Elmich Chooses Epicor ERP to Improve Management of International Operations
Established in 1985 as a distributor of waterproofing products, Elmich® is the leading provider of state-of-the-art and ecologically-minded urban landscaping, waterproofing, drainage, and green roof technologies and provides stormwater management solutions to developers, contractors, and architects around the world.
With more than 160 patents and design registrations, Elmich’s products have been successfully used in numerous award-winning “green building” projects worldwide.
A global business based in Singapore—with international offices in Australia, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States—exports account for 75 percent of company sales. With the number of sustainable “green cities” growing around the world, the future opportunities for Elmich are significant.
Growth plans hindered by inadequate systems
Elmich invests heavily in research and development to stay one step ahead of competitors. The company is committed to deploying the most appropriate technological solutions to ensure its business runs as efficiently as possible. However, fast-paced market expansion meant the company had outgrown the capabilities of its previous business systems. As a result, orchestrating the international delivery of high quality products in line with customer expectations was becoming increasingly difficult.
“Our legacy approach required manual entry for everything—quotations, order processing, project management, finance, and inventory—and our finance package was not integrated with other aspects of the business. This meant we had little control or visibility of the overall business,” said Goh Tee Swee, finance director at Elmich.
“Our customers expect the highest product quality. They also expect smooth and prompt delivery that matches our promises,” he continued. “However, our existing systems made it difficult to meet these commitments—and from an internal perspective, these inefficiencies were having an impact on company profitability.”
“As a consequence, our staff were spending too much time on nonproductive, time-consuming activities. Meanwhile, managers constantly found themselves in a backward-looking, troubleshooting mode—which meant they weren’t able to focus on moving the business forward.”
Improving international operations
Having established the need for an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, the company considered several potential suppliers—including some well-known industry giants. They eventually decided on Epicor ERP (now known as Kinetic).
“Implementing Epicor ERP enabled us to synchronize multiple systems and consolidate management information across the entire organization. Although we considered other competitive ERP systems, it quickly became apparent that Epicor offered the most suitable fit for our business,” said Goh.
The continued fast-paced evolution of the business meant that years later, they made the decision to move to a next generation Epicor solution that offered new capabilities.
“Managing a global business like ours is a daily challenge. Everything from manufacturing and logistics to marketing and sales takes place around the world in different time zones, currencies, and languages,” explained Goh.
“In order to gain enhanced visibility and control of every aspect of our operations, we decided to embark on a major upgrade of both hardware and software. That saw us embark on a six-month ERP evaluation project, which included undertaking a process requirement review and a proof of concept study,” he added.
In October 2018 the next-generation Epicor solution—incorporating new business intelligence, visual analytics, and finance functionality—went live within the business.
“The new platform offers four times the scalability of our previous Epicor implementation, so we can face the future with confidence. Customizable business rules and processes have improved our organizational
responsiveness—something that’s crucial for an international business like ours, which has to coordinate supply chains and manufacturing to deliver multiple projects in multiple overseas markets,” said Goh.
Enhanced business efficiencies
Alongside improved visibility and control of the company’s supply chain,
manufacturing, and delivery functions, the next-generation Epicor solution
enables much faster access to business critical information.
“Using the finance, supply chain, manufacturing, and project management
modules from Epicor has delivered full financial control over all these elements, which are now both integrated and coordinated. One immediate benefit is the monthly sales report—what used to take us five days is now completed in two days. Our processing of orders and invoices is also a lot faster,” confirmed Goh.
“Epicor ERP not only enhances our operational efficiency, but it also allows
staff to focus on more value-added tasks that are vital to retaining our market leadership position,” he continued.