Growing numbers of South African SMEs are switching to Acumatica, an advanced cloud ERP solution, to replace legacy systems with complex integrations, allowing them to streamline and automate their businesses and harness new, transformative technologies.
Devon Rimmington, Director at ERP and accounting software specialist, Brilliant Cloud, says Acumatica sales are soaring as SMEs realise the benefits of the solution’s flexibility, scalability and industry-specific capabilities.
“Many SMEs are currently on what we call legacy on-premises business management software. However, due to limitations they may have encountered throughout the preceding years, they have implemented many disparate solutions to fill gaps in functionality,” he says.
“When considering migrating to more modern software solutions, this results in concerns with regards to implementation complexity. We find many SMEs are wary or struggling with this complexity. They may have run their business for 10 to 15 years, and they'll have possibly five different systems – including an accounting system, a CRM system that they’ll plug into it, and a reporting system like Power BI. And then when it comes to them moving to a new software package, they're very concerned about the impact on their systems.”
This concern stems from experiences in the market, for example, where new software has an API but it is not all-encompassing, he says. “So, you'll get certain functionality that you can integrate, but then there might be something specific that you're looking for, and that functionality is not there, making the whole solution a problem,” he says.
Plugging additional solutions into a new system can also prove challenging, he says.
“Often when you've got multiple disparate systems, you've got to deal with multiple different vendors. So, your accounting vendor might be based in India or Ireland or South Africa, but your CRM vendor might be in the US or elsewhere. Trying to get the two of them to communicate with each other can be inefficient. It may also become expensive to build integrations as often there may be two development costs as one has to push information, and the other one must pull information.”
Rimmington says: "Fortunately, modern cloud-based solutions are designed to overcome these types of challenges. While many modern solutions now come standard with functionality such as inbuilt CRM, dashboard analytics, mobile functionality and the ability to implement business process workflows and automations, they also have powerful and flexible APIs and in some instances low-code or no-code frameworks with which you are able to very quickly integrate with any specialised operational software that you may still require. Acumatica comes with many of those solutions pre-built and because the API is so powerful, if we really have to integrate with something, it's easy for us to do it.”
Rimmington says there has been strong adoption in the local market because Acumatica software is affordable, user-friendly and feature rich. “We’re seeing particularly strong uptake in the manufacturing and distribution sectors,” he says.
Acumatica offers industry editions and customisation capabilities designed for manufacturing, distribution, retail and e-commerce, construction and professional services, as well as a general business edition.
“For example, if you bought the retail e-commerce edition, you would get modules such as Shopify integration or WooCommerce integration, with features to support retail including, tendering and cash-up functionality. But if you were in manufacturing, you wouldn't necessarily need the retail tendering type functionality – you would get bill of materials and material resource planning and full manufacturing capabilities. You receive this pre-packaged modular functionality based on the edition you purchase. Where there may be an overlap of functionality such as requiring project accounting or field services, these modules can be added to the base editions. Due to the platform's low-code/no-code design, any business-specific functionality can be configured or built inside of the software. This reduces the need for potential integrations between disparate software solutions.
“Many customers that we've implemented Acumatica for are embracing the digital automation, and the fact that we can do most of what they need inside of the software, instead of having to utilise Excel spreadsheets, or having to print picking lists to the warehouse, or having to print delivery notes for the delivery driver to get signed. Digitising the customers' businesses and putting in automations and workflows with rules streamlines businesses and allows them to scale without having to necessarily hire more hands,” Rimmington says.
He notes that Acumatica has a unique consumption-based licensing model, which gives businesses the ability to only pay for what they use. This allows SMEs to benefit from advanced functionality while reducing potential software costs.
He says: “As your business grows, the software then scales up with you. A major benefit of this licensing model is that we are able to have as many users on the software as the business requires. This allows you to now include access to functionality such as leads and opportunities, together with associated dashboard metrics, as well as mobile application access for salespeople or including warehouse employees to be able to manage processes such as pick, pack and shipping, together with stock takes or receiving of inventory. You are now no longer throttled by user-based licensing and can incorporate digital efficiencies throughout your organisation.”
Brilliant Cloud is proud to have been awarded the International Business Partner of the Year Award for 2025 after placing in the top three for 2024 and 2023 as well as becoming a member of Acumatica’s Presidents Club. This recognition speaks directly to the continued quality of service and focus on innovative solutions which we provide to our valued customers, many of which we have supported on their business software for more than 20 years within the Brilliant Group.
To book a demo, contact (011) 792 9521 or send an e-mail to info@brilliantcloud.co.za.
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