Brad Feakes, Author at EstesGroup

License to Go Live: Accessing Epicor License Info

by Brad Feakes | Jan 9, 2023 | Epicor, Epicor 10, Epicor Kinetic, ERP Consulting, ERP Implementation

Manufacturing a License to Be Different

No two Epicor implementations are quite the same.

One of the primary reasons for the differences between the configuration of two Epicor® Kinetic environments has to do with licensing. The Epicor® application has a broad suite of licensed modules, and most customers do not license the exact same Epicor® modules. So, how do you decide how to drive your Epicor® license?

Epicor License Info Epicor Kinetic Data Management

Considering the complexities and capabilities of manufacturing and distribution companies, Epicor® has created ERP systems for these industries that are ready for the unique challenges business owners face, from office to factory to customer. Each Epicor® application is a many-headed hydra, and with each head comes different modules and different capabilities. The number of heads determines the character of the monster.

If you are an enterprise resource planning (ERP) consultant, it is important to understand which modules are licensed, as this affects your options for helping a customer solve its many business problems.

If you are an ERP system user, it is similarly helpful to understand which Epicor® Kinetic modules are licensed, when working with support and troubleshooting unexpected behavior.

As you will see, the modules you license impact the behavior of the system, and unexpected behaviors might actually be explained by the underlying Epicor® license.

In the past, accessing Epicor® licensing was a bit of a pain. You needed to be able to access the Kinetic application server’s admin console to be able to gather licensing information. This required additional access levels and many additional steps.

Epicor Admin Console Epicor License Info

Now, as a function of Epicor’s more recent versions, you can access licensing information directly from the application.

When logged into the application itself, you can access Epicor® license information through the Epicor® Company Configuration module by simply navigating to the “License” tab and clicking the “Retrieve License Info” button to load the Epicor license information that would previously be retrieved via the Epicor® Admin Console:

You no longer need access to the Epicor® Application server to extract this information. All you need is the appropriate Epicor® security permissions to access the Epicor Company Configuration screen.

As with any Epicor® grid, you can also export the license into a spreadsheet format, using the “Copy to Excel” or “Copy All Include Labels” commands.

This new functionality makes it much easier to get licensing information at the tip of your fingers, when working with Epicor® support or your customer account manager.

Do you need to get your Epicor® Module list in a hurry? Are you chasing down an issue with support and need the details now? Look no further than the Company Cig screen, and be on your way to fast and good answers about your system.

GET HELP WITH YOUR EPICOR LICENSE & MORE NOW

How to Use Technology to Manage Freight Costs

by Brad Feakes | Nov 23, 2022 | Distribution, Epicor, ERP, ERP Consulting, ERP Implementation, Prophet 21

Freight costs are more important than ever in our turbulent times. With ongoing inflation, and the possibility of a recession looming, runaway freight costs threaten to take distributors’ profit margins for a ride.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions often lack proper tools within the base software for managing freight costs and often must rely on third-party applications and web sites to manage and execute carrier pricing. With a potential recession on the horizon, it is more important now than ever to recover costs and protect profits. Companies go to great lengths to negotiate freight rates with carriers but often fall short on execution of the rates resulting in paying higher costs. A better solution is needed, especially in light of the challenges that a recession will bring.

Freight Costs business concept: Small cardboard boxes with a plane flies above world map. Concept of transportation, international freight, global shipping, goods or services remotely. overseas trade, regional

November 30th @12PM – 1PM (EASTERN)

ShipSource: Using Technology to Manage Freight Costs During a Recession

On November 30th, at Noon (Eastern), Ron Cope of ShipSource will discuss the techniques necessary when using technology to manage freight costs during a recession. The session will focus on things you can do to improve freight execution and become more efficient to control spending.

Companies spend significant time, resources, and money to license and install shipping software. Efficient and fully-functional shipping solutions are a must in the distribution industry in general and in the Epicor Prophet 21 community, in particular. Moreover, there is a need in the P21 industry for custom platforms that meet clients’ needs, that are integrated immediately, and can go live within days.

ShipSource is an authorized distributor of the ShipVia multi-carrier transportation management system, and has been providing Prophet 21 shipping solutions since 2005. ShipVia was created to meet the Prophet 21 shipping needs of the P21 distribution community, by providing a robust rating engine that can be deployed quickly at affordable pricing.

