Epicor’s first announcement of 2026 marked a turning point for the long-standing ERP vendor as they take the next steps toward a cloud first strategy. Core products Kinetic, Prophet 21, and BisTrack all received their final on-premises support releases. In the era of the cloud and AI, this is not a surprising move but it does leave many businesses to wonder what this means for the future of their ERP solutions.
Aligned with the Epicor company’s focus on transparency, the vendor released a clear outline of major deadlines expected over the next few years. All products will be moving from Active Support to Sustaining Support, meaning that upon reaching that deadline, on-premises customers can no longer rely on essential updates or hotfixes.
While impending support deadlines can cause fear among organizations that rely on the affected products, a move from Active to Sustaining Support does not mean immediate shutdown or system failure. These announcements are providing businesses with the time they need to prepare for an upgrade to an ERP cloud solution.
However, businesses cannot rely on outdated solutions long term, so current on-premises Kinetic, Prophet 21, and BisTrack customers should begin evaluating options for modern software applications. While deadlines may extend to 2029 and even 2030, the change can sometimes take years to complete, so it is best to get an early start. Begin by evaluating your business needs and capacity for change to develop a clear plan and timeline for an upgrade or potential migration.
From there, customers should consider either upgrading to the cloud version of their Epicor solution or selecting another viable option available on the market. The independent experts at ERP Advisors Group recommend evaluating your options to ensure your needs are met and stakeholders are satisfied with the selection. Sometimes moving to the cloud version is not as straightforward as you would hope.
For customers who choose to upgrade to an ERP on cloud with Epicor, Ascend with Epicor is a great program to successfully navigate the cloud migration. Utilizing resources from across the Epicor ecosystem, Epicor has developed a “methodology” for upgrading from legacy Epicor applications to the cloud. Implementation partners and solution consultants are trained to streamline the implementation process and help customers adopt AI. By creating an outlined approach to Epicor Cloud implementations, customers can achieve value faster, and more cost effectively.
The writing is on the wall for on-prem Epicor customers, with a clear push toward moving into the cloud. And because the cloud upgrade process is such a large migration effort, it is worth doing some due diligence to explore your options before making the leap.
ERP Advisors Group specializes in helping clients achieve their enterprise software goals. By applying over a century of combined software advisory experience, our independent consultants guarantee an unbiased, expert approach to ERP. Navigate your upgrade to Epicor Cloud with ease by partnering with ERP Advisors Group. Schedule a free consultation today!