Sage 100

**The Road Ahead for Sage 100 / Town Hall** Would like to have your suggestions about topics to suggest that Sage cover when they are at MOTM doing their Road Ahead/Town Hall. **Please leave your comments before Thursday January 21, 2016** The format will be similar to last year where Sage used part of the time to give a technical update on Sage 100, the other part will be a discussion about various member concerns. What are the topics you would like Sage to address? Please add your .02 before end of day Wed 1/20/16.

- Sage Payroll 2.0 - Suggestions for easier upgrades - bundle year-end fixes to one download, install routine auto-sense program directory - Better method for moving Paperless Office (less manual and ideally have it stored in a default folder which could be changed) - If we lack the capability to fix the On SO, On PO OOB, let's at least build in a way to rebuild sorts overnight

- Standardize the supported versions - it's confusing to customers to remember when a version goes off of product update support, when it goes off phone support, when it stops receiving IRD, etc. Why can't this be ONE date?

* Update on what is going on with Job Cost, Work Order and MRP - new business framework? Or, is that why Deborah Nelson left Sage shortly after her bold Summit announcement? * Feedback on progress with Sage 100c migration for existing customers - Sage is discounting heavily for the first year to keep the increase within that 10% over business care, but they are offering no guidance or information on years 2 and beyond. For some customers, their annual subscription could more than double. * Feedback on new Sage 100c subscriptions in comparison to the now defunct On-Premises Subscription Plan - the per user activation fee is causing problems for me, and I am sure I am not alone.

Update on making the KB usable? Still errors out too frequently (especially when you need keys), Still difficult to navigate and search key words. Would be nice to easily find available hot fixes. Regarding IRD's, why are they still separate, why aren't they integrated into a PU Why can't there be some type of indicator that the IRD has been installed?

Paperless Office Electronic Forms Delivery: Customers have asked for 1) the ability to customize the cover sheet (adding logos, changing fonts are top requests), 2) the ability to group all invoices for one customer into one email (instead of generating an email for each invoice), and 3) addition of a receipt acknowledgement.

- Following up on @KathrynScofield - have a spot where we can go to see all the paperless documents that have been sent (like an outbox within Sage). I don't think that presently exists.

CONSISTENCY between the modules in paperless office. Some modules you can customize the coversheet on the fly, others you can't

One more paperless thing - the ability to attach additional documents and have them emailed with forms.

- Payroll should not have a hard close requirement (perhaps this will be part of Payroll 2.0 discussion)

- It would be great if 90 Minds could have a Sage contact list that's kept updated so we know who to call with different type of questions or suggestions (ie - portal, channel, product enhancement, product support).

Sage would probably like to have that as well...

I would really like to beg them to move JC, WO and PR to the new framework and SQL. I've got several clients who need to migrate to Premium but can't because of this.

Since I can dream, I'd like the ability to use VI on the MAS_System files. I'd also like the full list data fields to be present in the VI field lists. I don't understand the logic of allowing import to half the fields in IM_ItemCost, for example.

One last thing, please itemize modules on maintenance and support invoices. I spend hours double checking these for clients and have found some mistakes.

- Sage needs to work on bolstering channel confidence in the Sage 100 support (maintenance) plans. As it stands now there's very little of value that customers are receiving for their maintenance. Many users remain on older unsupported versions. Those that have upgraded with the promise of better integrations don't really seem as if they've achieved the promise. Sage needs to win back channel confidence so that partners can enthusiastically advocate for remaining on maintenance.

- Future integrations for CRM need to be cloud based. If Sage is technically unable to connect Sage CRM (as I believe to be the case), find another cloud based CRM. Customers do not understand why they can synchronize and connect things like Google Apps but their accounting seems ""landlocked"".

- Providing a ""Free"" license of CRM is nothing but smoke and mirrors. As a VAR, I cringe when I get an email from a customer ""Can you tell me how to use my free CRM license""? In actuality, this license is hardly free. There are substantial setup and training presently involved. VARS don't recommend this because of the extra skills (which most don't possess) to setup and configure on-premises ERP.

- If you're going to provide an add-on service, how about some type of ""one click cloud backup"" which is affordable and would allow the customer to make a backup of Sage from within the application? Even if this only included the core Sage 100 data files it would be better than nothing. I bet most customer would pay $250 - $500 a year if this were a seamless ""click here to backup at 10 pm tonight"" type solution.

- Sage add-ons targeting Sage 100 need to be simple to implement/configure. Do not expect the channel to enthusiastically obtain added certifications and hire people to support an add-on where they may not make any money.

- More YouTube videos that demonstrate the new features of the latest Sage 100 release in under 3 minutes. Do NOT make them be some dopey ""cartoon Mary"". Get right into the demo and show the features. Keep it short. Keep it to a format that people can share with customers (in other works if you embed CALL SAGE AT 800-BUY-DIRECT -- no VARS are sharing that).

- What are Sage's plans for Sage Data Cloud?

- Any changes planned for Sage Summit? Will this continue to be mostly a customer conference? Will technical sessions be added? Who is in charge of this now that Gaby is gone?

- Update on Sage Marketplace (at one time was going to be an ""app store"" of sorts)

Improve DFDM: better record find ability; display fields in columns and export to Excel. SageSell - include in Partner Portal.

To add to @BobPfahnl first item, DFDm should query tools to permit selection of a range of records and mass update (like we have in SQL).

Last call to add your thoughts. I'll summarize this (completely anonymously) by tomorrow and then give to Sage on Friday so they can prepare for Road Ahead / Town Hall at MOTM. So far as I know we should have Connie Certusi (I think she is a Joe Langner equivalent though maybe not officially), Paige Erickson (Tom Miller / Donald Deshaies replacement), Diane Haines (key marketing person for Sage 100), Linda Cade (product manager), Scott Munro (Mike Ritchie's boss on the Sage 100/300 product). If they all show, these are the movers and shakers on the Sage 100 product side in NA.

Is Connie of ""tell your clients they have not been paying enough for payroll maintenance"" fame?

Same. She is one of the longest tenured Sage employees in NA. I believe she previously ran the Peachtree product line for many years. Very direct. Straightforward.

Connie's Linkedin: _Commercial leader for Sage's financial management solutions targeting the small business market. Responsible for sales & marketing strategy and execution to drive top and bottom line financial growth and deliver customers for life. Business lines include small business accounting (i.e. Sage 50), Sage Payroll Services and other Sage solutions including Sage 100, 300, etc._

**I'm in the process of compiling this for Sage - thanks for the comments**

These are really good.

I categorized these: Technical or Channel and prioritized as High or Low. I think all of the topics are important however I tried to pull out the ones which seem to be more frequently discussed. It's admittedly not scientific but gives us a place to start.

Thanks for doing this, Wayne!