In today’s economy, there is no room for waste and inefficiency. Success is about reducing costs as much as it is about revenue. Keeping tight control over capital and operational expenditure is a critical priority for any organization. The key to efficient controlled spending lies in the ability to empower staff with requisitioning responsibilities whilst ensuring that contracted buying agreements and spending limits are enforced and that requisitions are routed to the relevant individuals for approval promptly.
Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, or renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.
Big Ass Fans first made its mark selling massive ceiling fans that spun slowly but moved astounding amounts of air thanks to aerodynamically friendly designs. The fans kept large spaces that lacked air conditioning—such as factories and dairy barns—feeling cool and comfortable.
After an extensive search, the company landed on Epicor ERP, which has proven capable of growing alongside the company.
Success Highlights
Challenges
Streamline production
Identify cost savings across the supply chain
Solution
Epicor® ERP
Benefits
Identified cost savings in the supply chain
Enabled changes to production schedule in real time
Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.
Join Epicor and SourceDay for a webinar to learn about COVID-19’s impact on other Epicor users’ operations and supply chain disruptions.
SourceDay’s VP of Product Josh Tong is going to share data from more than 7,000 companies to ensure supply chain efficiency. Josh will also take time to present data about PO line changes occurring during the pandemic. With the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc on supply chains globally, efficiency is more important now than it ever has been.
Take this opportunity to be proactive in avoiding future supply chain disruptions.
Josh’s 4 tips for better supply chain management:
Focusing on the most critical PO exceptions
Containing costs through communication
Getting quick supplier confirmations
Expediting updates from suppliers
Register for the event, taking place September 15, 2020, at midnight CST, using the link below.
SourceDay’s platform provides a digital interface between a manufacturer’s ERP system and hundreds of suppliers, automatically updating changes to delivery dates, pricing, and quantities throughout the order lifecycle and across the supply chain. Replacing manual processes with software improves customers’ understanding of the many changes that occur throughout the lifecycle of an order. Procurement teams stop spending their time on fire drills and reacting to expensive surprises. Now they have time to manage suppliers more strategically, proactively addressing pricing and quality issues and ensuring their factories receive the materials they need to meet customer commitments on time.
Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.
The Encompass team has returned from DMC 2019 / DMSMS 2019 in Phoenix. We had exceptional conversations, learned quite a bit from industry leaders, and started on the path to a few strategic partnerships. All of these activities will benefit our current and future customers. Like all conferences, there are ups and downs, as well as ways in which the event delivered and fell short. This event was no different we’re glad to have the opportunity to share our findings with you. Here’s a high-level account of what we learned.
The Big Picture At DMC 2019
We had the opportunity to hear from and speak directly to the leading manufacturers supplying our defense forces. Companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and General Dynamics headlined the event. However, smaller manufacturers far outnumbered industry heavyweights. These SMBs keep the United States at the top of aerospace and Defense technology. Their achievements and efforts are no less integral or noteworthy.
At the Defense Manufacturing Diminishing / Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages Conference, additive manufacturing took center stage. This technology is a solution to the problem of parts and material shortages. Aerospace and defense industries, forces, and researchers are looking to additive manufacturing technology to deliver on the acquisition of parts and components that no longer have reliable procurement sources.
Unfortunately, according to the university professors, high-ranking military personnel, and manufacturers we spoke with, additive manufacturing is not where the technology’s marketers would have you believe it is. The technology is still very much in its infancy. It doesn’t have the reliability that industrial manufacturing processes possess. In short, 3D printing can’t yet meet the tolerances, conformance and compliance requirements that many aerospace and defense applications require. The tech is too new to be reliable. So, for now, 3D printing is relegated to consumer markets and non-essential components. However, everyone agreed that in a few year’s time, this technology will be much closer in delivering on those expectations.
Where We Fit In
Encompass Solutions maintains a wealth of industry knowledge in manufacturing, sourcing, and distribution. Not only this, but the Epicor ERP solution and peripheral products are perfectly aligned to assist our most integral and transformative defense industries. This helps in keeping our servicemen and women at the forefront of technological superiority. Many of the manufacturers supplying our defense forces have engaged Encompass to leverage our expertise and solutions. We look forward to continuing the conversations started at DMC/DMSMS 2019.
Encompass Solutions, Inc. is an ERP consulting firm and Epicor Gold Partner that offers professional services in business consulting, project management, and software implementation. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems or addressing the emerging challenges in corporate and operational growth, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. As experts in identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of Industry.
Traditionally, the procurement process requires a great deal of manual effort as businesses commit resources to find and acquire goods, services, or work from external sources. These agreements require further attention as contracts need to be drawn, terms agreed to, and those agreements are managed throughout the life of the manufacturer/supplier relationship. This often extends far beyond one source to incorporate many external suppliers who can fulfill needs when another supplier cannot or for materials of varying quality and composition. The process has been most often achieved through a tendering or competitive bidding process. Fortunately, modern procurement automation solutions have enabled manufacturers to hand off many of their manual tasks to self-guided systems. The resulting procurement process improvement frees valuable internal resources for business-critical decision-making and strategizing efforts. Our partners at SourceDay have developed these industry-leading procurement automation solutions for use in an array of manufacturing and supply chain scenarios.
