We have just upgraded our LIVE environment to Kinetic 2023.1 (from 2022.1). We now have 1 department using the Kinetic screens in the browser while the rest of the company is using the classic screens in the client. We’ll transition them one by one and wanted to work on Sales next, but…
For the last 6 months, we have been trying to use the Epicor-provided tools to convert our classic configurators to Kinetic Configurators, using App Studio. After many Cases and PRBs with Epicor Support, we still do not have a working configurator in the Kinetic UI.
Today, I attended a “What is New in Kinetic 2023.1” webinar. When an attendee asked about moving their classic configurators to Kinetic, one of the presenters said the “…go-forward strategy is CPQ. So when you move to Kinetic, that’s gotta be part of the plan”.
Wait, what?!
Is the Product Configurator going to be deprecated and replaced with CPQ? Are we wasting our time with trying to convert our classic configurators to Kinetic? We didn’t plan to go the CPQ route since configurator visualization doesn’t make sense for most of the products we make.
Does anyone have any further info/documentation on this?
I had it on very good authority that the internal Configurator would stay in place as they managed to work the bugs out of getting it to come up to Kinetic. It’s also used for the Quality Inspections, as well as comment generation on PO lines.
I have been following this diligently as well and the progression of CPQ and I was assured that they will both be available.
Also - we have ZERO use for CPQ as it will not work for us due to many technical limitations like lookups, document rules, etc. because there is almost zero interaction back to ERP for production purposes (I had a long talk with the CPQ guys this last Insights). Nor do we require any sort of visualization.
Please keep me informed of what you find as we are extremely dependent on our highly complicated configurators.
@timshuwy - Has anything changed recently that you may be able to share with us regarding the direction of the CFG in the Kinetic UI?
Just to be clear:There are no plans, written or otherwise to deprecate the Kinetic Product Configurator. Of course, that could always change in the future if something changes
(reference safe harbor statement )
Also note that before we deprecate anything, we have promised to give at least one-year notice of when such deprecation is to take place… again… the product configurator is not on this list at this time. @scline, I think your tactic of converting one department at a time is great logic… but I would also suggest that you start working on the sales team to get the configurators converted, but also in parallel work on some of the easier ones (purchasing, Accounting) to get more headway while you uplift the configurators.
Also, coming in 2023.2, we will have what is called “Browser First” mode which allows you to lauch everything from a browser, and if you still have some smart-client based customizations, the browser will still launch the smart client form. This makes running from a browser easier and therefore migration of those people who only need one or two screens from the smart-client easier to implement.
I’ve used both! CPQ is (formerly known as) KBMax. Several years ago, I worked with KBMax in the exploratory phase of a big CAD automation project. CPQ/KBMax, like Driveworks, is a powerful Solidworks automation tool behind the scenes. CPQ/KBMax additionally provides a fabulous web configurator which you can play with here:
The big deal is that when you submit a configuration, all of the Solidworks parts and assemblies and drawings go in a queue to be processed by automation. If you have a highly repetitive CAD workload, and customers who want to “see” what they’re ordering, this kind of automation can be extremely valuable.
I can’t imagine how CPQ replacing the basic Configurator outright could make sense for both Epicor and their users. Configurator and CPQ are both “configurators” but they’re on entirely different planets in function and focus, and justifiably separated by multiple orders of magnitude in pricing.
reference safe harbor statement