
Epicor Manufacturing Express Edition
Comprehensive ERP solution for shops & small manufacturers
3,7 /5 (73 reviews) Write a Review!Broad functionality that comes with a price
Pros
Ability to create custom 'dashboard' screens to see things that we want to monitor.
Extensive functionality for small to medium sized manufacturing companies.
Good shop floor usability.
Job costing provided real times access to allow you to monitor costs and flag overages.
Cons
Standard reports were ok but not great.
Scheduling module was not adaptable to our process - would have required some modifications that we did not want to spend the money to make.
Very Powerful
Over the years Epicor (and former Vantage product) has grown from a simple Job Shop system to a full blown ERP powerhouse that brings the flexibility to address most any manufacturing or distribution company.
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.
Good, but needs some improvement
Pros
I like how you are able to customize things to the aspect of your company. The ability to make things unique to your own is a great feature. It's great for tracking inventory too.
Cons
There is always a problem with any update that happens. I do not like the ticket process because it takes forever to get a response and most times the problem could be solved in a few minutes instead of being dragged out for a few weeks.
Everything in one package
Epicor buys up companies that can add value and functionality to the software, ever increasing the usefulness.
Pros
The ease to customize multiple areas and still be able to update the software without losing everything you customized already!
Cons
When you update the server, the client also use be updated. If the user doesn't have admin rights on the pc, this could be a problem. I've recently heard they fixed this in a future release of the software
All in one place
The attractiveness of an all in one software makes Epicor a real deal.
Customizations don't interfere with updates and a recently enhanced operating system provide the best of ERP.
Pros
Easy to update or customize to fit our needs
Cons
Needs better integration to send emails using internal functionality.
Fully integrated and does a good job, but costly for what you get.
Pros
You can only purchase the modules you need, which should keep costs down, but the modules that you do need are very costly. Good for a medium company 50-100 employees, but wouldn't recommend for a small company.
Cons
Implementation of the product was very difficult. It wasn't as easy to implement as other ERP systems. Maybe we were too cheap and tried to do more on our own without the help of training. Reporting was hard to figure out and complicated for the average Joe.
We're a small manufacturing company that does mostly custom jobs for our clients. In 2005 we had been on our old system for almost 10 years. It was very out-of-date and pieced together of separate programs with little to no integration between them, necessitating multiple entries in multiple systems for the same order, using other tools like Excel & email to keep track of orders from module-to-module. In short, a very inefficient and human-error prone system.
We searched among the ERP vendors and narrowed it down to three, Epicor being one of them. We chose Epicor because of integration from Quote-to-Cash with fully functional accounting system, inventory management, order/quote management, job tracking, and shipping modules. We started on Vantage 8.0 and have upgraded twice since then and are now on their Epicor 9 product. New features and capabilities have been added to Vantage/Epicor 9 over the years making the product even better.
Our initial implementation took about a year. There were bumps in the road as always when doing such a major software rollout, but overall it was a pretty smooth rollout. The main thing is to look at the new system functionality and efficiencies in their flow and adapt our business to fit the system and not try and make the system fit our business. We had Epicor do some training onsite so our users knew how to use the system before rollout so it was not a total shock.
Great if you are a potential new customer, not so great after
Pros
We went from a manmade access system to this ERP system being our first. I enjoyed the easy click through menu options and ability to customize the forms to our liking. We have a unique business that would not fit an out of the box capability.
Cons
Reporting is not easy in this system. Almost everything has to be customizable and it created many years worth of problems trying to build this system without a strong support team. We have been trying for over a year to get our rep to give us pricing on licenses as we have grown and would like to expand in this area. We cannot get responses from the website support, our rep, or anything. Once you become a customer, you are abandoned, and left with very little support. this was not ideal as we developed how we wanted to use an ERP system and what the system could really do. We have spent 100s of thousands with other consulting companies to try to build the system, all while paying for the support and maintenance without any support.
Overall a great product, but maintenance is getting expensive.
Pros
The real-time display for monitoring machines. Our production facilities have large displays showing the status of the machines in each room. If a machine ever goes down, the status turns red, and the floor supervisors can investigate promptly.
Cons
Maintenance is getting more and more expensive. They do not offer multi-year discounts, and each year is now costing nearly double what we started at three years ago. I am a systems administrator and have been tasked by production management to investigate other options to get away Mattec MES.
The software is pre-canned and not customizable. Modifications can be made by Epicor, but be prepared to pay handsomely.
The technology is a bit behind its time, and they are long overdue for a rewrite. We host this on a VM in our datacenter, but this renders the audio alerting system useless for our remote production facilities. Support has stated you must run a local physical server with a sound card to take advantage of the feature.
Great Experience
Pros
Its a very friendly and flexible software with the great customization options. It definitely fulfill the customer needs.
Cons
Though it is expensive it is worth it. Drag and drop options if implemented it will take the software to next level.
A Cloud-based ERP Solution with a Difference
I was pretty impressed with the solution because it simplifies ERP, provides broad and deep functionality, and offers an array of useful tools for modifying it to your businesses needs. If you like experience coupled with low cost, then Epicor Manufacturing Express Edition is for you. A typical implementation is less than 60 days. “The implementation is solely focused on configuring the system to a customer’s specific needs and, if necessary, migrating their business data"
Pros
Power-packed with features
Not fully developed product
I don't understand why unfinished product is on the market as fully developed product. It is 5 months in use but soooo many glitches. Never again!
Pros
Looks cool but nothing else. It is too hard to say anything good especially in comparison with other products.
