As an organizational leader or business owner, you understand that maximizing productivity is key to your company’s growth. Without productive, efficient workflows, your company will never reach its true potential, but before you can increase productivity, you must first be able to track and measure it.
In 2019, Microsoft revealed its plans to sunset its Dynamics GP suite of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Despite the fact that, in the years following the company’s initial announcement, Microsoft has pushed back its planned timetable several times, it is still clear that the provider is scaling back support for their antiquated ERP software as time goes on. In fact, Microsoft has already begun ending support for several versions of Dynamics GP and has committed to ending all support by 2028.
In the first part of our series regarding resilience in distribution, we discussed how both wholesale distributors and retail commerce leaders alike could promote resiliency by upgrading their enterprise resource planning (ERP) technology. If you’re not caught up already, here’s a quick recap: Adopting Acumatica ERP software empowers businesses and enables them to leverage advanced sales strategies that promote business continuity.
In late 2022, experts predicted a 96% likelihood of a U.S. recession over the next year. Fears surrounding that looming recession, as well as ongoing labor shortages and supply chain hurdles, have left retailers and wholesale distributors bracing for impact.
Historically, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software has been difficult to implement, use, and maintain, especially within the first few months following its initial rollout. Fortunately, modern ERP software has remedied these shortcomings and set the stage for widespread user adoption.
Without the contribution of IT decision-makers, a company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) deployment strategy will go over budget and fall well behind schedule. If you are an information technology leader within your organization, you might be feeling as though you are in the hot seat right nowadays.
Acumatica 2023 R1 features significant advancements in usability, intelligence and industry functionality designed to help companies grow in today’s challenging economic environment. 2023 R1 will be in beta on Feb. 2, with general availability planned for April.
Fixed-asset tracking is a critical function of a company’s accounting department. This process involves tracking and maintaining visibility of all of an organization’s physical assets, including:
Managing the various aspects of wholesale distribution operations without adequate visibility can easily become a logistical nightmare. Fortunately, your wholesale distribution company can streamline its operations and drive efficiency by implementing cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.
Microsoft Dynamics GP, the company’s on-premises enterprise resource planning solution, is rapidly approaching the end of its life cycle. Microsoft has already begun ending support for several versions of Dynamics GP and has committed to ending all support by 2028. That's why we discussed 5 reasons Dynamics GP users should switch to cloud ERP last week.
For years, businesses have leveraged Dynamics GP as their go-to enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. There was a time when this on-premises solution was the best option on the market. However, with support going away and the rise of cloud-based ERP solutions like Acumatica, this legacy solution is becoming obsolete.
Already more than a month into 2023 and what a month it’s been for the Cloud 9 ERP Solutions team. Following a busy 2022, we were excited to take a couple days to head out to Vegas for one of our favorite events of the year—Acumatica Summit 2023 to celebrate the past year and learn what’s on the horizon.
The theme of this year's event was CELEBRATE, DISCOVER, and IMAGINE.
Expense management is a long-standing challenge for businesses in virtually all industries. Tracking and approving employee-initiated expenses is tedious and oftentimes downright frustrating.
Cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is a robust solution that can enable your business to unify its various financial management and resource planning processes into a single platform. Cloud-based ERP software is comprised of advanced tools that enable your business to automate a variety of financial processes, including:
Intercompany accounting isn’t just something that sounds complex: It genuinely is, and it represents one of the greatest pain points for any organization that has merged with, consolidated, or acquired another entity.
Regardless of the industry you operate within, providing great products and services is foundational to business success. However, even if what you and your business offer are exceptional, you may be hindering your company’s growth by relying on rudimentary or outdated technologies. A few examples of software that might be holding you back include basic accounting software and antiquated financial management tools.
For years, businesses in a variety of different industries have turned to Sage’s line of enterprise resource planning (ERP) products to facilitate core ERP processes.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a complex yet critical component of operating your business. Still, while ERP processes will always be complicated, they do not have to impede your company’s long-term growth.
If you have previously contemplated upgrading your enterprise resource planning solution but found yourself not quite ready to commit, join us as we explore seven reasons why you need to invest in a modern ERP software solution, such as Acumatica ERP.
Hopefully, 2022 was a year of resurgence for your business, but even if you managed to shatter your business goals over the last twelve months, now is not the time to rest on your laurels.
Efficiency is the name of the game in the ultra-competitive and rapidly evolving manufacturing industry. Manufacturers are constantly searching for ways to operate more efficiently, reduce overhead expenses, improve transparency, and boost profitability.
Historically, manufacturing companies have tended to engage in very focused methods of producing goods. For decades, the decision to focus on a singular manufacturing method was the most pragmatic approach for many organizations.
Investing in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution is meant to make your life easier and increase the efficiency of your business. However, choosing the wrong ERP software provider for your company can actually have the opposite effect.
If your organization is in the market for a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, there are a multitude of factors that you must consider to ensure that you get the most out of your investment. One such factor is the strength of the ERP solution’s partner ecosystem.
With Halloween right around the corner, we thought we would share some real-life horror stories and challenges faced by our customers before moving to a modern, cloud ERP platform like Acumatica.
In the early days of the pandemic, few, if any, business leaders could have predicted the impacts that these unprecedented events would have on the global supply chain. As supply chain disruptions first began to manifest, many hoped that these materials shortages and bottlenecks would be short-lived.
Supply chain disruptions, especially protracted ones, can threaten business continuity and destabilize cash flow. Fortunately, your organization can overcome supply chain disruptions by leveraging the proven strategies outlined:
Acumatica and Oracle NetSuite represent two of the most well-known and widely used enterprise resource planning solutions in the world. As part of Cloud 9 ERP Solutions’ systematic comparison of Acumatica vs. Oracle NetSuite, we have analyzed several key attributes of these two ERP platforms so far including costs and implementation process.
