Authors: Lesley Slepian

Last week, Sage Software hosted many of our Customers, Business Partners and our Net@Work team in the first combined Business Partner & Customer Event in Washington DC called Sage Summit.  The Sage Pro Migration team from Net@Work jumped onto I-95 for the quick drive south to witness the goings-on.  Our clients have been able to stroll through dozens of booths manned by Sage staff to learn about the new product offerings and the very extensive Independent Solution Vendors (ISV’s) whom were able to demo their products and raise the technology bar to new levels.

Every time we present a “Migration Demo” for Sage Pro (SBT Accounting Software) Users to show them alternative Sage Software ERP portfolio programs, we are compelled to say, “You know your Business and your Processes the best!” What type of company are you? What are your plans for growth? What do you believe your company will look like in 5 years time? What businesses processes are you doing now that might be more smoothly executed if you could do it at the same time you were creating your accounting transactions?

I am always surprised that one of the first questions my clients usually ask, after I introduce the idea of ‘migrating’ to another accounting solution is “but what about my old data?” Intuitively, I get it. I understand the concern. Who wants to re-key system-set-ups such as Customers, Vendors, and Inventory or Billing Line items into the new system? Unless there are only a couple hundred records in the maintenance files, it is hard to defend the notion of viewing it as a “training lesson.” And, unless you have an army of high school students (preferably your own kith and kin), who would want to pay for such an exercise?

"Migration" - more than an 'upgrade' - less than 'starting all over again.' That is the new lingo for Sage Pro ERP users. Since Microsoft announced its "end of life" strategy for Visual FoxPro TM, Sage Pro ERP (Accpac Pro/SBT) users have been asking us, their long time Sage Business Partner, "What’s the next step for accounting and operations software for our business?"

We are still getting great feedback from our first "Sneak Peek" webinar – "Migrating your Sage Pro system to Sage Accpac." Questions from our users were right on the money. They wanted to know about bringing over data from their current ERP / accounting system. (They can.) They wanted to know in a wide open field of choices from Sage Software, what features and add-ons might make Sage Accpac the right fit. (Lots of choices!)