Improve procurement with Epicor ARM Cloud, optimized pricing, and streamlined processes utilizing Epicor Advanced Requisition Management (ARM) in the Cloud
Westfall Technik is a global holding company providing end-to-end manufacturing solutions for molded plastics, from prototyping, mold design, and building to plastic molding and assembly. Their high-end, specialized solutions serve the medical, packaging, and consumer goods segments.
Westfall Technik was pursuing a relationship with a supplier to set up a vending solution in its Wakefield, MI, location. We knew that without an integrated and automated procurement system, we wouldn’t be able to manage our purchase requirements or inventory effectively.
Without an effective approval system, it would be impossible to control spending. Epicor ARM helps to provide seamless integration with the supplier’s website, pulls the vending cart into a requisition, routes the purchase requisition through the appropriate approvals, and creates a purchase order in Epicor Kinetic.
Epicor Advanced Requisition Management (ARM) solves Westfall Technik’s procurement challenges by integrating seamlessly with their key supplier’s eCommerce business accounts, allowing Westfall staff to effortlessly “punch out” of the Epicor ARM interface directly into the supplier’s catalog.
This has helped to ensure not only direct and live information about vendor parts and pricing but also automatic integration of the supplier’s cart to a purchase request in ARM and then to a purchase order in Epicor!
If special supplier pricing arrangements have been defined in Epicor Kinetic, these will be applied when the cart items populate the requisition.
Being a cloud-first organization, we looked to Epicor ARM’s cloud deployment to help us achieve our procurement goals, without the headache of managing on-premise, or third-party tools.
The relevant approval chains defined for the requisition are then followed as normal, and if completed successfully, a purchase order (PO) is created in Kinetic and released to the supplier (automatically via ARM’s EDI, manually from ARM, or from Kinetic).
Epicor ARM’s approval workflow and budget visibility have been instrumental in helping keep Westfall in better control of purchasing.
With both Epicor and the ARM module being available in the cloud, Westfall team members can request, review, or approve purchase requests from any browser, device, or even within their email.
PunchOut gives direct access to a supplier’s online catalog via the ‘PunchOut’ feature. If a vending cart is prebuilt by the supplier, you can punch-out to their website, import it into ARM, and submit the cart for approval before it becomes a purchase order.
PunchOut speeds up procurement by directly importing the shopping cart into a requisition and accessing the most up-to-date item pricing and availability.
Not only is Epicor ARM’s PunchOut feature more efficient, but we negotiated a price break with certain suppliers, because of the mutually beneficial automation helped to provide. With supplier price incentives, we see an annual return on investment (ROI) with the Epicor ARM module, not to mention all the other benefits.
From the punch-out, the supplier, part, and inventory settings and controls from Kinetic can be brought to the items in the ARM requisition when applicable. The PunchOut capability enhances negotiations with suppliers who support punchout.