Epicor Kinetic vs SAP PLM

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Our analysts compared Epicor Kinetic vs SAP PLM based on data from our 400+ point analysis of PLM Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Epicor Kinetic Software Tool
SAP PLM Software Tool

Product Basics

Kinetic (formerly Epicor ERP) is a cloud-based ERP that supports on-premise and hybrid deployment. It connects diverse production workflows and departments into one focused hub for medium and enterprise-level companies. Top modules include project management, project contracts, data analytics, accounts management, core financials and IoT.

Its flexibility and connectivity reduce communication issues and human mistakes while automating processes. The cloud-based deployment option allows employees to leverage its capabilities regardless of physical location. It contains advanced reporting and analysis tools that enable users to develop actionable insights to improve day-to-day operations with real-time information.

Positive user feedback highlights its manufacturing-focused configuration and functionality, with support for financial accounting. There are some negative reviews about poor tech support and limited learning materials, however, overall user sentiment is positive.

In terms of pricing, Kinetic offers a flexible subscription model based on the modules and features required by each business. Specific pricing details may vary depending on customization and implementation needs.

To explore other popular solutions that Epicor offers, visit our Epicor company page.
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SAP PLM offers portfolio, project management and product lifecycle costing solutions for the complete product lifecycle experience. Users receive full clarity of teams, costs and fresh product innovations while also managing whole project lifecycles in one place. Users can also conduct portfolio traceability, planning, estimation accounting and closure.

