Flexible Out-of-the-Box Features and Customer Portals Will Help Drive M-TEK
Epicor Software Corporation, a global leader in business software solutions for manufacturing, distribution, retail and services organisations, today announced that M-TEK, a UK-headquartered electronics sub-contractor offering full turn-key manufacturing and test services, has selected the Epicor next-generation enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution to support its complex service offering and rapid expansion.
Founded in 1996, M-TEK offers a wide range of services to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that rely on high quality electronics manufacturing. From initial design and prototyping to volume manufacture, testing and electro-mechanical assembly, the management team has worked hard to make the business as successful as it is, doubling its revenue in the last two years, continuously hiring talent, investing in new machinery, investigating and implementing new processes, and subsequently growing M-TEK’s portfolio of value added services.
“The business challenge we face is having our current ERP system support the plethora of specific requirements dictated by our OEM’s most technically challenging designs and complex builds,” said Frederick Kayrouz, general manager for M-TEK. “In parallel, the addition of high calibre talents and business best practices implemented in the operations, process engineering and supply chain business units have further strained our ERP backbone. Hence our ERP system needed to be phased out and replaced to ensure we can continue to provide the granular details that our customers need in terms of manufacturing operations, lifecycle traceability and supply chain management. Our existing system is really a finance package with an ERP module, substantiated by a number of our own in-house developed software solutions to support the required additional functionality.”
M-TEK wanted a solution that would not only support its core functional requirements out of the box, but that could continue to support the business as it grows, help and direct staff to perform seat oriented tasks more efficiently, and allow new functions such as real-time metrics monitoring through dashboards and custom reports, full product development and lifecycle management and support, as well as customer portals.
“We want our customers to be able to consult their dedicated components stock levels in our bonded stores and monitor live order progress. This ultimately gives them the increased confidence of having selected the right partner who is in return offering them a 24-hour unrestricted visibility of their dedicated manufacturing slots and the progress and completion rate of their outstanding order book,” added Kayrouz. “Equally, we want to better plan and control the progress of project elements that we sub-contract to off-site business units working under the M-TEK umbrella. Epicor is going to give us internal and external visibility of the business in a way that has not been possible before.”
M-TEK reviewed a number of solutions before selecting Epicor, and considered upgrades from its existing supplier. The management team decided the time investment needed to update its existing systems meant there was negligible cost difference in implementing a new system, but much greater value in appointing Epicor as a new end-to-end solution, over others considered.
“We’ve reached a size where we need staff performing specific roles at a higher throughput—we are no longer a few people with many hats,” concluded Kayrouz. “Epicor is a system that will put all the knowledge of the business in the hands of every user, when they need it, and allow them to work much more efficiently and intelligently towards the set targets.”
“Epicor offers customers across a wide range of verticals a huge range of functionality straight out of the box,” said Malcolm Fox, vice president, product marketing at Epicor. “Time and time again customers are telling us that they want industry best-practice processes coupled with the flexibility to configure a solution to the specific needs of their business. Epicor is proving itself to deliver on those needs, by giving customers absolute control over their ERP solution.”
