Transcription
Epicor Prophet 21 Overview
EPICORIS A THOUGHT LEADERAND WE’LL CONTINUETO INVESTIN THEIR TECHNOLOGYAND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE TOOLSTHEY BRING TO THE TABLE—JOHN WIBORG, PRESIDENT STELLAR INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY2
Epicor Prophet 21Maximizing performance across the supply chainEpicor understands that as your customers demand more product options, heightened quality, andshortened lead times, it can be increasingly difficult to drive business performance that maximizesprofit. Delivering on these expectations with flawless execution and minimal business interruptiondefines your success and the success of the intricately woven supply chain that supports it.At Epicor, we understand this delicate balance and have developed an end-to-end solution with theright tools to efficiently procure, assemble, ship, and deliver the goods your customers want—whenthey want them. It’s one thing to understand the supply chain management (SCM) needs of yourorganization, but executing at peak performance requires embedding the supply chain processeswithin an effective and efficient enterprise solution.“To be considered best-in-class, youneed partners that are best-in-class, and Epicor delivers.”—Mark Shannon, Vice President and Owner Tower Fasteners3
Cloud Based Distribution ERP SystemWith more than a half-century of experience, Epicor helps distributors grow sales, improve margins,and increase productivity with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems that keep them healthyand thriving in today’s highly competitive marketplace. Epicor Prophet 21 software is a leading ERPsolution for wholesale distributors that combines proven distribution expertise with a web-enabledinfrastructure and modern technology stack. Cloud and on-premises deployment options are alsoavailable. Distributors can start with the on-premises version and easily migrate to the cloud as theirneeds change.Prophet 21 software enables your most critical business areas to work more efficiently, including:X Customer Relationship Management—CRM tools allow you to access information quickly andefficiently so you can streamline your day-to-day processes while improving customer serviceX Order Management—whether orders are entered, remotely via a mobile device or laptop, oronline by the customer information goes directly into your Prophet 21and solution for fastorder processingX eCommerce—when you deploy Epicor Commerce Connect—a cloud-based eCommercesolution—you can increase sales, reach new customers, and shorten sales cycles for your productsand servicesX Inventory Management—multiple dynamic inventory replenishment methods give you theflexibility to lower carrying costs, minimize excess or obsolete inventory, improve cash flow, andincrease customer service levelsX Purchasing—whether you have one warehouse or dozens, Prophet 21 distribution softwarecentralizes the purchasing process so you can optimize buying power and inventory levelsX Wireless Warehouse Management System—WWMS brings a new level of accuracy to allwarehouse processes, including receiving, cross-docking, put-away, adjustments, picking, cyclecounting, and inventory operationsX Financials—the Prophet 21 real-time general ledger provides up-to-the-minute financialstatements, which gives you a better handle on your company’s financial situation as business istransacted— allowing you to be proactive instead of reactive4
X Manufacturing—Prophet 21 Manufacturing allows you to track assemblies and production ordersfrom start to finishX Service and Maintenance—integrated Service and Maintenance helps you keep track of serviceorders, service contracts, preventative maintenance schedules, warranties, and more, whilemonitoring service technicians’ schedules and open service ordersX Business Intelligence—Prophet 21 solution enables stronger, fact-based decisions with builtin standard reports, “as of” reporting, and analytics tools, while Epicor Data Analytics (EDA)provides interactive dashboards and analysis of data—letting you quickly see importantinformation about how your business is performing.5
ss Intelligence and AnalyticsBusineWirelessWarehouseManagementService and MaintenanceProduction ManagementFinancialManagementriness A chitecturesuBEpicorProphet 21Customer RelationshipManagementSales ManagementProductManagementSupply ChainManagementEnterprise ContentManagementeCommerceSolutionstGlobal Business Managemen6
