6 Ways to Prepare Your ERP for Mergers, Acquisitions, and Expansion
Mergers, acquisitions, and expansion initiatives are core growth strategies in manufacturing and distribution. For organizations running Epicor ERP systems like Kinetic, Prophet 21, Eclipse, and similar systems, ERP readiness can materially impact valuation, integration speed, and long-term performance.
What follows are six proven ways executives can prepare their ERP environment for M&A, informed by private equity best practices and successful operators.
1. Treat Your ERP as a Due Diligence Asset
Private equity firms increasingly evaluate ERP as a proxy for operational maturity. A well-governed ERP environment enables faster diligence, cleaner quality of earnings, and reduced integration risk.
Executives should ask:
Can financials be produced quickly and accurately?
How long does it take to close the books?
How much manual intervention is required to reconcile data?
Metrics such as days to close, manual journal entries, and data reconciliation issues often surface during diligence and directly influence buyer confidence.
👉 Further reading: Pemeco Consulting – ERP Strategy for Middle Market Private Equity: A Value Creation Playbook
2. Standardize Processes Before Standardizing Systems
ERP consolidation alone does not create value. Process alignment does.
Successful acquirers standardize core workflows like order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, and inventory management before attempting full system harmonization. Without this discipline, ERP integrations stall and synergies erode.
Operators that do this well track:
Order-to-cash cycle time
Procure-to-pay efficiency
Inventory turns
OTIF (on-time, in-full) performance
These operational metrics indicate whether integration is truly improving performance or simply shifting complexity.
👉 Further reading: KPMG – Leveraging ERP Systems to Drive Deal Value
3. Rationalize Customizations and Extensions
Epicor systems are highly flexible, but excessive customization introduces risk in M&A scenarios. Buyers and integration teams must understand what has been modified, why, and whether it aligns with long-term scalability.
High-performing organizations proactively audit:
Custom reports and BPMs
Third-party integrations
Unsupported or undocumented code
Reducing customization improves ERP uptime, upgrade readiness, and lowers IT cost as a percentage of revenue—metrics increasingly reviewed during exit diligence.
👉 Further Reading: Tata Consultancy Services – Successful Post-merger ERP Integration for Synergy Realization
4. Prepare for Multi-Entity and Multi-ERP Environments
Even organizations standardized on Epicor today should assume future acquisitions will introduce ERP diversity.
Preparing for multi-entity reporting, intercompany transactions, and shared services models enables faster onboarding of acquired businesses and cleaner consolidation.
Executives should monitor:
Time to onboard new entities
Intercompany reconciliation effort
Financial consolidation cycle time
Number of legacy systems retired
ERP architecture decisions made pre-transaction directly impact post-close agility.
👉 Further Reading: Tata Consultancy Services – ERP Integration Planning & Execution
5. Address ERP Talent and Knowledge Risk
One of the most underestimated risks in M&A is ERP dependency on a small group of individuals.
If critical Epicor knowledge lives in a few long-tenured employees, integration timelines and operational continuity are vulnerable, particularly during post-close turnover.
Leading organizations track:
Key talent retention
Career progression planning and succession planning
Time to fill critical ERP and operations roles
Revenue or EBITDA per employee
ERP documentation, cross-training, and succession planning protect both deal value and execution speed.
👉 Schedule a Consultation: Speak with an experienced ERP talent consultant who has supported clients with M&A growth strategies.
6. Use M&A Readiness to Accelerate ERP Maturity
The most successful organizations treat M&A readiness as an ongoing discipline.
Preparing for acquisitions or exit drives improvements in ERP reporting quality, controls, and scalability that deliver value regardless of whether a deal closes this year or next.
Executives often see measurable improvement in:
EBITDA margin
SG&A as a percentage of revenue
Cash flow predictability
Management reporting speed and accuracy
👉 Source: Withum – Mastering M&A Readiness Through Effective ERP Strategy
Takeaways and Next Steps for Organizations
Consult with an experienced ERP consultant, specialized in your specific system (Kinetic, Prophet 21, Eclipse, etc) to perform a discovery and gap analysis of your ERP system and supporting documentation. Typically, a full report can be produced within 2-3 weeks, and this will help identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and risks across all of your modules and 3rd party integrations. From there, you may elect to commit the next 6-9 months to optimizing your ERP instance. Common discovery findings include underutilized modules, unsupported customizations, poor data quality, and a lack of process documentation.
Understand what performance metrics prospective buyers are looking for and ensure you have the reporting capabilities set up in Epicor. Additionally, ensure your employees know how to pull the correct data and are using it properly. The most common issue we see is inaccurate job/project costing data. The root cause of this poor data could stem anywhere in the quote to cash cycle.
Don’t take shortcuts. If you have known gaps in your system, auditors will find out. Some buyers may see the gaps as an opportunity, while others may see a red flag.
Main Line Talent’s Role
Main Line Talent Group partners with Epicor customers across manufacturing and distribution, supporting recruitment across Epicor’s major ERP platforms. We believe the true driver of ERP success, before, during, and after M&A, is people.
Our focus is connecting industry-experienced professionals with deep Epicor expertise to organizations executing growth, transformation, and integration initiatives. Our understanding of manufacturing and distribution operations, combined with close alignment to Epicor-related technologies, is why many Epicor customers rely on us as a trusted talent partner.
Main Line Talent Group is an independent talent services firm and is not affiliated with Epicor or any Epicor channel partner.
