate log-in and the orders can't be accessed from the main module.
  • Integrating with tasks could be easier to use.
  • Integrating with Outlook would be very helpful. I did look at a program while evaluating P21 that had great integration. P21 could be better.
I feel I already did this previously.
Chris Stovel | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Several of our customers use P 21 to run their entire business (accounting, sales, inventory, etc). We are an Oakland based managed services provider (MSP) that supports Prophet 21. We do stuff like set up and maintain SQL server, backups of P 21, assist in user account creation and removal, installation of custom modules, upgrade the version, and support end users with our bay area IT help desk.
  • It is a single system - all in one ERP system
  • Clients seem to like it
  • It is less expensive than Salesforce
  • It would be nice if they had a SAAS billing model
  • It would be better if it was more mobile friendly and worked on an iOS App
  • It would be better if it had an updated GUI
  • It would be better if Epicor Support was better
It is well suited for businesses who need an all in one off the shelf ERP system for managing their business. It is less appropriate for higher tech firms that want the latest and greatest technology.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use P21 across the whole company from Accounting, Purchasing, Sales, to Inventory and shipping management. On the purchasing side we use it to send POs to our vendors and on the sales side, we use it to process orders for our customers. The product is very flexible and reporting rich when paired with some third-party add-ons. It can be a little complicated and not intuitive at times, but for the most part (especially with inventory management) it gets the job done well and is flexible enough to meet our needs.
  • Flexibility, the software is very flexible and customizable
  • Cost-effective ERP when compared to other competing products
  • Community support. Beyond P21 support, there is a strong community of users that are very helpful in solving problems and getting answers.
  • Can be a little complicated at times
  • Support could use a little more of a personal touch with call-in options
It is very useful for distribution, manufacturing, wholesale, and distribution types of businesses. For retail-type businesses, this isn't what you'd be looking for.
April 16, 2018

Epicor Prophet 21

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Epicor Prophet 21 is being used throughout the organization to purchase, manage inventory, sales process, and accounting processes. Additional functionality being used is consignment (vending machines), website integration and reporting via Crystal and other third-party programs. We've heavily customized the screens via Dynachange and aim to stay current on all the version releases.
  • P 21 does a great job of managing inventory throughout the purchasing, inventory control and sales processes.
  • Having the data accessible in an SQL database has been huge for us, P 21 does a good job of capturing all the transactional data.
  • The ability to customize the screens is a big advantage and something we take full advantage of.
  • The built-in CRM is a huge plus, but it could be more robust, it doesn't need to be on par with the other full-blown CRM packages, just close the gap.
  • I've been attending the Summit/Insights conferences for 10 years now, over the last few years it's "head-scratching" of how much turn over is occurring in the key management positions, seem to get different priorities each year.
  • The move of support to India is a disaster, when putting in a case I cringe - waiting to be asked to provide detailed steps and re-hash details, half the time it seems like I'm training the people on the other end during a Bomgar session. When I do get someone in the U.S. the support has been tremendous and resolved quickly, most of the time the first time around.
It's a great solution for the distribution industry, many ERP systems try to do both, but essentially they're weighted towards either distribution or manufacturing, there has been more focus on having manufacturing functionality built into P 21, that could be a good enhancement to the system as long as the focus stays on distribution.
Jamie Maring-Webb | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
In the whole organization, P21 helps with inventory but limited resources due to having to pay for certain (needed) features. EX: numbered lines on a Purchase Order. I basically feel P21 can be best described as "if you need to go next door, you have to go all the around the block to get there". We created our own way to perform price changes and there is no help for annual inventory returns. But on the positive side, there are features we use daily.
  • Audit Trail is a nice feature, it keeps track of old prices and who did what on some transactions.
  • Item Fast Edit is also a feature we use often but is limited by what it can and cannot do.
  • Short Code has been beneficial as well since ABC classes affect other departments and their functionality.
  • There needs to be more access to areas that can give you a QOH (quantity on hand) it would be very helpful in Item Fast Edit.
  • The "Shipped" checkbox in "Extended Info" on PO's has no function!!!!!! Have no idea why it is there.
  • No functionality for Annual Return of non-moving inventory.
I do not have other systems to compare Epicor to, we have used this system for 12 years. There are many things I feel we should not have to pay to get such as numbered lines on our purchase orders. SQL reports do not include enough choices/options to get reports pertaining to certain needed information.
April 12, 2018

