Sage 100

So what earth shattering new announcements and 'road ahead' capabilities did you learn about at Summit?

I'm all ears too, if someone could enlighten all us worker-bees that could not attend, it would be most appreciated.

Start with this https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Sage-100-Road-Ahead-Session-3966744.S.5900125646448775168?view=&item=5900125646448775168&type=member&gid=3966744&trk=eml-group_discussion_new_comment-discussion-title-link&midToken=AQEsIekFDJ9VeA&fromEmail=fromEmail&ut=0OsGWjxq3UOCk1

So how did the follow up meting go? I think I could guess how that went but I have to ask.

I have the answer to that in the thread, as well.

sorry I was not seeing all the thread. I see that now.

Beth, I'm looking at the thread in chronological order. i don't see any 'post 3pm' meeting discussion unless your later post was after that meeting even though Doug talks about the upcoming meeting after your post.

BTW, I knew that this whole situation would exactly be the case and is the primary reason I didn't attend Summit (that and the fact I had to go to vegas 3x in the last 6 weeks for other conferences). I don't want to be mister negative, but this writing has been on the wall for years. If your business is based on 100 to service existing clients, and orphans, you'll be fine for some years. If you are eager to sell to new prospects....good luck.

Yes, my later post was after the meeting. And yes, the writing has been on the wall. This year they just put it in foot high letters so we couldn't miss it. I have a feeling there were some Sage folks taken aback by just how angry the mob was, though. (For some reason the mob scene in Young Frankenstein keeps coming to mind.) So, guess I'll be checking into becoming an X3 Certified Consultant.

First, I think @BethBowers summarized both #1 and #2 session perfectly. I walked out of #1 and stayed for #2 just because I couldn't look away... Then they had a #3 planning workshop. My additions to the above: Cannot dispute that this was a major (major) problem session(s) - especially when you factor in that customers were in the room. There is some precedent for crappy road ahead sessions (anyone remember Mike Morper?). Nice guy but he took a similar road trip away from talking about upcoming product features. At least these prior sessions weren't in front of customers. I'm not 100% ready to read the demise of Sage 100 due to a bad road ahead. I am however worried by other areas (see below) Some of the issue around the road ahead and light content were allegedly: a. Sage didn't decide to send additional key people until the last minute - so some Sage people didn't attend the first road ahead (Yeah I give this a 25% chance of being the major problem). b. According to Sage at least two potential announcements were still in limbo. If these announcements had been made I don't think they would have seriously changed the session outcome. My .02: - Sage still makes a ton of EASY money off the installed Sage 100 installed base - PR, WO, MRP are probably not going to framework. If getting to framework is material to your business - you should migrate away from Sage 100 ASAP (just don't pick Sage 500). There's an outside chance Sage could reverse course and sell WO and MRP to a third party master developer and let them upgrade those modules. - Sage's 3rd session ""Suggest the future of Sage 100 "" was actually the most troubling to me. In this session (Which I found to be good and helpful) Sage says 2015 is mostly done but ""they have some time (8 weeks +/-)"" to add features that are ""quick wins"" -- translation ""Holy crap we have (again) not added enough new features and we better slap some more quick features that don't require much work. - The product manage and focus of Sage have clearly not been paying close enough attention to Sage 100. With the exit of Erika and Eric I don't think they've adequately focussed on the Sage 100 line. - I don't have the slightest idea what's happening on the Sage Inspire tours where Sage claims to be talking to customers and partners. Are they talking to them about the weather? ? (Tip: This appears to be mostly a PR move by Sage and I question whether much occurs other than trying to gather cross-sell leads). - For Sage it appears to be easier to drive a bus across country than to upgrade their remaining modules to framework. - My WAG is that this session was 75% ineptness and 25% calculated inattention. Either way it totally backfired.

