Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 16 | Page 76

INTELLIGENT MANUFACTURING powered by HAVELOCK AHI IMPLEMENTS EPICOR ERP TO STREAMLINE OPERATIONS Epicor Software Corporation has announced that Havelock AHI, an interior manufacturer and fit-out contractor, has implemented the Epicor ERP (enterprise resource planning) solution across its six locations in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council). W ith Epicor ERP serving as the backbone of the business, Havelock AHI has been able to improve communication between departments, streamline operations and ultimately deliver the highest quality products and services to its customers in the region. Commenting on the decision to upgrade from a ‘home-grown’ ERP solution to Epicor, Aiman Mahmoud, senior IT manager, Havelock AHI, said, “Because our core business is built on offering bespoke solutions, it was only natural that we would expect the same from our ERP system. We needed a customisable system to meet the needs of the manufacturing 76 INTELLIGENTCIO and contracting pieces of our business without incurring significant costs or long implementation delays. We also wanted a solution that would scale easily to meet the demands of our growing business.” In addition to choosing a solution that was tailor-made for their industry, ease of implementation was another key criterion. As Aiman explained, “The Epicor ERP solution architecture is extremely user friendly so, unlike other IT implementations where we have worked together with the vendor and partners, we managed the entire implementation of Epicor ERP in house. The only module that we did consult with the Epicor team on was accounting, since this is one of the critical modules that ties everything together.” Epicor were equally impressed with the technical knowledge of the Havelock team and recognised Havelock last year with the customer award for “Achieving Last Mile and Leveraging Epicor Framework”. With anywhere between 75-80 users accessing the system across the six Havelock locations in the GCC at any time, one of the biggest benefits has been the improvement in visibility and transparency across all departments. Citing a recent example of an order of cashier counters for a large customer, Aiman said, “The www.intelligentcio.com