The face of business is constantly changing. To keep up and remain competitive, companies must be nimble and agile. They need to develop new ways to fit evolving environments, market circumstances, and customer demands.

While central to helping organizations adapt to change, sometimes technology can be more of a straitjacket than a supportive and enabling tool. Business management systems too often constrain your business instead of unleashing potential and helping your organization thrive and grow.

Technology vendors should provide guidance, “best practices,” and out-of-the-box configurations built on data and real-world experience of what works best. But this prescriptive approach should be paired with an approach that allows organizations to tailor system configurations to their strategic business practices. To achieve their growth ambitions, emerging businesses should be mindful to avoid getting tied down by restrictive technology. As Adam Stoffel, the Director of Business Information Services for Acumatica customer POLYWOOD, puts it: you have to “fit the system to the business, not the business to the system.”

That may sound like a pipe-dream—and for good reason. Many business management technology systems are restrictive, and their limited adaptability forces customers to change their business processes to fit what the product is capable of. This is very frustrating, and Acumatica gets it.

Acumatica believes that the business management technology you choose should be built on best practices and be able to support required change to suit your business.  We agree with Adam. You should never have to change your business to suit the technology.

In this article—which is the second in our series on what makes Acumatica different—we’ll talk about what this adaptability should look like, why it’s important, and how other Acumatica customers are benefiting from it.

What Does “Adaptability” Really Mean?

With Acumatica, adaptability and configurability simply mean that you have the freedom and latitude to change the system. This means letting your business process experts, who already know your operations inside and out, make changes to the system through the user interface—without developers. You don’t have to disrupt your workflows, take the system offline, or get locked into an outdated version.

We give you a fully equipped software powerhouse that you can use directly out of the box, but it is also completely open and ready to take on whatever customizations you need to throw at it. When we say that you can make the system yours, we mean that.

This means giving your business process experts the ability to alter (and re-alter) workflows, business logic, reporting, and integrations. You can set up role-based security protocols, configure dashboards to show you the information you need when you need it, customize how data is collected and analyzed, and so much more.

Why Is This Important?

Running a business in today’s fast-paced, ever-changing market is very complicated and requires vision plus the ability to adapt to change. An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system implementation should be efficient but can be complex and time-consuming. But at the end of every implementation, you should be able to rely on the technology to truly support your business as you shift and adapt to the market’s speed and turbulence.

When circumstances change and the business landscape alters, the last thing you want to hear is that, instead of being nimble and agile, you are restricted to the rigid structure of an inflexible ERP system. It will weigh your business down and slow, or even halt, your growth—like leaving the anchor in the water when you’re trying to put your ship in full sail.

What Do Other Customers Have to Say?

Acumatica’s customers have a lot to say about the system’s flexibility and how it has improved, strengthened, and streamlined their business operations. Here are just a few examples across the industries Acumatica serves:

James Day, Co-Founder and COO of Mous—a UK-based retailer, distributor, and manufacturer of premium, industry-leading tech accessories.

“Acumatica allows you to do business the way you want and can work around your unique requirements. It does make you reflect and identify where it will help you straight out of the box, but it is also flexible and agile, allowing you to reflect on your processes and make slight changes as you see fit.”

Clyde Attard, Sales Manager of P. Cutajar & Co. Ltd.—a fifth-generation family-owned distributor/retailer of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs).

“When it comes to an ERP solution, it was impossible to find something that caters to all the facets of our business. Acumatica gives us the ability to select and connect technology solutions that are critical to our ever-evolving business needs; this was crucial. We’re operating in so many different product sectors, which come with complex requirements to each. Acumatica, as our technology platform, acts like a mother bee embracing all our business applications in such a seamless manner.”

Taylan Sevimli, Business Development Manager of Tayse Rugs—a manufacturer and supplier of machine-made rugs.

“One of the best things about Acumatica is how customizable it is, especially the user interface. I can change screens, processes, and workflows. I can also create custom reports by connecting tables, combining tables, and then [generating] a single table that has all the information I need.”

Patrick Madison, CFO, Korpack—a packaging solutions company.

“Acumatica helps us collect data we need to make informed decisions, and we are very good at taking that data and turning it into actionable decisions. We get to do that because Acumatica is so customizable and allows us to do that on the fly, based on live data.”

Conclusion

We believe all businesses have the right to a business management system that starts with best practices yet accommodates strategic business processes. This reduces implementation costs without tying their operations down. It’s something they should be demanding from their technology vendors.

With Acumatica, customers can confidently expect it. We’ve engineered our system so that your business process experts—without the help of developers—can alter and configure it based on your needs.

To learn more about what Acumatica’s adaptability can do for your business, contact our experts today. And stay tuned for the next article in our series on the Acumatica Difference.