IMPLEMENTING EPICOR ERP 10 TO STREAMLINE BUSINESS PROCESSES

For Alison Burney, Julian Charles’ Head of Business Systems, success means streamlining processes across the business for substantial cost savings.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Point of Sale (POS) systems that make it easier to manage budgets, financials, and internal projects, enable Alison to better execute on those cost- and time-saving initiatives.

In 2018, Alison was part of a team responsible for revamping their ERP system. But instead of a simple upgrade, they wanted to completely re-implement Epicor ERP 10.

“As Alison explains, “Our original reseller (not Precise) didn’t configure Epicor ERP 9 correctly. We were missing a lot of key features and the system would crash when we tried to import data from our POS or other sources.”

Julian Charles’ team decided to manage their ERP upgrade in-house, but enlisted Precise Business Solutions (Precise) to help them through the process and lend their expertise and assistance in an ad-hoc assistance capacity.

It was time to upgrade their system from Epicor ERP 7 to Epicor ERP 10.

The reasons for this were twofold:

1. Precise and Julian Charles had built up a strong relationship. Even though Precise didn’t perform the initial implementation of the POS or ERP systems, their team was able to answer a lot of questions and provide consulting services that the reseller couldn’t.
2. Precise had demonstrated their customer-centric attitude. Key features, including Precise POS’s multi-currency functionality, were introduced specifically because Julian Charles requested certain enhancements.

Since re-implementation of Epicor ERP 10 necessitated an upgrade to Precise POS 10, Alison and her team wanted to have Precise on-hand for support and consulting.

“We had a partnership with Precise early on. We started relying on them for help with our POS and ERP systems rather than going through our reseller at the time.”

INTERNAL CHANGES RESULTED IN DELAYED IMPLEMENTATION

Implementation started off well, but then it began to stall. Weeks turned into months, due to two primary challenges:

1. Staff changes pulled resources away from the project. The person in charge left the company midway through the process, leaving Alison and her team to pick up the pieces.
2. As a retail business, Julian Charles needed to structure implementation milestones to minimise disruptions during peak retail sale periods.

Between the staff changes and time restrictions, Alison and her team lacked the resources they needed to finalise implementation. So Precise began playing a heavier role during implementation.

Precise provided additional expertise, consulting, and resources both from a technical and functional aspect to help Alison and her team get the project across the finish line.

“We called in Precise very last minute to help us with re-implementation. They pulled out all the stops to provide us with what we needed.”

PRECISE HELPS WITH EVERY STEP—FROM CONSULTING TO SUPPORT

The first thing Precise did was help Julian Charles with a creative approach for implementing Precise POS 10 as a proof of concept. They helped bring ten stores online with Epicor POS 10 integrated to Epicor ERP 10, and subsequently updated Julian Charles’ Epicor 9 financials system to ensure that they had the functionality required.

“Precise provided consultancy on how Epicor ERP 10 would help us manage our financials better, and they worked with us to ensure that fundamental things like VAT and general ledger structure were implemented correctly,” Alison says.

This proof of concept let them test the new versions of their POS and ERP with their best stores, before rolling them out to the remaining 50+ locations across the UK.

Throughout the whole process, Alison was impressed by Precise’s commitment to ensuring that their go-live went smoothly and that it didn’t disrupt normal working hours.

“Swapping our stores over to Epicor ERP 10 had to be done outside of retail hours. So that was a huge benefit of working with Precise—I could call them with an issue in the afternoon, and by the morning it would be sorted,” she says. “Their engagement has always been incredible—and they go above and beyond for us.”

Despite the prolonged implementation and the challenges faced, Precise was always there to advise Alison and her team.

“Anytime we encountered a minor issue, Precise was there straight away, helping us solve it. From a support point of view, Precise is wonderful.”

STREAMLINED PROCESSES SAVE TIME AND MONEY

Four months after Precise became more heavily involved in Julian Charles’ ERP re-implementation, Epicor ERP 10 and Precise POS 10 were live across all 60+ locations.

Epicor ERP 9 was retired. For Alison, the difference is night and day.

“Epicor ERP 10 is working how an ERP system should. We’re accomplishing tasks 100x quicker than we were under the old system,” she says.

Team members previously weathered long wait times and workflow choke points that massively slowed down efficiency. With Epicor ERP 10, Alison says those disruptions have disappeared.

“People who used to work with our old ERP were absolutely snowed under. Now, they’re able to do their jobs. They’re no longer waiting for the system to run for half an hour before they get the data they need—it’s all instantaneous,” she adds.

By streamlining day-to-day workflow processes, Epicor ERP 10 is already saving Julian Charles both time and money.

“We used to need a team of three people to stay on top of our ERP—and we were always playing catch up. Now, we’re cutting that role down to one person and the workload will be manageable,” Alison says.

“For the first time in six years, we’re able to pull our monthly management accounts off of the system and use them to make impactful decisions.”

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