After the way Sage led so many along and happily collected millions and millions in maintenance for years without putting a fraction of that into R&D why reward them with your loyalty on X3? Personally, if you are going to learn something else, you should look at a range of possibilities, from mutliple publishers and treat X3 like any other one (or worse based on Sage's horrible track record). To go to X3 'just because it's sage' seems like that doesn't do anything for your business. You may decide in the end, that's the best solution with the best chances for your gaining work, but I'd just say keep your options open. I don't know, but is X3 a real contender in 5m to 20m wholesale distribution companies? If its focused on manufacturing (mostly process MTS) does your background and geography match that well?

And I don't think they will, but if Sage repeats their MAS500/Sage 300 path of deciding yet another 'shiny new toy' enters the room, what's to keep them from letting X3 die a slow death?

>>what's to keep them from letting X3 die a slow death? Mostly that X3 is a global initiative and for the past 3-5 years Sage NA has not been in charge of their high level strategic direction. They now taking marching orders from UK whereas when MAS 500 was birthed Sage NA was more of an autonomous business unit (which of course went out the window the second earnings began to lag for Sage).

But outside of x3 most of sages global products have rotted as well Thanks, Mark Chinsky Ensure your servers never go down. www.eversafe-backup.com Sent from my Verizon Galaxy S4

Okay I left Summit on Tuesday and missed the Road Ahead - I gather from @BethBowers comments that something big about Sage 100 was announced. Could someone please recap for those of us that missed it?

No, @MoiraGoggin - the big thing is that NOTHING was announced.

So was there even something stupid, like a check box to auto capitalize the first word in a company name or something or an update to the zip code city search file?

Perhaps new colors on the splash screen or a return of the bicycle riders (with a helmet this time) :)

The big thing is that Deborah Nelson - who is the new product manager - appeared in a 2 hour session which was broken into 2 - 1 hour parts. The first part she was alone with NO other Sage people taking a role in presenting. She didn't talk much about Sage 100 but mostly about the concept of customer satisfaction. There were probably 200-300 people in the room ( correct my # if anyone counted). About 15 minutes into the no content presentation people began streaming out. Word got back to Sage who then scheduled a followup session led by Doug LaBahn. This one wasn't much better with mostly Doug nodding and acknowledging issues. Then there was a third session which was separate from the road ahead and I think it dealt more with product planning. This one was pretty good but it dealt mostly with ides of quick things to put into 2015 which according to Sage is mostly done. People were pretty irritated because Sage 100 ERP Road Ahead is a flagship session that I think Draws people into the conference to learn about roadmaps and then share that learning with customers.

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s1/sh/9386cb82-146b-4f9b-866e-ff764ae361f5/91aa276e68e4077002ee2781a105f440

So basically, after a full 21% of maintenance for the last year, after the very few features added in 2014, what you got for 21% is the opportunity to ask for some tweaks for 2016? And since it's 'ranked' its not like you are getting this 'cornucopia' of enhancements, you might get 2 or 3 if they are feeling particularly generous. you know, features like 'bring sdata up to standards'...Isn't that the purpose of maintenance? Maybe they'll do us the favor and even come out with 2015 tax tables next year...

Oh got it now @BethBowers and @WayneSchulz - so dog and pony show without any dogs or ponies.

I was in the 2nd Road Ahead, and in the Disaster Recovery session; I missed the product planning. My take on this is that Product Management hasn't engaged on Sage 100 for at least a year. Debbie is, from other accounts, and excellent product researcher, but has NO business in front of customers. If her boss had been paying attention, he/she would have seen this in her Sage Inspire presentations. Regardless, her boss definitely (I hope!) did NOT check her planned presentation. Since she has no horse sense about what a Road Ahead session must be, she has no business planning or giving one. I also suspect that like most researchers, she is terrible at actually making tough choices so she probably has no business as a product manager. I really do understand what LeBahn & Co are trying to do by ""enhancing"" Sage 100 with the connected services. I think it's a good idea. HOWEVER they have completely forgotten the need to directly tie those (supposed) benefits to the annual maintenance. For example, it does not appear that you get any discount for subscribing to, say, Sage Sales (pretend it actually works with anything beyond CRE products); you must be on subscription first before you get to spend more money on them, so ... ""the optics"" are terrible. (the actual policy is too!) Sage brags about ~90% retention. But they forget that without refreshment, that results in losing 40% of the base in 5 years. And most similar cases show a slow drift from the product (say, ~10% per year), and then much faster drop after several years of inattention. I hope that this incident was an appropriate mule-kick to remind them that they must actively work to keep this cash cow from starving.

