Exceptional ERP Software for Manufacturers

Over the course of nearly twenty years as an Epicor admin in manufacturing, my experience has been fantastic. The software is simply to use, extremely flexible, and the ways that the data can be extracted (reports, BAQ's, and Dashboards) make it a VERY powerful analysis tool when the time to enter data is done properly. The support team is also fantastic...and while maintenance and support is expensive, it's worth it and you get what you pay for.

Pros

Epicor is extremely flexible right out of the box, and is exceptionally strong in the areas of managing and tracking Production Jobs, Bill of Materials, Scheduling, Labor, Inventory, Purchasing, and Order Entry. It also has the ability to have customized development, and things like the Epicor BAQ's, Dashboards, and Business Activity Manager features allow customizes information, exportable grids, and notifications to be setup by administrators and even end users as these modules are user-friendly and fairly intuitive! The Shop Floor Data Entry Module (MES) is also very intuitive and simple to use for the users on the production / manufacturing floor.

Cons

Epicor ERP is expensive software, and since it's such a wide product that handles so many aspects of your business, setup really must be done according to Epicor's recommendations and completed thoroughly. Also, since it's so flexible, there is a lot of it that you won't use, so it's best to create clear work instructions for your team and/or hide fields and/or functions that you will not need to use.

Robust ERP System Ideal for Manufacturing

We’ve been pleasantly surprised at how it is turning out to meet our business needs, while knowing the amount of work necessary to get it set how we need.

Pros

Easily mass upload and update data. Configurable modules to meet your business needs. Responsive, knowledgeable and helpful consultants.

Cons

Some restrictions which are costly to customize and work around. Forms are not easily edited. Many modules are an extra added cost to subscribe every year.

Full-featured mid-tier ERP based on Microsoft Stack (or cloud option)

Very simple to implement. Training people was the hardest part. We upgraded from a 20 year old ERP which was not WYSIWYG but users liked new formats. As usual customers wanted every option but after implementation realized that they could live without it since there were similar features in the existing software. We have a factory with about 40 office workers, 400 on factory floor, two distribution centers and main office. Factory in Mexico, others in US. Project management support from Epicor was great. Not impressed with support. Often had to wait long time for solutions and it required a lot of data on our part to answer their questions. The MS Stack was easy to configure, secure and administrate. We purchased our own servers and hosted them in a shared DC. Performance was good once we figured out how to configure everything including firewalls, WAN and various remote servers. No problems migrating data to new environment but we kept the legacy system for queries. We added a 3rd-party EDI solution and it worked well to reduce Order processing issues. The Epicor software was rarely the problem. Mostly project and training issues that delayed the effort.

Pros

The MS stack makes it easy to customize for reporting, data storage. Multi-tier configuration with database, application server and options for web-clients, fat clients and terminal servers. Many options for customization in addition to code development. Multi-everything. Relatively easy to upgrade and stay on current releases. Great administrative tools and ability to add resources as demand grow, including localizing servers for better performance.

Cons

Nothing really. There are lots of modules and each has a lot of simple to understand configuration options.

Epicor ERP

Pros

I used this software for 6 years and so I really got to know the ins and outs of it. It's hard to say what I liked most because I didn't really like it that much. One positive is that it's a very robust product probably best suited to a much larger company than ours.

Cons

As the out of the box product, there is zero ability to customize anything without paying another company to do it for you. It's possible to make changes if you have training or an additional module, neither of which I had. There are many security measures in place that makes it difficult to undo something or revise after you've done it.

Workflow made easy

We used this to manage the company. We track time on projects. Keep inventory, and is used heavily in supply chain.

Pros

This software handles all of your company needs. It does time management, inventory, project management, and more. This was very easy to roll out to end users.

Cons

So far we have only used this for less then 6 mo. I don't have any down side at this point. There is still a learning curve that we need to over come.