PIM for Epicor Commerce Connect

What is Epicor Commerce Connect (ECC)? 

Epicor Commerce Connect (ECC) is an ecommerce connector and toolset developed, implemented, and supported by Epicor. It is a popular, integrated ERP-based ecommerce solution for manufacturers and distributors. 

ECC supports the Magento ecommerce (Adobe Commerce) platform and provides a scalable solution that helps modernize shipping and inventory management, is backed by an extensive support network, and allows you to build a site to help fit your unique business needs. 

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What is an ERP system?

ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. Simply put, an ERP system is the central system of record for all the core business processes required to run any company: finance, HR, manufacturing, supply chain, services, procurement, sales, marketing and others. Composed of multiple different modules for each process, an ERP system makes it possible to manage all these operations in an efficient manner.

How is an ERP different from PIM?

ERPs are great for managing business processes, but when it comes to storing and managing and sharing product information – ERP systems fall short. A traditional ERP is simply not designed to manage the pace and complexity of consumer demand for data today.  So, companies often rely on multiple spreadsheets and home-grown databases to manage product data for a multi-channel sales environment. Digitally maturing organizations (of all sizes) need more than spreadsheets and legacy databases to organize and share product data. 

Unlike ERP, a PIM system or software is completely focused on product data and has less to do with other critical business operations. Companies are starting to reimagine the digital product information supply chain as moving away from ERP-centric to best-of-breed solutions. While modern cloud-ERP systems offer an enormous range of business process functionality, they still are not powerful enough to deliver tangible ecommerce value. Unlike a PIM, they lack the ability to easily consolidate, control, contextualize, and publish extended product data to other enterprise applications, trading partners, and digital channels including eCommerce platforms, search engines, and social media.

In conclusion, it’s safe to say that the tug of war between the two is officially over. Today, companies demand the best of both worlds – a robust ERP that integrates well with PIM and other enterprise systems. 

With an integrated ERP and PIM, companies can gain a holistic view of product data from different systems, increase efficiency, improve customer experiences, and facilitate collaboration across workflows.

Epicor ERP (ECC) Limitations in Product Information Management

While Epicor Commerce Connect is a great tool for manufacturers and wholesale distributors using Epicor® Kinetic, Prophet 21, or Eclipse, it doesn’t address the nuances of creating and managing rich product content that are table stakes for delivering B2C-like customer experiences online. It lacks the following critical data management capabilities:

  • Multi-language data management
  • Digital Asset Management
  • Data quality management (multiple data types, data validations, bulk edits, etc.)
  • Ecommerce data enrichment (large attribute counts, multiple category trees, product recommendations, product visibility, business rules, etc.)
  • Data formatting (WYSIWYG editor)
  • Data syndication (distributor logins & feeds, multi-channel data feeds, etc.)

What is PIM for Epicor Commerce Connect (ECC) by StrikeTru?

A Product Information Management (PIM) tool is essential to making product data management easier and more efficient for businesses. Especially those businesses that rely on ERP systems like Epicor and spreadsheets and in-house solutions to handle large SKU and  attribute counts, multiple taxonomies, associated digital assets, multiple languages, and a variety of digital sales channels. 

All of this information is essential to getting your products in front of customers and it is almost impossible to aggregate and curate efficiently using just an ERP solution. StrikeTru’s PIM for ECC helps overcome ECC’s limitations – it integrates seamlessly with both Epicor ERP and Magento ecommerce systems. It is designed to allow users to continue managing a minimum set of core product data in Epicor and use the PIM to scale product data enrichment to boost the ecommerce environment.

With our PIM solution powered by Akeneo you can easily enrich ERP provided data and automatically send it to customers, partners, webstores and marketplaces through optimized product feeds. 

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What are the benefits of integrating Epicor’s Commerce Connect with a PIM?

Digital Transformation: A unique feature of the Product Information Management systems is its compatibility with all kinds of data sources and systems. Deploying it is literally a Digital Transformation for your online business.

Save a lot of time: PIM is a single source of truth for product data – meaning you can make quick & easy updates to your product information universally. Teams that otherwise lost time manually updating various sheets, and the ERP can make updates in one place and have it synced across multiple channels. The best part – PIM will ensure your product data is error-free.

Consistent & standardized product content across all channels

Customize product data to specific channel requirements automatically

Elevate sales and customer experience

Offer a broader product selection, rich and contextual product information

B2C like shopping experiences

DID YOU KNOW? StrikeTru is implementing a turnkey TruPIM-DAM solution, that integrates tightly with Epicor Commerce Connect (ECC) and Magento ecommerce (Adobe Commerce), to help a world-class manufacturer power its website with high-quality images, customer-friendly and contextualized product content to help grow sales, and enable them to collaborate better with their distributors. Learn more.

Want to maximize your ROI in Ecommerce?

If you answer “yes” to the questions below, request a demo for our PIM Integration for ECC solution today and start selling more and faster. 

  • Has digital disrupted your industry?
  • Are you restricting potential revenue streams such as multi-channel or multi-language ecommerce?
  • Are you struggling to increase your product assortment and attribute counts?
  • Do you want to lower content operations cost and complexity by modernizing IT?
  • Are you losing customers to bad shopping experiences?
  • Have you outgrown the limited capabilities of an ERP-based ecommerce environment?
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