Submitting Enhancement Requests to Epicor

Yahoo Archive
1
Hey all of you "lurking" Epicor employees....Are you following this
thread?...You know who you are.... ;-)


Seriously, this does seem like an untapped resource for Epicor and could
easily be a win-win partnership between development and those who pay for
the development.
I encourage anyone from Epicor to post their thought to this forum, or to
contact me off-line to discuss how this process might be improved. I would
be happy to talk further.



Dale Walker
Director, Information Technology
Le Sueur Incorporated

507-665-6204 ext 277
www.lesueurinc.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
2
Does anyone know how to submit Vantage enhancement requests to
Epicor? If you have submitted them previously, what type of response
did you get? Are you notified that 1) it was received? 2) what
priority was given to it? 3) how many other customers have asked for
it? 4) what they plan to do with the request and why? 5) expected
software release dates etc.

The reason I ask is that our implementation team has been exercising
the system for some time now and has come across a number of
enhancements that we would like to see that are quite common in other
ERP solutions and are confident that other customers would benefit
from them too.

I have had significant past experience with the Infor/Mapics
enhancement request process and it works nicely. Once customers
submit requests a list is published and all customers have an
opportunity to vote in terms of how they want the requested
enhancements prioritized. Obviously they couldn't turn every request
into an enhancement but the ones that garnered the most votes always
were pushed through development.

This is an invaluable way for a vendor to insure that they spend the
development dollars ways most directly beneficial to their customer
base. And best of all....it is free input for the vendor.

Epicor must have a process like this but I have been unable to find
out how it is supposed to work (from Epicor's standpoint), or how it
actually does work (from a customer's standpoint).

Dale Walker
Director, IT
LeSueur Inc.
3
I have submitted enhancement requests before, but I am not an expert.
Usually it starts with a call to the Help desk. When I am told that the
system is working as designed, I ask them to submit it as an enhancement
request. I usually get an e-mail that asks me to describe the request in
more detail. After I describe the request, I e-mail it back to the support
person who I was working with. Later I can look at the call log and find
out the enhancement request number. If development decides to include the
request in a later revision, I will receive an e-mail telling me the
prospective release number. If it is not approved, I never hear anything
about it again.

That is how it has worked "for me" in the past.

Jeff



From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
dswmaom
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 9:34 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Submitting Enhancement Requests to Epicor



Does anyone know how to submit Vantage enhancement requests to
Epicor? If you have submitted them previously, what type of response
did you get? Are you notified that 1) it was received? 2) what
priority was given to it? 3) how many other customers have asked for
it? 4) what they plan to do with the request and why? 5) expected
software release dates etc.

The reason I ask is that our implementation team has been exercising
the system for some time now and has come across a number of
enhancements that we would like to see that are quite common in other
ERP solutions and are confident that other customers would benefit
from them too.

I have had significant past experience with the Infor/Mapics
enhancement request process and it works nicely. Once customers
submit requests a list is published and all customers have an
opportunity to vote in terms of how they want the requested
enhancements prioritized. Obviously they couldn't turn every request
into an enhancement but the ones that garnered the most votes always
were pushed through development.

This is an invaluable way for a vendor to insure that they spend the
development dollars ways most directly beneficial to their customer
base. And best of all....it is free input for the vendor.

Epicor must have a process like this but I have been unable to find
out how it is supposed to work (from Epicor's standpoint), or how it
actually does work (from a customer's standpoint).

Dale Walker
Director, IT
LeSueur Inc.







[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
4
When we submit an enhancement request we ususally have a call into the support line first, but once the call is there they ask that the following form is filled out and emailed back.
Â
If you have enhancement requests you maybe could just fill out this form and send the email. It's worth a shot!
Â
Hope this helps.
Â
Â
Â
To ensure that suggestions are properly understood so they can be correctly implemented, Vista/Vantage Support Reps work with customers to create new suggestions and to include the business problem the suggestion aims to solve.
The marketing, support, and development staff review these suggestions throughout the year.
If a sufficient number of customers request a particular enhancement and it is in the best interest of a majority of users, it may be added to the standard Vista/Vantage product.
The Support Rep requires additional information to help clarify your suggestion.
Please fill out this form and fax it to Vista/Vantage Support at 952-582-5566 or E-mail to Vantage.res@... or Vista.res@...
Thank you.
------------------------------
Site ID:
Product: (Vista or Vantage)
Version:
Module:
Call Number:
(If a call was placed regarding this enhancement)
Purpose:
(What business problem would be solved by having the enhancement)
Suggested Enhancement:
(Please be as specific as possible.)
Current workarounds:
(if any)
Steps to duplicate:




________________________________
From: dswmaom <dwalker@...>
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 8:33:52 AM
Subject: [Vantage] Submitting Enhancement Requests to Epicor


Does anyone know how to submit Vantage enhancement requests to
Epicor? If you have submitted them previously, what type of response
did you get? Are you notified that 1) it was received? 2) what
priority was given to it? 3) how many other customers have asked for
it? 4) what they plan to do with the request and why? 5) expected
software release dates etc.

