Moving from QuickBooks to Acumatica Helps Growing Company Accelerate National Expansion With One Connected System in the Cloud
Customer: Lifeway Mobility
Website: www.lifewaymobility.com
Location: National
Industry: Distribution/Field Service
Former System: QuickBooks
New System: Acumatica
Customer Profile: Lifeway Mobility supplies a wide variety of ramps, stairlifts, wheelchair lifts, transfer aids, and bath safety solutions to individuals and businesses in multiple states.
Download Acumatica Helps Company Rapidly Accelerate Growth With One Connected System in the Cloud
The Challenge:
Lifeway Mobility is a rapidly growing accessibility solution provider with offices in multiple states and expecting to double in size in the next 12 months. Like many small companies, Lifeway Mobility started out using several disconnected software products. Later, the companies they acquired had similar issues with disjointed software environments. The result was a lack of visibility into their decentralized business operations and the inability to consolidate data efficiently.
As the speed of acquisitions increased, it was even more important to be on one central system that could be rolled out easily to new branches.
The Solution:
Lifeway Mobility points to two main reasons for selecting Acumatica. First, the executive team embraced the idea of a cloud-based solution to eliminate costly IT infrastructure. The growing company needed to move onto a platform that was accessible from any location without scaling up infrastructure. Second, the ability to have full access to the ERP system on a mobile platform was critical to their field service delivery model.
Members of the executive team at Lifeway Mobility had worked with CAL Business Solutions while with a prior company and immediately looked to them to partner on Acumatica.
Lifeway Mobility eliminated six software platforms that all required some level of redundant data entry and replaced them with the single Acumatica installation.
Bryan Mullen, SVP, Shared Services at Lifeway Mobility discusses the impact Acumatica has had on the organization:
The Benefits:
Rapid Deployment Model
“From the date, we decided to move forward with Acumatica until our first office was fully implemented was five months. Subsequently, Lifeway Mobility, with CAL’s help, deployed the platform to two more offices in the next three months, and we will have two additional offices fully implemented within the first year.”
Streamlined Acquisition Process
“Lifeway Mobility is on a very strong growth trajectory through both organic growth and acquisitions. The Acumatica implementation is really allowing us to do that. In the past, we would make an acquisition, and it would be an island. Now, with Acumatica, even at the time we close a deal, we can slide our toolbox across the table to give them the systems, the support, the structure. Our shared services operating model is truly enabled by Acumatica.” Additionally, the post-acquisition benefit is evident as Lifeway Mobility has dramatically reduced the accounting time spent on consolidating month-end financials across all regions and branches.
Visibility to Real-Time Data
“Our CEO loves the dashboards on his handheld mobile app. He is constantly looking at the numbers. We are able to trend out our data across the different regions and be responsive to that in a way that allows us to take advantage of the changes in the industry. We are seeing those changes accelerate on a daily basis, and we have to be ahead of that curve. We can no longer be waiting a month or a quarter to find out the performance in a certain area. Acumatica provides us visibility to data in real-time that allows us to change our operating models on the fly.”
Zero IT Infrastructure
“Using Acumatica is a competitive advantage. Having a solid corporate structure with a shared services model enables each of those branches that we’re acquiring to really focus on the customer-first experience. It is allowing us to take the burden off of these smaller organizations and allow them to be truly focused on the customer. They’re no longer worried about their accounts payable, HR, or IT. All of that goes away and becomes a shared service that we are able to implement. And we’re doing it in the Cloud, with zero IT infrastructure.”
Smooth Implementation
“I have spent 14 years as both the CIO and COO of a Fortune 50 subsidiary. During that time, I have overseen countless system implementations ranging in cost and complexity. While most were very successful, I cannot remember a single one that was implemented as smoothly as Acumatica with CAL Business Solutions. Our team agrees. Our customer service staff have pointed to Acumatica as one of their “Top Three Things that Work Well” within our organization.”
True Business Partner
“CAL has proven to be a true business partner as opposed to just a vendor. Their willingness to go the extra mile and their expertise in both the technology and in business processes has proven quite valuable. I would recommend CAL Business Solutions without hesitation.”
With Acumatica, Lifeway Mobility has gained visibility into their decentralized business operations across multiple states. The ability to have dashboards at their fingertips provides management with clear, consistent, and concise data. As a result, the company has been able to improve their acquisition strategy and business processes to serve customers better and improve customer experience.