Integrate Sales and Marketing with the rest of your business
Provide real-time access to all your business data
Access any where and on any web-based device
Acumatica can and much more! If you answered no to any of these, it’s time to consider the move to ERP. Our ERP comparison checklist lets you rate systems across five categories. Selecting an ERP system to run your business is a decision that will affect your business for many years. Many products offer the same or similar features, and it can be confusing to sort out what’s important and what’s not. This tool can help. Download it today to get started with your own evaluation!
“The latest funding will enable Acumatica to accelerate its already aggressive growth and work with its robust partner channel to make its offering the Cloud ERP solution of choice for SMBs worldwide.
‘We have a solid product roadmap loaded with new innovative additions, and a partner channel that continues to grow faster than we ever could have expected,’ said Larichev. ‘We do not need more funding because we are already making money.’ “
A managing partner of Almaz Capital is quoted in the press release as saying, “We see Acumatica growing to more than a billion in revenue in less than 10 years”.
Monday, September 25, 2017 North Bend, WA PC Bennett Solutions is pleased to announce the release of Payroll Version 2 for Acumatica. We packed this version to the brim with more features for our popular integrated Payroll solution for Acumatica.
The PC Bennett Solutions’ Payroll system uses the rock-solid Symmetry tax engine for payroll tax calculations. This is the same tax engine used by Wells Fargo, Microsoft, Walmart, JC Penney, AT&T, Google and other corporations.
Some of the highlights:
New comprehensive payroll register inquiry.
PTO tracked by year (Calendar, Fiscal, and Anniversary).
Detailed PTO inquiry shows exactly how PTO Benefits were derived.
And more…
On day two, as the 2013 Acumatica Partner Summit ramped up, the focus was on clarifying the overall direction of the product as well as equipping partners with tips on marketing this new and advanced system.
With a partner-only channel that is rapidly growing, Acumatica is moving on the crucial need to continually invest in the success of these partners. These, businesses that are selling Acumatica are coming from many different backgrounds such as Sage, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics GP and SL, and many more. After speaking with many of them, it is clear that they are here because they want to provide their business communities with a more modern solution that will last for decades to come. Because Acumatica approaches consolidated business software solutions in completely different than legacy vendors, it’s definitely important for partners to tweak their messaging approach when it comes to sales and marketing.
Acumatica Leadership
The day kicked off with Co-founder, John Howell reflecting on the 2007 formation of the innovative cloud business management software provider and the strategy involved. He mentioned Moore’s Law and Metcalfe’s Law being the foundation for Acumatica’s revolutionary pricing structure and deployment flexibility, and partnership program. Next we saw presentations by the Founder of PostcardMania, as well as Acumatica’s own Product Marketing Manager, and Channel Marketing Manager. Acumatica will be increasing their marketing efforts and supporting and encouraging their partners to do the same at a more focused scale in their own backyards. Today, the Channel Marketing Manager, Charlie Horton introduced a new extensive co-marketing marketing program that will help partners take advantage of targeted marketing campaigns and strengthen their websites.
Increasing Revenue, Increasing Partners
After that, Acumatica Co-founder and Owner, Serguei Beloussov spoke. He told partners about his own story and perspective on growing Acumatica. He was followed by CEO Yury Larichev who finished up the session some more light on the company’s goals from a financial perspective. Acumatica plans to double revenue each year for the next two years, and eventually reach 1,000 partners.
NetSuite, Intacct, MS Dynamics, Acumatica
Partners Learning From Each Others’ Specialties
Following that session, 4 Acumatica partners presented and demonstrated competing products that they were experienced with. The systems that were demonstrated were Microsoft Dynamics GP (Great Plains), SL (Solomon), Intacct, and NetSuite. This was a great learning opportunity where the audience was able to ask questions and really test Acumatica against the competition.
Forrester published a recent study citing results from hundreds of medium-size business leaders of organizations with 20 to 500 employees. The research revolves around understanding thoughts and preferences on cloud ERP – a trending topic throughout all industries today. As LinkedIn and various blogs buzz with debates on topics like security, costs, and speed of cloud based ERP applications, solid numbers like this are helpful in seeing what businesses are really looking for in 2013.
