The Competitive Advantage
of Mobility
How mobile access helps distributors provide better service than
the competition
What’s Inside
The Mobile Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Give Customers What They Want, Instantly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Improve Customer Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Make Business Decisions Faster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
Information On Demand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Epicor Prophet 21® Mobile Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Epicor Eclipse™ Mobile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
About Epicor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
2 | The Competitive Advantage of Mobility
The Mobile
Opportunity
Mobile devices are integral to our working lives,
increasingly replacing the traditional desktop as
we do more of our work remotely. However, this
always-on perception has led to rising expectations
from customers for faster and better service. To meet
these expectations, you need to ensure that your
employees—wherever they are—can access critical
business information and communicate quickly
and efficiently with customers and employees at
other locations.
Mobile devices enable businesses to operate
more efficiently than ever before by connecting
workforces spread across cities, states, provinces, and
countries. In particular, when mobile capabilities are
integrated with your enterprise resource planning
(ERP) software, real-time data can populate the
system—such as customer order status, inventory
levels, quotes, and more. This means your company
can maintain more accurate information and provide
better customer service.
Plus, mobile technology provides important business
intelligence data to busy executives—wherever
they may be—including information on revenue,
pipeline, performance against plan, GMROI,
customer behavior, and more. Leaders can make
smarter, more informed decisions with the use of
mobile technology.
Mobile access to your
ERP system
In this eBook, we’ll look at the different ways mobile
access to vital business information within your
ERP system can help you deliver the best possible
service to your customers and improve operational
efficiencies—all while enabling your employees to
work smarter and faster. You’ll explore:
XX The competitive advantage of more responsive,
personalized service
XX How to evolve into a leaner, more efficient
distributorship
XX How to improve productivity through fast,
accurate decision-making
Best-in-class
organizations enable
access to ERP on
mobile devices for
employees .1
56%
The Competitive Advantage of Mobility | 3
1 Source: Mobile ERP: Taking ERP ROI Into Your Own Hands, August 2014, Aberdeen Group
Give Customers
What They Want,
Instantly
Customer service is a key differentiator for
distributors. Providing your customers with accurate
information—instantly—and quickly responding to
their needs may be the difference between winning
and/or retaining their business and losing it to
competitors. Allowing your field teams to access your
ERP system from their mobile device mitigates these
risks by providing both accuracy and responsiveness.
Mobile access to your ERP system allows your sales
team to access the latest prices and lead times from
their smartphone or tablet to accurately service
customers on site. It also decreases the chances of
incorrect order submissions and reduces error-strewn
quotes. Corrections are faster and response times to
change orders are improved—sales can accomplish
tasks immediately instead of having to relay
information to an inside sales team for updates.
4 | The Competitive Advantage of Mobility
Improve Customer
Relationships
Access to the CRM function within an ERP system
also allows sales staff to accurately capture and
update customer information while in the field.
This helps keep your database accurate and ensures
you’re contacting the correct people for sales,
marketing, and finance purposes.
Why does this matter? With a clearer view of
the customer, your organization can have deeper
insight into their needs to provide improved service
and ensure that tailored marketing, promotions,
incentives, and communications reach the right
people at the right time.
Organizations with mobile ERP are 138%
more likely to have a fully integrated
view of all customer information .1
138%
The Competitive Advantage of Mobility | 5
Make Business
Decisions Faster
As the pace of business accelerates, making decisions
more quickly often means the difference between
winning and losing an opportunity. Whether reacting
to an unexpected customer request or pursuing a
new account, mobile access to your business system
will help your organization move faster and make
better-informed decisions.
For example, if a customer contacts your company
with an urgent change order and is forced to wait
on a response from your inside sales team only to
learn that the product they need is unavailable, you
may find that even the most devoted customers are
forced to take their business elsewhere. After all,
your customers need to meet the demands of their
customers, too. Inevitably, this will occur throughout
normal business operations, but a customer who
finds better service at a competitor may end up
taking all their business elsewhere. Why give them
the opportunity? Instead, with mobile access, the
customer’s dedicated representative can review
quantities on hand and quickly find alternative
options to out-of-stock items.
Fast, effective communication
and collaboration
An ERP system that allows your employees to
communicate and collaborate via mobile tools can
mean they work together effectively—wherever they
are. It can even help your business reduce costs like
travel expenses, office space, and more.
Flexibility and consistency
Typically, the mobile devices your workforce uses
run a variety of operating systems, especially if you
have a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy. A
best-in-class business system will provide a secure,
consistent, and enjoyable user experience across all
operating systems, and enable your employees to
work productively with whatever device feels natural
to them.
Organizations with mobile ERP
saw a 17% improvement in the
cycle time of key business processes
over the past 12 months .1
17%
6 | The Competitive Advantage of Mobility
Information
On Demand
Working effectively on the move doesn’t just require
access to information—it also means you have
the tools to act on that information. The right ERP
system will enable your employees to use a range
of collaborative tools on their mobile devices to
work more effectively, boosting responsiveness and
overall performance.
