General question here… The holy grail for us continues to be the ability for our remote sales folks to be able to access a small subset of Epicor functionality while on the road.
Epicor Mobile access is good, but the grid format is not very easy for my users to navigate, particularly when entering call notes, etc. Absent a 'tracker view, we continue to use the Windows client over a VPN connection which is painful.
Does anyone know if an ‘app’ is forthcoming? Or, perhaps, folks are developing their own web-based front ends?
I’ve written a few utility programs that access subsets of epicor functionality but all are Windows apps that rely on VPN. I’ve considered writing some web based stuff but not until I get my hands on a rest enabled version lest I reinvent spokes on the wheel.
Or maybe that’s a sellable product, an add-on for pre-rest versions to get some web functionality
Check out Bezlio. They have a data broker that sits on your server and you can call the Epicor REST API, Epicor BO, SQL scripts, Crystal Reports, Office 365 Sharepoint files, or Salesforce directly. They don’t function like Zapier and allow scheduled integrations but the ability to read and write to and from multiple sources on demand. We use it to display real time Epicor data in our Salesforce pages without having to sync the data to Salesforce and are currently looking to build out mobile apps for warehousing.
You can see some of the functionality that has been built out so far in their Github repo.
@Chris, I hear you on developing something that may be superseded in a month or two. I’m on the fence as far as “to build or not to build”. @josecgomez “new mobile CRM” – is that something in development or are you referring to Mobile Access E10. If the latter, yes its packaging is swanky, and full of promise, but the data and interactivity are still based on grids of data. If only they’d add a customizable tracker view!! @John_Mitchell “Wow! Bezlio looks like a pretty awesome tool kit” is my first reaction, my second reaction is uhh… that means I have to build a solution.
I appreciate the feedback. It seems that if most folks are still taking the sort of ‘build it yourself’ route, there is an opportunity here for Epicor. If only I knew someone with inside connections… hmmm…
I don’t think it is Mobile access or maybe it is? I saw it demoed at insights its built on top of the REST interface. @Edge is there a fact sheet on it? It may not be released yet, ask your cam @Andrew but it was pretty sweet
aidacra
(Nathan your friendly neighborhood Support Engineer)
7
It’s using the same Epicor Mobile framework as Mobile Access-- no external spec sheet yet.
@aidacra So… the thing that’s using the framework, is it new? Hence no spec sheet?
I was aware of the planned changes in the underlying web technology once E10 launched. But as far as the user experience, EMA would be (and still is) based on a grid view presentation of the data.
@josecgomez 's sighting, and now Nathan’s “no external spec sheet yet”, leads me to believe that something awesome this way comes??? I can keep a secret… do share!
It is not so secret it was demoed at Insights. It was pretty swanky I was looking through the slides but I couldn’t find anything. I’d say hang tight for a bit… or harass your cam to get a demo? Cookies help… or beer?
2 Likes
aidacra
(Nathan your friendly neighborhood Support Engineer)
10
I can’t discuss any particulars (nor can any CAMs or others at the moment) but, I doubt that I would be asked to find another opportunity elsewhere for confirming that something awesome this way comes
Mobile CRM is a new product we announced at Insights. It’s NOT EMA. It IS built on the same Angular web tech as EMA2 and the new P21 UI (EMF - Epicor Mobile Framework for those into code names).
The internal demoes are nice and I’ve worked with the team when they have questions using our REST services (which is why I feel REST is safe and recommended - eating our own dog food has found some minor things in REST).
Not sure versions we are targeting with it and ship date - contact your CAM as recommended.
Wow, thanks @Bart_Elia This awesomeness gets better and better. Just got off the phone with my CAM and, while he’s expressed sensitivity around getting information to me immediately (rules, schmools!), he’s promised to get me what he can, as soon as he can. We’ve got a good relationship, so I believe him. (I don’t think he drinks @josecgomez)
One takeaway from this topic (for me) is that I will be angling for permission to go to Insights next year. Being able to see a demo of this thing would have been worth the price of admission!
… and @Mark_Wonsil, I see what you did there! Nice reference!
The CAMs have seen the same demoes I mentioned and are chomping at bit to get us to finish so you look like you are setup so good!
<Takes off Epicor Hat, Personal view>
All conferences to me are an opportunity to see an overview of areas beyond what I am working upon and the ability to corner a dev lead or PM and abuse them with my problems and wish lists. I do that incessantly to Microsoft and others ( I know a LOT of the MS PMs well lol). I assume you folks will do the same to me. It’s part of the cost of admission imho. Making those contacts and seeing roadmap are the critical aspects to conferences. That and meeting other customers doing similar things and struggling / finding solutions. That sense of community is critical to an ecosystem - one of the reasons you see many Epicor employees up here and on EUG.
We rolled our own web platform using MVC c# material design, card views. We use active directory so I just push those creds through to the rest api. It is super easy to build a web platform that calls the rest services, most websites today operate this way.
