Acumatica Summit: Business Update, AI, Professional Services

ACUMATICA PARTNER SUMMIT — Acumatica soon will debut its principles around artificial intelligence and release the professional services edition of its cloud-based enterprise resourcing planning platform, announcements that marked the two biggest takeaways from Monday's Acumatica Summit 2024 keynote in Las Vegas.

The news comes as CEO John Case called 2023 “our best year ever, by a wide margin.” 

Acumatica last year exceeded “all our targets and expectations” in terms of adding new customers and channel partners, including independent software vendors, Case said. And, he noted, “our

partner ecosystem continues to grow across all types.”

That growth comes as the 15-year-old company’s end users, comprising small and medium businesses, continue to confront economic difficulties. But those hardships appear to be easing somewhat and paving the way for positive change. To that point, Case said at the Acumatica Summit, while inflation remains a concern for most SMBs, “the challenge is declining.”

Acumatica's John Case

“We see so many signs of growth and opportunity in key industries,” he said. 

Those verticals include manufacturing, construction and e-commerce.

Along those lines, Case cited a recent SMB Group survey* that showed that more than 59% of respondents in the United States expect the business environment to improve this year. And, two-thirds predict their revenue will increase in 2024.

Related:Acumatica Partner Program Now Targets Channel Service Providers

“That’s a sign of optimism to me,” Case said.

Even so, SMBs still need help navigating a post-pandemic, cloud-obsessed world, he continued. Technology changes are serving as “the single biggest driver of value creation,” Case said, citing a PwC report.

AI Is Huge

Not surprisingly, AI ranks as perhaps the most dramatic advancement fueling this shift — and pushing Acumatica itself to evolve.

“AI is so important to the future of ERP,” said Ali Jani, chief product officer at Acumatica, during the Acumatica Summit.

With that in mind, Acumatica soon will release its Principles of Innovation around AI. Jani provided a short preview of those statements, which start with data protection.

“We will implement extensive security and privacy measures in all our solutions to protect your data,” Jani said.

From there, Acumatica will “always put emphasis on solving real-world problems and needs” with its AI, Jani said.

“Capabilities will be designed to ensure transparency, clarity, so users are always aware of risks,” he noted. 

Finally, Acumatica will verify that its AI-enabled features provide value.

“This will ensure that enhancements are primarily driven by … customer input,” Jani said.

Related:3 Tips to Get the Most out of Your Acumatica ERP Software Training

Acumatica already has incorporated AI capabilities within its platform. So far those include push notifications, anomaly detection and real-time data. More is on the way, Jani promised on the Acumatica Summit stage.

“We are just getting started.”

Coming Soon: Professional Services Edition

Another way Acumatica plans to help its clients address ongoing disruption and support growth is by unveiling the professional services edition of its software. While the company offered few details on this development, Jani did say the version will be built on Acumatica’s project accounting and billing and scheduling capabilities. This will support activities including the ability to track the customer life cycle within Acumatica, the company said.

“The Professional Services edition will include many hundreds of new features,” Jani said. 

Look for general availability later this year.

All in all, the privately held Acumatica is counting on 2024 as a key year for innovation for itself and end users. As part of that optimism, the company took the wraps off a tweaked logo on the Acumatica Summit stage, a move that garnered scattered audience applause and, on the virtual chat, some derision.

*The author contributes independent analysis expertise to SMB Group but was not involved with the cited survey or its associated report.