I am just curious how many of you will even use EVA?
Microsoft built Cortana, most of us and our IT Organizations disable Cortana. What’s the first thing you do when you install a new Windows 10? Disable Cortana! and then Disable Windows Defender!
I have yet to walk into an IT Organization where they use Alexa or Google. Some of you even have an Alexa Epicor Custom feature, showed it to our Execs, they brushed it off with “We just want you to email the pdf to us”.
How will EVA be any different? I think its a mental shift that has to happen for Manufacturers to consider AI. Most of them are still happy with Fax Machines and Spreadsheets.
“Hey did you know, you can just click the microphone and tell google what your searching for”… “Nah, I like to type it in while driving”.
This is a great question and I’m curious how many will use EVA too. I was really excited when I first saw it demoed but when I really think about it I’m not sure very many of my users will be quick to adopt it either.
Now if they told me EVA could order me a pizza, turn the lights on and off, adjust the thermostat, add items to my grocery list, and allow me to play Jeopardy then I might be a little more excited about using her at work.
What would be cool is if she could give you an Epicor-related news briefing first thing in the morning to say, “your nightly blah-blah report processed successfully and should be ready for your review” or “remember you have a meeting with so-and-so today at 10AM” and then spout off any warnings/alerts that she is set up to monitor, business or system related, that I need to address. (Uh, maybe not in that order…LOL) And then told me to have a lovely day!
“Good Morning Your Majesty, your server is on fire. Have a lovely day!” LOL!
BTW, the comments about Fax Machines, typing while driving, and Windows XP…made me chuckle.
As a Customer I wish they used their resources to fix or improve MRP Engine, Finance Functions, Task Agent is cluttered with Legacy Technical Debt etc… I am afraid to even buy a new Module, so far everytime I bought one it came with Beta quality.
Even 100+ Reports cut-off your Part Numbers, Bin Numbers, Warehouse Numbers…
We developed a few years ago a Freight TMS that truly could have revolutionized the industry. It was Expedia for Logistics, Instant Rates from 100s of Brokers, Carriers and it integrated with 3PLs etc… This wasnt your typical Loadboard.
We were laughted out of offices “Fax Machines are still the future, you guys dont know what your doing”.
After 2 long yrs trying to change the mentality of Truck Drivers, Brokers, Dispatchers… we dried up all our funding.
Me and the Co-Founder split, I couldnt work for free anymore. He went to do another venture “Legacy” style. He basically decided to honor the “Lets use old shit rule and tweak only 1 thing”.
He just made INC 5000 #1 Fastest Growing Company of America in 2019.
Could not agree with you more! Quit spending time developing the next “shiny object” to wave at customers and figure out how to do something with the nuts and bolts of the system to make the pain of upgrading worthwhile. Adding social was a complete bust for our company, and I don’t see much excitement over a digital assistant either!
The funny thing is that the SL Platform markets itself as “AI” Based… But there really nothing AI based about it As a matter of fact, it looks awful, craigslist style UI.
Even if you polish it, shine it… Innovation and Mental Changes are Hard.
You can give someone a 90s style looking website, and don’t go against their beliefs, they will make you rich. – heck dont even put an SSL Cert on, no one cares. Will it replace my old fax machine? No. SOLD! You are a genius.
Its Breaking News when facebook tweaks its color. People threaten to quit it over a contrast adjustment.
For many people set in their ways, yes. That’s why they need some extra hand-holding and encouragement (forced pressure) to get them to adopt these things.
Well I say, we gut-out an old fax machine, place a computer in it with EVA installed, and now they can talk to their fax machine! Make it seem as if we brought their fax machine to life!!! Force them to use EVA through their beloved fax machine.
Muhahahaaaaa!!! NOW we are GENIUSES!!!
Then duct tape a plunger to the side of the fax machine and Viola! An EVA Dalek!
FAX-TERMINATE! LOL!
