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Reasons Your Business Should Upgrade to Epicor 10 ERP

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BREAKDOWN:

UPGRADING EPICOR ERP

This white paper is an ideal resource for businesses currently running legacy versions of Epicor—Epicor 9, Enterprise, Vantage etc.—and are thinking about going through the process of upgrading. Although the upgrade process can look very different depending on what system you’re currently working on, this white paper will help you learn what kind of software you’ll be getting with Epicor 10. Even if you’re not currently using an ERP system and looking to implement for the first time, you should expect to find a thorough overview of the platform itself and what it can do for your business. Inside you’ll find:

A rundown of some of the most prominent and impressive features in the latest Epicor, including the Product Configurator, Engineering Module, Production Scheduling, and Social Collaboration features.

An examination of the benefits of hosting Epicor in the cloud, which Epicor 10 is uniquely primed to do.

An assessment of the kinds of businesses and businesses processes that Epicor’s latest modules and features are best suited to.

Contents

Adaptive ERP…..pg. 4 Configurator…..pg. 6 Scheduling…..pg. 8 Engineering…..pg. 9

Social Collaboration Tools….. pg. 10 Overview & Next Steps….. pg. 11

About Datix Premier Epicor

ERP Consultants

Datix is a St. Louis based software solutions provider, focused on bringing value to clients through business advisory, process improvement and implementation services for enterprise software practices to maximize productivity, efficiency and profitability. Datix helps clients best utilize software to make better decisions.

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Introduction Whether you’ve already been using legacy ERP software, a platform from another vendor, or have been using various small applications in your small business to function as a make-shift software suite, Epicor 10 will be a totally different experience for your business. When creating the latest version of their flagship ERP product, Epicor invested a significant amount of money in pushing the system to new frontiers. The main focus in that change was on both speed and simplification—both in the user experience and the way the system is structured. Through distilling modules and bringing together similar operations, the latest version of Epicor is a huge upgrade in terms of operation speed. That speed transfers to every part of the software—from day-to-day operations right through to upgrades. For example, order processing that might have taken hours before may now take minutes. One of the most significant changes when it comes to Epicor 10 is a total move to the Microsoft SQL server. This change not only helps with the aforementioned application speed, it also allows the software to focus on mobility and make it more amenable to an enterprise software market that is demanding more and more options when it comes to hosting locations and possible customizations. Amenable SQL language means developers will have a much easier time constructing the software to fir their business, and it also means that Epicor 10 can be easily hosted in the cloud, an increasingly popular choice for businesses implementing ERP. For the modern enterprise-whether you are working in manufacturing, distribution or something else–flexible and agile ERP software is becoming a necessity. In our first section, we’ll cover just how flexible Epicor 10 is.

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Upgrade to Flexible ERP The Effects of Legacy ERP When it comes to looking for a software upgrade, there seems to be a common tipping point for businesses that are running legacy ERP. This is usually the stage at which a business reaches a critical level of handcuffing and roadblocks that prevent the company from effectively growing, generating new sales, filling orders, etc. When it comes to legacy ERP, this may be because the software is just not capable of supporting processes and machinery that was introduced after the system was written, or it has been overloaded with years of data. Eventually, legacy ERP users find that they are spending more money patching up the software and putting out fires—when ERP is supposed to save them money. Because the ERP systems of years past were traditionally structured through heavy customizations for each business, the large number of customizations begin to become burdens on your IT team, and they simply cannot keep up with the rapidly evolving needs of your modern enterprise. A good number of companies running legacy ERP systems believe they are totally fine, right up until the moment something changes and they aren’t fine anymore. Don’t restrict your business with rigid software not built for a modern organization. The sooner you move towards flexible ERP, the better.

