Epicor 9 - Information Worker

Yahoo Archive
1
> ... If we do the upgrade we will be getting a new server running SQL
> Server (which is already on another server) because we're probably going
> to do MS Dynamics CRM as well. ...

Actually Todd, you bring up another question. IIRC, the Contact in MS
Dynamics is SQL-based (like its free step-sibling Business Contact Manager).
I wonder if IW can connect with those Contacts or just the plain vanilla
contacts in Outlook. I think I may know someone who can answer this...

Mark W.
2
Something that was not real clear (whether purposely or inadvertently?) at the Business Without Barriers event was whether the Information Worker part of Epicor 9 (using Epicor 9 from within Office modules) is an extra charge module or a standard capability. Anyone have a definitive answer on this?

We are evaluating making the leap from Office-2000 to Office-2007 ahead of the migration year next year (one big change at a time please!) and future use of it in conjunction with Epicor 9 might be the tipping point. We are also evaluating SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and I had seen it too has hooks in Epicor 9.

Thanks,
Todd Caughey
Harvey Vogel Mfg. Co.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
3
> Something that was not real clear (whether purposely or inadvertently?) at
> the Business Without Barriers event was whether the Information Worker
> part of Epicor 9 (using Epicor 9 from within Office modules) is an extra
> charge module or a standard capability. Anyone have a definitive answer on
> this?

It is a separate package. IW requires Epicor Portal and Service Connect (the
runtime should suffice). Portal REQUIRES SQL Server 2005+ and NOT any of the
Express versions. There is something called the "IW Productivity Pack" which
gives you both Portal and IW.

I went to all of the IW sessions at Perspectives. Make sure that you
understand the model. You have to "link" an Outlook Contact with an
Vantage/Epicor contact. To synchronize all contacts, even for just one sales
rep, would take a very long time. The understanding is that you just
synchronize with a small group of contacts/orders/invoices/suppliers/etc. at
a time.

> We are evaluating making the leap from Office-2000 to Office-2007 ahead of
> the migration year next year (one big change at a time please!) and future
> use of it in conjunction with Epicor 9 might be the tipping point. We are
> also evaluating SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and I had seen it too has hooks in
> Epicor 9.

I actually like Office 2007. Yeah, it takes some getting used to but it
works. The integration with MOSS or SharePoint Services 3.0 is done through
Portal.

Mark W.
4
Also you have to have Office 2007 to work with Information worker.
I know of one company that thought they were set, until that came up in the last minute.

They had to push implementation out a few months because of that.

Bruce
www.ERPgeek.com
bruce@...
763-486-0030

--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, "Mark Wonsil" <mark_wonsil@...> wrote:
>
> > Something that was not real clear (whether purposely or inadvertently?) at
> > the Business Without Barriers event was whether the Information Worker
> > part of Epicor 9 (using Epicor 9 from within Office modules) is an extra
> > charge module or a standard capability. Anyone have a definitive answer on
> > this?
>
> It is a separate package. IW requires Epicor Portal and Service Connect (the
> runtime should suffice). Portal REQUIRES SQL Server 2005+ and NOT any of the
> Express versions. There is something called the "IW Productivity Pack" which
> gives you both Portal and IW.
>
> I went to all of the IW sessions at Perspectives. Make sure that you
> understand the model. You have to "link" an Outlook Contact with an
> Vantage/Epicor contact. To synchronize all contacts, even for just one sales
> rep, would take a very long time. The understanding is that you just
> synchronize with a small group of contacts/orders/invoices/suppliers/etc. at
> a time.
>
> > We are evaluating making the leap from Office-2000 to Office-2007 ahead of
> > the migration year next year (one big change at a time please!) and future
> > use of it in conjunction with Epicor 9 might be the tipping point. We are
> > also evaluating SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and I had seen it too has hooks in
> > Epicor 9.
>
> I actually like Office 2007. Yeah, it takes some getting used to but it
> works. The integration with MOSS or SharePoint Services 3.0 is done through
> Portal.
>
> Mark W.
>
5
Thanks. At least I will avoid the mistake of telling management it is "free". If we do the upgrade we will be getting a new server running SQL Server (which is already on another server) because we're probably going to do MS Dynamics CRM as well. For our Epicor 9 re-implementation I was already assuming Service Connect and will look into Portal. Main thinking now is to get all the 2007 related stuff in and running well before hitting the user base with Epicor 9. Information Worker will probably be a follow-on phase in '12 but we want to be ready ahead of it.

-Todd C.

________________________________
From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Mark Wonsil
Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 3:35 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Epicor 9 - Information Worker




> Something that was not real clear (whether purposely or inadvertently?) at
> the Business Without Barriers event was whether the Information Worker
> part of Epicor 9 (using Epicor 9 from within Office modules) is an extra
> charge module or a standard capability. Anyone have a definitive answer on
> this?

It is a separate package. IW requires Epicor Portal and Service Connect (the
runtime should suffice). Portal REQUIRES SQL Server 2005+ and NOT any of the
Express versions. There is something called the "IW Productivity Pack" which
gives you both Portal and IW.

I went to all of the IW sessions at Perspectives. Make sure that you
understand the model. You have to "link" an Outlook Contact with an
Vantage/Epicor contact. To synchronize all contacts, even for just one sales
rep, would take a very long time. The understanding is that you just
synchronize with a small group of contacts/orders/invoices/suppliers/etc. at
a time.

> We are evaluating making the leap from Office-2000 to Office-2007 ahead of
> the migration year next year (one big change at a time please!) and future
> use of it in conjunction with Epicor 9 might be the tipping point. We are
> also evaluating SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and I had seen it too has hooks in
> Epicor 9.

