Epicor Enhances Retail Decision-Making via New Powerful, Mobile Business Intelligence Platform

DUBLIN, CA--(Marketwire - Nov 13, 2012) - Epicor Software Corporation, a global leader in business software solutions for manufacturing, distribution, retail and services organizations, today announced the availability of its latest release of Epicor Retail Business Intelligence (BI), the newest retail intelligence tool in the market leader's product portfolio, which offers enhanced mobile capabilities and improved store transfer analysis to support better decision-making across the retail enterprise.

Retailers today are drowning in more real-time data than ever before; this data must be distilled to produce meaningful insights to support decision-making for improved revenues and profitability. Epicor Retail BI consolidates data from Audit and Operations Management, Merchandising, and CRM solutions, then structures it in a way that supports access and reporting in virtually any form, to support various information needs and requirements throughout the organization. Mobile functionality gives field and corporate users access to real-time information with alerts, notifications, and personalized dashboards to guide better, faster decision-making to run and manage the business from anywhere.

By combining a sophisticated data warehouse and data cube with an easy-to-use interface, Epicor Retail BI responds to large and complex inquiries almost instantly. The solution also offers improved store transfer analysis, with shipping and receiving specifics, reasons for transfers, and sending/receiving locations, to ensure better inventory optimization. New mobile and visual functionality is offered by Epicor through the BI Information Center app, currently optimized to run on Apple iPad and iPhone, all devices running Windows Phone 7, and downloadable from Windows Mobile Marketplace. Two new visibility modes enable the user to control how much information they receive. Browsing allows users to receive instantaneous access to information about the business. Notification keeps the user in control of what/when to receive updated information and/or be notified about exceptions.

In a recent Gartner, Inc. research report, analyst Robert Hetu notes, "Cross-channel shopping behavior is causing retailers to invest in BI to compete effectively." He recommends retailers, "Use advanced BI with data visualization capabilities that enable retail buyers and planners to problem-solve by dynamically creating views of BI data in the best format for analysis; find patterns of activity and determine the impact of cross-channel shopping; and, look for unique patterns of individual categories of business, but also analyze across the entire assortment to determine total customer impact."¹

Epicor Business Intelligence uses many data analysis and modeling tools to help retailers identify trends, understand variables, predict outcomes, and make appropriate decisions. The solution works with location and merchandise hierarchies, service types, transaction attributes, and core business information, and can assess operations against dozens of KPIs.

Customizable dashboards and scorecards enable retailers to view metrics, identify trends, and manage critical information easily from a centralized location.

• Style scorecard provides unit and retail information such as on-hand and sell through sales at the levels of style, style/color, or style/color/size, by specific stores or all stores.

• Flash sales scorecard provides unit, retail, and cost information such as actual and budgeted sales, gross margin, and POS discounts at the merchandise level. Users can view comparable, non-comparable, or all stores results.

• Location scorecard provides sales, on-hand, receipts, gross margin, and sell through information at the merchandise group level by group or location.

• Vendor scorecard provides information on orders, receipts, compliance, on-time delivery, and quality at the merchandise group level by vendor.

"Gleaning data across all sales channels and across key enterprise systems is imperative to give retailers the necessary insight to make the right decisions," said Ashraf Zaid, director, BI Product Management, Technology and Architecture for Epicor. "Our retail systems transform and transfer this critical business data into a mobile format that enables decision-makers to always be in-the-know and executing in and out of store/office locations."

Epicor provides advanced solutions for retailers seeking to streamline processes, integrate channels, leverage intelligence and inspire customers, to maximize profitability. The Epicor Retail end-to-end suite is designed to meet the evolving merchandise and service expectations of today's connected, cross-channel shoppers, and the business requirements of the most demanding softgoods, hardgoods and specialty retail environments in a variety of industries including apparel, footwear, discount, general merchandise, automotive aftermarket, lumber and building materials, nursery, and pharmacy. Thousands of leading companies -- from Aeropostale, Aftermarket Auto Parts Alliance and Build-a-Bear, to General Nutrition Centers, True Value Company and Under Armour -- trust Epicor to help them remain current, competitive, and consistently strong.

About Epicor Software Corporation
Epicor Software Corporation is a global leader delivering inspired business software solutions to the manufacturing, distribution, retail and services industries. With over 40 years of experience serving small, midmarket and larger enterprises, Epicor has more than 20,000 customers in over 150 countries. Epicor enterprise resource planning (ERP), retail management software, supply chain management (SCM), and human capital management (HCM) enable companies to drive increased efficiency and improve profitability. With a history of innovation, industry expertise and passion for excellence, Epicor provides the single point of accountability that local, regional and global businesses demand. The Company's headquarters are located in Dublin, California, with offices and affiliates worldwide. For more information, visit www.epicor.com.

Follow Epicor on Twitter @Epicor, @EpicorUK, @EpicorEMEA, @EpicorAU, @Epicor_Retail, @Epicor_DIST and Facebook.

Epicor and the Epicor logo are trademarks of Epicor Software Corporation, registered in the United States and other countries. Apple, iPad and iPhone are trademarks of Apple, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. Windows is the trademark of Microsoft Corporation, registered in the United States and other countries. Other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners. The product and service offerings depicted in this document are produced by Epicor Software Corporation.

¹ Gartner, Inc., "Understanding Cross-Channel Behavior is Key to Assortment Optimization," by Robert Hetu (Aug. 10, 2012)