Erica Burles, Equation Technologies Inc. Founder and President: ‘We Guarantee a Successful ERP Implementation’

“When we listen to our customers and serve their needs through their lens, the quality of our products and services go up and in turn, our success.”

As your business grows there will come a point whereby a decision will have to be made about the software systems you currently use. The lack of integration between different software can cause inefficiency and lead to a plateau effect to your business growth. Bottom line: consolidating your separate systems into a fully integrated platform has many advantages.

In light of the foregoing, we’re thrilled to present Equation Technologies Inc.

Equation Technologies provides business management solutions for mid-sized companies by making carefully crafted recommendations from among the industry's best-performing ERP software.

The company was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

Erica Burles, Equation Technologies Founder and President, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Q. Why was the company set up? And how did you expand your company and its offerings over the years?

Equation Technologies was created when technology was changing and companies were migrating from their outdated legacy systems. Technology has advanced so much since 2001 that our services have also changed to support additional ERP systems, develop integrations with other systems, software selection as well as work with many independent software vendors (ISVs) to offer solutions that best fit our clients’ needs. We offer solutions for all sizes and types of companies. These solutions include on-premise, SaaS (software as a service), as well as our own cloud hosting services.

Q. What challenges did you face in your initial years?

Growth can be a challenge, especially during the initial years. We made it a point to hire smart, with the long term in mind. Our team of consultants is made up of talented and experienced professionals. Through our outstanding team, we were able to focus on our existing and new customers during this phase of our company.

Q. How successful was your first project roll on? Share the experience.

Equation was very successful with its first project rollout. When I started Equation I had already completed many implementations so there wasn’t a learning curve that would have negatively impacted our clients. We were able to deliver the project on time and within budget. The clients were happy and we were encouraged by the positive feedback.

Q. What kind of mixed responses have you received from your consumers over the years? How have they motivated you to shape your offerings/grow the company?

The challenge comes when our customers sometimes want us to work in related areas that are not really our core expertise. We have expanded our service offerings when it made sense. In the cases where it didn’t, we looked for partners to assist our clients. This approach is how we shaped our offerings over the years, to make sure that we are best equipped to serve clients either with our own expertise or with a team of qualified partners.

Q. Is it true that striving for both ethics and success in a business is a tough feat?

Not really. In fact, ethics and success very much go together. When customers see that we have their best interests in mind, it builds immediate trust. Trust in turn builds success.

Q. A company’s behavior is as important as its economic performance or the quality of its products. How do you interpret this saying?

This comes back to the similar earlier question about ethics and success. When we listen to our customers and serve their needs through their lens, the quality of our products and services go up and in turn, our success.

Q. Trust is a difficult attribute to measure and a delicate dynamic to maintain. How do you maintain this with your employees?

Yes, as mentioned above, trust is an important part of our business, both with our customers and employees. I think trust can be measured by having open conversations together. High functioning teams occur when they trust and respect each other and we strive for this throughout our company.

Q. Is your company a leader or follower?

Our company and employees lead in their areas to help our customers. Our core values include a customer-first approach, leading in our core areas, and giving back to our clients in a meaningful way.

Q. What do you feel are the reasons behind your company’s reputation?

We give our clients options. There is never a single option when it comes to technology. Our job is to give our clients different options with different price-points and impact their organization and allow them to choose what works best for them.

Q. Where do you see your company a couple of years from now?

We envision continuing to serve our customers and organically grow through the process. Customer needs and our market technologies continue to evolve and we will continue to focus on matching how our customer needs can be best met with the right technologies.

Erica Burles: A Charismatic Leader

Erica Burles, Founder, serves as the President of Equation Technologies. She is a seasoned Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with deep domain experience in accounting, review, and tax services.

Erica’s combined accounting and business expertise enables her to streamline a company’s processes while implementing new business solutions that span the enterprise including systems to manage accounting front and back office, human capital management (HCM), and customer relationship management (CRM). She consistently leads her team to deliver implementations on time and on budget. Erica conducts a rigorous needs analysis and discovery to determine if there is a proper fit between the client, company, and the software package being considered. She is relentlessly honest and open with clients about the possibilities and limitations of each package. She then develops the optimal project plan and design before handing off to the consulting team. Her clients say she is “patient to a fault” and is constantly listening and tuned into their needs. Erica, they say, “...has become the standard by which we measure all other consultants we work with.”

The National Association of Professional Women (NAPW) honors Erica Burles as a 2016-2017 inductee into its VIP Woman of the Year Circle. She is recognized with this prestigious distinction for leadership in business and consulting services. Erica is also an active contributor to Huffington Post and has been featured as a guest speaker on Sage Advice Podcast.

Erica holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting.

“We know that one single approach is not the right one for all businesses. We use our vast education and business experiences to strengthen our relationships with our clients to focus on their specific needs.”