EstesGroup, a leading Epicor ERP partner and NetSuite Solution Provider, today announced the appointment of Mark Herman to the post of Vice President of Professional Services.
Mark brings 25 years of experience working in complex business and technology environments, helping manufacturers transform to world-class operations. He’s recognized as one of the top Epicor ERP implementation consultants and holds three U.S. patents.
EstesGroup utilizes a proprietary 5-step PEAK methodology to provide best-in-class ERP services to more than 500 clients worldwide. EstesGroup has expertise in the manufacturing, distribution, medical and services industries and provides implementation, support, optimization, training and integration solutions for Epicor, NetSuite, IQMS, and Microsoft ERP.
“EstesGroup was one of my key strategic partners when I needed to scale a major project,” said Herman. “Not only is their staff 100% certified to the highest levels of ERP systems, but they also understand the business side of their client’s operations, allowing them to offer tighter integrations between the software and the company’s internal processes. It’s tremendously exciting to now join the company and provide the Estes Professional Services team with the tools and guidance to enable them to continue their exceptional record of customer engagement and satisfaction.”
Before joining EstesGroup, Herman served as Vice-President and Principal Consultant of IHS Technologies. He has extensive experience in manufacturing and technology, having started on the shop floor while putting himself through college to earn a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State University. Following a successful career in Engineering, during which he was awarded 3 U.S. Patents, Herman managed the transformation of a national manufacturing company from a disparate multi-site environment into a centralized organization using the latest virtual and cloud-based technologies.
“Mark is a respected global business and technology leader with strong cloud, SaaS, and on-premise expertise,” said Bruce Grant, CEO, EstesGroup. “Mark’s solutions-focused approach and creative problem-solving skills have established him as a go-to expert in the ERP industry. Mark and his team will provide solutions to allow customers to remain on the leading technology edge and be competitive in the global marketplace.”
About EstesGroup
EstesGroup helps businesses run better. We provide solutions to industry-specific verticals including the needs of manufacturing, distribution, medical, retail, and service industry customers. With our own PEAK methodology and over 12 years of experience, our clients enjoy the highest level of professional support in the industry―in the cloud, hosted, or on-premises – for their ERP or Managed Services needs.
Epicor’s Product Configurator is among its most enigmatic and elusive modules. Configurator has been diversely characterized and mischaracterized, as everything from the cure to all that ails you to the straw that broke the company’s back. This presents a daunting task for Epicor customers operating in engineer-to-order and configure-to-order environments, for there are a lot of answers and partial-answers out there, and getting to an answer specific to a given business is more easily said than done. Different companies, in different markets, have specific questions, and Epicor’s introductory materials tend to serve a general audience. Moreover, the experiences of customers from different industries and earlier versions of configurator may or may not apply to a company looking to implement or upgrade to the current Epicor release. The place of the customer within the Epicor implementation lifecycle also greatly affects their needs. For companies implementing Epicor for the first time in version 10.1, the questions may relate to the applicability of Epicor’s Product Configurator module to the company’s product offerings, or to the ease with which Product Configurator instances can be constructed and maintained. For companies moving from Vantage 8.03 or Epicor 9.05 versions, the questions may relate to the ease with which they can convert their configurators from Epicor’s older architecture to its new platform, and how to get their staff ready to maintain them, moving forward. Customers already in the heart of an implementation effort may just need someone to look over their shoulder and ensure that best practices are being followed, or even help expedite the configurator design and development.
For these reasons, The Estes Group tailors its Epicor ERP implementation services to meet the specific needs and circumstances of the client in question:
Configurator Upgrade Assessment: For existing Epicor customers considering the move from Vantage 803 or Epicor 905, but are concerned about the ramifications to their existing configurators, an assessment of their current use of Epicor’s Product Configurator module is often of great value. Estes’s consultants have configurator experience going back to Vantage 803 and moving forward into its current 10.1.600 release. Moreover, Estes’ consultants have experience uplifting and rebuilding configurators from earlier versions to Epicor’s current architecture, capturing the business requirements from the original versions, while leveraging Epicor’s new features, such as the expanded user interface, the elaborated method rule architecture its user-defined method capabilities and its highly-flexible configurator lookup table competencies. Such an assessment is most often a combination of remote and onsite effort, analyzing the existing solution and mapping its requirements to the Epicor 10 configurator.