Deployment Choice—CloudDeployment Choice—On PremisesWireless Warehouse ManagementFinancial Management- Receiving and Put-Away- Pick, Pack, Ship- Group and Zone Picking- General Ledger- Accounts Payable- Accounts Receivable- Inventory Movement- Physical/Count Cycle Counting- Wireless Workbench- Financial Reporting- Tax Management- Credit and CollectionsService and MaintenanceCustomer Relationship Management- Call Center- Service Order Management- Service Contracts- Contact Management- Opportunity Management- Sales Master Inquiry- Scheduling and Dispatch- Preventative Maintenance- Warranty TrackingProduction ManagementSales Management- Production Order Management- Labor Tracking- Routing- Quote and Order Management- Mobile Sales- Integrated eCommerce- Kits, Assemblies, and Multilevel BOM- Third-Party Processes- Progress Billing- Counter Sales- Integrated Credit Card*- Strategic PricingProduct ManagementSupply Chain Management- Purchasing Management- Advanced Demand Forecasting- Automated Replenishment- Customer Buying Trend Analysis- Rewards Programs- Campaign Management- Product Data Management- Import/Export Data- Taxonomy- Inventory Optimization- Warehouse Management- Customer and Vendor Managed InventoryEnterprise Content ManagementeCommerce Solutions- Content Protection- Document Retention- Intelligent Data Capture- B2B and B2C Channel Support- Full Integration- Compelling Storefronts- Workflow- Full Integration- Flexible Deployment- Revision Control- Manage Accessories and Substitutes- Product Costing- Mobile Access- Real-Time Stock Levels- Search Engine OptimizationBusiness Intelligence and AnalyticsGlobal Business Management--Operational Reports/DashboardsDescriptive Analytics (Business and Financial User Reporting/Dashboards)Diagnostic Analytics (Scorecards/KPIs, Financial Planning)Predictive Analytics (Forecasting)Role Based Analytics and Business IntelligenceMobile Business IntelligenceBusiness Architecture-Multicompany ManagementMulticurrency ManagementMultilingual Data ManagementMaster Data ManagementCountry-Specific Solutions* Not available in all countries. Consult your Epicor contact for details.Cloud or On-Premises DeploymentHTML5Angular JSMicrosoft .NETSQL Server RESTful APIExtensibility Toolset7
Designed for Your IndustryEpicor provides industry-leading solutions for distributors of all sizes. A feature-rich application,Prophet 21 solution has been developed to manage the requirements of distributionindustries including:X Consumer packaged goodsX IndustrialX PetroleumX ElectricalX Jan/SanX PlumbingX FastenersX Medical supply/pharmaceuticalsX Safety supplyX Fluid powerX HVACX Paper and packagingX Pipe/valve/fittingsX Tile and flooringX Welding supply/packaged gasesIn addition, Epicor is either a member of or preferred provider to more than 40 industry associationsand marketing or buying groups, such as A-D, CDI, CTDA, DPA, Eaton, FPDA, HIDA, IDC-USA,STAFDA, TUG, NAW, NAED, ISA, and IDEA.“The fact that the people at Epicor live and breathedistribution shows in the products.”—Kevin Reidl, Executive Vice President Hodell-Natco Industries, Inc.8
Prophet 21 Technologyand paste SQL Statements used within Prophet21. This can provide a valuable shortcut towriting your own reports, portals, or queries—saving you time and effort and reducing theimportance of being a SQL expert.Prophet 21 is an industry-specific solution thatis easy to use and highly flexible. It combinesproven distribution expertise with an end-toend, web-enabled infrastructure and moderntechnology stack—including HTML5, Angular JS,.NET, and SQL Server —offering improved agility,scalability, adaptability, and reliability. Cloudand on premises deployment options are alsoavailable—letting you choose the deploymentthat is right for your business while letting youscale, evolve, and grow as yourbusiness changes.Extensibility through the entiretechnology stackBusiness today is fast-paced, highly competitive,and more demanding than ever before. Inorder to remain competitive, distributors needtools to personalize and extend their ERPsystems to their exact business processes. EpicorProphet 21 solution offers a powerful, robustSoftware Development Kit (SDK). The Prophet21 SDK offers extensibility through the entiretechnology stack. The SDK allows distributorsto add their secret sauce to help differentiatethemselves from other distributors. Additionally,the design of the Prophet 21 SDK allowscustomers to personalize or extend Prophet21 without affecting the application sourcecode. Distributors can use the SDK for formchanges, screen changes, user-specific homepages, business rules, and to integrate outsideapplication via the API—all while staying on thedevelopment roadmap and upgrade path.Prophet 21 on Microsoft Azure Epicor Prophet 21 software delivers a modern,cloud-based experience that removesdependencies on fat clients and terminal servicesto deliver a lower TCO for distributors. It is adevice-independent system ready to run onweb browsers, tablets, and smartphones in iOS,Android, and Windows environments. The Epicorapproach to cloud-based applications provideseasier access to information not matter whereyour employees are—in the warehouse, in thefield, or working counter sales.Powered by Microsoft Azure, Epicor Prophet21 software in the cloud brings you missioncritical, industry-specific value to drive businessgrowth—faster, easier, and more reliable thanever. In our increasingly digital world, your abilityto survive, compete, and grow depends on howyour business leverages the latest best-practicetechnology. Manual, disconnected processessimply cannot keep pace. Epicor Prophet 