Epicor is re-defining enterprise performance. So says the company’s James Norwood, Global VP Product Marketing.
“Epicor believes that midsized (in particular) businesses have been underserved by the traditional BI software vendors,” he says.
“Performing at the highest level requires the entire enterprise, not just a chosen few.”
Norwood says the company’s latest application Epicor 9 distances itself from the ‘traditional' concept of business intelligence by taking it out of the hands of analysts and technicians and transferring it to all the enterprises users for greater business insight."
“Today, decisions are being made top down and bottom up on a daily basis that affect the overall performance of the business,” he explains. “Current information needs to support decision making in real-time, and workers want it deployed in the tools they already use, day in and day out."
"Therefore an embedded capability of Epicor 9 is Epicor Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) , which removes the barriers to better business insight through a combination of intuitive user experiences, user driven key performance indicators (KPI), and pre-packaged analytics that have real meaning to the business.”
Epicor 9 combines Web 2.0 concepts with Epicor True SOA, an adaptable and collaborative business architecture that satisfies the needs of any enterprise regardless of country, industry or access device.
The solution's end-to-end features provide a dynamic user experience and real-time, in-context business insight.
“Epicor 9 is just the next step in Epicor's 'protect, extend, and converge' strategy, enabling customers to leverage the latest technology at their own pace.”
Like many, Norwood observes the supply chain industry is all about delivering products and services to market faster, cheaper and with better quality, and gaining a compelling advantage over less efficient competitors.
“To do that, you have to make sure that the right materials and resources move to the right place at the right time, at the same time serving customers better, while minimising costs and maximising profit,” he says.
“Many Epicor customers are hybrid manufacturer/distributors and they appreciate the ability to apply lean processes to their entire supply-chain, optimise planning and maximise allocation/pick/pack/ship decisions in order to ensure perfect order fulfilment.”
Norwood also says visibility is paramount. “While the larger vendors try to pare down their more complex systems to meet the basic needs of the midmarket, our service-oriented approach has allowed us to deliver a robust ERP solution encompassing all the functionality and flexibility of a tier one solution that our customers need,” he says, “with a core financial system that supports a lean supply chain, enhanced supply chain visibility and supports globalisation aspirations.
All these components work together to give users a competitive edge.” Norwood points to the company’s proven success in developing and delivering service-oriented enterprise applications used by thousands of companies around the world today, as proof that integration issues are a thing of the past.
“Epicor has converged the best of its offerings into Epicor 9, a next-generation superset release,” he adds. “Encompassing the robust functionality, global footprint and industry expertise of Epicor's existing ERP suites, the release takes business management and control to the next level by extending reach, synergy, and visibility to the organization and its trading partners.”
“Perhaps the most important aspect of Epicor next-generation SCM is that it is modular yet embedded with the rest of the application (CRM, Finance, Inventory, etc)."
"This removes the integration challenges of the past and provides a single, reliable resource for mission critical supply-chain management."
"Interfaces to EDI demand and to manifesting systems have been standardised around a single XML API and orchestrated via Epicor Service Connect for complete process and workflow control."
Epicor Service Connect is a central integration point for secure workflow orchestrations within Epicor applications and between Epicor and non-Epicor applications.
“Users can automate tasks and streamline processes to promote efficiency across the supply and demand chains,” Norwood explains.
“They can extend visibility into enterprise applications to the entire organisation and to customers. Epicor Service Connect integrates with EDI supply chain partners using XML, a lower cost alternative to maintaining a full EDI infrastructure.”
“Additionally, what makes Epicor 9 different is the way that all client code, as well as application business logic, is delivered as self-describing business services, offering a tremendous step forward in the creation of productive user experiences,” he says.
James Norwood predicts ERP systems of the future will evolve into looser collection of business services that become completely available in whatever means makes sense - through a browser, on a PC or laptop, on a mobile device or as part of another composite application.
“As a tightly integrated supply chain has become a requirement for doing business in almost every industry today, Web services technology is the key to successfully orchestrating global operations,” he says.
“The ability to perform real-time collaboration with suppliers, partners and customers, and throughout business operations, enables an organisation to optimise production and delivery schedules and quickly respond to changes in customer requirements and market demands.”
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