How a family woodworking business embraced cognitive ERP and industry-focused AI to innovate with intent.
For over 60 years, Madsen’s Custom Cabinets has served the Alberta region of Canada with high-quality custom woodworking. According to Tyler Madsen, Director, “My grandfather started in 1962. My father took it over in 1983 and my brother and I took it over in 2020.”
As the business continues to grow and expand its customer base, Madsen and IT Manager Jason Bassett knew they needed an ERP system to help them keep up. An Epicor customer for ten years, Madsen’s recently upgraded to Epicor Kinetic deployed in the cloud. One of the biggest reasons for this transition was to improve usability and accessibility while allowing employees to work from anywhere, an advantage that began during the pandemic and continues to this day.
Streamlining data into one set was crucial for efficiency. The cloud functionality made it easier for employees to work remotely and reduced the complexity of managing multiple servers. This change significantly enhanced their operations and productivity.
“One of the main drivers I found wanting to go into the cloud was the usability of just being able to access Epicor everywhere, as well as just trying to get everything streamlined into one data set. We’ve always had the problem of having multiple data sets,” says Bassett.
Another key reason for the upgrade was to reprogram their Configurator. This was a significant undertaking, and Madsen, who had no prior experience with coding, worked with consultants from Six S Partners to complete the reprogramming. It took about a year of programming, but the process was smoother than expected.
One of the main drivers I found wanting to go into the cloud was the usability of just being able to access Epicor everywhere, as well as just trying to get everything streamlined into one data set. We’ve always had the problem of having multiple data sets.
Despite the challenges, and based on the consultant's prior experiences, the migration was considered the easiest of all the ERP implementations for the IT team.
To enhance the benefits of Kinetic, Madsen and Bassett decided to go one step further and become one of the early adopters of Epicor Prism. Epicor Prism combines a network of vertical AI agents with industry-focused ERP and data structures. With Epicor Prism, companies can simplify access to systems of record, use a natural chat interface to automate human-machine connections and help drive business value.
In Madsen’s words, as soon as he learned about the product during a demo at a recent Epicor Insights meeting, he knew he wanted to get on board. “Jason and I looked at each other and our jaws dropped,” he says. “Seeing the potential that [Epicor Prism] has…It could eliminate so many mundane tasks, so much back and forth with emails and with quotes.”
Epicor Prism helps to boost team productivity and helps to provide businesses with an insight advantage. With over 50 years of ERP experience, it combines a network of vertical AI agents with industry-focused ERP and data structures to simplify access to systems of record, use a natural chat interface to automate human-machine connections, and help drive business value.
Jason and I looked at each other and our jaws dropped,” he says. “Seeing the potential that [Epicor Prism] has…It could eliminate so many mundane tasks, so much back and forth with emails and with quotes.
Both Madsen and Bassett were especially impressed with how easy and streamlined it was to derive important insights from the data using Epicor Prism, empowering users to make key decisions quickly. Bassett immediately knew it would save a lot of time and effort. “Once we were [Epicor Prism] early adopters, I felt like, ‘Yeah, I can see this. This is going to work.’ It will be structured and controlled,” he says.
Tyler describes a typical scenario in which having Epicor Prism helps offer a big advantage. “For example, I have projects up to $1,000,000 that have hundreds of lines, which correlate to the jobs that we have. We have a meeting two times a week to go through each one of those jobs and constantly update them one by one. Now, we’ll be able to ask Epicor Prism to update those due dates,” he says. “We can correlate everything with our schedule for production; it’s going to be so useful and going to save so much time.”
Bassett emphasizes the importance of improved communication throughout the business, especially the potential of having other languages available in Epicor Prism (via the Knowledge Assistant) to meet the needs of a multilingual workforce. “Now we have quite a few different languages being used here at the shop, so having the ability for someone to ask any question in Korean, Spanish, Mandarin, Serbian, or Romanian would be good.”
Integrated communication in Epicor Prism was also a big selling point for Madsen. “There’s a real emphasis on cognitive ERP moving forward—having that ability to have your system communicate directly with suppliers and not having to always focus on someone who might forget to send that email when they’re tied up,” he confirms.
Both of these leaders see Madsen’s as having the opportunity to be at the forefront of increased efficiency, thanks to cognitive ERP and the virtual language agents of Epicor Prism. It’s their goal to build productivity while exceeding customer expectations and fully engaging their workforce. Madsen gives one last example.
“We have maybe 10 people in a meeting to go over all our projects every Monday and Thursday, and those are those are high-value people,” he says. With those team members now freed up to contribute in more critical, strategic ways, the potential for the business can only grow. “I believe that [Epicor Prism] will fundamentally change how we do our production meetings.”