In the months following the outset of the 2020 pandemic, manufacturers the world over were faced with unprecedented challenges. These challenges have fueled the emergence of several trends, each of which has the potential to reshape the manufacturing industry as we know it.
In the first installment of our series on Acumatica vs. Oracle NetSuite, we compared the implementation processes of the two ERP software solutions. In this second entry, we will turn our attention to a subject that is top of mind for all organizational leaders: costs.
As is true with most innovative technologies, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software was initially only available to large organizations. Early ERP software was simply too cost-prohibitive for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Fortunately, as the technology has evolved, it has become more accessible.
With inflation on the rise, businesses around the globe are bracing for a potential recession. While the decline in currency values and rising prices are impacting organizations of all sizes, small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are particularly vulnerable.
Acumatica 2022 R2 offers innovations in usability, includes the increased ability for businesses to target new geographic markets and segments, and sharpens the targeting of micro-markets and verticals.
Today's manufacturing industry is virtually unrecognizable compared to what it was just ten short years ago. The advent of advanced manufacturing processes coupled with robotics and automation technologies has allowed organizations to create truly life-altering products.
In the wake of several major cyberattacks, businesses across all industries have been reevaluating their security protocols and best practices. While virtually any digital asset is vulnerable to cyber attack, ERP software is a particularly appealing target because of the amount of critical business data that it contains.
Since the turn of the century, business accounting processes have entered a Renaissance period categorized by the rapid emergence of new ideas and best practices. Basic accounting tools like spreadsheets or paper-based alternatives were replaced by more robust software.
You may be familiar with Sage 100 and Acumatica. Both ERP software solutions can seem ideal on the surface. But when it comes to choosing from the huge variety of products on the market, Acumatica is the clear winner.
While Acumatica ranks at the top of the list, the fact remains that there are many enterprise resource planning (ERP) software packages that all compete for your company's patronage. No one package is perfect, and each has unique strengths, weaknesses, and industry specializations.
As a menial task, data capture through manual data entry is a dangerous process—slow, costly, and prone to errors. Despite its problems, it was once the only way to capture data from physical sources, such as documents and receipts.
As a Gold Certified Acumatica Partner, Cloud 9 ERP Solutions is no stranger to the accolades that come when the platform continues to deliver for every user.
Have the unprecedented challenges of the last few years left you searching for ways to optimize organizational efficiency and agility? Do you feel that your aging legacy systems are preventing your business from tapping into its true potential? Are your current software solutions rigid, inefficient, and disjointed?
Over the last several years, countless businesses have transitioned away from legacy financial management solutions in favor of dynamic, cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. This shift comes as no surprise as the latter option offers a multitude of benefits that cannot be obtained from antiquated on-premises solutions.
It is virtually impossible to overstate just how challenging 2020 was for businesses in the manufacturing sector. During that 12-month timespan, manufacturers were faced with unprecedented supply chain disruptions, materials shortages, and other threats to business continuity.
If you operate within the manufacturing industry and want to optimize business profitability, then you must monitor relevant performance metrics. By closely tracking the right manufacturing metrics, you can gain valuable insights into your business and identify ways to improve core processes.
Is your aging ERP software holding your business back? Are you torn between upgrading your legacy ERP software and replacing it with a modern, cloud-based solution? Not sure which move is the most pragmatic option for your organization?
In the last several years, organizational leaders in the distribution sector have fully bought into the data collection and performance monitoring revolution. However, simply selecting and tracking key performance indicators is not enough. If distributors hope to get the most out of all this data, they must find a way to present it in a digestible format.
With the cloud, businesses have the advantage of remote support and data access, allowing important services to be delivered with less delay and at a lower cost. This advantage is essential for long-term stability and growth.
Business leaders have to continuously track and assess many important metrics, including shipping, payments, and employee compensation. Vital day-to-day tasks require ongoing oversight and accounting.
Acumatica, the world’s fastest-growing cloud ERP company, has once again set itself apart from the competition, achieving eight different No. 1 rankings in the G2 Spring 2022 reports.
Once upon a time, Sage’s feature package provided the premier ERP service for small- to mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Those days are long gone. Sage is now legacy software running on code that isn't agile enough to meet the needs of modern business.
The end of the month causes unreasonable stress. Duplicate data entry, frustrating number adjustment, and learning that information is just plain wrong creates friction between departments and demands long, thankless hours.
The home and office supply industry has changed dramatically. It is easy for manufacturers to sell direct, and the Internet enables customers to source from low-cost, global competitors. Distribution-based businesses must be agile and built on modern technologies to effectively manage their supply chains and customer relationships.
These last few years have challenged the business world in ways no reasonable leader ever expected. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digitization process to a breakneck speed and shows no signs of slowing down as physical needs disappear in the face of modern digital priorities.
Now that the world has gotten used to the digitization of the workforce in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, tools to increase communication efficiency are in higher demand than ever before.
As part of a modern company, your goal is, of course, to grow. But growing creates unique challenges and presents new obstacles, especially in the digital world where customers expect flexibility and speed above all else, and new skill sets that span the company are necessary to meet those expectations.
Your ERP software is the backbone at the center of your operations. You need to know it’s working as intended and getting the results you’re looking for. But how do you accomplish this? The answer is Key performance indicators (KPIs.)
Choosing the right distribution ERP software for your company is one of the most critical decisions you will make. It’s going to affect every part of your company's daily processes and operations. Making the correct choice here is what separates the success stories from the failures.
The Cloud 9 ERP Solutions team recently returned from the 2022 Acumatica Summit in Las Vegas. During this annual event, Acumatica previewed upcoming 2022 R1 product features which will be released in mid-March.
Selecting ERP software is a major decision that will impact every facet of your organization’s day-to-day operations. The right solution will improve the customer experience and propel your company to unprecedented growth. Conversely, making the wrong choice will negatively impact your organization for years to come.