SourceDay Procurement Automation Solutions
SourceDay Procurement Automation Solutions For Buyers And Suppliers
For suppliers, Managing customers’ needs can be a daunting task. SourceDay allows you to handle it all in one convenient place. Purchase order management and buyer/supplier collaboration solutions work together to eliminate the headaches that come with managing an extensive list of customers. What’s even more attractive is the fact that SourceDay’s procurement automation solutions are free for suppliers.
For buyers, maintaining an effective and intuitive collaboration process with suppliers brings many challenges. when parts are being ordered in vast quantities the sheer volume of parts being ordered and so much relying on those parts arriving perfectly, supplier relationships are critical. A delay, an error, poor quality materials, or miscommunication can have detrimental implications with ripple effects that impact the end customer.
ERP systems, like Infor, SAP, NetSuite, and Epicor, help companies manage their businesses from financial operations to inventory management, production, and customer fulfillment. As good as ERP systems are, they all have feature gaps in functionality. Today’s ERP systems lack effective tools for managing purchase orders and suppliers. Once the ERP establishes requirements and the POs are generated, most buyers leave their ERP systems and rely on static, manual spreadsheets, emails, phone calls, and faxes to handle the rest. This equates to data in the ERP system being out of sync and creates aggravation, and mistakes while making it impossible for manufacturing and distribution companies to schedule production runs and forecast deliveries to their customers.
SourceDay ERP Integrations
SourceDay has developed seamless integrations alongside the most widely used ERP systems. This extends manufacturers’ investments in technology, amplifies the power in controlling internal and external processes, as well as boosts the functionality of existing ERP systems. By digitizing and automating supplier purchase order updates into existing ERP systems, customers receive a complete data transfer that eliminates errors and wasted time that results from manual-entry tasks, all while maintaining up-to-date data in your ERP system. Implementing SourceDay, further increases the return on existing ERP system investments.
SourceDay can integrate into nearly any ERP:
Epicor
Epicor Eclipse
Epicor Prophet 21
SAP
NetSuite
ECI M1
Exact Macola
Infor
Infor CloudSuite Industrial
Infor-SyteLine
Infor Visual
Microsoft Dynamics AX
Microsoft Dynamics NAV
Plex
QAD
Shoptech E2
If you don’t see your current ERP system in the list below, you can reach out using the contact us link below to confirm that your system is eligible for SourceDay ERP Integration.
Mobile SourceDay Procurement Automation Solutions
SourceDay is the only procurement management software specifically made to solve the most common challenges manufacturing and distribution companies face in managing their direct spending. Now, with SourceDay Mobile, procurement leaders, and their teams can manage procurement from anywhere at any time from their smartphones. Users will have quicker access to view, acknowledge and communicate on procurement data, where the data is being consumed, for endless collaboration. No other solution brings greater execution and visibility into the procurement and PO lifecycle while reducing risk, costs, and delays.
The benefits of mobility are felt several times over with SourceDay procurement automation solutions, including:
Manufacturing and distribution business flexibility that delivers agility in decision-making processes anywhere, regardless of location, country, or time zones
Stronger and more easily managed buyer/supplier partnerships with collaboration tools that can be leveraged anytime, anywhere
More efficient and proactive customer support to drive supply chain performance
Real-time notifications delivered to your mobile devices provide the framework for immediate action and quick decision-making
Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.
Traditionally, the procurement process requires a great deal of manual effort as businesses commit resources to find and acquire goods, services, or work from external sources. These agreements require further attention as contracts need to be drawn, terms agreed to, and those agreements are managed throughout the life of the manufacturer/supplier relationship. This often extends far beyond one source to incorporate many external suppliers who can fulfill needs when another supplier cannot or for materials of varying quality and composition. The process has been most often achieved through a tendering or competitive bidding process. Fortunately, modern tools have enabled manufacturers to hand off many of these manual tasks to procurement automation solutions. The resulting procurement process improvement frees valuable internal resources for business-critical decision-making and strategizing efforts. Here are our top 10 procurement automation use cases to help start automating the procurement process in your organization.
1. Direct Procurement Tasks: Minimizing The Manual
Spreadsheets, faxes, and emails have long been staples of direct procurement processes. unfortunately, the variability of the results can lead to an unreliable supply chain. There is simply too much opportunity for data entry errors, lost communications, and missed deadlines. This poor visibility in your supply chain and the procurement process can prove to be a significant hurdle to overcome and even potentially cause a halt in manufacturing and machinery. Production stoppages can cost millions in labor, expedited shipping costs, and poor customer satisfaction. By minimizing the manual entry of data and other associated tasks, procurement automation improves your business performance from the inside out.
