The name Acumatica doesn’t mean a whole lot to the average company just yet. It doesn’t bring the same brand recognition attached to heavy hitters like Microsoft or SAP – but, if you’re one of the 2,000 customers who run on this cloud ERP solution, you’re way ahead of the curve.
It might not be next year but Acumatica, the fastest growing provider of cloud-based ERP solutions, is positioned to become one of those household names in the midmarket ERP software space. If they continue to double their revenue like they have in 2015, then you’ll start to automatically associate characteristics like innovative, accessible and adaptable with this brand.
To give you some context, I am a B2B marketer with a background in the ERP and CRM space. I started my career working with an SAP Business One VAR (Value Added Reseller) and then moved into the Microsoft Dynamics NAV and CRM community with Catapult. This year, we expanded our services to provide two cloud powerhouses: Salesforce and Acumatica. And this is where the story begins.
First Impressions at the Acumatica Summit
I attended my first Acumatica Summit in February with very limited experience using the product itself. I knew the basics and was excited because as far as ERP goes, it’s a cool product! Catapult was originally a Microsoft shop, so our messaging and promotional efforts in the past revolved around an exclusive focus on Dynamics NAV and CRM. My goal was to leave the Summit with ideas on how we could position Acumatica in the Vancouver market and ways we can share the solution with our own network.
It turns out ‘exciting’ didn’t quite describe what it felt like being in the middle of a buzzing conference room surrounded by over 600 passionate partners, customers, and Acumatica staff. That first day Jon Roskill, CEO of Acumatica, got up on stage and delivered his keynote, highlighting some staggering growth numbers for 2015.
Compared to the other cloud ERP players, Acumatica is on fire. But what really resonated with me is when the speech turned to one of their newest customers and the global impact Acumatica is experiencing. The University of Namibia is currently live on Acumatica. The Acumatica platform and ERP suite offers access via any web browser and mobile apps for iOS and Android which makes it available to literally everyone in the world. As Roskill put it, “The ability to run on a cloud and mobile infrastructure is a way for emerging markets to really accelerate and get on to technology that allows them to grow and self-sustain.”
Now, that’s impressive.
The rest of the keynote essentially covered the latest features of Acumatica 5.3. The demos are super interesting (even for me) especially the enhanced mobile app that allows you to fill out and approve an expense claim, sales order, and time card with your smartphone. The Director of Product Management even took a selfie to add to his expense claim!
There was a lot of information shared in those two days at the Acumatica Summit but from a marketers perspective, one of the most useful things about the Acumatica platform is the concept of using it as a business solution integration hub. In a multi-cloud environment, integration with other solutions like Salesforce, Magento, Microsoft Power BI and Office 365 makes our lives easier. The latest version now integrates with Hubspot, and as someone who used this marketing automation tool for years without the integration to our ERP system – this is HUGE.
So, if you’re any bit interested in what Acumatica looks like and what these new features are, watch the keynote speech here.
Key Takeaways from the Acumatica Summit
It’s no surprise that I learned a lot at the Acumatica Summit, from marketing insights to the changes happening in the industry. A stat that stood out from the conference is that cloud ERP adoption is at or below 10%. Common blockers from a few years ago like security, compliance, availability, and disaster recovery are now reasons why companies are choosing to move to cloud ERP in 2016.
Now that I’ve shared my experience, I want to make sure you know what’s out there before considering a cloud ERP solution.
There are a lot of reasons to move to Cloud ERP, everything from increasingly complex information and integration to wanting to grow without changing your staffing needs. But choosing a solution is based on your own unique business model, goals, requirements, and resources.
Here is a good resource to help you educate yourself on the different types of cloud ERP models available:
Clearing the ERP Clouds is an eBook written by the SMB Group designed to help you determine which model will best align to your company’s strategy, workloads, performance, and security needs.
