Acumatica has a new blog post up. I really like this post because I didn’t know that such a matrix ranking even existed for mid-market ERP products. This is good stuff! I downloaded the entire 13 page report and read it very carefully. The report includes a write-up on each vendor included in the matrix.
A few of my random thoughts:
- I’m glad that they broke the Microsoft Dynamics products up into their individual products since they are each completely separate products. Many times they get grouped together.
- They ranked FinancialForce (built on the Salesforce platform) much higher than I would have thought. I didn’t realize it was so advanced in terms of functionality.
- I think they ranked Sage ERP X3 way too low in terms of functionality. Knowing the large deals that Sage has been getting lately with this product, Sage ERP X3 surely has to be ahead of FinancialForce at least! I think the analyst that put the matrix together might have thought they were reviewing Sage 100, not Sage X3. Or maybe X3 got such a low score simply because it’s part of the Sage organization which has made a lot of confusing decisions the past several years. Still doesn’t make sense though. Only two products have an arrow pointing in the wrong direction: X3 and SAP BusinessByDesign. SAP BusinessByDesign was almost turned off by SAP last year while X3 is enjoying a lot of investment by Sage. Just doesn’t make sense that it got ranked so low.
- Where is my beloved Sage 500 ERP? Just kidding, I don’t blame them for excluding it since it’s basically a dead product (click here for post).
- It’s no surprise that they listed SAP ERP first according to functionality.
- I don’t think that they should have put Acumatica in front of Microsoft Dynamics GP in terms of functionality. I mean, I have no complaints that they like Acumatica so much, but GP has been around for decades and has very broad functionality, even though it looks like very old technology when you use it (because it is).
- Noticeably missing from the matrix is Intacct. I used to think that Intacct was an Acumatica competitor, but now I’m thinking that Intacct is going to stay focused on the Accounting department instead of trying to branch out and become a full enterprise-wide ERP product. Maybe that’s why it isn’t in the matrix, it just doesn’t have a broad suite of features that cut across all departments in an organization like Acumatica does.
- I think they should have included negative commentary on the products that they put in the lowest quadrant to explain why they did so.
- This report is a great reflection on Acumatica. Such a young product should be lower on the functionality ladder because it hasn’t had time to mature. FinancialForce is even younger than Acumatica, but the report mentions its growth by acquisition. I think that Acumatica is taking a better approach by viewing itself as a platform more than a product and growing organically through the ISV channel. This will pay off in the long run and produce a more uniform/stable overall product in my opinion.
O ya, here is a link to the post:
