Last week Epicor unveiled the latest release of its flagship ERP solution. This week it has released more details of the latest version of Epicor DocStar, release 20.1. This version of the Epicor Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solution contains several new features. It also has an improved user interface using the Epicor Kinetic design.
Ray Emirzian, Product Manager, Principal, DocStar ECM, commented: “The remote workforce is growing as businesses become more resilient – and a new evolution of work is taking over. With the newest version of DocStar ECM, we help companies transition smoothly. DocStar ECM 20.1 has a new user interface, making document management and automated Accounts Payable solutions in the cloud or on-premises even easier to use. Customers can create and process secure, simple e-forms to capture, verify, approve and integrate data and processes with core business systems remotely.”
Improved security
The first thing that users will notice is that the login screen has changed. Epicor has now integrated DocStar to the Epicor Identity Provider IdP service. This means that customers can now enjoy a single sign-on if using multiple Epicor products. It also means that administrators can turn on multifactor authentication if they wish to secure their Enterprise Content Management solution better.
The look and feel of this version is now similar to other Epicor products using Kinetic. While the location of menu items remains familiar, the similar design means that customers will find it easier to adopt other Epicor solutions.
Improved integrations
This release adds several improvements to the Epicor ERP integration. It has achieved this by leveraging the REST API available for Epicor ERP. Not only has this added new functionality, it also promises to improve performance between the two systems. One example is where invoices ingested into DocStar are pushed into Epicor ERP.
Epicor has also improved automation. A new automatch task enables DocStar to match receipts with purchase orders. It significantly reduces the processing task for AP teams. There is a new add stamp task. This flexible task enables a stamp such a “QCFail” to be added to documents. The solution is flexible and allows users to amend stamps with additional text. Stamps can also vary by region to meet local compliance regulations. For example, a QCFail stamp could also include the reason code for the failure without having to create hundreds of different stamps. It enables customers to determine where on a document the stamp should be placed, ensuring that the stamp is visible if printed.
There are also enhancements to document search. It is now possible to search based on more criteria which include:
- Equals
- Between
- Contains
- Does Not Equal
- Has No Value
The operations work on text, numeric and date fields. The new “Does Not Equal” enables users to exclude documents easily.
Epicor has also enhanced the integration between DocuSign and DocStar. DocStar can also create a separate document for each item received when working with multiple documents.
For Administrators
It is now easier to see how much disk space is in use by DocStar. The Data Usage report now includes a Storage on Disk figure. Administrators also have more control over how quickly the disk space is used up. They can now turn off rendering on document capture reducing the amount of disk space required.
Individual users are also able to personalise their date and number formats. Thus users can change the default, perhaps US number and data settings to a Europeans or Latin American version. Users can find this setting in user preferences.
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
Enhanced personalisation, better security, more consistent UI and stronger integrations are the four themes that come out of this release. Epicor is gradually moving its products together in a united family of solutions that users can adopt, either individually or as a whole. Importantly Epicor is also not forgetting that organisations today want a hybrid approach. The integration with Docusign is an example that it continues to work with other vendors to improve the wider ecosystem for its customer.