The Advantages of Adaptive Epicor

The ERP of the future isn’t excessively complex or loaded with pointless bells and whistles that most companies would never use. The slow, non-intuitive legacy ERP software of old is out the door on the modern ERP market. You should make that true for your own company, too. Upgrading to Epicor 10 will give your business the kind of agile, adaptive ERP software that will allow them to grow the business, try new ideas and cut out pointless waste at all areas of the manufacturing process. Here are just a few reasons why upgrading to Epicor 10 will make your business more capable in the long run.

Flexible Hosting: No one business looks the same as the next. In today’s manufacturing world, that statement is becoming truer than ever. Even if two companies are producing the exact same product, they could be wildly different in size, operations, production styles or distribution processes. In order to satisfy a volatile market of increasingly choosy customers, related businesses may need to host their ERP in different ways and in different locations. Epicor gives companies the option of on-site or cloud hosting, depending on whatever would best fit your unique needs. The newest version of Epicor’s ERP system can also be deployed as a singular instance for just one manufacturing facility, or installed as a group of related, and communicative, platforms in order to connect a group of shop floors if you operate across borders and/or in multiple facilities.

Business Process Management: The powerful and all-new Epicor 10 business process management (BPM) module allows businesses the power to replace default service or

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operational behavior with managed code or specific, customized rules. This means that you can incorporate a whole host of different services into a rules-based workflow, and then decide exactly how and when those workflows will run. Along with user-defined artifacts that can be implemented to require approval for a process or restrict actions to certain production lines, the BPM module is designed to build and change complex business processes quickly. If you need to rush through a new process or make a specific, one-time change, to an operation to accommodate an order it won’t require developmental work for the entire IT team. For a modern enterprise in markets influenced by rapidly changing customer needs and demand trends, this kind of agility is invaluable.

Intuitive Interfaces: Companies, particularly small and growing businesses, just don’t have the time or manpower to train employees in every detail of a finicky piece of software. New employees need to be able to get the hang of the operations and leverage the power of ERP quickly. This is possible with an Epicor upgrade and the intuitive user interfaces that the company invested significant money in refining. Dashboards can be built and updated automatically, and are viewable on mobile devices. In addition, users can create their own personal ‘My ERP’ dashboard that contains the charts and actions that are most relevant to their daily tasks, and then deploy those dashboards to mobile devices instantly. Every process they have a hand in will be at their fingertips as soon as they log on—no need to go searching through tabs and drop-down menus, or to wait for Epicor to enable mobile functionality. Moreover, the Epicor 10 ERP client comes with a development environment that allows for customization to enrich your employees’ user experiences by moving, adding or dropping certain controls that aren’t relevant to your production processes and might confuse new users.

Non-Invasive Customization: Any necessary customizations in Epicor 10 are stored as meta-data, which means that they never touch or alter the true ‘base code’ of the system. No need to worry about an errant development test permanently altering the state of your valuable software. If you operate in several different facilities with multiple Epicor instances you won’t have to go through and code the new changes separately. Your customized metadata is rapidly deployed to all your different ERP instances whenever you approve it, but it can just as easily be reworked if your development team finds a better solution, or your processes need to change—all without affecting the core of the ERP. With E10, your ERP will be much more amenable to customization and thus much more agile. As your business evolves, your IT team won’t need to take time to delve into previously customized source code, trying to remember what it was before and then changing it again for the new processes. Instead, you’ll be uniquely primed to grow and adapt to your customers as soon as their needs change.

Give your company agile, adaptive ERP that will

encourage new growth.

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The Epicor 10 Configurator

The Epicor ERP configurator may only come into play for certain types of businesses, particularly manufacturers that produce complex offerings, or have a single baseline ‘product blueprint’ that they use to manufacture several different products. However, if the configurator module is relevant to your business operations, prepare to be impressed—it’s one of the most powerful updates to the system. The Epicor ERP configurator boasts an ability to drill down even further into every part being made. Additionally, the supply chain being run within your organization, and will provide your production managers with unprecedented control over your processes. Here just a few of the benefits the latest configurator can provide:

