Intelligent Tech Channels Issue 31 | Page 47

INTELLIGENT SOFTWARE Epicor partner deploys Epicor ERP for UAE manufacturer E picor partner, Cork Information Technology, has worked with Epoch Cosmetics & Toiletries’ stakeholders to bring the full power of the Epicor platform to the company and its employees. Epicor Software Corporation, a global provider of industry-specific enterprise software to promote business growth, has announced that Epoch Cosmetics & Toiletries LLC has deployed its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution, Epicor ERP, to improve manufacturing and warehousing operations and streamline information flow across the company. Dubai-based Epoch Cosmetics & Toiletries produces aerosols, deodorants, air fresheners and cosmetics for markets all around the world-including its native UAE, the KSA, India, West Africa, Egypt, Oman, the UK, France and the US. The company supplies major brands-such as Elegant, Inspire, Pleasure, Hot & Cold, Mehas and The Scent-to distributors, and also offers contract manufacturing to other brands. Having grown from a handful of employees to a monthly production capacity of more than two million products in just 10 years, Epoch Cosmetics & Toiletries realised it would need to replace its existing ERP solution to continue to expand and grow. “As we grew, our legacy system was not catering to our needs, especially in manufacturing, warehousing and sales,” said Abbas Hamid, Director at Epoch Cosmetics & Toiletries. The company’s warehousing issues stemmed from a lack of real time accuracy and visibility for on-hand stock levels from the front-end system. The necessity to implement manual workarounds was impacting productivity and inaccuracies were affecting stock valuation. In addition, stock retrieval was employee-driven, rather than system-driven, leading to further inaccuracies if goods were not correctly stored. Other complications existed based on the absence of a stock-taking module in the legacy ERP, requiring warehouse employees to perform an entirely manual reconciliation. “In addition, the manufacturing module within the legacy system only captured the cost of materials, so labour costs and direct costs were never captured. These had to be generated through manual calculations and estimations, which affected our financials,” added Hamid. Reporting was also cumbersome, with pending PO reports and shipment tracking requiring manual preparation and the system offered no capability for real time reporting. Epoch Cosmetics & Toiletries decided it needed an ERP system that was tailored to its business operations, was easy to deploy and use, and would be flexible enough to allow the company to grow unimpeded. After considering four major ERP vendors, Hamid and his team selected Epicor ERP due to the manufacturing-centric focus and native functionality of the solution. “While we obviously needed some level of customisation, we were very clear that we wanted to adapt to a system and be in line with best industry practices, rather than the other way around where the system has to adapt to us,” added Hamid. Epoch Cosmetics & Toiletries’ stakeholders were drawn to the real time reporting functionality of Epicor ERP, as well as its multi-region capabilities, so that future expansion plans would not be hampered and that consolidated reports could be easily compiled. The company’s project team worked with regional Epicor partner, Cork Information Technology, to deploy the new solution to users in the UAE. Supply chain, sales, CRM, manufacturing, finance and asset management will all be key areas of functionality that are expected to help enhance Epoch Cosmetics & Toiletries’ operations. • INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS Issue 31 47