Sage News and Discussion

Anything else we should list here? Anything that isn't factually correct or needs more elaboration? Include it in comments below. I'm especially looking for feedback on the email portion of the upgrade because it's the area that I least understand.

Sorry Wayne, but using FRx extensively is the #1 reason NOT to upgrade...if it ain't broke, don't frak it up...

I agree - I would not blindly upgrade - but are we doing customers any favors by postponing this indefinitely? The FRx to xxx (whatever you recommend) transition is likely to be expensive and possibly time consuming. But what happens if we don't inform the customer of the possible issue and recommend upgrading and there's some MS service pack that just flat out breaks FRx? I think we have some duty to at least bring it to their attention and recommend that they begin making migration plans. Though I agree - I'd much prefer to just stay on FRx since it's still working beautifully. I just don't want to get into the hot seat. Thoughts?

Eventually, one or more of the alternatives will become mature products with a real system for converting FRx reports that doesn't cost the end user an arm and a leg just to keep the same functionality. And since financials are usually only run by one or two people in an organization, you can always keep a VM around of an older OS.

Sitting and waiting for everything to be just how we want it is what gets us into conflict with Sage. They are in the business to sell software. They are also in the business of keeping customers on maintenance. If we don't have similar goals, we will butt heads. It is important to help keep clients on current version so of the software. I have been using FRx since it was first introduced as it was the ONLY financial report writer for PFW back in the 90's. As such, I know my way around the tool pretty well and absolutely hate loosing it. However, I don't have a choice. Microsoft took it behind the shed and put it down. As such, we started moving customers to BizInsights early this year. It's not a perfect replacement to FRx but it works. I'm still not a huge fan of the tool from Sage but one day soon, I'm going to have to swallow that pill and learn it. it comes free and I am going to have to be able to demonstrate how to use it. Not moving forward and not aligning with the objectives of the business partner we chose to work with causes issues. I don't agree with everything Sage does; not even close. However, I CHOSE to sell and support THEIR products. They didn't choose me. As such, I need to meet them part way. As a firm, we have participated in most all of the programs that Sage has sponsored from Hire-Assist to Academies to leveraging channel resources. We carry multiple products including 100, 500, PFW, Abra, and FAS. We partner with other resellers on products we can't cover like SageCRM and SalesLogix. We promote most all products in the Sage line so we are in line with their current cross sell initiative. I don't want Sage pushing my accounts to other resellers because we can't or won't carry another product so we find ways to address the missing pieces and move forward. Sorry for the rant but we can't have our cake and eat it too. We have responsibilities in the partnership relationship with our publishers. We are quick to fuss about what they do that we don't like but what are we doing to help them? Yeah, we work hard to support our mutual customers with quality service. So? Isn't that what we have to do? If not, the customer will go somewhere else and we loose out. Are we doing that to help the publisher or help ourselves?

Boy, I think I might regret hitting Comment in the morning. Oh well, I got to be true to myself.

i agree with you @ShawnSlavin -- another thing to remember is once a customer drops maintenance they may remain with you for a few more years but generally those customers leave. So there is some incentive for us to keep the customer current. I'm a believer in giving the customer options and my opinion on those options. That's what they pay us for. If the customer chooses to wait and not upgrade I'm fine with that so long as they've considered the pros and cons. The more I look at the different considerations the more I'm convinced it's time for customers to start staying (reasonably) current.

I believe in giving customers options and my opinions of the options as well - I just find myself less and less likely to recommend they agree to be harvested. Too much of the software industry sees the path to profits as being ""keep the customer on the treadmill of this year's set of bugs"" without actually making the software more useful. And Sage has not done anything in years to earn one bit of loyalty from any of us.