Jerry, what did they propose as a disaster recovery solution? Thanks, Mark Chinsky Ensure your servers never go down. www.eversafe-backup.com Sent from my Verizon Galaxy S4

Sarcasm, @MarkChinsky ... not literally a Disaster Recovery session.

Beth read me correctly.

Doh... I've got this stuff too much on my mind lol Thanks, Mark Chinsky Ensure your servers never go down. www.eversafe-backup.com Sent from my Verizon Galaxy S4

I was at Summit the entire week, but did not attend the Road Ahead session nor any sessions, and I accomplished a great deal. I have not attended Road Ahead sessions for many years, because I realized that what may be eventually released may not match what they told us. And I can read about it on-line. For those reasons, those sessions are a waste of time that I can use for more productive efforts. I also am not sure what the expectations were for this. I have never thought Sage would decide to convert WO, MRP, PR and JC and have moved on. If they did, it would take minimum two years before there would be results, and that would be for each module. Remember how many years between 4.00 and 4.40 releases. Instead they have been adding connected services which have been very helpful imo. And why would I even care at this point about those modules, since I always lead with JobOps for those functions. So beyond some announcement about the legacy modules or some replacement functionality, what big announcement was expected?

Road Ahead is a flagship session where many partners and customers attend to learn about new features so they can go back and tell customers what to expect. One verbatim quote from Sage 100 Road Ahead initial session (part 2) was ""there is no road map for Sage 100"" .

I think the best part of the original ""Road Ahead"" sessions was the incredibly high level of snark being bandied back and forth on the 90 Minds Google Hangout. Seriously, we either need to burn that thread or archive it for posterity. At the end of the 2nd hour long session Deborah displayed a 10 point slide that showed 3 items planned to be adopted in 2015. I've attached Jim's pic of the slide. Wayne's right, the session on the final day, entitled ""Influence the Design,"" was more about what Sage goes through collecting possible improvements and what we, as partners and end users, could do to influence the final 2015 product with ""Quick Wins."" The session broke into several groups and each group came up with 3 potential items that could be easily incorporated into 2015 without major coding. You'll be glad to know that two 90 Minders were able to lead a couple of the ""small group"" breakouts in this session. We have no way of knowing if any of the proposed ""Quick Wins"" will actually be in the final product but Sage made it look like ""they were listening."" I participated in this type of session before and have seen some of the quick wins incorporated. But, I was also part of a group a couple of years ago that ""grabbed torches and pitchforks"" and tried to storm the castle to get JC, WO, & PR into framework.

What is 'warehouse drm?'

Warehouse Delete/Renumber/Merge

@MoiraGoggin - Regarding the dog and pony show, all we saw was the left over crap that is usually handled by workers with brooms and wheel barrels...

Love how she used three exclamation points and red font. I'm sure that's going to work to encourage customers to upgrade (remember they said publicly that almost half of their customers are on older versions). Does anyone at Sage sit down and realize that the reason these customers are NOT upgrading is that Sage have largely stopped adding any type compelling feature(s)??? I believe Sage will have no other choice but to go to the third party community and begin buying add-ons which they can quickly bolt onto Sage ERP products. Someone at Sage has been asleep for two years.

What was the last original add on feature that Sage has added??? CC processing to SPS? Before that? RMA V1.0? Which BTW is still at V1.0!!!!

Cc was changed for recurring revenue. Wasn't RMA built by somebody else

I THINK they built RMA themselves. That's the last time I REALLY got into Beta Testing. Business Insights might be newer than that.

I really liked the keynote discussion with the three entrepreneurs. Fresh, topical, heartfelt. Truly listening to the customers, looking for ideas that aren't necessarily theirs. Too bad Sage doesn't adopt the model. https://www.sagesummit.com/videos/#5 Starts about minute 50.

Did they have somebody from Big Ass Fans speak? I saw a hashtag mentioned?

