3 Reasons To Invest In Epicor ERP 10

As a leading and experienced certified Epicor partner, our clients look to our experts to help them fit powerful software — Epicor ERP 10 — to their desired business practices. Some of the desired capabilities are straight forward and out of the box, but others that are in high demand are unfortunately unexplored — or not being achieved — by many.

Running Epicor ERP 10 to its full potential takes a combined understanding of industry best practices, implementation methodology, and the flexibility of the system to the nth degree. It may seem intuitive — but once implemented based on these principles — a company should have every opportunity to improve business processes and generate software ROI like never before. This has been especially true for one St. Louis, MO based company.

For those exploring the idea of implementing or upgrading to Epicor ERP 10, here are the top 3 things our consultants believe that  Epicor ERP 10 is better at than any other ERP on the market today…

1.) Scheduling

Whether you’re a manufacturer, or distributor, services provider, or a combination of all of these (because rarely is a business a single source of anything these days), a fundamental requirement of your business model is flexible planning and scheduling. Epicor ERP 10 is largely known for their advanced materials planning suite. It enables day to day planning for make-to-order or engineer-to-order business users whom desire to improve lead time. This is a purposeful utility for those companies whom operate in markets with high volatility, seasonality, or are a source of capacity for private label products.

Additionally, when expertly configured, companies needing multi-site access from a dashboard can so with ease. Epicor ERP 10 enables business users to hand a combination of scheduling obligations remotely from a single area of the system. The easy to use function provides visual tools that focus on resource optimization, capability based scheduling, material and secondary resource availability, and change management.

Another reason Epicor ERP 10 leads the pack in scheduling is their ability to allow managers access to this information in the cloud. While Epicor does offer the same agile solution on-premises; scheduling is more effective when accessed in the cloud. Why? Two primary reasons: compliance and disaster recovery. Should your company run into a crippling compliance issue at one or more locations — which largely occurs in the mid market — or a natural disaster crisis strikes, a production manager can reconfigure machine tooling criteria in another location in only a matter of minutes. Current users, and expert consultants have adopted Epicor as a top solution for this reason as it allows the company to continue operations, schedule available materials and still generate a profit.

2.) Engineering

For experts in manufacturing, Epicor’s engineering function is one the most all-encompassing on the market today. If the build out is precise, anyone with access to ordering and production data can retrieve a 360 view of a part — all from a single quote. For many, that’s unheard of, why?

Many ERP publishers see sales ordering and engineering as separate units. In Epicor ERP 10, they are collaborative in a single instance. Today’s most sought after BPMs suggest this type of work flow; as it significantly reduces error and improves lead time. For example, Sales receives a request for quote (RFQ) from a supplier or distributor. From inside the CRM — whether inside Epicor, or from a separate integrated instance to Epicor — Sales then creates a quote which notifies the engineering suite based on a custom BPM map. The software then creates a BOM instantly and provides a list of direct and overhead costs associated with each the entire order. It also displays price breaks, discounts, ect. to Sales.

Why is this solution so effective? The Sales team can essentially be an engineer. Non-technical users can access part and material information and devise contracts within a matter of minutes. Lead time? Virtually nonexistent when the work flows are mapped to exploit these prolific parts of the suite. Before, sales would have to travel to engineering to place an order. Most likely those orders are viewed in an Excel sheet — or worse — on paper. Because Sales is often paid on incentive, and engineering is not, lead time is many times slowed. Epicor has provided an agile solution for that, and this is why their engineering is one of their most sought after functions among users.

3.) The Configurator

Ah, the almighty configurator. This component of Epicor ERP 10 is only used by certain companies. It requires highly technical throughput and expert business process modeling ingenuity. In some ways, it resembles the engineering function, but rolls out a much more robust drill down capability. When the configurator is mapped to do so, it can manipulate an order at the quote, sales and job level. At the quote level, user are enabled to configure a part, materialize complete costs of the order and view potential lead time. At the sales level, users can create simple changes — color, amount, graphic, ect. — and reconfigure the order once again. The configurator once again enables both front and back office users to observe lead time for that quote. At the job level, the configurator can be again purposeful as it allows the users to add on specific components or materials to an order.

It is essential for food, automotive or distribution industries whom may have hit a rough patch with a supplier. Often times when suppliers are cited for nonconformance, the next one in the supply chain is burdened with unavailable inventory. The configurator at the job level enables manufacturer, or distributor, to complete the quote with a like material instance at the same level of significance.

So why is the configurator so key in modern businesses? It sets an expectation for the client. More importantly, it drives a transparency coalition between hierarchies and departments so everyone works to accommodate the end-user, the client. As the market continues to ramp up, competitors will take advantage of this functionality to stay ahead of a volatile curve.

Datix specializes in business process modeling. This is the core of our business, and what sets us apart. If your business is relying on inefficient business practices, give us a call.