Sage 100

Posted by Lori Maloof on LinkedIn: I wanted to let everyone know we hit a slight snag in our auto delivery processes. This is the first time with our new system and we want to make 100% that the keys are correct. We are conducting additional testing today and plan on running the auto delivery process close of business tonight. I will keep everyone updated on our process.

What is this ""Auto Delivery"" ? Is Sage using a new way to push the downloads out to customers? Or is this just a fancy term for broadcast email?

I left Lori a message on VM and also this message on LinkedIn where she talked about the delay: Lori can you elaborate on the auto delivery process? I think in the past year we had to retrieve the Sage download from a URL and it came down as an ISO which we could then burn to a DVD (we created a set of installable files which we stored in Dropbox). Is this procedure going to change for the Sage 100 ERP 2013 release and if so how? Also when you mention keys being correct - does this imply that new keys will be required for all Sage 100 2013 ERP customers in order to install the upgrade and that the keys presently used won't work?

It is all part of the 2013 enhancements. There will now be a pop up icon in your server tray that will inform you that there are updates availalbe to install (a la MSFT bug notifications).

Yes, that's Sage Advisor, however users on versions prior to 2013 won't have those notifications - I'm curious if there's a different procedure that she is referring to or if it's the same download an ISO and burn to DVD or convert to executables procedure from last year.

I believe that part is not changing. Everyone will get an e-mail saying come and get it, we aren't sending any DVD. I'll do what I did last year, burn the download to an installable DVD and send it my clients with a BLS label on it. Sage will be a lot smaller font!. My out of pocket cost will be about $3 per DVD, not counting my time. I think the value added will be a lot more.

Just off the phone with Lori Maloof -- Sage is changing the way they deliver from the ISO to an EXE which means that we should not have to go through any gyrations of converting to an EXE for those of us who install the disk to the customer server. Sage is also going with 100% email notification that the upgrade is available versus last year when they did a mailing and email. Also there is not an effort to expire the old registration keys. In theory the keys that a customer has on their current Sage 100 ERP should power their Sage 100 ERP 2013 upgrade -- however Sage is recommending logging into the portal and obtaining the new keys with new customer number and using those for the upgrade. There is some feeling that part of the registration key issue is around use of old customer numbers in prior upgrades versus obtaining new keys with the new Sage customer number etc. I asked if Sage plans to have expiring unlock/registration keys. I think that is something Sage would very much like to do but they are studying how to implement that consistently across all of Sage. As of now the keys don't expire for Sage 100 ERP. If it were me I think I'd give thought to requiring a new serial number for each upgrade since the customer arguably paid for a license for the earlier version(s). At least this way they could stop customers from canceling maintenance and continuing to obtain the upgrades and install them with their prior keys.

Langner said that they were exploring expiring keys when they made the big announcement about subscription pricing being release back in March. It was in the Q&A after the conference call when he came over to the academies where Peter Wolf and I were.

Not to be too snarky here ... but let's all welcome the Sage 100 ERP (MAS) world to the early 2000s.

I'm totally on board with expiring keys - I think at the least Sage should re-issue keys annually. And, yeah, that probably presents problems for customers on older versions who suddenly need to reinstall.