Epicor Prophet 21
14 Reviews 3/5 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★An ERP software designed by Epicor for distribution and wholesale trade companies.
Product Overview
Epicor Prophet 21 Cloud is an ERP software for wholesale trade and distribution companies. It’s powered by Microsoft Azure, offering a device-independent system that enhances mobility and usability. The software’s core features include inventory control, accounting, CRM, supply chain management, BI tools, and more. It combines distribution expertise with a modern technology stack, providing flexibility and extensive customization options.Pros
- Easy customization without coding
- Over 50 years of distribution experience
- Optimized for fastener, medical supply, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC distributors
Cons
- On-premise deployment has extra support costs
- May require extensive customization and technical support
Target Market
Mid-sized to large distributors looking to scale in various industries. Including fastener, fluid power, HVAC, industrial/safety, medical supply, and welding distributors.Epicor Prophet 21 is ERP software developed for distributors to manage their supply chain and distribution processes. It includes various features, such as Epicor Commerce, business intelligence tools, financial management, and CRM. Prophet 21 also supports sales, supply chain, service, and maintenance management.
The system is tailored to streamline distribution processes in a dynamic supply chain, catering to distributors of various sizes. It supports industries like industrial/safety, HVAC, medical supplies, and more. With the flexibility of cloud and on-premises deployment options, it can adapt to changing business needs.
Video Overview
Epicor Prophet 21 Key Features
Inventory Control: It includes a variety of replenishment methods to lower carrying costs, minimize excess inventory, and improve cash flow and customer service. It includes dynamic purchasing for centralized procurement across multiple locations and manages transfers across distribution centers, which is especially useful for multi-branch operations. Lot billing options allow for customized purchasing and billing, and lot traceability can improve the control and organization of products.
Warehouse Management: It includes barcoding and automated technology to streamline mundane tasks such as receiving, cross-docking, putaway, picking, and cycle counting. It manages distributors’ warehouse and yard operations.
Financial Management: Provides real-time financial statements and automates processes for accounts payables and receivables. It also includes a general ledger, integrated inventory receipts, Epicor Cash Collect for automated customer communications, and Epicor Tax Connect for sales tax compliance. The software aims to increase financial visibility, reduce outstanding receivables, and facilitate faster year-end closing.
Service and Maintenance: For distributors with service and maintenance operations, Prophet 21 offers service order management with automated tracking, a drag-and-drop dispatch system, and features for preventative maintenance, warranty tracking, and claims processing.
Epicor Data Analytics: Offers features such as ad hoc data mining, executive reporting dashboards, and sales rep dashboards. It also allows for custom report creation within Microsoft Excel.
Epicor Prophet 21 Pricing
To get exact pricing on Prophet 21 businesses will have to talk with an Epicor rep to receive a custom quote. Costs will vary based on individual business requirements and size of operations. However, Software Connect has compiled a general guideline for Epicor Prophet 21 ERP pricing.
Small Businesses: For a small business with basic needs, users can expect an initial investment of around $20,000-$50,000. These costs include training, implementation, and customization of the software. Ongoing monthly and yearly costs are typically charged per user.
Larger Businesses: For larger businesses that require extensive customization or additional advanced modules, users can expect initial investments over $100,000. Again, this does not include ongoing per user costs.
Product Overview
Developer Overview
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User Reviews of Epicor Prophet 21
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accounts receivable its horrible
Pros
Nothing
Cons
If your company is considering this RUN
- Automotive
- 11-50 employees
- Annual revenue $1M-$10M
It is a powerful tool in comparison
Epicor is designed for the small to moderate size company that is growing out of Quickbooks or even Excel style solutions and blends them together to create a basic and fundamental ERP. It is a powerful tool in comparison, where it blends back-end and retail processing into one program. As a business expands and starts to work more directly with other larger businesses and their associated ERP’s, it starts to fall short. One of the major shortcomings is no streamlined way to do one task, rather multiple ways which then gets confusing as different users use different processes to achieve the same goal. Using external tools (ie. Card processing equipment, barcode scanners, Telxon handhelds, etc) is a major task and doesn’t fluidly adapt, making use of the system as operations expand challenging. It is in no way comparable to SAP or Oracle, however can be a powerful tool for companies looking to grow their business with a smaller ERP.
