Item: Epicor Prophet 21
Rating: 8
Author: John Suit

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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.

Pros and Cons

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

Products Replaced

Change Management Lessons

Change management was a minor issue with the implementation - We have used Prophet 21 since 2006, so the only real implementations we have done since have been upgrades to the product. That being said, significant upgrades do require appropriate testing and user training before implementing 'live.'

Return on Investment

It is clear that using Prophet 21 has allowed us to more efficiently manage our Sales and Ordering processes
Using the Purchasing and Inventory Management features have allowed is to successfully maintain appropriate stock levels at our various branches
By providing a means to view previous years' sales and purchasing trends, our staff can order stock when vendors offer special pricing or volume discounts

Likelihood to Recommend

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.)

Prophet 21 helps distributors focus on, and meet, business needs

Overall Satisfaction with Epicor Prophet 21