SMB’s Are Adopting ERP Technology – WHY?

 Small to mid–sized businesses (SMBs) face a number of challenges in today’s marketplace.

Under pressure to remain competitive while cutting costs, SMBs adopt ERP systems to:

  1. diversify their business models,
  2. enable descriptive and predictive analytics, and
  3. improve supply chain operations.

Furthermore, SMBs have less tolerance for drawn–out implementation projects and continuous ERP consulting spend to configure and adapt their systems. To address these challenges, ERP vendors invest in industry–specific ERP packages, self–service tooling for extensibility and analytics, and solutions to support HR and Sales. As the footprint of an ERP system within an organisation grows, so too does the potential value and risk. SMBs must consider the hidden costs of an ERP system as part of their evaluation, such as data storage, customisation, training, and maintenance.

Read the full report from Isaac Gould of Nucleus Research here.

Gartner names Epicor ‘Cloud ERP Leader’ for Product-Centric Enterprises

For those seeking cloud solutions to support their manufacturing, distribution, delivery and servicing of goods, Gartner has named Epicor as Cloud ERP LEADER in its 2023 Magic Quadrant.

Epicor’s cloud solutions include purpose-built, industry-specific solution packages for SME manufacturers and distributors, delivered through partners like Aspera Solutions in EMEA.

Recent innovations include enhanced analytics with its GROW business intelligence platform and further extensibility. Future roadmap investments are centered around AI-enabled, end-to-end supply chain data and analytics, including the use of GenAI and sustainability capabilities.

According to Gartner, Epicor’s top strengths are:

  • Strong midsize industry offering for discrete manufacturing and distribution: Nearly all Epicor customers are lower midsize, and it has a strong solution set to handle complex requirements for discrete manufacturing and retail/wholesale distribution. These capabilities include CPQ and advanced analytics.
  • Composable platform: Epicor leverages Microsoft Azure for infrastructure services and is able to provide a variety of services with its Automation Studio and Data Fabric. Services include integration, low-code and full-code development, AI/ML capabilities, and analytics in a variety of geographies for hosting its cloud solution. This may enable a highly composable architecture and approach for midsize customers only found in more expensive and large enterprise-focused vendor platforms.
  • Data as a service: Epicor’s product strategy increasingly focuses on a shift from transactional ERP to a data-driven operational model enabled by AI and business intelligence capabilities. This “data as a service” approach is designed to change how data is shared between trading partners to optimize supply chain processes and minimize disruptions.

Follow this link to download the full report.

Epicor for Manufacturing Delivers 14.2% Higher Revenue & $2.90 Million in Annual Benefits – IDC Dec. 2022

Enhance your Business Value with Epicor Kinetic

3-year ROI of 373% (on average), & investment breakeven within 9 months
 

In September 2022, IDC spoke with manufacturing companies using Epicor Kinetic (Epicor for Manufacturing) to run their operations and businesses. These customers reported that Epicor for manufacturing delivers strong value, enabling more efficient and reliable manufacturing operations, and considerably improving business results.

Interviewed manufacturers attributed gaining the automation, integration and flexibility they require to operate efficiently, flexibly, and robustly to respond to business demand. They linked these gains to operational efficiencies such as streamlined manufacturing floor operations and lower operational costs, as well as improved business results such as higher revenue and improved margins. Taken together, these benefits have allowed interviewed manufacturers to capture significant value through their use of Epicor for Manufacturing, with IDC calculating that they will realise an average three-year ROI of 373% and break even on their Epicor investment in an average of nine months.

Key Quotes from the IDC report include:

  • “IDC calculates that [manufacturing companies] will realise benefits worth an annual average of $2.90 million per organisation.”

     

  • “Epicor has enabled interviewed companies to increase their capacity significantly (34% on average), allowing them to better deliver their core products to existing customers as well as grow and expand their businesses.”

     

  • “Epicor has enabled interviewed companies to significantly improve their on-time delivery rate, allowing them to deliver in a timely fashion on 94% of orders, which is an increase of 39%. This improvement greatly increased customer satisfaction”.

  • “The study participants experience 63% fewer incidents that affect manufacturing availability and performance, and that when incidents do occur, they are resolved 17% faster. As a result, manufacturing line team members lose far less productive time — an average of 63% less — which translates to higher productivity for these teams worth an average of $150,700 per year per interviewed manufacturing company”.

     

  • Epicor users within the study “also reported an average supply chain productivity gain of 26%, reflecting their enhanced ability to navigate current challenges related to supply chain activities”.

