ERP Comparisons: Technology Value Matrix 2022

2022 Insights and Comparisons: Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises

ACUMATICA

Acumatica is a leader in this year’s SMB ERP Technology Value Matrix. The ERP specialist primarily serves mid-market companies in the construction, distribution, retail-commerce, services, and manufacturing sectors. The cloud ERP provider combines financial management, project accounting, customer management, field service management, and payroll capabilities in one unified platform. Acumatica’s core value proposition lies in its modular architecture, which empowers developers and citizen developers alike to configure business logic, integrate third-party applications, and create new report types with the help of low-code/no-code technology.

Acumatica has made significant product enhancements over the last year, which provide customers with self-service capabilities and productivity improvements.

▪ Acumatica announced the release of Acumatica 2022 R1 in March 2022. The update’s key themes include enhanced mobile features, including adding KPIs and setting favorites, increased localization expanding multi-country customer support, and new industry-specific capabilities.

▪ The new General Ledger Anomaly Detection feature leverages machine learning capabilities to calculate predictions of errors in posted general ledger transactions; included is the GL Anomalies Dashboard which displays KPIs, tables, and charts related to the feature’s data.

▪ Updates include bank transaction processing enhancements, mobile app workspaces, industry edition enhancements, blanket sales orders, final paycheck generation, search flexibility improvements, and the ability to merge duplicates in CRM.

▪ New machine learning and artificial intelligence features, AP Automation, Expense Recognition, and business card recognition. Customers will benefit from automation and predictive capabilities leveraged by these features to streamline workflows. Document Number: W95 June 2022 NucleusResearch.com 5

▪ The vendor introduced integration with Shopify, BigCommerce, and Amazon, enabling commerce organizations to support additional sales channels.

▪ New native integration with Microsoft Teams supports the chat and video calls within the platform. Customers will benefit from this feature through the convenience of communication and the ability to track activity.

With Acumatica’s continued improvements in self-service and integration capabilities, customers can expect to manage their API ecosystem more efficiently and launch analytics projects at an accelerated pace. Nucleus believes the recent developments solidified the vendor’s positioning in high usability.

EPICOR

Epicor is a leader in this year’s SMB ERP Technology Value Matrix. Epicor specializes primarily in the mid-market companies in the automotive, distribution, building supply, manufacturing, and retail industries. The Epicor Industry ERP Cloud platform combines financial, supply chain management, planning, CRM, product management, project management, business intelligence, and analytics capabilities into one integrated system. One of Epicor’s core value propositions lies in its configurable infrastructure, offering various industry-specific ERP packages. With low-code/no-code functionality, pre-built API connectors, and extensive library add-on modules, businesses can set up their Epicor ERP system to meet their organization’s unique requirements.

In the past year, Epicor has announced notable product changes, including:
▪ With the acquisition of KBMax, Epicor has launched Epicor CPQ, a 2D/3D platform equipped with AR (Augmented Reality). The service integrates Epicor Industry ERP cloud, Kinetic, Prophet 21, and BisTrack, allowing customers to visualize end products being designed, thereby increasing sales and streamlining manufacturing for their custom products.

▪ Epicor Commerce Connect service saw several improvements, including Epicor CPQ integration and support for multi-page CMS for smaller customers. The former expands customers’ self-service capabilities, enabling them to choose designs and other attributes, build products on the fly, and add them to quotes and orders. The latter enables Epicor Commerce Connect Express customers to establish a web presence without the requirements of a full eCommerce platform; they can build home and informational pages and add social posts, blogs, and newsletters.

▪ Epicor now offers cloud implementation services for Epicor Quick Ship to Epicor Kinetic and Epicor Prophet 21 customers. Government Cloud now supports Quick Ship for Epicor Kinetic customers in the United States. Document Number: W95 June 2022 NucleusResearch.com 6

▪ Epicor EDI saw several functionality enhancements, notably new Epicor eCommerce connectors that let manufacturers and distributors connect their Epicor ERP systems to Amazon and eBay marketplaces and the Epicor Supplier Portal helping manufacturers and distributors link with their suppliers. Customers will benefit from the ability to automate order processing, accelerate order entry and fulfillment, provide real-time stock availability, and improve supplier preparation and prediction ability.

▪ In March 2022, Epicor announced the acquisition of Grow Inc., a full-stack, low-code business intelligence (BI) software that combines data integrations, data warehousing, and visualization into a single platform. The move will grant Epicor customers greater access to analytic tools and resources.

▪ This year’s Epicor Kinetic updates include the Epicor Cloud Enterprise Services package for large manufacturers, integration of Epicor CPQ (formerly KBMax), UX upgrades, connection to the SecturaFAB estimating and quoting tool, integration with ETQ, integration of Epicor Advanced MES to Sage Clarity, the introduction of Application Studio, planning BOM and MRP improvements, automated fulfillment, and dynamic documents with country-specific features and retrofits for Saudi Arabia, Mexico, UK, amongst others.

▪ This year’s Epicor Prophet 21 updates include adoption of the Epicor Design System, enhanced functionality around regulatory requirements and tax changes, particularly in the UK and Mexico, improved reporting capabilities in Report Studio, enhanced security features utilizing Epicor’s Security Suite, and integration to Smart Software. The vendor also formed strategic partnerships with AutoCrib, and Parcel Pending.

▪ This year’s Epicor BisTrack developments include the integration of Epicor CPQ, the Epicor Enterprise Content Management AP Automation module, and two new strategic independent software vendor partnerships with Geotab and Buildxact.

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