I actually like Office 2007. Yeah, it takes some getting used to but it
works. The integration with MOSS or SharePoint Services 3.0 is done through
Portal.

Mark W.





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
6
Yeah , we were one of those as well. If you just want to integrate Outlook and not excel or word you can just upgrade Outlook to 2007 and leave the others at 2003 until you are ready to train your users on those applications

--- On Thu, 5/14/09, brz_larson <bl_larson@...> wrote:


From: brz_larson <bl_larson@...>
Subject: [Vantage] Re: Epicor 9 - Information Worker
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, May 14, 2009, 4:54 PM








Also you have to have Office 2007 to work with Information worker.
I know of one company that thought they were set, until that came up in the last minute.

They had to push implementation out a few months because of that.

Bruce
www.ERPgeek. com
bruce@ERPgeek. com
763-486-0030

--- In vantage@yahoogroups .com, "Mark Wonsil" <mark_wonsil@ ...> wrote:
>
> > Something that was not real clear (whether purposely or inadvertently? ) at
> > the Business Without Barriers event was whether the Information Worker
> > part of Epicor 9 (using Epicor 9 from within Office modules) is an extra
> > charge module or a standard capability. Anyone have a definitive answer on
> > this?
>
> It is a separate package. IW requires Epicor Portal and Service Connect (the
> runtime should suffice). Portal REQUIRES SQL Server 2005+ and NOT any of the
> Express versions. There is something called the "IW Productivity Pack" which
> gives you both Portal and IW.
>
> I went to all of the IW sessions at Perspectives. Make sure that you
> understand the model. You have to "link" an Outlook Contact with an
> Vantage/Epicor contact. To synchronize all contacts, even for just one sales
> rep, would take a very long time. The understanding is that you just
> synchronize with a small group of contacts/orders/ invoices/ suppliers/ etc. at
> a time.
>
> > We are evaluating making the leap from Office-2000 to Office-2007 ahead of
> > the migration year next year (one big change at a time please!) and future
> > use of it in conjunction with Epicor 9 might be the tipping point. We are
> > also evaluating SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and I had seen it too has hooks in
> > Epicor 9.
>
> I actually like Office 2007. Yeah, it takes some getting used to but it
> works. The integration with MOSS or SharePoint Services 3.0 is done through
> Portal.
>
> Mark W.
>



















[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
7
For what it's worth we bought ServiceConnect / Portal / Information Worker with a view to integrating it into Outlook and also publishing information to non-regular Vantage users via Sharepoint.

We recently received some training and found problems due to
- the IW we have is currently 32bit. The provider was not confident that the 64-bit version would work correctly on our system
- Portal does not republish dashboards & trackers, but can expose BAQ's
- Portal needs to have Sharepoint configured using Cerberus certification, not the NTLM we currently have (we were already rebuilding our Sharepoint using Cerberus
- note that Portal consumes a licence during any query execution
- cannot see anything other than a flat data view: no graphics or charts

I am happy to be advised if any of this is wrong; this is what I was told from the trainer who frankly didn't earn my confidence.

Russell
Vantage 8.03.405a / SQL2005 / MOSS2007 / Office2003


--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, Mark Wagner <mjfw2003@...> wrote:
>
> Yeah , we were one of those as well. If you just want to integrate Outlook and not excel or word you can just upgrade Outlook to 2007 and leave the others at 2003 until you are ready to train your users on those applications
>
> --- On Thu, 5/14/09, brz_larson <bl_larson@...> wrote:
>
>
> From: brz_larson <bl_larson@...>
> Subject: [Vantage] Re: Epicor 9 - Information Worker
> To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Thursday, May 14, 2009, 4:54 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Also you have to have Office 2007 to work with Information worker.
> I know of one company that thought they were set, until that came up in the last minute.
>
> They had to push implementation out a few months because of that.
>
> Bruce
> www.ERPgeek. com
> bruce@ERPgeek. com
> 763-486-0030
>
> --- In vantage@yahoogroups .com, "Mark Wonsil" <mark_wonsil@ ...> wrote:
> >
> > > Something that was not real clear (whether purposely or inadvertently? ) at
> > > the Business Without Barriers event was whether the Information Worker
> > > part of Epicor 9 (using Epicor 9 from within Office modules) is an extra
> > > charge module or a standard capability. Anyone have a definitive answer on
> > > this?
> >
> > It is a separate package. IW requires Epicor Portal and Service Connect (the
> > runtime should suffice). Portal REQUIRES SQL Server 2005+ and NOT any of the
> > Express versions. There is something called the "IW Productivity Pack" which
> > gives you both Portal and IW.
> >
> > I went to all of the IW sessions at Perspectives. Make sure that you
> > understand the model. You have to "link" an Outlook Contact with an
> > Vantage/Epicor contact. To synchronize all contacts, even for just one sales
> > rep, would take a very long time. The understanding is that you just
> > synchronize with a small group of contacts/orders/ invoices/ suppliers/ etc. at
> > a time.
> >
> > > We are evaluating making the leap from Office-2000 to Office-2007 ahead of
> > > the migration year next year (one big change at a time please!) and future
> > > use of it in conjunction with Epicor 9 might be the tipping point. We are
> > > also evaluating SharePoint (MOSS 2007) and I had seen it too has hooks in
> > > Epicor 9.
> >
> > I actually like Office 2007. Yeah, it takes some getting used to but it
> > works. The integration with MOSS or SharePoint Services 3.0 is done through
> > Portal.
> >
> > Mark W.
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>