While many small, single-facility companies find Epicor’s ERP offerings to be an appropriate fit for their businesses, Epicor offers extensive capabilities to larger companies seeking to implement across multiple locations or divisions. Epicor’s multi-site module allows customers with multiple geographically-dispersed facilities to configure individual sites to manage the activities in each facility. For customers who consist of multiple independent business units, each with their own financials, Epicor offers the ability to define individual companies for each business unit.
While these capabilities are fine in themselves, it sometimes occurs that Epicor’s multi-site and multi-company capabilities are interpreted as mere matters of licensing and configuration—of purchasing the additional licensing and configuring the additional companies and sites to run the various entities within the business. This sounds simple enough, but focusing exclusively on licensing and configuration can be problematic for a number of reasons. Firstly, Epicor provides various opportunities for collaboration between business entities that allow companies the ability to design new processes that cross traditional business boundaries in new ways. To ignore these capabilities would be on par with buying a dune buggy only to park it in the driveway. Secondly, implementing across multiple companies and/or sites introduces many complicating factors to an implementation project, which may be unapparent at the project’s onset. These factors can exponentially complicate implementations, if left unmitigated and need to be incorporated in to the implementation plan.
Epicor’s multi-site module offers many more capabilities that allow large or geographically dispersed companies to streamline their processes across disparate locations. As companies seek to structure their organizations for future success, implementations become opportunities for reengineering. In such cases, implementation projects can become complicated, as business process decisions and project implementation decisions supersede system configuration. Some of the decisions that companies encounter might include the following:
Does the company intend to go live on Epicor with all companies/sites at the same time or is the preference to implement in a staggered sequence?
What level of process consistency does the company intend to have between sites or companies?
As part of the implementation, are there processes that the company intends to centralize across plants or companies?
Are there internal supplier-customer relationships that you wish to leverage between plants or companies?
Answering these questions is no simple matter—it takes a combination of business acumen, project management experience, and Epicor knowledge. EstesGroup offers implementation methodologies tailored to different approaches—be it a staggered implementation (one site-at-a-time), or a big bang (all sites concurrently). EstesGroup also offers business process management methodologies to cater to various centralized or decentralized management approaches.
EstesGroup also offers a pool of experienced consultants and project managers, well-versed in large corporate implementations across multiple sites and companies. Not only can we help you set up your system to run smoothly—we can help you develop a business process management strategy that leverages best practices and process excellence across multiple locations, while working these decisions into the implementation plan, so you can set up your company for the future on-time and on-budget.
Matt Thompson will address the inaugural meeting of the Florida Epicor Users Group (EUG) on Thursday 1/21/16.
Mr. Thompson serves as Vice President of Enterprise Architecture for EstesGroup, the world’s leading consultancy in Enterprise Resource Planning, and is considered an expert in the fields of Business Process Review and Business Process Reengineering.
His presentation to the EUG will focus on the new feature set for Epicor ERP 10.1, as well as the many factors and strategies that companies should review when considering an upgrade to this solution.
The slogan for Florida EUG is “Users Helping Users.” The association is completely independent, with a primary mission to assist its community members in the study and practice of Epicor products, including Epicor ERP (9, 10, and 10.1); Vantage; Vista; Avante; DataFlo; Manage 2000; ManFact; Clientele; iScala; Enterprise; E4SE; Epicor Retail; Epicor HCM; Epicor CMS/VP (SolarSoft); AVP; BVP; HrMS (Packaging); Informance; BisTrack; Tropos; SLS; and Mattec.
The Florida EUG boasts an all volunteer leadership, a staffed office, monthly board meetings, a close and positive working relationship with Epicor management, and support for Regional User Groups. Membership dues are $360 a year, a worthwhile investment for industry members looking to secure the best possible Epicor product support at a reasonable cost.
Matt Thompson leads EstesGroup’s experienced, world-class ERP consulting team. His more than fifteen years’ experience with Epicor products include five years working as an Epicor employee, five years working for an Epicor customer, and more than five years at EstesGroup as Vice President of Services. He is a certified expert on Epicor technologies and leverages a deep background in technical and functional matters as they apply to the multi-faceted world of Project Management.
In particular, Mr. Thompson has considerable expertise in marrying Enterprise Resource Planning solutions to the manufacturing, distribution, and professional services industries. He has led hundreds of successful implementations of Epicor products for businesses ranging from small job shops to large-scale distribution and manufacturing operations across a variety of sectors.
Mr. Thompson helped to pioneer the industry-renowned EstesGroup Business Process Review. As a spokesman for EstesGroup, he is considered a foremost expert in and the voice of company’s Five Stage ERP Implementation Methodology.
