Sage 100

v5.2 premium. In the process of upgrading from 3.74 and need a replacement for FRx. We are looking at BizNet and Sage Intelligence, and I sent some pricing to the decision maker for both. Customer's husband told her that there is no need to buy anything, they should just use SSRS. Does anyone have any experience creating financial statements using SSRS? Is this a viable option? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using SSRS ?

It will be much like using Crystal for Financials. You would have to create stored procedures that do what the providex program that create the work files for std financials do, and you would still have to recreate in those the financial formula processing. Also, SSRS is not what you see is what you get, so exact formatting will make your head explode.

I think Biznet uses SSRS. In my limited experience, I installed Biznet on my laptop for a test and twice for a customer. Cursed it all times. Asked Biznet for help and was hugely disappointed in their customer service (spent more time on ensuring agreements were signed than in getting it working!). We've now told the two clients that we no longer work with Biznet. As much as I find the need to buy the Designer License for Sage Intelligence to get that ""F9 feel"" a major rip off, we are recommending to clients that have Sage Premium versions to go with Sage Intelligence. F9 still our recommended solution for easy of use for Sage Providex installations.

thanks for the input guys. I actually like F9, however, in addition to the software cost, F9 wants $3,000 to install it on a premium installation. That is a difficult sell to the end user.

Worth noting that I had similar ""let's sign you up"" experience with F9/Infor. They were infinitely more interested in signing me up as a reseller (presumably for a fee -- but I didn't get that far) that providing any assistance. And in my last go round, contacting Info for F9 support made Sage look like the model of efficiency and high customer value. I am sure these companies get calls all the time for one-off support from VARS. Unless I am realistically going to do a boatload of work I don't bother becoming a reseller and refer the user direct to the company selling the product. I've found it's not profitable to try to jump through hoops to ""qualify"" for any sales program (and they all want you continuously selling).

Thanks for the input Wayne. It is pretty sad when a company has a good product but we can't use it because the service and support sucks. Many of us focus on providing great service, and selling products are secondary. Unfortunately, this model frequently conflicts with the companies we represent. Software companies push software and, for many of them, service and support are secondary concerns. I like F9 as a product... Same with BizInsights.... SI is probably my least favorite but I will most likely end up buying it by default because I have the best resources available when I or my client needs help.

We've had good success with SI.