     

  • “IDC calculates that interviewed Epicor customers complete an average of 38% more inventory turns annually and avoid lost business worth an average of $271,300 annually by having the right inventory to manufacture in ways responsive to actual customer demand.”

     

  • “Interviewed manufacturing companies attribute an average of $7.14 million in higher revenue to their use of Epicor for Manufacturing. This equates to an average of 14.2% higher revenue and shows the sizeable impact of Epicor on these organisations’ ability to move to address business demand and ensure customer satisfaction through the creation and delivery of high-quality and relevant products and goods.”

Red the full report here

Epicor Kinetic for Manufacturing, Autumn Release 2022

Latest Release of Epicor Kinetic for Manufacturing Delivers New Industry Features and Connected Services

Released by Epicor: Austin, TXOctober 20, 2022

Epicor, a global leader of industry-specific enterprise software to promote business growth, today introduced a variety of features in its Fall 2022 release for Epicor Kinetic for Manufacturing, part of the Epicor Industry ERP Cloud portfolio. The updates will help manufacturers better compete with deep industry-specific functionality, connected services to integrate and optimise workflows, and deliver a smoother user experience journey.

“Now more than ever, manufacturers need people-centric, open, and connected technologies to gain visibility across their business and optimise supply chain processes,” said Vaibhav Vohra, Chief Product Officer at Epicor. “The latest release of Epicor Kinetic empowers our customers with a variety of fit-for-purpose features and integrations that deliver on that, helping them grow their business and compete in today’s global marketplace.”

New capabilities across the latest release of Epicor Kinetic for Manufacturing include:

Deep Industry-Specific Functionality

  • The ability to track inventory by part and revision allows customers to reduce part number maintenance time, ensure component compatibility, and have full visibility into inventory segmentation
  • Improved API connection between Epicor Kinetic and Epicor Advanced MES that includes passing of Downtime and Scrap codes
  • Embedded electronic signature capability that can be used with Business Process Management (BPM) on any business object to support compliance and quality management needs
  • Enhancements to fulfilment improve visibility of Make-to-Orders, streamlining the release of sales orders to picking
  • Improved financial reporting capabilities, aligning the Procurement to pay trackers and GL reporting showing valuable data that will help customers easily reconcile their data across different areas

Connected Services to Optimise Workflows

  • Epicor Commerce Connect customers can rate shop at checkout by pulling the best freight rates from Quick Ship, eliminating the need to maintain shipping rates in both applications
  • Deeper integration between Epicor Kinetic and Epicor CPQ, including new features such as 3D Sketch & Extrude and a MoM Viewer Widget to view MoM calculations in real-time while users are configuring

Smoother User Experience Journey

  • Built to engage employees across the enterprise with a digital messaging and notification engine
  • Enhanced collaboration offers an optimised mobile experience

For more information on the latest release of Epicor Kinetic, get in touch.

Contact

Paul Egan

Paul.egan@asperasolutions.com

 

Epicor Industry Insights Report 2022

Key Findings of the Epicor 2022 Industry Insights Report

What do companies really need from their ERP partnerships?

In 2022 Epicor asked 1,350 technology decision makers (principally in manufacturing & distribution in the USA & UK) about their cloud ERP.

  1. How satisfied were they with their current situation?
  2. What would they look for in a new solution?
  3. How was their ERP journey as customers and how could their experience be improved at every  stage—from first contact through evaluation, onboarding, go-live, and ongoing support.
  4. Finally, how do they feel about their transition to cloud technology? What’s important to them, and how can partners accelerate value at every stage of the journey.

This report details their answers.

Read the full report here.

Read the Andy Coussins, SVP & Head of Epicor International, interview with ERPNews, here.

EUG Conference – Nov 16-17

Welcome Back – EUG Conference 2022

After a long hiatus, the Epicor User Group (EUG) conference makes a welcome return this week, and we hope to see you there.The event is always a fantastic opportunity to network with other Epicor users, to discuss issues and tips, and find out what’s new within the software – so it’s always a really worthwhile event.The Aspera team will be there, and are presenting  with others on subjects such as:1) Multi-Site Implementations – What Should You Look Out For?2) Project Management in Upgrades & Implementations – Best Practice Tips and Insights from the Customer Perspective3) Automating Epicor &4) What’s New in Epicor for 2023

Details:

Date: November 16-17thVenue: Leicester Marriott Hotel, UK

Register here!

Epicor – The Powerhouse Behind the Scuderia Alphatauri Powertrain

“Any technical Partnership is crucial for us and especially the partnership with Epicor. 

Because nowadays, Epicor manages the team”.