- Machinery
- 1-10 employees
- Annual revenue $1M-$10M
I am trying to implement the cloud version of P21
I am trying to implement the cloud version of P21
Pros
Our employees have used P21 in the past (desktop version) and loved it. IF we can get through the setup then it might be good. But i have my doubts!
Cons
It has been a nightmare trying to get set up. I get error message EVERY DAY just trying to get things worked out. I create a case, get an email with a documents attached that doesn't help, on and on and on, etc. It took me 3 weeks to finally get a crystal check form i could modify. I probably took a week before a tech emailed that i had to have crystal reports loaded on my computer. Why couldn't I have been told that up front. I don't have time for all the negative things I think about this program. I have worked with software over 30 years, even worked for a software company for 12 years, doing support, training, design programs, and QC and i have never had this much trouble. God help the people that dont' have any experience. Do NOT buy cloud version - too many bugs.
- Distributors
- 51-250 employees
- Annual revenue $10M-$50M
The audit trail functionality allows users to see updates
ERP system that attempts to handle most functions within your distribution business
Pros
The audit trail functionality allows users to see updates made over time to help track where an issue occurred (However, some seemingly important fields do not get tracked in the audit trail like carrier changes within an order) .
Cons
Slowness and Bugs. The product is built on powerbuilder which is single-threaded and modern processors with high core counts will not help if the individual core speed is not extremely high. Every time they release a new version, we find multiple bugs which can take months for them to fix. We wonder if they actually test the software before releasing the latest version.
- Machinery
- 51-250 employees
- Annual revenue $10M-$50M
So time consuming and not very helpful
We Implemented this software back in December of 2018. Since then it has been a complete nightmare. Every technical issue you have needs to be submitted through a ticket system. While the responses are decent, the solutions involves a link to an article. Sometimes it’s a solution, but often it isn’t. So time consuming and not very helpful. Worse is their customer service. Purchased the P21 Mobile app and it doesn’t even show Service Orders! Of course, you can’t get any recourse. Their policy, “We don’t refund purchased modules”! What about servicing your customers?! Unless you have someone technical on staff, avoid this software at all costs.
Pros
Hard to determine at this stage.
Cons
Mostly everything.
- Specialty Retail
- 1-10 employees
- Annual revenue $0-$1M
Epicor Prophet 21 Review
Overall, I’m happy with system, but it has limited reporting for kitting and assemblies. We continue to pay them for service and updates that we don’t use. I do like that we can enter our orders and it can help us purchase it well.
Rich distribution functionality; latest technology
Rich distribution functionality; latest technology
Pros
The focus on technology improvement; rich distribution knowledge - they know how to talk distribution.
Cons
Some support has been sent offshore. These employees are new and still learning.
- Containers & Packaging
- 1K-5K employees
They are such an awful company
It definitely has some pro’s with being able to track inventory and orders. But if I had to do it over again, I would NEVER go with this company. They are absolutely disgusting in getting every penny they can get! We have for the past 5 years with this system spent at the MINIMUM of $40,000 for ESSENTIAL ITEMS! They are such an awful company!
Pros
I appreciate their support staff that quickly respond to questions I have regarding the complex system. (Remember though... you are paying at the minimum of $829.04 per user to use this and if they can't fix it then you pay someone $175 per hour to walk you through the fix)
Cons
SO expensive. It would be one thing if I just paid a one time fee for an incredible system that I can rely on but paying over $40k per year is unbelievable. The system is so complex that you have to have support from Epicor to be able to walk you through day-to-day situations that arise. If you make a mistake in the system, expect yourself to have to work on that mistake for 30 minutes because of all of the steps that you have to go through.
