Coming back to the announcement of Clientele, Epicor seems to have positioned itself well for the impending gold rush into the SME CRM market segment, which has been largely underserved so far. The needs of SMEs like having solutions that are scalable and reliable but cost-effective, functional but easy to deploy and customize, and open but have a relatively low barrier to entry (TCO), have yet to be met completely. The likes of Siebel Systems and big ERP CRM wannabe's are overkill and cost/time prohibitive. On the other hand, recently announced Microsoft CRM might likely not have all the needed functionality. Given the high prevalence of Microsoft technology in the SME market, Clientele's early .NET embracement should be attractive to Microsoft-inclined customers evaluating CRM options. Web services' have potential to offer interoperability at an acceptable cost, while satisfying companies' need to use existing technology and skills.
The move should further bolster legitimacy of the .NET platform and the concept of Web services, which many still consider to be hype and a strategy in flux. Since Web services will likely become an enterprise applications integration (EAI) integration facilitation tool, .NET-based applications, like Clientele offer a prospect to meld more easily with third-party and legacy applications.
Epicor's CRM (Clientele, a.k.a. Epicor eFrontoffice) solution enables SMEs to manage their entire customer lifecycle by enabling businesses to gather, organize, track, and share prospect, customer, competitor, and product information into a single database capable of dispensing critical data throughout entire organization. The product might appeal to companies that need more advanced CRM capabilities or must manage customer relationships through diverse lines of business (LOBs). These customers would most likely require extensive customization, for example building workflow-managed processes to align sales teams by territory, product line or campaign.
Clientele also offers a multitude of out-of-the box sales process reports such as Open Calls by Hour, Marketing Activity Analysis, Return Material Authorization (RMA) Detail, Account Manager Opportunity, Continent Pipeline by Product, Follow-ups by User/Due Date, etc. Although the product could long have been implemented incrementally in a component-fashion or all at once, its flexibility and enhancements extensibility (even by third parties) should be significantly bolstered by its new .NET architecture platform. Also, having long been in the market, the product is not a me-too CRM newcomer product, but rather a product that capitalizes on the melded experiences of its CRM and ERP focused erstwhile parent companies.
Epicor thereby remains a prominent mid-market leader, with ~180 million in revenues, 950 employees and 15,000 customers worldwide (with over 3,000 CRM customers). In addition to its focus and understanding of the mid-market, the company has established a solid global infrastructure and localized product capabilities, as well as a vertical focus for some industries. Still, while the long awaited porting of Epicor's products onto Microsoft SQL Server as well as continued focus on .NET framework should significantly relieve the company's R&D burden and improve its general competitiveness, the remaining work of making all the above product portfolio .NET compliant remains colossal.
Existing 3,000 Clientele customers, will sooner or later have to migrate from the current non-.NET application, although Epicor is committed to supporting these customers indefinitely, which will draw on its duplicated R&D and support resources. One should imagine the magnitude of the effort when the plethora of its above-mentioned products, some with extensive customer bases on non-Microsoft technologies, should follow the Clientele's path. Executing these initiatives without significantly increasing its top line will be a notable challenge. Although its fierce competitors, Microsoft Great Plains/Navision, Onyx, Pivotal, Interact Commerce/Best Software, and FrontRange, to name some in the CRM space (without mentioning a slew of ERP competitors) are not in any better conundrum regarding existing customer base migration, Epicor's stronger financial situation and/or brand recognition might make prospects more amenable to believe that their success is more plausible.