Epicor ERP Configurator Business Process Review:
New or existing customers often benefit from the traditional business process review (BPR) format, tailored to the areas affecting or affected by Epicor’s Configurator (quoting, order entry, planning, manufacturing). The goal of a Configurator BPR is to help the client understand whether Epicor’s Product Configurator module will address their business needs. It is common to incorporate a Business Process Review at the onset of an upgrade assessment when working with existing Epicor customers. These events normally extend from a few days to a week in duration, depending primarily on the size and complexity of the business and follow a detailed agenda, designed to explore the customer’s products and processes from multiple angles.
Epicor ERP Configurator Proof-Of-Concept:
For new customers in greater need of verification, or for customers looking to get a jump-start to their implementation, a Proof-Of-Concept activity (POC) is often the appropriate direction. Normally performed on the heels of a BPR, POC events involve a configurator and a production consultant working with the client team to develop a working prototype that can be processed through the quote-to-ship cycle, for purposes of business process prototyping and configurator verification. For companies in need of a definitive answer to specific questions, a Proof-Of-Concept activity is the most concrete way in which to provide them. And for companies struggling to gain project momentum, these events can be highly beneficial in gaining much-needed project traction.
Configurator Development Support: For customers in the midst of an Epicor implementation, but in need of some “extra muscle” in the area of Product Configurator, Estes offers trained consultants who can step in, roll up their sleeves, and immediately assist with design review, configurator development, and related system consulting. These activities can be performed remotely or onsite, based on customer need, and can vary in scope from a few remote hours a week, to an onsite intensive session, to ongoing engagement.
Ask us any question you have about Epicor ERP Configurator. We have answers.
New competitors are entering the market, product categories are evolving rapidly, and customers are consuming products and services in new and different ways. These factors are driving unprecedented changes to the industry and your distribution business.
The question is how will you respond to all of this? Will you be reactive in trying to keep up with the pace of change, or will you become a change agent and transform your business to harness change as a competitive advantage?
Fundamentally, there are five strategic goals you need to pursue to remain on the cutting edge of the distribution business:
Provide a best-in-class e-commerce experience to your customers
Attract new customers, leveraging your online presence and e-commerce platform
Become the preferred supplier in your target verticals
Optimize your processes
Defend your base
Key to achieving these goals is having the right systems and processes in place. In this post we look at the Epicor P21 software system, its flagship product for distributors.
Epicor P21’s user interface has a similar look and feel to Microsoft Outlook, which makes it intuitive and easy to use. This also tends to make implementations go smoothly.
Using Epicor P21 software you’ll be able to enter service quotes, process orders, and track by serial numbers with ease. Keeping track of warranty claims, scheduling technicians and billing for labor is seamless.
The Prophet 21 system is specifically architected to handle the high transaction volumes required to scale your distribution business. Here are the platform highlights:
Technology
The P21 distribution ERP system has a familiar look and feel to any other Microsoft application and runs on Microsoft SQL Server. This makes it easy to use and provides the necessary scalability and reliability. It’s capable of accessing real-time information from a wide range of data analysis platforms.
Mobile POD (proof of delivery)
Delivery personnel can use mobile POD to capture customer signatures electronically and send that information back to Epicor P21 software. Your drivers can build their delivery list by selecting orders and assigning them to specifics routes or dates. Custom routes can be built based on order and required delivery date. Drivers can also issue return RMAs and pick-up the returned items.
Customer Service & Maintenance Contracts
Using the P21 distribution ERP system you can create service quotes and process maintenance orders seamlessly. The system can track serial numbers, mapped to customer information. Customers can make inquiries using the serial number, service orders can then be created directly from those queries. You can configure your system to suggest upsells for preventive maintenance contracts at the item level. USEABILITY:
The data entry format and modules of Epicor P21 software are quick, easy to access and with a separate Navigation Pane featuring folders, you will have the capability to launch various functions such as Order Entry, Inventory Control, CRM, and Accounting.
Need to go back through history and find a specific job or order? No worries here, the P21 distribution ERP’s History Panel allows for very rapid access to information and previously accessed documents, modules, functions.
And then, there is the game-changer: DynaChange
Now, once we implement your customized Prophet 21 ERP distribution software, you will make use of the DynaChange page designer. We will work with you to make sure all of your interfaces bring up the right distribution information you need using this powerful tool, and you will not need a specialized programmer to make future changes to your pages. Prophet 21’s DynaChange allows for such ease-of-use and customization, that you will be able to change as your distribution business grows.
