From a long and not too long ago conversation with Darcy, Acu-connect is still more like a TPAC group than 90 Minds. That's not to say they won't move into alignment with many of our ideas, and compete with us for members. The driving force behind this is Patty Benitz and she's very good at pulling together vendors to co-promote and more strikingly, co-operate. Side note: Data-self was accepted and approved as Acumatica reporting tool for their product and as such is a heavy endorser of Acumatica. And, Data-self went out of their way in two meetings to tell us (me) not to have a Power BI / Power Query class at MOTM - then hired the teacher after we did.
Acu-connect started with vendors and ultimately they are looking to add end-users members. In between are resellers. We're the middlemen and while Acumatica is a 'channel-friendly' product the ISVs come from a environment of channel-less to channel-only publishers. They have a broader experience range selling their products in various enironemnts and it shows. Their end-game is similar but not necessarily the same as ours.That is a
distinction and an
advantage.
Acu-connect needs a 'Wayne' and they are counting on Tim Rodman. Tim is not a Wayne, really is not at all, but teamed with Patty may be closer to a 'Wayne'. The point is Wayne had a vision that was/is customer centric, reseller focused. Acu-connect is ISV focused. Here's Tim's page on Acu-connect - he's still the side-show not the main event
https://www.timrodman.com/acu-connect-a-community-for-acumatica-isv-solutions-summit-2019/Acumatica (outside of Acu-connect) is promoting regional user groups. I noticed in many of the photos of the kick-off meetings for these user groups, that Patty and APS are promiently featured. That to me is much more interesting. I'm not in line with bringing end-users into our mix YET but will not close the door on it. With the 'Sage master VARs' we may need to go this route sooner rather than later but we can go that direction with 6 Master VARs as co-sponsors for end-user events (OMG, I can't believe I just wrote that).
BLOG - I've was promised by Syreeta Mitchel at Acumatica a blog, 3 weeks ago. They know they have 2 blogs included with their Affiliate membership for 2019-2020 as well as 2 side-banner ads, and 3 top of page ads. We have 4 Feed the Mind Developer Roundtable sessions with Acumatic, one completed, and the next one due this summer. Roundtables, coupled with the Affiliate insider series, that are ramping up, gives an interesting counter point to Acu-connect - 90 Minds is Publisher/ISV Agnostic - we choose the best solution for the customer, not the seller.
Last but by no means least, imitation is the greatest form of flattery. We are being imitated. How flattering. ------------------------------
Moira Goggin
Executive Director
90 Minds, Inc.
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