P21 Review

Matt Schron | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it in our industrial distribution business. It is critical to our success. When most employee login they open P21 and Outlook to start their days. The biggest problem is the CRM and integration with Outlook.
  • The ability to customize the system.
  • The ease of getting to the information.
  • The network community that works so well together to find solutions to problems
  • Our suppliers have a lot more contract pricing. We are unable to connect supplier purchasing pricing contacts with selling pricing for individual accounts.
Direct shipments to customers and the ease of creating a supplier order. Tying supplier contract and pricing back to our customer accounts.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Prophet 21 is used throughout our whole organization. The business problems that Prophet 21 addresses are orders are entered more efficiently, also, answering customers' questions regarding order status are more efficient. Since using Prophet 21, we can see a marked improvement in all areas of our business.
  • Prophet 21 does a great job at putting in a lot of information to answer customers' questions easily and in one place.
  • Prophet 21 also does a good job at having solutions for known problems accessible. I have found many solutions to small issues easily on their solutions database.
  • Prophet 21 also does a good job at having learning tools at the user's fingertips. Having the Epicor University, the conference with so many people and classes at your fingertips.
  • Prophet 21 could improve on the ease of exporting reports from the application.
Prophet 21 is well suited for the distribution industry. It has helped us track our inventory value more effectively. Prophet 21 has also made managing our finances much better.
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it for accounting, inventory, orders, and purchasing.
  • Good for distribution companies
  • Easy to manage uploads of inventory or changes
  • Pricing Libraries
  • The support service is horrible, takes too long to respond and they do not communicate well in a timely manner to issues.
  • Reporting is harder than expected
  • Training Material is limited
Find that the customer support is very lacking and even our assigned rep is very lacking in followups.
Wesley Parkin | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our company is just about to roll out Epicor Prophet 21 across our entire organization to replace our existing system. The P21 sytem will allow us to speed up the employee on boarding process, create and track rewards programs, and review our business performance using up to date and dynamic dashboards and reporting.
  • We now have the ability to just search for the screen, portal or interface that we are looking for to complete the task we are working on.
  • Integrated reporting and dashboard features, that are always up to date.
  • The ability to share relevant customer information with relevant people within our company.
  • We've are just starting to roll-out P21, so we haven't used it in the live environment yet.
Epicor Prophet 21 is well suited for any HVAC or Refrigeration Distribution company looking to upgrade their computer system from an older "Green Screen" style system to one that uses the "Windows Based" or "Point & Click" type of software that most new employees will be familiar with, and allow them to use the tools of modern business reporting that they will need to grow their business.
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Prophet 21 is replacing our current ERP system that is no longer supported by Epicor. The entire company will be using it. It addresses the problem that our current ERP is obsolete.
  • For our company in particular, P21 addresses new items that can be created on the fly. Right now, the salesperson either has to create an *asterisk item or wait for the product to be added to the system. Asterisk items cause many issues in our current ERP system.
  • P21 offers a diverse way to utilize Vendor and Customer pricing. It provides much most flexibility and accuracy, not just for the buyers, but information used by salespeople.
  • P21 also mitigates negative on-hand quantities, which currently causes a large amount of problems in our current ERP system.
  • There are a number of processes where it seems like there are far too many steps.
  • In regards to bun adjustments, it would be nice if you can assign inventory at the same time, instead of it being two separate transactions.
  • The many steps to a Tag and Hold order is frustrating.
Most of the colleague's I have use ERP systems that are more current and offer more relevant features.
Don Nowak | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
P 21 is our enterprise software system. We use it in all aspects of the business. It helps us to process transactions and track KPIs to insure that we are meeting our goals.
  • We are a specialty distributor. We don't have a product line per se. We manage inventory by customer. P 21 gives us the tools to do this effectively.
  • The accounting functions provide us a very good picture of our success in meeting our financial goals.
  • The portals that we can configure give us a good day to day pulse on the business
  • We do a great deal of kitting and re-work. P 21 helps us manage these processes.
  • The system is fairly intuitive and easy to use.
  • The customer master inquiry is a good tool. I like the tab for order history which shows 24 months history to establish trends. The same data should be available for invoices and GM %.
  • In item master inquiry, the data is shown on a location basis. It would be good to have a tab that shows total corporate data (inventory, sales history, usage, etc.)
  • I mentioned previously that P21 accounting functions are strong. That being said, the system really makes you pay to correct errors in pricing, A/P, receiving and billing.
I believe it is well suited for most distribution verticals. It does a very good job tracking product and cost changes due to external processes for fastener distributors. There are many more tools for other verticals that we do not need.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Prophet 21 has always been a great tool to further our business, however, their ear to customer feedback has transitioned the software into a coveted tool in our organization and they seem to be continuing to listen to feedback and creating a pathway to greatness and improvement.
  • Allows Beginning to End Solutions
  • Processing and layout
  • Ease of use
  • Capability and integration with necessary tools
  • Additional connection and integration to popular industry products
  • Better CRM integration and development
Prophet 21 has allowed for fast order processing and creates an environment that allows us to be in front of the customer more rather than spending a large amount of time trying to make the system work.
James Mayfield, MBA | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Prophet 21 is used across our organization, by almost all departments. It allows us to keep track of our inventory across 4 warehouses and fulfill orders to customers nationwide. We utilize the order entry, accounting, sales, inventory, and purchasing modules. We utilized a separate warehouse management system that syncs with P21.
  • SQL based database recording all transactions. This allows us to use common SQL tools for data reporting. We have had to rely on Crystal Reports and other BI tools such as Sisense to supplement the reporting offered from the P21 application.
  • Demand Forecast is measured across all our warehouses and allows us to stock the correct inventory levels for each location. It is captured at time of purchase and recorded against a customer's default warehouse location regardless of where the item ships from.
  • Complex pricing can be setup with Sales Pricing Maintenance to charge different prices based on suppliers, discount groups, individual items, and certain customers.
  • Not very flexible. For example you cannot change which fields get exported when sending an EDI Invoice to a customer.
  • Difficult to update records. The Fast Edit functionality leaves a lot of filtering features to be desired. I've seen good things with their 2017 version, but we have not yet implemented that upgrade.
  • Search functionality is pretty bad when looking up an item, order, customer record etc. It is very slow and cannot be filtered to only look for specific fields.
P21 has allowed us to grow as a distribution organization. We can set up complex pricing functionality situations to stay on top of our margins. Inventory costs and values are tracked monthly by location to make sure we have the correct items in stock that our customers want. EDI features have allowed us to set up integrated ordering with our customers and vendors.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Epicor Prophet 21 across all our locations (8) and it is fully implemented. It solves real-time data issues in multiple respects as well as data transparency across all locations. It has helped us serve our customers with immediate and detailed information regarding products and their deliveries.
  • Support
  • Extensibility
  • Ease of use
  • Rigidity (sometimes it is just too structured)
  • Easily crashes
If you turn the same product(s) day in and day out, Epicor P 21 is well suited. For us, we are entering one off items and specials on a regular basis. It becomes a little more cumbersome but still gets the job done.
November 23, 2016