21software offers true cloud deployment—providing businesses with distribution-specificsoftware on a simple monthly subscription basis.Prophet 21 Web ApplicationThe Prophet 21 Web Application is a browserbased version of Prophet 21 solution thattranslates the user experience to the web, soyou can use its familiar and rich distributionfeatures from a web browser. Now you can takeProphet 21 software with you outside of yourcorporate network and work from anywherewithout the need for a VPN connection. Withminimal training, your employees can bemobile and work anywhere, anytime, increasingproductivity. The Prophet 21 Web Applicationis included with your Prophet 21 solutionMaintenance Program. The Prophet 21 WebApplication can be deployed as either an onpremises or cloud-based solution.Microsoft SQL ServerThe Prophet 21 system was optimized specificallyfor the Microsoft SQL Server because theefficiencies gained by Microsoft SQL candramatically increase business performance.It provides scalability, reliability, and real-timeaccess to data from any off-the-shelf dataanalysis programs. Additionally, Prophet 21 hasbeen designed to allow distributors to leveragethe work of the Epicor development team. Aninnovative feature allows admin staff to copyPersonalize the user experienceThe Prophet 21 DynaChange extensibilitysuite provides the flexibility you need to tailorthe application’s appearance and logic to your9
Connecting your business tothe worldcompany’s needs. DynaChange allows you tocustomize screens/windows, move or hide fieldsfrom screens, create userdefined fields, edit oradd new tabs of data, personalize menus, adjustpopup searches, add metrics, and add metrics.Additionally, DynaChange Portals lets you designuser specific home pages. These home pagesprovide the specific, real time views of yourdata that are most relevant to each employee.This tool allows you to add to the portal viewscurrently available in your Prophet 21 system bydesigning new views that assist your employeesin their day-today activities. These portals—designed by you—can be assigned to usersand inserted into your Prophet 21 solution ordisplayed in a browser.Today’s fast-moving business environmentrequires tighter integration between you, yourpartners, and your customers than ever before.This need is especially critical for your businesssystems. To provide the responsiveness youneed, your business systems must simultaneouslytalk to other applications, websites, and contenton the Internet. The Prophet 21 ApplicationProgramming Interface (API) provides a full .NETstack that supports SOAP and REST for Internetconnectivity for more than 300 services. TheProphet 21 API is already a proven platform thatis used to connect Prophet 21 to other Epicorcompanion applications like Epicor Proof ofDelivery. Now, you can connect your businessto the rest of the world with this powerfulwebservices tool.Business rulesDynaChange Rules allows companies totake external business rule logic and apply itwithin Prophet 21 solution in order to increaseefficiencies and minimize costly errors. Best ofall, DynaChange Rules does not alter the Prophet21 application code, so the rules you establishautomatically carry over each time you upgradeto a new version. A distributor could set up aworkflow so that a purchase order placed overa specified dollar amount triggers an alert to asales manager for signoff.Examples include:The Prophet 21 API gives you tools to easilyintegrate outside applications with your Prophet21 system. The extensive APIs toolset includes:X v2 P21 API—a stateless REST API that workswith most of our systems using a metadatamodelX Entity API—a very specific set of stateless,fit-for-purpose REST endpoints using stronglytyped business object modelsX Conversion rules—e.g., automaticcurrency conversionsX Interactive API—a revolutionary technologyallowing developers to interact with a statefulProphet 21 sessionX Validation rules—e.g., creation of alerts orerror messages if specified data requirementsare not metX Data Services API—allows secure readsfrom your Prophet 21 database usingOData protocolX Asynchronous workflows—inserting triggersin Prophet 21 to automatically initiate aspecified workflow such as a P.O.approval process10
Customer Relationship ManagementIn order to succeed in today’s fast-paced business world, providing customers with excellent personalservice is a must. Today, many distributors are turning to customer relationship management (CRM)tools to help their business recognize and provide customers with the attention they deserve.Epicor Prophet 21 CRM tools allow you to quickly and efficiently manage prospects, customers, andcontacts—from opportunity, to quote, to order—so you can streamline your day-to-day processesand improve customer service.Four-part approachEpicor takes a four-part approach to CRM. The first is sales force automation that provides your salesrepresentatives with lead generation tools to manage their pipeline and up-sell to customers. Youcan track lead/sales progress by defining opportunities and reporting on your sales reps’ pipelines.The second part of CRM includes marketing capabilities. These tools allow you to fax and email fromthe solution, produce lead generation call lists, and manage call center activity—enabling you toincrease your customer base at a minimal cost.The third part of the Prophet 21 CRM approach is contact management. This goes beyondmaintaining customer addresses and phone numbers to actually tracking customers’ buying habits soyou can anticipate their needs.Finally, CRM includes customer and territory management tools. These easy-to-use, intuitive toolsallow sales representatives to identify customers whose sales are up or down. With a single click,11
