Last year Sage made a few changes to their Business Care plans including re-naming the subscriptions across all product lines. This year the changes are a little more dramatic. As of March 1, 2012, Bronze Business Care plans will no longer be available for renewal or for new license purchases. With the Bronze plan off the table, users will have the option of a Silver plan (priced at 21% of the list price of their software) or a Gold plan (at 25% of the list price of their software).
There is a less-than-appealing one-time only offer to renew the Bronze plan at 20% – a total savings of 1%. By the way, Bronze plans were previously priced at 18% of the list price of the software.
According to Sage, software users that retain a current software agreement are happier with their software. I agree – with a current agreement, user have access to new releases and product updates with new features; hot fixes to bugs in those new releases; and tax table updates. Sage also contends that users on a Silver plan have a higher level of satisfaction than users on a Bronze plan (I wonder if users on a Gold plan have achieved nirvana).
The primary difference between the Bronze and other plans is the absence of access to the Sage support group. According to Sage, their support is intended to complement the on-site, phone, and remote support partners like Acuity Solutions provides. When Sage began limiting partner access to Sage support in November, some in the partner community made some noise about the lack of access but (curiously) simultaneously complained about the effectiveness of Sage support. Since November, Acuity Solutions has only contacted Sage support once (for a bug/fix issue).
This table compares the three (currently available) options. Sage’s recent announcement did not include any changes to the Silver or Gold plans – just the termination of the Bronze. If you have questions about your plan (current or expired), leave a comment or contact us.
