In a previous blog, we discussed some of the major keynotes of the Epicor Insights 2017 conference in Nashville, Tennessee.
This blog serves to go a bit more in depth about the plans Epicor has for their Epicor ERP 10 solution.
The Future of Epicor 10
Lee Ann Schommer, SVP Product Management, and Scott Hays, SVP Product Marketing, led the session on the future of Epicor ERP 10 with four additional presenters, including:
- Rodney Winger, VP Product Management ERP
- Lawrence Martin, VP Development Engineering
- Terri Hiskey, VP of Product Marketing
- Erik Johnson, VP and Chief Architect
The group began by discussing the voice of the customer survey. The following list is a compilation of what Epicor clients are interested in. Epicor has decided to take on the top two for their future development efforts in the next year:
- Analytics
- Usability
- Warehousing
- Mobility
- Projects
- Automation
Then and Now: Epicor ERP Releases
Next, the group looked back at the last release of Epicor ERP, number 10.1.600. In this release, there were 63 new features, 2.2 million lines of improved code, 3,000 issues resolved, and 50,000 hours invested.
The number of hours is almost half of what was expended in the previous release, yet it still garnered similar results. This was primarily due to new development teaming methods.
Deployment Choices
Today, Epicor offers four different deployment choices for Epicor ERP:
- On-premise
- Single Tenant: provides a unique cloud environment and infrastructure for each tenant
- Dedicated Tenant: allows multiple subscribers to share a common infrastructure, but provides a unique database per tenant and the ability to defer upgrades by 90 days
- Multi-Tenant: offers a common infrastructure and shared database
In my opinion, the dedicated tenant is the most unique. It gives Epicor customers the ability to host their own database instance on a shared server.
Recent Updates
Here is a run-down of the major Epicor ERP features from the last release:
- Data Analytics BI tool: this sits on top of all data, both internal and external. It is a cloud service creating KPIs and trends, from internal and outside data.
- Epicor Commerce Connect (ECC): an eCommerce solution development platform from Magento
- DocStar & Enterprise Content Management tool
- New product configurator designer: offers a 2D rendering of the configured product
- Electronic Compliance Engine: this will receive more interest as it becomes a law late 2018 in the USA
- Epicor Mobile CRM: provides a good-looking user interface with the ability to drill into customer information, contacts search, and email integration
Future Plans for Epicor 10
Epicor has a lot of exciting moves in the pipeline, including a new six-month release cadence that allows users to upgrade much faster than the current 12 to 18-month cadence.
Lee Ann provided us insight into the guiding themes of Externalization, Expansion, and Experiences, which allow partners and customers to develop their own solutions, providing country-specific functionality and further improving global financials.
The following are the major new capabilities Epicor is developing for E10 in the next six months:
- Improved CRM software and Salesforce Integration
- Epicor Field Service Automation upgrades with the application of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT). This is going to be a very large market for Epicor and the other providers.
- Personalized home page for individual users, and the ability to create individual start screens
- Contextual and actionable operational data, with Epicor’s new data discovery tool. It provides the ability to create new analysis as it looks at your data to build a story. The data discovery tool looks at the business activity query and creates a new analysis.
Erik demonstrated a Microsoft halo lens that gives users the ability to look into a closed cardboard shipping box on a pallet and see what is inside by simply scanning a QR code, which directs you to an Epicor ERP screen with additional information.
To learn more about Epicor, visit their website here.
