If the job is one job, emailed purchase orders keyed into a distribution ERP such as Epicor Prophet 21, Eclipse or NetSuite, Conexiom is the narrower and more direct fit. If you run SAP, or you want order entry to sit inside a wider order-to-cash system that also handles credit, cash application and collections, Esker is the stronger candidate.
Both are established vendors that often appear on the same order-entry shortlist, and both work by checking an extracted order against the master data already in your ERP. Neither publishes a metal service center as a customer. For a buyer whose POs read 16 GA G90 × 48 in, 40,000 lbs rather than a part number, that shared gap matters more than most of the differences between them, so this page covers it alongside the differences.
At a glance
What Conexiom does well
Conexiom has been doing one thing for a long time; its site cites more than 15 years of order automation. Orders arrive by email, and Conexiom extracts them from virtually any format, language or length, compares them against your master records, finds and fixes common errors, and pushes the validated order into the ERP. It normalizes units of measure, currency and part numbers along the way. Its help documentation describes a person reviewing the extracted data before approval, with low-confidence documents flagged for review.
The ERP list is the broadest of the two for a North American distributor: Epicor Prophet 21, Eclipse and Kinetic, SAP S/4HANA and ECC, Infor, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle NetSuite and Sage X3, plus what it calls many other popular ERPs. Its published case studies lean toward electrical and industrial distributors, including McNaughton-McKay, Kirby Risk Electrical Supply, Canyon Pipe & Supply and Royal Brass and Hose. It advertises a 30-day average implementation, no custom development and no data migration.
Conexiom also reads vendor acknowledgements and AP invoices. It describes the first as verifying supplier pricing, availability and delivery dates, so for a metals buyer the same tool could check a mill's acknowledgement against your PO.
What Esker does well
Esker's order management is one part of an order-to-cash suite, and that is the main reason to choose it. Orders come in from email, EDI, portals, e-commerce, punchout and mobile in one workflow. AI pulls the data at header and line level and checks products, pricing, quantities and delivery against the ERP before anything posts. Change orders, contract orders, returns and RFQ workflows are listed as supported scenarios, and discrepancies route to the right person with the conversation tracked.
Its SAP story is the stronger of the two: a certified connector built to SAP's Clean Core rules and pre-built integration with SAP ECC and S/4HANA. Esker's Connectivity Suite also lists pre-built integration with Oracle E-Business Suite, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and NetSuite. Named customers include Suntory, NVIDIA and FUCHS. The closest thing to a metal product in its case studies is Stelrad, a UK radiator maker on SAP that reported 64% touchless orders year to date as of October 2022 and a 55-second average order entry time. Esker's headline claims are 92% less manual entry, five times faster processing and three times fewer errors.
Where both stop short for a metal service center
Both products work by matching an order line to something in your master data. That works when the line carries a part number. A steel PO line usually describes the material instead: gauge, coating, width, grade and a weight, often priced per hundredweight. We found no mention on either vendor's pages of parsing attribute-coded lines, converting cwt pricing, or carrying tolerances such as PIW or minimum and maximum coil weight onto the order. Why a steel PO breaks generic AI order entry walks through those three failure points.
Neither names a metals ERP. Conexiom points to many other popular ERPs, and Esker's connector pages are about SAP and Oracle, so ask about INVEX, Eniteo, SSCS or whatever you run, and ask to see an order post rather than a scoping slide. Both also stop at the sales order. Coil matching, slitting plans, work orders and freight stay with your team.
Three orders to test them with
An emailed PDF from an HVAC customer
Four lines of 20 GA G60 galvanized slit to 11.875 in, 30,000 lbs in total at $52.00/cwt, maximum coil weight 8,000 lbs, 20 in ID. The test is whether the line maps to your item code, whether the price extends as 300 cwt, and whether the coil-weight limit is still on the order when it reaches the ERP.
A revision two hours later
The buyer replies to the same thread: drop line 3, push line 4 out a week. Esker classifies change orders as their own scenario. On Conexiom's distributors page we found no description of change-order handling, so put a revision in the demo inbox and watch whether it becomes a second order.
An EDI order and a portal order from the same OEM
Esker captures EDI and portal orders in the same workflow as email. Conexiom's pages describe orders arriving by email. If a meaningful share of your tons arrives by EDI, that difference is worth more than any accuracy claim.
Pricing
| Conexiom | Esker | |
|---|---|---|
| List price | Not published | Not published |
| Published implementation time | 30-day average | Not published |
| Other modules you could add | Vendor acknowledgements, AP invoices | Credit, invoice delivery, payment, cash application, deductions, collections |
Neither vendor publishes a price. Ask both to quote against the same 90 days of real order volume, by channel, and to say what the connector to your ERP costs if it is not already on their list.
Can you use both?
Rarely, for the same orders. They overlap on the core job, and two systems writing sales orders into one ERP is a reconciliation problem. A split can make sense in a company with two ERPs, such as an SAP division on Esker and a Prophet 21 distribution business on Conexiom. For most service centers the realistic pairing is one of them at the order desk and a planning tool behind the ERP for the processing decisions neither touches.
The bottom line
Conexiom is the focused choice for a distributor on Epicor, Infor, NetSuite or Sage that wants email orders keyed faster. Esker fits an SAP shop that wants order entry inside order-to-cash, with EDI and portals in the same queue and change orders handled as a scenario of their own. For a metal service center, run both on a week of your own POs before trusting either straight-through figure.
LineSight's Command Center takes a metals-specific route, reading steel POs and carrying them into slitting plans and work orders, with a person approving before anything enters the ERP; see LineSight vs Conexiom and LineSight vs Esker.
Which to choose
Choose Conexiom if
- You run Prophet 21, Eclipse, Kinetic, NetSuite, Sage X3 or Dynamics 365.
- Most of your orders arrive as email attachments.
- You want a defined product with a 30-day average go-live.
- You also want mill acknowledgements and supplier invoices checked by the same tool.
- You want order entry solved without buying a broader suite.
Choose Esker if
- You run SAP and care about a certified, Clean Core connector.
- Orders arrive through EDI, portals or punchout as well as email.
- Change orders, returns and contract orders are a large share of the work.
- You want order entry tied into credit, cash application and collections.
Sources
- Conexiom, Order automation for distributors, accessed October 16, 2026
- Conexiom case studies index (CaseStudies.com), accessed October 16, 2026
- Conexiom help, Working with scanned and structured purchase orders, accessed October 16, 2026
- Esker, Order Management, accessed October 16, 2026
- Esker, Stelrad customer story, accessed October 16, 2026
- Esker, SAP integration, accessed October 16, 2026
- Esker, Oracle pre-built integrations, accessed October 16, 2026
- LineSight, Command Center, accessed October 16, 2026
- LineSight, Why a Steel PO Breaks Generic AI Order Entry, accessed October 16, 2026