Like many other field service companies, your organization likely relies on a combination of legacy applications to manage your business.
The logistical challenges faced by the field service industry are unparalleled. Organizations that provide field services must ensure that their technicians have access to the right equipment and up-to-date information so that they can successfully complete assigned projects.
Despite significant advances to ERP technology over the last several years, many organizations continue to rely on legacy ERP software.
People don’t like having to solve riddles. It’s fun in the context of an escape room or a brain teaser, but in the context of trying to figure out how to pay a bill, riddles are infuriating.
When your company receives an order, how do you know whether you can fulfill it? There’s a considerable number of factors that go into creating a product, with raw material availability, employee labor, and the delivery chain all having an impact on when that product can actually make it into the hands of customers.
Finding the optimal solution for your business, or even the ideal partner to assist you in getting there, is never simple. Cloud 9 ERP Solutions, a Gold Certified Acumatica Partner, has worked with businesses like yours to implement and optimize Acumatica Cloud ERP, a solution that is ready to meet your needs.
Imagine if phones worked by transmitting your speech after an hour’s delay. They would be nearly worthless, right? So why should we put up with business analytics tools that work the same way? The answer is that we don’t and shouldn’t.
During Thanksgiving, many of you will have gathered with family and friends and considered what you are thankful for in your own life. However, the holiday is great a opportunity for the business community to count its blessings too.
Adopting a warehouse management system is among the best decisions warehouse managers can make. It can help you improve inventory visibility, manage supply chain issues, and optimize your resources. A centralized system is the ultimate solution to most of your warehouse management issues.
Companies are continually seeking to make their operations seamless by adopting the latest technology in their operations. The dynamic nature of technology calls for organizations to be always ready to change whenever a new and better technology gets into the market to reap the benefits associated with it. Failure to change to the new technology risks the business becoming uncompetitive and eventually being less productive.
Customer service is increasingly becoming the focus for most businesses. Companies that are offering high-quality services are gaining a competitive edge over those that are not. As a consequence, competition has shifted towards winning customers through high-quality services. For an organization to achieve this, it must have the right CRM that will enable it to collect customer data. Such data will then be used to inform the services that will be offered to the customers to improve their experience.
It’s challenging to modernize warehouse operations without a comprehensive plan.
As the year comes to an end, it’s crucial to find ways to cut costs and increase productivity before setting new business goals for the following year. However, this can be a challenging endeavor without the right tools at your disposal.
As we covered in our last post, Acumatica 2021 R2 includes comprehensive advances in personalization, core business process functions, and industry editions.
With the release of the new Acumatica edition, business owners are eager to implement the new features to scale their enterprises. Acumatica 2021 R2 presents a host of functionalities that can help you operate your company smoothly while improving its performance.
The efficiency of your financial department can make or break your business. That is why you need to make strategic and purposeful decisions concerning the finances of your business. ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems provide one of the best ways to make your operations more streamlined.
The distribution industry continues to experience immense changes. As a result, you need a warehouse management solution that offers dynamic functionalities to ensure efficiency and profitability in the long run.
During the 2021 Acumatica Summit, the company announced new partnerships and integrations to enhance its leading cloud ERP product. The integrations with Adobe Document Cloud and Microsoft Teams are part of the company’s efforts to achieve these goals.
QuickBooks meets the need of the hour for small businesses since it offers basic accounting at an affordable price. This accounting software is also user-friendly, making it ideal for startups. But as your business grows, QuickBooks becomes limiting because it is not designed for other processes apart from financials.
Barcoding, also known as automatic identification (Auto-ID) provides companies with an effective way of tracking, identifying, and managing items.
A healthy cash flow rate is essential for any business to thrive and outdo competitors. Sufficient liquidity allows you to cover the costs of running your company, pay debts, and allocate resources to areas that will ensure the growth of your enterprise. Unfortunately, maintaining cash inflows can be challenging for many companies and is one of the leading causes of the collapse of startup businesses.
Every business needs a way of evaluating its performance to find creative ways of growing the company. One way is to adopt the top KPIs every distribution company should be tracking and incorporate them in your business model.
A lot of companies silo their accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in ways that keep them separated. Depending on the size of your business, you may not even have an ERP system implemented within your organization, but hopefully after you read this article, your feelings about this will change. You see, the primary purpose of ERP systems is to both assist accounting with the books and help your finance team with reports and monetary monitoring, while simultaneously keeping the rest of your organization’s workflow running smoothly. Great ERP systems incorporate both accounting and finance functions (as well as other departments’ responsibilities), facilitating an overall ease and flow to your operations management processes.
Distributors with successful distribution chains have well-laid strategies to keep track of all activities in goods management until they reach their last destination. Item management is vital, as any mismanagement of goods leads to incorrect order deliveries and dissatisfied customers. All businesses’ primary goals are to satisfy their customers’ needs, and when you have unhappy customers, you will close the deal sooner.
During and after the pandemic, the eCommerce business has boomed rapidly. Now, more than ever, every business needs to maintain a well-established eCommerce store to remain competitive in their markets. One way to stay up to date with your eCommerce store is to get an effective enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to achieve your business success.
As a distribution company, you might be feeling overwhelmed with the amount of inventory you have or how to organize and replace it. Having a strong and efficient inventory replenishment method can help you streamline your business processes to meet the high demands you are facing from your customers. In this article, we’ll go through the basics of inventory replenishment and how having it can help you as a business owner.
When you’re in the process of selecting a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, there are a lot of factors that need to be considered. You should be looking at your business’s potential growth and thinking about the people who will be overseeing the processes held within the system. It’s vital to take on a bit of due diligence as you decide which systems will work best for you and which processes you’re trying to aid during the evaluation activities.