Other notable tools include resource management, analytics and reporting, inbound and outbound integration, thorough product scope and more.
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$125/User, Monthly
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$15,600/User, Annually
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Boyer Machine and Tool Company
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Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
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Chat
FAQ
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Knowledge Base
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24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Chronicle Cash Flow: Save project fees and allocate on-time invoices to manage costs and ensure clients receive their bills. Boost cash flow forecasting via effective financial management.
  • Access In-Depth Business Analytics: Make wiser business decisions based on company-specific profit margins, sales information and workflow performance data. Access dashboards and custom reports that analyze real-time data and present actionable insights.
  • Simplify Demand and Order Management: Capture customer orders, manage product configurations and automate order fulfillment with a tightly integrated CPQ and eCommerce platform.
  • Use Simple MES Data Exchanges: Reduce double-data entries, leverage accurate data between interfaces consistently, and import and export information for advanced MES practices for easier data collecting and transfers.
  • Deliver Centralized Client Management: Govern contacts, leads, patrons and more from any mobile device, making it easy to maintain and manage relationships and data anywhere. Supervise region, team and proposal insights in one centralized location instead of traveling to all worksites.
  • Exhibit Supply Chain Visibility: Use advanced electronic data interchange (EDI), material requirements planning (MRP), and advanced planning and scheduling (APS) to review inventory levels, manage demand fluctuations and ensure on-time deliveries.
  • Access Resources From Anywhere: Review operations, dashboards and vendors on the go with mobile access. Monitor processes on your preferred iOS or Android device via the CRM mobile app.
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  • Increase Efficiency: This solution offers product engineering, quotes and lifecycle costing so users can improve and boost their productivity on projects.  
  • Forecast Costs: SAP PLM allows users to evaluate and predict the costs of projects before implementing them. It enables users to cipher and determine various product costs in the preliminary brainstorming and design phases before committing to its production, saving money and resources.  
  • Rapid Market Time: The application enables collaboration so users can streamline production, enhancing the research and evolution of a product. This allows the product to go to the market quicker and minimizes expenses.  
  • Centralized Insights: Users can evaluate prompt insights on project progress and cost efficiency throughout numerous worksites. All of these insights are stored in the platform and conveniently accessible in one central place. 
  • Manage Priorities: This solution helps users to align workflows and procedures with corporate policies and business objectives while freeing financial and human resources to guarantee victorious project achievements. 
  • Combine Departments: Users can link project management with financial and logistics hassle-free to draft project reports for stakeholders and important decision-makers effortlessly. 
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  • Project Management
    • Planning and Analysis: Leverage user-established cost analytics throughout work breakdown structures (WBS), defining all project components and creating WBS templates for quick reference. Record all general ledger and project transactions in one centralized ledger for base reconciliations and reporting.
    • Contract Management: Meet contractual obligations while protecting profitability. Rely on the system to define source cost rates across levels, monitor resource ceilings, link planning contracts with projects and seamlessly develop claims for any or all contract lines on one screen.
    • Billing Types: Obtain several billing types, such as progress, fixed price, milestone and quantity. Use bill plans, recurring payment, subscriptions, time and expenses, part price lists, and markups.
  • Manufacturing
    • Lean Manufacturing: Optimize production processes, reduce waste and manage manufacturing operations by incorporating lean principles. Apply Kanban systems, enable manufacturing without work orders and automatically process material flow.
    • Job Management: Access detailed job tracking and reduce overproduction with drag-and-drop planning and material availability checks. Ensure quality and production with job manager assistance and production planners.
    • Manufacturing Execution System (MES): Monitor production activities and automatic data collection from equipment via touchscreen interfaces. Support operators in making smart decisions regarding productivity, waste reduction and risk mitigation.
    • Quality Assurance: Enhances quality control by providing tools for managing quality processes, inspections, supplier returns and automated debit processing within the manufacturing environment.
  • Analytics and Reporting
    • Sales and CRM: Uncover more detailed business patterns and obtain deeper awareness of accounts, regions, orders and more. Review net sales, shipped and ordered quantities, material costs, fixed and variable burdens and labor fees.
    • Materials Management: Optimize purchase spending and evaluate vendor performances. Track shipment progress and review costs, on-hand amounts, in-transit, bill of lading information and shipped on time, amongst others.
    • Financials: Govern cash flows for more trends with a holistic filter for payables, receivables, customer payment cycles and vendor payment conditions. Drill down into organized accounts and payments on income statements and balance sheets.
    • Production: Verify high-quality, manufactured products for the ideal client at the right time. Monitor tool quantities, good values, actual setup hours, defined labor rates, production run standards and more.
    • Preventive Maintenance: Employ the EDA equipment maintenance data and dashboard to inspect maintenance data for suppliers, tasks, plants and open and closed requests. Boost preventive maintenance services and average response times for obstacles so managers can catch production bottlenecks.
    • Field Service: Use EDA data to oversee consumers, parts, service call types and warranty eligibility linked with service requests. Summarize totals, call counts for each service representative and other relevant indications.
  • Data Exchange
    • Integrations: Import and export data quickly to avoid manual data entry mistakes while maintaining data integrity. Manage specific information, data amounts and file formats for easy storage and sharing. Allocate data expeditiously and handle detailed tasks for IT teams and administrators.
    • In and Outbound Data: Import master information from ERP systems and send production details between MRP and ERP solutions. Regulate where data goes and how to handle it with ease.
  • Financials Core
    • General Ledger: Process and post all purchases made across this and other solutions. Manage manual entries, meet economic compliances, boost productivity and push enterprise efficiency.
    • Accounts Payable: Implement petty cash to manage in and outbound cash activities, employee fees and advances, vendor expenditures and customer receipts. Track promissory notes, post-dated checks and other credit tools.
    • Accounts Receivable: Establish coherent tools to monitor invoicing, credit, cash and client requirements. Create automatic invoices via order releases to reduce more work and typos.
    • Business Architecture: Use the data discovery function to access pre-made financial management, accounts receivable and payable content. The human capital management link transfers information to payroll providers, benefit vendors and more.
    • Global Engines: Support financial management across locations, vendors and global boundaries with country-specific implementation packs. Support multi-currency transactions, automate conversions and accurate financial reporting.
  • Epicor Automation Studio: Let users connect data and automate workflows across various apps with Epicor Automation Studio, a built-in low-code iPaaS solution. Access an integration marketplace, pre-built workflow automation templates and other native tools.
  • Virtual Agents: Rely on chatbots to pinpoint supply chain disruptions and recommend sourcing options based on predictive events.
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  • Portfolio Management: This software's portfolio management tool offers users rapid reliable overviews of their whole portfolio consisting of projects, programs, services and more. This tool facilitates enterprise project portfolio management (EPPM) for whole visibility on capital expenses, R&D efficiency and the skills of professional and IT tasks. 
  • Project Management: The project management accessory authorizes users to tackle numerous responsibilities such as project structuring, scheduling, visualization and more. Users can also advocate several implementation and finance supervision models such as Six Sigman, phase gate, critical path and product and cycle-time excellence (PACE). 
  • Resource Management: The project and portfolio management solution offers resource management that enables users to enhance their capital and equipment assets based on project needs, qualifications and availability. Users can also pinpoint future resource needs and allocate them accordingly with their company structure, location, skill and business requirements.  
  • Product Cost Formulation and Simulation:  This accessory enables users to carry out cost calculations with manual overrides and recalculation abilities. Users can also implement what-if scenarios and target costing with the simulation tool.  
  • Data Modeling and Extensibility:  Users can employ the data modeling and extensibility module to receive several costing sheets and component splits. They can administer local master data support and integrate with Microsoft Excel and enterprise software.  
  • Inbound and Outbound Integration: SAP PLM permits users to import and export crucial company data through SAP ERP, Microsoft Excel and other platforms using the application program interface (API) component. 
  • Pricing: Users can leverage the pricing accessory to work with countless currencies and dimensions. They can also cipher overhead costs through multiple counting sheets.  
  • Analytics and Reporting: The analytics and reporting module can be implemented throughout the entire product lifecycle, costing categories and other areas. Users can also access version comparisons and use this module for management reporting. 
  • Teamwork and Security: Users can control who has access to projects and activate traceability to track who works specific projects and products. They can also implement collaboration tools for various roles and users.  
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Product Ranking

#30

among all
PLM Software

#17

among all
PLM Software

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User Sentiment Summary

Good User Sentiment 935 reviews
Good User Sentiment 81 reviews
78%
of users recommend this product

