Is Epicor ERP Right for Your Oil and Gas Business?

It’s no secret that the oil and gas industry can often be a volatile one. From fast-changing regulations to fluctuations in international markets, oil and gas businesses need enterprise software that is flexible, efficient and amenable to a changing landscape of regulations. In the face of these challenges, oil and gas producers must streamline processes, prioritize company flexibility and target every single area of waste.

An ERP system like Epicor is the ideal platform for oil and gas businesses to keep competitive because it fosters transparency throughout an organization. Leaders in every area can access an accurate, real-time source of information on company processes and results and then use that data to drive decisions and allocate resources efficiently. However, not every ERP platform can meet the challenges that oil and gas companies often face. Here are four considerations your organization needs to make before selecting an ERP.

1. Localization for Financial Accounting

Companies in the energy sector overlap operations internationally and exchange services with an array of currencies. That’s why your oil and gas ERP will require a well-developed financial suite capable of handling a range of legal entities for each geographic area. Once implemented and aligned with your business practices, it must also be configured to docket, post and audit multilingual content for complete financial compliance in separate regulatory environments. Providing a complete cost structure that includes direct and overhead costs for each job in multiple languages will allow your energy business to control a global supply chain much more securely.

Epicor ERP includes global engines designed to manage international fiscal and compliance requirements. Its unique Country Specific Functionality (CSF) supports global, regional and local accounting and reporting standards, such as IFRS and Generally Accepted Accounting Principals (GAAP). It also helps you manage multiple currencies by tracking foreign exchange rate tables and automating buying and selling in unlimited currencies. Epicor gives you the flexibility to track fiscal performance across multiple locations and manage complex accounting processes.

2. Asset Management in Real Time

Energy companies utilize a wide range of machines, vehicles, people and other critical assets in their operations. Given the breadth of such a portfolio, oil and gas leaders need their ERP to be able to effectively manage these assets in real time. Sensors built into critical machines and utilities need to have their information captured and audited inside the ERP system, then presented in an actionable way.

For instance, if the energy company is required to perform regular maintenance at multiple sites for compliance purposes, project managers can look to dashboards to see geographic location, machine use and the remainder of useful life of an asset to ensure deliverables are completed and assets remain fully functional. Essentially, your ERP must be able to provide a high degree of control over team members for quality control purposes and resource planning.

Epicor leverages sophisticated technology to give users a real-time view of asset performance. The Advanced MES module tracks your equipment from start to finish, monitoring downtime, temperatures and more. With 24/7 visibility, you can get to the root of problems immediately. Additionally, IoT technology provides automatic alerts of machine status and health to help you schedule maintenance and avoid unplanned downtime.

3. Agile Quality Control

Any oil and gas ERP should include a sophisticated engineering utility infused with advanced Total Quality Management (TQM) functionality. Large scale projects require energy companies to own the ability to provide a solution for ETO, CTO, MTO and MTS cases—all within a single ERP instance. The goal for these should be to deploy large scale situations and track projects, phases, progress billing, engineering time, sales time and other processes from start to finish. Energy companies will need to adopt an ERP instance that provides stringent quality control at each stage of the process.

Epicor includes one of the most robust quality management modules in the ERP market. With full traceability, you gain instant notifications of malfunctions and any other quality issue to help you attack problems immediately. Complete audit trails and and documentation simplify compliance, so you can avoid fines. Epicor’s real-time visibility, automated workflows and comprehensive tracking are designed to provide complete quality control without sacrificing your efficiency.

4. Integration

It’s more vital than ever that oil and gas companies adopt a software integration platform to sync data across the separate instances of their enterprise software architecture. This allows users to share and review data from a single source in real time. This type of transparency will allow your business to see a 360-degree, real-time view of operational costs at every business level. That data can then drive decisions and forecast demand for more efficient processes. For example, sales leaders can create demand forecasts inside their CRM system, which then instantly mirrors that information inside your ERP to help engineering managers. Those managers can then ready capacity across multiple locations—all from within one software suite!

Wrap Up

Oil and gas companies need to seek an ERP system that can be implemented around sophisticated business processes and international standards. It should have the capability to be integrated with other systems to streamline key information to project teams for planning and visibility of work in progress. Epicor ERP includes advanced tracking capabilities, IoT and MES features, global financial management and more to support the oil and gas industry.

Are you an oil and gas company looking to implement sophisticated ERP software like Epicor? When you operate in a complex, ever-changing market like the energy sector, your ERP will need to be aligned perfectly to your goals and requirements. The experts at Datix have over 20 years of experience helping businesses implement Epicor ERP and have earned the status of Epicor Gold Partner. Our certified consultants can tailor the solution to your exact needs. We also designed Unity, a pre-built integration platform designed to connect Epicor with front-office software.

Get in touch with us today, and we can start working together to implement the ideal ERP solution for your business!