Epicor to release new ERP solution

Epicor has launched its next-generation enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, Epicor 9.

The solution has been in development for three years and Beta tested with more than 80 companies around the world, including the company’s channel partner, Precise Business Solutions based in Western Australia.

It will now be launched to resellers next week.

Mark Batina, managing director of Precise Business Solutions tested the solution firsthand and will be the person on the ground reselling this product to Australian customers on behalf of Epicor.

“This is a very exciting time for us. It represents something that the market place hasn’t seen for some time,” said Batina.

“Customers can take a higher degree of ownership of their system as the tools are designed around industry standard platforms to let them take control of the change process themselves and not be reliant on their vendor or partner.

“As their business evolves and changes due to new challenges in the market place then they have a greater level of control of what their system does for them allowing us to become a value added partner,” he added.

According to Craig Charlton, vice president for Epicor A/NZ, E9 is an end to end solution for mid-sized organisations to manage their financial operations, distribution and warehouse operations and customer relationship needs in one solution.

“We have 10 resellers across A/NZ and the south pacific and they are very excited to get their hands on this solution because it’s a real game changer,” said Charlton.

“Having a 100 percent service architecture means it’s easy to deploy and maintain and the application is built to mould itself to the customer’s requirements.

“Most organisations find when they modify their applications they get landlocked or the total cost of ownership becomes expensive. This changes all that because it is simpler to change the workflow without modifying the code,” he added.

Epicor also recently announced its support of Microsoft’s cloud computing initiative, Azure Services Platform.

Through Epicor’s partnership with Microsoft – bringing software together with service – it wants to give Australian customers greater flexibility and expanded capabilities that it was previously unable to offer.

Enterprise Search is the first in a series of connected applications for Epicor 9 and will be Azure-enabled when it is released in 2009.