ERP Improves Customer Journeys 

Manufacturers and distributors, laser-focused on their back-end processes, often seek out enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to streamline their internal operations. However, when used strategically, the benefits of ERP can extend far beyond your shop floor. A streamlined supply chain that is finely tuned to customer needs can yield amazing productivity and return business. In this post, we’re helping companies rethink ERP technology by explaining how the software optimizes customer experiences.  

Supplier Relationships 

One of the most critical but complicated aspects of production cycles is the relationship with suppliers. When a manufacturer receives late shipments or low-quality materials or services, it creates a ripple effect throughout the supply chain and eventually to the customer. Customers have high standards, meaning they’ll part ways if their order arrives late or fails to meet their expectations. With an ERP system, users can keep a close eye on suppliers, so their clients can receive premium products.  

Epicor, a world-class ERP vendor, includes a robust Supplier Quality Management module that provides real-time updates on quality levels and shipment inspections to ensure that your Bill of Materials (BOM) only defines the highest quality components and raw materials. Epicor enables manufacturers to evaluate performance to select the right suppliers for all their needs. With sophisticated dashboards, users can also track suppliers and a variety of other metrics in real time. Additionally, Epicor’s Kanban tools automate contact with outside vendors to enable direct replenishment in line with lean practices and customer demand. 

As manufacturers outsource more and more of their processes, it’s becoming increasingly important and difficult to trace supplier quality to provide the best products to customers. Epicor ERP ensures that nothing is outside of your control, including supplier relationships. 

Supply Chain Management 

As we’ve established, manufacturers are increasingly outsourcing parts of their supply chain, making it harder for them to locate inefficiencies and poor practices. When businesses can’t discover the source of a problem, they’re liable to point the finger at outside partners instead of finding the issues right under their noses. This can enormously impact your customer relationships. Without visibility into your processes, you can’t provide accurate information to clients or fix problems that are hurting your lead times and deliveries.  

That’s where ERP comes in handy. Enterprise software offers full-scale visibility of your operations, even when they’re dispersed across global locations and suppliers. Epicor ERP includes an out-of-the-box, cloud-based supply chain management (SCM) module designed to track any assembly, subassembly or component in real time. Today’s manufacturers must have the agility to make changes on the fly to manage complex processes and tailor products for each client. When new developments occur, your Epicor system will alert you immediately, so you can instantly reschedule production lines and reach out to customers without incurring bottlenecks or receiving complaints.  

The total visibility and granular control powered by Epicor SCM ensures you have a supply chain that can stay up to par with customer demands.  

CRM Integration 

Today’s consumers always want to stay in the loop, making ERP software’s transparency into back-end processes critical for robust customer experiences. But this insight can only go so far when it isn’t integrated with front-office platforms. When you connect your ERP and CRM systems, enterprise data becomes all the more powerful.  

With a CRM and ERP integration, service and sales reps are no longer stalling to find the answers to customer queries. From one place, you can pull up inventory, pricing, orders and more to provide instant service and speed up sales pipelines. Back offices can also strengthen their demand planning by instantly leveraging customer data from the CRM system. Additionally, integrations automatically update back and front-end data, eliminating dual data entries and minimizing human error. Fewer errors, faster service, greater accuracy—software integration serves as the ultimate solution for enhancing customer experiences.  

Wrap Up 

Manufacturers and distributors can no longer afford to bury customer journeys at the bottom of their priorities. Personalized, accurate experiences are quickly becoming the key brand differentiator. To keep up with your consumers’ growing needs, it’s critical to reimagine how your ERP instance can drive value throughout your enterprise—not just on the shop floor.  

An Epicor Platinum Partner, Datix has been a leading expert in ERP solutions and services for manufacturers and distributors for over 20 years. We answer to all our clients’ needs and stay on top of industry trends to ensure their enterprise software optimizes their processes. To help our clients, we also go beyond ERP implementations to integrate Epicor with CRM, eCommerce and Marketing Automation systems. Our pre-built Unity integration solution instantly connects your software to form a single source of truth that powers end-to-end productivity. 

Maximize the value of your ERP software—learn how by contacting Datix’s premier consultants today! 

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