Sage 100

Does anyone have thoughts on the future plans for Sage's 500 application? It seems to me that they are no longer actively promoting the product and in many cases is not seen referenced in the product family - particularly when X3 is listed. I have a little but growing concern over recommending Sage 500 as the right 'Sage' solution and I know that before I left Sage Support that X3 ""was having challenges adapting to the American culture and the analysts were having difficulty in understanding the cultural differences and overcoming them was taking a long time"". Where the changes made to support the product enough to see it as a staple or sustainable product or is the direction still to see it phased out in the next 5 - 10 years, replaced with X3?

Is there any firm future plans for 500? First it is dead, then alive, then in a coma. They DID send Linda Cade out to the Inspire get together in DC on Tuesday, tut they didn't send anyone to answer questions at the SageU/Sage City table.....

I think the answer to this may lie in the new Sage UK CEO. After all it is Sage UK who is setting the direction for the company and not North America. Overall I'm not sure how much greater a hint Sage could give that Sage 100, 500 and perhaps 300 are on their way to pasture. Simply log into MySageSell and look at the current events scheduled for each and you'll get an idea of where Sage is placing their bets. It's unlikely Sage will throw money away on any of their products. They will probably study the likelihood that any of their ERP solutions would upgrade to X3. Once they feel they have farmed the low hanging fruit then I would not be surprised if they begin offloading products similar to how they sold Saleslogix, Act, non-profits. I would say 98% of Sage North America employees are likely not ""in the know"" and are purely speculating about the product future.

Well 2 years ago the support analysts were having a hard time understanding the code and it was taking some time to get any fixes out on the reporting issues. Has anyone seen statistical reports on X3? YTD and PTS stuff like support cases opened, cases that are program related, How many days to release the fix on confirmed bugs. I'd like to actively promote X3 if it's ready for this fast paced, I'm your most important customer, I need it yesterday businesses here in the grand USA; but need to see some numbers

It's tough to see a future for 500, which is written in a language that is no longer supported. Rewriting in something else would be hugely expensive, and it's hard to see how that investment would not pay off more and faster if applied to X3 functionality. IMO opinion we will not get any direct guidance on this, because I doubt UK wants to repeat its boneheaded replay of announcing that they were selling off a product before they had a buyer in hand. I don't know where 100 will be in 10 yrs, but I suspect that Sage will attempt to up its game a bit for enhancements there, so that it can keep its M&S flow going as long as possible. As a partner, it means we really should be making the effort to help our customers understand the financial costs and benefits of staying or leaving, and if leaving, then understanding why and when.