Acumatica Summit never fails to deliver a treasure trove of insights for small and midsized businesses. This year was no exception. Industry leaders gathered to showcase innovations, share experiences, and spotlight what’s next for cloud ERP solutions.
Stellar One regularly attends Summit. It’s a great opportunity for our ERP experts to freshen up their Acumatica knowledge, problem-solve with the community, and explore new ways to improve our members’ experience.
In this article, you’ll get a quick look at the gems uncovered during the event by Arlene Welty, Partner at DataQuest, and Stellar One’s Member Recruitment Director, Elizabeth Cameron. You’ll walk away with insights into ERP trends, practical use cases, and a glimpse into the future of business technology.
Prefer audio info?
Listen to the webinar on-demand from acu-connect.
1. Industry trends and Acumatica growth: SMBs lead the way
The Summit got underway with eye-opening statistics that underscore the growing role of SMBs in driving ERP adoption:
- SMBs power the economy, accounting for about 50% of U.S. business activity.
- Acumatica's platform is expected to handle $500 billion in transactions in 2025.
- The Acumatica user community has grown to over 30,000 active members.
Takeaway: SMBs aren’t just adopting ERP platforms. They’re driving the conversation and seeking solutions tailored to their industries.
2. New ERP concepts that sparked conversation at Acumatica Summit
Some new words and phrases heard during the conference are shaping the community. They aren’t just clever phrases—they capture Acumatica’s innovative approach and signal where ERP is heading. Here’s what they mean for the future:
- “Lego-ish” platform: Acumatica was described as the baseplate of a LEGO build—flexible, configurable, and capable of endless personalization. Like snapping bricks together, businesses can assemble features and integrations to create a system tailored to their needs, with the ability to scale and adapt over time.
- “Get it done” sessions: Think of these as hackathons with a purpose. During implementations, these fast-paced, collaborative workshops bring teams together to solve challenges, configure workflows, and finalize processes, driving results faster and accelerating time to value.
- “Rehydrate” processes: A fresh term for an essential process—moving configurations from test to production. But it’s more than a simple transfer; “rehydrating” brings live data into the configuration, syncing it with real-world activity to ensure accuracy before deployment. It’s a smart approach for ensuring that what works in testing also works in reality.
Takeaway: These buzzwords are more than industry jargon. They reflect the ideas driving conversations in the Acumatica community. They also hint at the future of ERP—more flexibility, faster results, and practical tools designed for real business needs.
3. AI is set to redefine ERP experiences
AI stole the show at this year’s Summit with several standout demonstrations that showed how Acumatica is making advanced technology accessible:
- Natural language queries: Imagine a CEO typing, “What were our sales today compared to last year?” Within seconds, the system generates a side-by-side sales comparison with visual charts that she can add to her dashboard. This feature shortens the time from question to insight, eliminating the need for complex reports or technical queries.
- AI-driven CRM automation: Say goodbye to manual case notes! With one click, Acumatica’s AI will automatically generate detailed closure summaries, highlighting the issue, resolution, communications, and time spent. This will streamline customer support workflows and ensure accurate, consistent documentation for future reference.
- Democratizing data: Acumatica is breaking down barriers to business intelligence. From marketers to sales reps, more users will soon be able to access critical insights without needing technical skills. This empowers decision-making across the organization and fosters a data-driven culture.
Takeaway: These innovations highlight how Acumatica is using AI to break down barriers by making powerful tools intuitive and accessible and empowering every user to get the insights they need faster and smarter.
4. Real-world ERP use cases that matter to your business
The best part of Summit was hearing how these innovations apply to real-world challenges. Here’s where we see immediate impact happening:
- Distribution: Use AI to analyze supplier performance, create scorecards, and make more informed purchasing decisions.
- Retail: Boost customer experience with AI-driven product recommendations and dynamic pricing based on real-time ERP data.
- Sales and CRM: Predict customer churn by analyzing communication patterns and sentiment using CRM data.
Takeaway: AI is redefining what’s possible in ERP platforms. Today, you can test available features and explore how they fit into your workflows while building the foundation to leverage Acumatica’s AI innovations as they evolve fully.
5. The future vision of voice-driven ERP interfaces
One comment from the Summit sparked my imagination:
“Imagine asking your ERP a question—and it responds without needing a mouse or keyboard. Do we even need a UI anymore?”
Acumatica envisions a future where:
- AI agents: Chat-based ERP assistants answer your queries in real time.
- Voice commands: Request sales reports or reorder inventory with simple voice instructions.
- By 2026: AI agents are expected to be integrated into the platform.
Takeaway: The future of ERP could be as easy as having a conversation with your business data.
6. What’s coming to the Acumatica platform for newcomers and developers
The Summit delivered exciting updates for both power users and new adopters to look forward to:
- Low-code, no-code expansion: More tools for citizen developers to personalize the platform without coding.
- API enhancements: New API endpoints and extended endpoint capabilities are being introduced, making integrations with third-party applications easier and providing more flexibility for custom workflows.
- User-defined fields (UDFs): Enhances flexibility for document line items, making data entry more efficient.
Takeaway: Acumatica is becoming more user-friendly, flexible, and adaptable - whether you’re a developer building custom integrations or a beginner exploring low-code solutions.
7. Roadmap highlights of what’s next for Acumatica users
The future of Acumatica is brimming with innovation, and there’s plenty to look forward to:
- 2025 R1 Beta available now: With the new modern UI available for SaaS test and production environments. Check out the release notes.
- AI roadmap: From AI insights like anomaly detection in 2025R1 and AI automation in 2025R2 to fully interactive AI agents as early as 2026R1.
- Acumatica Labs program: Take advantage of early access to experimental features like order orchestration and advanced kitting.
Takeaway: Now is the time to test new features - especially through Stellar One’s free trial using your own business data. *wink* *wink*
Why these Acumatica Summit takeaways matter for your business
This year’s Summit wasn’t just about technology. It was also about empowering SMBs to grow their businesses with smarter, faster tools. Key themes like AI integration, democratized data, and real-world use cases are reshaping how businesses use ERP software.
How can you experience these innovations for yourself? Take advantage of Stellar One’s Risk-Free Trial of Acumatica. It’s an ERP test drive using your business data without fees or commitments. Our unique approach also helps you implement fast and lock down ERP pricing for five years.