Ergoresearch

Boucher looked at large ERP systems from SAP and Microsoft Dynamics, but decided they didn’t fit his requirements. One proposal included several programs bolted together but lagged in some technologies Ergoresearch needed, and would not be easy to integrate with their existing systems. The other offered a web-based program, but it was based on ABAP, a difficult programming language as a base, which didn’t provide a solid foundation upon which to grow, Boucher says.

Although suitable for large enterprises, Boucher found neither large tech company’s solution compelling. But Acumatica’s ERP, built on Microsoft’s .NET technologies, is architected for the future, he says. “Our IT team really liked the structure. They are so happy about how the infrastructure is built, how easy it is to adapt to, and that it is the best of breed programming language.”

Boucher liked Acumatica’s unlimited user business model rather than its competitor’s license fees per user. “If we were billed by the user, there would be a heavy amount of reoccurring costs, and that’s not great,” he says.

Acumatica is web-based and suits the company’s mobile workforce. Some employees travel to the company’s 14 retail outlets or its 100 satellite offices visiting doctors and working on orthotics for knees and feet. “We needed a highly flexible infrastructure that wouldn’t be a chokepoint in our system,” he said. “We want to be very agile, and that is the case with Acumatica.”

Boucher expects Acumatica will have a “tremendous impact” on getting the company’s quarterly financial figures out in less time and with less effort. Ergoresearch executives will be able to compare financials between retail outlets and divisions, model data and integrate acquisitions faster.

Because Acumatica allows executives to configure different access rights, retail branch managers will be able to compare inventory and some financials but can be restricted from looking at aggregate numbers through the centralized system. Ergoresearch will also gain full visibility into their customers in a single, central database.

Ergoresearch plans to use the Acumatica Project Management Suite to manage research and development projects. “Right now we have eight R&D projects that we are tracking and managing using lots of spreadsheets in Excel, which is almost impossible to do,” Boucher says.

“Acumatica is a great technology enabler that is going to give any company that chooses it a tremendous edge over their competition,” Boucher says. “Acumatica absolutely delivered on the premises of our criteria, and it’s going to be a great enabler for the future for us.”