Ok, watched the video. He was a panelist with Jessica Alba and Magic Johnson.... They run Epicor ERP 9 FYI....

Yes, Big Ass fans runs Epicor. I think somebody sent me a message asking

It was Chief Big Ass himself.

I first saw a big ass fan at a restaurant in the Cayman islands. I was fascinated by it Thanks, Mark Chinsky Ensure your servers never go down. www.eversafe-backup.com Sent from my Verizon Galaxy S4

I think the only information to come out of the whole Road Ahead debacle is: 1 - They will make some kind of announcement about something to do with payroll some time before the end of December. 2 - They have already hired developers, they are ahead of schedule on the 2015 release, and looking to hire a few more. They have finally realized that core product enhancements are needed. Bolt ons aren't enough. 3 - They reaffirmed they weren't going to bring PR, JC, MRP, & WO to Business Framework. 4 - They are working on opening the Sage Payments gateway to allow processing through other processors. There would be a charge for that access, but it would be competitive. Whatever that means.

I thought that #4 was already brought up several months ago in a LinkedIn discussion. To me that part was old news thought it seemed as if Sage wanted to keep it as a ""hidden option"" and preferred to lead with Sage Payments. Even as discussed during Summit 2014 I received the impression the customer would have to sit through a Sage Payments sales pitch on why they should use the SPS processor (sort of like having to endure a time share pitch to enjoy a ""free"" vacation).

It was but what I took away from the session was that they would be making it more of an open option. You would have to pay for that option. Before, you had to go through the SPS approval process and be rejected first. Plus they were limited with what gateways they could work with. What I thought I heard Doug LeBahn say was that they would have it open to more gateways. It would almost become more like a PCCharge type option.

One word to summarize Summit 2014 (as it relates to Sage 100): yawn.

Every time I heard LaBahn speak, the joke about knowing when a lawyer was lying to you came to mind...........

At $99, its basically a good excuse to meet up with friends, do 90minds meetings and visit vegas and gamble because the room subsidies and entertainment (if you are interested in it), food (when it's convenient) make it a smart vacation investment. Just don't go there expecting to learn anything new. Whatever is important you'll find posted here and can watch any keynote you want from the comfort of your own home.

@JeffSchwenk I was thinking of buzzword bingo drinking edition.

I'll play contrarian here. It's easy for us in our ""elite"" position within 90Minds to be far harder on Sage Summit than the bulk of customers. I say ""elite"" because the 90Minds experience combined with the deeper Sage 100 knowledge that leads us join 90Minds, produces a perspective far different from the ordinary Summit attendee. Remember that this is now a Customer event that Partners start a day early. Sage essentially bets that if they can make the customer attendees satisfied at Summit, the the Partners will be satisfied, at least adequately; given the market they face, I can't argue too hard against that idea. 10 years ago, this was a partnter-centric market. It is no longer that, with new customers achieving 60% of their initial decision-making over the web before ""raising a hand"". While it sounds trivial ""reimagined Summit"" is a strategic part of Sage NA's journey of ""focus"". Sage's mission statement is explicit about supporting SMB in their freedom to become better businesses. Providing concepts larger than ""how to efficiently use batches"" is part of this, and those concepts are often effectively planted first by high-profile speakers. I have only limited, non-randomized feedback from customers attending. One returning customer was disappointed that the training opportunities were much slimmer than last year. All the newbies liked the keynotes. They found the exhibits floor very useful. I suspect that the overall customer rating of Summit by new customers will be ~8.5, that of returning customers ~7. One reason to move a conference among geographic regions is that the bulk of attendees is always regional, say ~350 miles. So the reactions of the newbies is very important for Sage to build on. I suspect that they have only tweaks to make in that area. I predict that next year's will have more Sage 100 sessions, aimed at getting more out of the system, especially reporting and streamlining (eliminating spreadsheet side docs), and those sessions will be preceded by more Sage 100 customer attention starting in October. They will also continue on the keynote approach and the Exhibit Floor theaters to deliver a business message these attendees rarely get in the day-to-day drudgery of their jobs. Except for some strategic big announcements, I don't expect Summit to ever deliver news or training that 90Minders would consider great, at least regarding Sage 100/300.