At EstesGroup, we know technology is only a good investment when it makes your business run better when it improves deliverability, customer satisfaction, and financial forecasting.
Together we will implement Epicor’s powerful P21 distribution ERP and customize every one of its amazing modules, technology, and features to ensure your distribution business is more scalable, delivers even better customer service, and of course more profitable than ever before.
I’m Jeff Klaubert, with the EstesGroup. You know, I think by now we all accept that we are living in a digital and cloud-based world moving forward. As a matter of fact, according to research conducted by the Enterprise Management Associates, in 2017 alone, companies will move 19 percent of their applications to the public cloud. They’ll move an additional 10 percent to a private cloud. So think about that. Just one year, companies are moving 30 percent of all their applications to some form of a cloud environment.
And, of course, the cloud has been with us for a number of years, so it’s not just that 30 percent from this year. It’s a big shift. And the research goes even further. They concluded that today, 45 percent of all companies are using the public cloud services of at least three providers. So make no mistake. We are in the midst of a major digital transformation that is impacting all industries. And the fact that you’re watching this video suggests that you’re probably in the middle of your own transformation or certainly evaluating the strategies that make the most sense for your business.
In this video blog, we’re actually going to cut through all the jargon and hype, and we are going to define and compare and contrast the different types of digital deployment scenarios you should be thinking about for your business. And, you know, to start off with here, let me just kinda set-set the-the baseline, all right? This video is not about telling you that you need to go to the cloud. It — we don’t know that, right? In every business is going to be different. But what’s crucial is that you understand the differences between the-the-the deployment scenarios and you use the terminology correctly.
We hear these terms “cloud” and “hosted environment” and “hosted applications.” Throw in “virtualization” in there. People use these terms interchangeably as if they mean the same thing as if there’s just like one common general digital deployment scenario, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. Cloud and hosted applications are very different solutions, and it’s crucial for you to understand the implications for your business so that you can evaluate your options with clarity.
So, over the next two videos, we’re going to, one, define — simply, let’s define, using industry-standard definitions, what cloud is and what a hosted application or a hosted environment is. That’s what we’re going to do in this video. In the second video, we’re going to compare and contrast the two deployment scenarios using National Institute of Standards and Technology — NIST — using their five essential characteristics of a cloud solution. So at the end of these two videos, you are going to understand how those, how these different deployment scenarios relate to your business and what makes the most sense, because no one size fits all.
Now, before we get started into that, I actually want to start off with a little, setting a little context, that cloud, and hosted applications, these models are not new by any stretch of the imagination. They’ve been around literally for decades. As a matter of fact, IBM introduced the underlying technology of cloud, which is virtualization, all the way back in 1972. They called it VM virtualization. And they did it — here, check this out — to create an agile mainframe that had the ability to share resources dynamically in response to a changing environment. Now, doesn’t that sound pretty similar to the cloud pitches of today?
And, interestingly enough, in that same year, SAP introduced a revolutionary new application that they called Enterprise Resource Planning in 1972, which enabled customers to take orders and track inventory in real-time to provide better visibility and control to the business and provide enhanced customer relationships. Now come on, folks. That was 50 years. So that’s proving out the adage that the more things change, the more they stay the same. I want to, I want to set one more context here. Some would argue that the current version of the cloud is nothing more than management’s response to needing to get more things done quicker.
You see, the pace of change has accelerated so much that oftentimes the traditional on-premise IT strategy just can’t keep up with the pace of business. So in order to remain competitive and innovative in today’s hyper-competitive and-and increasingly global environment, it really does take the cloud and digital business models. Okay. Let’s get right down to it. Let’s define cloud and hosted applications. Let’s start off with Gartner’s definition of cloud. They define cloud as a style of computing where massively scalable, IT-enabled capabilities are delivered as a service to external customers using internet technologies. Did you notice there was no technobabble in there?
They’re talking about business capabilities. Now go back to my argument that some-some would say cloud is nothing more than management’s response to needing to get more things done quickly. Well, what is a capability? You know, at its core it is the ability to get something done. So that’s what cloud is doing for us. It’s enabling us to accelerate how much we need to get done, where we can get it done, how we can get it done. It’s really exciting, actually. Now. Let’s get a little more, you know, infrastructure-y about this. Let’s look at the National Institute of Standards in Technology. NIST. Let’s look at their definition of cloud.
