ERP 11 Has been Officially Announced!

This was a phase 2 item for us, and we’re getting close. I’m also interested in the changes.

I’ve asked for them and will update if I get anything!

We live and die on the Configurator. I’ve gotten a little bit of inside info on this and without any specifics I was told that initially the current config will work, but to expect a respectable effort going forward as Epicor alters the way the CFG works in the new framework. No documentation yet as the changes are not implemented in the initial 11 release.

With what I know, we’re skipping 11 until the changes to the CFG are announced. No sense doing things twice (or at least 1.5 times) :slight_smile:

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I dont think any Customer has really seen Epicor Roadmap. I think the future is bright however, please consider this.

Let’s say you are a Customer who bought Epicor because of its WinForms Client, and you dont care being called “old fart”. If you wanted web-based, you would have chosen another ERP System that was already web-based, but your purchasing decision for Epicor was solely that its on the “Classic Stack”.

Now 5 years after implementation, you decide you dont like this roadmap, you have implemented for nothing and need to start over.


I think the future is bright, but putting my self in those shoes, of companies who don’t mind being oldies, its a fair question.

Had Epicor clearly revealed its intention, and been transparent - businesses could have made their true final decisions and yes that may mean Epicor doesn’t win a 10 million dollar contract. But honesty and transparency wins.

Customers should be your Partner, not your Enemy – there should be a Roadmap published and clearly visible with the words "Dont Like It? Find another ERP. " :slight_smile:


I know Customers who are starting implementing EWA and customizing it (TODAY) and training their users, because the sunetting of EWA was never told to “Customers”. Rumor has it that Partners knew this for quite a long time.

Some started with Tie Kinetix only to be surprised by EDI One acquisition.

Some built an Empire of Workflows in Service-Connect… rumor has it SC is going down.

The question I always have is… Should I be buying this module, is it dead… I mean look at HCM, is that still alive? Why is it still being sold, when it clearly seems about to die. Just wondering :wink:

We just need a more transparent Roadmap for Customers… patches ftp just retired – no email came, it was instant after 10+yrs of being active… Communication and Transparency

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@hkeric.wci That is called Open Source.

Lets say Epicor comes out tomorrow and says “We no longer offer on-prem, you must migrate to the cloud”. They could, they are a private company – but the fact it took you 100,000 hours to implement, train users, write a decade of KB Articles… doesnt make your move to another on-prem ERP System easy. It costs millions of dollars… but for whatever reason you are determined to remain on-prem.

It would be blah.

But if the ERP Company says “We plan to force everyone to the cloud within 5 years” then you can start thinking about - should we continue investing in this ERP System, or if you are a NEW Customer, should I even buy this ERP System because my goal is to remain in my private cloud. It was the main factor in purchasing X ERP.

I always say Roadmap’s Roadmap’s Roadmap’s.

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Thanks @MikeGross for the insight, we are the same - multiple very complex configurators used for the majority of our products.

That might put me on hold from E11 as well… Significant configurator changes are really tough to do and wouldn’t be worth doing twice.

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I know 1 large Epicor Customer recently divested because they didnt like going Kinetic, they simply live by the WinForms… they are switching to Infor System 21.

It isn’t for everyone, however they found out 8yrs too late :smiley: #StartOver (PS I know nothing about Infor or System 21)

I do have a lot of questions about what E11 will look like. Do I understand right there is no winforms? All web based?

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Nah WinForms from what I understand remain, for quite some time but any new updates would not apply to WinForms - if Epicor adds a new checkbox… it will not be added to the WinForms version.

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I hope it isn’t as bad as 9 to 10 though. Rebuilding everything for all the configurators was tough.

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Oh that is upsetting. My sales team rejected using the kinetic interface in the trials I’ve done as part of upgrading to 10.2.700. Can’t say I’m really a fan of them either.

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I’m looking forward to getting off of the Winforms. If we get more options for styling and colors then I could really see some new opportunities within the software. The 10.2.700 is just a preview AFAIAC, and we probably won’t start moving to the web interface until it matures a little bit.

We’re relatively new to the system, so part of our purchase was the knowledge that they would have a web interface (better than EWA).

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No doubt the web interface would have some benefits. I would like the idea of not being tied to windows, I use linux on personal machines so it would make working remote even easier.

My concern is mainly about the heavy lifting, we utilize configurators extensively plus rather complex dashboards. How would the web client handle this? Will lots still be executed client side or is it all moved to the server?

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I just don’t tell people about the option. They assume the new version is the only option. Ignorance is bliss. For me.

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I tried that with the active home page. They figured out themselves they could go back and were not happy about it lol

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Ah, well it’s too late now, then. But you can totally remove the option, like with the target or the config settings. You can also force them to use Data Collection (MES).

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I’m looking upstream from Epicor at Microsoft and the roadmap of the .Net Framework. The last version is 4.8. There will only be security patches moving forward. All work is now on .Net Core/.Net 5 which the next LTS release is .Net 6 coming out this fall and is currently in preview. Why core? It’s Cross-platform. Microsoft knows it can’t force everybody onto Windows anymore. Not only are they competing with MacOS and Linux but also ChromeOS, Android, iOS, and possibly others in the future.

Which brings us to WinForms. Microsoft isn’t giving up on WinForms per se, but it has no place in their company vision, i.e. they won’t be creating any WinForms apps for Microsoft products. But they are not leaving users who do high and dry. What are they doing? As John said:

John’s pointing to dotnet in general but WinForms is now open source too. But WinForms will (probably) never support MacOS or Linux. It’s a wrapper around the GDI+ windows library.

How many users have complained to Epicor that they can’t run MES on a tablet? The best way to get to cross-platform like that is HTML. This is what Kinetic does for Epicor. It puts them on a path to use multiple devices with a single code base. It also removes the added labor of client installation and upgrade. It insulates Epicor from Windows updates slowing down their product. This is good news for on-prem people and not just the cloud.

That said, I whole-heartily agree that manufacturing companies are more conservative and need some runway before changes. Microsoft is an exemplary model for this. The “end” of WinForms was 2014 and they were flexible enough to provide a path to move those users forward despite not using this WinForms themselves. Epicor has hinted at this direction for about four years now. I don’t ever see Epicor forcing people into the cloud though. This a competitive advantage to companies like NetSuite. Epicor can allow companies to choose the level of cloud/on-prem they are comfortable with. The cost of on-prem is high and will continue to rise. The cost of cloud can be high too (especially for those who choose IaaS) but the potential of lowering costs is greater in the cloud - provided the company’s system architects take advantage of those cost-saving features. This puts Epicor in a position to take advantage of whatever their customers choose.

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@utaylor & @asalvatore My understanding is that there will not need to be a rewrite of the CFGs as they are planning some sort of Winform translator or something. All the code would stay but it has to be handled differently - perhaps something like the forms being reduced to calling functions on the server, or something like that. I was told that they cannot tell me what it will be yet, but that they are very conscious of the problem that converting form 9 to 10 caused and are trying to avoid that - but there will need to be some work in the conversion.

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Thanks for the info Mike. @jdewitt6029

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