Epicor Software has added new automation capabilities to Kinetic, its cloud-based ERP application for manufacturing, and Prophet 21, its software for distribution companies.
The new Epicor Automation Studio is intended to enable enterprise-wide citizen developers to automate workflows and connect the ERP system to data held in other applications. Epicor describes it as an integration platform as a service (iPaaS) embedded in its ERP applications.
Isaac Gould, research manager covering ERP and low-code application platforms at Nucleus Research, sees huge potential in the new capabilities Automation Studio promises to bring to Kinetic and Prophet 21.
“While other large ERP platform vendors offer iPaaS solutions to complement their ERP products, Epicor’s Automation Studio differentiates itself by combining integration and RPA functionality into one single offering, ”he said. “The goal of integration is to enable automation by streamlining the flow of data between systems-but to truly eliminate manual processes, organizations must go a step further and design the automated workflow. This is where Automation Studio should shine, providing tools to build connectors along with tools to establish the actions and rules of RPA bots in a consistent environment. “
Works with Workato
Automation Studio is powered by Workato, which offers a cloud platform for integration and workflow automation, with pre-built recipes for automating common tasks.
Vaibhav Vohra, Epicor’s chief product officer, said, “The partnership with Workato helps build the foundation to connect outside the ecosystem.”
Workato offers connectors to hundreds of applications, including Salesforce.com, SAP, ServiceNow, and Epicor’s midmarket ERP rival Infor, but even it can connect to any application that offers existing APIs. HTTP access, it did not previously offer customized connectors for Epicor.
But Epicor’s partnership with Workato is more than just a connector, according to Nucleus Research’s Gould. “This is a custom-built solution designed for the Epicor instance. Customers should find navigating between Automation Studio and other Epicor platform solutions more seamless and intuitive than a third-party solution, ”he said.“ From the CIO’s perspective, the Indigenous integration means less work and costs. “
Epicor customer David Holm saw the Automation Studio demo and hopes he’ll get it once his company upgrades to Kinetic. Holm, president of Aerotech subsidiary Kiski Precision Industries, still runs the older Epicor ERP version 10.2.400.
“Aerotech and its satellite and subsidiary businesses need to connect its Epicor instance to external web -based programs. Now we use our own proprietary interfaces to connect our Epicor instance to JIRA and GSuite. Soon, we will need to connect with Salesforce, HubSpot, and other web-based business tools, ”Holm said.
Demonstrating Epicor Automation Studio’s integration capabilities was enough to convince Holm that Aerotech should upgrade to Epicor Kinetic before writing any more proprietary interfaces: “ERP releases are not always with needle-moving features that drive customers to upgrade their systems. Epicor Automation Studio is a needle-mover. “
Code integration
So far, only two of Epicor’s ERP applications include Automation Studio: Kinetic for manufacturing and Prophet 21 distribution. However, the work of integration will not stop there, Vohra said.
“We’re building a roadmap that takes this to other verticals where Epicor is present, such as retail, but we’re also deeply embedding Automation Studio’s capabilities into the acquisitions we’ve made as well as all of our cross -platform suite of products, ”he said.
At Nucleus Research, Gould saw another link between automation and acquisition.
“Companies implementing an M&A growth strategy will benefit from an automation solution native to their ERP platform, which will allow them to quickly connect their subsidiaries’ technology stacks and automate processes of intercompany at lower cost than traditional system integrators, ”Gould said.
As far as his concern is concerned, the integration of iPaaS and RPA functionality are table stakes for Tier 1 ERPs. But such automation solutions are not typical offerings for ERPs designed for midmarket or SMBs. “With Epicor’s presence in both the enterprise and in the midmarket, this move positions Epicor as an attractive option for growing companies that must consider their technology needs in the future,” he said.
Potential customers need to weigh the potential cost of early adoption.
Businesses using Automation Studio will pay the same flat rate of several hundred dollars per month per connector, regardless of the number of users accessing the connector or the amount of data exchanged, Vohra says: “The number of transactions is always an interesting model, but that has its own measurement challenges and all that. ”
Management is chasing
Beyond the financial cost, there is also the risk of moving things quickly and destroying things. While Epicor promotes Automation Studio as a platform for enterprise -wide citizen developers, the initial version will be lightweight with management tools.
“There is a core set of management tools to measure and track progress and create some requirements to have, if necessary, some level of approval,” Vohra said. It’s a balancing act, which helps customers who want to experiment and get up and running fast, and those who want to lock things in for a long time. “We’re trying to manage the expectation that there’s some level of management, but that needs to increase over time with more business policies,” he said.
Vohra, an experienced technologist, said he was able to turn on and run his first automation in a matter of hours, but the average user may need 20 to 40 hours of training.
Getting a production-ready automation will also take time, he said: “The more transactions, in terms of hitting key tables in any system you have, I think that’s where you really want to be careful with. management thing that we talked. about. and that can take anywhere from days to weeks, depending on what level of control you want. “
Workato provides “recipes” – code snippets from its own developers and from its user community – to speed up the development of automation tasks. Epicor Automation Studio will include access to more than 400,000 such recipes, including some developed in-house.
“To be published on the Epicor side, a recipe has to go through a management process,” Vohra said. “There’s a validation process similar to your QA code.”