When I started the Blog here on AUGForums.com, back in April 2013, Acumatica already had their own Blog.
When I started the Forums here on AUGForums.com, back in May 2017, I realized that Acumatica would likely create their own online Forums at some point.
After Acumatica was acquired in June 2019 (click here), it became even more apparent that Acumatica would create their own Forums. Why? Because Acumatica and IFS began to share resources and IFS already had their own online community located at:
https://community.ifs.com
Towards the end of 2019, I got a call from Shivon Dosky (click here) and he let me know that Acumatica was working on their own online community Forums. Shivon’s cool and I appreciated him keeping me in the loop.
Now, here we are in September 2020 and the inevitable has happened.
The New Official Acumatica Community Website
You can find the new official Acumatica community website here:
https://community.acumatica.com
Not surprisingly, Acumatica used the same URL naming convention as the IFS community. Also not surprisingly, Acumatica used Insided (click here), the same software platform that powers the IFS community.
You can create an account by clicking the Login button, then signing up for a new account.
I’d like to encourage everyone reading this to go and create an account at:
https://community.acumatica.com
Anyone, even MYOB customers, can create an account. I wanted to make sure of that since there are a bunch of MYOB customers here on AUGForums.com. I think it’s safe to assume that this would be the case for any OEM product: VISMA, Acceo, Lexware, Cegid, JAMIS, etc.
Here’s my confirmation that anyone can create an account in the new Official Acumatica Community:
Even if you don’t login, you can still view the content as a guest. Basically, it’s the same as how things work here on AUGForums.com with content viewable publicly but a login required to post.
Speaking of similarities, there is even an Everything Else forum, just like we have here on AUGForums.com. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery 🙂
The big advantage of the official Acumatica community (in my opinion) is that the Acumatica support staff team contributes, answering questions in the forums quickly, at least so far.
But there is more than just Forums. The product suggestions currently located at feedback.acumatica.com are moving into the community.acumatica.com site.
It will be nice to have a way to both publicly communicate with Acumatica employees and also make product suggestions, all in the same place. Especially because, with an ERP product like Acumatica, there are always things that need to be improved.
Does this mean that AUGForums.com is dead? On the contrary, we’re just getting started.
Changes to AUGForums.com
So what’s the future of AUGForums.com?
First, nothing changes with the Acumatica Podcast (click here). I will continue to interview as many Acumatica customers as I can find. I have a long list and I’m working through interviews one week at a time.
Click here if you would like to get on the schedule
Second, my personal contributions the Forums (click here) and the Blog (click here) are going to focus on the reporting tools in Acumatica which is in line with my Consulting (click here) offering.
Third, Courses (click here) will complement the Forums and Blog content by also focusing on reporting in Acumatica. No changes here.
Fourth, the Rolodex (click here) will continue to provide you with a way to find others in the Acumatica community who you might want to connect with.
Fifth, do to time constraints, I continue to review all posts in the Forums, but I’m only personally responding to posts that I mark as #AcumaticaTnT (click here). For Questions (click here), I suggest posting over at Community.Acumatica.com (click here).
Be sure to stick around. Create your account on the new official Acumatica community site, but keep coming back here to AUGForums.com for the stuff mentioned above, a focus on the reporting tools, and a commitment to transparency.
Transparency? Why does that matter?
The Not Too Distant Future
My commitment to you is to always keep things transparent on AUGForums.com. I currently do that in the Forums (click here), on the Blog (click here), on the Podcast (click here), with the Acumatica Rolodex (click here), and with the monthly Acumatica Newsletter that is sent to all members who take a couple of minutes to create their free account (click here). Whatever ideas I come up with in the future will also be motivated by transparency.
Why is “transparency” important? Because Acumatica is an ERP software company and pretty much every ERP software company follows a somewhat predictable path. The cycle is slightly different with Acumatica than with older ERP products, but overall it’s very similar. Here is how I define the path of an ERP software company:
1. Cool startup with tons of development energy and mainly geeks who embrace the product.
2. Mature startup with brand awareness, momentum, and an influx of marketing professionals who jump on the bandwagon.
3. High growth organization with heavy investment in sales and marketing, but waning investment in the product. The original core team of geeks cash out and the organization becomes more focused on profit and less focused on “cool stuff”.
4. Mature “Cash Cow” with healthy recurring revenue and greedy investors. This is when the ecosystem starts to suffer.
5. Profit siphoned off to develop or purchase a next generation ERP software product. This is when the ecosystem really suffers.
Don’t believe me? Just ask anyone who worked with Great Plains, Solomon, or any Sage ERP product for a substantial amount of time.
With Acumatica, the technology is new, but the ERP software company path is still the same. And the technology will eventually get old. That’s just how technology works.
Right now, Acumatica is slowly transitioning into step 3 above. I personally think it’s likely that we see Acumatica and IFS become a public company in the near future. It’s even more likely that Jon Roskill, the current CEO, will be gone after a few years, replaced by a less-geeky CEO who focuses more on “sales & marketing smoke & mirrors” and less on geeky product details. The big acquisition last Summer (click here) likely included some kind of agreement for Jon Roskill to stay on for X number of years, then all bets are off.
For those of you who, like myself, plan to be involved with Acumatica for the long haul, it’s important that we stick together, independent of the Acumatica organization, because we’ll eventually arrive at step 4 above where VAR margins shrink and the customer base gets “milked”. Just give it enough years and it’s pretty much guaranteed to happen.
This is when the independence and transparency that you find here on AUGForums.com will become very important.
I’m not being pessimistic, just realistic. This is how the business works. It’s not necessarily bad. It’s just the way things go. This is what makes the ERP world turn.
So go create your account on the new official Acumatica community forums. I already did and I plan on contributing there:
https://community.acumatica.com
But don’t forget about AUGForums.com.
Continue to come here to stick together independently of the Acumatica organization. This is the only way to ensure ongoing transparency about Acumatica in the future.
Sincerely,
Tim Rodman