| Abstract: | Following in the footsteps of numerous enterprise applications vendors, the mid-market specialist plans a new release that aggregates all its applications on a common SOA. |
| Keywords: | Epicor applications, Epicor enterprise appiclations |
Epicor Software Corp. this week said it plans by the end of this year to roll out a new "converged" version of its enterprise application suite that will incorporate elements of its current applications and be based on a new services-oriented architecture.
The application suite, to be called Epicor 9, will be deployable on premise or via a multi-tenant software-as-a-service (SaaS) option, a first for Epicor, which currently offers on-premise and hosted, single-tenant deployment options.
While revealing plans for a new, converged version of its applications, Epicor promised to continue to support and enhance its current product lines — including Vantage, Enterprise, and Scala — indefinitely. "As long as we have customers who are on maintenance, we will continue to support and enhance the products they are on," said John Hiraoka, Epicor's senior vice president and chief marketing officer, in an interview with Managing Automation.
Epicor's convergence strategy echoes similar initiatives that have been pursued off and on by enterprise application vendors that, like Epicor, find themselves — through acquisition and product evolution — supporting multiple enterprise application product lines. Oracle Corp., for example, has promised this year to deliver Fusion Applications, which it has described as a converged product containing the best ideas of existing offerings, such as its E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, and JD Edwards enterprise suites. Microsoft also has discussed plans to gradually converge many of the features of its current Dynamics AX, GP, and NAM products.
The converged Epicor 9 product, Hiraoka said, will benefit Epicor customers that want a single enterprise application platform that can be easily customized and deployed in many geographies.
The convergence strategy, by allowing the company to focus on a single platform, also will make it easier for Epicor to incorporate new SOA technologies into its product line, he said. The new SOA platform that will underlie Epicor 9 and be based on Microsoft tools, however, will not be added to Epicor's existing products.
"This makes it more efficient for us to implement new Microsoft technologies," Hiraoka said.
The SOA on which Epicor 9 will be built, the Internet Component Environment (ICE) 2.0, will be based on new Microsoft technologies, such as Microsoft Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Visual Studio 2008. ICE 2.0, the company said, will make it easier for Epicor, its customers, and value-added resellers to customize the applications to meet specific vertical industry requirements, support more intuitive user interfaces incorporating Web 2.0 techniques, and offer features such as contextual search and embedded, real-time performance management.
ICE 2.0, Epicor officials said, will allow Epicor 9 to be designed in a layered fashion. Commonly used "base form" business logic will be shared, and on top of that will be layered industry- and user-specific customizations. This layered approach, Hiraoka said, will allow users and partners to customize Epicor 9 without making difficult changes to the base form itself.
The approach also will allow customers to present the same customized application logic using either a Web 2.0-enabled browser or smart-client-style user interface, Hiraoka said. Epicor 9.0 will also include an enhanced mobile client toolkit and interface.
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