Completed ERP projects

Epicor Software Deutschland GmbH

Swapping SAP for Epicor

Customers

SiroScan

Completion

27.09.2011

Country

Poland

Branch

• Cosmetics

Description

Task description

SiroScan Sp. z o.o. is involved in the distribution and marketing of cosmetic products. Together with its predecessors (Intercosmetics, Cosmopolitan Cosmetics, Procter & Gamble Prestige Products) it has over 13 years experience on the Polish selective cosmetics market. They represent brands targeted at a broad range of consumers from medium to luxury segment. Their experience and long-term cooperation with perfumeries and drugstores, as proved by a growing market share of their brands, places them among the best distributors on the Polish market. SiroScan’s strategic objective is to continue business relationship with current business partners as well as to cooperate with new clients Moving away from SAP In 2009 SiroScan was running SAP because the previous owners had been using the system worldwide under a global contract. The SAP system was coupled with a maintenance agreement and a hefty monthly price tag.

"We decided straight away that we had to move away from the SAP system," says Volker Schmidt, Group Director Communication and IT for SiroScan. "It was far too expensive for us, the running costs were high, and we found it difficult to integrate with the range of other systems we use across the group of companies." He explains, "Many companies think they can't replace SAP because of its extensive functionality but this is not true. Epicor is equally as good, faster to implement and comes with a much lower total cost of ownership."

Connectivity and mobility

SiroScan chose Epicor because it has been using solutions from Epicor for more than fifteen years. The company has been successfully running Epicor iScala in Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and has found the system easy to maintain, quick to implement and cost effective. "We use Epicor iScala to the maximum of its capabilities, including EDI and other types of connectivity" says Schmidt. "For example, we have an automatic bank interface for our business in Poland, an EDI connection for those countries where it can be used, and another invoicing connection for those countries where we can't use EDI. We also use the mobile capabilities of the system so that our sales reps can check outstanding balances, stock levels, and order new goods straight away in the live system while sitting in front of a customer regardless of where they are located."

Multi-currency and multi-lingual

For a medium sized company that operates in various local markets another important aspect of a good ERP system is local availability and presence. Schmidt comments, "With Epicor we know that we have the local financial regulatory compliances covered, it works in the languages and currencies we operate in, and it's flexible which means we can confidently acquire new companies and know that Epicor will be there with us as we continue to grow our business," says Schmidt.

Rapid implementation

The rapid implementation possibility of Epicor iScala was a key deciding factor for SiroScan in Poland. Previously it had taken the local distributor four years to implement SAP, while the Epicor system was up and running in months rather than years. Even though the implementation was complex due to the data extraction from SAP and the number of interfaces that are used, the Polish team succeeded in installing Epicor in only two months, putting in an enormous effort amounting to 700 man-hours in six weeks.

A single data source

"Some of the business benefits we have realized by using Epicor across the organization include having one single data source for all countries. This means that we can easily compare sales figures and statistics and quickly make changes to the business if required," says Schmidt. He concludes, "Over the years we have also built up extensive knowledge about the system. This knowledge can be exchanged across the countries and most of our staff doesn't even know the number to their local Epicor support line – they are so well versed in how to use the system."