"Made with you, for you" is a promise we take seriously at Epicor—it describes the value we place on customer feedback during our product planning, development, and release process. Our customers offer insights and expertise to shape our product strategy, and we view them as true partners at every step in our journey together.
We offer multiple ways for our customers to guide us during the product development cycle. We engage with top industry and technology business leaders that form our Customer Advisory Boards (CABs) to drive strategic product investments, helping ensure that our products evolve with the changing needs of the businesses we serve. Once these investments are identified, our product management and engineering teams collaborate with our product advisory boards (PABs) to develop those investments and help ensure that they align with customer expectations and market needs.
Other ways we work with our customers are through onsite visits and our Value Exchange Workshops, in which we review their use of Epicor solutions to drive optimization while maximizing their return on investment.
We also offer remote opportunities for customers to conveniently provide input and recommendations on our solutions. Customers can share product feedback, either through the Idea Portals (set up by industry) or in-app feedback directly from their Epicor solution(s). Additionally, we administer an annual product survey to gather input from a cross-section of our customer base. Finally, we actively support and participate in both user groups and online forums where customers share their thoughts and provide useful industry, product, and business insights.
We believe that this customer-first approach to product development has certainly benefited Epicor solution users across all industries. For example, here are five enhancements in Kinetic, Prophet 21 and Eclipse that were made by Epicor customers:
- 300+ users requested a feature that delivers more flexible access to user data. Using a Business Activity Query (BAQ) as a data source to the Kinetic solution, the BAQ toolset enables users to take advantage of and effectively manage the vast amount of data available in Kinetic.
- Over 100 users requested that we streamline the production planning process in Kinetic. The production planning process was simplified and shortened by consolidating various fields on different screens, and decreasing the number of steps and screens that a user must navigate during a common production planning workflow. Essentially, this enhancement automates multiple steps in the process that otherwise would have been manual. This feature also allows users to understand the jobs that can be released with all the material available in inventory. Within the same screen, it allows the user to execute on it (i.e., the user can release, reserve, and send it for picking all within one screen).
Other notable Kinetic features that were recommended by customers in recent releases include the following:
- Quality inspections managed at the part level
- Mass Engineering Change Order (ECO) revision change and checkout
- Shipping calendars to validate ship dates against in order processing
- Change vendor on recurring invoices
- Planning workbench process simplification
- At the height of COVID, when demand exceeded supply, distributors needed a way to limit the number of items customers could purchase—think PPE masks and toilet paper. Based on customers' suggestions in response to the pandemic, our development team created the Restricted Items Quantity feature. This new capability allows distributors to restrict the number of items customers can purchase based on class, item, or specific customers, making it easier for distributors to equitably manage supply.
- As distributors look to bring more manufacturing in-house, they need a way to forecast capacity against demand within their ERP. Taking the lead from our Fluid Power and Fasteners PAB, we developed Capacity Planning and Production Scheduling. Designed to help our customers maximize the power of Prophet 21, Capacity Planning and Production Scheduling helps balance supply and demand to optimize inventory levels while reducing costs.
- Eclipse users strongly recommended that we make customer information available in an updated version of the Sales Order Information Panel. This eliminates over 30 keystrokes for users while adding multiple customer-specific data points on the Customer tab, empowering users to customize it based on need.
We need your voice! Please plan to participate—Epicor is focused on your needs with the ideal of delivering great technology solutions.
