North America Analyst Summit Coverage

What can Unit4's strategy tell us about the direction of cloud ERP (and enterprise AI?)

In this insightful podcast, Jon Reed and Brian Sommer delve into Unit4's strategic approach to cloud ERP and enterprise AI. Recorded after an engaging session with Unit4's leadership, they discuss the company's "self-driving" ERP concept, its focus on service industries, and the broader implications for cloud ERP and AI in the enterprise sector. The conversation also touches on Unit4's end-of-maintenance policies and our unique handling of AI integration.

I think they're gonna be a fun company to watch.

Jon Reed, Diginomica

I liked how Unit4 really emphasized the human side of collaboration as part of their so-called ‘self-driving ERP’

Jon Reed, Diginomica

This meeting was a different kind of Unit4 meeting than so many of them I attended in the past, and it was a good meeting. It really was.

Brian Sommer, TechVentive

Driving Accountability and Success: Unit4’s Subscription Model and Unified Customer Approach

This post-summit article from 3Sixty Insights explores how subscription-based models in the software industry enhance vendor accountability and customer satisfaction. The piece reflects on insights shared during Unit4's recent analyst summit, highlighting our holistic approach to customer success. It emphasizes Unit4's unified team structure and outcomes-based strategies that ensure a seamless and value-driven customer journey.

Unlike most organizations where customer-facing teams such as support, consulting, and education operate in silos, Unit4 has centralized these functions under one unified team with a single leader and shared KPIs.

Unit4 ensures a cohesive approach where every touchpoint is managed within a streamlined framework

Nick Byron, 3sixty Insights

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Unit4 CEO Ettling outlines self-driving ERP strategy that operates in background

In this insightful article, Constellation Research delves into Unit4's innovative strategy to revolutionize enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. CEO Mike Ettling articulates a vision where ERP operates unobtrusively, integrating automated workflows across multiple applications. This approach aims to enhance user experience by allowing employees to engage with familiar tools like Microsoft Teams or Slack, eliminating the need to directly interact with traditional ERP interfaces.

Ettling said: “Today, we are on ERPx, and tomorrow we're chasing this vision of self-driving ERP. We think this is going to become more and more prevalent. My Holy Grail of self-driving ERP is that you buy my ERP and nobody in the organization ever logs into it. Your access is through Microsoft Teams, Slack or through whatever. No one wakes up in the morning and logs in to the ERP to do ERP work.”

This Unit4 strategy could be ahead of its time. As generative AI becomes the new UI for enterprise software, many of the SaaS applications you log into will fade to the background. With copilots and agentic AI, the concept of headless enterprise applications is going to be more prevalent.

Larry Dignan, Constellation Research

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Analyst Insights: Matthew Merker Reflects on Engaging with Unit4's Team

In a recent LinkedIn post, Matthew Merker, a seasoned analyst at The Hackett Group, shared his positive experience connecting with the Unit4 team. He highlighted the team's dedication to innovation and their commitment to delivering value to customers. Merker's reflections underscore the importance of strong vendor-analyst relationships in driving industry advancements.

As AI is the buzzword everyone talks about non-stop, Unit4's take of “pragmatism” in AI development was refreshing, focusing on developing its AI in a thoughtful way for specific use cases that resonate with their ICPs.

Within HCM, the upcoming release of Payroll Navigator will provide HR professionals with a great tool for payroll management built directly into the flow of work, utilizing machine learning to speed what are usually tedious processes.

Unit4 has evolved their customer success program, providing a service package approach that gives their clients extensive control of their success journey in partnership with the vendor.

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Analyst Alan Neal Post on Unit4's Analyst Summit

In a recent LinkedIn post, Alan Neal, Division President at Info-Tech, shared his positive experience attending Unit4's Analyst Summit. He highlighted the company's innovative strategies and commitment to customer success, noting the valuable insights gained during the event. Neal's reflections underscore the importance of such engagements in understanding industry advancements and vendor approaches.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend Unit4’s Analyst Summit. In my role, I don’t always get to be part of these conversations, but it was refreshing and great to be on the ground, learning more about Unit 4’s strategic vision for the coming year, and some of the great work they are doing around focusing on the customer experience.

