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What ERP Solution Delivers the Most Value in Usability & Functionality?

ERP Solution
 

UPDATE JUNE 9, 2020: Acumatica and Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain were once again named leaders in ease of use and functionality. 

Any business looking for a new ERP solution wants to find the most value for their investment. Two key drivers of value are usability and functionality. For the past several years, industry analysts like Nucleus Research and Gartner recognize Acumatica and Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations as leaders in value and innovation. The latest Nucleus Research Value Matrix report released in July 2019 ranks both solutions as a leader in both usability and functionality.

What is the Value Matrix Report?

The report is compiled by Nucleus Research analysts to measure value (usability and functionality) by gathering data on actual end-user experiences and vendors. The report includes dozens of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and other related business management tools. The ERP solutions are categorized in four sections of the Value Matrix including Leaders, Experts, Facilitators, and Core Providers.

According to Nucleus Research, solutions in the Leaders section are the most likely to deliver the must in usability and functionality for the greatest return on investment (ROI). “With high functionality and usability scores, these vendors are recognized for relatively advanced capabilities across all core application areas, user interaction methods, and other factors that contribute to quicker deployment and user adoption. Leaders are continually developing and investing in new functionalities to respond to market and user expectations.” - Nucleus Research. Our Clients First team supports two ERP solutions in the Leaders section, Acumatica and Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations. Our primary mission is to support and develop solutions that will maximize our customers' ERP investments and increase profitability.

Nucleus Research ranks Acumatica as the ERP leader in usability and functionality

It’s no surprise that Acumatica rose to the top of the Leaders section. Acumatica’s licensing and pricing model make this an affordable and robust ERP solution for growing small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs). The modern Acumatica platform enables SMBs and developers to take advantage of innovations in cloud and mobile technology. They differentiate from many other solutions because the deployment options are flexible. You can install Acumatica in the cloud, hosted, on-premise, or as a hybrid. We challenge you to find another ERP solution that offers this flexibility and allows you to get your cloud data anytime.

ERP leader in usability

Usability is a top measurement for value, because a system that’s hard to use will not be adopted by the actual users. Ease of use is directly tied to the success of your ERP implementation. Outdated systems often have multiple work-arounds and several steps to follow make daily operations cumbersome. A system that isn’t integrated makes it hard to access the necessary data to get the job done. A system that’s hard to use is also hard to learn. This leads to higher costs in implementation and training, disruption in productivity, and employee dissatisfaction.

Acumatica’s ease of use increases the value of your investment, because the cloud model and modern platform creates a seamless integrated system. It’s easy to use and designed with streamlined processes and automated workflows. Mobile access and better data management allow users to get the right data whenever and wherever they need it. The intuitive user interface, simplified navigation, and dashboards make it easy to learn and use. ROI is quickly realized, because the ease of use ties directly into adoption, and adoption leads to increased productivity.

ERP leader in functionality

Acumatica is the fastest growing cloud ERP on the market. Acumatica’s unique offerings include flexible deployments and licensing options. You can deploy Acumatica on-premise or hosted through the cloud.  You can license with unlimited users, named users, or concurrent users.  Acumatica continues to build on functionality with industry vertical solutions including construction, distribution, manufacturing, project management, and field service.

Thanks to a dedicated and growing independent software vendor (ISV) community, there are hundreds of add-on solutions that help meet the unique requirements for a diverse range of businesses. Acumatica will continue to be a leader, because they listen to customer feedback and add functionality accordingly.

Mint Jutras has this to say about Acumatica's latest release, 2019 R2, in their whitepaper 'The Push and Pull of Acumatica's Cloud ERP Innovation.'  Read the entire article. 

“Acumatica is testing the waters with technologies that go beyond features – like combining machine learning (ML) with natural language processing (NLP) and image recognition to produce artificial intelligence (AI)….Acumatica knows it needs to stay ahead of customer demand in order to pull its customers into a competitive position in the ever-changing global, digital economy.”

Mint Jutras also provides us with a complete rundown of the Acumatica 2019 R2 Leverages Platform Capabilities for More Innovation document. 

“The release is impressive. The release notes are 600 pages long and the company shows no signs of slowing down. We expect the cadence of two releases per year to continue, but we also expect the level of innovation to rise with the recent acquisition by private equity firm EQT Partners.”

 

Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations

We can't neglect Microsoft Dynamics 365.  It also ranks as a leader with Nucleus Research and has for the past couple of years.  As an Enterprise offering, we align Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations to larger and/or global companies.  Many of our Dynamics 365/AX customers also have multiple lines of business, which is perfect for Dynamics 365/AX.   When you license the product, you get everything from GL to Manufacturing, Projects, Service Management, etc.  Our recent new customers include a global manufacturer and services company, an aviation manufacturing and distribution company, an industrial manufacturer, and more in the manufacturing and services industries.   One key difference from other tier one ERP vendors is that Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations does not require a team of developers on-site during or after an implementation.   It is absolutely customizable, and most customers do have some customization, but standard settings that fit most companies are already available without programming.  

Per Nucleus Research: 

"Microsoft is a Leader in the 2019 ERP Technology Value Matrix. With Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations as its enterprise offering, Microsoft focuses on the roles within an organization regardless of industry, delivering the capabilities users need to address  financial performance, manufacturing processes and procedures, business logistics and supply chain, and regulatory compliance, all while looking to facilitate intelligent investment in innovation by customers. In addition to finance and operations, Microsoft Dynamics 365 has applications that service enterprises from end to end, including retail, talent, field service, marketing, sales, project service automation, and customer service."

Learn more about our software offerings

Acumatica has ranked the leader in ease of use by a top software analyst three years in a row. Acumatica also received an Excellent rating by PCMag.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for a free consultation.

Contact us by email: Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, or call us at 800.331.8382. We're located in Dallas, Texas and serve companies worldwide.

The Clients First difference

Our Clients First team is passionate about implementing and supporting affordable ERP solutions. Congratulations to our consultants who invested in so many hours of rigorous training and testing to help us better serve our customers. We have the expertise and the methodology to smoothly implement and support our client's software choices.  Acumatica invests heavily in each release, so the solution continues to expand functionality and evolve. It's critical to invest our time to keep up with the latest technology advancements. The Acumatica Gold Certification represents our commitment to serving our customers with highly qualified and knowledgeable consultants to implement and support this advanced and progressive ERP solution.

Easy Implementation – Acumatica is not only a robust and user-friendly ERP, it also comes with the bonus of a down-to-earth, simple implementation structure. Ease of implementation means less work and less time doing initial set-ups, resulting in more time for you to run your business.

Industry expertise and experience – Clients First consultants have direct experience in the industries we support. We’ve worked with 600+ companies nationally and 100+ companies globally. In addition to our Acumatica Gold Partner award, we are a Microsoft Gold ERP Partner and a Certified Cloud Service Provider (CSP).

Clients First is known for our vertical expertise in Construction, Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) for Aviation or Heavy Equipment, Manufacturing, Job Shops, and Non-profits such as religious organizations. We have customers in other industries, too, including:

  • Make-to-order/engineering job shops, project manufacturing
  • Heavy equipment manufacturing
  • Wholesale distribution

Clients First Acumatica industry solutions

All Clients First Acumatica add-on solutions are developed to work seamlessly with Acumatica.
We designed ProMRO specifically to solve the unique challenges of the maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) industry. We handle aviation compliance such as the 8130, N# tracking, FAA database download, repair templates, and more.  ProMRO is designed to work for the the heavy equipment, turbine, or aviation MRO industries. Manufacturing is also available if needed.  

Clients First Texas, Gold Certified ERP Partner

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