EpiUsers.Help the Podcast

What happens when AI meets ERP, software development, MCP, and a guy who literally has "AI" in his name? 😄

In Season 3, Episode 3 of the EpiUsers Podcast, Jose Gomez and Bryan DeRuvo sit down with Dr. Aieat Assam, Senior Director of AI Innovation & R&D at Epicor, for a wide-ranging conversation about where artificial intelligence is today and where it's headed.

Aieat shares his journey from studying language and literature, to image analytics and computer vision, to working with Dot Net IT and DMT, and eventually joining Epicor and helping shape its AI strategy.

We dig into:

🤖 What's real in AI today vs. what's still hype
💻 How AI is transforming software development
🧠 Why AI is a force multiplier, not a replacement for expertise
⚠️ Hallucinations, trust, risk, and knowing when NOT to trust AI
🛠️ Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, coding agents, and CLI tools
🔌 MCP, why Aieat "hates" the protocol, and why he uses it anyway
📚 RAG, context windows, and why more context isn't always better
🏭 Why ERP may be uniquely positioned to benefit from AI
📊 How AI-friendly and agentic APIs could change how we interact with ERP data
⚙️ Which ERP workflows are best suited for AI automation today
🔮 What ERP might look like five years from now
🚀 A glimpse at where Epicor is heading with Agent Foundry and agentic AI

One of the biggest themes of the conversation: AI is incredibly powerful when it's paired with people who understand the domain. It can multiply expertise, but it can also multiply mistakes.

And as Aieat puts it, when it comes to AI and ERP, what we've seen so far is barely scratching the surface.

🎙️ Hosted by Jose Gomez and Bryan DeRuvo
🎧 EpiUsers Podcast | Season 3, Episode 3

#Epicor #EpicorKinetic #ERP #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #AgenticAI #MCP #GenerativeAI #Manufacturing #SoftwareDevelopment #EpiUsers

As ERP vendors continue pushing customers toward SaaS and cloud-first strategies, many organizations are asking an important question:Are we gaining innovation, or giving up control?In this episode of the EpiUsers Podcast, Jose Gomez and Bryan DeRuvo sit down with independent ERP analyst Eric Kimberling to discuss the future of SaaS, cloud ERP, AI, vendor lock-in, and the strategic decisions businesses need to make as the ERP landscape continues to evolve.Together, they explore the opportunities, risks, and realities behind today's ERP transformation initiatives and discuss whether the industry is solving the right problems for customers.

Topics Covered

✅ The shift toward SaaS and cloud ERP

✅ Data ownership and customer control

✅ Vendor lock-in risks and long-term business flexibility

✅ The true cost of SaaS ERP

✅ AI's impact on ERP innovation

✅ Platform ecosystems and low-code development

✅ Best-of-breed vs. all-in-one ERP strategies

✅ What the next generation of ERP software may look like

About Our Guest:

Eric Kimlerling

Founder & CEO, Third Stage Consulting

Eric Kimberling is one of the leading independent ERP and digital transformation advisors in the world. Through Third Stage Consulting, he helps organizations navigate ERP selection, implementation, digital transformation, and organizational change management.

🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erickimberling

🔗 Website: https://thirdstage-consulting.com

10 Years of EpiUsers, Insights 2026, and Other Questionable Decisions

Welcome Back... Finally

After a brief hiatus measured in years rather than weeks, Jose Gomez and Bryan DeRuvo return for Season 3 of the EpiUsers Podcast. In this special episode, they celebrate the 10-year anniversary of EpiUsers, recap Epicor Insights 2026, discuss AI, community awards, and share a few stories that probably should have stayed in the forum archives.

10 Years of EpiUsers

The episode begins with the origin story of EpiUsers. What started as an effort to revive a fading Yahoo group eventually became EpiUsers.Help, a thriving community of more than 11,000 Epicor users helping each other solve problems, share ideas, and occasionally create legendary forum moments.

Jose and Bryan reflect on a decade of growth, friendships, and unexpected successes, including Epicor's embrace of the community as an important customer voice. They also revisit the infamous "Most Likes" incident, where one determined member decided to like nearly every post on the forum, creating confusion, laughter, and one of the most memorable moments in EpiUsers history.