Cloud Based ERP
Here are just some of the interesting results from the study:
57% of mid-size businesses pointed out that choice in data storage location and choice in deployment as elements that an ERP should include.
“Lower overall costs” was the #1 reason that businesses adopted or planned to adopt SaaS, followed by to “Reduce spending on traditional applications”.
Also, when 358 decision makers were asked about the level of concern with various issues around using SaaS, the top 3 areas of concern were:
Security and Privacy
Integrating with other applications
Financial lock-in to a single vendor – which is interesting, considering that NetSuite, “the #1 Cloud ERP Software Suite” operates with that very lock-in
Even the most customer-centric company has experienced times when one of their customers becomes dissatisfied. How you handle complaints can make or break your reputation and affect your brand.
Today’s digital world gives your customers a lot of power. One post can sour other potential customers from engaging with you, so it becomes even more important today to act quickly to resolve any complaints.
Keep in mind that your clients only complain about what they care about, so you can look at negative feedback as a gift to really understand your client. If you don’t have an avenue for your customers to give feedback, some of them will never tell you until they have gone elsewhere with their business.
I have found a step-by-step process helps diffuse the heat of a negative customer experience.
First, thank them for telling you. “I appreciate your feedback.”
Validate their feelings. “I hear you say that this has been a bad experience for you.” Repeat their complaint and take notes, so they know you are giving this your full attention.
Apologize. Don’t admit blame or throw your colleagues under the bus, just let them know their feedback is important for how you want to operate as a company. “I’m sorry for your bad experience.”
Take action. Don’t dwell on how the problem happened, as this is seen as excusing the behavior. Convey your confidence that “we,” as a company will resolve this issue with an action plan. Get your customer’s agreement on what you propose to do. Ask them, “Does this action plan make sense?”
Take responsibility. Honor any promises you have made to your customer. Follow up to ensure the plan is working well from their point of view.
Most often, the issue you are having is due to the customer feeling that their expectations are not being met. Researchers have suggested that our brains really detest unanticipated outcomes. If you build in a process for setting the expectations up front, this may mitigate hard feelings in the future.
For example, customers often feel they shouldn’t have to pay for project management. By setting the right expectations during the sales cycle, you can eliminate discussions about what they are being charged for. Project Management is an integral part of the implementation and drives the success of the project so, for us as a company, it is non-negotiable.
Ultimately, you are in business because of your customers. Respecting their opinions, yet coming up with a plan that is fair to both parties will ensure that you remain profitable, and are there to support them in the future.
What strategies do you have when dealing with customer complaints? Please continue the conversation and share in the comments below.
Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg, VA – just a few minutes away from Washington, DC – hummed with activity late Sunday night and all day Monday. Nearly 300 professionals representing 98 partners, 20 Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) from 12 countries, gathered there to celebrate the launch of Acumatica 4.1, “the best and most usable version of of Acumatica to date” according to Jean Gea, Product Marketing Manager. Partners will be training all week there – fully committed to the cutting edge Cloud ERP company that has grown by over 300% in 2013.
Acumatica 4.1, 5.0, and Beyond
The focus of the first day of the event was educating partners on exciting changes regarding pricing, partnerships, and product functionality. Partners were also introduced to the product roadmap to version 5.0 and the latest available 3rd party software integrations.
Acumatica CTO, Mike Chtchelkonogov spoke to the crowd about features coming soon to the product such as integrated business intelligence, simpler customization and integration, mobile application framework, Office 365 Integration, more streamlined implementation, and overall more functionality out of the box. The company’s development team has significantly increased in size and has built up a lot of momentum over the last year. Testing processes have become much more efficient – reducing bugs and speeding up development time.
The Acumatica team is also focusing on continuing the progress they’ve already made in Acumatica University – the partner training program dedicated to establishing a strong community of salespeople, implementers, and developers.
