Epicor Software Corporation, provider of enterprise business software solutions for the midmarket and divisions of Global 1000 companies, has announced that ELE Advanced Technologies, a 150 employee strong manufacturer of highly engineered components for tolerance critical applications, utilising expertise in niche technologies for power generation, aerospace and the automotive industry, has selected the Epicor 9 next-generation enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. The Epicor solution will replace ELE Advanced Technologies' ageing business systems and give the company a more robust production process.
With three sites, two in the UK and one in Slovakia, ELE Advanced Technologies has leveraged enterprise software in its finance operations for the last 20 years, but has had limited functionality to support production and manufacturing operations. Over time, this has led to numerous spreadsheets being developed to manage production schedules, inventory, andinvoicing, among other processes. This approach can lead to inaccuracies between spreadsheets and create silos of information that hamper the agility of the business.
"We had to make a change that would give us the robust system we needed to drive the business forward," said Martin Harrison, financial director at ELE Advanced Technologies. "Accurate and timely delivery of financial information is critical to any business. To achieve this through the use of several concurrent spreadsheets can most definitely lead to operational inefficiencies."
Keying inaccuracies are also a challenge, as data may need to be entered several times to achieve a task. For example, raising an invoice currently requires multiple data entries in the different systems.
"The various spreadsheets we use can work very well, but when a problem occurs it is difficult and time consuming to unpick," continued Harrison. "It is also difficult to bring the information together into a report in real time, such that we can see the performance of the business at any given moment. Epicor will overcome thesechallenges for us; we will be able to input information once, and it will be usable across the whole business in many ways."
By using Epicor as its sole business and manufacturing system, ELE Advanced Technologies believes that it will gain a more robust production environment to help themanagement team develop the business further. Plus, with a small IT team, one of the main advantages of Epicor is that business rules can be updated as the business embraces change without a dependence on external consultants and developers. ELE Advanced Technologies reviewed ten systems before selectingEpicor, which it felt stood out for its flexibility, modern look and its consultants understanding of the manufacturing industry and specifically the challenges to its business.
"Understanding the businesses that we are employed to help is critical to the success of any ERP project," said James Norwood, senior vice president, worldwide product marketing at Epicor. "Most of our consultants work directly for Epicor, which means for over 25 years we have been building in-house expertise and best practices that are shared with every new customer to help them achieve their business goals and objectives through technology solutions."
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