Epicor buys PIM vendor Kyklo: it’s more about the data

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Jun 13, 20243 mins

Enterprise ApplicationsManufacturing IndustryMergers and Acquisitions

Analysts said the acquisition is a good move for Epicor, as it tries to deepen its revenue from current customers with more critical but niche data.

Epicor has acquired Kyklo, a PIM specialty vendor focused on manufacturers and distributors, it said Wednesday.

The ERP vendor said that Kyklo’s products would augment its Epicor Commerce offering, helping manufacturers, distributors and sellers to improves product discovery, generate more qualified leads, and modernize the online buying experience.

Epicor described Kyklo’s value-add as “a process of catalog and content creation involving search, editing, and filtering, plus bulk data uploading using an API for real-time content and price updates.” It said Kyklo’s team of qualified engineers would review available content; add, correct, and restructure missing information or technical attributes; optimize it for search, then quality-control the resulting content before sending it to channel partners.

Keith Kirkpatrick, research director at The Futurum Group, said the acquisition generally makes sense for Epicor, which specializes in ERP adapted for vertical markets including aerospace, automotive, construction, and engineering.

“If you think about what Epicor is all about, they get down into the weeds of manufacturing of specific widgets dealing with very specific tasks. In order to do that, you need a lot of data. Epicor’s strategy is to ingest as much data as possible,” Kirkpatrick said. With this Kyklo deal, Epicor is “getting a catalogue of 2.5 million products among distributors. Overall, I think it is a win for Epicor. They need the data.”

This is why Kirkpatrick argues that this deal “is about the content, the data, it is not about fully integrating the business. This is about Epicor making their platform as flexible and powerful as the larger names out there.”

Kirkpatrick speculated that Epicor also wanted the Kyklo data because they didn’t want any other vendor to have it — unless Epicor later chooses to sell or license it to them. “We are going to buy it so that nobody else does. This has been their play in other segments, especially automotive: to become the exclusive provider of this data. And it has indeed been working for them in automotive.”

Kirkpatrick also speculated that, despite the lack of a published acquisition price, the quality of the Kyklo data is probably quite strong. Epicor “is getting product data. They are not going to be able to operate if it’s all garbage. It’s probably pretty good.”

Another analyst, Ashish Chaturvedi, a practice leader at HFS Research, was far more bullish on the deal.

“With this acquisition, Epicor isn’t just growing — it’s aiming for dominance. By focusing on the untapped potential of SMEs with advanced yet user-friendly PIM solutions, Epicor could position itself as the leading provider, outshining its competitors,” Chaturvedi said. “Epicor isn’t just adding new tools; it’s transforming how supply chains use digital data. Integrating Kyklo’s technology is expected to revolutionize traditional models by enabling real-time, AI-enhanced decision-making processes, potentially setting a new industry standard.”

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