Epicor has hosted the second Middle East edition of its annual end-customer summit and awards, highlighting its work in augmenting solutions with AI to advance the industry towards the era of Cognitive ERP. The event brought together a considerable number of CIOs and IT decision-makers from the region’s leading manufacturing organizations.
Explaining how the entire notion of ERP is moving from a system of record to a people-centric system of action, Vibhu Kapoor, Regional Vice President – Middle East, Africa & India, Epicor, said, “ERP sits at the heart of an organisation, coordinating and managing core business processes across various departments. By infusing ERP systems with AI — what we at Epicor call Cognitive AI — industries are not just automating tasks but are enabling these systems to think, learn, and make decisions in ways that were previously the sole domain of human intelligence. This symbiosis between AI and ERP is not just an enhancement of existing processes but a redefinition of possibilities within industrial operations.”
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Having launched the Middle East’s first cloud-delivered ERP solution last year, Epicor detailed how many of its customers have successfully embraced the new paradigm, realizing efficiency, reliability, scalability, and cost benefits as a result. The company’s Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) and Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) solutions were also in focus. At a time when enterprises must skilfully optimize budgets and capitalize on every opportunity that an increasingly competitive marketplace affords them, these solutions empower finance and sales teams to operate more effectively and deliver better outcomes for the business.
Epicor Customer Connect culminated in the recognition and felicitation of the company’s most innovative customers. Alshaya Group won the Manufacturing Champion award for their implementation of Epicor Kinetic and Epicor ECM (Enterprise Content Management), which has enabled dynamic demand planning for raw materials and components to prevent shortages across more than 1000+ stores in the region. The automation and digitization of data from each store has notably reduced reconciliation efforts; Manual processing time has been reduced alongside a reduction in error rates — which has resulted in improved supplier fulfilment outcomes.
Also felicitated were Eurotech FZCO who took home the Executive Champion award. The company’s migration to Epicor Kinetic deployed in the cloud has enabled it to re-engineer its business processes to be more streamlined, with greater controls over operations. By adopting standard processes in Kinetic, the company has been able to minimize customizations and enhance usability with the Kinetic screens and user experience. With MES capturing real-time data on Eurotech FZCO’s shop floor, the business has gained both visibility and increased operational control.
“We honor all these organizations that are pioneering the future of manufacturing in the Middle East. Their deployments set new benchmarks and will serve to inspire their peers in advancing towards a future where workers, instead of focusing on tasks like getting access to the right data, machine, or supply chain insight, are empowered to focus on higher-value functions — innovating new products, creating new business models, and re-architecting processes to become more efficient,” said Kapoor.