Epicor Kinetic has a 'good' User Satisfaction Rating of 78% when considering 935 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

77%
of users recommend this product

SAP PLM has a 'good' User Satisfaction Rating of 77% when considering 81 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

4.3 (11)
n/a
3.7 (409)
3.5 (46)
3.9 (175)
4.42 (12)
n/a
4.4 (12)
4.2 (229)
n/a
3.9 (111)
4.0 (11)

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Modern Interface: Approximately 52% of users say this solution has a flexible, user-friendly UI.
Flexibility and Customization: Approximately 87% of the users said Kinetic is easy to configure and has great customization options for multi-mode manufacturers.
Modules: Of the users who discussed features, 60% said this system offers a wide range of practical tools (i.e., KPI dashboards, accounting and financial management, part tracking and more).
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Streamlined Collaboration: Enables seamless communication and data sharing among design, engineering, and manufacturing teams, fostering collaboration and reducing errors.
Comprehensive Product Data Management: Provides a central repository for all product-related information, including design specifications, manufacturing instructions, and quality control data, ensuring data accuracy and consistency.
Advanced Change Management: Facilitates efficient and controlled change management processes, ensuring that changes are tracked, approved, and implemented effectively, minimizing disruptions to product development.
Integration with Other Systems: Integrates seamlessly with ERP, CRM, and other business systems, providing a holistic view of product information and streamlining processes across the organization.
User-Friendly Interface: Offers an intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it accessible to users of all technical backgrounds and reducing the learning curve.
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Overall Performance: Roughly 40% of users indicated that the system is buggy, cumbersome and has a clunky UI.
Customer Support: About 55% of users agree that the support team is ineffective and has poor quality.
Training: Approximately 77% of users mentioned a steep learning curve and limited training resources.
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Data Management: Limited capabilities for managing complex data structures and relationships, leading to data inconsistencies and difficulties in managing large product portfolios.
User Interface: Complex and outdated user interface that can be difficult to navigate and use, resulting in reduced productivity and user adoption.
Customization: Limited customization options and a rigid architecture that makes it challenging to adapt the software to specific business needs, hindering flexibility and agility.
Integration: Difficulties in integrating with other systems, such as ERP and CAD tools, leading to data silos and inefficiencies in product development processes.
Performance: Slow performance and scalability issues, especially when handling large product data sets, affecting productivity and collaboration.
Cost: High licensing and implementation costs, as well as ongoing maintenance expenses, making it a significant investment for businesses.
Support: Limited technical support and documentation, leaving users frustrated and facing challenges in resolving issues.
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Kinetic offers a comprehensive ERP solution designed for multimodal manufacturers. It offers a robust combination of core financials, extensive integrations and country-specific implementation support. The advanced overlaid manufacturing module addresses future scalability needs. Its modern interface supports various business models through manufacturing processes.The user-based subscription model lets businesses adjust costs based on their specific needs. The solution is available in both perpetual and subscription licensing models, providing businesses with the flexibility to choose the most suitable option.Features like MES data exchange and Kanban systems manage production processes and reduce waste. Additionally, in-depth business analytics provide valuable insights into sales, profit margins and workflow performance for informed decision-making.Users praise this vendor’s configurable options and range of functions that cater to their unique business needs. Positive feedback also includes mentions of a unified platform for customer interactions. Despite its robust customization and integration options, many users report a steep learning curve and limited training resources.Overall, Kinetic is a comprehensive ERP solution that offers significant benefits to manufacturers looking to improve their operational efficiency, decision-making and profitability.

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SAP PLM is a popular PLM software that has received mixed reviews from users in the last year. Many users praise its powerful features and integration with other SAP products, but some find it complex and expensive. One of the main strengths of SAP PLM is its ability to manage complex product lifecycles, including engineering, manufacturing, and service. It also offers a wide range of features for managing product data, such as CAD integration, bill of materials management, and change management. SAP PLM is well-integrated with other SAP products, such as SAP ERP and SAP CRM, which can provide users with a single view of their product data across the entire enterprise. However, SAP PLM can be complex and expensive to implement, and some users find it difficult to use. It is important to note that SAP PLM is best suited for large enterprises with complex product lifecycles. Smaller businesses may find it too expensive and complex for their needs. In comparison to similar products, SAP PLM is a more comprehensive and feature-rich solution. However, it is also more expensive and complex than some of its competitors. One of the key differentiating factors of SAP PLM is its ability to manage complex product lifecycles. It also offers a wide range of features for managing product data, such as CAD integration, bill of materials management, and change management. SAP PLM is well-integrated with other SAP products, such as SAP ERP and SAP CRM, which can provide users with a single view of their product data across the entire enterprise. Overall, SAP PLM is a powerful and comprehensive PLM software that is best suited for large enterprises with complex product lifecycles. However, it is important to note that SAP PLM can be complex and expensive to implement, and some users find it difficult to use. Smaller businesses may find it too expensive and complex for their needs.

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