Over the last few years, the world has seen a spike in eCommerce, and 2020 certainly lent a hand to this industry. As people were confined to their homes and afraid or unable to go to stores to buy the products they needed, eCommerce became an absolute necessity for households all across the world. Each day, more and more distributors, retailers, and manufacturers are jumping on the eCommerce bandwagon, increasing competition and making it harder for companies to stand out above the crowd. According to recent data, worldwide eCommerce sales exceeded $4.28 trillion in 2020, with U.S. eCommerce sales accounting for $215 billion in just the first quarter of 2021.
When it comes to supply chain management, there’s a lot of room for errors, but if you have the right plans in place, there are also plenty of opportunities to increase profit and enhance employee productivity. In fact, you can even boost your profits in times when you’re not even making sales. That’s because an optimized supply chain management system can reduce your costs and automate your supply chain in ways that work best for your business as a whole.
When you’re trying to find the right ERP system for your business, you’re faced with a lot of decisions. Which brand is best for you? How much should you pay? If you’re considering investing in an ERP, you’re probably interested in integrating the most important parts of your business so you can bring together planning, purchasing, inventory, sales, marketing, finance, and human resources. On paper, this sounds great, but how do you go about doing this in real life?
Changes in buyer purchasing patterns picked up steam as the pandemic raged in 2020. As a result, retailers need a modern financial solution, one that is flexible and supports technologies, like cloud, mobile, or even curbside pickup. In response, the Acumatica team has been working diligently to enhance their Cloud ERP suite, so it surpasses these market demands with the release of Acumatica 2021 R1.
With the groundwork laid for ERP modernization, now it's time to go live and continue to improve. Today, we explore the path to and beyond go-live day and discuss the options that you have for continuous improvement.
More than 17 million businesses operate in the US. Each is unique, but they all require business management and financial software. When trying to find a solution that best meets their needs, corporations discover that Acumatica delivers needed flexibility and integration, so with the expertise of the right partner like Cloud 9 ERP Solutions, it fits their unique requirements.
Acumatica Cloud ERP software is one of the leading ERP softwares on the market today because of how it adapts and scales with your business.
Whether you're all in on the cloud or looking to work in a slightly less-connected landscape, Acumatica offers the deployment flexibility you want and need. As one of the few (or only) players offering the choice to deploy in the cloud, on-premises, or in a private environment, these can affect you differently.
2020 was a tough year for retailers—at least those with a traditional brick-and mortar footprint. Capacity limitations and a continued push by Amazon left many traditional spaces fighting for their lives. But 2021 is here. Shots are going into arms, lockdowns are being lifted, and the busy seasons are coming up. But to succeed, retail executives will need to have customer information, supply chains, and planning initiatives perfected.
It’s challenging to modernize warehouse operations without a comprehensive plan. After all, the path to failure is laid with good intentions, and failing to plan is planning to fail. For the distribution industry—a sector awash with activity and evolution, many companies are forging new paths with the help of technology.
When looking at the cost, functionality, and time to implement a software, you expect to get everything you want and need. Part of any successful software decision journey is the process of defining needs, prioritizing functionality, and building your list of potential vendors to deliver on your expectations.
“Ghosting” is one of those terms in modern dating used to explain what happens when a potential love interest simply… vanishes. Things can be going swimmingly for weeks, you think that the two of you are on the same page, and then, one day, nothing.
Constant improvement is the goal of any company. But for software vendors, it’s the number one goal. Customers don’t just rely on their software vendors to provide more functionality and usability, they require it.
2020 changed the way that product-based businesses needed to work. Whether the change impacted a traditionally bricks-and-mortar retailer looking for opportunities to undo the damage of lockdowns, a distributor seeing increased pressure to embrace technology, or a manufacturer looking to pivot, many players in each of these industries turned to ecommerce to keep the money flowing in.
In our last blog exploring the role of an ERP partner in helping you through your ERP selection and implementation journey, we highlighted the importance of communication and needs documentation, noting that this is a critical step not only for getting the right functionality, but in driving excitement for a project.
ERP is like surgery, and if you're going to approach anything as complicated and process-based as this, you're going to want to understand what the surgeon is going to do between the anesthesia and sewing up.
2020 was, in a word, unprecedented. Combine pandemic-driven lockdowns, recession, and an election thrown in for good measure all combined to make for an interesting time. And with all the uncertainty that the year brought, change was an imperative. From state governments limiting or restricting capacity in stores to increased safety measures, evolving customer expectations, and challenges in the supply chain, retailers needed to turn on a dime to keep up.
Every distributor is different. Different products, different suppliers, and different locations—all scientifically chosen to maintain margins, improve delivery speed, and ultimately ensure that the supply chain remains in a state of flow. But there’s another area in which they are different as well—technological maturity, risk tolerance and goals. In turn, this leads to distributors living in different realities, existing in different stages of their warehouse modernization journey.
Acumatica Cloud ERP is the market-leading cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) business software solution.
Better usability, functionality, and flexibility are on the horizon for Acumatica users in the coming months. Acumatica’s 2021 R1 release is on the horizon and everyone in the system—users, prospects, partners, and analysts—are looking forward to the enhancements and improvements expected in the coming update.
Last month, we discussed the potential value that a FastTrack implementation can have for your business, combining a 90-day or less project with minimal configuration.
As always, the holiday season left retailers scrambling to keep up. Even in the midst of a pandemic, lockdowns, and recession, money flowed in, beating the -1.4 percent month to month sales projection and resulting in 2.9 percent more sales than December 2019 and a 4.0 percent over Q4 2019.
Over the past decade, wholesale distribution firms have been exposed to new processes and technologies. While not everyone has made the leap into a modernization initiative, many have.
2020 is over, but the challenges that go alongside it remain. After the wild ride that was the last year, many are wondering whether the coming year is going to be better, worse, or more of the same.
