Sage News and Discussion

An interesting view at what *could* eventually be coming to Sage 100 -- as well as become some type of common UI for the Sage 100 --> 300 --> 500 --> ERP X3. Now granted this would likely only cover UI -- it's a coat of paint -- because the underlying data and functionality (as well as data entry screens) would still be different. But it's a start.

MYOB Invented this back in 1991 and it was great. So good that Timeslips copied it later and admitted getting the idea from Timeslips. I saw this on X3 and thought about a smoke and mirrors way to do this with epicor. You can launch any epicor screen with a command line statement so I created a Powerpoint flow chart, and then put a url behind each function that launched a batch file that launched the appropriate screen. Then saved the powerpoint as an HTML page. Epicor (and MAS90) allows you to show an HTML page in the launcher and thus created this affect. The downside is I found no way to prevent IE (which is the only browser architecture that renders in the Epicor desktop as I have no control over that) forces you to click OK because of the normal security settings that prevent a user from clicking on something on a web page that runs a program locally (you might understand why that might be :) ) but there seems to be no security override to get around such a potentially dangerous function. I don't think it would do much for existing users who know what they want to launch, and those who know how to use the search feature on the launcher to quickly launch their app. But for new prospect demos (not many of those lately) it goes a long way on Ease of Use claims.

I agree - this is mostly a coat of paint. But it will probably demo slickly. And it's certainly going to look nice in the brochure that shows people ""how much alike"" Sage 100, 300, 500 and ERP X3 are. I am guessing that Sage figures their upgrade path is from 100/300/500 to ERP X3 and while interim migrations ( 100 --> 300 --> 500) *might* happen - they're probably not all that common. And if you're Sage -- who arguably has too many products -- your money shot is in getting the migration of your 100/300/500 smooth so that in a worst case you can push people right into ERP X3. My over-riding problem with this is deja vu. Didn't we already have this game plan about 5 or 6 years ago? Only at the time the migration was MAS 90 -> MAS 500. That didn't work out all that well primarily because I think Sage lost interest and the 500 product line ultimately didn't have all the functionality of MAS90. You can't sell a customer an 'upgrade"" to a product that does less.... Well actually you can - but you won't retain the customer (which I'm sure Sage learned on a few migrations). Anyway - here's my .02 http://community.90minds.com/2012/06/09/sage-visual-processes-could-speed-sage-erpx3-migrations/#more-1949

Mark, that's an interesting approach. Are you familiar with Tasmap.com? It is designed to let you produce processes which are visual, but also actually do something. You might have the flexibility you need there.

Wayne, I hope this is just more than some visual representation of what we already have. At the least I hope that it would let processes get passed/routed between users in the next step. Offer good handle points to fire alerts from. Having this anchored at the X3 level, where some process-oriented users actually exist, could be good. There is another cross-platform technology that could be very interesting over the next 5 yrs: sData. But I still wish they'd make some basic improvements in ease of use. One biggy: fire an alarm of some sort when a user tries to post a batch that has document dates that are not the same period/yr as the period it is posting to.

@JerryNorman It might give the impression that it's 'workflow' but its not. It's merely icons with arrows instead of tree menus to launch programs.

Aside from the visual, what is so different of this from the My Task panel in MAS 90/200. Create a ""workflow"" folder there for your common daily/weekly/monthly tasks. Sure it ain't purty, it accomplishes the same goal. Many of my clients do this currently.

Nobody ever said this is actually useful or helpful. Just that it looks good in a demo :) Like BIE

I believe based only on what I read in Stephen Smith's post - that this Visual Process is basically a visual menu that can be setup in one program and exported to another. I do not think it goes any deeper than that. As Mark say's -- this is going to demo nicely, be used in a lot of very high level (menu shots only) brochures to tout the upgrade migration capabilities of Sage products. Don't forget - Sage thinks in one or two year timeframes (typically high level exec tenure). They're not all that concerned about long term.

Clearly, Pascal and Langner are thinking short term. It's not as clear to me on the tech side. The elements Kaas & Co. have been building in don't look obviously short term to me. The first customer views of them are toys, but the tech plans on them don't seem to dead end. Web services, sData are two. Whether this is only eye candy, we'll see.

Perhaps @JerryNorman but I always come back to -- if something amazing (technology wise) were going to happen -- why hasn't it by now ?

Because they don't spend enough money on the development to make it happen faster. sData is here on the CRM side, but Irvine missed its commitment to it by 2 years. Web services hooks are used in connected services and the new way to interface to eCommerce, but again, not enough $$ to enable the final development to Sage 100 browser interface. My point is that the tech I generally see have decent roots; they're not created to be simply demo candy.

But I think for the most part B to C ecommerce is dying too. Before you react and say WTF are you talking about, what percent of your online purchases do you make that aren't through Amazon, ebay, and possibly a few other 'massive' brands like groupon, or some large retailer with an online presence? All an ecommerce solution needs to be now, is gateway to posting to Amazon and Ebay. Very few people have their own web stores found anymore. Amazon has so consolidated the ecommerce business due to their clearly superior service experience that its almost impossible to resist them as your primary sales outlet and pay them their 'toll' to be part of their system.

Agreed. I think you really mean self-hosted B 2 C.

Mark, there is a lot to that observation. Coincidentally, I recently attended a webinar from insitesoft.com focused on how a company competes in a world of AmazonSupply. They are worth a look.

The first thing I thought when I saw that workflow thingy was ""oh, look, like Quickbooks.