How To Increase Communication and Collaboration With Acumatica

Today’s workplace is changing. Thanks to the pandemic, many people started working from home, but now that things have returned to somewhat normal, many companies are using a hybrid workplace model. This hybrid model allows employees to work both in-office and remote. The other workplace model gaining traction across industries is 100% remote work. 

However, both hybrid and remote workplaces have their challenges. It splits people apart and limits one-on-one and in-person meetings where people communicate face to face. Companies have adjusted well to workplace change since the pandemic, but they still struggle to find the best way to communicate and collaborate across teams and departments. 

That’s where Acumatica Cloud ERP comes in. It is built for the cloud, so anyone can work anywhere and anytime. Acumatica is easily adaptable with a full suite of integrated applications on an open and future-proof platform. Let’s look at how Acumatica can increase communication and collaboration for all teams (remote, hybrid, onsite) within your organization. 

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is one of the most popular communication tools in the workplace today. According to Business of Apps, Microsoft Teams usage went from 20M to 44M between November 2019 and March 2020. By April, the number of users was 75M. This growth quickly makes Microsoft Teams the go-to for organizations looking to increase employee communication and collaboration.

Acumatica Cloud ERP introduced the Microsoft Teams integration in 2021 and is currently looking for managed customer use or beta. As Acumatica rolls out this functionality, users will find Teams easy to use from the same interface as their work is stored. In addition, organizations can create group chats within Microsoft Teams to provide a central hub for teams and groups to continuously stay in communication with each other, access information from a unified dashboard, and work together to achieve peak performance goals.

While you can use Teams from any browser or mobile device on its own, integrating it with Acumatica provides the additional benefit of being native within the ERP, so employees don’t have to switch between platforms to communicate with each other. In addition, using Teams for file sharing, project management, and business analytics are some benefits of Microsoft Teams. Acumatica is integrating Microsoft Teams and shows a continued dedication to using its Cloud ERP as a significant factor for business success. 

In addition to increasing team communication, Acumatica customers will have access through an interface within the customer portal to text or call your business without leaving the platform. As a result, customers will experience improved efficiency and connection during and after digitalization and enhanced communication and collaboration. This integration demonstrates Acumatica’s devotion to the success of its customers, even when those customers struggle with the post-pandemic economy.

Adobe Integration

Acumatica introduced Adobe Document Cloud with the 2021 R2 upgrade. Acumatica is offering a free 30-day trial of the Adobe Document Cloud integration. This upgrade allows employees and customers to use the Adobe Document Cloud interface to annotate, highlight, and comment on PDF documents and save updated versions with an audit trail and version control – all without having to leave Acumatica. This integration brings a new world of possibilities to documents shared inside and outside Acumatica. Employees and customers can create, collaborate, edit, and e-sign documents within the Acumatica ERP platform.

Integrations with Adobe Document Cloud and Microsoft Teams have been included with the 2021 R2 upgrade. Similarly, clients of Acumatica may utilize the Adobe Document Cloud interface to annotate, highlight, and comment on PDF documents, and save updated versions with an audit trail and version control – all without having to leave Acumatica. This integration helps keep Acumatica as the single source of truth for businesses and maintains a digital trail of documentation changes. Using Adobe’s Embed PDF API, the Document Cloud integration further eliminates context-switching from Acumatica ERP to another application to view and edit PDF files. Another benefit of the Acumatica Document Cloud feature is that documents can be saved to specific clients, teams, and departments so that anyone can view the document at any time. PDF documents can also be emailed between customers and your organization with a digital trail within Acumatica. 

Microsoft Outlook Integration

Over the last several years, Acumatica has made substantial improvements to the platform to guarantee that clients' opportunities for cooperation and communication are quicker and more fruitful. Integrations with Microsoft Outlook have been quite popular over the last several years and are among the most well-liked new features. In today’s age of digital communication and hybrid/remote workers, we spend more time on email. In fact, email consumption takes up an average of six hours per day for employees in the United States, which increases if you need to save emails somewhere else. 

Acumatica provides a solution with integrating your Microsoft Outlook to the Acumatica ERP CRM. It comes with many features that companies and customers alike find efficient and productive. Some of these features include:

• Creating a new customer record from your email
• Posting and sharing email activities
• Add emails to contacts, cases, or opportunities
• View contacts or business accounts

Thanks to the Outlook connection that comes with the CRM module, you can generate leads and contacts without ever having to leave your email inbox. In addition, you can create cases and add recorded activity if case management is enabled in your account. Once you turn on this functionality, you’ll see increased communication between your teams and customers, generate leads, add contacts, and more, all from within Acumatica. 

Additional Collaboration Tools

The automation possibilities provided by Acumatica provide users with another avenue for collaborating on projects. The automation tools offered by Acumatica make it easier for accountants to deliver financial data to stakeholders. Accountants have more time to communicate with higher-level workers and train them when they spend less time on monthly bank reconciliations, invoice approval, and the production of pivot tables.

According to those with expertise in the relevant sector, the first stage in developing this communication channel is to have a granular information perspective that is consolidated, consistent, and correct. The solution offered by Acumatica was created to give accountants a solid foundation upon which to build future endeavors. This is one of the primary aims of the proposed solution.

Because of this, accountants may finally develop into the kind of collaborative partners they were always intended to be. It is no longer sufficient to communicate information about finances; instead, it is essential to assist individuals in appreciating the insight included in all those reports and gaining the most benefit from them.

Since accountants are exempt from initiating, processing, and reconciling recurring transactions, they can spend more time directly interacting with department heads. As a result, they may play a more active part in planning, evaluating, and interpreting the outcomes, which will usher in a new age of more innovative and informed decision-making.

Want To Learn More?

Kensium is the Official Commerce Partner of Acumatica. We have the expertise to understand your unique business needs and help develop solutions based on your specific requirements. When you’re looking to increase productivity through communication and collaboration, we are the experts at implementing Acumatica ERP and integrating the solutions necessary.

It all starts with a consultation. Our Client Success Management team will review your current business systems and offer solutions to streamline your entire business, from customer-facing front-end websites to back-end operations. Kensium has the tools and expertise necessary to future-proof your business and accelerate growth. Contact us today and learn how we can help!