Sage 100

Discussion of the two ways to integrate Sage CRM to Sage 100/300

Glad to see that they are publishing some ""heavy duty"" how to guides....... Was this intended to clarify how ""cloud"" integrates?

Did anyone else attend the Webinar Today? What exactly is the purpose of this new Sage CRM SaaS Solution, integrated to Sage (100 or 300) ERP? What profit is a VAR going to make on a $ 299/setup and $45/user/month fee? What services are there for a VAR to offer? Attached are the screen shots from the presentation.

Didn't attend, thank you @MadelineStefanou for sharing the screen shots. It looks like Sage hasn't had enough resellers re-cert or certify on CRM so now they can bypass the reseller implementation process on premise and also take over support (page 8) via 'in product live chat'. Limited ERP (one-way) integration also cuts down on customer's expectations. Oh and I don't think Sage intended for VARs to make a profit on this.

I think the entire problem with Sage CRM is that it requires ERP consultants to learn an entirely different product line. That's not the bad part. The bad part is you have to learn a whole set of rules about installing a new product with patches and incompatible DLL files all their own. I don't want to get bogged down in break-fix land of Sage CRM and I think that's what has largely been happening and stopped the progress of Sage CRM to Sage ERP. So Sage have struggled mightily to get a cloud version of Sage CRM where their ERP consultants don't have to be technicians on installing/maintaining Sage CRM as well. Unfortunately in the process some functionality was carved out.

What about all the other products? SI? SIA? They all require a skill set you either pick up (I know, easier said than done) or work with someone who knows it. We have a CRM group in here because it was included with EES (and Peter is a member, of course). Many of us have end users who've implemented it, either on our own or through others. I see Sage doing the same with CRM that they've been doing with both SI and SIA. They are gung-ho to bypass us one way or another.

The problem with bypassing (or ignoring) us is that these ""specialists"" ONLY know their specialty. They DON'T know Sage 100 so when the interface breaks or they interface it incorrectly, there are now TWO systems that aren't working and they both have the SAME name (Sage) which the end user has been conditioned due to branding (great job Pascal wherever you are now) to expect that the two work together flawlessly (same name right?). They don't so Sage takes it on the chin ...... again. The user is too embedded to switch but they sure can tell all of their friends that Sage is crappy software (just a bad interface) which will keep the word of mouth buzz negatively. I was ASTOUNDED to find out the other day that NO one at Sage Inventory Advisor has EVER reached out to Synergistics (Job Ops) to determine the ins and outs of the JO tables. They ""were able to figure it out themselves"". Long story short, client was tired of training the SIA folks on how JO ran, the SIA information was faulty and client is dropping after six months. What a great way to build an interface.