The benefits of working with a quality supplier cannot be overstated. suppliers are often overlooked as a critical business component as they can impact the functions of your entire organization. Unfortunately, the manual nature of most procurement management makes it difficult to stay on top of past-due or poor-quality materials.
By operating with outdated and disparate tools, there is no visibility into supplier on-time performance and responsiveness to PO acknowledgments and confirmations. Communication between buyers, suppliers, and stakeholders turns into a moving target when what you need is a predictable performer. Automation tools built specifically for the procurement process bring clear and reliable communication channels to the forefront while helping to reduce errors, missed deadlines, and unhappy customers.
3. Supplier Accountability Improves
Procurement automation solutions hold historical data for you to use when evaluating which suppliers are keeping in line with the standards you have set for your relationship. Scorecards keep track of what matters most, including:
Supplier price variance
On-time delivery
Quality
Responsiveness
These scorecards ensure that ISO-certified companies maintain adherence to an in-depth supplier scoring system to remain ISO compliant. If your suppliers are delivering below your expectations, you can see a complete history of events leading to a downgrading of their rating. This makes having conversations about delivery easy, thanks to concrete historical data you can access from anywhere.
4. Procurement Automation Improves Collaboration
The simplicity and clarity of purpose-built procurement automation tools represent a monumental shift in supplier performance and supply chain efficiency. These systems are designed to integrate seamlessly with your ERP system. They deliver the ability to see and react to changes in real time from a single source of data. By automating your needs, from manual buying processes to performance analytics, business becomes streamlined at every level. You’ll find tremendous benefits through procurement automation in:
Collaboration – Increase collaboration between the buyer and supplier.
Visibility – Update data automatically in the ERP and view the information in real time.
Performance – Enhance performance with more accurate information and consistent communication and alerts.
Transformation – Improve productivity and supplier performance with better internal resource allocation and more accurate data.
5. Purchase Order Systems Become Streamlined
Automated purchase order management systems extend the power of your ERP. This provides you with the ability to manage direct spending and buyer-supplier relationships. when purchase orders are created these systems expedite purchase order acknowledgments, track due dates, and status changes, and alert your suppliers to important PO changes. All purchase order details and buyer/supplier communications can be tracked directly with each purchase order. Just like with EDI, updates are sent in real-time and immediately sync to your ERP.
6. Better Document Management
As operations expand, more trading partners and suppliers are brought into the fold. Communications, contracts, purchase orders, invoices, and a host of other documents are being routed back and forth between internal and external resources every day. Procurement automation tools will make sharing and managing all types of documents with your suppliers a hassle-free endeavor. By ensuring your suppliers automatically receive the latest revisions of manuals, prints, bill-of-materials, and specifications, they are better able to meet your needs and deliver on their obligations. Uploading your documents into these procurement automation tools will share the latest version of existing documents with your supplier automatically. New documents being uploaded need initial permissions and routing protocol set up, but it’s on autopilot after that, in most cases. You can even require a supplier to confirm receipt of your document and easily send reminders to suppliers who are slow to accept, further aiding in accountability and supplier performance.
7. Advance Shipment Notifications, Simplified
Completing detailed Advance Shipment Notification (ASN) documents, saving them to a given platform, and automatically sending them to buyers before shipment is made easy with procurement automation. The tools help buyers and receiving departments improve performance as it pertains to incoming supplier shipments with standardized barcodes and shipping labels. A quick scan of a barcode and receivers instantly know the contents of any box.
8. Superior Quality Control
Procurement automation tools track the incoming inspection of materials, placing parts in a quality queue and flagging them for review to simplify your quality control processes. If the item(s) fails inspection, the reviewer inputs the reasons into the tool and collaborates with the supplier to disposition the material.
9. Easy Request For Quote (RFQ) Management
Spreadsheets only slow things down when you want RFQs promptly and intuitive layout. With procurement automation, you can send a request for a quote to your suppliers to track every step of the way, automatically. A comprehensive view of every supplier on your list will allow you to make an informed decision without having to jump between multiple sheets. Tracking responses that align with the best pricing and scorecard rating make it easy to compare offers and choose the suppliers who best fit your requirements.
10. Mobile Utilization Of Procurement Automation
Mobility is key for any modern organization. If you can’t make decisions on the move, you are essentially desk-bound. That means, if you’re not in the office, chances are you’re not taking action. Today, procurement automation solutions place simple and intuitive smartphone apps in your hands. These native-developed applications assist in managing procurement and purchase orders from anywhere, at any time. Leveraging quicker access to view, acknowledge, and communicate procurement data where the data is being consumed allows you to make smarter business decisions, faster.
Want to know more about procurement automation? Get in touch with the experts at Encompass Solutions using the contact us link below. We’ll help you identify the ideal procurement automation solution for your business’s unique needs.
Encompass Solutions, Inc. is an ERP consulting firm, NetSuite Solution Provider, and Epicor Platinum Partner that offers professional services in business consulting, project management, and software implementation. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems or addressing emerging challenges in corporate and operational growth, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. As experts in identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.