One of the greatest selling points of ERP is its ability to evolve with your business. In fact, one of the greatest ways to reduce risk is to start small and add more as needed. The right partner is going to support you long after go-live. If you're looking to flatten the learning curve and ramp up the benefits, learn more about FastTrack and Cloud 9 ERP Solutions.
Lockdowns aren’t going away, and employees are getting more and more used to working from home. But as we discussed in the past couple months, many companies took a temporary approach to setting employees up for remote work. Processes were likely disjointed and people likely are looking for something bigger and better. To get there, however, you need to look for ways to empower them, rather than simply provide access.
After a huge 2019, 2020 was a shock to the system. No one expected this to be one of the toughest years in recent memory, but here we are. But what does 2021 hold? How are companies in retail, distribution, manufacturing, AV, and more planning to survive and thrive?
It's not just a landscape of move product and collect money. Success requires flow, and flow requires a connected experience for the entire business. But for growing distribution firms, there comes a point where things start to slow down. Often, growth can turn a once-efficient process into a multi-step nightmare that exposes you to risk. Risk of inaccuracy—in purchasing, fulfilling orders, collecting cash and more.
Wholesale distributors often stock and sell thousands of inventory items. These items may be similar, with only slight variations in size, style, or other attributes for each family of products. But your customers don’t care about the other items, they work with you to get the items they need.
Copy and paste, copy and paste, copy, edit and paste… Only to find out… something is wrong. Guess who's in for a long night? All too often, business leaders come to us with this challenge. After taking all the right steps—offering a great product/service, hiring the right people, and providing ample pay, benefits, and perks—they realize that something is amiss.
Remember when working from home was a luxury? Remember when salespeople could simply drop by on a Friday afternoon to update the CRM? Remember when you could survive on an occasional email about the status of a facility? Business no longer works like that. In fact, it hasn’t worked like that for years.
Though it may still be two months away and you still have a lot to get through before the end of the year—HR departments still have to lead employees through insurance enrollment, retail companies and their value chain partners need to handle holiday rushes, and many still are yet to file PPP loan forgiveness—the year-end close is rapidly approaching.
Today’s distribution firms have spent the year facing immense challenges just to keep the lights on. An unexpected revenue drop, staffing challenges, and international supply chain disruption have all come as a result of recent lockdowns, and the path to recovery might still look slower than one may hope. But recovery is coming, and it’s going to be important to keep your business focused on whatever is next.
So many ERP options, so many moving parts in each product, and so much flexibility in configuration, many organizations seeking out cloud ERP software suffer from paralysis by analysis. This is only made harder when each vendor seems to have an endless cavalcade of partners who can put the solution into use. Too often, companies will get almost everything they need from a product—only to find out that their partner can’t put it into action. With timeframes measured in years or decades, ERP is all about getting long-term value from a solution.
The distribution landscape is in a constant state of change. Whether it’s the changes you’ve had to make to remain competitive in the past few years or the changes you’ve needed to make to survive 2020, your company has been consistently on the move as it worked to fend off challenges to business model, operating process, or margins.
2020 has been an intriguing year. For many, this meant challenges. For some—especially in industries serving the medical community—this meant unforeseen opportunities. For all, this meant that some kind of change was in order. Understandably, most organizations—especially those forced to lay off workers, reforecast revenue, and do whatever was needed to survive the lockdowns—are looking to put this year into the rearview.
In distribution, the product is a key part of your business. Though many distributors in recent years have looked toward partnership and value-added services as they look to fight off low-cost entrants, your business still relies on the same “product in, product out” model that it always has.
Technology, in a larger sense, is a relatively ambiguous term. Not only could it be dismissed as jargon (it has the newest technology) or used as a filler word to sound innovative, it doesn’t discuss what is going on with a product.
Vendor relationships matter now more than ever. After months of trying to stabilize cash flow and collect from customers in order to pay your own vendors, lockdowns are ending and things might finally be looking up. But you’re not out of the woods just yet. You’ve just spent months trying to work with your suppliers’ collections departments, and relations might still be a bit tense at the moment.
You’ve probably heard that among the many benefits of working with a cloud vendor is that you receive frequent and robust updates. With Acumatica, you can expect this—it’s promised in their customer bill of rights, it’s been delivered consistently since their inception, and it’s been documented in a 300-plus page document that we’d like to try scratching the surface of.
It’s hard to imagine that ecommerce has existed for more than a quarter century. Though initial forays into buying and selling online relied on complicated processes only available to those well-versed in early 90s internet technology, ecommerce has evolved to provide shoppers with an easier-than-ever buying experience.
Though there are many benefits to choosing a cloud-based ERP solution, one of the biggest is simple: Twice-annual updates that add value for users. Once again, Acumatica has announced new functionality, and there are some impressive new features being added in their second release of 2020—Acumatica R2 2020.
Selecting an ERP system for your business can be challenging. From overt superiority claims to outright lies about competitors, it’s often hard to see the truth, making it incredibly easy to get lost in the shuffle. However, if you’re looking to make the most of an ERP decision, it pays to ask the right questions.
If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s this: The best-laid plans can be derailed in an instant. Though it’s unlikely we will face any kind of crisis like the COVID-19 outbreak in the foreseeable future, the last six months need to be a learning experience for all leaders. But as the economy slowly moves to reopen, it pays to not only understand what’s next, but to remain focused on what got you where you are today.
The key to preparing your retail business for the holidays is to start doing so right after the holidays end. Well, it’s likely that you did that—but plans change when a global pandemic hits. Supply chains changed. Your business probably had to shut down for at least a month. And now that you’re ramping back up, you’re doing so with fewer customers allowed in your business.
If you’re getting sick of the disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent lockdowns, you’re not alone. After four-plus months of this, money may still be tight, but restrictions are starting to ease. As a distributor, this is great news.
