Crawford Software Consulting, Inc
Helping Customers Maximize Their Software Investment in Epicor ERP

Since 2001, Crawford Software Consulting Inc. has been helping customers maximize their software investment to improve business processes and increase efficiencies. Crawford Software focuses on providing senior level expertise and support for our customers during any stage of their ERP software evolution. “Going beyond traditional ERP, we provide an end-to-end solution that streamlines financial, inventory, and manufacturing efficiencies,” says Steve Carr, President and Founder, Crawford Software Consulting, Inc.

Carr sees two primary trends driving the ERP software space–business process improvement and cloud. Adopting best business practices to facilitate business process improvement and improved efficiencies is common goal for our customers. When Crawford Software is implementing a new ERP system for a customer these goals are part of the project charter and mission statement. “For companies that have a newer / current ERP system, Crawford Software has tools and templates to conduct a full business process review and help companies evaluate how they are using their current ERP system, suggestions for improvements, and adopting best business practices, while keeping the primary goal of improved efficiency,” explains Carr. The goal is to implement and adopt best business practices, use the ERP system as it is designed, but not add complexity or execution steps that provide no value add. Become more efficient and streamline while capturing the data elements for accurate reporting and measuring of the business success factors.

Cloud hosting is a significant transition for companies that have an older or legacy ERP system, which has traditionally been hosted at the company site using hardware they must purchase and maintain. “Crawford has helped customers of all sizes transition from on premise to a hosted environment, both dedicated and multi-tenant. We have the experience to help companies determine the best option for them, and make the transition with little to no interruption in system availability,” says Carr.

Crawford Software’s years of experience with ERP systems across multiple industries combined with their knowledge of Epicor functionality has lead them to developing software modules to augment standard Epicor ERP functionality. Crawford Software maintains several versions of Epicor ERP in-house to allow their consultants’ ample “lab” time to become deeply familiar with each version of the software’s capabilities and functionality, provide customer support, to develop customer specific enhancements for development and testing of Crawford Software's standard modules. Through this holistic approach to maximize software investments, Crawford Software can deliver a solution that is more than simply software implementation and business process improvement but a solution that embraces our customer’s entire organization and business requirements.

Another differentiator is Crawford Software’s training approach. To facilitate software adoption and the speed of achieving normal operations, Crawford Software starts with in house developed training materials for traditional Epicor ERP functions. The firm enhances the usability and value of the training by customizing the materials and delivery to their client’s configuration, environment and business processes resulting in improved understanding and retention. Customer data elements, with relevant screen prints are used in the training and documentation delivered to the customer. We find the team is more engaged and more interactive when the training uses real business scenarios and referencing data the users are already familiar with.

With this robust platform of services, Crawford prides itself as a trusted software consulting partner that meets organizations’ needs and paves the path of growth, profitability and long term business success.

Crawford Software’s roadmap includes robust growth and they are fully engaged in preparing for increased demand including hiring new staff and opening new locations. In addition, “We have a very interesting and challenging project starting soon for a current client that uses SAP for some portions of their business, but is looking to replace their legacy ERP system,” points-out Carr.