Detailed Honest Review

Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized

We are a leader in the fluid power industry in which we design, sell and service equipment and parts along with manufacture custom hydraulic systems through distribution. We have 2 companies across 9 locations with 3 manufacturing divisions. Each location has a showroom for front counter Sales (point of sale) and a service department with a stocking warehouse. We perform central based purchasing and forecasting mainly with some location based purchasing where needed. We use Prophet 21 software in every aspect of our company across all locations, short of payroll and internal purchasing of our business consumables in a mostly dominant thin client environment.

With the vast amount of features in the system it allows it to be compatible with many different business models throughout several industries which can make it a little over complicated on what to do via data entry as not all companies use every single piece of functionality and you have to fill in the appropriate area for what your company is using as there are a lot of fields and tabs that you could have to update, so it can produce very detailed information if a lot of the fields are utilized. Speed is a huge concern with this software as it has multiple layers of programming on top of an outdated platform that makes the data entry workable but painfully slow once you get used to running the software.

  • Scalability and the capability to mold to a lot of different companies' business models.
  • The Purchasing/Forecasting functionality is top notch and very moldable to any purchasing model ranging from central purchasing down to individualized seasonal items. Once set up it will let you get away with a smaller procurement department as the system will tell you what you need to order.
  • There are a ton of purchasable add-ons from the vendor along with even more third party add-ons that make this a wonderful software if you have the money and skilled personnel to support it.
  • The vendor is good about fixing issues quickly but sometimes it's difficult to distinguish between an actual error and a company specific business process.
  • Developers run a continuous improvement program with multiple releases a year so as they are designing new features at the same time they are cleaning errors and glitches rather than waiting a long time for advancements and a rock solid release. This could also be considered good and bad if you need an advancement, you don't have to wait!
  • Scalability and the capability to mold to a lot of different companies' business models. Since this software can mold to a large variety of business models it can make training difficult and long due to the complexities of the software's advanced features. This also makes data entry cumbersome as you have to know what fields to enter depending on what functionality you are using.
  • Slow to implement vendor driven Idea's Network from user ideas.
  • The product feels extremely slow once you get used to running the system and is glitchy because of the method chosen to release updates and advancements in the continuous improvement method.
  • Developers run a continuous improvement program with multiple releases a year so as they are designing new features at the same time they are cleaning errors and glitches rather than waiting a long time for advancements and a rock solid release. This could also be considered good and bad if you need an advancement, you don't have to wait!
  • The company's move to have the first level of support go to India can lead to frustrations because of the communication barrier along with new support teams that are not yet very knowledgeable in this software and the level of experiences with the software is still being developed.

Recommendations are in order of robustness in each area of business:

Purchasing - Very Strong

Distribution - Very Strong

Sales - Strong (Does not currently have a "true" Point of Sale Module/No security for sales pricing over-rides)

Pricing Sales/Purchasing Structures - Strong (Does not show % discount for orders/rebates are cumbersome)

Service & Maintenance - Strong to Medium: Needs a lot of work for differences in business models for Service. Scheduling a service is a challenge.

Manufacturing - Light: When they mean light manufacturing they mean it. Not a CNC type manufacturing add-on. They are currently working on a scheduling functionality that will help a ton but would still be a lot of work to run a large caliber manufacturing facility using this add-on. Some things are nice and some others are horridly missing. There is better software that handles manufacturing easier.

CRM - Thumbs is half down: Can get away with the baseline functionality and better with some customization but purchasable integrated add-ons make a world of difference!

Reporting - Baseline: Thumbs Down - Need to purchase an add-on if you want any business oversight and strong reports. Someone with highly developed SQL and or C++ skills is recommended. Crystal skills is a bonus. Can get away with middle of the road knowledge in those areas but the highly developed skills make a world of difference in molding your business processes.

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