Exact Order Manipulation: When you map your Epicor ERP configurator to do so, it can manipulate an order at every level: quote, sales or job. On the quote level, you will be able to configure a part, determine total costs of the order and estimate a potential lead-time. At the sales level, simple changes can be made to the specific part—color, amount, graphics, etc.—and then the order reconfigured once again. Users can employ the configurator at the job level to add specific components or materials to an order. Thus, the Epicor ERP configurator will automate important and often complex documents and processes like bill of materials, smart part numbers and part manufacturing records. This kind of control will be invaluable for businesses with a huge catalog of different parts and products that may be routinely switched out and moved around on customer orders. Thus every single quote, order and client must be carefully tracked and synced throughout a software system.

Enterprise Transparency: As users enter information into the system, those changes will be directly pulled into the product Bill of Material. This will be translated to the records of the part or product across all systems, modules and lines on your shop floor. Front and back end users will be able to see an exacting lead-time for that quote. The latest Epicor ERP configurator incites coalition and transparency between all hierarchies and departments in your business. Every employee will contribute to the pool of information and take value from it, and therefore will be effective at working towards the needs of your clients. If your market or vertical is becoming more crowded with competition, this newfound collaboration between all your team members can allow you to gain that step up. You’ll be able to complete orders faster, fulfill client’s wishes (or changes) more efficiently, and give potential and current customers the most accurate production and delivery times. The power of enterprise transparency also comes into play when it comes to the mobility of your business. Information can be viewed and changed from anywhere with access to the internet – the shop floor, a desktop or the mobile phone of a sales person on a customer visit.

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This kind of flexibility and total business synergy will give your company the leverage it needs to grow and cut costs that may be holding you back.

Will Your Business Need the Epicor 10

Configurator?

Yes, the Epicor ERP Configurator is powerful and exciting, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s vital for every single type of business. Because of its robust tracking functionality, the Epicor ERP configurator is usually ideal for manufacturing (automotive, defense, discrete etc.) and distribution industries. These are all verticals that require precious knowledge of a large amount of moving parts that may be spread out over several facilities, borders or even continents.

The Epicor ERP configurator will also help businesses navigate potential rough patches with suppliers. For example, if your supplier is cited for nonconformance, you will be burdened with a shortage as the next link in the supply chain. Too often this kind of incident can leave a business scrambling and struggling to fulfill important orders and keep clients happy. However, with the Epicor ERP configurator, your production team can quickly alter a quote at the job level with a like material instance at the same level of significance.

The Epicor ERP configurator is just another impressive asset that can be added to long a list of features that should convince businesses that they need to consider an Epicor upgrade. From the impressive engineering functionality, to its modern mobility and scheduling capability, Epicor could be just the right ERP for your growing business. Another one of those impressively powerful features: the production scheduling module.

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Production Scheduling

No matter what area of business you’re in, be it manufacturing, services or distribution, the likelihood is that you’ll be using your ERP for process planning and scheduling. It’s a key component when it comes to any ERP strategy. And, as part of Epicor’s focus on creating adaptive software that can accommodate any business’ unique needs, Epicor 10 prides itself on its new advanced materials planning module that allows for complex scheduling functions without asking for huge customization or technical development. You can improve lead response time with make-to-order and engineer-to-order capabilities.

An upgrade to Epicor 10 can present a whole new world of production scheduling capability. Businesses that operate in markets with a high degree of seasonality and changeability, or are producing products for various private label brands, will find this kind of nuanced scheduling control crucial. What’s more, Epicor 10 includes the capability for cloud scheduling—storing your processes and production plans online and in the cloud. If you do upgrade to Epicor 10 and choose to take advantage of this feature, you will be shoring up the safety of your operations in the event of a technical breakdown or a natural disaster at one or more of your manufacturing locations. Shutdowns can be particularly deadly for mid-market businesses that only run one or a few different sites—backing up production lines across the board and setting your business back weeks or months for every lost hour of manufacturing time. However, with cloud-based Epicor 10, a production manager can still access your ERP suite (even on mobile devices), and retool your machines in another location or rebuild your workflow to accommodate the shutdown and keep your business afloat during the crisis. Current Epicor 10 users have noted the software’s unique ability to allow users to adapt to changing situations quickly and deftly—an invaluable quality when it comes to the often rapidly changing world of manufacturing and distribution. Combine the software’s unique propensity for agile production scheduling with the upgraded engineering module and you’ve got a recipe for success!