They define cloud computing as a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of resources, meaning servers, storage, network, applications and underlying services — here’s the key thing — that can be rapidly provisioned and de-provisioned with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. Now think about this here. What in your current on-prem IT environment that is significant enough to run an aspect of the business can be rapidly provisioned or unprovisioned today? Probably nothing. [laughs] And, in fact, if you can do that, you’re on the cutting edge, and you’re probably on the cloud, and you probably know that.
Okay. So those are two definitions of cloud. Let’s compare that to what a hosted environment is. And a hosted environment is pretty much taking your current environment — you have an entire technology stack, so you have your own manufacturing ERP software, your own services, your own network, all that stuff — and simply transporting it to someone else’s data center and letting them manage that. Major differences between cloud and what I just described there. So in a hosted environment, you still have to — you or someone else has to maintain your own software, and you still have to deal with version issues or how many versions back are you. Or, you know, you have customizations that are required to meet your business requirements. Will they be carried forward to the latest manufacturing ERP software?
You still have all those concerns, and you still have to implement that on a server, both whether it’s physical or virtual. You are going to own that, buy that, or pay for that somehow, and someone’s going to implement that. And that server’s sitting on a network in a data center, so you got ping, power, and pipe. And you have your own silo, your own stack of technology compared to and contrasted to the cloud, where you have a shared pool where you can dynamically have access to all of the underlying resources. As a matter of fact, one of the key differences between cloud and even a virtualized environment is that cloud adds orchestration and automation so that you get to extract your applications in your workload from the underlying infrastructure.
You don’t have to worry about that. Think about it like a-an-an automobile, right? Pretty much any car, anywhere in the world, you get into it, and your interface with it the same way. It has a standard set of capabilities and functionality that pretty quickly you can, you can, um, understand and adapt with and get using it, versus a hosted environment. Think of that like, you know, a water tank. You have to own the tank itself. You’ve got to make sure there’s enough water in it. and then there’s must be a hose to get it to you. So those are the differences between cloud and a hosted application.
As you can see, they’re completely different. So, in the next video, we are going to go just a little deeper, and we’re will use NIST’s, definition of cloud. Well, actually we’re going to use their five essential characteristics of the cloud as a framework to compare cloud and hosted environments from a functional perspective. We will be pretty granular about this. And at the end of these two videos, you will understand the difference, and you’ll be able to better evaluate your options. Now I want to leave you with this thought that, you know, no one solution fits all businesses.
So our approach at the EstesGroup is we want to get to know your business. We want to talk with your people. We’d actually like to visit your facility and walk your production floor and understand your processes. You see, we’ve been implementing manufacturing ERP software systems in the mid-market manufacturing space since 2004. Our people understand manufacturing and distribution processes. We’ve run the same systems you’re running today or are considering implementing in your business. Invest an hour of your time, and let’s do a digital process review and see how ready we both are to help you do your own digital transformation. I’m Jeff Klaubert, and we’d love to talk with you.
Schedule Your Digital Transformation Review conversation with us.
Many IT departments are multifaceted, and they don’t have the time to properly take care of everything, including planning for the future of technology. Virtual CIO services allow you to extend your IT leadership for additional executive guidance when needed.
For example, many customers feel their ERP system is upgraded simply by adding big hardware. However, IT is actually an investment, not an expense, and includes resources that extend far beyond the initial technology purchases. To help companies with the investment of IT, whether in hardware or in software, our IT experts start with infrastructure planning, virtualization advice, virtualization tuning, and security assessments. We need to look at the security of your system overall and by application. We need to evaluate your IT process and develop maintenance planning strategies because all machines and software require some maintenance.
All databases require management on a weekly, if not daily, basis.
Our IT services team can help you with database management. In addition, we can set up a schedule so that it’s ongoing for you. We can even be a remote person when you need external expertise.
Everyone talks about disaster recovery, yet very few people ever implement it. It has to be done. Look at it as a matter of when disaster’s going to strike, not if. What is a good business continuity plan? How’s the business going to run after you’re down? We need to talk about these items. Do you need security for virtual office workers? We can and will be your customer advocate. If you have issues with anything involving your IT, we can help you work your way through this and plan it.
What has been slowing your business down? We know technology should not, and we will ensure it will not again.
Mark brings 25 years of experience working in complex business and technology environments, helping manufacturers transform to world-class operations. He’s recognized as one of the top Epicor ERP implementation consultants and holds three U.S. patents.
