For over 40 years, Bradford has fabricated and installed some of the most beautiful pools and spas in the world. The company’s evolution—from one man’s backyard hot tub dream to a global aquatics provider—celebrates American ingenuity.
Bradford’s creations serve as centerpieces for some of the most renowned hotels, luxury residences, and premier commercial facilities around the globe.
Headquarters
Leland, NC
Industry
Precision Engineered Pools &
Spas
Solution
Acumatica ERP & Construction
Website
bradfordproducts.com
Bradford Products recently went live on Acumatica ERP, purchased from and implemented by Acumatica Gold Certified Partner, Aktion Associates.
Since 1982, Bradford has manufactured and installed stainless steel pools, spas, and water features in some of the most renowned facilities around the world. Peter Miller is Bradford’s Director of Operations. With Bradford Products for over 15 years, Peter has been responsible for and helped the company evolve from a “small shop mentality” into one that embraces technology to fuel growth and meet the demands of a sophisticated customer base.
In 2008, he introduced Bradford to ERP and led the implementation team for a system called Encompix. The system provided insight into all things manufacturing, but before go-live, the accounting department determined they’d keep the financial activities in QuickBooks. This created a big disconnect between the accounting department and the rest of the teams at Bradford. Peter remarked, “It got to a point that this (environment) just wasn’t sustainable.”
As a result, Bradford was looking for a complete ERP that integrated the financial activity (construction) and manufacturing. They needed a system that tracked financials, inventory, purchasing, job costing and labor more easily and completely.
Peter recognized the importance of having a team devoted specifically to selecting the best option to suit all of Bradford’s needs. Peter and his team evaluated leading ERP solutions and narrowed their choices to two: SAP and Acumatica. The team felt that Acumatica was just what they needed based upon the company’s size, complexity, and growth initiatives.
They selected Acumatica for its modern, comprehensive ERP features. There were many reasons Bradford thought Acumatica was the right fit for them. Acumatica won the Bradford group over with its user-friendly interface. Peter cited the freedom to select the modules that they needed was an attractive feature for them. “We liked that you could buy as much or as little as you wanted to fit our current business needs.”
They also liked the fact that Acumatica was being developed as a true-cloud solution. This meant that Bradford didn’t have the burden of maintaining servers and backing them up on a regular basis. Another appreciated factor was the regularly scheduled upgrade methodology that Acumatica adopts as well as the option to always be current on the newest release.
Peter knew that ERP implementations were complex and challenging, but the Aktion team was there to help guide, inform and support them. Aktion’s Lean Implementation process contains specific steps that are designed to ensure a successful go-live. To that end, weekly meetings between Bradford and Aktion implementation teams were held to set milestones, convey timelines, and communicate expectations on both sides. One important aspect was to equip Aktion’s team with a good understanding of the workflows inherent to the Bradford processes and overall business.
Peter and his team continue to learn more about Acumatica functionality. They’re active in Acumatica user communities and have found this additional support to be helpful. Peter is looking forward to having their business functions conducted under one platform that provides real-time visibility into the health of their operations
If you’re wondering what kind of impact a modern, cloud‑based ERP could have on your organization, Aktion brings the industry expertise, honest guidance, and technical depth to help you get there.
We don’t just implement software — we help you build the operational backbone that supports your next stage of growth.
Aktion Customer Success and Insights Team—industry specialists who partner with customers to document the outcomes of successful implementations and the stories behind them.
