The ERP Lifestyle Consultant

There seems to be a steady stream of news related to ERP vendor Epicor (Full disclosure – I work exclusively as an independent consultant with a competitive ERP product). The latest lawsuit from Major Brands claims that Epicor over-promised and under-delivered on a $1,000,000+ software and services ERP engagement.

According to the lawsuit the initial cost of $500,000 in software licenses and $ 670,000 in services (to be provided by Epicor directly because “there’s only one throat to choke”) not only ran past the initial go-live date of  ”mid 2011″ but also doubled in price and according to the suit Epicor eventually admitted the software they’d recommended was ” not suitable for Major Brands’ needs and that it would not perform as previously represented”.

By the time Major Brands filed suit Epicor was indicating that their net version, ICE 3.0, would fix everything – but not until it was available in mid 2012.

 During the testing, the V9 software was so ill-suited for Major Brands’ needs, no invoicing or shipments were able to occur.

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Yesterday I spotted notice that Epicor was being sued by a customer over problems the customer described as:

Epicor said they could do it in seven weeks. We gave them seven months, and we got zero .. I couldn’t even look at a profit-and-loss statement. We couldn’t process orders. We were saying, ‘QuickBooks is so much better than this’ and we were paying $3,500 a year for it.

I can’t help but wonder whether prior to purchasing software (or in the case of Epicor – selling) was there any type of paid analysis that reviewed the fit and created a list of the functionality that was missing?

Moving from QuickBooks to a full ERP system is undoubtedly going to produce a lot of process changes. It’s also going to stress the limits of the typical accounting department who may have been accustomed to the QuickBooks method of data entry which is well suited to smaller operation workflows.

It’s impossible to tell from the details of this lawsuit – however my guess is that there might not have been enough due diligence (also called a paid proof of concept by my friend John Shaver).

Buyers who purchase software without a paid proof of concept could risk facing situations similar to this where missing features are unknown until implementation day when suddenly the true cost of the solution can exponentially increase past the initial hoped for amount – and many many times the cost of a paid proof of concept.

Friends don’t let friends buy ERP without a proof of concept.

Customer Sues Epicor After ERP Software Project Attempt Ends in ‘big Mess’

The VAR who submitted this post requested that it be removed.

The original content contained a description of how he assisted a client with the purchase of MAS200 in a sale that he ultimately won against both Epicor and Great Plains Dynamics. Read the rest of this entry »