Verde Group lauds Acumatica's AI & ERP innovations

The conclusion of the Acumatica Summit 2025 has left Verde Group executives impressed with new artificial intelligence capabilities and the robust partner ecosystem presented at the event.

Verde Group CEO Penny Boland and National Sales Manager Wayne Potgieter expressed their excitement about the advancements made, especially regarding the acceleration of customer value delivery through mature deployments of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

Both executives highlighted the benefits of the newly released industry-specific Editions which could alleviate traditional ERP deployment challenges, such as time and cost.

Penny Boland noted that deploying a new ERP system can be a costly and time-consuming endeavour. She stated that Acumatica is addressing these challenges with partially preconfigured Industry Editions, covering sectors such as Distribution, Manufacturing, Retail, Construction, Professional Services, and General Business. "Generally, you're looking for an 80 to 85% fit for an ERP to be viable; these editions are likely to help more businesses get to that magic percentage or better, reducing the necessity for customisations," Boland explained.

At the summit, Wayne Potgieter discussed the use of artificial intelligence, remarking on the role played by recent developments such as DeepSeek in revolutionising the market. Potgieter said, "AI is, of course, the talk of the town particularly with recent news of DeepSeek potentially revolutionising the market, but what we're seeing from Acumatica is applying AI in practical and meaningful ways within the ERP system, so it works better for people."

Acumatica's new AI-first product strategy was outlined at the summit, including the launch of Acumatica Labs, a program that allows customers early access to test new features.

The introduction of Acumatica AI Studio was another significant highlight, supporting business process experts in automating complex workflows without the need for coding. Potgieter commented, "Low-code no-code, in other words, and we believe this is a leap forward allowing the people who know the processes to accelerate the processes – without having to involve programmers."

Boland elaborated on the benefits of the new Editions, emphasising their flexibility and scalability.

"Each edition is designed to be flexible and scalable, allowing businesses to start with core functionalities and add more features as they grow," she said. "This modular approach ensures that companies only pay for the modules they use, further improving cost-effectiveness. And that's good news especially for first-time ERP customers."

Wayne Potgieter remarked on the importance of initial deployment, indicating that continuous improvement is essential for customers to maximise returns on their ERP investments. "Those looking to gain the most from their investments will typically start on a baseline, then enhance and optimise over time to better support evolving needs," he shared.

This includes focusing on continuous improvement, customisation, configuration, data quality, and user training.

Potgieter also highlighted the sense of community within the Acumatica ecosystem, which includes support from Avanza Solutions as an implementation partner.

"There's a lot of direct help, support and guidance available, both to Avanza Solutions as an implementation partner, and to all customers," he said.

"ERP software is a major investment and should be viewed as an asset, and the more one matures the implementation, the better the return. And the new AI tools combined with those insights will accelerate those returns."

The collaboration with Independent Software Vendors also contributes to the effectiveness of Acumatica's systems.

Potgieter added, "This really helps Acumatica customers achieve an ERP which works for them – with, for example, Traild, Velixo, and thousands more."