Ed McMahon, CEO of Epec Engineered Technologies, is a firm believer in the competitive advantage that manufacturers can gain by embracing agility and innovation across the organization, from customer-centric business processes to underlying technology.

Founded in 1952, Epec designs and manufactures custom built-to-print products for all sectors of the electronics industry, from aerospace to medical devices, consumer electronics, measurement devices and industrial applications. Epec is distinguished not only by its electronics innovations, but its use of cloud software to disrupt and transform its business and its industry.

Epec’s successes have not gone unnoticed. The Epec CEO since 2002, McMahon was recently honored as winner of the 2016 Technology Optimization & Innovation Supernova Award from the IT research and advisory firm Constellation Research. The award cites Epec’s success in improving scalability, cost-efficiency and ROI with cloud ERP.

2016 Constellation Research Supernova Awards

It’s the second significant award for Epec in many years. In 2015, the company was recognized with the Manufacturing Leadership Award (ML Award) in Innovation Process Leadership from the Manufacturing Leadership Council, a global business network dedicated to senior executives in manufacturing.

“We are constantly incorporating the newest technologies into our products, but we don’t stop there,” McMahon said. “As a technology-based company, we strive to use the latest technologies in all aspects of our business, including cloud-based data utilized by our offices around the world.”

From Inflexible to Agile

Epec’s transformation got under way in 2007 when it deployed NetSuite ERP, including the Manufacturing module, as an integrated platform for end-to-end business processes. NetSuite replaced an inflexible legacy on-premise ERP system that was difficult and time-consuming to customize.

With the old system, Epec was forced into costly workarounds and reliance on spreadsheets, while limited integration capacity meant Epec couldn’t exchange real-time order data with partners. NetSuite, with its robust SuiteCloud development platform, has changed that. Epec has flexibility to tune workflows and reports to its needs and integrate with business partners and complementary applications.

For instance, giving staff at four Asian contract manufacturers access to NetSuite has enabled Epec to eliminate the need for four full-time on-site personnel. Meanwhile, it’s eliminated cumbersome manual steps for staff and customers with an online configure-price-quote (CPQ) engine from Selectica, natively integrated with NetSuite.

A Decade of Cloud ERP Success

As it approaches its 10th anniversary on NetSuite, Epec has demonstrated the transformational effect of marrying people, process and cloud technology around goals of agility and innovation. NetSuite supports a 24/7 “follow the sun” global workflow, used by Epec personnel at headquarters in Massachusetts and facilities in Florida, Colorado, Canada, the UK and China.

That’s enabled Epec to be a faster, smarter and more collaborative company, focused on serving more than 5,000 global customers such as Northrop Grumman, Tesla, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Dolby, Raytheon, Siemens, Philips and GE while streamlining growth through the acquisition of seven complementary companies.

“Ed and his team won for their implementation of NetSuite ERP in a transformational project that improved scalability and efficiency across the business,” said Courtney Sato, Constellation Research director of research development. “Epec has reaped over $500,000 from its cloud investments with revenue increasing by 233 percent, making Epec one of the fastest-growing electronic components manufacturers.”

McMahon noted that Epec is continuously building on that growth. For instance, it’s added 4,000 square feet at its Massachusetts headquarters for production of custom battery packs and energy-efficient fans and motors, increasing total space to 24,000 square feet.

“Many of our competitors are still living in the past with the way their back-end systems and processes are set up,” McMahon said. “Quoting and using data from Excel spreadsheets doesn’t cut it any more in this day and age. To be an industry-leading manufacturer, you need to make sure that your back-end infrastructure is up to par with the technology of today.”

To learn more, view the Epec customer video below and take a look at the Constellation Research Supernova Award information.