My experience since Summit started (even prior to the combined event) has been that when customers attend, they either purchase something new right away or within 3-6 months as a direct result of attending. This includes both Sage products as well as products seen on the exhibit floor. This has been true for every customer who attends. This year I had 4 attend - 1 has already added SIA, another will add multiple modules in the next month and the other 2 I will meet with to review what they found interesting. This is Sage's business - selling software - and the formula of Summit seems to work as long as we can convince customers to attend. Next year in New Orleans already is attracting people just because of it being New Orleans. It doesn't even matter than it will be hot and humid, because they know they will mostly be inside. (I know, only West Coast people mention humidity!)

Yep. And don't forget the self-selection bias. Attendees are those customers who already or want to feel confident about their Sage product. The Summit experience is meant to reinforce positive feelings, not to turn around negative ones. They want these customers, most of whom are already Subscribers, to go home and tell their boss ""we're doing the right thing, and here is some more that we should consider..."" This is a very different focus than on prospects. Sage is dead serious about getting Sage 100 customers to add other connections. I'm skeptical about the cause and effect of the ""3 connection's rule about increased NPS"" but it seems real. So, regardless of whether they are satisfied because they have 3+ connections making their work easier or they are satisfied and therefore buy the extra connections, the correlation still stands. Sage really, really needs to make its Sage 100/300 base very sticky for the next decade while Sage One and X3 grow up and down (respectively) into the current Sage 100/300 market. All of their messaging and efforts will pound what's needed to make the added-connection sale work.

If your business model has you getting the vast majority of your annual revenue from your existing client base, this strategy is sound. The key is you need to either keep selling more to existing customers or sell to new customers (or orphans) faster than people drop MAS. If you want to grow your whole business by 10% to 20% per year, it's not gonna happen with this 'throw everything at the wall and see what sticks' approach to subscription bolt ons etc. Net new customers will not like the Sage story except for maybe X3. Picking up X3 is as herculean as picking up say, Epicor or Netsuite.

@MarkChinsky , just how much is Sage 100 market growing? I was under the impression that Sage 100 ownership was basically flat if not shrinking. What do you think the numbers are?

I have no idea. If I had to fathom a guess I would say it is net shrinking assuming you count companies who drop maintenance as a lost customer. I would bet 90% of what is truly 'net new' is the classic Controller moving to a new company and bringing Sage 100 there with him. I just don't see it winning many 'toe to toe' RFP fueled slug fests given what else is on the market.

@JerryNorman - No need to tell us that you are playing a contrarian here. We know it and I for one very much appreciate your views. Keep em coming even if LaBahn ignores your direct questions. I had 4 companies send representatives and I have 4 companies cancel at the last minute ($99 is SOOO easy to throw away these days). Of the 4 that attended, three were first timers. Probably the one who got the least out of everything was my repeat client. I spent the majority of my time going with my clients introducing them to Sage personnel (a couple got an earful) and to the vendors that offered solutions to their issues. I also made sure they signed up for sessions (SI, SIA) that I thought would provide value for them. This is my 12 conference and I probably would not be attending except for the 90Minds sessions nor staying the entire time had I not been adding value to my clients experience. For all of my efforts, Sage gets to brag about the attendance and feel that they are headed in the right direction. Just hope that Sage doesn't completely derail the train as I am hoping to make it a few more years before hopping off at the station.

Regarding the Diane Coffman session on the last day regarding the ""Influence the Design"" , we were given topics for the 2016 possibilities. Drop Ship Improvements Easier Completing of Purchase Orders Expansion of AR Date Fields DRM or Inactivate Warehouse Codes Receipt of One Invoice against multiple PO and SO Paperless Office Improvements Extended Item Descriptions for Misc Items SData Up to Standards. Feel free to send her an e-mail directly to provide your two cents worth. It MAY sway the direction of the release (and maybe not)...... She also asked for ideas on QUICK Fixes that COULD make it into the 2015 release. They apparently finished ahead of schedule and are looking for some quick fixes (e.g. put in a next vendor number button in AP vendor maintenance). Ideas that should have been implemented many moons ago. Some other thoughts were on creating a new item number by copying from an old one (primary vendor, alias numbers transfer over), auto number the APP check number in manual check entry. Please e-mail your thoughts to her at diane.coffman@sage.com. There is probably a snowballs chance in hell of anything happening, but there is a CHANCE.... Her direct line is 800-368-0298 X 347016.

