Epicor Announces Portal Strategy with Support of Microsoft

To leverage SharePoint products and technologies to provide a standardized portal solution across all product families

To leverage SharePoint products and technologies to provide a standardized portal solution across all product families

Irvine, CA — August 22, 2005 — Mid-market solution provider Epicor Software has rolled out a new portal strategy intended to provide rich portal content to its customers through a secure, standardized portal platform. Concurrently, Microsoft Corporation announced its support of Epicor's portal strategy.

In developing Epicor Portal 8.2, scheduled for general availability in the fourth quarter, Epicor said it is leveraging its platform strategy of Microsoft .NET across all product families, including Enterprise, Manufacturing and iScala. In addition, Epicor said its portal will deliver data exploration and collaboration using Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003.

The crux of Epicor's portal strategy, as the provider describes it, is to leverage the portal infrastructure, SharePoint Products and Technologies, to provide a secure and collaborative portal environment. In turn, Epicor will provide industry-specific content as SharePoint Web Parts with role-based security and end-user authoring.

40 Million SharePoint Seats

"With Epicor's expertise in creating targeted industry-specific content, combined with the extensible portal framework provided by SharePoint Portal Server 2003, Epicor Portal will provide a feature-rich resource of information that is distributed from a central, secure point of access," said Sanjay Manchanda, director of product management for portals at Microsoft.

Epicor said that, with more than 40 million seats of SharePoint Portal Server sold since its release, SharePoint Products and Technologies offers rapid deployment, can be implemented with limited or no support, and presents a competitive price point, all critical features for mid-market companies.

"SharePoint Products and Technologies provide a sound and cost-effective portal framework to effectively unify and consolidate Epicor's portal strategy," said John Hiraoka, senior vice president of worldwide marketing for Epicor "In addition to supplying security, stability and flexibility, use of SharePoint Products and Technologies enables significant cost savings for Epicor customers over competing portal solutions."

Ending Reliance on IT

Epicor said its portal aims to end the game of relying on IT to anticipate, interpret and provide valuable business insight within an online portal infrastructure. Instead, the solution is designed to put these controls in the hands of the people who find value in the information they seek.

Furthermore, by utilizing SharePoint Products and Technologies, Epicor said that Portal will incorporate collaborative tools for multiple audiences. Collaborative user workspaces that combine documents, business data queries, announcements, tasks and more can be used by project teams, work groups and departments, or can act as a communications tool for the entire organization. Collaboration also extends to customers, partners and the suppliers to increase communication, further supply chain visibility and foster greater business transparency, Epicor said.

Finally, Epicor said that, with the release of Portal, each of the provider's product families will use a single, consistent portal strategy and platform, Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies. "The convergence of Epicor's product families through the new portal strategy is inline with the company's commitment to continue to support and enhance its existing products, while leveraging opportunities for providing standard infrastructures and features," the company said in a statement.


Additional Articles of Interest

— Is your company looking closely at procurement outsourcing, but doesn't quite know where to begin? These 10 steps are a good place to start for any finance professional who is studying this growing market. Read the article "Procurement Outsourcing: The 10 Things Finance Professionals Want to Know," an SDCExec.com exclusive.

— For more information on solutions for mid-market enterprises, see "Stuck in the Middle" in the April/May 2004 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive.

— It's communications 101. Gain corporate buy-in for your procurement projects with these easy-to-implement tips. See "The Analyst Corner: Procurement" in the June/July 2005 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive.


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