Acumatica eCommerce
CurveCommerce
We had the pleasure of sitting through a fantastic live demonstration of an Acumatica eCommerce tool. “CurveCommerce has partnered with Acumatica to deliver a fully integrated ERP and eCommerce Platform. The CurveCommerce System incorporates all of the flexibility and functionality of Magento® eCommerce software with time-tested usability and state of the art marketing techniques. The result is a user-friendly website framework which generates superior sales performance and outstanding conversion rates while seamlessly passing information quickly and securely between Acumatica and the website.”
Retail Management System with Acumatica
FusionRMS
Another application we got to see in action was FusionRMS. Like many of the ISV products, this RMS seemlessly integrates with Acumatica. That is, a user will never even see where Acumatica ends and the ISV product begins. The client installed POS does have a different feel, but is said to be redesigned to fit the Acumatica style in the future. “Fusion Integrated Software application suite includes retail applications: point of sale, customer service, call center, scheduling, etc. Restaurant applications address the need of both counter sales as well as sit down dining. Wholesale / distribution applications include high volume order entry and warehouse management complete with Fedex / UPS integration.”
Services Management Module for Acumatica
M5
We were blown away by the functionality of this application. It was good to see that it was fully embedded in the Acumatica UI. M5 also shared with us their SCRUM development process.
“M5 software brings over 20 years in accounting and ERP software implementation and customization, IT consulting and development. The backgrounds of M5 Software key staff include Industrial Engineers, CPAs, CMAs, Senior Developers and Consultants.
This depth of management and operations knowledge, coupled with software-implementation expertise, results in the best-practices approach to give your business a real top-quality and versatile solution.”
Seattle, WA February 28th, 2013 – PC Bennett Solutions is experiencing rapid growth since their mid-2012 partnership with Acumatica, a promising new player in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software industry. Currently, PC Bennett is the only Acumatica partner in the Northwest.
Patricia Bennett, founder of PC Bennett Solutions addressed her network at the Seattle Executives Association on February 27th to build awareness of the functionality of the Acumatica system. Mrs. Bennett reported substantial growth of the PC Bennett Solutions team, plans of expanding the workspace at the company’s North Bend office, and recent re-launch of the company website to reflect their new product shift.
Now, in addition to selling, implementing, and supporting Microsoft Dynamics GP and CRM and other products, PC Bennett Solutions includes Acumatica’s cloud-based ERP solution in their versatile products offering. The company has increased their team of professionals by nearly 100% in the last six months due to increased sales and plans for continued growth stemming from Acumatica 4.0 which is scheduled to be released on March 5th.
“Acumatica sells itself”, stated Ms. Bennett. “We are thrilled to be a partner of this powerful business management system. It allows us to serve other businesses with a level of functionality and flexibility that cannot be found in any other ERP system.”
“Presenting Acumatica to prospects is interesting, in that, they are often surprised by the number of features that are available readily right out of the box” said Art Olsen, Systems Architect.
Business leaders interested in learning more about services offered at PC Bennett Solutions or functionality of Acumatica, can visit www.pcbennett.com or call 425-831-7924.
PC Bennett Solutions has been providing business management software solutions to businesses since 2002. Their mission is to provide end-to-end system evaluation, implementation, support, and customization solutions to small and midsize businesses in various industries.
There’s been so much activity at Acumatica these days it’s been difficult to keep up. With a rapidly growing network of excited partners the innovative tech company plans to aggressively disrupt the business management software industry over the next few years. Let’s take a look at what we’ve seen in August 2013 so far:
Acumatica’s Whirlwind of Announcements
On the 14th, Acumatica was recognized with the Silver Stevie award in the Best New Product category in the 10th Annual International Business Awards. According to this press release, the company received this “for taking ‘financial management for SMBs to the next level’”.
Then, on August 19th, Acumatica announced a record annual growth of over 300% and potentially hitting 350% by year end. In the past year they’ve moved their headquarters to Kirkland, WA and doubled their staff.
Eva Idom, President of AIM Solutions was named Partner of the Year
PC Bennett Recognized for Outstanding Achievement
With over 280 partner attendees, we were honored to be one of the 10 partners recognized for outstanding achievement at the annual summit. PC Bennett has seen “Acumatica-like” growth since joining them in 2011. Due to our committed and highly trained team, PC Bennett Solutions was named a Gold Certified Partner in April 2013.