Now they will be scared of their fax machine and will want to use ANYTHING else! Which now makes us EVIL GENIUSES!!!
I think EVA is a joke. You’ll have to have everything set up so perfectly, that by the time you want to use it, you might as well just put it on a schedule. The problem with voice activated/chat bot type systems is that they aren’t smart enough to understand the english language, never mind context in a conversation. Until you have a microphone constantly listening to every conversation that you have, so the system knows what you know and can infer based on those things, voice control simply will not be that powerful. It’s just another set of commands that you have to memorize, and it’s faster/easier to click a button.
True, remember Messenger Bots, Slack Bots – it was a huge hyper maybe 2yrs ago… You can just message a bot and he will replace your toilet paper. Make Reservation at Restaurant.
Remember Dash buttons? They are dead too. Not long until the Virtual Ones go away.
I speak German, Bosnian and English – I have a German Accent heck even the Cisco Phone System can’t understand me.
Call to Replace my Security Card… “Whats Your Name”… “Haso, H A S O”… “There is no Hans on file”. “Haso”, “Hans?”, “No Haso”, “Hans!”… Lets try it with “heso”, “heyso”, “heiso”, “haiso” “asshoe!” – nope wont take. lol
Plus US has alot of Migrants.
Back to Manufacturing… Ill use my mother for example she is a Supervisor at a Plant… She fears the Computer. She will get a popup that says “Would you like to Continue?” with options “YES” and “NO” she will wait for me and ask what to click, saying the computer is broken. Shes been in the US 20yrs.
I just don’t see the market at this time in Mfg, Distribution besides it telling you Numbers.
Even myself I am in the early 30s, I dont see my generation adopting it… meanwhile my daughter is 7 she is more into the Bots, AI .
How many of you use AI to build software, apps? I mean shouldnt IT be on the forefront? Anyone use DragonSpeak to dictate their word documents? anyone? or have an Internal Skype Bot so you can just tell the bot to recompile your nightly builds? Point, if we are not really adopting it… how will anyone else.
Does anyone use Alexa to help you budget your finances, bills? Help you plan your vacation or notify you when your balance is low? Chances are, you still do it manually.
I figured Epicor Social would take off… Given that most people including my Grandmother are using Social Media and get it. But really didnt go anywhere in Manufacturing.
Now if Social Failed, Information Worker Failed… Where does it leave AI?
Perhaps the Message is… Make the Core Better, thats what we really want You know like… Printing Custom AutoPrint Labels out of the box. Convert every Financial Report into a Dashboard or somethign even simpler, fix all RDL files to stop cutting of critical columns.
Or Re-Engineering so that there is a 3rd field on the SO and the Ship By stops driving the Demand.
Oh one more thing… I build Dashboards for Finance with all the formulas, row rules… Finance is like “We just want to export the data to Excel, we will do the math”.
I guess the only nice thing is that IoT + EVA could notify you of issues… But then again so can a PowerShell by monitoring your device Threshold Levels.
You will find that Maintenance Folks dont even login into Epicor. They stick to fixing stuff with Outlook + Slips or Excel, in most cases its Verbal.
PS: MICR Check RDL is broken it prints 2 checks once you add more then 20 Invoices, because they have a Header thats empty and the page should fit 36… Something like that has existed in Epicor since 10.1.400 Atleast! Why is that not fixed yet? I can fix it in 10 minutes. But hey atleast we got EVA Maybe she will detect it and fix it for us post upgrade.
Also when you upgrade there is no Offical Epicor Industry Extension Cleanup Script or Removal, not even a Document discussing Upgrade Efforts for ACH, PP, MICR… Because that resource probably was busy on something shiny.
Not Picking on Epicor - we have the same Issue. Me Personally I love the next Shiny Project! I LOVE IT! Every 2 days I want a new Project… I hate refactoring. But someones gotta do it.
Wow 
Each misfortune you encounter will carry in it the seed of tomorrows good luck. — Og Mandino