ERP evaluation and decision. It sounds like an awful experience, right? Politicized decisions, long cycles that involve another company sticking their nose into your data, and months of training for a moderate improvement? It doesn’t have to be. Today’s ERP can be intuitive, intelligent, and informative—if you know what you’re looking for.
As every pundit would say, “these are unprecedented times” and “we live in a new normal.” While both are reasonably true statements, the business world has been experiencing a series of new normals for decades. Ecommerce? Not really a thing until the late 90s. Cell phones? Most of them had keyboards a decade ago. The cloud? Was still being denounced as a fringe technology as little as five years ago.
Once upon a time, A/V was simple. Wire it up, plug it in, and turn it on. While the analog days made for easy set-up, they also created hassles and headaches. Does your client have a problem? Guess what, you’re driving out to fix it or on the phone helping them troubleshoot. Not only did this take out of your day, it wasn’t client-focused. If something went down, they had to wait for you to come fix it.
The COVID-19 outbreak may be on the downswing and lockdowns may be coming to an end, but there’s a good chance that the way we shop has changed forever. Now that one-hour curbside pickup has been instilled into the consumer’s mind, there’s a good chance that customers won’t develop herd immunity to the idea that this is a better shopping experience.
Omnichannel commerce, defined as a holistic approach to multichannel payments, is nothing new; it just became a bit more necessary in the spring of 2020. Considered to be the next wave of ecommerce, this practice blends traditional retail practices with ecommerce to deliver customer service when, where, and how the customer wants to experience it.
Many businesses carry inventory. Whether it’s a distributor working to move the inventory from supplier to customer, a manufacturer who needs to convert raw materials to finalized goods, or a retailer who needs to carry enough products to satisfy a customer demand, field service businesses need to know what they have available and know when to reorder.
Times have changed. Whether you’re reading this in the midst of the pandemic or after everything has gone back to normal, you know that the way businesses operate has evolved, and success relies on your ability to be adaptable. But the times have been changing for a while now—and not just because of the Coronavirus outbreak. Over the past decade, everything from manufacturing processes to the way goods are purchased has changed, and it pays to stay ahead.
Are you still using Everest ERP? Have you ever wondered if there was anything better out there? After all, you clicked on this blog for a reason, so we can safely assume the answer to both questions is yes. But as you consider the move from a legacy product to a modern solution, you may have experienced a variety of pitfalls that stopped you from making the move. Today, we would like to discuss why the Cloud 9 ERP Solutions team and Acumatica can help you overcome them.
The word unprecedented has been used a lot recently. Unprecedented times. Unprecedented changes. What about unprecedented opportunities? Despite the recent downturn that came as a result of shutdown orders and quarantines, up until March, we spent a decade watching growth. Once this all ends, confidence will return and so will the growth. The question, will you be ready?
Fill in the blank: “____ happens.” For a lot of companies who specialize in field service, this isn’t just a well-known concept, it’s a fair portion of your revenue stream. Things break down. People get viruses on their computers. Parts need replaced. Often, this is just as—if not more important to a revenue stream as “preemptively repairing equipment so ____ doesn’t happen.”
It’s a tough time for all sorts of businesses, but depending on your specific expertise, the stay-at-home orders may have had a profound impact on your firm.
The phrase, “eating your own dog food,” is one of those marketing terms used by organizations looking to reiterate the quality of their products. Not only does it create early adoption in your organization, it shows confidence in your own products.
Nearly everyone claims to be “the fastest growing cloud ERP company.” Somewhere between the private internal metrics and varying definitions of growth, most of the time these claims aren’t wrong.
Whether you provide ongoing product support for products you built or specialize in being a field service company, when a customer calls, they need you to deliver.
If your workplace is following the advice of the Center for Disease Control, you’re probably reading this from home. If this is a new experience for you, welcome to the remote work world. Though many companies have been considering the concept of remote work for years and others have already put such programs into place, it’s a different experience when an entire workplace is working from home.
This past Tuesday, March 10th, the Northeast region held their inaugural Acumatica User Group at Cloud 9 ERP Solutions Head Quarters in Stamford, CT. The Acumatica User Group is led by Acumatica Gold Certified Partner: Cloud 9 ERP Solutions and Acumatica Partner: CAL Business Solutions.
Whether you’re looking at selling your firm or simply positioning yourself for long-term success, recurring revenue is a big deal right now in the AV space. We’ve discussed this in a variety of articles in the past few months, but we would today like to explore some of the challenges—as well as how technology can empower companies to overcome them.
It’s an exciting time of year—update season. Following the largest-ever Acumatica Summit—an event at which Cloud 9 ERP brought home the awards and an event where R1 2020 was demonstrated to attendees—now Acumatica is putting the updates into action this March.
It’s well known that it costs more to keep a customer than it costs to find a new one. But what if part—or most—of your revenue comes from ongoing service of machinery, systems, or products? From the local garage door installer or computer shop to the multinational AV firm or industrial equipment provider, your revenue usually relies not just on the initial sale, but the fast, high-quality service that follows.
Running a business is simple, right? You just have to make more money than you spend. How hard is that? If you’re a manufacturing business, you already know that in reality, there’s no “easy button” that gets you from ‘existing’ to ‘profit’.
Few industries skew as old as AV. Naturally, this presents a challenge for hiring managers on a variety of fronts. But it’s something companies need to overcome; just because it’s easier to hire than it is to train doesn’t mean it’s better for the long-term success of your company. But with an aging workforce and a mediocre pipeline, finding professionals requires you to evolve. Today, we look at how to make this happen.
Already a month into 2020 and what a month it’s been for the Cloud 9 ERP Solutions team. Following a busy 2019, we were excited to take a couple days to head out to Vegas for one of our favorite events of the year—Acumatica Summit 2020 to celebrate the past year and learn what’s on the horizon. Here are a few of our takeaways.