- Metals & Mining
- 1-10 employees
- Annual revenue $0-$1M
P21 allows you to invest in software that is ever changing
P21 allows you to invest in software that is ever changing and growing to meet the needs of their customers, they are continually learning and getting feedback from their customers on how to make the software more user friendly for people in all businesses which i think is great
Pros
I am very happy with some newly integrated tools within the Production order control portal i think it adds a lot of functionality that is beneficial to the user
Cons
The ability to hide deleted items in Assembly Maintenance would be great because if you have a lot of changes you want to know about the changes but you don't want to see all the parts that are deleted when looking at the assembly
- Distributors
- 1-10 employees
- Annual revenue $0-$1M
Fully-functional ERP for distributors
Prophet 21 is a fully-functional ERP that covers all aspects of my business. For distributors, there isn’t a better choice. Prophet 21 offers an entire suite of accounts payable, accounts receivable, inventory management, and transaction management programs. It is easy to implement and easy to use.
Pros
It's hard to narrow down to just one thing. I really like the interface. It's crisp and laid out for people who actually use the software. Additionally, most screens can be customized (including adding required fields) to fit the workflow of many businesses. The available programs within the application are comprehensive in scope, and there's a great search feature that makes programs easy to find.
Cons
Implementation can be expensive. It's powerful software, but sometimes I wish it were less costly.
- Chemicals
- 11-50 employees
- Annual revenue $1M-$10M
Prophet 21 is a full-featured, fully scaleable ERP system
Prophet 21 is a full-featured, fully scaleable ERP system for medium to large business. Or for smaller enterprises on a growth track. It can handle any or all of accounting, purchasing, inventory management, assembly, routing, price/cost management, etc.
Pros
Prophet 21 is an open Microsoft SQL database that runs on pretty much any Windows network. It's easy to access and maintain with standard applications and tools without too much additional training. Because it follows many common Windows paradigms, users can find their way around and will be productive in a shorter amount of time. Prophet 21 is highly adaptable to many types of distribution businesses and brings many features to all aspects of vertical markets that are helpful but not necessarily standard.
Cons
It can be complex and a little convoluted in structure to accommodate so many options. Specific solutions are sometimes difficult to implement if not part of the package. As for the elephant in the room, it is rather pricey and licensing isn't clear on what is included and what is extra.
- Industrial Conglomerates
- 51-250 employees
- Annual revenue $10M-$50M
Prophet 21 helps us to provide better customer service
Prophet 21 helps us to provide better customer service with real-time and accurate information. It also helps our users to easily find the answers with a few simple clicks instead of weeding through paperwork like we did previously.
Pros
Prophet21 is a distributor centric software that allows us to serve our customers and keep up with changing technology. It is user friendly and allows for easy interface modifications as needed. It also has some nice out-of-the-box features that help us automate our business without having major system modifications.
Cons
Prophet21 can be very rigid and unforgiving when little mistakes are made. A wrong click can cause a headache. Still does not outweigh the good.
- Machinery
- 51-250 employees
- Annual revenue $10M-$50M
Purchasing and forecasting is top notch
We are a leader in the Fluid Power Industry in which we design, sell and Service equipment and parts along with manufacture custom hydraulic systems through distribution. We have 2 companies across 9 locations with 3 manufacturing divisions. Each location has a showroom for Front Counter Sales (Point of Sale) and a Service Department with a stocking warehouse. We perform central based purchasing and forecasting mainly with some location based purchasing where needed. We use Prophet 21 software in every aspect of our company across all locations, short of payroll and internal purchasing of our business consumables in a mostly dominant thin client environment. Prophet 21 has a vast amount of features that allows it to be compatible with many different business models throughout several industries which can make it a little over complicated on what to do via data-entry as your company doesn’t use every single piece of functionality and you have to fill in the appropriate area for what your company is using as there are allot of fields and tabs that you could have to update. So it can produce very detailed information if allot of the fields are utilized. Speed is a huge concern with this software as it has multiple layers of programming on top of an outdated platform that makes the data entry workable but painfully slow once you get used to running the software.
