What You Must Know About ERP For the Small Shop

In the hyper-competitive metalworking business, some job shops with only a few employees still use separate homegrown systems or one very old program that is not very efficient in managing and reconciling their manufacturing and financial operations. They still shy away from ERP because making that transition is just too big of a task, too large of an investment in IT infrastructure on-site and training that is more trouble than it’s worth.

But times have changed: With today’s cloud-based systems, the upgrade to ERP isn’t as challenging as it was before. These new systems don’t require full-time IT resources or a costly infrastructure, which can be very attractive for a small shop that wants to lower operating costs and improve efficiency. Cloud-based systems no longer require a hefty IT infrastructure on-site, which can make advanced ERP available to even the smallest of shops. However, to plan for an upgrade, shop owners must consider the factors that are explored in this webinar by Epicor:

• The cost of doing nothing: When shops don’t implement ERP
• What causes ERP projects to fail: Why successful implementation matters as much as the technology itself
• How to get started
• Process, timing, cost, sizing and other considerations in starting a selection process

Featured Speakers:

Scott Marienthal has been working with manufacturing companies all over the world for 25 years. Since joining Epicor in 2010, he has focused on assisting larger manufacturing and distribution companies in the Midwest benefit from Epicor ERP. Backed by the most talented team in the country, Scott has seen the Midwest become Epicor’s most productive and successful region.

Sonia Haslam is the co-founder of Encompass Solutions, Inc., a Platinum Certified Epicor Partner, founded in 2001. She began her career in manufacturing, working on an ERP implementation. From there she became proficient in small business operations and has grown to take on ever more complex projects, including many for large, multi-national companies. Sonia has been implementing business systems for over 20 years, in a cross-section of process and discrete industries. She is particularly knowledgeable in enterprise-wide integration and the management and support of heavily customized applications. With her depth and breadth of experience, she commits to understanding the client’s core competencies and partners with the enterprise to achieve total success, providing solutions that allow customers to remain competitive and on the leading edge of technology.