Epicor Vantage GLOBAL ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING

GLOBAL ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING

Epicor Vantage

Epicor Software

Corporation understands that you, like manufacturers worldwide, must identify, consider and respond to a new set of challenges and variables each day.

Some are due to the extended enterprise and globalization of manufacturing. Some are a result of internal inefficiencies that affect your ability to compete on dimensions such as cost, quality and response time. Others arise out of the necessity to blend your business processes with those of your other plants, warehouses, customers, suppliers, and distribution channels. There is often no precedent for how to respond to new requirements and market conditions.

Superior communication, flexibility, agility, and innovation are the only constants.

Competing globally and domestically, bridging geographic boundaries, encouraging strategic diversity, and eliminating supply chain inefficiencies can be accomplished with the technologies to streamline intra- and inter-company processes and communicate quickly and accurately.

Synchronization of complex relationships which determine supply, demand and fulfillment is the means to reaching new, industry leading levels of business performance.

Epicor ^® Vantage ^® can help you achieve maximum efficiencies across your globally extended enterprise.

Vantage is designed to support and grow with the advanced strategies of manufacturers in the new and dynamically changing manufacturing environment — today and in the future. Manufacturers can increase their visibility into internal- and external-facing processes through a customizable, virtual view of their business. This shift is EPICOR VANTAGE

Next Generation Manufacturing Software

made possible by advances in technologies that allow information to be accessed from various databases and locations in one role-oriented “dashboard.” The goal is to make the flow of information and processes, which support the highest visibility and efficiency across the value chain, transparent to users. In short, it’s all about getting the right information to the right person at the right time.

A Manufacturing Heritage

Vantage was developed for make-to-order (MTO) and mixed-mode discrete manufacturers based on over 20 years of experience in the manufacturing industry. Epicor knows, firsthand, how to develop tools that optimize performance across your extended enterprise. From first customer contact to sales, planning, supply, production, order fulfillment and accounting, Vantage is an ever-evolving, comprehensive solution providing integrated, paperless workflow

management to improve responsiveness and reduce waste, scrap and rework.

MTO and mixed-mode manufacturers like you have put

Vantage to work in their businesses. Its ease of use and fast,

effective implementation track record accelerates your time-

to-value. Vantage allows you to use technology to achieve

mastery of core business competencies. It’s the technology

backbone for progressive medium- to large-scale MTO and

mixed-mode manufacturers worldwide.

GLOBAL ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING

Extended Enterprise Solutions

Vantage enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is a tightly integrated solution for identifying and planning the extended enterprise resources you need in order to capture, produce, ship, and account for customer orders. The ability to access the right information, from the right source, at the right time, empowers users throughout the supply chain to make valid, informed decisions.

Customer Relationship Management

Vantage customer relationship management is an integrated solution for controlling all aspects of your company’s interaction with its customers and potential customers.

Sales Order Management

Vantage sales order management streamlines the sales process. By centralizing access to product, pricing and customer information, orders can be generated with a minimal number of steps.

Customer Service Management

Vantage customer service management provides a 360- degree view of your customers. This aids in the diagnosis of customer inquiries or issues in order to determine the nature of the problem and ensure optimal, timely resolution.

Product Data Management

Vantage product data management serves as a central knowledge repository for process and product history. It promotes integration, data exchange, tight control, and communication.

Planning and Scheduling

Vantage offers flexible, robust planning and scheduling solutions to help global make-to-order, make-to-stock and mixed-mode manufacturers manage the complexity of their size to achieve zero-latency response times.

Production Management

Vantage production management uses sophisticated technologies to model your best practices and empower your shop floor personnel to make the decisions that will result in optimization of your production process.

Supply Chain Management

Vantage supply chain management helps achieve supply chain visibility and remove processes that do not add value.

It equips you to meet customer demands for faster delivery and lower cost by synchronizing processes within and outside your company.

Financial Management

Vantage financial management solutions provide manufacturers with the tools needed to create value through monitoring financial conditions and timely decision making.

eBusiness

With Vantage eBusiness you have a global enterprise solution that keeps you connected with your entire network of trading partners.

Business Performance Management

Vantage business performance management tools include reporting and analysis, and real-time monitoring and triggers to generate alerts when a metric or process is outside a pre-established tolerance.

Vantage is distinguished by its increasingly broad focus on planning and managing all resources, both within and across locations, companies and global boundaries.

