Epec Engineered Technologies, a leading provider of custom build-to-print products for all sectors of the electronics industry, has recently taken massive steps towards adopting a holistic cloud strategy.
Epec has been utilizing cloud-based software since 2007 when it started expanding its supply chain into Asia. Epec quickly outgrew its old ERP system, which was making it difficult to exchange data with its partners.
After evaluating several options, Epec selected NetSuite, which is still being used today as the company’s standardized cloud platform to provide end-to-end manufacturing for all of its products.
This past year, Epec implemented Box, a secure content and online file sharing platform allowing every department in the company to store any type of document in the cloud, which can be easily retrieved on the spot from any location.
With direct integration into NetSuite, Box provides one interface and greatly reduced the number of steps per transaction, while keeping all documentation for each transaction inside of one record. Now, all of Epec’s 120 employees, from their headquarters in New Bedford, MA, to even its employees in China to all use the same standardized cloud software.
“Having office locations all across the United States and on 3 continents doesn’t make a difference to how we run our business. Our IT infrastructure is setup to support 10 times the amount of employees that we have. No matter where you are in the world, as long as you have an internet connection you can access anything, anytime,” commented Ed McMahon, the CEO of Epec.
Epec’s accounting department has been able to go paperless by using custom built workflows in NetSuite and Box that includes all internal documents. This allows for their accounting staff at their Massachusetts and Florida offices to work in collaboration while being 1,200 miles apart.
“We have employees traveling to our Shenzhen China office all the time. It is very convenient to travel across the world, flip on your laptop, login, and you’re working like you would be at your office back home,” stated Kendall Paradise, President of Epec.
Epec is in the process of developing an online portal to help customers to benefit from the cloud as well. The online portal will work with NetSuite where customers can view invoices, see their order history, and more. This new customer portal is currently in beta testing with only a select few of customers. The official version is planned to go live by the end of Q2 2015.
Data as we know it, in a world of ever advancing technologies will continue to evolve. As an engineered technologies company, Epec is ahead of the game with investments made over the past decade in its IT and Data Sharing Platforms. It is only a matter of time until all U.S. manufacturing moves to the cloud.
Filed Under: Industrial automation
