Acumatica Summit 2026: Industry Analysts Explore How to Unlock ERP's Full Potential

[00:00:00] Lauren: Welcome to the Acumatica ERP podcast, where we explore practical innovation for growing businesses. Today we're joined by Robert Kramer, who is the VP and principal analyst at More Insights and Strategy, and Mickey North Rizza, who is the group Vice President for IDC's Enterprise Software. Robert, can you introduce yourself and describe your role at Moor Insights and Strategy?

[00:00:24] Robert: Absolutely. Robert Kramer, with Moor Insights and Strategy. My emphasis is on enterprise applications and data, specifically ERP, which is enterprise resource planning, which we all know and that’s why we’re here. The acronyms and supply chain management and enterprise data, which data is a big component of ERP and SEM.

[00:00:48] Lauren: How does your work intersect with the world of ERP and business technology?

[00:00:53] Robert: That's a great question, because vendors are down a technology path with ERP and the customers are on a modernization schedule. And I advise the clients on how that intersection is actually moving forward the clients are the vendors like yourselves.

[00:01:12] Lauren: Very nice. Very nice. That sounds like a really interesting journey between the two people, right? So what are you looking for while you're here at Summit and what have you seen so far that has impressed you?

[00:01:28] Robert: Well, you know, what I'm looking at is how your customers are actually using the system and what advances you're doing with the technology to help those customers. And I'm seeing that the customers are at a certain level with, depending upon what industry they're in, because you're industry specific, which is a big deal.

[00:01:45] Robert: And then how they can adopt this technology. And one of the things I'm seeing is that the customers are at one level with them. Innovation capabilities, and I call it innovation aptitude 'cause they're all at different levels, yeah, but the innovation that you're putting forth and actually implementing into your releases, they might be at a different level.

[00:02:06] Robert: So I'm kind of looking how they actually converge a little bit, but I'm impressed with your product team and how they're advancing the technology. There's a lot of technology in the world and it's super important for these customers to understand how they actually get there.

[00:02:20] Robert: I think there's a lot going on that with your team that's actually, positioning the software for the future for the customers.

[00:02:26] Lauren: Oh, I'd love to hear that. That's great. Yeah. I mean, I think the releases and the, and even what we saw today in the keynote, right? Talks to the, the, the devotion that we have to yeah. Improving the product. So from your vantage point, what are the biggest priorities or pressures facing growing businesses in 2026 and beyond?

[00:02:45] Robert: Well, a lot of times when you implement a new ERP system. really any system you're having to change the processes of your customers. So customers don't really understand fully what they actually are gonna have to go through.

[00:02:55] Robert: So to modernize it's not just about putting a new system in because I already have a system that's working. Am I using that system a hundred percent? Most likely not. Probably 50%.

[00:03:11] Robert: So if I'm gonna go to a new place. A new version or a new system, if they're coming off of a competitor or whatnot, they have to be able to understand that their processes are gonna change. When those processes change, what does that mean? It means I'm gonna really revamp my whole business, but why am I revamping it? Because I need to modernize, because I need to be more efficient, because I need to be able to take advantage of growing my company with a system.

[00:03:34] Robert: So the processes are a big deal. The data's a big deal. and to actually grow into where the, the actually the industry is going with is with Agentic AI and eventually will be an, an event driven system, which the system will actually help tell your next steps on how to actually work with tasks and things like that. One of the things that I kind of, I write about and talk about is Industry 5.0, which is, collaboration between humans and robots. It's actually taking the manual task and shifting that to the, you know, agentic AI. which is automating those tasks, but then shifting the, the person who had that role to more of a strategic role, I think a little bit more emphasis on that.

[00:04:21] Robert: And, but the companies need to understand that they're not losing their job, they're being shifted because there's growth, and they have to grow and Acumanica will grow with them.

[00:04:29] Lauren: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. And I love that you brought up the AI, Robert. That's the perfect lead into the next one. so, you know, obviously as you mentioned, you know, AI is everywhere, right?

[00:04:40] Lauren: And kind of alluded to automation, right? The autonomy that we've, that we even talked about in, or we heard about in the summit keynote today, right? So how do you, can you talk a little bit more about how you see, you know, AI and the automation kind of reshaping ERP software in the future, or even to even this year?

[00:05:01] Robert: I think we're gonna go through a revolution of change with ERP, and I think it's a great thing because we went from on-premise. To cloud, to staying in cloud, but more of a, a modern, cloud ERP, which is the event driven system that I'm talking about. And to get there, you have to be able to understand the processes of that.

[00:39:54] Lauren: Thank you for joining the Acumatica ERP podcast.

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