Comparing Acumatica Cloud ERP and Macola™

Approaching its 50th year in existence, Macola™ has had a long history among manufacturers as the ‘trusty old’ ERP solution. In this time, the company has been trusted by thousands of businesses to deliver ERP software that does what it’s supposed to.

Acumatica, a built in the cloud solution, also has its own manufacturing solution called Acumatica Manufacturing Edition.

In fact, it’s incredibly likely that if you’re in the market for a new ERP solution, you might come across both of these options. While Acumatica’s history represents only a fraction of the years Macola™ has been in business, only one of the two companies can answer “what have you done for me lately?”

Let’s see how Acumatica matches up with Macola™:

Functionality	Acumatica	Macola™
True Cloud
Full Function ERP
Flexible licensing options (subscription and perpetual)
Upgrade on Your Schedule
Multiple deployment options (cloud, on premise, hybrid)
Scale as you grow
Modern APIs
Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

Browse the differentiators between Acumatica and Macola™ in more detail below:

True cloud” means all functionality is accessible through the internet using a standard browser without the need for any additional software installation on the user’s device or additional software licensing.

Acumatica works on premises or in the cloud without additional equipment or software. It’s truly up to you.

Macola™? Not so much. The company is a legacy on-premises vendor. Worse, they are just now making the move to the cloud. In fact, the push to make Macola™ a cloud company was announced in 2018 when ECi President and Chief Operating Officer told the audience at EVOLVE 2018, “We are also a cloud company.”

Advantage: Acumatica

When it comes to deployment, you deserve options.

Acumatica supports all three deployment options natively using a browser to access the system. It’s just that simple—even if you want to deploy on-premises, you still get the same easy, secure browser access you’d expect in a cloud solution.

On the other hand, access to Macola™ was built for on-premises deployments. Though this may in theory mean you could host an application, access to the solution would be limited.

Advantage: Acumatica

When choosing an ERP solution, you must consider not just your company’s current needs, but the future needs as well. Today’s cloud solutions are built to grow with you—without breaking the bank.

Both products allow you to scale resources to support a growing company, but because Acumatica only charges by the computing power required and not by users, you can scale your resources as you grow, allowing an unlimited number of users to access the system regardless of job function.

As a traditional software, Macola™ licenses are perpetual, meaning you may need to overbuy upfront to receive a discount or add a license that otherwise never gets used. Added to this, if you ever want to make a move from an older version (Macola™ 7) to the current edition (Macola™ 10), that means new licenses.

Advantage: Acumatica

In today’s fast-paced world, software is in a constant state of evolution. Whether that’s your ERP solution or one of the applications connected to it, you can’t task your IT team with fixes every single time a piece of software updates.

Leveraging modern cloud technologies enables Acumatica to support current APIs for easier integration with other cloud applications. Macola™ is unable to support modern cloud APIs, such as REST APIs. Much of the integration relies on Web Apps or object-oriented architecture.

Advantage: Acumatica

Acumatica charges by computing resources used, not by user. This gives you control and easy understanding of your true costs—which increase at maximum 3 percent a year.

With legacy ERP vendors, you’re paying for licenses. Though those costs are long passed, it’s likely that you’re still paying for support and maintenance, custom coding on older editions, and a whole lot of ‘add-ons’, software that is necessary to your business but not exactly included in the core product.

Advantage: Acumatica