Acumatica has announced that it will be releasing the first of its two semi-annual updates for 2021, known as Acumatica 2021 R1, in mid-March. As with earlier “R” releases, 2021 R1 promises new features and improvements for usability, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Financials. The new edition will also include updates for the platform itself, as well as new enhancements for Artificial intelligence (AI) and integration capabilities.
Usability Updates in Acumatica 2021 R1
Acumatica continues to improve on usability in 2021 R1. New features include expanded mobile image recognition capabilities as well as the ability to create CRM contacts using image recognition for business cards. Users are gaining the ability to navigate seamlessly with external URLs from General Inquiry (GI) results. This will save time. Furthermore, users can send targeted communications to customers based on filtered GI results. New, enhanced side panels will provide arranging and ordering capabilities as well.
Financials and CRM
Given that financial management and CRM are two of the most common and compelling use cases for Acumatica, it makes sense that 2021 R1 contains a number of updates in these areas. The new edition makes it possible to simplify operations through a new centralized vendor management function. Sales support is becoming easier, too, with simplified features for tracking contacts on sales orders. In CRM, new intelligent de-duplication contributes to higher quality customer data—a key factor in making marketing and sales operations perform better.
Industry-Specific Updates
Acumatica 2021 R1 contains updates for industry modules. Construction businesses that use Acumatica will benefit from new enhancements to the integration with Procore construction and project management software. Users will be able to use the Construction Financial Management Association (CFMA) benchmark to assess themselves against their industry peers.
Distribution and commerce companies will be able to streamline cross-company sales of stock items. Users can automatically create corresponding sales and purchase orders. They can also expand product offerings as a way to target-market certain audience segments using enhanced drop-shipping workflows. Business owners get better control of their operations through more granular sync options related to custom commerce fields. An improved data collection function then helps reduce collections by tracking order risk.
Field service and distribution businesses will get the capacity to make accurate commitments to customer regarding deliveries. The new edition simplifies cost tracking by means of a link between Accounts Payable bills to appointments for field service. Field service representatives can now also correct invoices while in the field—improving customer care and reducing administrative burden on field service operations.
AI and ML
Acumatica 2021 R1 continues the company’s ongoing process of augmenting AI and Machine Learning (ML) capabilities. Following up on 2020 R2, specific updates include mobile image recognition for business cards as well as a visually intuitive Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Meter on dashboards. This feature lets users establish dynamic goals and then follow up to track how they are progressing against those goals. 2021 R1 further enables users to leverage AI and ML to optimize application workflows through a visual state automation engine.
To learn more about Acumatica 2021 R1 and how we can help you prepare for the new release, contact us for a demo and discussion.
