Centralized Microsoft .NET investment, strong service component satisfy 20,000 global ERP users

Epicor is on a hot streak, reporting its first $100M quarter upon closing 2006, and another in first-quarter 2007—historically a lackluster period for software sales. It also made Fortune magazine's 100 fastest-growing list, while George Klaus was named “CEO of the Year” by the Southern California Technology Council. There's also been an International Stevie Award for customer service and after-sales support in the Americas.

“We've been on a roll,” says John Hiraoka, chief marketing officer. “We've had several good years of growth and increasing recognition for the solutions and services we provide.”

Epicor focuses on the midmarket with its ERP, supply chain management, customer relationship management, and professional services automation solutions. One of its greater strengths, says Hiraoka, lies in early investment and adoption of the Microsoft .NET Framework, as well as service-oriented architecture (SOA).

“We were able to bring our solutions to market ahead of our competitors, coupled with a strong service component,” he says. “We go to market with direct service, so if you're rolling out applications worldwide—regardless of whether it's in Europe, Asia, Australia, or North America—you will work with an organization that has consistent practices, philosophies, and structure to guarantee a consistent implementation. We think it's very compelling in the marketplace.”

Epicor sees the investments in Microsoft .NET and SOA as central to such strong performance.

“SOA takes advantage of all the new delivery methodologies [using] smaller, more consumable components over the Web, which gives companies more flexibility in how they deploy solutions,” says Hiraoka. “You have to extend and integrate the product, and do it cost-effectively and reliably. Companies are seeing the benefit in the return-on-investment they are achieving.”

Epicor also offers “Duet-like” office connectivity as engineered by Microsoft and SAP and their respective applications.

“Because of our strong relationship, we have access to what they're doing and where they are heading with their technology,” Hiraoka says. “We saw significant benefit tying together what people were doing with Microsoft Office and our back-end applications—getting more people sharing information and working collaboratively.”

“Epicor is in a nice position,” says Jim Shepherd, senior VP of Boston-based AMR Research. “They've stayed focused and executed well. They don't do a huge number of acquisitions, but they make good choices and do them well.”

Apparently 20,000 customers in 140 countries agree. “Our customers are confident they can work with one provider to get an end-to-end solution that supports their business processes,” concludes Hiraoka.