There’s a lot of talk about “best practices” in the ERP world, and chances are that if you are in the market for a new ERP system, then you are looking for an ERP solution that incorporates the most current best practices for your business. Best practices are based on proven industry standards that were created because manufacturers like yourself were looking for ways to meet their goals. ERP vendors that have survived the test of time have been incorporating years, if not decades, worth of new features and functionality with every new release. That’s a lot of best practices and a lot of programming hours! Your win because the result is a very robust ERP solution for manufacturers.
But, before you get too excited, here’s something to think about. According to an Inc. article, Forget Your Industries Best Practices, understanding ‘best practices’ isn’t always as straight-forward as it sounds. First one must define what “best practice” means, and then understand what it is that your manufacturing business is trying to achieve because not all “best practice” are aligned with your particular organizations goals.
Win-Win: ERP Software that Incorporates Industry Best Practices
Upgrading to an ERP system that incorporates industry best practices into processes means that your software dollars will go much further. Your goal is to identify a solution that incorporates best practices, therefore minimizes your need for costly customizations. Remember all those programming hours that resulted in the best practices being incorporated as standard ERP features? If it weren’t for those standard features, features aligned with best practices, your implementation timeframe and budget would go up drastically. Take advantage of what’s there. Make modifications only where you absolutely have to. It’s not only a cost-saver, it’s a win-win that management will thankful for!
Correctly Set Expectations for “Out-of-the-Box” and Additional Features
What if during your quest for a new ERP system your team discovers that ‘industry best practices’ are not 100 per cent relevant to your business? Don’t worry! You’re not alone! If this is the case, then the goal should be to identify an ERP solution where approximately 70 per cent of your ‘can’t live without” features are included as “out-of-the-box ” standard features. What about the other 30% of ‘can’t live without’ features? Take advantage of the expertise your ERP project manager or ERP consultant bring to the table. An experienced team can help you rethink processes and suggest a different way of doing things, or talk to your team about some level of software customizations. If you have a tight budget, and you’re open to the idea of cloud ERP, then a solution like Epicor SaaS is also worth consideration.
Why Epicor ERP for Manufacturing?
Epicor Software Corporation has been creating manufacturing specific solutions for SMB manufacturers for over four decades. As a result, Epicor ERP for manufacturers offers one of the most mature feature sets for the SMB discrete manufacture.
Epicor ERP for manufacturers can be deployed in the cloud, on-premises or as a hybrid solution and includes embedded business processes throughout its manufacturing specific modules. Within these processes, Epicor ERP offers a robust feature set including features that can not be found in many competing ERP systems. For example, out of the box business processes can be found in planning and scheduling, project management and supply chain management. These internal-facing processes are needed by many manufacturers, but may require customizations. Since these features come embedded in Epicor ERP Manufacturing, you can save money on your implementation.
Epicor ERP is not just Manufacturing ERP Software. Epicor ERP offers Robust Financial Management Software
A little Epicor history… Epicor Software Corporation is a $1B company that grew through mergers and acquisitions in the 1990’s. Today Epicor Software Corporation is known for its manufacturing software, however in the 1990’s, before Epicor’s acquisition of Data Works, Epicor was known as the leading financial solution for the SMB space. With that, if you are a company with multiple entities, or a global company, 2W Tech challenges you to find a stronger combination of manufacturing and financials than what Epicor Kinetic can offer your SMB manufacturing business.
If you would like more information about Epicor Kinetic and the unique features of Epicor ERP Manufacturing or Epicor ERP Financials, contact 2W Tech today!