ComTec Solutions, 2W Tech, and their evolving Epicor journey
Your industry productivity software is the backbone of your business—centralizing data, powering processes, and driving automation. After selecting the right ERP system, choosing a qualified enterprise software partner is one of the most important decisions you'll make for your organization. Epicor Authorized Partners are industry experts with the training, certifications, and experience to successfully plan and support your Epicor solution. Two of our long-time partners have been in the business for decades, and exemplify our commitment to superior service, ongoing innovation, and growth.
For Robert Moyer, now President at ComTec Solutions, finding the right solution for a company he worked at over 30 years ago was the start of his roundabout journey to Epicor. "I had written an ERP add-on to our financial system, or at least a manufacturing portion of it, and we got to a point where we said we had outgrown it and we needed to find an application," he says. "We went out and found an application, realized two years in it was the wrong one, and we did a search again and found Epicor."
After his experience overseeing the Epicor implementation process as a customer, Moyer decided "to make a business out of it." He stepped out on his own, and founded ComTec as an IT managed services provider with expertise in Epicor solutions. Eventually, he approached Epicor about becoming a channel partner.
Initially, Moyer explains, there was some skepticism about how he, as a sole proprietor, could sell the software without a sales team. "I told them I'd figure it out," he adds. "So I put a business plan together, and I had a couple of people at Epicor whom I'd worked with closely, and they kind of went to bat for me." The ComTec/Epicor partnership was born, and Moyer hasn't looked back.
ComTec began with Epicor Kinetic, developing years of expertise and resources to deliver powerful, agile ERP implementations to automate processes and improve productivity across the manufacturing sector. Now an Epicor certified Platinum partner, Moyer was thrilled to build on his success and broaden his client base by adding the distribution industry and Epicor Prophet 21 to the mix.
"We've been wanting to do that for a while," Moyer says. "So as soon as they announced it last fall, we threw our hat into the ring. It makes sense. We need to continue to grow as a company and I felt like adding another vertical would be a huge portion of that growth. Being able to diversify was really important, so we're not just reliant on manufacturing."
ComTec and Moyer have come a long way since the one-man-band days of 30 years ago: ComTec is now a 60-person, full-service technology services company providing advisory and technical expertise in manufacturing and distribution to over 300 varied clients on the platform. "They could be multinational companies, or they could be local job shops down the street," Moyers says. But even with this increasing complexity, ComTec embraces the time-tested Epicor structure.
"We follow the Epicor signature methodology," Moyer confirms. "Not everybody does that, but I'm a firm believer in it. We let customers know we've got a dedicated project management team to make sure everything is moving forward." One of ComTec's strengths as an Epicor channel partner, Moyer believes, is its dedicated workforce. "We're hiring people with the chops and the depth of experience to be able to implement solutions for these companies, and I think that's a big portion of our success."
Looking ahead, Moyer sees the trend to cloud migration continuing for the Epicor customers ComTec supports, although he still works with some companies who prefer to use on-premises for various reasons. He also notes the increasing number of businesses in the recycling and alternative energy sectors; these businesses are looking to Epicor solutions to help solve new challenges.
One things is certain. As ComTec continues to grow, they remain focused on the unique value that being an Epicor channel partner brings to every customer.
"We've been doing this a long time, and our goal is to continue to grow. Back in 2023, we were Epicor Global Partner of the Year, and we're very, very proud of that. We wear that badge proudly, and we're hoping to get there again and continue to strengthen the partnership."
Partnership is also central to 2W Tech. As President and CEO Mark Jamieson says, "We've been an Epicor partner since before it was called Epicor." Founded by Diana Whitinger (one of the Ws in the company name), 2W began as a core group of consultants and contractors.
Jamieson himself joined in 2012, and remembers looking around and asking, "'What else can we do?' And you know, the majority of the clients were manufacturers because of Epicor, so we started to provide network services. The conversation would start out like, 'Hey, my network guys won't touch my Epicor server, but will you manage the rest of our network [what was then called a small business server]?' And of course we said yes, and that was kind of the beginnings of our infrastructure practice."
After a series of acquisitions, a seminal moment came when 2W began working with what was then a new product, Microsoft Azure. "We started doing a thing every time we would quote a server, we would quote an Azure instance and everybody bought the server, and then eventually people would start buying the Azure part. We pioneered a unique way to put Epicor in an Azure environment where it's cost-effective and there's a good user experience."
Around that time, Epicor began to really build out its channel partnerships. "We continued to build out our managed services business, our Microsoft practice. We got into 365, we started a modern work practice. Now we're doing all of this in manufacturing. So flash forward 13 years after I walked into the company, and we are now Epicor's largest North American partner. We were partner of the year last year."
Jamieson is happy to report that the company's Microsoft practice continues to grow. They were also recently named to the CRN Tech list of 250 notable companies. He quotes the tagline on the 2W careers page when summarizing the company’s busy, forward-looking culture: "Do cool stuff with cool people."
Like ComTec, when 2W Tech had the opportunity to enter the new distribution channel a year ago, they were ready to go. As Jamieson says, "Our motto is, we provide all the technology that occurs in a manufacturing plant, right up to the yellow line that OSHA makes you draw around the machines where the operator stands. So distribution is kind of the next natural growth path. It's not that much different than manufacturing. Sometimes distributors have light manufacturing, sometimes manufacturers have to manage stock inventory. So we said 'sure, let's sign up for that.'"
Jamieson notes that 2W Tech also saw the existing and potential power of AI in the make, move, sell industries, and made it their mission to help businesses of all sizes use it to drive productivity across the supply chain.
"So our goal in our practice is to be experts in the AI pieces of our partners: we're going to be Prism experts and we're going to be Copilot experts and we're going to be experts in Resolve IQ™, which is 2W's automated IT support platform. It's an exciting thing and it's moving super, super fast, but we're trying to stay out in front of it."
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