An upgrade to Epicor 10 can present a whole new

world of production scheduling capability

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The Engineering Module

Epicor 10 boasts one of the most robust engineering suites of ERP software currently on the market. It does this primarily through the module’s ability to blend processes between your front and back offices, connecting sales ordering work flows with manufacturing operations. Because it creates a watertight flow down the entire engineering process of a part, Epicor 10 strengthens collaboration and data sharing inside your entire organization. This means information like orders, parts and clients will flow effortlessly between all modules of the enterprise application. Your sales people won’t have to worry about nagging a busy production manager about where a certain part is in the production cycle, or whether there will be a line making a certain product soon. With precision, any one of your team members that can access ordering and production data can retrieve a 360-degree view of a part, right through from its sales order to every piece of manufacturing machinery it has passed through and the piece’s quality assessment data. Now, instead of just lumping all the back-office workload onto your production team, your entire business will be involved in the manufacturing process.

Empower Every Employee with Epicor 10

With the Epicor 10 engineering module, your sales team can essentially become engineers as well. At the click of a few buttons, they can retrieve part and material information and start building contracts with clients. As soon as a sales person receives a request for a quote from a supplier or distributor, they can use the CRM (whether inside Epicor, or from a separate, yet integrated, instance) they create a quote notifying the engineering suite based on a custom BPM map. Then, the Epicor 10 software will create a BOM instantly, breaking down overhead and direct costs associated with the order. Your sales person will also be notified of price breaks or inherent customer discounts within the order, and will be fully prepped to get the contract through and the order quickly entered in the system and sent to the shop floor. You’ll be significantly cutting down on lead time, when the Epicor 10 work flows are mapped to exploit the application’s blazing efficiency.

This quality of information and ability for top-to-bottom engineering tracking will be invaluable for a manufacturer—yet many businesses don’t know that they can achieve it. That’s partly because no other manufacturing application contains such thorough capability as Epicor 10 Engineering’s function. Moreover, by automating the entire workflow, Epicor 10 greatly mitigates the risk of errors or false entries. Because a part is tracked all the way through the system, you won’t have points of corruption or lost information. The data all stored in one single SQL database. Users can also build commands into their system that

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requires employees to double check their entry or to go over a process before submission as another barrier to engineering error. If it’s a particularly large order, then the software architect can easily prompt commands that ask the employee ‘Are You Sure?’, or can ask them to re-enter their command to ensure accuracy. With the power of an Epicor 10 engineering module in your hand, you’ll not only be able to free up the time spent bridging the gap between sales and manufacturing, you also spend less time researching and fixing errors in your system.

Social Collaboration Tools

The purpose of ERP software is to bring together your organizational processes and to become a single source of truth for your company data. Thus, it seems like second nature that ERP should also become a uniting force for your business—and that is totally possible when you take advantage of the advanced social collaboration tools in the latest version of Epicor. It can be easy to ignore emails, or to have important messages get lost during a busy week. Most of the time, employees will work back through their inbox and catch everything. However, when those missed emails are time-sensitive pertinent to an important client, or a production issue on a certain line, the gaps can manifest into much larger company issues—and lost customers.

A tool like Epicor Social Enterprise (ESE) in Epicor 10 provides just the kind of ERP collaboration platform that a business can leverage for quicker communication and thus more efficient processes. Using already commonly known social concepts like hashtags, sharing, mentions, and instant notifications, the ERP social collaboration tool can provide simple and already understandable ways for employees to interact with the software and each other. Here are just some of the ways ERP social collaboration can help your organization.