Insights 2026 Highlights

The conversation then shifts to Epicor Insights 2026. Bryan discusses receiving a Manufacturing Champion Award and shares lessons learned from cloud adoption, acquisitions, and large-scale ERP implementations.

The hosts recap several standout sessions, including AI, automation, dashboard development, MCP integrations, and practical solutions being built by members of the EpiUsers community.

AI, Prism, and the Future

AI was the dominant theme of this year's conference, and Jose and Bryan dive into the announcements surrounding Prism, AI agents, and the future of automation within Epicor. Jose was particularly impressed by the App Studio Prism agent, which promises to eliminate a healthy percentage of App Studio clicking, a goal everyone can support.

The discussion also covers Epicor's roadmap, including conversations about the future of on-premises deployments and the company's efforts to address customer concerns through direct engagement with users.

Community Awards and Recognition

The annual EpiUsers Community Awards are highlighted, recognizing Kevin Linscombe, Randy Stolz, and Alyssa Osemegie for their outstanding contributions to the community. The Community Partner Award was presented to Jen Triffhauser for her advocacy and support of Epicor customers.

Jose and Bryan also thank the sponsors who helped make the EpiUsers 10-Year Anniversary Event possible. With more than 250 attendees, the celebration was a testament to the strength of the community that has grown around EpiUsers over the last decade.

What's Next?

The episode wraps up with a look ahead at improvements to EpiUsers.Help, including a new forum theme, AI-assisted moderation, future community initiatives, and ambitious plans for more podcast episodes.

Ten years ago there was no Kinetic, no Prism, no Copilot, and no AI generating forum themes in minutes. Yet somehow EpiUsers survived, grew, and became one of the most influential communities in the Epicor ecosystem. Here's to the next decade.

Celebrate with them as they honor community MVPs Tim Shoemaker, Greg Payne, and Kevin Lincecum for their significant contributions. Dive into the future of ECM and explore innovative solutions like dynamic document management and AP automation.

Hear their take on AI in Epicor and its practical applications. Plus, get a sneak peek at what's in store for the new season, including guest appearances and insightful discussions on product comparisons and technical demos. Join Bryan and Jose as they kick off an exciting new season filled with fresh insights and community spirit!

Epicor drops the much anticipated fall release of Kinetic 2022.2.4 (11.2.200.4) and it is packed with new features and bug fixes, as well as some new unintended consequences (see: https://www.epiusers.help/t/return-material-from-job-not-enough-wip/95470). Joshua Giese , Jose Gomez and Bryan DeRuvo discuss the new features and what they are excited to see and  a little later we have a lengthy and enjoyable interview with Brian Conner Director of Product Engineering for the UX Platform (aka Kinetic baby daddy 😏) about the kinetic transformation, how we got here and where we are going.

In this Episode we tackle ERP Security! How do you secure the crown jewels in a world filled with thieves when every user has a key to the vault?

For episode 4 (Jose said 5, counting hard), Bryan takes a much needed vacation 🙄 and Jose discusses a rumor going around that Epicor is going to force everyone to go to the cloud by 2024...(Spoiler Alert) They aren't!  

Epicor is a powerful enterprise resource planning (ERP) software that can help businesses of all sizes streamline their operations. But implementing an ERP can be tricky! In this video, Bryan and Jose discuss how they use Epicor's' Signature Methodology as a formula to ensure successful implementations; they also cover several dos and don't of implementing software and change management as a whole through anecdotes and examples based on their experiences and past successes and failures.

In this Episode Jose and Bryan discuss the new Epicor acquisition of Data Interchange and have a conversation with Tim Shoemaker, Senior Principal Product manager at Epicor about what it takes to take a product like Automation Studio to market and how this whole concept came about.

*disclaimer: Josh didn't edit this video Jose did we apologize for the poor audio and editing 🤣 - jgiese.wci*

EpiUsers.Help

Introduction to the yet un-named EpiUsers.Help Podcast. We talk about what we do, why we are here and do a deep dive into what we learned at Epicor Insights 2022.

A Video Version of this Episode is available on Spotify and Youtube.com