Always look for the bright spot.... ""A snowballs chance in Hell? Hey! We have a chance!!

Yes, @ThereseLogeais, I immediately thought of ""Dumb & Dumber"" and then Jeff's ""colorful"" trouser choices. I have a headache now. @JeffSchwenk , do you remember the ""top three"" from your group in that ""Influence the Design"" class? My group came up with: 1) Change ""Default Whse"" on SO & PO and apply change to all lines. 2) Fix or ignore Zip code problem for Canadian addresses. 3) Add ""Ship-Via"" code defaults into Ship-To addresses.

Market growth in the segment that Sage 100 aims at is low -- maybe 3% CAGR. That is measured in real (constant) $, not units. That said, Sage seems to be doing remarkably well. From the Business Review webinar 6-4-14 (so, this should be Vegas Rules on the data) FY YTD through April 2014 (so, 10 months of their FY): Sage 100 ERP growth: Overall PL: 7% Upgrades License: 21% Business Care: 6% Sage CRM: Overall PL: 24% New License: 111% Sage ERP X3: Overall PL: 34% Upgrade Lic: 58% Bus Care: 33% Subscription Adoption: overall rev: 21% Overall Unit: 80%

Not sure. I think @ThereseLogeais was in that group also. Our first was fixing the new item copy from existing record. Second and third ones were much smaller in scope.

Mark, it is pretty clear to me that the deals your Epicor are involved in would not be a good place for Sage 100 ERP. However, for small companies outgrowing QB, the price point isn't too bad, especially if the prospect doesn't like subscription/cloud pricing models. So, I think Sage has a little time here ... but they have to pay much more attention to the installed base than they have. The IB marketing so far has bordered on obviously treating them as marks, and they must reset their approach there a bit. For medium-sized distribution/mfg prospects, It could well be that they will shun Sage 100, especially if Sage makes it too easy for competitors to make their case that ""nothing new"" is coming out of the annual Sage ""tax"". Sage UK has clearly decided that they want to become a unitary global company. Hence the emphasis on Sage One and X3. It is too early to tell whether those strategic products will be truly competitive in 2020, but that is Sage's strategy. The hybrid product strategy is mostly driven by answering the question, ""how do we keep our revenue up while we paddle to 2020?"" I don't know that there really was/is any other answer to that question than what they are doing. However, Sage should make a big effort to execute ""what they are doing"" much more artfully and deftly than their current heavy-handed approach if they don't want these medium term cash cows to run dry prematurely.

Jerry, interesting that they conveniently exclude the statistics that are probably ugly. For example, no 'new license' stats for Sage 100. There are other solution like Epicor's Prophet 21 (we don't support that) that price like Sage 100 but have massively more capability native. With Epicor's new 'standard edition' pricing, I'm seeing quotes at <$20k for 10 user systems for distribution and financials. All this runs on a single server now. SAP B1 has rough functional parity to Sage 100 at around the same price or less depending on configuration.

Yes, they are always creative at presenting their numbers. And remember, I'm not trying to say they're geniuses with their product strategy, but I do think they are playing their poor hand in a strategy that work for them, if their 2 strategic products really are worth the journey. You'll notice that not much time is spent talking about a target market for Sage 100 ERP? I think that's because they know that they'll get more medium term lift, and possibly more positive press, if they focus on increasing their wallet- and mind-share of current Sage 100 customers. @GaryFeldman has talked quite highly about B1 in the past. I've encountered Prophet 21, and it is strong. But do remember that the software and vendor are only part of new customers buy; the implementation price and reliability and flexibility is a very important part, too. Anyway, I think Sage NA is treating any significant new customer wins as lagniappe from their efforts to deepen their bite into current customers.