they can drill down to a 360-degree view of the customer and have all the information they need tomake contact.Order ManagementOrder entryYour order management processes directly affect your customers and how they view your business.Customers demand faster, better service and will go elsewhere if you can’t meet their needs.Prophet 21 solution enables you to complete the entire order entry process from one screen:X Enter quotes and ordersX Check stockX View past invoicesX Convert quotes to ordersX Search price and availabilityrequestsX Verify shipping preferencesX Expedite ordersWhether orders are entered at the counter, remotely via a mobile computing device or laptop,or over the web, information goes directly into your Prophet 21 solution for faster processing—eliminating rekeying errors.With the built-in ability of Prophet 21 to suggest accessory items and substitutions, you will not onlygrow your margins, but even your most inexperienced salespeople will sound like seasoned pros. Youcan link product information—such as material safety data sheets (MSDS) or product specificationsheets—to item codes and send that information directly from Prophet 21 to the customer toconfirm they will get exactly what they want.You can also provide value-added services with Prophet 21 software kitting and lightmanufacturing capabilities.12
Inventory ManagementYour single biggest business investment—the inventory in your warehouse—is at the heart of yourcompany. Too much of something and you don’t have room for what your customers want. Run outof an item and it could cost you lucrative business.Prophet 21 software enables you to balance your customer service needs while maximizing yourreturn on investment—by increasing inventory turns and reducing your inventory investment.Multiple and dynamic inventory replenishment methods provide you with the flexibility to lowercarrying costs, minimize excess or obsolete inventory, improve cash flow, and increase customerservice levels.In addition, the solution captures information on inventory changes, allowing for accurate data whenmaking purchasing decisions. If you have multiple branches, you can even centralize your inventorywith the Prophet 21 regional distribution center inventory management capabilities, enabling you toreduce overall inventory levels.Warehouse ManagementWith all the activity that goes on in your warehouse, keeping inefficiencies out of your processes is amust if you want to maximize your profitability and minimize losses.Prophet 21 software warehouse management tools provide flexible, real-time control andefficiency—from receiving through shipping. A powerful range of features manages warehouseactivities—including receiving, cross-docking, put-away, picking, inventory adjustments, cycle counts,and much more. Business transactions affecting the warehouse are automatically generated andprocessed without rekeying information—saving time and reducing errors.These processes are further streamlined by alerting warehouse personnel of customer pick-up atfront counter operations.Purchase ManagementWhether you have one warehouse or dozens, effective purchasing processes can vastly improve yourcustomer service and sales.Prophet 21 software centralizes the purchasing process, enabling you to optimize buying powerand inventory levels. Buyers can quantify the return on promotions or forward buys, allowing you to13
increase customer service levels in relation to costs and focus your efforts on items that are earningyou the highest profits.A variety of purchasing scenarios—including vendor substitutions, discounted items, drop ships andspecials— allow you to adjust your processes to meet your customers’ ever-changing needs—allwhile controlling your costs. In addition, Prophet 21 software supports overseas procurement andlanded costs associated with buying goods from foreign manufacturers.“We see Prophet 21 as a competitive advantage to help us provide the bestlevel of costumer service and drive costs out of the business and to improve theaccuracy and quality of our services to meet our customers’ expectations.”—Jim Derry, Pr
Epicor understands that as your customers demand more product options, heightened quality, and . X Financials—the Prophet 21 real-time general ledger provides up-to-the-minute financial statements, which gives you a better h
