When dealing with technology solutions, you as a customer deserve certain protections to ensure your business is insulated, especially in terms of fees, data availability, and additional support resources. This updated Customer Bill of Rights is a dedication to core principles you will experience when working with PC Bennett and Acumatica.
At Acumatica Summit 2023, the cloud-based end-to-end ERP unveiled updates to its Customer Bill of Rights that it previously released in 2019. After four years of protecting customers’ freedoms when using the software, the company reevaluated its commitments to users and decided it was time to make enhancements and improvements, just like it does with its technology.
What you will see below is Acumatica’s understanding that delivering value to clients is essential and ever-present in how it does business – and a core factor of that is the expectation that a certain level of customer service and assurance will always be put first. This expanded Customer Bill of Rights acts as the “out of bounds” lines on a playing field, ensuring users know they will always have an open platform to work on, no surprises in pricing, and robust access to data in usable formats.
This Customer Bill of Rights is truly Acumatica’s way of separating itself from the industry. It understands that the SaaS ecosystem has players that may not always act in the best interest of users and instead will nickel and dime them or even make it difficult for them to access their organization’s data in an efficient, findable way.
Acumatica and PC Bennett, however, understand the major investment so many businesses make to secure a cloud-based end-to-end solution. Our clients are putting their trust in us to allow their business to thrive and scale with ease, so we would like to instill a sense of confidence they are making the correct decision. That is why the Customer Bill of Rights is so critical to our operation, and we want to ensure all we interact with know what they are.
With that being said, let’s dive into the updated Customer Bill of Rights pulling the language directly from Acumatica.
Acumatica’s Customer Bill of Rights
As an Acumatica customer, you have the right to:
1. A software and services proposal with clear fee structures, and no surprises.
- Customers should expect clear fee structures with no hidden or surprise fees after implementation. Too often, ERP proposals avoid or hide expected occurrences, or they include complex provisions that create added and unexpected charges. Speaking on behalf of the entire Acumatica ecosystem, we are strongly committed to clear fee structures and making sure customers don’t feel deceived.
2. Unlimited user access without having to purchase user licenses.
- Implementing an ERP system is about making sure all employees have access to all the data and insights in the business—so they are empowered to do their best work. Our unique pricing structure is consumption-based, meaning that you are charged for the computing resources you use, not the number of users permitted into the system. Customers have a right to unlimited users.
3. Fully adapt and customize the solution to meet your evolving business requirements.
- Customers should have the flexibility to adapt or configure the solution to fit their business needs. This must include the ability to alter workflows, business logic, reporting, and integrations while allowing them to stay on the most recent version of the product. Many systems are restrictive and don’t allow opportunities to fully alter existing capabilities, so customers have to change their businesses to fit what the product does.
4. Transparent, fair pricing and agreements without long-term commitments.
- Customers have a right to know their pricing now and in the future. Their contracts or agreements should be easy to understand. They should never have to trade long-term commitments for fair and transparent pricing. When their initial commitment expires, customers shouldn’t have to worry about dramatic and unexpected price increases.
5. Deploy the solution on a public or private cloud.
- Customers have the right to choose where to deploy their systems now and in the future. Acumatica is the only ERP vendor that not only offers flexible options between public and private cloud but also allows you to switch as business needs evolve. Customers should not be locked into one deployment decision forever.
6. An open platform with robust APIs to rapidly integrate your other systems.
- Acumatica provides complete and dynamic APIs across the entire application, including your customizations. Acumatica remains committed to providing our customers with a fully integrated, innovative, and constantly improving solution on an open, flexible, and powerful platform that allows you to integrate with other systems.
7. A complete security model that covers your application access, data, reports, and devices.
- Security is a foundational right for all customers. Most systems only cover application security. Acumatica has a complete security model for all aspects of the applications, data, reports, and devices.
8. Own and access your data, now and always—in full, usable data formats.
- Acumatica strongly believes that you own your data, and you should be able to retrieve it in a relational format you can easily use and access. While many vendors provide customers access to their data, they do not provide it in a usable format.
9. Take advantage of all knowledge and resources developed across a broad community of employees, partners, and customers.
- Customers should have easy access to the knowledge, practices, and innovations produced by a broad and active community of customers, partners, and developers. They also have the right to freely participate in that community, have their voices heard, and influence change. The Acumatica Community shapes our product roadmap. We encourage customers to vote on new product features and to participate in the processes and programs available to help shape the solution.
10. Professional online training that is free and comprehensive.
- Self-directed training should always be available without cost. Customers should have access to comprehensive training. Open University is a free, dynamic learning environment for anyone who wants to learn about Acumatica’s cloud ERP software. It’s user-friendly with easily accessible documentation.
Whether it is fairness and transparency in pricing, security and data protection, or the ability to access resources and training to further your knowledge of the platform, Acumatica has created this Customer Bill of Rights to ensure its users know they have protections that insulate their business. This type of commitment is rather uncommon in the industry and PC Bennett clients leverage these frequently to ensure they are making the most of their cloud-based ERP.
It was difficult to drill down a single example of when one client of ours leaned on just one of these rights. Instead, it was easy to understand that all of our clients are exposed and protected by these rights on a day-to-day basis. That is what makes these commitments exceptional, because the end-user is always experiencing the benefits of them.
