Epicor Kinetic
For Discrete Manufacturing
In searching for an ERP system, there are two major categories of systems: vertical, meaning industry specific, designed for exactly your kind of business, and horizontal, meaning non-industry specific, usually a system with broad capabilities, able to be used by a wide variety of industries.
A horizontal system is inherently flexible and can be typically put together from ‘modules’ or pieces of functionality that work together. In the case of Epicor Kinetic, the open API and powerful suite of automation tools allow clients to ‘customize’ it to their needs without touching source code.
Therefore, Kinetic is a very powerful player, especially in industries where products are ‘made to order’, or ‘one off’s’ are the rule rather than the exception. This framework is effective across many industries.
This is a key point, as Kinetic allows the client to build automation and artificial intelligence that matches their exact requirements, and when it’s time to upgrade, these routines can be ported over to the new version.
The advantage of a vertical system is it’s designed very tightly around a certain business and business model. This can be very advantageous if there is an excellent ‘fit’, and there is little else needed besides the standard functionality.