The reason I ask is that our implementation team has been exercising
the system for some time now and has come across a number of
enhancements that we would like to see that are quite common in other
ERP solutions and are confident that other customers would benefit
from them too.

I have had significant past experience with the Infor/Mapics
enhancement request process and it works nicely. Once customers
submit requests a list is published and all customers have an
opportunity to vote in terms of how they want the requested
enhancements prioritized. Obviously they couldn't turn every request
into an enhancement but the ones that garnered the most votes always
were pushed through development.

This is an invaluable way for a vendor to insure that they spend the
development dollars ways most directly beneficial to their customer
base. And best of all....it is free input for the vendor.

Epicor must have a process like this but I have been unable to find
out how it is supposed to work (from Epicor's standpoint), or how it
actually does work (from a customer's standpoint).

Dale Walker
Director, IT
LeSueur Inc.








[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
5
Jeff,
I have worked through that particular process too but am looking for a
more wholistic process. If each customer works independently with Epicor
support we have no way to jointly tell Epicor what we want to see in terms
of enhancements in a prioritized manner. They simply work on them as they
come-in on a FIFO basis and that process is terribly sub-optimized.
Dale.




Dale Walker
Director, Information Technology
Le Sueur Incorporated

507-665-6204 ext 277
www.lesueurinc.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
6
I agree, that is why I post to this list any enhancement request that I
send. I don't think there is a way to see what other customers have
requested. I think that having a place to look up and vote on other
requests would be a good start. I just don't think they are there.

Jeff



From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
dwalker@...
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 3:00 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Re: Submitting Enhancement Requests to Epicor



Jeff,
I have worked through that particular process too but am looking for a
more wholistic process. If each customer works independently with Epicor
support we have no way to jointly tell Epicor what we want to see in terms
of enhancements in a prioritized manner. They simply work on them as they
come-in on a FIFO basis and that process is terribly sub-optimized.
Dale.

Dale Walker
Director, Information Technology
Le Sueur Incorporated

507-665-6204 ext 277
www.lesueurinc.com

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
7
Well Dale, That's how they make money.
Â
They do a lot of Customization for profit. If you want a particular custom that was already done for another customer, you pay the same price as the the original customer and Epicor makes an even bigger profit because a programmer was not paid.
Â
They do implement suggestions when it becomes a Vast Majority. They to look at the amount of requests they get from customers about a given product change. If the majority send in for it they will implement it, but after they make a little money on it.
Â
Jonathan LangÂ
Oil Rite Corporation
Sr. Network Administrator
Ph: (920) 682-6173 Ext: 126
Fax: (920) 682-7699


--- On Fri, 2/27/09, dwalker@... <dwalker@...> wrote:

From: dwalker@... <dwalker@...>
Subject: [Vantage] Re: Submitting Enhancement Requests to Epicor
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, February 27, 2009, 1:59 PM






Jeff,
I have worked through that particular process too but am looking for a
more wholistic process. If each customer works independently with Epicor
support we have no way to jointly tell Epicor what we want to see in terms
of enhancements in a prioritized manner. They simply work on them as they
come-in on a FIFO basis and that process is terribly sub-optimized.
Dale.

Dale Walker
Director, Information Technology
Le Sueur Incorporated

507-665-6204 ext 277
www.lesueurinc. com

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



















[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
8
Epicor's official policy is to deal with only the Epicor User Group (EUG) for enhancement prioritization. Whether you love or hate EUG it sort of makes sense for Epicor to try to funnel the communication through one channel. That said...I've never received (that I recall) any list or ballot for potential enhancements since 8.0 was started. On the other hand with 8.x being the same base functionality as 6.1 (mostly, not counting technical enhancements) and 9.0 being a merger version there has not been a lot of emphasis on enhancements to the base functionality in a long time. Years. Maybe this will change. But EUG will likely be the venue for prioitizing things.

-Todd C.


________________________________
From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of dwalker@...
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 2:00 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Re: Submitting Enhancement Requests to Epicor


Jeff,
I have worked through that particular process too but am looking for a
more wholistic process. If each customer works independently with Epicor
support we have no way to jointly tell Epicor what we want to see in terms
of enhancements in a prioritized manner. They simply work on them as they
come-in on a FIFO basis and that process is terribly sub-optimized.
Dale.

Dale Walker
Director, Information Technology
Le Sueur Incorporated

507-665-6204 ext 277
www.lesueurinc.com

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]