Epicor Prophet 21 Private AI Layer Blueprint Generator
This generator creates a private AI architecture plan for Epicor Prophet 21 on premises. It is aimed at distributors who want counter and purchasing teams to ask questions in plain language without moving data outside the company.
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Epicor Prophet 21 Private AI Layer Blueprint Generator
Private AI Layer Architecture Plan: Epicor Prophet 21
Prepared for: Summit Industrial Supply System: Epicor Prophet 21 Prophet 21 current release on SQL Server 2016 Hosting: On-prem server Named users: 160 across 6 site(s) Target go-live: 2027-01-15
1. Context and goals
This plan describes a private AI layer over Prophet 21 running on premises with SQL Server. The assistant serves counter sales, purchasing and branch managers, runs on company-owned infrastructure and does not send prompts or data to an external AI service.
Main use cases: Item availability by location Open orders and backorders for a customer Last price paid and customer order history Open purchase orders and vendor lateness
Data that must stay on site: Cost and margin data Customer contract pricing Vendor agreements and rebates
GPU position: One 24 GB GPU.
2. Components
| Component | Design for Summit Industrial Supply | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Data access path | Read-only SQL Server reporting copy with assistant views over order, item, location, customer and purchasing tables; Epicor-provided API layers for pricing and transactions | Call the application for price and anything that depends on its rules; do not recompute from tables. |
| Retrieval index | Local vector store over price sheets, supplier catalogues, contracts, spec sheets and order PDFs with branch and sensitivity tags | Every chunk carries source, site and access tags; untagged content is excluded. |
| Model serving | Open-weight model on vLLM or Ollama, sized for 160 named users on One 24 GB GPU | Model, quantisation and version recorded in the audit log. |
| Tool server | Tool server with named actions such as check_item_availability and list_open_orders_for_customer, row-capped and typed | Parameterised read actions only; row caps and column allow lists. |
| Identity and permissions | Directory login mapped to P21 users, roles, companies and locations; cost and margin treated as a restricted class | Unknown users and unmapped content default to no access. |
| Audit | Append-only log of user, prompt, tool call, parameters, row counts and answer | Retained per Summit Industrial Supply records policy; reviewed at each rollout phase. |
3. Security controls mapped to your inputs
| Control | Implementation | Driven by |
|---|---|---|
| Data residency | Replica, index and model all inside the On-prem server boundary; no outbound API calls at run time | Data that must never leave the site |
| Least privilege | Read-only SQL login on the reporting copy; API user limited to the calls the tool server needs | System version and role model |
| Network isolation | Dedicated segment for model and tool servers; only the tool server reaches the data source | Hosting |
| Prompt injection defence | Model receives bounded tool results only; no direct database or file access | Use cases |
| Write-back | Draft quotes and purchase orders only in phase 3, through the supported transaction layer under the approving user's identity | Phase 3 scope |
4. Rollout plan
| Phase | Scope | Exit criteria |
|---|---|---|
| 1: Read-only (weeks 1-6) | Approved read actions and document Q&A for a pilot group at one site | Accuracy review of sampled answers; no permission leaks in adversarial tests |
| 2: Drafts (weeks 7-12) | Summaries, reports and draft documents saved for human completion | Users edit rather than rewrite; audit log reviewed by IT and data owners |
| 3: Approved actions (week 13 onward) | Narrow, reversible transactions via supported interfaces after explicit approval | Rollback tested per action type; owner sign-off per action |
5. Open questions for IT
Which P21 version is installed and which API modules are licensed? Can a readable reporting copy be added, and how fresh must stock data be? Which roles may see cost and margin? How are customer-specific prices and contracts calculated, and can the application be called for them? Where do price sheets and supplier catalogues live? Which branches join the pilot first?
Approvals
Starting point for discussion, not a design guarantee. Table and column names, and available APIs, vary by Prophet 21 version; verify against your data dictionary and Epicor documentation.
Epicor Prophet 21 architecture review
Optional: have an engineer review your generated blueprint against your environment and flag gaps before you buy hardware.
Optional. The tool and every export work without this. No spam.
How to use it
Choose your P21 release, SQL Server version, hosting model, user and branch counts, and the GPU position. Write the use cases as the exact questions counter and purchasing staff ask, and list data that must stay restricted, such as cost, margin and contract pricing. Export the plan to PDF or Word.
- Name the roles allowed to see cost
- State how fresh stock answers must be
- Include price sheets and catalogues in scope
- Start with one or two branches
What the plan contains
Context, a component table (SQL views and APIs, retrieval index, model serving, tool server, identity and audit), security controls tied to your inputs, a three-phase rollout, open questions for IT, and an approvals block.
Price and cost are special
Prophet 21 pricing depends on layered rules, contracts and customer-specific price pages, so recomputing price from raw tables gives wrong answers. The plan routes price questions through the application and treats cost and margin as a restricted class, hidden by default.
- Call the application for price
- Show data freshness on stock answers
- Test denied cases for cost and margin
Common mistakes
Typical mistakes are giving a broad SQL login to the chat layer, treating a nightly copy as live stock, and exposing margin to counter staff. The plan makes each an explicit control.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this plan specific to Prophet 21?
Yes in the data and permission parts: SQL Server tables, Epicor API layers, roles and locations, and the pricing caveat. Model serving and audit follow the same pattern as other on-prem ERPs.
Can the assistant quote prices?
Only by calling the application's pricing logic, or by marking the figure as indicative. Recomputing price from tables ignores contracts and rules and will often be wrong.
What is the best first pilot?
Counter sales and purchasing at one or two branches, using availability, open orders and last price paid. These are frequent, bounded and easy to check against P21 screens.
Can it run without internet access?
Yes. Choose air-gapped hosting and models, containers and packages are staged once through a controlled transfer. No run-time call to an external service is needed.
If you would like an engineer to review the plan against your P21 setup or build it on your servers, Netray can help. The generator is free without contact.
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- How to add AI agents to Epicor Prophet 21How to add AI agents to Epicor Prophet 21: a tool layer over the P21 APIs and SQL Server views, distribution workflows, human approval and on-prem hosting.
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