Salesforce and Acumatica have spent the better part of their history in opposition to each other. Salesforce, touted by many as the first SaaS cloud product on the market, has delivered customer relationship management solutions via the internet for the last two decades. Acumatica, on the other hand, launched in 2008 to deliver a suite … Read more
Fabrication is a tough business. Commodities prices fluctuate rapidly, offshoring creates new competition, and new technologies present additional risk. It’s a perfect storm, and to weather it, you need to balance customer-centric business practices with demand for cost optimization, speed, and flexibility. Following our last blog discussing some of the things that fabrication companies including … Read more
Have you ever received a suspicious email about your Office 365 account? It might seem legitimate, even with a Microsoft logo, but if you look close at the links or the email address it came from, it’s not from your company. Office 365 credentials are a hot commodity these days. You need look no further … Read more
Is it time for you to upgrade Microsoft Dynamics GP? Don’t get caught with an unsupported version, you’ll miss out on important updates, hotfixes, new features, and it could potentially cost you more in the end. Should you make the move? Here are some things to consider and planning tips. Are you on an old version? … Read more
Ransomware Attack Have you ever encountered a ransomware attack? It’s not good. Here’s a true story. A Crestwood client was the victim of an attack. Their on-premise servers got rooted badly, they even encrypted all the backups. The attackers were demanding over $100,000 to get back their information. What would you do? The client decided … Read more
With today’s rapidly changing business ecosystem, legacy ERP systems are giving way to cloud services. This shift is giving small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) all of the advantages known to larger competitors with the bandwidth and revenue to support such IT efforts. In fact, Gartner predicts 17.3% growth in 2019 to total $206.2 billion in … Read more
If someone asked you right now where your backups are located, would you know? Are you sure your ERP system even HAS reliable backups, with easy access should disaster strike? We don’t ask this to scare you, but we know from experience how critical having a reliable and robust backup plan in place is to … Read more
Yes, you can survive business disruption, just not with your legacy ERP. This new Whitepaper from Mint Jutras lays out the value of having an agile ERP platform. Disruption Everyone knows it could be coming soon to their market-with or without warning, but nobody likes to think about it. It’s not just new competition, it’s … Read more
If not making a decision to implement or upgrade to a cloud ERP is the decision you choose to make, there may be a delay in growth. Read about the financial effects of your non-decision in the new Aberdeen Group Whitepaper, The Cost of Doing Nothing: Why You Can’t Afford to Sit on an ERP … Read more
Even those lucky enough not to have first-hand experience know someone who has been affected by ransomware. The typical attack involves an email which at first glance appears legitimate and sent from a known contact. The user is tricked into opening email attachments or visiting malicious links that snuck through email filters. From there, the … Read more
As many companies do, Crestwood has regular company-wide calls that are attended by all our employees scattered across the country. The centerpiece of this call is a single PowerPoint presentation. But as each department worked on their respective slides, we were finding that dozens of different copies were being created, changes weren’t being saved, outdated … Read more
Keeping up with technology is never-ending, and it can be difficult and costly. But it doesn’t have to be. More and more businesses are choosing to simplify, protect, and secure their business systems by moving to the cloud. Click to download the free whitepaper: 7 Pitfalls to Avoid as You Transition Business Software to the … Read more
I was invited to attend Acumatica’s Construction Edition Partner Meeting in sunny Miami Beach. It was a great opportunity to meet many of the innovative executives, developers, and programmers behind the new Construction Edition of this ERP software. Their pride and enthusiasm was contagious. They showed software demonstrations and shared stories of their journey into … Read more
Data security and integrity is of paramount importance to any business. This is true whether your ERP system is on premise, in the cloud, or a combination of the two. In a previous blog, I talked about our Crestwood Cloud platform and the two complementary backup solutions that we designed to safeguard client data: SQL … Read more
One of the concerns we hear from clients when moving to the cloud is they don’t want to make things different or harder on their users. The cloud tool that we recommend is RemoteApp. You might be used to Remote Desktop, which basically virtualized the desktop that you were accessing. RemoteApp uses the same protocol, … Read more
When’s the last time you thought about security for your business? Or asked your IT team or partner security related questions? Are you sure you’re covered in the event something happens? How much data are you willing to lose? Maybe you are like me, not an expert in security, and not sure about what to … Read more
Welcome back to the second part of my Distribution Series blog. If you missed “Part 1: WMS – Which Management System & Where to Begin?” don’t worry, here’s the link. In part 2, I am going to expand into more detail on some of the Warehouse Management Solution features you need to think about specific … Read more
I work with quite a variety of businesses that all use Acumatica Distribution in their own unique way. This is the first in a series of blog posts showcasing numerous technology needs of companies I’ve worked with that are manufacturing, assembling, or distributing products. Part 1: WMS – Which Management System & Where to Begin? … Read more
I’ve often said that “data you don’t have at least two copies of is data you don’t care about.” This simple maxim will go a long way to protect your family photos and other personal data. However, a reliable data security strategy for an enterprise – well, that can be more complicated. But it doesn’t … Read more
Did you know, on average, our customers save 20% annually by moving to the cloud? Our Crestwood Cloud Services expert, Jason Sheaffer, has helped many businesses switch to the cloud and save money. He has shared all the information you need to know when making decisions about the cloud for your business. In this 3 … Read more
Most of the time I work remotely. It saves me travel time and saves my clients money. I’m usually connecting to client systems with various VPN’s, etc. Once in awhile, when I’m VPN’d in somewhere, my mouse acts weird. It moves very slowly, like it’s underwater. I found a quick fix – here’s what I … Read more
Have you found yourself spending hours preparing detailed reports for a Board meeting only to have them glanced at and tossed aside? Yeah, us too. So we thought we would put together our top tips that will ensure your reports are the highlight of the meeting. Tip #1 Know Your Board Most boards bring a … Read more
The ERP landscape has shifted from traditional, on-premise client/server deployments to software-as-a-service, ERP in the cloud. Buyers have realized this shift has major benefits for their business, including: Scalability Reliability Elasticity Cost Savings Gartner www.gartner.com projects huge growth of core ERP systems in the cloud by 2025. IT leaders also say maintaining hardware, software and … Read more
You may be wondering how Crestwood takes an on-premise application like the Microsoft Dynamics ERP software suite and migrates it to the cloud, maintaining business continuity during the transition, and how the move benefits your organization. Let’s take a look at the process. First Things First Crestwood will start by analyzing your existing system, taking … Read more