EPICOR SOFTWARE REVIEW
SUMMARY
Epicor develops a range of enterprise software solutions targeted at midmarket companies primarily in the manufacturing, distribution, retail, hospitality and services industries. The company is headquartered in Irvine, California and was founded in 1984 as Platinum Software Corporation. In May 1999, Platinum Software changed its name to Epicor Software Corporation.
In the mid 1990’s, Platinum Software was one of the first software publishers to release a SQL server based Accounting and ERP solution. As an early entry, the product was fairly successful, but the company itself struggled with poor product support and several tumultuous changes to its distribution model. As a result, investment in the product lagged, market share declined in the early 2000’s, and the stock price suffered.
Epicor responded with a series of acquisitions starting with Clientele in 1997, Dataworks in 1998, Clarus in 2002, Scala in 2004, CRS in 2005, and NSB in 2008. For the most part, the acquisitions have been successfully integrated to the overall product offering: Scopus added help desk functionality, Clientele added CRM functionality, Dataworks and Scala increased manufacturing functionality, Clarus added procurement and sourcing solutions, and CRS and NSB improved retail functions. The financials product now has thousands of users worldwide with marked growth in Europe/Middle East/Asia (EMEA) that is largely attributable to the Dataworks and Scala acquisitions.
Epicor has experienced good growth and acceptance outside of North America and can claim a healthy network of channel partners throughout EMEA, the Pacific Rim, and Australia. The product has very strong internationalization, localization, and multi-currency functionality that allows it to perform well in this environment. Epicor also has capable multi-company consolidation functionality that further improves its performance in far flung operations.
The solution has been gaining favorable notes in several studies for higher than average customer satisfaction with a lower than average cost. Additionally, Epicor has been investing in the underlying technology and is staying current with the latest Microsoft technology and strategies.
VERTICAL MARKETS
Epicor has adapted its ERP application software for the below vertical markets.
- Discrete manufacturing;
- Distribution;
- Retail and e-tail sales;
- Hospitality.
STRENGTHS
Epicor ERP, manufacturing and accounting software strengths include the following:
- Strong manufacturing software solution;
- Good supply chain management capabilities;
- Strong retail functionality;
- Good global capabilities such as multi-currency management and internationalization;
- Multi-company, inter-company and consolidations processing;
- Integrated customer relationship management (CRM) software.
WEAKNESSES
Epicor software weaknesses include the following:
- North American VAR channel strategy inconsistent and confusing;
- North American user adoption.
KEY COMPETITORS
Epicor primary competitors include Sage MAS 90, QAD and the Microsoft Dynamics GP, NAV, AX and SL lines.
Other competitors include SSA and Infor as well as the SaaS ERP application solutions from NetSuite, Intacct and Aplicor.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
In order to thrive, Epicor needs to develop a strategy that reenergizes sales in North America while capitalizing on their successes in the rest of the world. As an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) they are in the awkward position of competing with their primary technology vendor: Microsoft Server Products and development tools are highly utilized in their core products yet they compete directly against the Microsoft Dynamics product family.
Epicor Software Evaluation
Epicor Software Corporation
18200 Von Karman Avenue
Irvine, California 92612
(949) 585-4000
www.epicor.com
|
|||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
