I apologize if this has been asked before, but I’m not finding answers to my questions below in regards to upgrading from Epicor 10.2.400 to Kinetic.
1.) When we upgraded from version 9 to 10, we had to send our DB to Epicor and they converted it for us. We had to pay for the service… Is this still the same process and if so does anyone know ballpark what they charge for the conversion?
2.) Is the Windows thick client depreciated in current stable versions? I hear it’s 4x faster so advocating we move to it but there is some push back to stay with the thick client if possible to keep the UI the same…
3.) What is the recommended stable version customers upgrade to? Not necessarily what Epicor defines as stable, but in practice what version has been proven to be stable?
4.) We are hosting on prem, can we continue to host on prem?
5.) What are the pros and cons of hosting on prem vs in the cloud & what is the cost difference? We are a small company and already have the infrastructure, we’re also going through DoD compliance so staying on prem is attractive for those reasons(would need a gov cloud option), but would like to consider cloud hosting if there are big advantages…
6.) Any gotchas/lessons learned anyone can share? We’d like to do the upgrade internally as much as possible to keep costs down…
No conversion needed for data from Classic to Kinetic.
The Windows Smart Client is on the chopping block. Move to Kinetic browser before they make the chop (6ish months)
TBD
Yes.
On prem is hard, you need IT to support every part of it. Cloud is easy, if you trust that Epicor knows what they are doing. From my POV as the only IT guy in my company, cloud is the only way to go.
Totally doable. Only caveat are complicated customizations. If you don’t have many customizations, then you should be able to do it all yourself.
No, you can upgrade yourself. You can’t go from 10.2.400 directly to 2024 or 2025. You have to go to an earlier version of Kinetic first. Then you can go to 2024 or 2025.
The classic client (Smart Client) is still available and will be until version 2026. After that it’s gone. The browser is significantly faster. But, you have to convert all your classic customizations to app studio layers.
I’m sure you’ll get a lot of different opinions. We are on-prem and are on 24.2.26. It seems very stable. 2025 sounds a little less stable than 24.2. But, it’s early yet for 2025.2. So get into some of the higher patches and it may be fine.
Yes - on-prem is still fully supported. There are several of us on-prem folks here.
That’s a loaded question. We are on-prem and will be until Epicor rips it out of our cold dead hands. It really depends on what you have for internal It and internal support. If you don’t have the resources internally to host and manage, cloud would be the way to go. You do lose control of a lot of things when you go to the cloud. There are a lot of posts on here about cloud. Spend some time and do a lot of research on it.
In addition to what Chadd said, even though the classic client is available, it does not have all the new features that the Kinetic screens have. If a new field was added for example, it will only appear on the Kinetic screen, not the client. Components like the new Explorer views will not be in the classic screens. Sometimes, even running Kinetic pages in the embedded browser in the classic client may not work properly.
This is a good point Mark makes. I would try to avoid using Kinetic screens in the embedded browser. It will give you a bad taste for Kinetic. It’s really meant to be used in the browser. The experience will be much better. It’s insanely fast in browser compared to the client.
I went 10.2.700 to Kinetic and it wasn’t that bad. There’s another thread on here somewhere about it.
Test, double test, and triple test your SSRS reports.
BPMs get a code change so double check all of those.
Cloud is more expensive, but Epicor is going to increase on-prem maintenance costs more than they will SAAS (this is straight from them), so eventually costs will wash. They also have an agreement to cap your yearly maint fee to a certain % if you commit to a 5 year term if you’re on cloud.
On-Prem you won’t have access to fancy AI stuff…
Cloud has forced upgrades (every 6 months I think) so you’ll have to work testing those into your schedule.
I’m on prem and mostly use client but I go into the browser a lot since it is faster and debugging/tracing things is easier. Customizations are a little easier once you get used to app studio.
Like Chadd and Mark said, if you use client the Kinetic screens don’t respond the best. Def use browser if you’re going to use Kinetic screens.
Classic screens go away 2026 version.
Personally, the only way I’m going to the cloud is when I die.
The functionality of the Kinetic UI is still buggy as heck. And it is not objectivelly faster it just seems faster cause it does the data loading asynchronously. I would argue that the grids at least are slowler… by 3x fold minimum and the UI is clunky and hard to use. But it is improving (slowly)
The grids are slower and buggy. They don’t work well yet.
If I just need to look something up Kinetic seems way faster. I can have it in the browser by the time the client opens and I get into the screen. Working in Kinetic though is another story. It’s a lot of clicking and opening and closing panels and cards.
if you’re on prem you can do the DB upgrade yourself.
the smart client is in 2025.2 but come 2026.1 (or whatever they’ll call it). If you’re on prem you control your destiny a bit to make the conversion to the new UI. But don’t wait too long.
For support purposes I’d go 25.2 as it will give you the longest runway on a supported version to get your UI upgrade completed.
Yes. Since you’re already on prem you already know the work required. Doesn’t mean you can’t look into going SaaS or hosted by a other partner.
as @NateS said. If you’re small team SaaS can be easier. We’re a small team and went SaaS.
No, we’re now Kinetic UI since this Oct on the 25.1 version. Kinetic UI should only be used in the Browser as there are even more bugs trying to use the new UI in the smart client.
If you’re still Classic UI, I’d still upgrade to 25.2 then do a project to upgrade to the new UI. If you’re SaaS you don’t have much time but on prem you’ll have a few years before 25.2 falls out of support.
Once I stopped tryin to use the crutch that is kinetic smart client, and just used the Kinetic browser version, I had a lot less complaints about Kinetic.
We are upgrading to 2025.2 using the Fat Client for 90% of our stuff, then we are kicking off a masive upgrade project that will take us through the end of the year to re-write all the Kinetic UX customiztions and then we’ll be fully on the web.
But as part of that massive project we are having to go in and re-do, re-write and otherwise fix a bunch of the Native Kinetic screens and it wil be a slow and painful process.
I just did an update from 10.2.600 to 11 recently for our on premise server. Epicor support gave me a few KB articles that have way too much information in them, but I was able to follow for the most part and get everything updated.
I ran into a problem when I did the update in my test, and when doing the actual update where their instructions (or maybe how I read them…) where the App server needs recreated and not updated like the instructions say.
Also, after the update, the report that the AP Checks uses had to be re-adjusted. (Before all this I had no Epicor experience BTW) I assume that at one point long ago before my time someone adjusted the report to shift everything down an inch and a half to match the printed text with the check layout, but after the update the report was reset and I had to modify it again. I did not see it mentioned to backup your reports in any of their KB, but it might be a good idea if you have custom reports saved.
