ElectricalTrends’ Tech Vision Series: Epicor’s Eclipse Helping Distributors

This week we’re continuing with our ElectricalTrends Tech Vision Series.

One of the most, if not the most, important piece of technology within a distributor is their ERP system. It essentially is the central repository for a distributor. Among functions, an ERP system is essential for sales order entry, accounting services (A/R, A/P, etc), managing inventory, processing orders and much more.

We’ve reached out to a number of ERP systems and will be featuring them over the next few months.  First up is Epicor, the developer of Eclipse.  According to Electrical Wholesaling’s 2015 Top 200, of distributors who responded to the survey, 72 companies utilized Eclipse as their ERP system.

Electrical distributors face continuously changing business challenges.  Competition is coming from Amazon Business, large national firms acquiring local distributors, and rising buyer expectations. While each distributor will respond differently, two major needs drive Epicor’s continuously evolving offerings – “help me grow my business” and “help me improve my business.”

Grow My Business: Distributors must work to add new business services and capabilities to gain a larger share of wallet, attract new customers and defend their current accounts. These initiatives to deepen customer intimacy usually involve front office and customer-facing functions, new services, personalization and business specialization.

Three system functions Epicor sees as important in the Eclipse offering are:

1. Gathering customer information is driving needs for CRM capabilities for the ERP system, as well as mobile, to capture customer information and improve customer service.
2. Value-added services such as tool rentals and field service allow distributors to leverage their capital investment in expensive tools and equipment, coupled with their service expertise. In 2016, Epicor plans to add rentals management and field service management to Eclipse to tightly integrate service offerings.
3. eCommerce will impact how orders are entered. A new collaborative order entry offering will help to ensure that orders are created correctly and provide a shared order-entry experience. During order creation, the customer can access rich content about the products on their order, and also search for and add new products.  Collaborative order entry reinforces customer confidence and prevents expensive errors from incorrect material orders and deliveries.

Improve My Business: This area focuses on improving and automating processes, increasing profit, and expanding business scalability. Initiatives in operational excellence usually involve back office processes, inventory, core operations, and logistics that make your business more efficient and profitable.

The pressure to operate more efficiently is a constant, following shifts in the distribution landscape and changes in business models.  Distributors should attack efficiency opportunities in order of impact size; this means knowing where your costs and profits come from.

One size doesn’t fit all, so you need a comprehensive business solution that allows you to enhance your processes as you grow your business. To help, Epicor provides tools, from proactive work queues and comprehensive reporting, to analytical tools, companion products and business partner networks to help you run your business more profitably.

There are many ways for distributors to improve the bottom line. Some capabilities that Epicor has been working on for Eclipse include:

• A streamlined, structured cycle counting program that helps avoid stock-outs
• A new freight audit queue to recover freight expenses
• Integration with distributor resources such as Strategic Pricing Associates for price optimization and Avalara for real-time sales tax calculation

In a world where Amazon wants to deliver products on the same day as the customer orders them, distributors need to balance their investments between growing their services and improving their operations. With a balanced business profile, you can provide the combination of high-quality services and operational excellence needed to compete with today’s larger distributors.

The above is shared by Mark Artim, Epicor Senior Product Manager.  Mark is responsible for the roadmap of Epicor’s Eclipse product. He has worked with Eclipse for 18 years. He learned the distribution business at his family’s plumbing supply business in the Chicago area.  Mark can be reached at MArtim@epicor.com.

 

Your ERP system is integral to the success of your business.  It feeds data to other technology tools. Understanding your provider’s product road map is important to understanding if your company will be able to be on the leading edge to help you or will it be an inhibitor that constrains your business.

Share your thoughts on your ERP system, what functionality you need and/or how you evaluate ERP companies.