90 Minds Community

I have two clients using it, each for five + years.  They are still using the product.  I don't have any hands-on experience with it as DocLink handled the entire process.  As you probably know, expect to spend $$$$'s.

Without knowing the clients goal, perhaps the DSD Instadocs enhancement will work at a lower cost.

I have two clients using it, each for five + years.  They are still using the product.  I don't have any hands-on experience with it as DocLink handled the entire process.  As you probably know, expect to spend $$$$'s.

I have a client using Altec DocLink. IMO, the product fits into complex environments where the user has  (a) the budgets and (b) some unique requests that can be solved my modifying the core Altec DocLink product. Upgrades are all done through DocLink and they quote these separately to the client and largely perform everything on their own.

TLDR: If the customer doesn't have enough pain - 98% aren't going to buy this or any ISV solution - what's the pain for the customer?

Test the client for budget. If you can't get anyone to give a starts at pricing idea my pitch to my customer would be - I expect you to get a quote that's closer to $20,000 than $2,000. Should we keep looking at this? ( Yes, I'm aware there are probably starter editions but my experience is that someone who needs "starter" probably doesn't need a larger scale document management).

Personally - and I'm largely feeling as if I'm alone in this thinking - I'm tiring of enhancements where upgrades require a quote and a project in addition to the upgrade of Sage 100. If our Sage 100 customers cannot upgrade on some type of regular schedule (two years seems about right to me) then I think those customers are ultimately in danger of switching to another product that does offer that capability --- especially since customers are seeing recurring 10% annual fee increases and starting to question what they are getting for that beyond the boilerplate justifications they get from their account rep.


As consultants one of our questions should be what the upgrade process is for each year. Is the solution one that requires a project manager and a quote ot upgrade or is it just a synch tool that sits on the server that the VAR installs? 

Just my .02 and your mileage may vary ...

PS - As Jerry notes - I've had customers use Beanworks/Quadient and they love it ( not sure if it's awesome for purchase orders ). And as I recall Quadient does some type of document management by capturing the incoming invoices. Zero VAR effort to upgrade as it's all just a sync tool on your server and does not modify any Sage 100 code that I've seen ( if this has changed someone will let me know in 3-2-1 .... )

I'm with Wayne. Put differently, if the customer is not willing to go through a decent value analysis, most of these "enhancement" interests will die on the vine. Oh, and the time you spent on them will be both wasted and unvalued.

None of these enhancements are cheap. And they require employees to change. THAT's a lot of built in resistance. The customer has to be clear with themselves where the financial payoff will come. The reality is that this process takes significant selling effort on the partner's part -- if the ISV alone is successful you can bet your sweet bippy that the customer was promised something they won't get without your help -- which at that point they wont want to pay for. 

How hard is it to interview 2 other vendors, being frank with them that the competition is Doclink? If customers don't want to do that a minimum, cut your losses early.

I have a client using Altec DocLink. IMO, the product fits into complex environments where the user has  (a) the budgets and (b) some unique requests that can be solved my modifying the core Altec DocLink product. Upgrades are all done through DocLink and they quote these separately to the client and largely perform everything on their own.

TLDR: If the customer doesn't have enough pain - 98% aren't going to buy this or any ISV solution - what's the pain for the customer?

Test the client for budget. If you can't get anyone to give a starts at pricing idea my pitch to my customer would be - I expect you to get a quote that's closer to $20,000 than $2,000. Should we keep looking at this? ( Yes, I'm aware there are probably starter editions but my experience is that someone who needs "starter" probably doesn't need a larger scale document management).

Personally - and I'm largely feeling as if I'm alone in this thinking - I'm tiring of enhancements where upgrades require a quote and a project in addition to the upgrade of Sage 100. If our Sage 100 customers cannot upgrade on some type of regular schedule (two years seems about right to me) then I think those customers are ultimately in danger of switching to another product that does offer that capability --- especially since customers are seeing recurring 10% annual fee increases and starting to question what they are getting for that beyond the boilerplate justifications they get from their account rep.


As consultants one of our questions should be what the upgrade process is for each year. Is the solution one that requires a project manager and a quote ot upgrade or is it just a synch tool that sits on the server that the VAR installs? 

Just my .02 and your mileage may vary ...

PS - As Jerry notes - I've had customers use Beanworks/Quadient and they love it ( not sure if it's awesome for purchase orders ). And as I recall Quadient does some type of document management by capturing the incoming invoices. Zero VAR effort to upgrade as it's all just a sync tool on your server and does not modify any Sage 100 code that I've seen ( if this has changed someone will let me know in 3-2-1 .... )

I have a client using Altec DocLink. IMO, the product fits into complex environments where the user has  (a) the budgets and (b) some unique requests that can be solved my modifying the core Altec DocLink product. Upgrades are all done through DocLink and they quote these separately to the client and largely perform everything on their own.

TLDR: If the customer doesn't have enough pain - 98% aren't going to buy this or any ISV solution - what's the pain for the customer?

Test the client for budget. If you can't get anyone to give a starts at pricing idea my pitch to my customer would be - I expect you to get a quote that's closer to $20,000 than $2,000. Should we keep looking at this? ( Yes, I'm aware there are probably starter editions but my experience is that someone who needs "starter" probably doesn't need a larger scale document management).

Personally - and I'm largely feeling as if I'm alone in this thinking - I'm tiring of enhancements where upgrades require a quote and a project in addition to the upgrade of Sage 100. If our Sage 100 customers cannot upgrade on some type of regular schedule (two years seems about right to me) then I think those customers are ultimately in danger of switching to another product that does offer that capability --- especially since customers are seeing recurring 10% annual fee increases and starting to question what they are getting for that beyond the boilerplate justifications they get from their account rep.


As consultants one of our questions should be what the upgrade process is for each year. Is the solution one that requires a project manager and a quote ot upgrade or is it just a synch tool that sits on the server that the VAR installs? 

Just my .02 and your mileage may vary ...

PS - As Jerry notes - I've had customers use Beanworks/Quadient and they love it ( not sure if it's awesome for purchase orders ). And as I recall Quadient does some type of document management by capturing the incoming invoices. Zero VAR effort to upgrade as it's all just a sync tool on your server and does not modify any Sage 100 code that I've seen ( if this has changed someone will let me know in 3-2-1 .... )