The agenda for Thursday’s inaugural meeting includes:
8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. – Registration and Networking
9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. – Introductions and purpose
9:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. – Upgrading to E10.1: Technical Tips – Ben Nixon
Customizations – If your organization has a multitude of customizations, integrations or modifications in place then you need to get organized around all of these with a plan that allows the time to implement them into the new environment. The magnitude of complexity goes up with each version of Epicor that you are leaping over to get to 10.1. So if you’re on Epicor 9.04, it’s not as bad as if you’re still on Vantage 8.03 and not as bad yet again as if you’re on Vantage 6.1.Catalogue your customizations in a spreadsheet. Make the business team force rank them as level 1,2 or 3. Level 1 – Business Critical Level 2 – Could work without for a period of time Level 3 – Functionality no longer needed or has been replaced with Out of the Box with 10.1
Once you have everything catalogued it’s easier to build a plan of action around them. Which ones will need hands on work to function in Epicor ERP 10.1? Which ones are critical to be included in the regression test plans.
Processes aren’t documented – If you don’t have your critical processed documented in your ERP then how are you going to systematically test them before you launch a new version of your ERP? In addition, moving to Epicor 10.1 should have other forecasted advantages for your business. What are those new processes and how will they impact the workflow for your organization?
Business Team Readiness – Just like in your original implementation the upgrade isn’t handled by just one individual. Besides, would you want to be the one guy with the weight of the business’ ERP on your shoulders if that upgrade doesn’t work out? You need your core team of business representation to establish the plan, set and perform the regression tests and ensure that they are ready for the new version. Multiple eyes on your project are always better than a single point of failure. On top of your core team making sure that you have the same level of involvement from the executive team is a must. Everyone needs to be on board with an upgrade.Granted, if you’re making a “dot” upgrade from Epicor 10 to 10.1 it should be much less invasive, there should be a lot fewer surprises and it should run smoother but this is no excuse for bypassing the fundamentals of project success.
If you take the time to organize your upgrade to Epicor ERP 10.1, you’ll be increasing your chances of success exponentially. Yes, it’s a little more ground work on the front end, but doing this work up front is a fraction of the time it will take if you skip it and get a surprise later on. I would love to continue our conversation and welcome you to…
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Understanding Epicor’s Company Structure: A Guide for Modern ERP Implementation
Epicor’s company structure remains a cornerstone of the ERP system’s architecture, providing the fundamental framework for organizing and implementing your enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. Understanding this structure is crucial for optimizing your ERP implementation and ensuring your system aligns perfectly with your business needs.
Why Company Structure Matters
The importance of Epicor’s Company structure cannot be overstated—it forms the foundation that affects every module’s functionality and behavior. A well-planned company structure ensures:
Alignment with your business strategy
Optimal system performance
Effective utilization of features
Streamlined workflow management
Three-Phase Setup Process
Setting up companies in an Epicor database involves three crucial phases:
Initial Creation: Companies are established through the Epicor Administration Console
Base Configuration: Core company information is defined via Company Maintenance
Module Configuration: Detailed module-specific defaults are set through Company Configuration
Key Configuration Elements
When configuring a new Company through the Admin Console, several critical elements must be defined:
Company ID: A unique identifier that becomes permanent once set
Company Name: The official designation used across forms and reports
Company Installation: The specific license file for the implementation
Country Code: Required for company-specific functionality
Base Currency Code: Primary currency for financial operations
Number of Decimals: Precision settings for costs, prices, and general calculations
Best Practices for Modern Implementation
To ensure successful implementation:
Align company structure with current business operations
Plan for scalability and future growth
Consider multi-currency requirements if operating internationally
Document configuration decisions for future reference
Regular review and optimization of settings
Moving Forward
While the basic principles of Epicor’s company structure remain constant, modern implementations benefit from enhanced features and improved integration capabilities. Success depends on thoughtful planning and configuration that reflects your organization’s current needs while allowing for future growth.
For more information about optimizing your Epicor implementation or to discuss your specific needs, contact our team of experts.
Hey, folks. It’s Matt Thompson here with a real quick video for you all. I’m just going to show you some tips and tricks in Epicor 10—how to get around. There are a couple key features here that a lot of folks don’t know about. I just want to be able to make sure everybody kind of has an idea.
I’ve pulled open a real quick dashboard tracker here that’s showing our year-to-date sales. It’s got some nice buckets. It goes all the way across the screen here with a lot of information. So, I want to show you some things.
A lot of folks want to be able to take this out to Microsoft Excel and be able to massage that. Well, anywhere you see this grid view it’s no problem. You can right-click, copy to Excel. Then it’s going to open up Excel and dump everything in there for you and you can be on your way.
A lot of folks want to be able to see and massage the data a little bit. They can still do that. So I can right-click and say show group by. Now I can bring my cust. ID up here. I’m showing where I’ve got my customers grouped into these nice neat buckets. I’ve got that information now dissected so I can look at things a little bit more clearly. In addition I can right-click here and say show me my filters. I’m going to filter this down to only show and say Boeing. Now I’ve got only the Boeing Company’s information that’s actually here in front of me.
