Sage 100

Does anyone besides me realize that Sage 100c Manufacturing is a whole bunch of nothing? Partners must certified for Sage 100c Manufacturing (by JobOps/Synergistic): oOrder form now asks if Partner is certified for 100c Manufacturing. oPartners who are NOT certified must use the referral program and will earn a referral bonus on 100c Mfg (ongoing margin will be paid to the Mfg certified Partner) oPartners who are NOT certified may not order subscription with Monthly payments (due to manual adjustments required to remove monthly margin on 100c Mfg and transfer it to the Certified Partner)

As opposed to other valuable Sage programs?

@MarkKotyla - touche! Or LOL. Or both.

I'm going to take a step back and look at this from 10,000 feet. In general, I think anything as complex as Job Ops should require a certification. This is definitely not a product where knowledge can be learned as you go. The worst thing that could happen is you sell one complex Job Ops deal and struggle to support it. To further prove this take a look at what happened in many MAS500 deals where Sage reportedly allowed partners to sell before they were certified. What that produced was a lot of 1 or 2 deal partners who then struggled to support the user. I think the referral compensation within Sage is essentially one step above letting the customer go find their own solution and buy direct. For the most part, the referral fee is not enough to compensate you for the true value of the recurring nature of a new customer. Referrals in general, are a broken area within the VAR community and I have low/no expectation that will ever change. IMO the only reason to look for a referral fee is that it's better than nothing. The fee you'll get from referring will not in most cases pay your light bill. (Note: When I talk about fee I mean predictable and recurring commissions not the lucky one or two sales you may have made that paid you $x,xxx.xx) So the question becomes do you want to do the work yourself -- become certified -- or do you refer. I always have looked at it as a question of whether I will do onesies and twosies of the product I'm considering becoming certified on or is there a reasonable likelihood I can make a living with a steady flow of new customers. For one or two sales referrals is the way to go. For recurring sales of a product/service then becoming certified is the way.

The ABC rule applies. Always Be Competent. If not, refer to specialists.

Currently you have to be certified to sell JO or work with a partner who is. It really doesn't sound like much has changed if JO is all the Sage Manufacturing is.

My point is that this is nothing (NOTHING!) new. Now you can get certified by JobOps/Synergistic and sell JobOps. Really? Wow.

Some people are fooled by a fresh coat of paint ...

There are other questions which might be more disturbing depending upon what the answers are: - Can Job Ops still be purchased for Sage 100 or do any new sales driven by Job Ops need to be 100c - The pricing of Job Ops on a per user vs per company basis might be cost prohibitive to all but those who are very serious users - Will JO as Endorsed result in faster upgrades? Better support? Overall, what exactly is a customers benefit to buying Job Ops as an Endorsed Solution vs ""the old way"". I see for *partners* it is better because they get tier. But what about the customer? I struggle to see any benefit unless there is going to be a material change in speed and quality of upgrades.

@JonParkinson - I totally agree. I don't think this announcement is anything new. I also question what customer benefit there is.

There is no real customer benefit, but when a product is on the Sage price list, customers tend to feel more comfortable about it. This has happened to me when talking about EDI. A current customer insisted on going with True Commerce because of its positioning with Sage, even though I gave them options. The value to both Sage 100 resellers and JobOps certified consultants is there will be the perception this is (more of) a native product from Sage as opposed to it being referred to as a ""bolt on"" product. This eliminates that objection to a large extent during the sales process. MRP was a purchased product with not a lot of changes, if any, but no one remembers that now.

Synergistic said in April that JobOps will remain available for Sage 100. The deal with 100c is for new customer stimulation and perhaps existing customer upgrades. The certification rules are unchanged. With all of JO now on Framework, upgrades have been pretty good about coming with 90 days of base release.

But I don't think Job Ops is available for 100 through Sage - only 100c. If you have a 100 deal I'm betting you have to go through Job Ops / Synergistic

Sorry, yes. non-100c orders work the same ""bolt on"" method as now. Same with the JO modules that are not included in the Sage price list.

It was my understanding that the only way to get JobOps if a customer is using Sage 100 is to upgrade to Sage 100c and get Sage Manufacturing. If a customer is primarily Field Service but also does traditional manufacturing, they are able to go through Synergistic to license Field Service that provides both functions. I may be wrong, but that was what I understood.

John - your info might be newer than mine.

Solution Providers have a ""grace period"" to license standard JobOps to a Sage 100 customer or prospect if the deal was in process. I am not sure how long that period lasts, because it has been a moving target based on the actual formal release date of Sage Manufacturing. It could be 9/30 or 12/31.

Of course, it's amazing how many ""deals in process"" were added to the pipeline!

I have confirmed that existing JobOps customers using Sage 100 prior to July 1 (the official release date for Sage Manufacturing) may continue to use the software under Sage 100. As of July 1, existing Sage 100 customers that add Sage Manufacturing will need to upgrade to 100c and new customers needing Sage Manufacturing may only do so under 100c licensing. Sage Manufacturing is not available under Sage 100. Exceptions include any deals in process, which probably go through either 9/30 or 12/31. Those, however, will be JobOps through Synergistic and under Sage 100.

We are only quoting 100c at this point anyway. It is a matter of time before Sage eliminates the other. You create confusion in the sales process and demoing is much better with 100c. I actually had a demo that specifically mentioned the interface being better than other products they reviewed that looked much more dated.