Cons
No manual, no instructions of configuration, is too sensitive. Support can't be worse. After installation wasn't any testing/commissioning.
A very powerful tool for manufacturing companies - but customer support could be better
I believe Epicor is an excellent tool for manufacturing. I can not give it 5 starts really because of the time it takes to get an issue solved once it's placed with customer support. They have however, improved in the last couple of years now that they started using an online ticketing system, which seems to run a lot better now. Its reporting capabilities are amazing, for any module in the ERP. I do believe the experience is better for customers in the Americas than in other parts of the world, since there are a lot more experts, consultants, users, etc. in the States and Latin America than I've seen in Asia or Europe. The implementation is complex, so being paired with the right consultants can make it or break it - it really is a very good software!
Pros
- very powerful and thorough functionalities for all manufacturing operations
- extremely good costing capabilities (all financial features are quite good, actually)
- can be customized to a great extent
- many tools for reporting and data analysis
- integrates with tools such as MES, bar code reader, is ready for EDI
Cons
- it's a bit more slow that I wish it were
- customer support is very bureaucratic, it takes from a couple of days to weeks to get any issue solved (to be fair, they do solve them)
- learning curve is steep. It's not that easy to use so people who are not tech-savy get a bit intimidated by this tool
- instruction manuals and help menu are only available in English
Epicor works.
Recommended for growing manufacturers who are not sure just how large they may grow. This product scales well with best practices built in that will allow you to grow without adding people and overhead.
Pros
Easy to use. Very deep in functionality - you will likely be able to use the whole system out of the box.
Cons
Need to manage your scope for an implementation project - it is easy to take on more given the wide capability it has. Best to manage scope.
Epicor Manufacturing
Pros
Epicor has a ton of functionality and seems to be receptive to adapting to user customization. Provides a huge benefit for tracking multiple different things and works will in conjunction with other software.
Cons
Seems to be a little clunky and slow at times. It also can be hard to find information needed in the system on occasion.
Powerful and Easy
Outstanding for the manufacturing world.
Pros
Epicor is very simple to navigate and understand. Bringing new people in and getting them up to speed is extremely simple.
Cons
Old version is pretty slow. The new version appears to be much faster. The support group still needs some work, however they are make progress.
Accountings software is an afterthought.
Fixing the accounting software is not even on their to do list when you look at the next years initiatives
Pros
PM management tools are great. lots of flexibility, configuration, etc. But not an easy program to set up.
Cons
The accounting system is the worst i have ever seen. Feels like an after thought that they really don't care about. Cumbersome entries for purchasing, accounting, reconciliation, etc.
Great Platform For Manufacturing Organizations!
Pros
Epicor is a very straight forward and easy to use ERP system. It's been a breeze using this platform for our various needs building safes for businesses around the globe!
Cons
There were some times that we had issues with our custom reporting features. However, this was quickly resolved by Epicor's awesome tech support!
Epicor ERP give us all the power to see our business.
Pros
Some of the things I like about Epicor are the ways you can customize your dashboards. You create them to show virtually anything you want. And it works well with Excel sheets too. I also like how we can use Epicor to create and track jobs, purchase orders, invoices, and schedules.
Cons
There are some things that seem overcomplicated sometimes. I've had an issue where when I create a purchase order a check box for "inspection required" gets clicked that we don't ever use and it causes an issue for accounting.
Total Package
Pros
It is a complete software for production management. Both upstream and downstream processes can be monitored. Its customization enabled software.
Cons
The software has multiple features and so it may need time to become popular with the software.
Epicor review
Pros
There isn't anything I like best. I am planning on replacing it as it is out of date and the service is horrible
Cons
This is a old product that does not keep up with today's standards.
Epicor is very competitive against SAP
Pros
modular, you can add components to be what you want to use. The biggest pro is it has a really good BOM system for manufacturing - this is usually missed in ERPs
Cons
it is expensive, and there is so much customization you can do so it becomes difficult to use. I have also worked with a system that Epicor bought, the product support on that was not very good because they were phasing the system out. Would have been better to upgrade us as the customer so they could provide better support.
Epicor
Pros
it is a very complete ERP software, it has a lot of great functionalities and very customizable it works great for manufacturing and purchasing
Cons
it is too expensive and the support it is really poor, you never get a real solution and it takes more than one call to get an answer. the support is really poor
Used Epicor ERP for 7 plus years, works Great!
Love the product, so easy to use, and has several 3rd party software that plug into it, making life easier.
Pros
Easy to use, Great Product Configurator, and company continues to move forward with new abilities, mobility!
Cons
Inventory module is a little clunky, doesn't make it easy to do inventory if you use phantom assemblies.
Epicor is a full encompassing, user friendly system.
Pros
Easy to use, easy to train, very customizable to your specific business needs. Easy to upgrade as needed.
Cons
System has some bug as all systems do but we don't seem to be able to easily get fixes without waiting for full upgrade.
We use Epicor to run a $5M machining business. The software allowed us to do almost everything we wanted with the exception of scheduling each machine accurately. While the software has a powerful scheduling module, because many of our parts were processed on more than one machine, we were not able to accurately reflect our actual process in their scheduling module. Standard reports were also lacking so we used Crystal Reports and created custom reports on a regular basis. The ability to easily create dashboards was great and allowed us to create screens that showed specific metrics that we wanted to monitor. Shop floor access was acceptable - allowing workers to log into/out of jobs, clock in/out, etc. on a daily basis. Overall a good package that can easily grow with a small company.