Manufacturers of all sizes have recognized the value of an

embedded suite of ERP solutions rather than trying to piece

together disparate applications. Integrated access to system-

wide information, the ability to easily add new functionality,

and routine and effortless upgrades will allow you to keep

pace with technology developments in the future.

For more information call 1-800-449-6772 or (952) 544-7077 Visit us on the Web at http://solutions.epicor.com/vantage.

Worldwide Headquarters

18200 Von Karman Avenue, Suite 1000 Irvine, California 92612 USA Phone: (949) 585-4000 Fax: (949) 585-4419 www.epicor.com

Copyright © 2004 Epicor Software Corporation. Epicor and Vantage are registered trademarks of Epicor Software Corporation. All other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners. This document is intended to communicate Epicor Software Corporation’s current intentions and is accurate as of October 2004. However, Epicor reserves the right to make modifications or changes to the functionality, release dates, and plans described herein without further notice. This document is not intended to obligate Epicor or any other entity to such functionality release dates, technology, initiatives and plans, but merely to inform the audience of Epicor’s current intentions. Epicor makes no warranties, express or implied in or by this document and specifically disclaims any implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. For a complete description of the product features, please refer to the product’s user guides, reference manuals and release notes. All usage of such software shall be subject to an Epicor Software License Agreement.

Raising Technology to the Business Level

Industry leading technology makes it possible for manufacturers and their trading partners to derive the benefits of real-time collaboration from Vantage — the next generation of ERP. It is the foundation on which businesses execute their objectives, one that operates seamlessly and effectively in the background. Vantage has been built on leading edge Microsoft

.NET Framework

and Progress

OpenEdge

technologies that give a business maximum flexibility with minimum overhead.

These technologies meet manufacturers’ requirements today, and are flexible enough to accommodate unseen opportunities in the future. “With Vantage, Epicor has once again shown the type of innovation that is made possible by building on Microsoft .NET technologies,”

said Mark Young, General Manager of Developer and Platform Evangelism at Microsoft Corporation.

Vantage is one of the first manufacturing solutions to be based on a 100% service-oriented architecture.

“Services” are self-contained pieces of business logic that can be mixed and matched, are platform independent, and can be dynamically located, invoked and used to integrate applications. According to industry analysts Robert Anderson and Whit Andrews of Gartner Inc., “The potential payoffs of using Web Services are compelling, including increased agility, faster and less-expensive integration, and the ability to focus on business processes instead of how to integrate and manage the functionality enabled by established IT assets.”

This technology will support any operating system — from Windows to UNIX and Linux. It also establishes database independence with support for Progress and Microsoft SQL Server, and IBM DB2 and Oracle in the future.

Enterprises may deploy technologies that make sense for their business. This is a future proof foundation of reliability, scalability, accessibility, flexibility, and customizability.

Vantage ERP is designed with open access to the business logic functionality. Information is available anywhere, at any time, on any device, in either a client- or browser- based interface. Users get the functionality they need, but the new framework makes the underlying technologies invisible. In effect, the software lets you run your

business, instead of being an obstacle. Manufacturers can then quickly employ business models that will allow them to compete globally and domestically.

Built for Manufacturers

Vantage is built for globalization, optimization,

collaboration, customization, mobility, flexibility, real-time, scalability, Web Services, and .NET. But more importantly, Vantage is built for your shop, for your plant, for your warehouse, and your enterprise.

No longer are you restricted to using information based on the way the ERP system was written. No longer are you constrained to when and where information is available. No longer is your supply chain visibility limited.

No longer are you confined to fixed technology choices.

No longer do you have to worry about unsecured access to your sensitive data. No longer do you have to settle for delays when immediate response is possible. No longer do you have to be bound by global barriers. No longer do you have to look for a new system as your company grows or your manufacturing strategies change.

Vantage is the only manufacturing solution a manufacturer will ever need.

1

Gartner Research Note, “SMBs Should Consider Their Web Services Options” (COM-22-3113, Mar. 19, 2004 - R. Anderson, W. Andrews)

Purchase Management Supplier Relationship Management Inventory Management

Advanced Material Management Shipping and Receiving Supply Chain M anagement

Job Management Lean Manufacturing Production M anagement

Manufacturing Execution System Quality Assurance Customer Relationship M anagement

emailConnect mobileConnect Contact Management

Marketing and Sales

From maintaining detailed contact information, to generating a lead, developing an opportunity, building and presenting an taking an order, producing and shipping goods, getting the cash and supporting a customer, Vantage Contact Management and Marketing and Sales are designed to enable your organization to create and build lasting relationships with your customers. Your sales team and customers are allowed real-time involvement in the entire supply chain process via the Web-based emailConnect and customerConnect applications.

