Once plans are developed and agreed upon, the next phase is to understand the “as is” stage. Quartz Group can perform a full review of your current state, procedures and practices and even document them. The most crucial stage in any new systems implementation is the merger of “new with old”. Every business is different and we never forget this when developing solutions for clients. The output from this stage will offer a vast array of business improvement opportunities to the client by changing methods and practices. How many of those advantages are taken advantage of will always be the client’s decision. This is why we chose our consultants carefully. This knowledge cannot be learned in a classroom; it only comes with years of field experience.
The “leap” from old system to new is always a daunting path strewn with danger and opportunity. On the one hand, you want to ensure data integrity is maintained for all migrated data. But, it could also be an opportunity for some housekeeping/archiving of old system data you do not wish to bring across form old, legacy systems. Quartz Group are specialists in Epicor’s Data Migration Tools, and this is exactly where this flexibility can be delivered. In general terms, old data is taken from old system, cleansed by client management and then uploaded to Epicor, all within one simple tool. Making the decision to extract history and import into Epicor is another decision Quartz Group is able to advise on. No one answer is right for everybody.
Despite Epicor being a feature rich ERP system capable of delivering almost every possible business need, meeting unique client-specific requirements, often requires software to be “tailored” to maximize its “fit”. Taking the outputs from Business Process Review mentioned earlier, Quartz Group is able to deliver reports, customize screens, or create new functionality.
It is sometimes not beneficial to “bend” the new system to the current practices of the client but instead to re-engineer business processes to fit the software. Following this logic will typically save both time and money during the implementation plus deliver a more cost effective, streamlined approach. Getting the balance right between “bending” the software and “bending” the client is an area where Quartz Group feels their consultants have an advantage due to extensive, deep product knowledge.