That’s all fine and dandy. Those things are great for filtration and everything. Now let’s say I still want to massage it in Excel. If I right-click copy to Excel, it’s actually going to fire this thing up. I can see that it brings it over, and it still has my group-bys automatically brought over into Excel. Then I can expand and see my data column sets. That’s really cool and a really neat function here with Epicor 10.
In addition to this, I got a lot of information rolling out to the right. Maybe I want to be able to lock my screen or freeze panes. This is a little hidden gem that a lot of folks don’t know about. Anytime I see this scroll window in a grid view whether it’s horizontal or vertical, on the capstone here, I see this little rectangle. When I roll my mouse over it, my cursor changes. I can click and drag that guy right over to where I want that to freeze. It essentially just made a mere copy on both sides of the same dashboard data.
Now as I scroll, I have the effect of freeze panes right here in my window. I can actually scroll across, see my year-to-date totals while still keeping my name in check here without having to change and manipulate where I’m dragging and dropping different columns. It’s a really nice feature there to be able to see very quickly how your data looks, feels, forms and everything else.
Then in addition, the one last one here, you can show summaries. That will give you the ability to do summarized totals here within the different column sets. You can actually see some aggregate sums out there as well. I hope this is definitely helpful for you. There are some tips and tricks that a lot of folks just don’t know about. Make sure to start a conversation with us—www.estesgrp.com/ask-an-expert.
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Hey, gang. Welcome to Project Roles and Responsibilities, the Cliff Notes Version. We’re going to get started here and just kind of run you guys through hopefully in three minutes or less some of the key roles and responsibilities you need on your ERP successful project.
Number one, you need an executive from the client side to be able to understand your business goals and be able to support and establish whatever that project, plan, scope and any resources that need to happen on that side to ensure that you have that good success.
Your client side project manager as well needs to be able to understand the methodology, your goals and objectives that you need, who are the key people on your project team and being able to help motivate and help move things along so that that project thing gets executed and you stay on time, on task and on budget.
Your Estes Group consulting team, they need to be able to follow what that scope is that you have, be able to execute to those assigned tasks, but most of all, they’re there to teach you the software. They’re there to be able to figure out your business problems and be able to solve those problems with ERP solutions in the form of end user procedures at the end of the day.
That way you can map over all of those new processes into your new software package as cleanly and successfully as possible with the understanding that your team of consultants is going to provide you with the best possible solution with the least amount of inefficiencies as possible at this point in time.
So your customer side, what is all about you guys here and what should be expected of you, right? So customer executive sponsor, person needs to be well informed. They need to be the one that’s setting the ultimate goals and objectives. Odds are they’re the ones that are pulling the trigger at the end of the day saying here’s the reasons why we’re going to a new ERP software or we’re upgrading our ERP software.
Yes, it’s going to be painful. We understand that, but here are the reasons why. Here’s the scope in which we need to do that. Okay, team, you’ve got the ball. Go and run with it. Let me know what you need. I’m here to make it happen, and they’re there to celebrate when you do make it happen.
Your steering committee, made up of all the business leaders that are most likely responsible fiscally for each of the different functional areas of your business. That may be by product line. That may be by functional area. There’s several different dividing lines that we’ve seen businesses divide those up by, but the key there is, is your steering committee is going to make sure that any conflict or any different decisions that need to happen come up to them, they’re able to help resolve those issues, whether it be resources, whether it be scope, whether it be just process decision, and be able to help things move along their way.
Your customer project manager, this person is there to basically be a task master. They’re going to be tied to the estes group PM. They’re going to be following that methodology and they’re making sure that everybody does their homework, it’s on task and it’s with the right amount of time that needs to be dedicated to it to ensure that we’ve got quality and success that’s going to come out of that. They’re also there to be able to report up to the steering committee anything that needs to happen and go from there.
Now the majority of the folks are right here in the customer core team. So that core team is made up of your unit managers that have to build and decide on all those processes that need to be mapped in. They’re working directly with the consultants, with the problems, with the puzzles, helping resolve those, document it, and ultimately train the end users at the end of the day.
So, folks, I know that was the Cliff Notes version, very quick. There’s a longer video out there that goes into a lot more explanation. Feel free to take a look at it. This one was just designed to be a real quick teaser to give you a guys an understanding of what kind of roles and responsibilities we see and how we see that they’re important.
So feel free. Start a conversation with us, estesgroup.com/askanexpert, [email protected] via email, Facebook and Twitter, Linked In, all the social media, make sure you get in touch with us out there. You’ll see any of the new stuff that’s coming up. Facebook.com/estesgroup is where our page is at. Hit us up at estesgroup on Twitter, amd LinkedIn.com/company/estestgroup and you’ll find our business page out there on LinkedIn.
Thanks, guys, very much for your time. Looking forward to hearing from you in that conversation.
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