Acumatica Subgroup update:
I sat in on the call today (Scott Hickman, John Hoyt, Jeff Roth, Wayne Schulz, Brad Kain) which was scheduled by those who have started the Acumatica subgroups.
The purpose of the call was to go over ideas, questions and future planning so that our Acumatica subgroup could get off the ground and be a useful resource to those involved in Acumatica.
We have a number of questions that I think are going to require some thought as they pertain to our 90 Minds existing structure:
a. What do we want 90 Minds to become?
b. Where does Acumatica (or any other non-Sage publisher) fit in if/when they want to participate more closely (daily basis)?
At a low level these questions came up:
1. Can we admit members from firms who are not Sage but instead pure Acumatica - we do this now for Sage consultants but have not had to address the issue for non-Sage consultants which may also require we think about the surrounding issues (competition primarily).
Example, SWK has pure Acumatica people (consultants), can they add these Acumatica folks for the add-a-member fee and place them into Acumatica group? What issues (if any) does this present for group structure?
2. Can the Acumatica subgroup include Acumatica technical people (aka employees)?
3. What expectations should we set with Acumatica - what do they get for free as part of being an existing affiliate versus what's something we'd expect them to pay 90 Minds for?
What is on our plate as the board is thinking about and determining the future direction of the group more than the minutiae of how to implement some of the above questions (ie - we need to ask if we WANT to implement them).
I'm confident if we make the decision to remain a sage resellers centric type group that these folks will go elsewhere and use any of a number of tools to create their own community. There seems to be a lot of synergy to be had by evolving the group to incorporate changes that we'd need to make in order to accommodate the above questions. We have affiliates who work across multiple platforms who I am sure would be delighted to see the group diversifying.
I advocate for:
1. Yes, admit non-Sage consultants
2. Yes, allow for publishers to join us in non-private conversation (technical) areas (we can always make private areas that they can't join)
3. Set expectations for Sage, Acumatica that beyond the spelled-out benefits that if they want an opportunity to participate on a more daily basis in the group that there is a fee for that.
Diversification is an area that would be of high value to our members and when I see Sage admitting 10% year-over-year erosion of their on-plan user base it's an area that I think we should be taking on as a strategic initiative.
For your part think about these points above and be prepared to discuss when we meet. This is likely not an area we can table for a year or there is going to be a faction that splits off and does this anyhow.