Avaliações do Epicor for Distribution

It is widely used by distributors of all kinds of industries. The independent user group is an incredible resource of users that are very helpful to everyone in the group

Costs and resources needed. This is a very robust software package and will need your time to get it setup the way you want it for your business. The good news is that it can be setup for your business.

Deep functionalities in multiple areas
Flexibility in term of technology (UDFs, business rules and screen customization capabilities)

A bit late on the market for bringing a web base version and as far as mobility is concerned

Through DynaChange, administrators have great control over which modules/screens their users can use. There are many ways to customize the various modules, either by groups of like users or user-specific. Once learned, the software contains everything needed to run the business; Accounting, Inventory Management, Order Processing, etc.

Not user-friendly. Users have complained there are many steps (more than is typical) needed to do basic tasks. This is only an 'out of the box' product for very basic use. There are many customizations needed to make the product do what the salesmen say it can do. Hosted software has several drawbacks, such as updates to forms sometimes not being pushed through properly, or having changes to forms revert because the changes did not properly propogate to all clustered servers. The same can be said about changes to printers on the network; settings will be updated and the next day they will revert to the old settings. When a data import has an error, it is not always easy to decipher what the error means.

Information at your fingertips - inventory, orders, sales. Ease of use and scaleability. Ease of forms modification. Keeping up with modern innovations such as cloud and AI

Overall system speed. Base reporting. You can always get what you want in reporting IF you know your Crystal and/or SQL.

i) I personally like Linux OS and this software is specifically designed to work on Linux OS
ii) Its overall price is cheaper as there is no cost for OS
iii) The Dashboard and export functionality impressed me
iv)

While I was using it I couldn't import million records from Excel to this Software. I don't know whether they have upgraded the software or improved and made it to possible.

Integration from our old P21 system went pretty well.

Training was horrible. A lot of things we were not shown and things we were shown weren't always the right way. Support is even worse. Most of the time I can't understand their broken English. That is when I actually get to speak with someone. They are rude and mostly not helpful. It is not 24/7 support.
They put out updates that crash the system and cause down time.
They make major changes without any notification. Like a new print server so when you come in on a Monday morning, no one can print.
Over priced!

The ability to see all facets of history in every ribbon/window and can go way back in time. The inventory module allows for us to go into our warehouse directly to where the item is and we can see costs, sales, quotes, etc.

The accounting package is staid and doesn't allow for easy access to edit. Records are like pictures so you can't edit rather than documents you can. Also, support was by far the overriding reason I crowed about P21/Epicor but not anymore. To often I get people who tell me to look at a solution in their data base rather than assisting me with my current issue, or don't even realize that I am hosted.

The fact that you can feed it and update it with all the information that is important to your company, you can customize it and the options as far as I've been seen are numerous.

Sometimes reports were difficult to be pulled, took too long or were inaccurate. We had to pull them more than once and data wasn't the same.

Real time (as opposed to batch processing) based software solution with integrated modules. No redundant data entry needed. Visibility of data available throughout the company.

Have lost the majority of good people with working knowledge of the product.
Not in active development.

AVP is very easy to use from a user standpoint, and not too bad from an administrators standpoint. You can easily maneuver through the software and update the areas you need to, and the support is fantastic. I have to say that Epicor has the best support from all of the different ERP systems I have used, well minus, Sybase/Optimized NALCOMIS support, but that is the US Navy.

Reporting is difficult. There isn't a real place to pull reports. We have a Datapoint which can tell us how the tables are connected, but cannot pull real reports. I am using Power Query, and some of the things I want to pull will not calculate right.

Grove has used P21 for 12 years now and are very happy. We love the fact that we can see rebated costs in the software at order entry and determine exactly what we are making on an order. Everything is part of one package so you are not worrying about add on packages that integrate with P21 as it is all a P21 product. If there is an issue, there is only one vendor to deal with. Our inventory accuracy is extremely high and we can always tell where an order is in process simply by drilling down within the system. Great product.

If there was anything I didn't like I would say that there are some bells and whistles in other parts of the system that have not made its way to the accounting piece. For example, you cannot enter notes in accounts payable like you can in other parts of the software so you have to develop a work around. However, we have always figured out a solution to what we need.

The application is loaded with features and benefits, particularly on the distribution side of the software. Our business consists of both Light Manufacturing (35%) and Distribution (65%) which is one of the key areas of the P21 functionality. You can search the market and find excellent distribution software and also search the market and find excellent manufacturing software, but try to find one that is excellent in both. P21 is the leader in this area and they are continuing to enhance both "sides" of the application. We also like the Windows environment which makes it very easy for new users to learn the navigation. Epicor has a lot of third party partners and providers that can bring volumes of additional resources and functionalities to the table. The SQL database is open which provides a ton of value when it comes to additional functionalities. I also love the ability to modify the baseline software appearance with Dynachange, and basic functional logic using Business Rules, and many other similar features.

