Integration to Epicor - General Question

[mng (Matt Ng)]

@dmaclucas

You mention custom code, so I assume you’re not operating under the restrictions of Epicor cloud.

In that case you may wish to investigate WinSCP: ought to be a far nicer way to build an integration with a robust FTP/SFTP interface. See WinSCP .NET Assembly and COM Library :: WinSCP

Haven’t used it myself via C# so far, but even from Powershell if provides a way to handle every requirement I’ve dreamt up so far. When I do have a need to do this from C# it’ll be the first option I pursue.

We are on public cloud. Your idea is solid and honestly our provider has their own CLI application so if I could install something on our server to use I would use that. But WinSCP definitely would do the job. Sadly they haven’t been receptive to us installing things, so I’ve had to work with what native libraries Epicor decided to bundle which in this case is the default .NET FtpWebRequest library.

@Mark_Wonsil"

FTP is losing favor these days. It has security issues and we can use https instead. The browsers are almost done deprecating the use of FTP. It requires its own service, which creates an additional attack vector, which was exploited as recent as this year in the popular Serv-U FTP server.

Sorry, I was just ftp as a catchall for all file transfer protocols, since the context didn’t matter. We are using SFTP with SSH Public/Private key pairs. This is secure enough for the data that is being transmitted as it is non sensitive data only being used for printing. Thanks for the headsup though.

[97Bayville (Chris Robinson)]

Aaron, would love to share how Parttrap digital commerce platform integrates and adds online product ordering value for a company running Epicor ERP.

[nneilitz (Nathan J Neilitz)]

We integrate with the following systems:

• Synchrono → MES (work orders, products, boms, inventory, sales orders, purchase orders)
• Knack → Customer Portal, Product Hrs Tracking, Custom Web Apps
• Coupa - POs → Sales Orders (basic EDI using cXML input)
• SalesForce
• Aftership (shipping information)
• Echo Transportation (raw data upload)

We use combination of the following to perform the integrations.

• Integromat (output from Epicor …input to other systemsvia SSRS through mailparser.io)
• Service Connect - Input from FTP (dropped files into drivehq) and then into Epicor.
• Onsite - SIS integration. Epicor to Synchrono

[timshuwy (Tim Shoemaker)]

All… I realized I asked this question back in October when I could not actually talk about why i was asking. Now that Automation Studio has been released, this question probably makes more sense.
Thank you all for your answers, as they confirmed that we were running in the right direction. Automation Studio can resolve much of what was discussed in this dialog. While some of you are writing custom programs using Rest calls, others are using BPMs and/or Functions, and Service Connect… those are all still valid approaches, but with our new solution, it can make your lives much easier.

1. Automation Studio has a robust security process using Rest v2 and an API key that you can lock down if desired (@Aaron_Moreng).
2. There are already connectors built for SalesForce & Shopify. (@jgehling )
3. MailChimp has a connecter (@jgiese.wci )
4. ADP, Concur both have connectors (@psiebers )
5. there are multiple eCommerce sites available with Connectors already built (BigCommerce, Shopify, Magento, etc). (@misdept , @Graemer )
6. Oddly, there is no connector for “files.com” but there is connectors into Microsoft suite using MSGraph, which gives you access into all the microsoft objects (excel, Sharepoint, word, email,etc)… also have access to the entire google suite including google docs, sheets, gmail, calendar, etc. also DocuSign (@mng )
7. CUSTOM CODE is not a problem because this solution is a low/no-code environment that is cloud compatible. The Connector into Kinetic has access to the all the APIs, and makes it simple to call the generic Add/update/delete/search/lookup type commands for each business object. (@dmaclucas )
8. This solution supports file and file attachment movement between various objects including email and uploading files to Epicor. @Mark_Wonsil @mng )
9. @nneilitz you have multiple systems that I have not heard of, so I cannot answer to them directly. But if they have an API then they can be integrated even if there is no Connector. There is a generic “http” connector that allows you to address the APIs directly.

One more thing… Several of you mentioned “Service Connect”… it is not going away, but it IS almost 20 years old as a product. We are officially selling Automation Studio instead of Service Connect for any future sales that need integration and automation. People who have used SC in the past and that have seen this new product have been able to come up to speed very fast, and realize the power and simplicity of this new offering.

In order to use the new tool, you need to be on the latest version of Kinetic, either in the cloud or on-prem.

[psiebers (Paul Siebers)]

Thanks for the response: I am eager to see more!

P.