Understanding of the Challenges Facing Modern Manufacturers Key to Selection

Epicor Software Corporation, a global leader in business software solutions for manufacturing, distribution, retail and services organisations, today announced that Limbs & Things, a global designer and manufacturer of clinical and surgical skills training products, has chosen the Epicor next-generation enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution to replace its customer relationship management (CRM) and manufacturing resource planning (MRP) software with a quote-to-cash ERP implementation.

For over 20 years, Limbs & Things has developed and built training products for use by surgeons within hospitals and academic facilities. In recent years the company’s turnover has increased four-fold and its products are sold through distributors in over 80 countries. The company has sales offices in the US, Australia and Sweden, and is headquartered in the UK.

“Our existing systems have served us fine, but they do not talk well with each other,” said Nic Riley, managing director at Limbs & Things. “With the growth we have experienced, we wanted the information we hold across our applications to be much better integrated. We also wanted a more advanced manufacturing system that would allow us to introduce routings, more accurate job costing and better lead times for our customers.”

Limbs & Things had found that its CRM and MRP systems could not be integrated, so when orders were placed, they had to be entered manually into the MRP queue. Using Epicor ERP, Limbs & Things will have full real-time visibility of its prospects, customers and orders across all of its operational areas. Limbs & Things reviewed a number of ERP solutions with the support of an accounting firm before selecting Epicor ERP. One of the key criteria that Limbs & Things placed on the selection process was the level of functionality available in each solution out of the box. Epicor rated highest on this as well as offering an ease of configuration that gave Limbs & Things confidence that they would be able to self-maintain the implementation in the future.

Riley continued, “We want to get to a live system as soon as possible and could see how this will be possible with Epicor ERP. We didn’t want to spend months managing external parties that were writing and customising code; we have a business to run, and don’t have the resources to be diverted into the minutiae of a drawn out implementation -- we need minimum disruption.”

Limbs & Things were particularly impressed with the knowledge and enthusiasm of the Epicor team.  “Many of the vendors just didn’t get the challenges of our business, or their solutions were a number of products stitched together. Epicor understood what we were trying to achieve, and had a lot of manufacturing experience within the team we met,” concluded Riley.

“In today’s modern manufacturing business it is essential to be able to see the full sales, finance and manufacturing cycles in one place, integrated together,” said Malcolm Fox, vice president, product marketing for Epicor. “It is through that end-to-end visibility that efficiency is gained and everyone can look for inspiration and places to innovate within the business for the benefit of customers and improved profitability.”