Epicor acquires specialised midmarket ERP vendor Solarsoft

Solarsoft’s focus is on midsized manufacturing and distribution companies, and within those categories, industries such as lumber and building materials, automotive and packaging, according to a statement. The move follows Epicor’s merger last year with Activant, which also specialised in distribution.

In addition, Solarsoft has products and experience regarding process manufacturing, which refers to industries such as food and beverage and pharmaceuticals. It also will bring “data centre investments that will enhance the delivery of Solarsoft and Epicor cloud-based ERP, SaaS (software as a service), hosting, and managed services offerings,” according to a statement.

Epicor recently announced that its cloud-based ERP product, initially launched for very small companies, would be made available to midmarket customers.

Solarsoft has about 2,000 customers and annual sales of US$90 million. The combined company will have close to $1 billion in annual revenue, cementing Epicor’s place as one of the industry’s largest ERP vendors after Oracle, SAP and Infor.

Solarsoft is almost “a mini version of Epicor,” said analyst Ray Wang, CEO of Constellation Research.

Epicor will benefit from Solarsoft’s specialised software, which caters to specialised industry needs that can’t be met by a general-purpose ERP system, Wang said. For example, food and beverage companies need “traceability” for their products in order to deal with issues like food recalls, he said.

The deal also reflects how Epicor has chosen to grow its business further, Wang said.

“There are a couple of ways to go in ERP these days: Try to get really, really big with a horizontal stack or go after a lot of specialty verticals,” he said. “[Customers] will still be willing to switch if you have the industry expertise.”