Once upon a time, Everest was considered a strong ERP product. Granted, this was more than a decade ago and a lot has changed in the market. A lot has changed with Everest, too, though said changes weren’t exactly positive. New ownership, new ownership of the purchasing company, demise of the partner program, and a shift in business model, just to name a few. Unfortunately, the thing that hasn’t changed much is the software.
With two major product releases every year, Acumatica Cloud ERP improvements consistently increase usability, resulting in high end-user satisfaction. In fact, Acumatica has received high marks for their usability and user satisfaction by more than several renowned research and advisory companies.
Manufacturing is the science of combining every item, process, and system so it makes a product that’s perfect. When everything needs to flow how you need it to you, you can’t handle any hiccups or disruptions—and that includes your back-office software. Luckily, more manufacturers than ever are turning to the cloud with the help of Acumatica and Cloud 9 ERP Solutions.
No matter how you slice it, you know it’s busy, and if the growth in the economy continues, you can only expect it to get busier. However, you also need to know what’s going on in the industry.
It’s odd that one may think a software decision could be an emotional one. It’s software, after all. It’s a tool. You’re looking for something within your budget designed to make your employees’ lives easier. You might think, “it’s hard enough to find a product that delivers functionality, usability, or time and cost savings, now I have to factor subjective measurements too?” Yes.
The audio/visual industry is in a constant state of evolution. Knowing this, you’ve probably heard the term recurring revenue being bandied about recently, and maybe you have questions. 2020 will be another year for this, and at Cloud 9 ERP Solutions would like to explore why this is so important, as well as discuss the benefits of embracing this model.
When it comes to ERP, tiny differences matter, because after three, five, or ten years, everything adds up. Especially in today’s ERP market, where products appear similar, being able to uncover some minute difference before you sign could save you thousands or tens of thousands of dollars—if not more.
Attention. Interest. Decision. Action. If you run an eCommerce site, you already know how hard it is to get a customer through these phases.
The service technician will be there between two and four. Uh huh… We’ve all been there. Sometimes, the tech arrives at 4:30, or the next day. It seems unavoidable, but it isn’t. Plus, it’s one thing to wait for your fridge to get fixed. It’s another when a multi-million-dollar piece of equipment is down. You want to know when that tech is coming. In fact, you may even have a contract that specifies how quickly he or she is going to arrive with the repair kit.
Predictions for the coming year are a staple of the blogging-industrial complex. You’ll surely see a lot of them around this time of year. The challenge, though, with prognosticating about manufacturing for the coming year is to differentiate between common trends and truly new forces that will affect how manufacturers function and make money. Competition is a given. Changing customer expectations are a given. What’s coming in 2020 that will have an impact? Where will cloud ERP make a difference? At Cloud 9 ERP Solutions, we understand the challenges that manufacturers face, so here are some of our thoughts on 2020 manufacturing industry trends.
During Thanksgiving, many of you will have gathered with family and friends and considered what you are thankful for in your own life. However, the holiday is great a opportunity for the business community to count its blessings too.
For some businesses, the end of the year is the busy season. For the rest of us, the closing weeks of 2019 will probably be pretty quiet. It’s a great moment to think about what you want to achieve in 2020. You can get your 2020 plans organized before taking a little well-deserved time off. This period of time also offers an opportunity to take a clear-eyed look at your current Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and ask yourself if it is not, at long last, time to make a change.
Like the popular credit card commercials that ask, “What’s in your wallet?” a good ERP solution provider should ask, “What’s in your factory?” Having worked with many manufacturing customers over the years, we can confidently say that no two are quite alike. Some produce millions of items that cost a few cents each. Others produce a single product, like a locomotive or a jet engine that sells for millions of dollars. There’s make-to-order, make-to-inventory and project shops. Some manufacturers only make one thing over and over, like companies who produce thousands of miles of copper wire every day.
Drop shipping is an important part of the supply chain process for eCommerce businesses. The retailer does not need to have a product in its inventory. Instead, they can transfer customer orders to another retailer, the manufacturer or wholesaler, which then ships the order directly to its destination.
Looking ahead to 2020, one can see many trends shaping the food industry, beyond consumers looking for healthier, more environmentally friendly products. Consumer demand for quality and sustainability, along with increasing costs, are creating challenges for food industry organizations. An advanced cloud ERP system like Acumatica can help food businesses address some of the most significant issues looming in the near future. Here are the highlights:
An ERP migration or implementation can be somewhat disruptive. Not pursuing an upgrade comes at a high price, too, unfortunately. Continuously weighing the costs versus benefits can delay implementing the latest update. And, it’s now Q4. Hard to believe… but business applications are becoming increasingly sophisticated. If it’s been some time since your organization has upgraded its ERP system, here are six reasons not to wait.
Friends who go out to eat often split the check. “You ordered the chicken. You owe me ten bucks…” and so forth. Businesses have a similar process. It’s called intercompany accounting. Instead of figuring out who owes what for the chicken, but not the drinks, companies often have separate business units paying for things and accepting payment on behalf of other business units.
Leo Tolstoy, the great Russian author, wrote “Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." He could have been describing the management of a manufacturing business. It’s true that all manufacturers share a number of common characteristics. They all take in components and raw materials and turn them into manufactured goods. They have inventories of parts and materials, work-in-progress and finished goods. They deal with logistics and shipping.
Acumatica’s second major release of 2019 (2019 R2) is launching the week of September 11. The semi-annual update to the popular cloud ERP solution contains a number of compelling new features, particular in the area of financial accounting.
Food manufacturers need more than basic Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. The nature of food manufacturing is such that a Materials Requirements Planning (MRP) solution is essential for profitable operations. We are able to offer some insights into this requirement, based on our extensive experience working with food manufacturers. Learn more about ERP for food manufacturers.