Tailored to fit the corporate growth initiatives and financial strategies, the solution supports a robust solution and a rapid implementation. If you are looking for a solution that supports rating for all your carriers and can be fully implemented within days, then ShipSource has the system for you.

Meet Ron Cope of ShipSource at ESTES INTEGRATE 2022

Ron Cope has more than 35 years of experience with transportation management. Currently, Ron is the President of ShipVia, the manufacturer of the ShipVia transportation management software program and ViaDUCT integration software. Ron is also the Managing Partner of ShipSource that is licensed to distribute the ShipVia software products.

Ron Cope, ShipSource

Ready to keep your freight costs in your control?

Boosting P21 Sales Through CRM

by Brad Feakes | Nov 18, 2022 | Epicor, ERP Consulting, ERP Implementation, Prophet 21

If you’re in the distribution industry and planning for 2023, you might be asking, “How do I land more accounts and close more deals?” Leveraging CRM as the customer-facing side of your ERP system can help answer these questions. But ERP systems routinely fall short when it comes to natively providing best-in-class CRM capabilities.

Successful Prophet 21 CRM processes are most often supported by a best-of-breed third-party solution. White Cup’s solution for P21 is one such system, that can help extend the capabilities of your Prophet 21 ecosystem. But successful Prophet 21 CRM is best paired with Prophet 21 Business Intelligence, and White Cup complements their CRM offering with a robust BI platform, allowing users to mine the sales funnel with precision.

Within the context of P21 BI and P21 CRM, just what does a “day in the life” look like for a P21 salesperson?

On November 30th, Steve Hesson of White Cup will be presenting at 1:00 ET, on the subject of Driving P21 sales using White Cup CRM and BI. White Cup can take your P21 data to a new level of sales success.

Drive more sales from your P21 data with White Cup. In this session, White Cup’s Steve Hesson will cover the tactical ways that P21 integrates with White Cup CRM and BI (formerly MITS BI) to help create more sales opportunities and close more deals.

Increase existing customer sales using business intelligence
Speed up sales cycles with automated CRM workflows
Win new customers by responding to opportunities faster than the competition

White Cup turns a distributor’s sales pains into profit gains. Their CRM, Business Intelligence (BI), and Pricing software make it easier for you to sell more, keep more profit and beat the competition. With over 20 years of experience, White Cup is trusted by more than 1,000 customers globally.

Meet Steve Hesson at ESTES INTEGRATE 2022

Steve Hesson is White Cup’s Regional Sales Manager. He’s worked with distributors and manufacturers for the last six years and is passionate about selling technology that makes it easier for sales reps to crush their quotas and grow businesses.

How to Prepare Your Supply Chain for 2023

by Brad Feakes | Nov 17, 2022 | Business Consulting, Distribution, Epicor, ERP, ERP Consulting, ERP Implementation, ERP Risks and Challenges, Prophet 21

Over the last few years, I’ve seen companies perform every possible inventory management tactic to mitigate the supply chain challenges that afflicted the nation as a function of the pandemic. Some strategies proved to be detrimental, with manufacturing and distribution companies burdened at times with massive quantities of low-turn product.

That is to say, if you are a distributor recovering from stressors due to the pandemic, optimally managing your Prophet 21 inventory levels is of utmost importance as you head into the new challenges of 2023. COVID-19 and other recent global events are testing the resilience and flexibility of supply chains.

Supply Chain Challenges International freight or shipping service for online shopping or ecommerce concept : Paper boxes or carton put in circle around a clear crystal globe with world map on a computer notebook keyboard.

How Can You Prepare Your Supply Chain for 2023?

Slimstock is one company that can show you how to be ready for the possible supply chain rollercoasters of the new year. Slimstock’s forecasting, planning, and purchasing solution integrates with the P21 application to bring you to the next level of P21 efficiency and P21 optimization.

Slimstock is the market leading AI-powered inventory optimization software. Slimstock helps companies using Epicor Prophet 21 by enabling the delivery of the right stock to the right place at the right time.

Slimstock does this by all-in-one P21 integration of Inventory Forecasting, Demand Planning and Purchase Optimization, with machine learning capabilities.

