EPICOR SOFTWARE.

Corporation delivers effective business solutions throughout Latin America 

For mid-size organizations throughout Latin America, Epicor Software Corporation delivers highly effective business performance solutions -- localized to meet its customers' specific requirements.

Formed by the merger of Platinum Software and DataWorks Corporation, Epicor (NASDAQ: EPIC) offers Latin American businesses a fully integrated "customer-centric" solution called Platinum ERA to enhance customer service while improving the organization's efficiency.

A comprehensive, award-winning suite of enterprise business applications, Platinum ERA goes well beyond traditional manufacturing-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and into a new era of customer-focused enterprise-ready applications.

Because customer service is the primary competitive weapon in today's business world, Platinum ERA allows organizations to better integrate the sales and delivery of their products and services. For instance, collections must be aware of customer service issues to investigate payment delays. Customer service must be aware of production problems to resolve delivery delays. Production must be aware of sales pipelines to prepare for future demand.

Platinum ERA is designed to satisfy exactly these types of business needs, with integrated applications that include sales force automation, customer support, accounting, distribution, budgeting and manufacturing. By sharing information between the front and back office, all members of an organization can be properly equipped to make decisions that affect customers, resulting in more personalized and profitable one-to-one relationships.

Platinum ERA's tight integration ensures that customer information is consistent and easily accessible throughout every business function. Information entered anywhere is available everywhere. Like other Epicor products, Platinum ERA features a Windows interface and uses standard Microsoft technology that is easy to install, configure and maintain.

Thanks to its strong product offerings, service and support, Epicor has enjoyed exceptionally strong growth in Latin America in the 1990s, according to Pascal Van Dooren, regional director, Latin America & Caribbean (LAC) Region.

"The increasing number of our customers in varied industries throughout Latin America has allowed us to become more directly involved in the region," says Van Dooren. "We have opened up a new office in Buenos Aires to serve the Mercosur region, along with our current office in Miami. We are also tightly connected to Mexico through our corporate headquarters in Irvine, California."

Being directly involved in Latin America -- in addition to its longtime distributor network -- has helped Epicor understand the specific needs of its customers and deliver localized versions of its products in Spanish, Portuguese, French and other languages. "We understand both the laws and the business practices of Latin American companies in their own countries," says Van Dooren.

Epicor currently serves a wide range of Latin American organizations, including service and manufacturing industries. "We have also enjoyed a good deal of success in vertical markets like banking, restaurants, hotels, insurance companies and distribution organizations," says Van Dooren. "Because of the way our products work using Microsoft technology, we've been able to develop a number of horizontal solutions for our customers. And we continue to enhance our products with additional features."

Van Dooren believes that the focus of Latin American business on Y2K matters over the past year is already shifting. "Many companies have already dealt with the Y2K situation, and are looking again at the real business issues," he says. "That will translate into a greater need for the enhanced functionality offered by Epicor's solutions."

Epicor is the largest enterprise software supplier focused exclusively on mid-sized companies. By delivering business performance solutions that enable companies to automate on their own terms, Epicor helps its customers outperform their competition by capitalizing on client relationships while minimizing the risks associated with conventional enterprise resource planning systems.

Epicor is firmly committed to providing mid-sized companies with the strongest possible customer relationship advantages at every touch point throughout their organization -- whether in back office, front office or e-commerce interactions -- and across the span of the customer lifecycle.

Epicor, which was founded in 1984, today is ranked among the industry's ten largest enterprise business solutions in the world by industry analysts. The company has more than 10,000 enterprise customers worldwide, served by offices in Asia, Australia, Canada and Europe, as well as the United States and Latin America.