It’s no secret that the Internet is changing the way we do business. The advent of faster and cheaper communication allows businesses to exploit emerging avenues to find new ways of connecting with their 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. With Vantage customerConnect, salesConnect, supplierConnect, Epicor Portal, and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), you have a global enterprise solution that keeps you connected with your entire network of trading partners.

customerConnect
The customerConnect application gives you tools to effectively manage the entire customer relationship—from the time they are a lead generated from a marketing program through providing service after the sale. Vantage customerConnect moves your organization beyond traditional CRM. customerConnect extends its CRM solutions and provides customers with improved access to information through the StoreFront and customer portal.

Produce a self-service StoreFront for your customers to place orders and track their purchases.

salesConnect
salesConnect allows your sales representatives and partners to access and update critical prospect information—from anywhere, at any time.

supplierConnect
With supplierConnect, you have a better understanding of supplier relationships and a more effective mechanism for managing them. Suppliers have access to the information they need to provide the highest level of service. And, perhaps more importantly, you have a comprehensive view of your suppliers, so you can analyze and evaluate their performance to make strategic sourcing decisions.

Supplier Portal
This portal allows suppliers to manage their relationship with you over the Web. Vendors have online, instantaneous, up-to-the-second, secured access whenever and wherever they choose. This is a powerful tool for reducing supply chain inefficiencies by responding to RFQs, acknowledging or rejecting purchase orders, requesting changes to purchase orders, account management, reviewing inventory levels, checking payments, as well as drilling down to all associated information.

Supplier Workbench
Open up a gateway for your suppliers to access important information from your Vantage system, freeing up your procurement staff from time-consuming phone calls, faxes and e-mails. The workbench enables your suppliers to track their RFQs and POs online.

Electronic Data Interchange
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the traditional form of exchanging information electronically and is utilized by many mid to large-sized suppliers to manage their supply chains more efficiently. Vantage Advanced EDI used with Demand Management provides a common interface for managing and exchanging the volume of data that is possible with long-term JIT (Just in Time) contracts. Demand Management handles creation, analysis, scheduling, and reconciliation of cumulative releases from your customers. This is particularly useful for manufacturers who supply to the automotive or retail industries. You can use Demand Management without Advanced EDI and vice-versa.

Advanced EDI functions are tightly integrated with the Demand Management module and facilitate electronic communication of release and ASN information to and from your customers. Advanced EDI offers direct integration with your Epicor data, reducing the turnaround time on schedule changes and additions, and eliminating potential data entry errors. Epicor Professional Services are experienced in making EDI work in various environments with various EDI suppliers, and can offer enhanced functionality that is tailored to the EDI needs of your business.