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Steve Goldberg's Post on Unit4's Analyst Summit

In his LinkedIn post, Stuart Goldberg shared his enthusiasm for reconnecting with Mike Ettling and Unit4's senior leadership team during the Analyst Summit. He highlighted the culture of candor at Unit4, where market opportunities and risks are openly discussed. Goldberg praised the strong leadership of Mike Ettling, noting how the CEO's vision has shaped Unit4’s culture, go-to-market strategies, and customer-centric approach.

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Insights from Unit4's Analyst Summit: Bonnie Tinder's Perspective

In a recent LinkedIn post, Bonnie Tinder, CEO and Founder of Raven Intelligence, shared her positive experience attending Unit4's Analyst Summit. She highlighted the company's innovative strategies and commitment to customer success, noting the valuable insights gained during the event. Bonnies's reflections underscore the importance of such engagements in understanding industry advancements and vendor approaches.

With intentional focus on their ICP (ideal customer profile) and a professional services program that can support migrations they are poised for growth in 2025.

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Unit4 North American Analyst Summit: An Outcomes-Focused Approach to Innovating ERP

This post-summit article from The Hackett Group highlights the innovative strides Unit4 is making in the ERP space, as discussed during its recent North American Analyst Summit. The piece underscores Unit4's customer-centric approach, driven by its cloud-first transformation and outcomes-focused strategies. It reflects on Unit4's deliberate innovation in AI and the evolution of its ERPx platform, which provides industry-specialized, highly flexible solutions tailored to midmarket needs. Additionally, the article commends Unit4's Success4U program, a subscription-based model that ensures seamless, scalable, and value-driven customer journeys. The summit emphasized Unit4's unified team structure and its four strategic pillars, which collectively ensure a pragmatic yet visionary path toward long-term customer satisfaction and growth.

Unit4’s pragmatic approach to AI development is a refreshing take on innovation, targeting evolution of products to align directly with customer needs.

Overall, customers are responding positively to the strategy, reassured by the efforts of Unit4 to act as a strategic partner with them on their journey to the cloud

ERPx provides highly specific user experiences and greater flexibility than its earlier iterations.

Matt Merker, The Hackett Group

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Unit4 Strikes Back After Rightsizing for Cloud ERP Growth

This article from Apps Run The World discusses Unit4's strategic transformation towards cloud ERP solutions. It highlights the company's focus on four key verticals—Public Sector, Higher Education, Professional Services, and Nonprofit—and its commitment to leveraging AI assistants to automate tasks. The piece also emphasizes Unit4's investment in partner ecosystems and outcome-based customer success through streamlined service delivery. Additionally, it notes the launch of the Success4U program, which introduces service packages aimed at reducing implementation costs and enhancing customer satisfaction.

Unit4 launched the Success4U program in 2023 by introducing a series of templates, service packages from cloud migration to managed services, all working in concert to bring down implementation costs and boosting customer satisfaction.

By focusing on four strategic verticals – Public Sector, Higher Education, Professional Services and Nonprofit, Unit4 is firing up its user-centric strategy by leveraging AI assistants to automate tasks, while investing heavily in partner ecosystem and outcome-based customer successes through simple and repeatable service delivery.

Albert Pang, Apps Run the World

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AI-Powered Self-Driving Enterprise Systems

This post-summit article from Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) explores the evolving landscape of AI-powered, self-driving ERP systems, tying into Unit4's innovative approach to ERP evolution. It highlights the challenges of achieving full autonomy in ERP systems, noting the balance between technological advancements and the necessity for human oversight. The piece underscores the promise of automation in areas like supply chain and resource planning, aligning with Unit4’s roadmap for AI-driven innovations such as the next generation of its AVA virtual assistant and its pragmatic approach to AI integration.

Unit4’s philosophy on AI integrates it as an integral part of the ERP UX, moving beyond mere marketing gimmicks. […] Unit4 AVA has evolved to become more agentic and autonomous, capable of streamlining workflows, reducing human cognitive load, and integrating across ecosystems.

Looking ahead, Unit4’s Smart Automation Services are set to focus on several key objectives, such as reducing the time to process bank statements, decreasing payroll errors, enhancing the accuracy of receipt recognition, and cutting down on manual invoice processing times.

Predrag Jakovljevic, TEC

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