If you’re a manufacturer who relies on direct materials, your supply chain must be resilient and efficient. It is the only way to consistently deliver to your customers and beat the competition. Scalability is also a major concern for many supply chain operations.
This is especially true for direct materials procurement teams who correspond with suppliers via outdated manual methods like emails and spreadsheets.
SourceDay steps to address these challenges for manufacturing operations. SourceDay’s solution automates the purchase order (PO) process end-to-end and brings buyers and suppliers together in a real-time collaboration portal.
Let’s say you use Epicor for manufacturing. Epicor is a robust ERP system that touches nearly every area of your business. But if your teams are still manually entering and retrieving data that they waited days to receive via email, you’re not getting the most out of your investment in the ERP.
Emails create information delays and bring up questions like:
- Did the supplier receive the PO?
- Did they send an acknowledgment?
- Did we receive it?
- Is it lost in someone’s inbox?
- What about partial shipments?
Using email, you might not know the shipment is partial until it arrives on your loading dock.
This article will cover some of the ways SourceDay integrates with Epicor for manufacturing firms, boosts performance, improves cost savings, and helps you deliver to your customers.
Work Strategically, Not Manually
SourceDay automates virtually all of the clerical work associated with POs on Epicor for manufacturing businesses. Many of these teams are mired in so many hours of manual tasks that they work through their evenings and weekends just to keep up. That is a quick way to watch employees burn out, and is an unnecessary drain on resources.
After implementing SourceDay’s automation solution, these teams see a 25% reduction in their PO-related clerical work. Buyers and leaders spend about 20 minutes each morning performing tasks that used to require multiple hours.
Their time is now freed up to focus on more value-add tasks that will actually help the business, like finding new suppliers, strengthening existing relationships, developing demand and inventory strategy, and much more.
Visibility is Key
Supply chains run on data, but if that data is wrong or delayed, things get sideways in a hurry. Teams must be able to track orders from beginning to end so they can make decisions about planning and strategy. From the time the PO is sent to the supplier to the time the shipment arrives, you must be informed.
Teams who lack this visibility run into more delays and errors than those who have adopted technology solutions like SourceDay. Bad data quickly leads to demand planning issues, cost discrepancies, missed discounts, and a whole slew of other challenges. Let’s face it: these are misses you simply cannot afford.
SourceDay is the only collaboration and automation solution that guarantees 100% accurate data across the supply chain. Every order is accounted for from end-to-end, so both buyers and suppliers can see the status at any time. Every update is immediately sent to the relevant users and written into your Epicor for manufacturing ERP.
Collaborate & Listen
And we’re not talking about Vanilla Ice. We’re talking about bringing buyers, suppliers, and every other stakeholder into a central platform that’s truly collaborative. If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that more than ever, communication must be instant. Information must be available immediately.
Many companies that use Epicor for manufacturing as their ERP have not given their procurement teams the resources they need to work in this environment. Many use email, texts, spreadsheets, and sticky notes. This is a recipe for disaster.
SourceDay offers something far more effective. All communication with suppliers is centralized, and everyone involved gets updates in real time. If a shipment is going to be late or partial, the buyers know right away. POs are managed by exception, instead of all those wasted hours combing over spreadsheets hoping to find the needle hidden in a stack of more needles.
And because all the data is always accurate, Epicor for manufacturing firms get a real time view of supplier performance via SourceDay’s Supplier Scorecard module. Armed with this instant view, buyers can work alongside suppliers to improve performance and diversify their supplier base in order to meet their targets.
Don’t Be Scared of Integration
Adding new software might seem like a huge task, and in many cases, it is. For many companies whose ERP is Epicor for manufacturing, the cost and length of integration is more of a deterrent than anything about the solution itself.
Forget about all that. SourceDay’s integration is quick and painless. The solution can be up and running in as little as 30 days, and SourceDay’s team does all the heavy lifting. And it doesn’t end there. The Customer Success team takes charge of onboarding and training all your users—AND all your suppliers!
That’s right, supplier adoption is not an issue. In fact, all Epicor for manufacturing customers get a 70% supplier adoption guarantee. This is the buy-in you’ve been looking for.
SourceDay & Epicor for Manufacturing
Direct materials procurement teams who use Epicor ERP must have the ability to work instantly and strategically with their suppliers. They must eliminate needless hours of clerical work so they can focus on more important work. In short, they must be able work at the speed of now, and SourceDay gets them there.
SourceDay’s collaboration and automation solution creates a reliable, resilient supply chain that delivers parts on time, predictably, and with no misses.
Ready to learn more about how SourceDay can transform your supply chain? Request a demo here.