General Consultant Discussion

Does anyone actually use Visual Process Flows? I feel like its something that maybe demos well with prospects but in reality does any customers ever actually use them?

I have a couple of users that do, but they are new to Sage 100.

I mention it during training sessions. and the feedback is that's great. Then when they go to look at it, they say that's cute. And that's it. Never to be looked at again! Great sales tool, but not used in practice.

I don't mention it because I consider it one of those abandoned features that are ""one and done"". Very similar to BIE which is great but as soon as the customer wants to do something non-standard you hit a brick wall.

I think it is useful for users coming from quickbooks In the standard interface it is better because the process is shown at all times on the menus. With that said I have seen it used but not very often.

I love BI Explorer Views @WayneSchulz - plus if you ever have a user who ""hits a brick wall"" with one, let me know. I can modify them. I don't think a lot of people know we do have the ability to add additional tables to those.

A gimmick to make QB migration sale. Never show it. Never recommend it. Never use it. If it had value, they might improve it. Another one and done.

@NicoleRonchetti Great idea for a 90Minds MOTM session!!!! We will be in touch ( @MoiraGoggin @KateKrueger @MichelleTaylor1 )

Although we do not have anyone that uses it and I rarely show it, I feel we should be stressing it and users should use it. Another feature that users forget about, but I mention constantly, is the functionality of the ALE. These are all seemingly small things that when added together may contribute to improved user efficiency.

I have a user who has setup a bunch of them for the sales groups. They have remote stores and I think they all run from the view instead of the menu for all functions. They have notes and links to other resources as the user goes through their daily process.

I wanted to use VPF for a custom process we deploy (Canadian EFT), to make things easier on users, but ran into a brick wall when I tried to find a way to link to external programs (script, batch file, 3rd party program...).

I think a lot of these sorts of things that sage adds like BIE Explorer & Dashboard and the VPFs are really a good idea in concept but they seem to just fall short. I do think this would make a great MoTM session. Maybe we could even get someone from Sage to attend too. Maybe someone from development whos capable of making changes and knowing whats feasible. I think if they just improved these things a little bit more - made them a little bit more flexible - they would really be awesome things for the clients to use.

What seems to happen with these tools is that they're developed, released, and forgotten. Where if someone would make adjustments and improvements to them from time to time, they'd get used more.

Classic Sage ADD.

It's difficult to support something when the group that was behind it leaves (or is asked to leave).

Here's a previous thread in case there's some addt'l info you can leverage https://90minds-com.socialcast.com/messages/34399484?ref=stream

Heck who knows maybe 90minds can find a way to make it useful and relevant.

This is a good overview and helps get you started. Available from SageU.