We are a medical device manufacturer, with most initial sales through distribution channels. We want to have full traceability for FDA requirements, and our product includes a subscription component. Once the initial product is sold, it is registered to the end customer, and we take over further sales and support.
E10 does not seem to accommodate this scenario well. Our implementation consultant has come up with a process of using RMA to return the system from the distributor to inventory, then re-selling it to the end customer at $0. This achieves the end result of having the system registered to the end customer in Epicor, but creates some ripples that then have to be filtered out elsewhere (the RMAs and sales orders). Has anyone else encountered this type of scenario, and / or have any alternative suggestions on how to achieve this?
If not for the continued subscription service, you could have just stopped at tracking the sale to the distributor, correct?
It’s more a lega/paper workaround, but what if you serialzed the “subscription contract” - using only serial numbers that the original product had - and then selling the subscription with the matching serial number to the end user?
You’d be compliant as being able to track whom you sold the device too (the distributor), and you’d inherently know which subscriber had the device (as the S/N of their subscription would match the S/N of the device).
Hi, Glen. This is somewhat similar to what we do.
It sounds like you could alternatively use the “serial number customer transfer” form to create a CUS-TRF SNTran record that shows the transfer between the distributor that you sold it to and the actual customer. This is pretty lightweight and would give you the final location of the serial number.
It’s not just the subscription service, but the support (on-boarding happens shortly after system registration) and follow-on sales (additional systems, consumables), as well as traceability.
We talked briefly about serializing the subscriptions, but I think there was an issue with that - will have to check back with the team.
Interesting - I don’t know if we have seen that before. Thanks for the suggestion!
Looks like this is a fairly recent feature. Talked to our consultant about it - he hadn’t played with it, and it didn’t seem to work in his version. He did mention it doesn’t seem to write to the part transaction record, so we may need to play with it further - looks promising, though!
FWIW we also use Serial Number Customer Transfer to input where our pumps sold by distributors ended up.
Nancy
Hi Nancy - is your Epiusers profile correct: Version: 10.1.600.20? Not sure what version our consultant is running - he had the feature available on his version, but it didn’t work properly.
We use this in 10.1.600.27 and it works perfectly. It does however remove the pack slip number intentionally as the customer is changed.
Yep. It’s quite a simple program… I’m surprised if someone found it buggy. Is there any chance one needs CRM for it or something? Here’s where I find the program:
We have played with it, and it seems to work fine - very simple, as Nancy mentioned. Our consultant mentioned that it doesn’t show up in part transaction history, but I don’t see that as a problem, as it is not a transaction that impacts inventory.
You will see the transfer in the sntran table.