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Acumatica Summit 2024 is in the books, and it met, and in many ways, exceeded expectations. Well over 3,000 attendees—our highest Summit attendance yet—joined us in Las Vegas. Our visionary Keynote presentations revealed what’s to come as Acumatica launches into a new era, and our nearly 100 Breakout Sessions were chock full of useful information.
It was truly an environment of active and interactive learning, but what made this Summit—and every Summit—so special is the magic that happens whenever our customers, partners, and creators gather. Whether in planned meetings or chance encounters, these connections spark ideas, encourage creativity, and mold exciting approaches to challenges old and new.
This is truly the Acumatica Community in action.
Summit Growth Reflects Community Evolution
The magnitude of Summit 2024 was reflected in more than our record numbers of attendees and Breakout Sessions. There was a sustained level of enthusiasm from the moment the doors opened to the Closing Reception.
Presentations were packed; the Marketplace was a source of energy; and the hallways and Customer Experience Hub buzzed with activity. The warm weather provided comfortable outside socializing for the overflow at the Celebration Party. And this year’s Summit attendees included even more current customers and hundreds of prospects, who were interested in learning about the company, our product, and the Community.
Keynotes Featured News, Customer Stories, Product Updates
The Summit 2024 Keynote Presentations showcased Acumatica’s direction, and CEO John Case opened the event by declaring that we are embarking on a new era of growth and opportunity.
The New Era
During the Day One Keynote Presentation, John unveiled our updated Acumatica logo, an update which represents where the company is and where we are going. It’s grounded in our rich past and reflects the evolution of who we are as a company and Community as we move forward together with clarity and purpose. John also highlighted perspectives on today’s economic, business, and technological landscape and outlined an aggressive approach for seizing great opportunity.
Simply put, Acumatica is just getting started.
Compelling Customer Stories
Every company’s journey is unique, and several customers joined us on the Keynote Presentation stage to share their stories of growth, sustainability, and recovery.
One of these customers was Telesis, a group of five companies founded, owned, and operated by a family and local investors in Nebraska. Their operations extend across data security, real estate, urban farming, brewing, and local restaurants. Renee Schafer, Director of Operations, shared how Acumatica has helped the company manage its growing operations, and even launch a hydroponics farm, despite the complexities its varied entities present.
“Acumatica helped us exceed our growth goals,” she said. “[We’ve scaled] from $14 million to $21 [million] since implementation, and that was only three years ago. We could not have done it without Acumatica.”
Polywood®, Acumatica’s 2024 Impact Customer of the Year, was another keynote-featured customer. The company manufactures outdoor furniture entirely from recycled plastics. As Sean Valencourt (ERP Information Systems) put it, “Polywood was born sustainable in 1990 with recycling at the core of our brand.”
They focus on making furniture that is infinitely recyclable, with zero waste and zero defects, all while continuously improving their products and processes. Adam Stoffel, Director of Business Information Services, explained how Acumatica has helped the company integrate critical systems, become part of a thriving tech Community, and focus on building momentum.
Said Adam: “Gone are the days that great ideas die at the feet of a legacy, antiquated ERP [system]. With Acumatica, great ideas have every opportunity to become great achievements.”
And one other company, Portacool, was recognized on stage as Acumatica’s 2024 Customer of the Year. Portacool manufactures and sells portable cooling solutions. Kimberly McElroy, VP, Business Operations; Dakota Poindexter, Production Manager; and Michael Oswalt, President & CEO, Algorithm Inc., shared how Acumatica has helped Portacool track its multi-million-dollar raw goods inventory, ship to over 56 countries, manage operations in Europe, and oversee manufacturing in Malaysia. But the Portacool story is one of both growth and recovery.
On June 17, 2023, the Portacool facilities in Center, Texas, burned to the ground. After hearing of the tragedy, Portacool’s local community and the Acumatica Community rallied around the company.
Said Kimberley: “We rented facilities so that we could get back in assembly. We were able to connect because [of Acumatica’s cloud-based technology]…and on August 28, we were back in assembly.”
New Product Innovations
During our Day Two Keynote Presentation, we highlighted new Acumatica 2024 R1 features. The Construction Edition will boast a real-time field reporting feature for connected communication. The Manufacturing Edition will have new capabilities for reporting operations and planning kits. The Distribution Edition will provide enhancements for managing sales allocations. And the Retail Edition will help companies more efficiently manage sales with Shopify and Amazon.
The upcoming product roadmap includes plans to double-down on AI technology investments, supporting analytical decision-making, and more. We also announced that our new user interface, built to completely revamp and enhance the user experience, will be previewed in 2024 R1.
For more details on the Keynote Presentations, please check out our Day One and Day Two press releases.
Summit 2024: Creating an Environment for the Magic to Happen
This year’s Summit provided significant information and expanded opportunities to learn, but the real magic happened on the periphery, where customers connected with industry experts and chance meetings became occasions to discuss common problems and explore exciting solutions. Feedback gathered from these impromptu hallway discussions and organized sessions is already shaping future Acumatica innovations—a true manifestation of customer-driven innovation.
It’s what diginomica analyst Jon Reed calls “the alchemy” that happens on the edges of successful industry events. Summit strives to provide the Acumatica Community with an environment conducive to making connections, learning best practices, and developing creative ideas and solutions that attendees can take back to their own organizations.
Renee Schafer of Telesis put it this way: “[Summit is] the best place to learn the latest and greatest from Acumatica. We always capture the possibilities and best practices, and we form an action plan. We go home completely jazzed about what we learned and what we’re going to implement next.”
To the many who attended Summit, we hope you experienced the magic of Summit. To those who were unable to attend, please view the Day One and Day Two Keynote Presentations to see what makes Summit special—and magical.
