Every industry is unique.
So why do we all keep using the same traditional ERP systems?
Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) face unique challenges. You need tailored solutions. It’s time to use tools equipped to serve you where you are now. Industries that could benefit from a better ERP solution include:
- Construction
- Retail
- Manufacturing
- Wholesale Distribution
- And many more
Acumatica Cloud ERP is a great example of such a solution. It offers a flexible platform with custom features. Businesses can customize their ERP solutions to meet their needs. Acumatica’s industry-specific solutions allow businesses to streamline distribution, automate sales orders, and improve efficiencies.
Pretty impressive, right? Yet, we’ve only scratched the surface of an ERP system’s wide range of benefits.
So, if you’re an SMB looking for powerful and flexible tools, consider Acumatica industry-specific solutions. In this guide, we break down the challenges many industries are facing. Unfortunately, traditional ERPs cannot address these issues. Finally, we show how a cloud-based ERP solution like Acumatica Cloud can help.
Understanding Industry-Specific Challenges
Each industry has its frustrations.
Some of these you may be all too familiar with.
Take manufacturing. SMBs here face difficulties with inventory management, production scheduling, and quality control. Older ERP systems may struggle to address these issues adequately, as they mostly focus on transactional rather than operational data.
In retail, you’re looking at distribution, supply chain, and customer relationship management struggles. Again, traditional ERP systems consistently struggle to address these problems. They are simply too rigid to adapt to the rapidly changing retail scene.
Moving over to the construction industry, additional problems arise with project management, resource allocation, and logistics management. Think a traditional ERP can help with these problems? Nope. You get the pattern. Traditional ERP systems primarily ship with features suited for non-construction industries. They offer very little in the way of custom solutions.
We must also discuss the lack of real-time data with many ERP systems. Relying on manual data entry is still common in many sectors. This reliance can lead to errors and delays in decision-making.
Traditional ERP systems may not handle the large amounts of data generated by modern businesses, leading to slow processing times and system crashes.
Another challenge is the lack of scalability. Scalability is huge for SMBs. The problem is that non-cloud ERPs cannot always meet the growing needs of an expanding business. This means costly upgrades. You may need to replace the entire system eventually.
Fortunately, there’s a better way.
The Versatility of Acumatica Cloud ERP
Acumatica is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software with a modular approach. Businesses get a customizable solution. This approach allows Acumatica to cater to specific industry needs.
Acumatica’s adaptable architecture enables businesses to add or remove modules as their needs change. That way, they can ensure the software stays relevant to their growing business. Just start with a basic set of modules. Then, add more as you grow. You can even take it a step further and customize the modules to meet your specific needs.
Cloud ERP software is the key to unlocking a wealth of benefits. It can give your SMB the competitive edge it needs to succeed.
Case Studies: Acumatica Industry Specific Solutions Success Stories
Now, let’s look at a few success stories. These show how effective Acumatica can be for businesses in any industry.
Retail—Boca Terry, Luxury Robe, Towel & Linen Provider
Boca Terry is a brand that provides high-end linen, bathrobes, towels, and more to 5-star hotels and cruise liners. Eventually, they encountered issues with their old, disconnected business management systems. Acumatica ERP enabled them to connect these systems and gain full visibility of critical business information. The benefits of Acumatica for Boca Terry included:
- Improved customer satisfaction
- Better inventory management
- Automation of administrative tasks and faster reports
Distribution—Eagle Fence Distributing
Eagle Fencing Distributing is a growing wholesale distributor of fencing and security products. When they started, the business relied on Sage 50 as their primary accounting software. As they grew, they added new servers and instances of Sage 50. There was a problem. Each instance was disconnected, and accessing each server to collect data was difficult. Leadership had zero visibility into the business. Replacing these systems with Acumatica ERP turned this around and gave them the necessary visibility. Outcomes included:
- Increased collaboration between locations
- A new-location roll-out roadmap to enable scalability
- A new ability to measure the creditworthiness of vendors.
Food Manufacturing—Devil’s Peak Brewing Company
Headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, Devil’s Peak is a brewing company with multiple locations that used to rely primarily on QuickBooks to manage the business. Their needs included visibility across the business, a true cloud solution, and competitive pricing. Acumatica ERP could meet these needs and deliver additional benefits, including:
- Strengthened supply chain control
- 24/7 staff access, thanks to the cloud
- Better ability to manage growth and improve connections with suppliers
Key Benefits for Industry-Specific Implementations
The case studies above provide real-world examples. They show the key benefits of industry-specific implementation. Acumatica offers several versions of its ERP system. These include a Construction Edition, Commerce Edition, and many more. Each edition provides improved efficiency, streamlined processes, and enhanced data visibility. It provides these benefits by meeting the unique needs of companies based on their industry. There’s no better way to connect all the moving parts of your business.
Another key benefit of using Acumatica is that it offers an unlimited-use pricing model rather than a consumption-based one. A consumption-based model charges companies as they add users. This penalizes your business’ growth and success. Acumatica takes a different approach.
Conclusion
When choosing an ERP system, mistakes can be expensive. It’s better to make the right choice first instead of changing your mind later. SMBs don’t always have large budgets to spend on software.
With that in mind, isn’t the best approach to choose the most modern, flexible option?
Instead of going with the traditional, one-size-fits-all approach, SMBs need a system that is adaptable and tailored to your needs. You are a growing organization. You need a platform that will grow with you.
Acumatica Cloud ERP empowers businesses to thrive in their respective sectors. We have seen it. Explore everything Acumatica industry-specific solutions have to offer by going to the Acumatica website and going to Solutions > By Industry.
Or, if you’re ready to see exactly how Acumatica industry specific solutions can optimize your business, request a demo today!
