ERP Systems and greener grass

When things go wrong… they will say “Bruce your system does not work.” :smiley:

Keyword: Your System.

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I have alot of passion about this topic and alot of hatred because I have seen the best of all worlds…

  • The Worst Implementation Ever
  • The Best Implementation One Could Ever Be Part Of
  • The Meh Implementation

I even saw folks from EUG quit because “The System is too customizable” and their Implementation team couldn’t handle that ability with great responsibility and thought customize everything! For example do your internal reports like “Job Traveler”, “Pick Slip”, “Time Phase” really NEED to have your company logo on them??? They will be recycled in 10 hours! Probably Not. But there are folks who want it on every report, whyyyyyyyyyyy.

:slight_smile: One day when I can sit down and write without being rushed I can compile our process and give you some templates.

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You could always give them a pencil and a pad of paper and then ask if they felt better off…

This!

That’s why insuring the team owns their processes is so important.

Quite often the difficulty in getting acceptance, is that the business case is strategic rather than simply making someone’s job easier.

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The thorn in my side, everywhere I’ve been, has been due to companies rejecting “Best Business Practice” that the entire rest of the world is moving towards, and wants everything customized to some archaic process flow that doesn’t make logical sense. Every case of “Epicor Sucks” I’ve encountered (aside from being in regards to Epicor Support, in which I typically find the problem or solution well before they ever admit that there is indeed an issue) has been in regards to people who think the ERP data flow should occur in some illogical or irrational manner that only makes the slightest bit of sense in their own minds.

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Epicor has shot themselves in the foot on this. As you said, Inside consulting & implementation is what destroys this product’s perception.

We had been a partner for over a decade and every single year Epicor makes it harder and harder to do business with them due to their greed to keep consulting revenue internal, regardless of client need, partner skills or success.

I remember when Epicor acquired Docstar. They ended up with a 4 month backlog on projects due to all the Epicor ERP related interest. We as a partner went out of our way to get up to speed and certified on this very decent product.

Yet Epicor refused to refer any implementations to either Epicor ERP partners or even Docstar partners who had been doing implementations with Docstar for a decade before Epicor acquired them.

They went out and hired anyone with a pulse. I sat in on an ‘implementation’ and the implementor had been hired from Ricoh the week before where he was selling copiers.

Absolutely clueless, but they wanted to show the revenue to keep the outside investors happy before worrying about client wait times and satisfaction.

And if that attitude does not change, this company will always be on a very slow organic growth trajectory.

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Mark I got that consultant- or someone similar. It was the worst implementation I have ever been a part of. It was unbelievable. It left a very sour taste for me, but I know they are better than that and it was just this one time. I learned a lot through the docstar implementation about software selection and vendor selection for the consulting part of it.

Epicor made it right in the end, but it was a very tough, frustrating implementation.

I don’t know why they would do that to that consultant and for their own brand.

I have been part of few implementation of different ERP. Irrespective of the product, if the project is driven by the customer then only it will be a success.

During implementation where the customer core project team members stated "YOUR SYSTEM ", that project failed.

I wonder why the customer makes such statement, they have spent lot of time and money in selecting an ERP system, but during implementation they are not ready to accept its their system.
This is may be due to a fear factor (mindset) of

  • ERP will take over their job
  • It will highlight the flaws in the business process

RACI chart absence will surely make the project die.

  • R-Responsible
  • A-Accountable
  • C-Consult
  • I-Inform

As for EPICOR concern, I think this company focus is only ERP not any thing else. They have one product, ERP. The evaluation of EPICOR ERP proves the same.

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“That’s why insuring the team owns their processes is so important.”

You got to have a management team that buys into philosophy first.
The first month I started at my current job, I had an assistant plant Manager tell me (with a straight face), their finished goods numbers never matched their shipped product numbers so they just ignored the FG numbers.
They never counseled the inspectors to input correct FG numbers because it was hard enough finding qualified inspectors as is and couldn’t put in place a rule change that would risk one being let go due to too many infractions. I now spend most of my Friday’s every week performing audits of FGs to make sure they entered them correctly that week. Job security.
People can say accountability all they want but until it’s actually enforced, the inmates run the asylum.

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Process Standardization

Prior to implementing a Multi-Company Epicor system. It is quite common for companies to operate in a very diverse fashion at the regional level. However, as the company integrates globally, these regional variances will begin to cause problems in both efficiency and effectiveness.

Standardization can bring consistency and positively affect the bottom line.

As part of your Epicor Implementation, do not default to customizations, instead first take a good look at business processes and make modifications. Any good Epicor implementation also modifies Business Processes. It’s not just about shoving the software in, bending it with customizations and off you go to the next plant. If you must customize then customize for the process and not the user. Work with regional executives on first changing the processes before you try to change the software, not doing so has been the cause for numerous failed Epicor Case Studies.

The most crucial part is that your setup data is in harmony across all Epicor Companies, or you will have a field day that never ends with Multi-Company or any Integrations.

To name a few:

  • Develop a Customer/Vendor ID numbering system.
  • Develop a Part numbering system. (Don’t allow certain characters, control it with a Configurator)
  • Standardize Terms, Purchase Terms, Discount Codes.
  • Standardize Part Classes, Product Groups, Sales Categories.
  • Standardize UOM Classes, Unit of Measures (try to use ANSI Standards as well).
  • Standardize Naming Conventions of Plants, Warehouses, Calendars.
  • Standardize Customer Facing & Internal Reports.

Your Epicor Governance team should be in control of managing that Setup Data, for example if one Company thinks it’s a great idea to have NET75 Terms, then NET75 should be configured for all Companies, including your Master Data Company. UOM is another great example. Usually SME’s would request the change from the Governance Team, who should review the request and work with corporate to standardize the request across all companies.

If you do not standardize it could mean that you will have to create and maintain translation tables to consolidate this data. If you multiply this situation several times by customer, vendor, plant or company, then the problem becomes a very substantial one.

Switching to any new system is a great opportunity to evaluate Standards, Processes, Simplification & Automation.

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Thanks for the knowledge Haso! Much appreciated!

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Easier said than done! :slight_smile:

My previous team had backing by the execs to make any change necessary and full trust, we owned processes and erp… It was great! But that is not always the case.

@hkeric.wci Smashed that one on the head…

But in response to @psiebers The Dynamics Remote Assist with Hololens is very cool.

I noticed that too! Very cool… Now as for the licensing structure… 68 pages!