Over the last 25 years, Slimstock has helped thousands of companies to boost profitability and unlock working capital by improving availability, increasing efficiency, and eliminating waste with guarantee on ROI within a year.

Since their inception in 1993, they have worked in collaboration with business leaders, domain experts and academics and the P21 user community to develop their award-winning inventory optimization platform, Slim4.

Join Jeff Steinecker, Dennis Weir, and Ryan Shanks, on November 30th at 4:00 (Eastern), as they work to help Prophet 21 companies in supercharging their P21 supply chain strategies and practices.

Meet Slimstock at ESTES INTEGRATE 2022

Jeff Steinecker (Strategic Accounts Executive at Slimstock): Jeff has an extensive experience in helping customers realize gains in productivity, efficiency, and fun. He is a knowledge expert in supply chain and can align, lead, and grow supply chains with assured returns.

Dennis Weir (Business Development Executive at Slimstock): With a strong background in supply chain, Dennis is your Knowledge Partner for Demand Planning and Inventory Optimization. He is excited to represent Slimstock and answer any questions you may have.

Ryan Shanks (Pre-Sales Demonstrations & Solution Architect at Slimstock): Ryan has a background in Supply Chain, primarily focusing on Logistics, Distribution, and Sourcing. He enjoys sharing knowledge with others and thus is delighted to be a part of the webinar.

WATCH A VIDEO INTERVIEW NOW

Bringing A/R Innovation to Life in Prophet 21

by Brad Feakes | Nov 15, 2022 | Business Consulting, Cloud, Epicor, ERP, ERP Implementation, Prophet 21

Epicor Prophet 21 and automation go hand-in-hand: successfully integrating your P21 ERP system with a best-of-breed solution can help automate manual and paper-based processes that burden organizations.

When it comes the challenge of automating your P21 Accounts Receivable processes, Keith Carman, Vice President of Enterprise Solutions at Unified A/R, summarizes it simply as a matter of “convenience, convenience, convenience.” Today, more than 70% of B2B payments are still completed with a paper check and a paper invoice.

What is the impact of paper processes to P21 customers?

The absence of Accounts Receivable technology and increasing interchange rates for credit card transactions can result in longer DSO, fraud risks and manual posting/reconciliation. The net result: higher costs, lower accuracy, and hits to your cash flow.

Unified A/R improves Prophet 21 payment processes by simplifying B2B Accounts Receivable and Payment Acceptance with best-in-class solutions and ongoing consultation from payment industry experts.

How Can Unified A/R Bring Your A/R Innovation to Life?

Unified’s cloud-based A/R solutions help clients get paid faster and easier at less cost while improving their customers’ experience. Unified’s Executive Team brings more than 150 years of combined management success from the Payments and ERP Industries and has partnered with many of the nation’s largest Trade and Professional Associations, Financial Institutions, and Technology Firms. Unified A/R is headquartered in Franklin, TN.

On November 30th, Unified’s Keith Carman and Brittany Rodgers will be discussing Accounts Receivable automation for P21. They’ll explore how P21 AR Automation improves near-term margin, order-to-cash processes and customer experience, including:

Digital tools to accelerate cash flow, improve client satisfaction and support non-remote and remote work environments.
Best practices to reach desired financial outcomes, maintain PCI Compliance and improve efficiency.
How to recognize and resolve barriers to customer adoption of digital workflows.

The team will also provide a live demo of P21-integrated process for invoice/statement creation and delivery, payment acceptance, and automated cash application.

WHEN: November 30th at 3PM – 4PM (EASTERN)

WHERE: ESTES INTEGRATE 2022 (A Digital Gathering of Prophet 21 Leaders, Thinkers, Innovators)

WHY: Unified A/R Offers the BEST Cloud-Based A/R Solutions Available to the Distribution Industry

Keith Carman, Vice President of Enterprise, leads Business Development, aligning product solutions and internal expertise to client needs to deliver streamlined implementations, go-live events, and ongoing success for our clients. He holds degrees in Economics and Finance from Indiana’s Hanover College.

Brittany Rodgers Accounts Innovation Receivable Expert

Brittany Rodgers, Integration Engineer, manages new client onboarding and integration activities, providing a personal approach as the liaison between enterprise clients and Unified A/R’s IT, Implementation and Quality Assurance Teams. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Operations Management from the University of Cincinnati.