What you need for a smooth Epicor ERP demo

Once you’ve evaluated your ERP providers through the use of an RFI, or similar process, you should now be in a position to get into a serious level of detail with your potential ERP partners. This is best done with an Epicor ERP demo.

How to select an ERP partner

ERP software is incredibly expansive and in most cases can be tailored to suit your specific organisations requirements. With that in mind, to ensure you get the most from a demonstration, it’s important to spend some time with your shortlisted ERP partners. This will ensure they have a good understanding of your business and its processes. It also allows them to prepare a demonstrattion oon how the software could work within your organisation. This makes it easier for you to make informed decisions on the capability of the software. It also gives you insight into the knowledge of the consultants that will deliver the implementation itself.

ERP discovery meeting

The discovery meeting is an important part of the process that will help both you and your prospective ERP partners prepare for the demo. Depending on the complexity of your organisation and the partners you’re speaking to, it’s likely they will each want to spend anywhere from 2 hours to a full day on-site. This will help them learn about your organisation and current system processes.  

Although not a necessity, some organisations find it helpful to prepare a short presentation that they can deliver to each prospective partner during each discovery meeting. This covers information about their organisation and the markets they serve. It also covers information on the systems they currently use and processes they follow. Showing visuals or even a quick demonstration of your existing systems can be a useful way for partners to get an understanding of how you operate.

Providing a tour of your facility would also be useful at this point. Allowing plenty of time for partners to ask questions will ensure they have plenty of information on how your organisation operates and what your objectives are. 

Make a plan to save time

The discovery meeting is one of the key elements of preparing for the ERP demo for both you and the ERP partner. Before the discovery meeting concludes, you need to agree on what you wish the ERP partner to demo. We recommend the same 2-4 scenarios are given to each partner and that you provide a selection of your data (2-4 records will usually suffice) in order for them to prepare for the demo. Give the ERP partners plenty of time to prepare for the demo.

During the discovery meeting you might also want a high level demonstration of the software – just a quick overview of its capabilities and a quick look at the interface. 

What processes do you want them to demonstrate?

In order to get the most from the demo itself, you need to agree in advance with the ERP partners what you wish to see during a demonstration. Selecting a few key processes that you want to see in the demonstration tends should be enough to give you a sample of how each ERP system you’re looking at compares. It’s likely that the ERP vendors will ask you for some sample data that they can use (part numbers, supplier records etc.). It’s likely that they will require at least 2 weeks to prepare the demo, possibly even more. You’ll need to take this into an account when you’re checking your team’s availability to sit in on the demo.  

The Epicor ERP demo

Having the partners demonstrate the same key processes for you will not only give you a good indication of how the software will work but you can also use it to gauge their software knowledge. In short, you’ll get some insight into how well they’ve understood your requirements.

Plenty of time should be given at the end of the demo to ask questions. You may require an additional follow-up demo to look at a specific area of the software again. Don’t be afraid to ask for this. It’s a big investment and it’s important you’re 100% sure in your decision with both the software and the implementation partner.

If you like the software but don’t have faith in the organisation delivering your implementation, it might be wise to get another partner involved.

Like what you’ve read? Get in touch with us about an Epicor ERP discovery meeting today.