I just need to get this off my chest – so bear with me.
First off, I’ve been doing sysadmin work for scores of years now, and the idea of backups, business continuity, and “bad guys” isn’t new. However, this week it was brought to a new and interesting head for one small business.
Rewind the clock two years and we were in the conversation with this business about where they host their “golden nuggets” of their business, what servers did what, where were the users, how did the backups fare, state of malware, web filtering protection, etc. You know, all the “normal” stuff any qualified IT provider would ask a prospective customer. “We’re fine” was the answer – they had an in-house IT guru watching all that stuff. However, they did make a (wise) decision to host their ERP solution with us.
Last week, our monitoring went suspiciously quiet, it looked like the company went on vacation, or they had fallen asleep at the keyboard. I reached out to the company, and was informed that they had been the victim of the latest ransomware attack, and all their documents were encrypted and unusable. Thankfully, since they were hosting their ERP system with us, that was safe from the attack. All their ERP data was secure but everything else they controlled was locked. Backups proved unreliable or inaccessible, so the ransom was paid. The company got lucky and the recovery key worked and they got their documents back. What they didn’t get back was Active Directory. Ouch! Nobody could login, even though their documents were back on a server, nobody could access them.
A week later, a new domain, and new profiles on everyone’s desktop, new shares, new permissions, and they were back up and running. After everything, the company is back to doing business, but it could have been a much worse situation. A critical note: the ERP system was never at risk and no ERP data was lost since that was safely stored elsewhere.
Moral of the story:
Test your backups. Not just documents, but the whole server. How long does it take to get it back? It should not be more than a few hours.
Just because you can restore files doesn’t mean you can go out, buy a new server and restore your existing workload onto a new server.
If you can’t live without it, and you don’t have the in-house expertise to manage it – outsource it! Let the pros handle the critical IT while you do what you do best: making essential product and making your business grow.
Every month there seems to be some sort of mass serial or lot recall.
Take the recent recall for Ford Fusions’ gear selector, BMW’s i3 circuit board which caused sudden auto shutdowns, or even Britax baby gear Bob stroller lawsuit & recall. All of these have some important ramifications for consumers, manufacturers, and even the distributors and retailers in-between.
To alleviate and address consumer fears, manufacturers need to initiate the recall and fix the issue which means distributors and retailers need to know who purchased the items, what the affected serial numbers, lot numbers, or potential manufacture/purchase/sales dates are for the affected items. Large companyes may have these capabilities, but how do small to mid-sized retailers or distributors track that vital information? Many times, serial number tracking and lot number tracking is done with disconnected spreadsheets, accounting software not designed for serial and lot tracking, which leads to erroneous information and potential for signification financial impacts.
It’s times like these which force midsize supply chain companies to answer the following questions:
Do my current business processes support this level of tracking and recall?
Can my business system provide this information correctly in a timely and economical fashion?
What burdens will this place on my business efficiency?
What is the total financial or legal impact on my business?
If you can’t answer these questions or the answers you come up with point to problems for your business, then now is the time to seriously think about an ERP system . . . before it’s too late.
Production Management (for the Distributor with some Manufacturing requirements)
Service and Maintenance Management (includes warranty claims)
The powerful data capture and real-time reporting of Prophet 21 ERP (P21) makes it a great fit solution for many small to midsized distributors. A few specific features of serial and lot tracking are:
Instant Information at a Click of the Mouse
Search by Full or Partial Serial Numbers or Lot Numbers
See Serial Numbers or Lot Numbers by Vendors
Trace Production or Movement of Serial Numbers or Lot Numbers
A Look Back: Our Prophet 21 Journey & Continued Commitment to the Distribution Industry
In 2019, EstesGroup was recognized for its work in the ERP distribution space through a formal partnership with Epicor. At that time, we were selected as the Western U.S. partner for the Prophet 21® platform, a powerful ERP solution designed for growing distributors.
We continue to work with distributors across North America, helping them optimize, extend, and protect their Prophet 21 systems — through independent consulting, managed IT, cloud hosting, and ERP strategy.
For over a decade, EstesGroup has worked alongside distribution companies to address the complexities of supply chain management, system integrations, reporting, and digital transformation. Prophet 21 remains a core part of that conversation. Whether hosted on-premise or in the cloud, P21 continues to serve as a flexible, scalable platform — and our team is proud to support its users with practical, real-world expertise.
What It Means to Be a True Prophet 21 Partner in the Distribution Industry
In the world of industrial distribution, vendors come and go — but a true partner stays with you for the long haul.
At EstesGroup, being a partner means more than providing software or technical support. It means understanding your operations, your customers, and your pressures. It means stepping into your world — forklifts, field service, freight delays and all — and helping you build a system that works in real life, not just on paper.
Our role isn’t to sell you more software. It’s to make what you already have work better — whether that’s through cloud optimization, reporting automation, cybersecurity, or Prophet 21 tuning. For distributors who need more than lip service and license fees, we bring a steady hand, a strategic eye, and a commitment to long-term success.
The Rise of Vendor-Agnostic Strategy in Distribution ERP
The ERP landscape is changing — and so are the expectations of businesses that rely on it. Today, more companies are turning away from vendor lock-in and shifting toward vendor-agnostic strategies that prioritize flexibility, interoperability, and long-term value.
Why? Because distributors and manufacturers don’t want to be trapped. They want freedom — freedom to evolve, to integrate best-of-breed solutions, and to choose partners based on capability, not contract clauses.
At EstesGroup, we’ve embraced this shift. As an independent ERP services provider, we support your systems, not someone else’s sales agenda. Whether you’re on Epicor Prophet 21, Infor SX.e, Sage 100, SYSPRO, or another platform, we bring multi-platform expertise designed to help you:
Optimize what you already own
Integrate with tools that make sense for your workflows
Host in the cloud, on-premise, or hybrid — without pressure
Make changes when you’re ready, not when a vendor decides
Deploy your software in the cloud ERP infrastructure that works best for you
In a multi-platform, user-centric model of ERP and IT consulting, the control returns to you. And that’s where it belongs.
I just need to get this off my chest – so bear with me. 
