In a move that I can only call “win-win, ” Epicor’s Retail Solutions Business is being spun off into a separate entity from its parent, Epicor Software Corporation. Overall, it’s hard to find anything to complain about in this deal.

At last year’s user group conference in Las Vegas (Insight 2014), the only part of the overarching presentations that seemed forced were the company’s attempts to marry Epicor’s financial systems with the Epicor Retail Solution. As partner Nikki Baird is fond of saying “One of these is not like the others. ” I can’t think of a single retail company of consequence using Epicor financials. There were no synergies there at all.

In the year that followed the company built out its retail portfolio nicely with the purchase of both Quantisense and ShopVisible. Now Noel Goggin will become the head of the new as yet unnamed company (creatively and temporarily named ‘SpinCo’). Mr. Goggin has also brought in some real talent to help market and manage the company.

The spin-off is being funded by $2.1 billion in debt: a refinance of an existing $1.3 billion in obligations, a refinance of $400 million in notes held by Apax, and a spiff of a dividend distribution to shareholders. The transaction is expected to close in June.

The only minor niggle in my mind is yet another re-name of the company and its assets. It’s hard to keep track of all the companies that have been rolled up to become SpinCo. The list is long. There was NSB (which once was STS), CRS, MMS, the more recent Quantisense and ShopVisible, and others I am likely forgetting. This creates some real challenges for SpinCo in persuading users that this does not represent a change of direction, but rather a honing of focus. With Insight 2015 just a week away, Mr. Goggin and company should have a captive audience to hear their pitch.

The work doesn’t change – SpinCo still has to complete the rationalization of its varied POS systems, integrate Quantisense and ShopVisible into the core of its solution, and insure that its offerings are scalable and modern enough for any mid-market retailer. We presume technical resources will remain the same, and certainly no one can fault the company’s efforts so far.

We’ve said for a long time that mid-market retailers were sorely in need of dedicated end-to-end solutions providers. Now that segment has several interesting offerings including SpinCo, the Micros-Oracle Retail division, Netsuite and others. The mid-market has historically been both product and technology innovators. After all, fast fashion certainly started as a mid-market play, and has been sucking business away from far-larger retailers like Target and Macy’s.

Technology competition for mid-market retailers’ dollars can only be a healthy thing.

RSR partner Steve Rowen will be attending Insight 2015 in Nashville next week. We’ll look forward to hearing the insights HE brings back on user feedback on the deal.