Software to help deliver productivity improvement

The Manufacturing Institute is to deploy Epicor for Service Enterprises software to help deliver productivity improvement programmes across the Northwest UK.

The Manufacturing Institute, a non-profit making organisation driven by manufacturers for manufacturers, is to deploy Epicor for Service Enterprises software to help deliver high impact skills building and productivity improvement programmes to manufacturing companies across the Northwest.

Epicor for Service Enterprises is an end-to-end, Web service-based enterprise service automation (ESA) solution that provides a single source for managing and automating every aspect of the project-focused organization.

Adam Buckley, projects manager for The Manufacturing Institute, explained the decision making process, "Given our scale of growth over the past few years and plans to significantly broaden the support provided to manufacturers, we needed to re-engineer our business processes and have in place a system that readily measures the cost, quality and delivery of our products and services." A cross-functional business team covering operations, finance, sales, marketing and IT departments at The Manufacturing Institute undertook a rigorous four month business review that underpinned the software selection process.

As Buckley explains, "Our approach was based upon understanding and then defining our business model so that our business needs drove through the requirements of the technology solution rather than the other way around." This work resulted in a list of 300 functional requirements, which were then issued as part of a request for proposal (RFP) to 15 potential solution providers in the ESA, professional services automation (PSA), and customer relationship management (CRM) market places.

Alongside product functionality, the selection criteria looked at a number of other important elements including, vendor stability, product usability, current installed base and the ability of the vendor to execute and support the system.

The Epicor solution produced the best technical fit against the requirements of the business, as Buckley continued, "We did anticipate short-listing two or three vendors but the Epicor for Service Enterprises solution was the only solution to offer the breadth of functionality we required outside of a tier one solution such as PeopleSoft or SAP Professional Services.

Other options would have resulted in either a compromise, the need for future development or were outside the scope of our budget." The Manufacturing Institute will rollout the software in two phases with an initial implementation of financial accounting and project management scheduled for April.

The next phase will implement front office services such as marketing, lead and opportunity tracking, training course management, all with integrated workflow.

For the past decade, The Manufacturing Institute has helped transform manufacturing performance, working with over 13,000 people in 2000 companies to boost competitiveness.

In addition, The Manufacturing Institute delivers the DTI Manufacturing Advisory Service, offering manufacturing companies in the Northwest free diagnostic visits and support for projects to help improve productivity.

In just over two and half years, Northwest manufacturers have achieved over £35.5m of productivity improvements.

"This is a major achievement for Epicor to win such a prestigious client in the area of service delivery," said Ian Walker, senior vice president of international sales for Epicor.

"We have had a very strong response to our Epicor for Service Enterprises solution, adding a number of new customers in the area of enterprise service automation." About The Manufacturing Institute Founded in 1994, The Manufacturing Institute delivers the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Manufacturing Advisory Service.

It was appointed by the DTI and the Northwest Regional Development Agency as a Regional Centre for Manufacturing Excellence.

The Manufacturing Institute offers industrial, academic and business support expertise.

As a result it has helped to deliver over GBP 35m of productivity and skills improvements in Northwest manufacturers of all sizes.

The Northwest Regional Development Agency is responsible for the sustainable economic development and regeneration of England's northwest and has five key priorities: Business Development, Regeneration, Skills and Employment, Infrastructure and Image.

About Epicor Software Corporation For 20 years, Epicor has been a recognized leader dedicated to providing integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM) software solutions to midmarket companies around the world.

With the acquisition of Scala, Epicor is a global leader in the midmarket serving over 20,000 customers in over 140 countries.

Epicor leverages innovative technologies like Web services in developing end-to-end, industry-specific solutions for manufacturing, distribution, enterprise service automation, and hospitality that enable companies to immediately drive efficiency throughout business operations and build competitive advantage.

With the scalability and flexibility to support long-term growth, Epicor's solutions are complemented by a full range of services, providing a single point of accountability to promote rapid return on investment and low total cost of ownership.

Epicor's worldwide headquarters are located in Irvine, California with offices and affiliates around the world.

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