Users can track a business object throughout its production lifestyle, notifying a production manager if perhaps a change needs to be made for a certain customer, or

Epicor 10 will unite your whole business with the help of powerful social

collaboration tools.

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tag an order that needs to be expedited. If there are multiple front and back office employees involved on an order, the social tool will allow them to communicate quickly and efficiently—without bugging other users not involved in that specific process.

Workflows or transactions that are alike can be tagged together, and production managers responsible for an order or product can then easily access all necessary information and updates pertaining to that tag.

Any updates or movement in the product lifecycle can then be shared amongst your team members, partners or even to clients awaiting orders. This can be a great way to keep clients involved in the progress of their order, notify them of a possible delay, or to acknowledge an employee’s unique contributions to a customer’s satisfaction.

With the help of cloud-based technology, this social interaction and collaboration can happen no matter where your employees are. Users can access the ERP platform on a tablet or their mobile device and share updates on an off-site client meeting. Because the social tools are embedded within the enterprise suite, they won’t have to use multiple apps just to get all their work done, communicate progress on a workflow or send someone a crucial message.

Logging all your production processes will allow your business the tools it needs to implement lean manufacturing principles. You’ll be able to better understand and attack areas of excess waste—especially if you encourage employees to contribute their ideas on possible areas for improvement. It can be hard to notice wasteful processes from a high-level. Allowing your employees to communicate their individual perspectives will give your business the ground-up approach to begin paring down waste on your manufacturing process.

By intertwining the powerful features of the latest Epicor ERP with social collaboration tools, you can ensure that every employee inside your business is on top of what’s going on and how their individual work is contributing to your business’ end product. This strong collaboration also means that you’ll be better prepared to evolve and meet changing customer demands and requirements. Just as ERP is a powerful single source of truth for all of your company data, the software’s social collaboration tools can crowd-source the knowledge of your employees into a powerful pool to solve problems and keep pushing your company forward. The tools truly represent the cherry on top of the new features and functionality provided in Epicor 10 and allows all of your company’s employees to thrive with them.

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Conclusion Throughout this white paper, we’ve covered a whole host of different features that make Epicor 10 an attractive option for a business considering an upgrade, or someone who is looking to implement their first ERP system. With the help of functions like the production scheduling module, an upgraded product configurator and ramped-up engineering capability, the system is perfect for a manufacturer who is looking for more technical firepower to backup their operations or is looking eliminate waste. Moreover, the amenable SQL language of this Epicor version makes it one of the most agile ERP options available on the current market. Whether you have unique processes that need specific software customizations, or are looking for cloud software that is much more affordable and easier for small businesses to host, the SQL-based Epicor 10 can do it. The latest version of Epicor is deisgned with the modern businesses in mind: it is intuitive, quick-running and easier to customize than ever. Instead of spending time and money worrying over your enterprise software and trying to patch holes and fix errors, wouldn’t you rather that system do what you built it to do—actually support your processes? The decision to upgrade your software should be even more pertinent if you’re running legacy Epicor ERP software. Even if you think that the system is currently doing alright, there will be a time when running that old software will become untenable and you’ll have frustrated employees, untrustworthy data and a lack of faith in the way your business operates. Don’t let your businesses experience that tipping point. Take the time to go over your business; its machinery, employees, processes and everything in between. Even if your company won’t need to take advantage of every single module and functionality we’ve covered in this white paper, just experiencing the extreme jump in processing speeds and the all-new intuitive interfaces should be motivation enough for an Epicor upgrade. Quite simply, Epicor 10 can arm your business with the agile tools it needs to stay competitive in the modern market of discerning customers and rapdily increasing choice. Do you have any more questions about Epicor 10 that this white paper didn’t cover? Get in touch with us over here at Datix! Our team has helped many businesses in a host of different industries implement the software. We can answer any and all questions you might have about the software itself or the upgrading process.

Arm yourself with Epicor 10’s agile business tools

and stay competitive in the modernizing market.