This thread had been simultaneously enlightening and disheartening. Thanks to everyone for your honest commentary for those of us unable to attend.

I think the majority of us have known, even if we didn't want to admit it to ourselves that after 4.5, MAS90 was basically 'done'. Originally when they sold us on 'framework' we were told they didn't want to introduce much functionality because it was too much to break, but I think at some point, they realized MAS technology is just fundamentally too old and it's core code is too US specific for it to ever evolve. I know I was the first guy bitching when Sage took over that there were too many product lines with the R&D being split among too many code bases and languages. Now they are doing exactly what I thought they should do, but unfortunately with a different product :) So be careful what you wish for. Fortunately in my case, I saw this coming and diversified starting around 2007 and although it's diluted my Sage 100 expertise and relevance, it's helped us ensure we have a business here that can survive (hopefully) another 10 to 20 years for another generation

Mark, there is one wrinkle in your story. Up until 2010 or 2011, Eric Kaas was confident that MAS 90 (as know then) could be ""web-onized"". Their early experiments at putting the Web hooks into Providex were working well. At the last roadshow tour Laurie gave in DFW I had a long talk with him about it, because I was amazed at the possibility. However, a year later that direction was dead because they encountered insurmountable technical issues. So, I don't think that v4.5 was planned to be ""the end."" Also, as Wayne has often pointed out, with the arrival of Pascal Sage UK has dictated product strategy, and ""regional"" products were not on the list. It doesn't change where we are for new customers, which I think you have reasonably described.

If Blytheco could do it, why couldn't Sage?

FYI - This is what a software company that is developing software does in a ""minor release"" for Business One. - Enhanced production module (resources and BoM enhancements) - Enhancements to MRP to take advantage of production module and allow for multiple forecasts in a single mrp run - Inventory valuation enhancements (real cost on Batch & Serialized) in GL - Multiple Branches (like divisions) through product - Upgrade to SAP Crystal 2013 - Customizer type enhancements for screens and workflow - In memory computing (HANA) analytic dashboards (extra fee for database) - Enhanced GL Posting rules (if this product line, then this GL account) The list is much longer

I agree @GaryFeldman At the same time, they SAP isn't exactly innocent from playing games with their business to please investors. They are purposely holding back new functionality from the non HANA database version (SQL Server) to push people on to their own database. Many of those HANA exclusive features we know darn well have nothing to do with HANA. SAP knows that announcing net new HANA customers is key to their stock price, so when they tell investors ""HANA had 40% growth"" or HANA had ""1,000 new customers"" they don't tell the investors that 80% of those were either free or sold at about 5% of the price of HANA for enterprise customers. So they are using B1 as a back door way to fool the average analyst and media. Now in the pissing match game :) just kidding, Epicor added more modules and functionality going from version 8 to version 9 than Sage has put into MAS for 20 years combined. Of course they rushed it out the door 12-18 months too soon and the early installs were a disaster,but that's another story. Then going from 9 to 10, they added completely new ecommerce modules, fully integrated socialcast like functionality in the ERP system, a new configurator, and a handful of core enhancements. They rewrote their web client (still awaiting a first generation from sage 100), and rewrote their launcher to look like Windows 8. However, they basically recompiled the entire application and ripped out the proprietary database that was between it and SQL. Imaging if Sage removed all traces of ProvideX from 2010 to 2014. That's what Epicor did basically. So E10 is 2-4x faster on 1/4 the hardware of E9. Good for guys like Gary who might want to host.

HANA is the new Cloud for SAP. They USED to give away the software (but not the maintenance base) and the add-ons are still not widely available. The reporting looks cool and is cool if you can use the system with few add ons and have lots of data. Not a big market yet, but... will be really useful in the future. The real reason for HANA (other than a differentiator) for SAP is breaking reliance on Microsoft (SQL and Windows) and Oracle (database). Soon SAP can sell the whole stack on SUSE Linux (when the HTML 5 client is available). Sage would rather invite Microsoft as a sponsor and take their money.