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Users can choose from a number of different versions. Here is a quick look at the different interactions to help you decide which one best fits your business needs:

• Why should I switch to Epicor® 9?

Epicor® 9, built with the ICE 2.0 business architecture, helps businesses support their financial, supply chain and sales operations. The ERP’s financial tools are designed to help businesses improve their bottom line, while the supply chain tools help businesses gain visibility and control throughout the entire supply chain process. Lastly, the sales and operations tools help improve quote accuracy, meet customers’ needs and make the entire order process more streamlined.

• Why should I switch to Epicor® 10?

Epicor® 10 incorporates all of the tools offered with the previous version, but it has improved speed. Businesses with more users and increased need for an ERP will likely appreciate the speed of this version. It also comes with a significantly lower hardware cost to implement.

• Why should I switch to Epicor® Vantage?

Epicor® Vantage is an ERP is a software system designed for the manufacturing industry. This system includes modules for:

• Financial management
• Supply chain management
• Production management
• Planning and scheduling
• Project management
• Product data management
• Service management
• Human capital management
• Sales management
• Customer relationship management

The system is built on a service-oriented architecture. Epicor® also offers solutions for other industries based on the Vantage® manufacturing ERP.

Pitfalls of Homegrown Systems

A homegrown ERP can seem like a great way for a business to start managing its operations. Building a system in-house requires much less of an investment, and the system can be built specifically to meet your business’s needs at that time. Users will feel comfortable with a homegrown system, and this type of system will work wonderfully for maintaining the status quo. But, one of the biggest pitfalls is the lack of scalability. If your business changes or increases, you will inevitably outgrow the software’s limits.

For example, your business might have only had a small amount of inventory to manage. As your client base and the scope of your business grows, so will the amount of inventory. Your homegrown system will not have the electronic data interchange and reporting tools necessary to easily manage a growing business.

While you may not have invested much in the homegrown system at the outset, it will rapidly become expensive to maintain and update. You will spend internal resources scrambling to keep every part of the homegrown software relevant and capable of supporting your business. As your industry changes and your business works to adapt, a homegrown system will struggle to keep up. Your business will spend increasing amounts of time and money to support a system that is struggling to provide the functionality you need.

Epicor® will have the comprehensive business intelligence to provide advanced functionality, which will translate into both time and cost savings.