General Consultant Discussion

It is time for me to spread the risk. My company, Midwest Commerce Solutions, Inc. is now an Acumatica business partner. Over the past year, I realized that it was becoming more difficult to sell the Sage solutions, and was walking away from prospects who wanted a true cloud solution. I heard about Acumatica through the 90 Minds Group, (@WayneSchulz and @JohnHoyt), and decided to consider adding another solution. Since Sage has diminished the value of maintenance, there's a portion of my customer base that may want to migrate rather than upgrade, so the timing was right to look at Acumatica.

Welcome to the land of multi-publisher partners! Expect to continue to find contrasts between safe and Acumatica.

Welcome to the Dark Side. Did you happen to see Bob Scott's VAR 100 list? More of the VAR 100 added Acumatica to their portfolios in the past year than any other solution. Just saw that in a tweet yesterday. We may have to start an Acumatica group before too long. Most of us in 90 Minds who carry Acumatica are relatively new to the product. I know that I struggle with features and ""how too's"" fairly often as I learn how the system works. The training material is pretty good but as we all know, the real challenge is dealing with the exceptions that aren't addressed in training manuals. You have to travel the road of 'hard knocks' to find the gotcha's. This is not to say that Sage 100 is not still a viable solution. If you have a prospect with fewer than 10 users, Acumatica's price per user is prohibitive and Sage 100 is much more cost competitive. You will also be hard pressed to compete with Intacct on small user count / single company / core financials only deals.

We're reviewing Acumatica and Intacct as we speak. A decision will be forthcoming soon but Acumatica is a strong contender, to say the least. That said, though, we have room for both in our organization. As you said, @ShawnSlavin Sage 100 is still viable and, for what it's worth, going strong in its own way. However, carrying multiple products appears to be the right way to address the needs of more potential clients.

Thanks Brian and Shawn. i haven't read the Bob Scott list, but that is encouraging. I have just started the certification journey and I know it is a long road. Shawn, I agree 100% that it is the exceptions and experience that make the consultant. i have shared the following story many times over the years: When I started as a beginning MAS 90 consultant in 1989 I was put in front of a computer for 3-4 months and instructed to put in transactions and read the documentation. After 4 months I told my boss I knew MAS 90 ""backwards and forwards"". I was turned loose on tech support telephone support and when the first call came in telling me they had an error 47 I quickly began to realized I didn't know squat!

This is where I think it is very important to be using value pricing and not tracking hours, so there is no ""but you're learning on the clock and I'm paying for it"" issue. And +1 on the Acumatica group concept.

Welcome and congratulations, Doug! One of the biggest noticeable differences is Acumatica wants your time (to get certified), not your money. This is a solution where we have all seen the light.

Thanks John!

We have been very consistent in our message to Dawn and the Acumatica team that we would love to jump in, but want to partner with a delivery and implementation partner to develop a vertical industry package in our cloud. If any of the 90 Minds Acumatica partners meet that interest, please contact me

Gary - I am happy to speak with you about this.