Kinetic

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.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Kinetic

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.

Pros

Lots of different ways to do one thing.

Cons

There is a lot of steps to do one process. -it’s bulky-it’s very unforgiving

Pros

Great service. And Overall easy process.

Cons

Everything was great. There nothing i can of i didn't like.

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.

Pros

it is a very complete software, it can really help you with you planning and manufacturing process, you can control your purchases and your inventory very easy

Cons

it lack of controls, you have to customize in order to get more control of your process, the cost of customization it is very high, and the support you get for your maintenance fee is is very poor.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Kinetic

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.

Pros

Epicor is relatively easy to use and learn. Our whole organization rely on Epicor for order entry and accounting/ financial management. It is our main ERP software that we use 90% of the time.

Cons

We have on premise Epicor and we struggle with some performance issues frequently. The communication between the app server and database server encounter a lot of issues from time to time and we end up having to reboot the systems to try to get us back working again.

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.

Pros

We use Epicor for all the activities at work, from order entry, shipping all the way to invoicing.
This system allowed us to keep track of inventory and was even tailored to our company needs, which helped pull real data to keep track of KPI’s. My department was in charge of the orders.

Cons

Sometimes pulling reports could take longer than wanted/needed.

Pros

Data Driven and Customizable for various departments.

Cons

Needs to be more user friendly and software needs to be faster.

Pros

Epicor Kinetic is a robust, mature ERP system that is continuing to innovate. The core function and structure is sound, included modules are robust, and there is a strong and growing architecture for extensibility & customization.

Cons

Many features have been added over the years, some via acquisition - not all are done well or at feature parity. The new UI still feels like it's in Beta, but all new features are developed for the new UI. Internal support is poor, but there is a strong consulting and user community that offsets that somewhat.

Pros

ITs flexibility and ability to customize. Cloud versions available. Offers many modules for most needs. There has been in the past several years a building of third party software vendors with the ability to augment the customization, implementation and general maintenance of the software requiring less reliance on Epicor consulting services. Features such as document routing has greatly improved forms handling. The software is definitely in growth mode resulting in new features and abilities. The number one feature I like is the ability to export any report and most data grids directly to excel. Overall I have more likes on were the software is going rather than were it is at today

Cons

The software is not at all user friendly. Little if any documentation on how to use the product. Education is available but pricey. Support system is totally ineffectual and support personal are lacking in basic knowledge. Company has built many silos and employees do not have the ability to see across those barriers. The online support system called Epicare has added a layer of difficulty in that you cannot speak with an employee to explain an issue. The online submission is often limited to drop down selections that have nothing to do with the problem. The helpful tips you are given when submitting a case are almost always way off topic and of no use.

Pros

We are able to do more with fewer people

Cons

We struggle with scheduling complexities and the reporting tools are limited

Pros

This ERP makes it extremely easy to quote items that do not have part numbers set up in the system. We fabricate custom designed process equipment which requires many purchased components. And often times our customers require us to follow their specific Approved Material List which could include components we have not purchased before.
Epicor allows to quote parts, kits, systems without forcing us to create part numbers which makes quoting very easy and quick. No sense in setting up part numbers if we don't have the job yet.

Cons

The CRM part is not the greatest. Needs to be improved or allow Sales Force or other leading CRM software to tie in to Epicor.

Pros

The way to present dashboards and reports on the fly

Cons

At this momment we still havent found least likely. But if we need to choose one could be the financial module.

Pros

Epicor had many features which helped us manage inventory and the financials for the many facets of our business from retail gas stations to business to business fuel deliveries across the country.

Cons

The user interface was not user friendly and could have had many improvements. Everything was in menus and there were some items that were labeled similar name which could be confusing. One upside on this was that you could create custom menus for yourself to easily find things which made it easier, however if you needed to transfer those list to a new team member you had to try and remember where each item was from originally.

Pros

Built-in customization tools are very powerful - allowing detailed tailoring to company needs without direct coding. BPMs now allow excellent logic branching and very nice built in features such as email alerts. Publish & Subscribe dashboards are a great reporting option with drill down capability. Form customizations are also very easy. SQL Server DB is a big improvement over Progress and MUCH faster.

Cons

Reliance on SSRS for reporting - although Crystal Reports still works. Does not handle really complex BoM/MoM situations well for jobs with thousands of assembly levels and hundreds of branches or indents. Projects module isn't quite robust enough to be used for complex jobs/orders.

Pros

I frequently use this program to track historical product records. I can pull a full production detail report, to see each and every operation a part has gone through.

Cons

Sometimes, the reporting feature takes awhile to pull the report. This is only the case for very large reports however!

Pros

We have used Epicor for about 3 months and so far it has went very well. Change over from our previous system went smoothly. Movement in the system is very simple, it is easy to find what you are looking for through the menu system.

You are a click away from about any information you would need for planning and scheduling.

Cons

In the beginning we had some issues with inventory suggestions, the system wanted everything at the moment it realized we were below minimums, but after a few weeks or research we were able to set the system to work as we needed it to.

A few other small issues at start up, but over all not difficult implementation

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Kinetic

Pros

The software interface resembles a Microsoft product which helps end users pick up the basics of navigation.
Epicor 10.1 represents a significant improvement over legacy versions of the software and performance is much better.

Cons

Support is poor. First line support team members are really just called takers and it is difficult to get to someone who actually knows the software and who might be able to assist you with the problem you are experiencing. Most times, it seems like the first line support tech's job is to find out if you have customized the software so that they can use that as a reason not to provide support, which is frustrating since the Epicor sales pitch emphasizes ease of customization.

Pros

The ability to customize reports is outstanding. I also like that I can easily find the information I need when I need it.

Cons

Modules. You have to purchase quite a few separate modules to be able to use everything which can cost

Pros

Good value for the money
Good little manufacturing system
They put on really nice annual conferences

Cons

Epicor grew by acquisition so some of the interfaces are cloodgey (I think they are working o improving this with their cloud based systems).

General maintenance in Mexico is very good, the US arm needs to help them more instead of tossing hard problems over the border without proper training.

System is not user friendly, based on HUNDREDS of tables!!!

US customer support is very good if you get the right people.

Customer support for real issues (forex) is a cash sink hole - any time you have a bug or a real problem, they refer you to a consultant at per hour basis. Worse, they do not have many consultants who really know the product so you waste thousands of dollars getting them up to speed, only to end up with the problem not fixed. We have since learned some of these issues were fixed but only in the new version which costs us to upgrade.

Pros

Very configurable software which is both good and bad. Software has a lot of capability to flex to our needs.

Cons

Support and training for implementation was very poor, we kicked out 3 different consultants before we found one that could understand our needs and work with us. The initial assessment program by Epicor was a waste of time and money. The program management at Epicor also did not add much for the cost.

Pros

It was easy to learn for me - Been a user for 5 years

Cons

I have no issues with this software.
I cant think of anything I dont like after 5 years of being a user.