There were three main points covered during the online user group meeting on January 19.
- While Sage is transitioning the software branding for different products, you will hear references to Sage MAS 90, Sage MAS 200, and Sage 100. With the strength of the MAS 90 and MAS 200 brand, I suspect that we will continue to hear the product names used interchangeably but the official transition to the new Sage 100 naming should be complete by November 1, 2012. One thing we should be sure of: the software will continue to be developed and supported (otherwise Sage would not go to all of this trouble).
- Business Care changes for agreements renewing on or after of March 1, 2012 include the removal of the Bronze plan. From this point forward, Sage is requiring users renew at either the Silver or Gold level, both of which include phone or online access to the Sage support team which can be used in conjunction with your existing consulting services.
- Sage Business Care Plans (as of January 23 this page included the Bronze option)
- Version 4.5 is a feature-packed upgrade that includes the option to migrate to a SQL back-end option (licensing fee required) and a single-user Sage CRM license (no fee required). Enhancements to Sales Order, Payroll, and Accounts Receivable are also included. We also reviewed our typical strategy to hold off on installing new releases immediately (since the user group meeting, Sage has told us they are closer to a hot fix for the issue in which invoice totals are doubled on the Daily Transaction Register).
User group meeting will continue in February. If there is a topic you would like to see presented, let us know by leaving a comment.