Estimate and Quote Management Order Management Sales M anagement

Vantage Quote Management and Order Management enable you to capture orders and seamlessly integrate with supply chain, production, fulfillment, and accounting systems. They automate and improve labor-intensive processes for quoting, proposal generation, configuration, order entry, shipping, invoicing and commissions. You can increase sales productivity by increasing accuracy during the quote and order processes, and identify the right solution to meet your customers' needs.

Field Service Helpdesk Returned Material Authorization Customer Service M anagement

Vantage Helpdesk, designed to handle your customer service calls, supports any department performing a service - customer service, technical support, internal service and field service. Field Service extends to the dispatching of field implementation and repair personnel, management of service inventory and costing. In the case of customer returns, information is entered as a return material authorization and tracked until the proper resolution is completed. Customer service ensures total life-cycle management of service requests to the level of satisfaction your customers demand.

Bill of Materials Routings

Engineering Change and Revision Control

Product Data M anagement

Product Costing Product Configuration

All enterprise users who interact with the product - project managers, engineers, salespersons, buyers, and quality assurance representatives - use the Vantage Bill of Materials, Engineering Change and Revision Control, Product Costing, and Product Configuration solutions to manage the critical information traditionally contained in engineering documents, plant floor routings, change logs, orders and quality documentation, within a single online solution that is easily shared across the enterprise.

Forecasting and Master Production Scheduling Material Requirements Planning Scheduling

Planning and Scheduling

Advanced Planning and Scheduling Global Multi-Site Management Project Management Vantage Forecasting, Master Production Scheduling, Material Requirements Planning, Scheduling, Advanced Planning and Scheduling, Global Multi-Site Management and Project Management offer distributed applications with transactional business process flow to allow an enterprise to communicate as if it were a single site. Whether you are a global, multi-site or single-site manufacturer, the need for precise and flexible planning and scheduling exists.

With Vantage customerConnect, supplierConnect, salesConnect and Electronic Data Interchange, you can take advantage of the Internet for faster and cheaper communication allowing your business to exploit emerging avenues to find new ways of connecting with your customers. By giving your customers and business partners access to your online store – 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year – you are providing them with another opportunity to purchase goods and services from you.

eBusiness Suite Vantage Business Intelligence, Workflow Management, Product Lifecycle

Management, and Dashboard equip you to analyze business conditions to develop improved business plans, monitor and measure progress and provide the visibility into day-to-day operations to enable more effective and timely decision making. Heavy emphasis is placed on the active use of the right information at the right time for the right person to proactively guide and readjust the course of the business rather than just passively measuring its progress.

Business Performance M anagement

Central to your ability to compete, Vantage Job Management, Manufacturing Execution, Lean Manufacturing, and Quality Assurance solutions enable you to effectively convert raw materials and purchased goods into finished goods. Cost, quality and response time depend on how well you can manage your production process and Vantage production management helps you dispatch, control, monitor, and measure work to be accomplished.

Vantage Purchase Management, Supplier Relationship Management, Inventory Management, Advanced Material Management, and Shipping and Receiving provide the most effective coordination from initial raw materials to the ultimate consumption of the finished product. Visibility throughout your value chain is enabled. Linking trading partners, process and systems that make up your supply chain has become the differentiator you need to achieve industry leading performance.

Accounts Receivable Accounts Payable General Ledger Financial M anagement

Currency Management Fixed Assets Payroll

Vantage Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Fixed Assets, Payroll and General Ledger help you monitor and manage invoicing, payments, asset management, and payroll and benefits to reduce costs and improve cash flow.

Vantage financials can help improve your ability to increase your bottom line - the ultimate test of your success and competitive advantage.

customerConnect supplierConnect

salesConnect Electronic Data Interchange Business Performance M anagement

Product Lifecycle Management Vantage Dashboard Vantage Business Intelligence

Workflow Management

Technology Foundation eBusiness Suite

Microsoft.NET Framework Service-Oriented Architecture Web Services

Database and Operating System Independence

Epicor V antage Suite Categories