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lowki.ai vs Epicor ECM Sales Order Automation
If you run Epicor Kinetic and want to stop keying customer orders by hand, you have two obvious places to look: Epicor's own Sales Order Automation, which is part of Epicor ECM, and lowki.ai. Both read incoming orders and get them into Kinetic. They come at the problem from different directions, and the right choice depends on what else you need.
This page sets out how each one works, using Epicor's published information, so you can decide for yourself.
What Epicor ECM Sales Order Automation is
Sales Order Automation is a module of Epicor ECM, Epicor's document management and workflow platform. It works in three stages. Epicor IDC (Intelligent Data Capture) extracts the order data. SOA then looks up and validates that data in Kinetic and passes any exceptions to a person to resolve. Orders that meet all the conditions are created in Kinetic automatically.
It sits inside a wider platform. ECM also runs AP, AR and HR workflows and acts as a document archive. To use SOA you need ECM, IDC and the SOA module.
What lowki.ai is
lowki.ai is a dedicated order entry and accounts payable service built for Epicor Kinetic. Customer orders arrive by email or PDF, and lowki.ai reads them, matches the customer and part numbers against your Kinetic data, and creates the sales order in Kinetic. Anything it's unsure of is flagged for your team to check, and we recommend a hold BPM so every order is reviewed before it's processed.
Lexi by lowki.ai was built and proven inside Thomas Dudley, a UK manufacturing group that has run Epicor since 2004, starting on Vantage 8. At Thomas Dudley Plumbing Products, it has processed 236,000+ order lines in 2+ years, from Thomas Dudley Plumbing Products' 650+ customer accounts. Over the same period, EDI covered three.
Side by side
| Epicor ECM Sales Order Automation | lowki.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A module of a document management and workflow platform | A dedicated order entry and AP service for Kinetic |
| What you need | Epicor ECM, IDC and the SOA module | Epicor Kinetic and a Microsoft Exchange Online mailbox |
| Reading orders | IDC captures data from documents, configured and tuned to your order formats | Your team drags each order email into a folder, so a person decides what goes in. The AI reads it with no per-customer templates |
| Validation | Lookups in Kinetic, including customer, part and credit checks | Customer and part matching against your Kinetic data, read through the business objects and BAQs you can filter |
| Exceptions | Routed to a person in an ECM workflow | Flagged for your team to check in Kinetic |
| Credit checks | Built into the workflow | Kinetic's own credit hold rules apply, because orders go through the REST API. Nothing is duplicated outside your ERP |
| Order documents | Archived in the ECM document store | Every order in Kinetic links back to the original email and attachments, which stay archived in your own mailbox |
| Scope | Sales orders, AP, AR, HR and document management | Sales orders and AP invoices |
| Typical setup | Implemented as part of an ECM deployment | Typically live in under a day |
| Pricing | By quote | Published, starting at £1/month plus £0.15 per order line |
| Kinetic deployment | See Epicor for current deployment options | Cloud and on-prem |
When Epicor ECM is the better choice
Choose ECM if you want a document management platform across the business, not just order entry. If you plan to run AP, AR and HR workflows and archive documents in one place, ECM covers far more ground than lowki.ai does. It's also the right choice if you want validation rules managed inside the automation workflow itself, or if you'd rather buy everything from Epicor and your partner.
When lowki.ai is the better choice
Choose lowki.ai if your problem is specifically order entry, AP, or both, and you don't need a document platform to solve it. It suits you if your customers send orders in every format imaginable and you don't want to set up and maintain capture for each one, and if you want to be live in days, not months. It also suits you if you want to see the price before you talk to anyone.
Can you use both?
Yes. lowki.ai links every order back to its source email and attachments, so order documents stay archived and one click away from Kinetic. It isn't a full document management platform, though, and ECM users can still use lowki.ai for order entry or AP. If you already own ECM and SOA is working for you, keep it.
See how lowki.ai builds on Kinetic rather than beside it.
Frequently asked questions
Is lowki.ai an alternative to Epicor ECM?
Only for order entry and AP. ECM is a wider document management and workflow platform. lowki.ai doesn't try to be one.
Does lowki.ai need any extra Epicor licences?
No extra licence to buy. lowki.ai connects through Kinetic's REST API using a free licence that is held only for the duration of each transaction.
How accurate is it?
At Thomas Dudley Plumbing Products, lowki.ai matches the customer correctly 98% of the time, the ship-to address 97% and the PO number 95%, across 56,000+ orders. We count any field a person changes after posting as an error, even when the change was unrelated.
Does lowki.ai post orders automatically?
lowki.ai creates the order in Kinetic and flags anything it's unsure of for your team to check. Whether a new order waits for review depends on your Kinetic settings. We recommend holding new orders with a BPM in your own Kinetic work process, so every order is reviewed before it's processed.
See it on your own orders
Send us a handful of real orders and we'll show you what lowki.ai does with them.
Book a demoComparison based on Epicor's publicly available information as of October 2026. Epicor, Kinetic, ECM and IDC are trademarks of Epicor Software Corporation. lowki.ai is not affiliated with or endorsed by Epicor. If anything here about Epicor's products is out of date, tell us and we'll correct it.
