I found a well hidden section on the Sage website that outlines all of the enhancements that has occurred with every release going all the way back to version 3.50 (circa 1997)
I turned this section into a PDF document that you can take with you. It goes all the way up to the brand new Version 4.40 release that you will be receiving this week if you are current on maintenance.
You can download it HERE.
Gotham Sales is in the business of eliminating stress. It’s a company that specializes in warranties for all the appliances you buy for your home: refrigerators, dishwashers, television sets, personal computers, and even DVD players and portable stereos. Gotham sells these extended warranties to your local retailer. In addition, Gotham is a manufacturer’s representative for many well-known brands of consumer appliances, including Fedders and AESP Connectivity Products.
Several years ago, most of the big appliance manufacturers switched their distribution strategies, to cut out the “middleman.” They started going through direct channels to retailers, eliminating the need for distributors and representatives who had been marketing their products for decades. Firms like Gotham found themselves out in the cold, with large payrolls and expensive mainframes that no longer made sense. Fortunately, Gotham had plenty of warranty work to keep a leaner, meaner business going strong. But the change in corporate direction required a rethinking of the company’s staffing and information systems. Due to layoffs of IS personnel, it suddenly became necessary for non-computer professionals to handle information management. Gotham Sales had been using MAS 90 on their UNIX system and they were very happy with it. But they were worried about how the software would function if they moved to networked PCs. Could they transfer files without a system failure or loss of data? Would MAS 90 be hard to learn on Windows? Would it be as reliable as their old system?
Breaking News. Apparently according to this letter, Solution Strategists of Cranford NJ is selling their Sage practice/client base to Net@Work out of New York City. Apparently, Art Nathan, the President, needs to address health concerns relating to his wife who was also his partner. (Our best wishes on this issue as I’ve known both of them for 15+ years. Our prayers are with them both)
Companies today are faced with two major hurdles. Doing business in a fiercely competitive global environment and challenging economic times. To survive and prosper organizations must employ new technologies and techniques at a velocity that may challenge the very fiber of their company. They will be required to establish seamless integration from their customers, internally into manufacturing, and out to their suppliers. In other words, the integration must wholly link all of the finite elements comprising the total supply chain.
The ability to adapt to change in the way they plan, manage and operate will set apart the winners apart from the losers. This will require a sharp focus on achieving excellence in all areas of the business. Company leaders will need to develop a strong bond across the value chain to achieve this high standard of excellence and effectiveness.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the strategic tool that equips the enterprise with the necessary capabilities to integrate and synchronize the isolated islands within their companies into efficient and streamlined business processes and workflows. Further, world-class organizations take it one step further by linking their ERP deployment to the processes and tenets of Lean Manufacturing and Lean Supply Chain Management.
Today’s business world is filled with buzz words that change from year to year as business improvement techniques come and go. I recently read an article on résumés that emphasized such terms as “team player”, “results oriented”, etc., have gone the way of the dinosaurs. Process improvement models such as TQM (Total Quality Management) have given way to Six Sigma, and JIT (Just in Time) to Lean Manufacturing. But the processes themselves have never gone out of style, and never will, although the next management fad may hang a different moniker on them and package them in a slightly different way. Efficiency and process improvement will never become obsolete, no matter what you call them.
When you purchased your current software system, you went through an installation process with the help of your Clients First implementation team where you defined your requirements, configured your software, set up your processes, and trained your employees. For the first few months on the system, your Clients First software support team helped you work on your issues, write or modify reports, and get to the point where you are probably pretty self sufficient, depending on the size of the company and the role of internal IT staff.
If you have a ‘mature’ implementation, you probably only call Clients First when you have a problem or software related issue. But did you know that we’re much more than “Software Repair People”, we’re Consultants and can help you with your business process requirements beyond your software related needs. If fact, as your business partner, we have a more in-depth perspective of your company than you probably realize. Not only can we do an Account Checkup to see if you’re using your software to its full potential, but we can help you when you’re planning on adding product lines, changing the way you do business, acquiring subsidiaries, downsizing and needing to streamline processes, just about anything that has to do with business processes. There is no need to go to an outside consultancy firm, when you’ve already got one that knows your business, but is still far enough removed from day-to-day operations to provide the objective eye you often need when trying to make improvements.
Is it taking too long to get an order out the door? Do you need a job description for an IT employee? Do you need assistance doing long term planning? Are you adding a department and need to develop process flows? Has the way your company does business changed? Are you using workarounds because you believe your software doesn’t support a function? Has your system been implemented for more than 2 years without a review to ensure that you’re using it in the most efficient way? We’re your business partner and many of our Project Leaders and Implementers are also Business Process Consultants. Call us in the planning stages and we will probably be able to save you a lot of pain later on. Don’t know what your pain is? Call us, and we’ll help you define your pain areas and develop a plan to remediate them. Don’t think your primary support rep has the knowledge? Call and find out. If the primary doesn’t, he/she will bring in someone from our staff that can help you out.
So whether you call if efficiency, good organization, total quality or whatever word they use next week, let Clients First help ensure that it describes you.
Please contact Clients First for more information. Thanks to Karen Wevick from our Alabama office.
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