Enhance sales productivity
with the right tools
Mobile applications are often integrated into an ERP
system, accessible through a single interface, or they
may be separate applications designed to interface
directly with an ERP system. Both types provide
access to sales opportunities, contacts, account
information, quotes, and orders. However, with
single-purpose applications that share a common
user interface, workflows become smoother, simpler,
and more uniform across your field teams, which can
result in in increased productivity and efficiency.
We saw overall employee productivity increase with the
Prophet 21 Mobile Sales Solution. Outside sales representatives
can now find the information they need without having to
call other employees, therefore saving time and making the
process much more efficient.
—Connie Corbett, Vice President of Operations | Filtech, Inc.
The Competitive Advantage of Mobility | 7
Epicor Prophet 21®
Mobile Sales
Prophet 21 Mobile Sales improves productivity with
fast, real-time customer information. Your sales and
support team can view, create, and edit customer
information within Prophet 21 from wherever they
have an Internet connection. Customer contacts,
orders, billing status, product stock, pricing, and
location availability display in a browser-based
application for tablets and other mobile devices.
With Mobile Sales for Prophet 21, sales personnel
can better accommodate their customers and their
sales managers. Detailed customer overviews are
easily visible in this application to better predict the
sales pipeline and support bid analysis. Prophet 21
Mobile Sales is a technology-independent, browser-
based application that works on Apple®, Microsoft®,
or Android™ platforms without updates from an app
store.
With Prophet 21, your field teams can provide your
customers with more responsive and reliable service,
no matter where they are working.
We were looking for a tool where our outside sales
representatives could easily find the information that
they need, when they need it. Instead of having to sift
through an endless amount of information, our sales
reps can just open up the Prophet 21 Mobile Sales
solution on the road and find what they are looking for
with a click of a button.
—Connie Corbett, Vice President of Operations | Filtech, Inc.
8 | The Competitive Advantage of Mobility
Epicor Eclipse™
Mobile
The Eclipse Mobile solution provides powerful CRM
tools connected directly to your ERP so your field
sales team and other remote employees can do
more—view sales activity logs, enter new activities,
and update opportunities. The application makes
it easy to view, create, and edit commonly used
customer information within Eclipse, such as
customers, contacts, accounts receivable, pricing,
products, and branch availability.
Now, you can effectively manage your accounts
with real-time visibility into existing bids and orders.
You can also create new ones while accessing
your messages, job queues, and on-hold reports
anytime—anywhere there is an Internet connection.
Eclipse Mobile simplifies information lookup with a
single search field that scans multiple sets of data—
all from the same screen. Use the mobile search to
add items to a customer’s shopping cart, or duplicate
an existing bid or order to a new cart. Salespeople
can also attach line-item comments, update pricing,
and enter shipping instructions.
Eclipse Mobile is a technology-independent, browser-
based application that works on Apple, Microsoft,
or Android platforms without updates from an app
store. All of the information your sales and support
people need is at their fingertips.
The usability, functionality, and movement that Eclipse provides is
key to running our business.
—Jamie Kolkman, Systems Analyst | Etna Supply
The Competitive Advantage of Mobility | 9
Contact us today distribution@epicor .com www .epicor .com
The contents of this document are for informational purposes only and are subject to change without notice . Epicor Software Corporation makes no guarantee, representations, or warranties with regard to the enclosed information and
specifically disclaims, to the full extent of the law, any applicable implied warranties, such as fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability, satisfactory quality, or reasonable skill and care . The results study is based on key assumptions
which may or may not apply to your business . The represented results and benefits are not guarantees of benefits you will receive, as each user’s experience will vary . This document and its contents, including the viewpoints, dates, and
functional content expressed herein are believed to be accurate as of its date of publication, August 2018 . The results represented in the testimonials may be unique to the particular user as each user’s experience will vary . The usage
of any Epicor software shall be pursuant to the applicable end user license agreement and the performance of any consulting services by Epicor personnel shall be pursuant to applicable standard services terms and conditions . Usage of
the solution(s) described in this document with other Epicor software or third-party products may require the purchase of licenses for such other products . Epicor, the Epicor logo, Epicor Prophet 21, and Epicor Eclipse are trademarks or
registered trademarks of Epicor Software Corporation in the United States, certain other countries, and/or the EU . Copyright © 2018 Epicor Software Corporation . All rights reserved .
About Epicor
Epicor Software Corporation drives business growth. We provide flexible,
industry-specific software designed to fit the precise needs of our manufacturing,
distribution, retail, and service industry customers. More than 45 years of
experience with our customers’ unique business processes and operational
requirements are built into every solution —in the cloud or on premises. With
this deep understanding of your industry, Epicor solutions dramatically improve
performance and profitability while easing complexity so you can focus on growth.
For more information, connect with Epicor or visit www.epicor.com.