Our team here at PC Bennett is excited about Acumatica 4.0. On top of already having more powerful functionality and flexibility than other “big names” in ERP, Acumatica 4.0 is offering even more features that continue to make it stand out from the rest in 2013 and beyond.
Acumatica 4.0: Who & Why?
Organizations who:
Seek the freedom to choose how their data is stored
Want to deploy their Enterprise Resource Planning system either in the Cloud, On-premise, or with a hosting provider – then have the ability to switch back and forth without costly migrations
Could benefit from involving as many users as necessary in their ERP – without paying extra for each person
Value mobility by users having access to their business management system from any browser capable device
Operate within industries such as Distribution, Services, Non-profit, Manufacturing, or Retail, etc…
Require complex or simple accounting procedures
Acumatica 4.0 Usability Enhancements
Our customers and prospects often mention how “user friendly” 3.0 is, but now, the new release makes navigating and completing tasks in Acumatica simpler than ever.
“‘Acumatica 4.0 is a breakthrough for cloud ERP because of its mobile touch UI,’ said Mike Chtchelkonogov, Chief Technology Officer. ‘Tablet-friendly, fewer clicks, faster navigation – all designed to improve the user experience, supporting wider adoption of ERP within SMB organizations,’ he added.” Read the full Acumatica 4.0 Launch Press Release.
Interface
The most noticeable difference between the two is the improved design of the user interface. Instead of opening and expanding various sections, users can quickly jump back and forth between areas such as CRM and Finance or Distribution, etc… in one click. Also, it’s optimized for tablets, and other devices with various resolutions. The layout of each page can adjust to the size of your screen.
Acumatica App
Windows 8 users can now manage and monitor current and past claims, as well as submit receipts to their ERP via photos.
Platform Efficiency
Everything seems to be faster and more accessible in Acumatica 4.0. Users should notice that navigating between records as well as processing transactions has become twice as fast. Screens open up to 3 times as fast as in the previous version.
Acumatica has always been a growth-friendly ERP, scalable to changing processes and complexities as a business develops. Scalability has improved in the 4.0 release. With the same server specifications, Acumatica 4.0 can now handle more users/larger workload.
Acumatica 4.0 Features
“‘More than 40 new customer-driven feature enhancements have been introduced across all financial, distribution, CRM, and project accounting suites,’ said Ali Jani, Vice President, Services. ‘New integrated functionality has been added to the general ledger, cash management, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and employee portal applications. We’ve also focused on Acumatica’s built-in BI capabilities, web reporting, and dashboards. Early customer adoption of Acumatica 4.0 has been very positive, particularly for its ease-of-use and adaptability,’ he added.” Read the full Acumatica 4.0 Launch Press Release.
Financial Management
Enhancements and additional functionality have been added to areas such as the General Ledger, Cash Management, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Employee Portal, and Tax Management. From cash forecasting to time card simplification, and address validation – Acumatica 4’s Financial Management Suite will help businesses manage their accounting processes even better than before.
Specific Identification Accounting
Recently, we met with an electronics distribution company who had a need for a Specific Identification accounting method in their ERP. Because they handle unique, serialized products that are purchased and sold at different prices, and at various times, other methods like FIFO and LIFO were not appropriate. Acumatica 4.0 is one of the few systems that offer this inventory costing method.
Project Accounting
Some new features coming to Project Accounting in Acumatica include the ability to reverse unbilled transactions, simpler use of project activities and attributes, and work in progress support, so that changes can be made without affecting Cost of Goods Sold.
Distribution
Along with better managing the accounting side of a business, Acumatica 4 has added more functionality to Distribution as well. Acumatica 4.0 users can receive inventory replenishment suggestions based on historical analysis. Also, shipping will be easier with USPS integration, return label support, and automated shipments capabilities.
This should serve as a helpful introduction to Acumatica 4.0, but certainly not a complete list. For more information, please contact us so that we can discuss unique business processes and see if Acumatica would be a good fit.
