Epicor has unveiled integrated enterprise content management capabilities for its enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for the manufacturing, distribution, retail and services industries. The announcement follows the acquisition earlier this year of Docstar.

 “Epicor customers now have the ability to make data and transactions flow efficiently throughout the organisation and enhance collaboration with their Epicor ERP system, customers, and partners for better business outcomes. Organisations also have new means to support full visibility and auditability for best-practice compliance and governance.” Sanjay Kumar, Vice President, Product Management, Epicor Software Corporation

Epicor ERP users have access to a centralised ECM repository with approval process flow and digitised document capture. Users can standardise creation, indexing, storing, searching, and retrieving documents across the organisation easily and securely. Organisations can also reduce reliance on physical file cabinets and streamline management of a wide range of paper-based processes and approvals.

The new integrated ECM functionality addresses a broad range of business requirements:

Users can upload and retrieve documents from a secure repository directly from the Epicor ERP user interface, saving employee time and effort and improving decision making.

Organisations can guarantee file integrity with time and date stamps and version control so they can always be assured of accuracy when uploading, retrieving and attaching documents to the ERP objects/tables (sales orders, purchase orders, parts, etc.).

Organisations can automatically archive Epicor ERP APR (Advanced Print Routing) output (such as invoices, sales orders, purchase orders, etc.) in the repository , for best-practice audit trail documentation. They can also manage document retention to comply with the organisation or the regulatory retention policies for certain type of documents.

Integrated DocStar functionality offers new improvements to AP automation in this high-volume and business-critical function that is complex and fraught with exceptions. Industry statistics show some 80% of invoices have one of more exceptions.

Now organisations can leverage best-practice AP automation - digitising paper invoices to kick off electronic workflows to automatically route invoices through validation, matching against ERP data and final approval to import back into the ERP system. This reduces processing costs and cycle time, and improves process visibility, enabling companies to take advantage of early pay discounts, which can contribute significantly to bottom-line growth.

www.epicor.com