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An Independent Look at the Epicor 10.2 User Experience

by | Mar 30, 2018 | Epicor, Epicor 10, ERP, ERP Consulting, ERP Implementation, ERP Selection, Network Administration, Software

Are you ready for an Epicor 10 Demo?

Epicor ERP is a powerful platform with thousands of manufacturers using it to run their businesses. With power often comes complexity, and that’s been the case with earlier versions of the system. There is no perfect ERP system, and the ever-changing balance between functionality and usability is a constant series of trade-offs. Epicor ERP Version 9 often required multiple servers, performance tuning was critical, it had a Progress data base layer, even when running on SQL, and the user experience was challenging. A personalized Epicor ERP demo is the perfect beginning to your Epicor consulting journey.

 

Epicor invested $25M in Epicor ERP Version 10, developing a completely new platform. The system was written and optimized for Microsoft .NET Framework and the Microsoft Data Platform, including Microsoft SQL Server. Users will experience a big increase in performance (over Epicor 9) and find the system easier to manage.

 

What you’ll see in your Epicor ERP demo

According to Epicor, here are the Top 5 user ERP system experience enhancements for Epicor ERP 10.

  •  Responsiveness – Performance has doubled and scalability has quadrupled across virtually all aspects of the system. ERP 10 is much more hardware efficient, which dramatically lowers hardware costs.
  • Simplicity – ERP 10 services are hosted purely using Microsoft Windows® components, including Internet Information Services (IIS) and Microsoft .NET. An all new management architecture makes deployment and migration much easier.
  • Mobility – Touch-enabled devices are now supported for a new navigation system and a re-architected Epicor Web Access (EWA) browser client.
  • Collaboration – Epicor Social Enterprise is included with ERP 10 and is a new way for ERP users to interact with each other and with ERP data.
  • Choice – ERP 10 can be deployed on premise, hosted, or access via subscription. It is also much easier to create a high-performing virtualized infrastructure.

The current version, Epicor 10.2, introduces some really exciting capabilities that you’ll see in your ERP demo, including Active Home Page and Epicor Data Discovery (EDD). Here are some highlights:

  • Developed using the latest web standard, which makes the system mobile-friendly and responsive.
  • Manufacturing role-based KPIs, examples: Percentage of Jobs without Scrap or Non Conformance, Manufacturing Hours and Indirect Hours.
  • Finance and Supply Chain role-based KPIs, including: Price Variance, Open PO Count and Amount, and Negative Inventory Items/Out of Stock.
  • Customization capabilities to modify out-of-the-box KPIs or create entirely new ones based on existing or newly created BAQs.

 

Epicor Consulting: How can we help?

What do you want to see? Our Epicor consultants will show it to you. The best way to get an in-depth look at the new Epicor 10.2 functionality is to experience it firsthand! Our Epicor consulting team can give you a demo of the full system, or one of our ERP specialists can walk you through a specific module. We can help you with project planning, including Epicor budgeting so you experience increased revenue at every step of your ERP upgrade. Your personalized Epicor ERP demo can even show you the newest managed ERP hosting capabilities.

 

Ready for an Epicor ERP demo?
Going green in your IT

Going green in your IT

by | Feb 17, 2016 | Network Administration

As a business owner, did you know there are several green IT practices you can do to help save on your electric bill?

All this technology we use costs us not only to buy and maintain it, but it burns electricity and creates heat. Some of those things run 24x7x365, but others can be turned off when not in use, or at least turned down. Just as you (should) turn off the lights when you leave a room, so can your technology be ‘user-aware’ and save power when not in active use.

 

The good news is that the newer technology is greener than ever. Even the new networking hardware is energy aware. When it’s time for a hardware upgrade, think green! There’s good reference material on going green in the office. Our cloud technology consultants are ready to help you use cutting-edge IT to save money while saving the planet.

 

Here are some specific advantages of eco-friendly IT practices for devices that you might have in your office:

 

Servers: The ‘iron’ itself runs all the time (except when it’s broken) and Windows servers default to a recommended power saving mode.  The monitor turns off, drives spin down and CPU sockets/cores get disabled when not in use.  The best way you can save money here is to make sure that the power settings are at Balanced (recommended). Beware, there are some exceptions. If your servers are virtual, then the power savings decisions actually fall on the hypervisor and NOT the VM. Actually, a green IT practice that is best way to save money on your servers (purchase, power and cooling) is to move them to the cloud! While enterprise data centers have their own challenges, a small business would do well to consider moving some operations to the cloud.

 

PCs: Since Windows machines default to a recommend power saving scheme, you should be OK.  You can use Intel Power Management to actually force machines to hibernate (as opposed to sleep) if your infrastructure supports that.  Of course, if you can turn your PC off at the end of the day and your IT department doesn’t complain, do that!  Many companies do scans, patches and updates at night, so this might not be recommended.  For example, our EstesCloud Client Care machines do that patching and scans on Monday night.

 

Laptops: Hibernate when you can, and follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for battery life.  Often, just closing the lid will force the sleep/hibernate cycle and save juice.

 

Mobile: We all try to eke out every last minute from our smartphones. I recommend installing a power saving app that will stop background processes, turn off the screen and improve charging characteristics.  I use the 360 Security app for this and more features.

 

Printers: Most printers now go into a power-saving mode, at the cost of a few moments warming back up when you go to print.  You might consider replacing occasionally used ink-jet printers with low-cost lasers so the ink doesn’t keep drying out and needing to be replaced!

 

At home: If you have a remote-enabled device like a TV, DVR, DVD or stereo, it’s drawing power even when it’s “off”.  I put my entertainment system on a surge-protector, and when we’re done for the night – I flip the power off on all those power-sucking vampire devices.  I also put my Wifi router and cable modem on a light-timer that cycles off every night. This has multiple benefits – I save power when it’s off, my kids can’t easily get online late at night, and those home routers tend to be more stable when restarted on a regular basis. Win-win strategy!

 

In addition to doing our part to save the planet, another great advantage of eco-friendly IT is that you’ll save a few bucks!

 

Let’s get IT together!

Security Admin vs. Network Admin – Is a fox in your henhouse?

Security Admin vs. Network Admin – Is a fox in your henhouse?

by | Jul 23, 2015 | Network Administration

Network Administration.

It’s a tough act to follow, after all, network admins have the unenviable job of keeping servers running, users to make happy, bosses to satisfy, budgets to meet. If I can just keep the henhouse running smooth, playing good cop, the good bits flowing where they ought to go – that’s my happy place. All in all, if I get home without any major disasters, it’s beer-thirty and time to chillax.

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