 

Franz Tost, Team Principal
Scuderia Alphatauri

“The main improvements are the communication, the time saving and at the end the performance, because people aren’t spending time entering the data into they system or to look for the data within the company.

So at the end we gained a very good team performance using Epicor kinetic software”.

Giovani Cattarina, ERP Engineer
Scuderia Alphatauri

“For sure you can see a better performance in the car. More parts in a shorter time, with more reliable data”.

Simone Balilla, Production Planning Manager,
Scuderia Alphatauri

Epicor has acquired Data Interchange, a UK-based provider of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Cloud Technologies and Managed Services

Epicor Acquires EDI Provider Data Interchange, Expanding Global Reach in Helping Customers Drive Value in the Supply Chain

Austin, TXJune 07, 2022

Epicor, a global leader of industry-specific enterprise software to promote business growth, today announced it has acquired Data Interchange, a UK-based provider of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) cloud technologies and managed services. The Data Interchange acquisition expands the reach of Epicor in European markets and adds to the company’s portfolio of B2B integration technologies, empowering customers to connect businesses and trading partners, increase efficiency, and drive value in the supply chain. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“The future of EDI is about creating more flexible and transparent supply chains that can seamlessly accommodate a wide range of inputs while ensuring automated and controllable outcomes,” said Epicor CEO Steve Murphy. “The Data Interchange acquisition gives Epicor customers an even more powerful set of cloud-based EDI solutions to streamline supply chain collaboration, simplify processes, and make data-driven decisions to identify trends and opportunities.”

As companies, particularly across European markets, manage increasing requirements for data integration across B2B supply chains, they are challenged in navigating the complexities of trading partner compliance, communications protocols, and local language support.

Data Interchange’s B2B integration solutions – including the company’s DiNet global EDI Network, Odex B2B communications platform, Darwin order processing solution, and XE EDI mapping tool – will help Epicor customers streamline their supply chain strategies, providing a single-source of truth to more closely manage supplier relationships, automate business processes, and plan for changing business needs. That includes support for European market protocols and standards such as OFTP2, EDIFACT, VDA, TRADACOMS and PEPPOL.

“Our goal at Data Interchange has always been to streamline the way EDI is delivered and presented to our customers and partners,” said Data Interchange CEO Andrew Filby. “By joining with Epicor, we’re extending our mission to help companies drive positive business outcomes by simplifying every stage of their EDI journey.”

Backed by more than 30 years of experience, Data Interchange pioneers the technology underpinning the world’s most complex supply chains with fast, accurate data exchange. A deep and experienced team and partner channel with specialists across Europe help customers in automotive, manufacturing, retail and logistics sectors optimise supply chains and trading processes, with an innovative product and services portfolio that helps customers improve their business operations.

See www.epicor.com for further details

Manufacturing Insights Report – Cloud Adoption Rates are Soaring

Manufacturing is Moving to the Cloud

Epicor asked nearly 600 industry decision-makers about cloud and why manufacturing is seeing a rapid increase in cloud ERP adoption.

The resulting report explores what is currently important to manufacturing businesses, what challenges the cloud might solve, and what companies need to make cloud adoption a success.

Content includes

  • Why manufacturing is rapidly changing

  • Why cloud is fast becoming a business necessity

  • Why security is even more important now than ever &

  • How powerful partnerships are essential for success.

 

Read the full report here

Join Aspera as it Demo’s Epicor Kinetic at the ERP HeadtoHead March 8-10th

If an ERP project is on your radar for 2022, then the virtual ERP HeadtoHead event (March 8th-10th, 2022) should be on your radar.


At the event, Aspera Solutions will demonstrate Epicor Kinetic ERP and Epicor Prophet 21 (for distributors), alongside 13 other vendors via 28 live ERP product demo’s. It’s the perfect opportunity to compare solutions and their potential fit to your organisation.

If you are interested in attending, feel free to use the promo code ‘AsperaDiscount2022’ to receive a 20% discount on the cost of attendance (normally £75 per person).

Find out more, and register directly with the event organisers at
https://erpheadtohead.com/uk

Not sure if Epicor should be on your radar as an ERP Solution? The answer is YES, if:

  • You’re a manufacturer, distributor or services company with 100+ employees.
  • You’re looking for a vendor that provides solutions on premise, or in the cloud.
  • You want an experienced solution, that understands the nuances and needs of your specific industry.
  • You want a modern solution with remote working options, integrated social-network-style communication, automations and easier data workflow.
  • You want to work with a skilled, local implementation partner with excellent support and dedication to project success.


Leeann Matthews
Aspera Solutions

Mobile: +353 (0)86  852 8757
Landline: +353 (0)1 461 1708