When it comes to ERP success in manufacturing, the journey starts long before the system goes live—often with the quiet power of a well-drawn map.
Get Ahead of Procurement with Proactive Demand Planning
Planning Contracts are essential processes in enterprise resource planning (ERP). They define how an organization documents its product, service, and results requirements—and how it identifies potential suppliers. At the heart of this process is the goal of establishing clear procurement criteria and generating reliable documentation to support purchasing decisions. In the manufacturing world, Planning Contracts function like a well-marked roadmap—helping ERP implementations stay on course by aligning procurement decisions with production timelines, supplier reliability, and the curves of long lead-time planning.
What Is a Procurement Plan?
A procurement plan is a key output of the Planning Contract process. It outlines how procurement activities will be managed over time and often includes:
Contract timelines
Needs assessments
Market research initiatives
Evaluation strategies
In short, Planning Contracts cover everything from deciding what to contract, when to contract, and how to contract—making them essential to any growth-oriented enterprise.
Looking Back to Leap Forward: Epicor 10.1 Planning Contracts and the Evolution of Smart Procurement
One of the most influential features to come out of Epicor® 10.1 was Planning Contracts—a capability that shifted procurement from reactive to proactive. For many businesses still running on 10.1 today, this remains one of the most game-changing updates in the platform’s history.
When Epicor® 10.1 was released, it introduced functionality that allowed businesses to proactively create purchasing demand. Prior to this, ERP systems typically waited for data-driven triggers—like inventory minimums or job codes—before kicking off procurement workflows.
In the days before dynamic demand creation, procurement was tied to hard triggers: Sales Orders, Inventory Minimums, Job Codes. Epicor® 10.1 broke that mold.
With the introduction of Planning Contracts, enterprises could document their product and service requirements, identify potential suppliers, and—most importantly—initiate purchasing demand before those triggers occurred.
This wasn’t just a feature update. It was a mindset shift.
Epicor® 10.1 Planning Contracts let businesses start planning for long lead-time items without waiting for a sales order. It was the ERP equivalent of seeing five cars ahead on the freeway.
Why This Still Matters in a Kinetic World
Think of it like the first drive of your life. You’re taught to watch the car ahead—but also the next three cars down the road. It’s not just smart. It’s survival. Epicor® 10.1 Planning Contracts gave businesses the same superpower—to look ahead and stay ready.
From Epicor® 10.1 to Kinetic: A Strategic Leap
Upgrading from 10.1 to Kinetic isn’t just about new features. Upgrading to Kinetic is like trading in your reliable old sedan for a high-performance, connected vehicle. You’re not just getting a faster ride—you’re gaining smart features that anticipate the road ahead. Tools like Planning Contracts were your first GPS, helping you map the journey. Now, Kinetic adds automated driving assistance with real-time procurement visibility, seamless data flow across every lane of your organization, and built-in upgrades that keep your ERP engine running smoothly for the long haul. It’s not just about getting there—it’s about manufacturers driving smarter, faster, and with confidence that your system won’t stall when the road changes.
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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, 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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Hey, everybody, Matt Thompson here with the Estes Group and going to run you through just the Cliff Notes version of what peak methodology is, how we approach it and why it’s good for projects.
So what is our approach to Peak Methodology?
It’s made up of really a best practice model that consists of three different things, number one being our methodology itself which is a five-stage methodology made up of prepare, educate, architect, validate and stabilize. It’s a hybrid methodology that brings in some traditional waterfall, breaks into some agile methodologies where we sprint things out and then we go back into that traditional waterfall for the validate and stabilize.
We also incorporate that in with a lot of fact finding and understanding that rolls into your statement of work, and we couple all of that experience that comes at you from not only years of experiences of our own folks and our own team and Estes Group itself, but also thousands and thousands of projects that are backed by Epicore and our certification that we have with them.
So how do we break that down?
Prepare, we want to establish that project scope. We want to really get the understanding of our schedule and resources on both internal and external, and all of that comes out and culminates through the project plan development. We use an online project planning tool so that you have full visibility to that any time, real time, all the time.
All of that comes out through our best practice reviews. So what we do is we engage with you guys, we come out, we take a really good look at the business, we go through some in-depth workshops and we come out of that understanding what the scope of the project needs to be, what are the key processes, the Achilles’ heels that we are going to see for your business, for your project, because every single one is different, so we attack it in that way.
Then we go into education. Key thing here, core module education. We’re level setting vocabulary. Consultants tend to speak Klingon and clients tend to have their very own language that they’d developed over the years, so we need to level set that so that we can have good, beneficial, architectural conversations coming up.
So here’s where we then break in and we do the architecture prototyping of your project, and this is where we take that spin and we go into agile. So we break that down towards nice and neat monthly springs. So every month you go through the exact same processes as you did the month prior, so you know you’re going to be launching a spring. You’re going to be working through data migration for the activities within that sprint, and you’re going to be finalizing processes by the end of the month for that sprint, and anything else that shakes out of that is coming out into a development track on the side, might need customization, custom reports, dashboards, those kinds of things, right?
So the idea here is though is it creates consistency, repeatability and a really clear understanding of exactly how you’re going to take all of those bites out of that whale of an ERP project. We document all of those results through workflow in the EUPs, so if you use Exall and EKM, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about there for those tools. Otherwise, we have some other tools available through different Excel templates called biostream scripts and those kinds of things and those kinds of things and then EUP templates to make sure you’re documenting every last procedure. Click here, save here, do what you need to do there and then go. Key is you’re go live ready at the end of this stage.
So then we break that down and we go into validate. We want to make sure that you’re doing a full dress rehearsal here. That includes a cutover process. That’s different than a lot of other folks in how they approach it out there, so make sure you understand how you’re going to prove that you are ready for go live and proving it is the most important step, because if you don’t and you try to just go live, never seen one of those be successful, right? So make sure you go through… you do the dress rehearsal, you know what’s going to happen and then odds are for go live day, you’re going to be really prepared for what might happen.
So when you do all that it just goes right into stabilizing. So it should be a very natural cutover and transition at that stage of the game. You have final training that needs to be caught up. You go live. You stabilize the system where we’re monitoring, we’re helping, any of the little things that pop up here and there, we’re helping troubleshoot and triage, but very typically at this stage of the game it gets to be pretty light.
So Estes Group is tailing off drastically at this stage of the game. You guys are ramping up, and you’re starting to see that ROI because money is not going out the door; you’re using the system now for good information on what you’re doing.
So with that, start a conversation with us. Love to hear from you. Love to hear what your thoughts are on the methodology and what you just saw here today. There is a longer version of this out there so if you want to hear in more detail and more of what my thoughts are on the project methodology, by all means take a look at that video, go on to our YouTube channel and you’ll be able to find that.
You’ll also find it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and start conversations with us. You can hit us up on any of those three at any point in time. I pretty well monitor them real time and as well hit us on our website. Ask an expert comes directly into my inbox. I’ll be glad to talk you with you about any of your questions you may have and then as well [email protected] is monitored by several of us here, and any one of us will be happy to get back to you as quick as we can. Thank you guys very much. Looking forward to the next one.
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