Pros
Scale-ability and the capability to mold to a lot of different companies business models. The Purchasing/Forecasting functionality is top notch and very mold-able to any purchasing model ranging from central purchasing down to individualized seasonal items. Once set up it will let you get away with a smaller procurement department as the system will tell you what you need to order. The vendor is good about fixing issues quickly but sometimes difficult to distinguish between an actual error and a company specific business process. There are a ton of purchasable add-on's from the Vendor them-self along with even more third party add-on's that makes this a wonderful software if you have the money and skilled personnel to support it.Recommendations are in order of robustness in each area of business. Purchasing - Very Strong Distribution - Very Strong Sales - Strong (Does not currently have a "true" Point of Sale Module / No security for sales pricing over-rides) Pricing Sales/Purchasing Structures - Strong (Does not show % discount for orders / Rebates are cumbersome) Service & Maintenance - Strong to Medium: Needs a lot of work for differences in business models for Service. Scheduling a service is a challenge. Manufacturing - Light: When they mean light manufacturing they mean it. Not a CNC type manufacturing add-on. They are currently working on a scheduling functionality that will help a ton but would still be a lot of work to run a large caliber manufacturing facility using this add-on. Some things are nice and some other are horridly missing. There is better software that handles manufacturing easier. CRM - Thumbs is half down: Can get away with the baseline functionality and better with some customization but a purchasable integrated add-on's make's a world of difference! Reporting - Baseline: Thumbs Down - Need to purchase add-on if you want any business oversight and strong reports. Someone with Highly developed SQL and or C Skills recommended. Crystal skills is a bonus. Can get away with middle of the road knowledge in those areas but the highly developed skills make a world of difference in molding your business processes.
Cons
Scale-ability and the capability to mold to a lot of different companies business models. Since this software can mold to a large variety of business models it can make training difficult and long due to the complexities of the software's advanced features. This also makes data entry combersome as you have to know what fields to enter depending on what functionality you are using. Slow to implement vendor driven Idea's Network from user ideas. The product feels extremely slow once you get used to running the system and is glitchy because of the method chosen to release updates and advancements. Developers run a continuous improvement program with multiple releases a year so as they are designing new features at the same time they are cleaning errors and glitches rather than waiting a long time for advancements and a rock solid release. This could also be considered good and bad if you need an advancement, you don't have to wait! The companies move to have the first level of support go to India can lead to frustrations because of the communication blearier along with the new support teams are not yet very knowledgeable with the software and the level of experiences with the software is still being developed
- Building Materials
- 1-10 employees
- Annual revenue $1M-$10M
One thing I like is that there is a whole community of users
Epicor Eclipse is easy to use and easy to learn. I have only been with this company for about 8 months and had never heard of Epicor or Eclipse and I am getting around pretty good already. Actually I have been for a couple of months now. One thing I like is that there is a whole community of users that share their tips and tricks for using the system which helped. The representatives with the company (that I have spoken with) are patient. I do agree that the support fees are way to high, but, on the other hand, in my opinion they do a lot of behind the scenes work. We are using an older version and I am excited about the chance to move up to a newer, more aesthetically pleasing version in the near future. Epicor offers training after the installation (for a charge per person) in the form of classes held regularly, which is better than I can say from my previous experience with SAP. I can’t really say if I would choose this product again, because we are on an older version, which I don’t like. It looks too much like I am using a mainframe.
Pros
One thing I like is that there is a whole community of users that share their tips and tricks for using the system which helped. The representatives with the company (that I have spoken with) are patient.
Cons
I do agree that the support fees are way to high, but, on the other hand, in my opinion they do a lot of behind the scenes work.