Before we get started, we want you to know that we hear you. We understand. Your current Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) took a lot of time and money to set up. But, as we both know, changes are heading your way. Now is the time to think hard about what’s coming next. It’s also a good moment to consider the risks of staying on legacy ERP.
With two major product releases every year, Acumatica cloud ERP improvements consistently increase usability, resulting in high end-user satisfaction. In fact, Acumatica has received high marks for their usability and user satisfaction by more than several renowned research and advisory companies.
If your business runs on Everest ERP (aka iCode), this might be a good time to think about migrating to Acumatica cloud ERP. It can be a touchy subject, we know. A lot of companies did well with Everest over the years, but the moment for reconsideration has arrived. Here are five reasons to migrate to Acumatica now.
Field service is an area of business operations that looks easy, but isn’t. That’s because so many companies do it badly. Let’s say your refrigerator breaks. You call for a service appointment. They say they’ll be there between two and four, just in time for hundreds of dollars’ worth of food to go bad. They actually show up at six, only to discover that they’re missing a critical part. They’ll be back the next day, between and two and four... Meanwhile, you’re in a mood to call someone else.
Food waste is a serious problem. With hunger a pervasive crisis in much of the world, it’s simply wrong to waste food. Additionally, growing food that won’t get eaten is bad for the environment. It wastes resources and causes pollution. And, if nothing else, wasting food is the same as wasting money. It’s bad for business. The scale of food waste is a real eye-opener, too. Per capita, North Americans and Europeans throw out over 200 pounds of food a year—worth about $165 billion in the US alone. While some food waste is probably unavoidable, there are many ways to reduce it. Technology can help. Advances in Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) software now give food producers and distributors new ways to cut down on waste.
Is the CIO going extinct? While it may be premature to proclaim the end of the Chief Information Officer in corporate life, the role is definitely facing existential challenges unlike any that have come before. Non-tech executives are taking IT matters into their own hands, often with sub-optimal results. The CIO does, and should, have an important role to play in making technology a key element of strategic success. The challenge for the CIO is to regain control.
Those in the Audio Visual (AV) industry realized the importance of handling many moving parts simultaneously, but this isn’t always as easy as it sounds. To succeed in this rising industry, balancing distribution and inventory management, contract and professional services management, and field service management is key.
Cloud-based ERP solutions are being adapted by organizations in all industries — the opportunities they provide to improve efficiencies and in turn increase profits are undeniable.
Companies in the Field Service industry have different needs than businesses that work predominantly in office. Employees are working remotely and have limited contact with supervisors and other team members. It comes as no surprise that field service companies require the proper technology to ensure that all employees are connected and able to conduct business just as smoothly as in-house staff.
ERP solutions are innovating businesses across every industry and sector — manufacturing is certainly one of those that is seeing more and more businesses implementing this modern technology that will improve internal procedures for increased efficiency and drive business growth.
There’s a definite push for improved control for food and beverage manufacturers due to advances in regulatory compliance. To ensure that standards are being met, industry leaders are working harder than ever before to adhere to improved expectations and meet growing consumer demand.
Sanitation practices, documentation of food safety plans, and the traceability of materials and ingredients used to make food products are areas companies are looking more closely at due to the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) implementation.
CFOs have traditionally been charged with three main tasks: the company’s books and records, financial reporting, and statutory compliance. Known as number crunchers, CFOs often operated behind the scenes, saying “NO!” to requests based on budgetary concerns. With strategy and decision-making left to the rest of the C-Suite, the CFO was accustomed to signing off on tasks, versus leading the charge.
A flexible and comprehensive financial management system meets the needs of the diverse Professional Services Industry, which is known for meeting business requirements that can change project to project.
ERP and eCommerce are two very different platforms with unique utilities and architectures. Integrating them, however, can improve business functions throughout the organization, adding benefits to the business in the areas of Sales, Marketing, IT, Operational and Customer Services.
After a lot of strategic planning, and cross-company meetings related to usability and near-and-far reaching goals, a modern, cloud-based ERP system is in place. While it may seem that congratulations are in order, not so fast…
Modern cloud-based ERP software gives organizations the opportunity to do business better, easing processes and boosting efficiency that leads to growth. Companies can benefit from implementing a system that manages supply chain and logistics activities, including warehouse management, inventory management, and order management (sales and purchase orders) — while also integrating these activities with financial and sales data.
Businesses must make sure they are choosing the right ERP software, but that’s not the only thing to consider — it’s also essential to find the right partner to implement the new cloud-based system. The partner a company selects can be just as important as the technology it runs. This is the first step toward moving to a new solution!
Making the decision to implement a modern ERP system can do a lot to move a company forward in its growth strategy. Today’s competitive business climate requires more focus on enterprise software implementation that tracks metrics such as disruptions in operations and impact on productivity.
Acumatica is designed for its customers, built to make it easier for end users to do their jobs. However, there is no such thing as complacency for the firm, and they continually work to make improvements to the product. Whether they are compliance necessities, interface improvements, or better integrations, Acumatica continues to make twice-yearly improvements based on customer requests, with the most recent update, R1 2019 featuring big changes to make the product better.
In our last two blogs, we discussed the challenges and complaints that users have when using Everest ERP and the problems that continued use of the software has for businesses like yours. Today, we would like to explore your first steps in making a move away from this antiquated and poorly supported “solution.”
When you entered the ecommerce world, it’s likely you had relatively straightforward expectations of what would happen. You’d launch a site, list your products, and start selling.
Acumatica’s annual meeting of customers, partners, media and analyst participants, Summit 2019 is now in the rear view. This exciting week of learning, keynotes, and anticipation took place in Houston, TX at the end of January, and brought together more than 1,500 attendees at the largest Acumatica Summit event ever.
Inventory is often a challenge for organizations. While shortages can be damaging and overstock situations can turn costly for product-focused businesses, field services businesses have to manage these while working with much less warehouse space while working with inventory spread across multiple vehicles and locations.