Storm Smart’s Efficient use of Cloud ERP Proves Why Its Acumatica’s Customer of the Year

NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information reports that from 1980 to 2024, 94 confirmed weather/climate disaster events affected Florida, each one causing $1 billion in losses. Not all the events were hurricanes, but hurricanes cause billions of dollars of damage every year, and since 1996, Storm Smart has been protecting Florida residents, homes, and businesses from these devastating storms.

Storm Smart provides hurricane protection products ranging from solar screens and aluminum shutters to storm panels, storm catcher screens, and more. During the Day 1 Keynote at Acumatica Summit 2026, Storm Smart’s Chief Financial Officer, Brian Cassell, told the audience that customer safety is their primary goal.

“It’s not just the products we produce, it’s not the products we manufacture or install, but it’s how we protect the families in their safe environment.”

Fortunately, the hurricane protection solutions provider was able to expand protection services to more customers by moving its growing operation off a limited, legacy homegrown business management solution. To find the right solution to help their business scale, they reached out to Strategies Group, a Gold-Certified Acumatica partner, for help.

The solution? Acumatica.

Building a Strong Foundation with Acumatica

Brian joined Storm Smart in 2021, and it quickly became apparent to him and to the members of his team that scaling the company required building a strong foundation—something their disconnected systems couldn’t provide. The systems not only didn’t talk to each other, but they also didn’t offer critical automation capabilities, which meant relying on manual effort and processes.

“It became a drag on the organization,” Brian says.

With the help of Daniel Collins, President, Strategies Group, Storm Smart made the decision to implement Acumatica’s user friendly, comprehensive cloud ERP solution. According to Jennifer Pellechio, Director of Information Technology at Storm Smart, the team was very intentional about how they approached their ERP implementation, which included closely reviewing their manual processes and deciding what needed to be fixed, what needed to be brought into Acumatica, and what needed to go.

“It’s about change. It’s about the way you enhance your system, so not only did we do that, but we knew that the adoption of our end users was really important,” she said.

Ensuring active user adoption by Storm Smart’s 430+ employees meant establishing what Jennifer called “user champions.” These were people not from IT or the leadership team but “boots on the ground” employees. This user-centric implementation strategy ended up delivering incredible results. Seventy-five percent of the Storm Smart team is currently using Acumatica’s construction ERP software and an impressive 90% will be once they implement Acumatica’s manufacturing software.

“We want to the employees to have the buy-in. We want them to be involved in the process so that they understand that this is not a replacement of their job. It’s to make it more efficient, more productive,” Brian said.

Gaining and attaining employee support was a huge part of Storm Smart’s successful implementation, and Daniel from Strategies Group offered a few more reasons the company’s deployment of Acumatica was a huge win.

“You prepared when you were coming into this,” he said. “You came with your current processes, data, and decisions. You partnered with us very well. So, when we worked together, you brought the business acumen from Storm Smart and paired it with our expertise of Acumatica, and we worked as a cohesive unit. We tackled the project together.”

Acumatica Magic: Producing Business-Growing Benefits

For Storm Smart, tapping Acumatica as its integrated system of intelligence has delivered amazing results. One example? Their ability to automate their time-consuming, error-prone manual processes.

“The more that we can automate and do things that are fast, easy clicks in our system, the better data and data integrity we can have for the company as a whole,” Jennifer said. “I like to call it magic. We were able to do [our automation] through Business Events…and working closely with our VAR [partner].”

These exciting automation advancements were done, said Daniel, using no code. “The integrations you have are expansive, and you’ve got code there, obviously, but when you start in Acumatica and push through the process, there are multiple elements that are being accomplished without any code in the system at all.”

Now, Storm Smart is able to smoothly and quickly process over 800 jobs per month using multiple Acumatica modules, ensuring the workflow is seamless from start to finish. Jennifer said, “The people in the field…have what they need at their fingertips, they’re able to collect invoice payments right in the field, they’re able to help serve our customers and move across that fast journey.”

Additionally, the Storm Smart private equity owners and leadership team are enjoying a single version of the truth. This trustworthy data along with Acumatica’s integrated modules that communicate with each other are helping Storm Smart become more efficient. They’re also helping them scale operations and launch new products, including Flood Smart™ System (Storm Smart’s custom-designed flood protection solution), its soon-to-be-introduced Impact Garage Doors, and its new dealer network across the U.S.

“No way would we have been able to grow from two branches to seven branches, no way would we have been able to launch new products…without having one system of truth,” Brian said. “Those things would not have been possible if we had not put in Acumatica.”

Storm Smart’s Successful ERP Journey Continues

Implementing and utilizing Acumatica’s modern ERP solution has been “quite the journey,” according to Brian, and it’s a journey that’s led the hurricane and flood protection solutions provider to earning the title of Acumatica’s 2026 Customer of the Year.

Acumatica’s Customer of the Year Award is given to customers who use Acumatica to create significant business value, contribute positively to the Community, and push Acumatica to make the whole community better—and Storm Smart exemplified further why they deserved to be Acumatica’s Customer of the Year by offering sage advice to other companies considering an ERP implementation:

• Don’t bring bad data into your new ERP
• Start fresh, recognizing that your new system is not your old system
• Don’t rush and always document your processes
• Recognize that you’ll continue to enhance, innovate, and make progress within the system
• Appoint a project manager/champion that is tenacious and ensure your employees support the process

Great advice from an incredible Acumatica customer! To learn more about Acumatica Construction Management as well as about how Acumatica can help make your ERP implementation journey a success, contact our experts today.