I think initially setting up EPO properly takes some time. I know I read alot of the PDFs I downloaded from Mcafee while I was setting it up for my environment. I guess it may have taken me a couple of weeks mainly because I have other responsibilities besides AV here.
That being said, I'm glad I took the time. The EPO system I have set up works flawlessly and I rarely have to troubleshoot anything. Monitoring alone, I take maybe a few minutes a day, or spend longer if I want to generate reports.
g'luck...