I like to peruse the Epicor-related message boards on a semi-regular basis. Usually, I’ll find something nice, and occasionally I can help someone with a problem they’re having.
Sometimes, a poster will suggest using DMT to solve a problem and the person says, “We don’t have DMT licensed.” It usually takes me a while to get over the shock. Well, shock is a strong word. Dismay, disbelief, incredulity, maybe.
Epicor’s Data Management Tool is just too handy an appliance for a customer not to have. Sure, there are ways to get data into the ERP system without it.
First, there’s the manual way: put your fingers on the keyboard and get cracking. Your great-great-grandchildren will be colonizing Alpha Ceti 6 before you get done. Paste insert/paste update is a good way to get certain lists entered, especially for setup tables. Units of measure, FOB, AR Terms, etc. are good uses for this handy functionality.
But for crunching in the big stuff like customers, vendors, parts, and manufacturing methods, where the record counts grow, you must have it. Consider that a typical manufacturer might have 10,000 – 20,000 parts, 25,000 operations and 100,000 bill of material records. This data management software makes this possible in a reasonable time frame. And it handles the complexity so you don’t have to.
Here’s an example. When you enter the bill of operations, it’s one Excel sheet. Epicor ERP’s Data Management Tool in the Epicor 10 upgrade sets up the main record, plus all the default resources, etc. in several tables. You don’t have to worry about it.
DMT interfaces with Epicor’s “business objects” to make sure your data follows the rules.
Try to enter a BOM record without its related operation? No can do. Operation without a part revision? Customer with no sales person set up? Uh-uh. The data has to go in its natural order, just as if you were manually typing away. DMT respects the logic of the Epicor business objects.
With direct SQL updates (just say no), you can unintentionally corrupt your database. While you can add or delete records you don’t mean to (it’s a powerful tool, after all), it’s really hard to damage your database with DMT.
Some folks use the DMT as a part of their daily business processing. You can load transactions up in an Excel file, and away you go. It has great utility “utility,” too. I’ve seen a bad inventory part record where you couldn’t open it in Part Maintenance. Just load it into DMT and update something, the part description maybe. It doesn’t even have to change. Boop! Problem fixed.
Not sure you need DMT? Think it’s too difficult to master? Give us a shout. We’ll walk you through its benefits and operation.
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Author Bio:
Joe Trent is a Senior Consultant with The Estes Group. He has over 35 years of experience in manufacturing and distribution systems, in software development,
implementation and use.
