A few weeks ago, we made the trek out to Las Vegas to attend the Acumatica Summit 2023 at the Wynn Resort and Casino. Having been an Acumatica ISV (independent software vendor) for quite a while now, it was a great opportunity to be able to meet and mingle with other ISVs, VARs (value added resellers), customers and of course, future customers.
Acumatica spared no expense putting this conference together, from a live DJ, 90+ impactful sessions, 100+ partner presentations, 44 training sessions for users to two spacious exhibit halls.
Networking opportunities like the Fun Run and the Women in Tech happy hour were invaluable. Wandering the exhibit halls allowed us to meet several Acumatica resellers and discuss collaboration on EDI integration projects, which is one of our focus efforts for 2023. For more on that, check out our new white paper,
EDI Partnerships Deliver Value to ERP Solution Providers.
The theme of the Summit was: Celebrate, Discover, Imagine
- Celebrate community, reconnect with friends, and recognize the achievements of innovative businesses that have overcome challenges and have transformed their operations
- Discover the latest capabilities and best practices that are empowering users to reach new heights of efficiency, productivity, and growth
- Imagine where technology is taking us, where we can take technology, and how this progress can apply to your business and enable you to maximize your impact and control your future
Keep reading to learn how Acumatica knocked it out of the park!
Day One
Acumatica Summit Welcome Reception
First off, the sense of community with this conference was almost palpable and immediately felt with the Welcome Reception. We made so many new acquaintances and ran into old friends as well, like the folks at Aktion Associates, who we have been partnered with for many years. We spent most of our time at the Marketplace which is the moniker they coined for the exhibit hall.
To feature just a couple of the delightful contacts we made, first was Lavonya Sandlin, President and Founder of Evolve Consultancy, LLC. Evolve will be offering Acumatica consulting later in 2023 and caters to the wholesale distribution, food & beverage, health & beauty and apparel & footwear industries. Evolve may turn out to be a great candidate for GraceBlood’s ERP and EDI partnership program – stay tuned.
Another charming acquaintance we made was Kurt Keating, Acumatica Administrator for MiiR, manufacturer of high-quality stainless-steel tumblers and bottles. MiiR, a Certified B Corp based out of Seattle, is paving the way in both sustainability and social responsibility. Not only do they actively fund worthwhile projects to improve the environment and local communities, they also contractually require their, “…tier 1 suppliers to commit to give back to their communities and MiiR matches the amount to double down on our collective impact.” It doesn’t get better than that. All that networking can make you hungry and thirsty and the Wynn staff saw to our every need from sparkling wine to cocktails and delicious passed appetizers.
Day Two
Community, Best Practices and Technology
Our first full day at the conference focused on these three themes: Celebrate the Acumatica Community, Discover new innovations and best practices, Imagine the future of technology.
John Case, Acumatica’s CEO, delivered a dynamic keynote touting the benefits, as a new CEO, of getting to know the team behind Acumatica, traveling to such places as Columbus, OH and Montreal, CN. Throughout his speech, John talks about the amazing Acumatica community and tells the story of how he went from Acumatica customer to Acumatica CEO – is there a better selling point? He goes on to explain how Acumatica’s sweet spot is the SMB (small to medium size businesses) as these are at the core of the US economy and represent two-thirds of all new jobs as well as almost 45% of the US GDP. And as of the end of 2022, Acumatica now has more than 10K customers processing more than 840M annual business transactions within Acumatica! They have accomplished this by focusing on growth but never compromising on their principles. John shared their newly developed Customer Bill of Rights (shown below) which operates as a framework for customer success. During the first keynote, we also heard success stories from three Acumatica customers: Inspirus, Avante Health Solutions, Acumatica’s Customer of the Year, and last but not least, LifeSource, Impact Customer of the Year.
One of the key takeaways from Day Two is that Acumatica has figured out that ERP solutions should NOT be a one size fits all proposition and they have created development tools and APIs to empower their ISVs and resellers to develop the “…functionality they need, exactly where they need it,” as described by Acumatica cofounder, Mike Shchelkonogov. This is a very good thing for GraceBlood as our mission is always to tailor our EDI integration solutions for our clients based on their unique requirements.
Day Three
Customer Innovation, What’s New, and Future Opportunities
Our last day focused on these three themes: Celebrate customer-driven innovation, Discover what’s new for Acumatica 2023 R1 (Release One), Imagine future opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses and Cloud ERP technology. If you’re sensing a pattern, you’re absolutely right. Customer Innovation was celebrated by recognizing over 75 MVPs, chosen by their peers, for contributing to the Acumatica community. One of those MVPs recognized is a GraceBlood client, Green Bay Packaging. Moving on to the Discover segment, Acumatica unveiled some groundbreaking new features of 2023 R1. One exciting new feature is the ability of Acumatica to recognize and process PDF attachment bills sent from suppliers via email, which helped Deslaurier Custom Cabinets tremendously. Another feature introduced was the ability to automatically reassign tasks within Acumatica for when users are out sick or on vacation. And since Acumatica is a global company, an important improvement coming with 2023 R1 is the ability to have multiple base currencies within a single tenant. There are also many improvements coming for each of the industry verticals that Acumatica caters to: Retail, Construction, Wholesale Distribution, Manufacturing and Services.
One thing we heard repeatedly was the idea of “omni channel” which is the concept of organizations collecting orders from multiple channels, i.e. brick and mortar, online, wholesale distributors. Think of how you can order a single product from myriad sources and this is what omni channel is all about. Acumatica is simplifying omni channel by bringing these sources together within a single platform.
It was an amazing three days, and we are excited to see what Summit 2024 has in store. GraceBlood is thrilled to be recognized as an Acumatica ISV and we are currently exploring EDI partnerships with some of the VARs we connected with. If you’re an Acumatica user looking for EDI integration OR you’re a VAR looking for an EDI partner for your clients, book a 30-minute meeting with one of our experts and let’s become the next success story.