P21 was built on an older database structure and has become limited in modifications such as lengthening the Item ID, or improving speed, and other core database structure. This can be limiting, however the solution most of these has been introduced with the Web enabled P21 application. Otherwise we have had a great experience.

Scale-ability and the capability to mold to a lot of different companies business models.
The Purchasing/Forecasting functionality is top notch and very mold-able to any purchasing model ranging from central purchasing down to individualized seasonal items. Once set up it will let you get away with a smaller procurement department as the system will tell you what you need to order.
The vendor is good about fixing issues quickly but sometimes difficult to distinguish between an actual error and a company specific business process.
There are a ton of purchasable add-on's from the Vendor them-self along with even more third party add-on's that makes this a wonderful software if you have the money and skilled personnel to support it.

Scale-ability and the capability to mold to a lot of different companies business models. Since this software can mold to a large variety of business models it can make training difficult and long due to the complexities of the software's advanced features. This also makes data entry combersome as you have to know what fields to enter depending on what functionality you are using.
Slow to implement vendor driven Idea's Network from user ideas.
The product feels extremely slow once you get used to running the system and is glitchy because of the method chosen to release updates and advancements. Developers run a continuous improvement program with multiple releases a year so as they are designing new features at the same time they are cleaning errors and glitches rather than waiting a long time for advancements and a rock solid release. This could also be considered good and bad if you need an advancement, you don't have to wait!
The companies move to have the first level of support go to India can lead to frustrations because of the communication blearier along with the new support teams are not yet very knowledgeable with the software and the level of experiences with the software is still being developed

Prophet 21 offers a complete package with accounting, inventory and light manufacturing modules to businesses of all sizes. The intuitive ease of use, and the ability to customize as needed has made this a very versatile software package.

This software package is so robust, it feels at times that it is impossible to learn about all of the features within the application. this forces me to depend on consultants and onsite engagements with Epicor employees to find new features that may be applicable to your business process. These engagements while incredibly useful are expensive.

Inventory control is a dream with advanced demand forecasting. Allows your employees to work on other aspects of your business. Extremely low barrier to entry for training new employees on the software. We think it is very intuitive.

Reporting has always lacked; however, there are many very good 3rd party tools out there.

Windows

Reporting , General Ledger are not very robust.

I like how easy it is to actually use (after set up). I also like how easy it is to learn how to use, especially if you have some previous experience using another brand ERP software. The point upgrades are extremely easy to perform as well.

There are a few things I don't like about this software. The report writer is tricky to use if you only write reports once every couple of years, you can easily forget how it is done/what is necessary. There are certain processes that aren't clearly laid out in the system like hot keys in certain screens aren't laid out.

Automation of behind the scenes accounting functions (no more batch processing!!)
Navigation is intuitive once you learn the function menus.
User group and solutions database is extremely helpful for special applications.
3rd party apps for data query and CRM are easy to connect

Epicor is pricey on custom fixes/solutions
Canned reporting is not as strong as I would like

Integration with credit card processing and sales tax software.

Flexibility to integrate with E-commerce environment.

The software is relatively easy to use and the on-line training making bring new staff on board easy.

The software needs to have a better ability to create custom reports and produce financial statements. The inventory module needs to have more stability to it. We find errors often.

The purchasing system is not adequate for a high level supply chain.

Ease of use. Prophet 21 application designers have put a lot of thought into making Prophet 21 simple to use yet powerful enough to meet the demands of thousands of distribution businesses.
Open database. I love the open database architecture. It allows me all the functionality I need to write custom reports for my business.
Fits a wide range of business requirements.

Lots of stuff in there we just don't use.
Can sometimes be slow aggregating data.
Artificial limit on the number of windows that can be open in the software at one time. Most computers today are more than capable of handling a much higher limit.

Flexible and extensible
Priced right
Widely used in the Fluid Power Industry
Good 3rd party support.

Production order scheduling is missing at the current time but on the roadmap.

Robust software that has high end integration modules. SQL platform allows custom integration.

Does not easily allow mail or email advertising integration. Has a electronic payment module for credit cards, but lacks integration for ACH, Wire Transfers or integration to your banking platform

Adaptability makes the software current with economic trends. We can update with modern technology and still use with legacy equipment.

Glitches that occur during product revision updates. More proof testing, with novice and seasoned users prior to release date might expose issues before a release.

Ease of use and almost no down time. Inventory, A/R, and pricing are all "real time".

Newer versions seem to jump around e.g. trying to open one application and getting another.