What makes Acumatica different is captured in our Rallying Cry: Building the Future of Business, Together. It’s a dedication to Community and connection—two inspiring words that carry positive connotations of strong bonds, solidarity, and working together. But what do they actually mean in practice, and how is this important sense of Community made real to our customers?

More than just platitudes, Community and connection are at the core of our entire business. The vibrant Acumatica Community of customers, partners, and creators pushes our innovations and product roadmap forward and drives decisions on feature updates and new capabilities.

We believe that, instead of having technology imposed on them, all customers are entitled to have a voice in how their technology is developed and implemented. This is fundamental to making sure that technology truly addresses their real-world needs. Our commitment to giving the Acumatica Community easily accessible ways to have this voice—to communicate, ideate, and imagine what’s next—takes two major forms.

Instant Access to Knowledge and Resources

Knowledge, no matter how important, is only valuable if you can access and learn from it. Acumatica believes customers have the foundational right to “take advantage of all knowledge and resources developed across a broad Community of employees, partners, and customers.” They have the right to freely participate in this Community, have their voices heard, and influence change. And they should be able to accomplish all that in a comfortable, easily accessible way. Learning about Acumatica and sharing knowledge with others should be an enjoyable experience.

Acumatica takes resource sharing a step further than other ERP vendors because it’s not just about posting information for people to consume. It’s about having a two-way channel of communication that facilitates give and take, making it easy to share thoughts and opinions. That is how a true Community is built.

It’s also how we achieve our customer-driven innovation—particularly through the online Acumatica Community portal. In these virtual forums, thousands of Acumatica users share insights and post product ideas informed by their daily use of the system. Other users then have the opportunity to vote on these ideas. We use the results of this feedback and voting to determine what new features will be added to the solution.

All ERP customers should expect to have such a voice in shaping the future of their software. They should also expect to access knowledge from their peers without a single hiccup.

Free Professional Online Training

But knowledge about an ERP system doesn’t begin and end with learning from other users. ERP vendors should offer deep-dive training, but, when they do, there’s often a catch. Some may offer free training that is limited and lacks insight. Others may offer comprehensive training that is prohibitively expensive. And still others may offer free, comprehensive training solely in a format (e.g., in-person) that is inaccessible to some of their customers.

In contrast, Acumatica believes that self-directed, online training should always be free, comprehensive, and available to everyone. We could not be more pleased with the dynamic, accessible learning environment we have built with Acumatica Open University. We offer user-friendly courses on:

• Getting Started with Acumatica.
• Inventory and Orders.
• Project Management.
• Customer Management.
• Reporting and Customization.
• System Administration.
• Web Services.

Open University provides a consistent stream of insightful webinars, and we’ve designed specialized learning paths for consultants, developers, and end-users. There are job-aids built to help people holding specific positions (e.g., inventory clerks, sales managers, customer service representatives, accounts payable clerks, and marketing managers) become experts in using Acumatica to do their jobs. We also include interactive elements. For instance, many courses feature recordings from our insightful webinars, and we give users the option to interact with and consume those materials in their preferred formats—either PDF or video. Additionally, many end-user and developer courses include quizzes, so learners can self-check their progress.

Acumatica Open University contains thousands of dollars’ worth of information and gives it to users absolutely free of charge.

We believe Community lies at the heart of a successful vendor-customer relationship and is based on making it easy for people to get more information, to have access to training, and to be able to reach out and get their questions answered. For all businesses, particularly small and midsized businesses, technology can feel daunting. Even after implementing a system designed to make business operations easier, users may have many questions. A responsible vendor is one that stays with you, not just after the sale, but permanently. As long as you are using the software, the vendor should be there to provide resources and support.

Through our Community, Acumatica gives customers the opportunity for in-depth, enriching engagement, so they can become real partners in developing the product, while learning more about how they can better use technology to help their businesses thrive and grow. If you’d like to hear more about how we can best serve your business, contact our experts today.