EPICOR: Using Cloud To Unleash the Power of Epicor's Technology

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Rich Murr, Chief Information Officer, EPICORRich Murr, Chief Information Officer
When evaluating business management software solutions, potential customers are often presented with one-size-fits-all products that aren’t designed for their specific industry and needs. “The problem with this approach,” says Rich Murr, Chief Information Officer of Epicor Software, “is that one-size-fits-all fits no one particularly well. At Epicor, our software solutions are designed by industry experts to natively address our customers’ specific needs, which is a much more customer-centric approach than forcing businesses to modify their processes, or to spend significant time and money attempting to customize software.”

It is this deep industry expertise and focus on the customer that has brought Epicor nearly a half century of success. And by extending its powerful combination of industry vision, purpose-built products, deep talent, and culture into the cloud, Epicor and its customers are poised for continued success.

“In response to strong demand from our customers, we have brought our industry-leading ERP solutions to the cloud, so that our customers can enjoy all the benefits of our solutions without having to shoulder the burden of designing, building, and operating complex IT infrastructures,” states Murr. “Now, the stability, scalability, and security that our customers require from their ERP solutions are delivered by Epicor.”

And customers can make the transition to the cloud on their timeline. Whether it’s an existing on-premises customer that’s ready to embrace the cloud, or a new customer transitioning from a legacy ERP competitor, Epicor is ready to help them successfully implement and leverage Epicor’s cloud solutions to modernize their information technologies, drive business process efficiencies, stay competitive, and ultimately, grow their business.

Customer-Centricity: The Core Value

Customer-centricity is the cultural way of life at Epicor, and it’s an ethos that goes well beyond just offering great products, participating in customer advisory boards, or staffing customer support contact centers. Driven by a relentless passion for understanding and serving its customers, the Epicor team—led by a group of highly qualified C-suite leaders who possess some of the deepest expertise in the industry—lives and breathes its customers’ businesses. Each of the company’s customer engagements is characterized by in-person interactions, during which Epicor team members invest substantial time and energy to learn their customer’s business, to understand their challenges, and to craft and deliver compelling solutions. “We pride ourselves on getting to know our customers, and on being accessible during the entire customer lifecycle,” says Murr.

We now do way more than just deliver software—we continue to serve our customers by operating our people-centric cloud solutions for them


“Not just at the point of sale, but during the implementation, the go-live, and then daily operations. If a customer emails Epicor about a problem or concern, they shouldn’t be surprised if one of our executives engages to help them figure out a solution.”

In keeping with its customer-centric approach, Epicor provides its customers with the opportunity to learn, connect with peers, and understand industry best practices through its annual global customer conference— Epicor Insights. The convention is aimed at bringing together Epicor customers, partners, and industry experts for a three-day learning and networking experience focused on Epicor products, solutions, and future plans. It was during its 2019 conference that Epicor was approached by one of its major manufacturing customers for help with a significant challenge: they were struggling to scale and operate their IT systems in the face of high organic growth. “This particular customer was dealing with poor performance and repeated outages that consistently impacted their production floor,” states Murr. “And they were under significant pressure to remediate the situation. Initially, they asked for help troubleshooting their on-premises solution. However, after unveiling our cloud solution at Insights, our customer recognized the benefits it offered, they became our very first public cloud customer, and they’ve been a vocal supporter ever since.”

Aligning with the Needs of Cloud Customers

Epicor has meticulously designed its cloud solutions to deliver what customers need in the highly competitive era of Industry 4.0.

• Solutions that are stable and can meet the demanding schedules found on the manufacturing floor.
• Solutions that can scale as companies grow organically and through acquisitions.
• Solutions that are designed to protect a customer’s data.
• Solutions that comply with increasingly complex regulatory requirements.
• Solutions that can be deployed across the globe to support a customer’s international operations.

To help achieve the above, Epicor chose to host its solutions on Microsoft Azure after an extensive evaluation of the major public cloud providers. “By moving our solutions into Microsoft’s cloud, we’ve been able to tap into the extraordinarily rich set of innovations that Microsoft is delivering, and to weave these innovations into our products,” says Murr.

For instance, Epicor utilizes Azure’s IoT capabilities to empower customers to monitor their manufacturing devices on the factory floor. Now, customers can proactively identify and repair machines that are at risk of failing by deploying IoT sensors, as opposed to having machines fail unexpectedly during production runs.

And by making use of Azure’s advanced voice capabilities, Epicor’s voice assistant allows manufacturing customers to automate routine, labor-intensive tasks—an efficiency that’s becoming a must-have as the factory floor labor market grows ever more competitive. In addition, Epicor is exploring how to weave additional Azure capabilities into its already industry-leading capabilities, to include machine integration, automated data collection, process monitoring, visual production scheduling and planning, real-time scheduling, and more.

Teamwork: A Testament to Epicor’s Success

Not surprisingly, behind Epicor’s incredibly strong focus on customers is a great team. Murr, who is also a musician, draws a remarkable analogy between Epicor’s close-knit team of industry experts and the company’s band, Cloud 9. The band performed at the 2019 Corporate Battle of the Bands, a competition sponsored by the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians, a non-profit that provides health care resources for Austin’s hard-working musicians. “Cloud 9 is composed of amateur employee musicians, and we outperformed every other band, winning the competition. It was an incredible group experience, and it is similar to the way we operate as a team at Epicor,” he recalls. “Epicor employs some incredibly talented leaders and individual contributors who bring fantastic skill sets to the table. But while each is an expert in their own right, when we work as a team, when we play in concert, really great things happen for our customers.”

"In response to strong demand from our customers, we have brought our industry-leading ERP solutions to the cloud, so that our customers can enjoy all the benefits of our solutions without having to shoulder the burden of designing, building, and operating complicated IT infrastructures"

Building on its nearly 50 years of customer-centric excellence, Epicor continues to help customers compete and win by making its award-winning solutions available in the cloud. And with its Microsoft Azure partnership, the company is accelerating its innovation and extending its services and solutions to bigger customers with global footprints. Murr proudly mentions that recurring revenue now represents over 70 percent of Epicor’s business, and the company’s relentless growth and traction stand as evidence to the trust it has earned from customers over the years. “We now do way more than just deliver software—we continue to serve our customers by operating our people-centric cloud solutions for them. And I think our growth demonstrates that we’re doing a pretty good job at it. Our goal is to maintain our reputation as the cloud ERP provider of choice in the markets we serve,” concludes the CIO.

- Joe Phillip
    March 02, 2020

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