Did everyone else get the letter from Epicor talking about their awards and how great they are, blah blah blah, and stating there will be a 5% increase to the maintenance contract even though we’ve been getting a 3.5%ish increase every year. They start the letter out saying its been a tough year for everyone and thanks for being our customer and on the back of the letter there’s a 5% increase in maintenance agreement costs. Just seems to me that the maintenance prices have gotten out of control. We RARELY use support. We pretty much just have the maintenance agreement so we can get the software updates. Has anyone ever been able to remove certain modules from the support agreement or maybe get Epicor to lower the cost entirely? It gets harder and harder to keep convincing management to keep this maintenance contract. It just seems a little disgusting to start a letter out saying “we know its been hard the past year for everyone” then proceed to say we want more profit so here’s a bigger increase than normal.
Talk to your CAM about auditing your modules and dropping the one’s you’re not using.
Beware they’re super sketchy about renewals and this kind of thing. You have to axe modules more than 90 days before your renewal date to actually have them removed from the upcoming year. If you’ve got your renewal quote (which usually happens 30-60 days before renewal) you’re already SOL. Which, again, is a shady business practice.
EDIT: Also, removed modules have to be re-purchased if you want them again in the future.
The chances of getting a reduction in maint cost is next to zero now as a little while back they introduced a change. Cant remember exactly but its not simple and certainly minimal chance to reduce cost. I dont know how they can actually do this but.
The process to drop a module is not hard to do. You do have to do it 90 days in advance of your renewal. I did it when we moved from 9 to 10 last year as there were modules we had never used and I just did it for our 1/1 renewal since we dropped a division and had modules specific to them.
On EpicWeb under the contracts section you enter a request and let them know the modules you want to stop support on. They will send you a form that has to be signed and returned. To my knowledge you do not have to repurchase if you want to start using again only pay the unpaid support.
We and a few others have purchased the Enterprise Package, which is a bundled deal with pretty much all of the modules. I wonder if we can revert to al-a-cart.
For a moment I thought they would say, this year we decided to raise it 0-1% because “its been a tough year for everyone” 
@jgiese.wci did you get the letter?
Sort-of… If you want the modules again, you have to pay the accrued maintenance that lapsed, or re-buy the module. Break-even is 5 years, since maintenance is 20% of the cost of the module (or at least it was when you bought the module + their very self-generous YoY increases!).
We gave a lot back a few years after going live when we realized some things just demo a lot nicer than actual practice (EKM, cough!). We’ve also bought stuff back after a year or two lapsed when we had the bandwith to actually implement them. The sales team is very good at selling an aspirational view of how we would user Epicor!
Hmmm, I wonder if we could do the opposite. We seem to own most of the Epicor modules already… We’re only missing a handful like Asset, Service, HCM, DocStar… Does the Enterprise Package include new modules too, when they come out with them?
You still have to buy new modules that are released. Your enterprise license probably won’t have Advanced UOM for example. I believe that is how @josecgomez put it when I talked to him last about it.
Epicor’s maintenance is an overpriced joke. If you got the value out of it, then I would gladly recommend shelling out every cent they ask for.
Not the case here, of course. I have to fight and prove Epicor’s own bugs to them as the support team is wired to send you to professional services to gain more $$ and worsening the customer experience. To be clear, Epicor doesn’t know what REAL customer service is because that’s what people would pay for mostly without question.
edit: it’s mostly a shame because I like working with the software so much. They want you to hate them.
I’m one that always defends Epicor, but I have to say
That’s a pretty rough email to receive. Hey things have been tough for everyone so here’s an increase on your maintenance above and beyond normal…even though you are already struggling
#ReadTheRoom epicor… 
I’ve been using Epicor products since 2006 and I’ve noticed that support goes in cycles. If that’s how you really feel about Support you need to let Epicor know. Personally, I think the low point was a few years ago but the upswing hasn’t been as steep as other cycles. I’ve experienced other ERPs “support” as well and will just say, “The grass isn’t always greener.”
Indeed, we haven’t --or at least hasn’t gotten to me yet-- received this notice. If we do, I know it’ll go over like a lead balloon.
Great. I haven’t got that letter yet. I just finished trying to make head and tails of the latest round of invoices, non maintenance, that they sent me. We just signed up for EDI and they over billed us by almost $40K. I got the CAM to admit a mistake happened and thought she corrected it but Epicor AR still is hounding us to pay it. Every time i get an invoice from Epicor I pucker a little.
No way… wow.
The letter also noted a 5% increase for SaaS, Subscription or Hosting renewals.We are On-Prem but I know there are a good handful of companies going the “cloud” route so they will see an increase in those costs as well.
This makes sense since Maintenance is included in the SaaS subscription price.
Everything is going up like crazy this year except my wages… 
This cuts right to the heart of why all business software sucks. Good products sell themselves. If you detect a sales pitch… run!
The sales team who demoed Epicor at my previous employer seemed genuine and knew their stuff. You can do anything with Dashboards, BPM’s, and Customizations they said! Well, it’s true, but a little messier than a 5 minute demo. 
Couple that with limited bandwith, and the implementation and project list can grow fast. It’s easy to buy something. Harder to develop a new process to use that module you bought. And keep making parts and shipping on time!
We just didn’t know all the little annoyances and limitations that you learn after living it a few years. Salesfolks won’t be putting out presentations of what doesn’t work well, but I’m sure every ERP has their own quirks. For better or worse, this is the horse we’re all hitched up to. We’re all trying to make it better!
Yes. Frame that one. Yes, yes, yes.
Aw, c’mon man, the current inflationary pressures are strictly transitory, everything will return to normal soon! 