Just wondering what the interest would be in the Kinetic world if Epicor were to have pre-built interfaces to any of the popular e-commerce sites such as Shopify, Amazon, eBay, etc.
How many companies would be interested in such a connection?
How would you use it? (or, are you already doing this independently?)
There is also an Epicor Idea created for this: KNTC-I-2093 (please vote if you really do want this feature… every vote counts… but don’t vote if you don’t want it. no stuffing the ballot box!).
I think it’s a great idea. All of the custom e-commerce work I’ve done is due to a lack of out of the box functionality (not including or discounting Epicor Commerce Connect/Magento, but we had an existing site we needed to integrate with). It seems other ERPs are going in the direction of standard plugins to support it, so it would be a great idea for Kinetic to look into it as well.
Our implementations have been messy, complicated, and frankly very hard to extend because of a complex product and ordering process to begin with. But if we had a plugin with Epicor to handle the “off the shelf” type products and the billing, that would have been awesome.
Our purchasing manager made a point that is obvious but I never thought of it. It’s exactly those major sites that EDI would be ideal for.
Ironically, everything we buy that is proprietary is easy street. Jobs have demand that creates PO suggestions through MRP, etc. System is built for that.
What is the huge pain is “I need this really weird drill bit that only fits this machine.” But that’s all we would ever get from Amazon or Grainger or McMaster anyway.
So, yes absolutely.
I’d vote if I can figure out how to get back into Ideas. I seem to be locked out and “reset password” doesn’t work apparently. Guess I’ll try again today. Meh. Works today with my saved password. Computers, eh?
So, you are talking about the PURCHASING side of the world (which IS another valid use case)… Yes… Amazon & Grainger and McMaster Carr can all be sites you would BUY from… but they can also be sites that you would SELL THROUGH… Wondering how many people would use that too? So I guess this question is open either way. Buy and Sell…
No worries… But you actually bring up a good point, and the same question applies for PURCHASING. I may post a second question here for that. Thanks for your input.
Pre-built connections to third party tools in my mind are a must for any software that would like to increase market share and user adoption. Now I know that the pre-built integrations don’t come without a cost to Epicor, but if you start with the big-hitters like the ones you mentioned, that’s a step in the right direction.
Keep doing this on all fronts. Do it with inventory management, shipping and receiving (somewhat built out with FreightQuote.com, but limited still). Epicor could offer more shipping integrations in my opinion. I see Epicor vertically integrating and buying software that performs other functions outside of ERP like document management with docstar or product configuration such as KBMax.
There is that route of buying those software companies and then running them as Epicor usually does, but what if Epicor left them alone and let them run themselves and figured out a way to make an integration… form partnerships instead of a single acquisition… It may not increase the bottom line in the same way an acquisition does, but in my mind as a consumer, if Epicor focused on integrating with a few different product configurators instead of just one, I am getting more bang for my buck! I have options! Who doesn’t like that AND it is already pre-built for me.
I feel like the more Epicor integrates with great software, the more useful Epicor is for its users. I find it no different than a modern day television where we look for all the different apps it supports. Or maybe you are looking for new speakers/sound system… how does it integrate with apps, does it work with alexa, etc. The speaker or TV that allows for more connectivity, more integration, usually is more widely adopted because it’s so useful to so many people.
In short Tim, the more pre-built integrations the better, especially when it is with industry leading technology like the ecommerce platforms you mentioned. Do this in all ERP modules and I feel like Epicor becomes a leading system in the Mid-Market ERP space. Work on partenerships/integrations instead of acquiring companies and forcing all users to use that solution or work out their own way of using a different one.
We use WooCommerce on Wordpress, which we started with when we were 1/4 our current size. You might be surprised how many small companies go this route, although we’re probably at the very small end of your customer base.
I’ve been playing with API integrations in Excel VBA (to help people stop reading the DB directly) and I discovered that calling APIs from WordPress is pretty simple to do, but not super easy to secure.
But “not super easy” pales in comparison to the tangled web that is Service Connect. I realize SC has API functionality now. I don’t know if it did when my predecessor built the integration, but we ended up with WordPress exporting a CSV; Task Scheduler running CLI FTP to go get it; Service connect workflows picking it up and turning it into an order; and a bunch of UD table nonsense making it think it’s being entered by someone legit. It works when it works, but upgrading is a nightmare, with hundreds of those little spidery things you have to drag and drop from one side of something to another…
Why not give your dev team an easy one to practice on, and build a WordPress plugin that can show a cute little form called by a shortcode, and call your SalesOrder APIs after doing all the right token things? It would be easily secured with API keys and access scope - you could even force that - and wouldn’t require anything at all in Epicor.
In our company the general view is sorta like Epicor is an engine that was pitched to be a car by the sales man, and all the rest of the car are add-on modules you have to buy. Some ones that make us the most sore:
Customer portal for invoices, checking order/shipment status etc
Online shopping portals
Shipping/Taxes are half baked without addition modules
HI Tim, Biscit has been working on a product for sometime now, utilising our domain knowledge and experiences working heavily with the API’s to build out Epicor Kinetic Warehouse and we have pre-built interfaces to a range of 3rd party products. A number of those are to eCommerce platforms including Shopify and WooCommerce among others.
We are hopefully going live with an interface to Shopify via eBridge before the end of the year. They originally tried to implement a proprietary DLL on our SQL server but we dug our heals in to make sure they used the REST interface. Our testing has been pretty positive so far.
The challenge for any interface is the broker in the middle. If you don’t have that then do you want your app server polling the partner directly? Most don’t. The broker is a model that has been used for years for EDI.
Jitterbit effectively is the broker as I understand it. (Mid way through our implementation we found out that jitterbit purchased eBridge so maybe they will merge these services.)
I like the idea of a “preferred” interface to these online selling sites but Epicor already has a number of partners doing this so there might be some opposition. Epicor has this issue with reporting and I was impressed to see at one of the recent user group meetings that there is now an internal group to understand the options. I prefer this to a cacophony of vendors each saying their product will do it all.
I suspect there is already a group doing service connect so maybe they should understand the other options. They could then provide both Epicor employees and Customers with targeted recommendations based on application.
We consider Epicor an ERP and our company runs about 100 e-commerce stores from Magento to Sitecore. Given that Epicor is an ERP and Shopify, Amazon, eBay are somewhat meant for consumer items and not Manufacturers I am unsure.
I’d rather have powerful connectors with Jitterbit, Service Connect, Mulesoft, Dell Boomi. CDC is now around. At most we update our inventory between ERP and our websites using an ETL.
Perhaps start with a Parts/Services/Warranty Portal.
I’ve done it and our upcoming consulting company wanted to offer connectors; but the justifications for those niches may not be there.
I’m with you Haso, but I’ll take it a step further, build those connectors out, but offer completed integrations using those connectors so we don’t have to build them ourselves.
