Sharon Fuchs, Solution Architect at NexTec is a 25-year veteran of the food and beverage industry. She’s passionate about food and anyone who knows her considers her a foodie.
“I love walking the production floor,” Fuchs explains. “I love being onsite in food manufacturing facilities and showing customers the value of what we can do for them in transforming their business.”
Like Sharon, many of our NexTec team members come from the industries we serve, including food and beverage, manufacturing, distribution, professional services, construction, field services, and more. Our sales team, developers, product experts and customer account managers understand the challenges our customers face every day and what it takes to compete.
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Comparing ERP Implementation Options: How Your Implementation Partner Impacts Long-term Success
That’s why you should work with us. When dealing with complex software solutions that impact your business performance and ability to scale and grow, it’s critical to have the best Enterprise Resource Planning consulting team on your side.
Below, we discuss what you should look for in a Value-Added Reseller (VAR) and why NexTec may be the right strategic partner for your business.
Why an Experienced ERP Consultant is Important
A VAR offers personalized ERP services based on their deep industry and technology knowledge. As certified ERP consultants, ERP software vendors trust their VARs to sell their solutions and assist customers in selecting, implementing, testing, training employees and maintaining the software product.
When seeking a qualified ERP consultant, it’s important to recognize that not all VARs are created equal. The expertise and abilities of VARs can vary widely, as can their size, geographic reach, industry focus, and the depth of resources they can bring to your implementation.
For example, most VARs strive to become technology experts so they can understand the intricacies of the ERP software they sell. They work hard to hone their implementation skills. A smaller subset of more mature VARs offer additional services that go beyond a successful “go live”, as well as customized capabilities that extend the functionality of the core ERP product.
There will always be VARs who overstate their expertise, abilities, and resources, which can render even the best ERP software product ineffective. This is why choosing the right ERP implementation partner is every bit as important as choosing the right ERP software.
Let’s look at an example of what can happen if a company selects an implementation partner who doesn’t understand its unique requirements, or lacks the resources or expertise to get the job done:
The VAR—after a brief consultation—begins offering complex solutions, including customizations that are time-intensive, costly and complicated to implement. As the process moves forward, challenges arise because the solutions are not compatible with the company’s needs. The end result is a long list of excuses, jerry-rigged fixes, endless scope changes and delays. At worst, the implementation never reaches go live, and if it does, the results and ROI fall short of customer expectations.
To ensure you don’t choose an ERP consultant that overpromises and underdelivers, make sure to do a thorough evaluation of your options. Part of the evaluation should include finding out if the VAR can deliver the following:
- An ERP solution that integrates with your company’s existing business model
- An ERP solution that is regularly updated and improved, as well as scalable
- Services that cover data migration, training, and ongoing support
An proactive maintenance plan that includes software updates, optimization, and system resiliency. In addition to these deliverables, the right ERP consultant should have a sterling industry reputation and be willing to work closely with you and your team to provide a solution that automates and simplifies your business processes. The VAR’s team of solution architects (like Sharon above), inhouse developers, project leaders, and service staff should consider themselves a part of your client team, devoting themselves to helping you fully utilize the software so that you meet your goals, exceed expectations, and realize long-term value from your ERP investment.
The VAR must have the resources needed to complete the implementation project from start to finish—something Omni Cart Services, Inc. discovered during its ERP implementation. The Omni Cart team chose Acumatica Cloud ERP as their ERP solution and a local Acumatica reseller to help them implement it.
Unfortunately, the implementation did not progress as Omni Cart had hoped. Says Keith Wolf, President of Omni Cart, “[The reseller] just didn’t have the resources to service us properly.”
The company wisely chose to break off their relationship with the reseller, turning to Acumatica for direct assistance, but even though Acumatica had the knowledge Omni Cart needed, Wolf and his team wanted a VAR that would learn their business and help them use Acumatica’s cloud ERP solution to the fullest.
“We found NexTec Group, and they’ve successfully guided the implementation to fit our business needs,” Wolf says.
The NexTec Difference
NexTec has 30 years of experience helping businesses select, implement, and optimize their ERP and business management software. Our implementation expertise has garnered numerous industry awards, including Acumatica 2025 VAR Partner of the Year, the highest accolade awarded to Acumatica partners. Our dedication to delivering exceptional customer service has earned us an industry-leading +90% customer retention rate. Like Omni Cart, half of our customers switch to NexTec after working with another VAR who failed to deliver as promised.
Says Wolf, “NexTec is responsive, knowledgeable, and has a systematic approach to the implementation that really works.”
Our passion is doing great work, ensuring that the technology we implement matches our customers’ unique challenges and produces measurable results. Our team prides itself on offering friendly service that stems from pride in our company and from their own hands-on experiences in the industries they serve.
“I always say in my demos, I don’t write code, but I read recipes,” says Sharon Fuchs. “If I’m in a new city I will do a food tour or check out new restaurants. Some people follow rock stars, I follow chefs. So, it’s a natural fit for me to play in this space.”
As one of the largest and most experienced ERP implementation teams in North America for Acumatica and Sage X3, we are here to support your key business initiatives and drive sustainable growth. We’ll work with you to develop a strategic plan that factors in where you are now and where you want to be in the future.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
To learn more about why you should choose NexTec as your ERP implementation partner, contact us today. We’d love to chat.