On December 13, 2012, Sage North America announced the availability of Sage 500 ERP 2013 (formerly Sage ERP MAS 500). The product’s new features and enhancements, and new mobile and cloud services, aim to help midsize customers increase productivity, simplify processes, and reduce costs across their business.

Enterprises can now save time navigating processes with Visual Process Flows, which demonstrate the steps of a process in visual terms, while also including links to the various tasks along the way. Visual Process Flows were originally developed for the top of the range Sage ERP X3 product, but are now a common component in all Sage’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions.

The improved Cash Flow Management features now process cash receipts more efficiently and accurately with new import and tracking capabilities. Sage 500 ERP is built on Microsoft’s VB6 and .NET technology, and the database is Microsoft SQL Server. This ERP product is not likely to undergo a complete rewrite for a multitenant cloud any time soon. Having said that, by integrating cloud services into Sage 500 ERP 2013, such as improved credit card management with Sage Exchange, businesses can now add services as their needs grow and change.

The following new connected services expand Sage 500 ERP functionality using integrations that can extend over the Web for a mobile workforce:

• Sage 500 ERP Shipping by SmartLinc, a new Web-based and scalable multicarrier shipping solution
• Sage Exchange Portal for increased access and flexibility to view payments information on the Web through a tablet or desktop
• Sage Exchange Vault, a secure, cloud-based vault, storing sensitive cardholder data, reducing fraud exposure, and guaranteeing Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance.

On December 17, 2012, Sage North America announced the availability of Sage 100 ERP 2013 (formerly Sage ERP MAS 90), offering new cloud services and usability features along similar lines as for Sage 500 ERP. Sage offers the following three versions of Sage 100 ERP 2013, which are all Microsoft Windows compatible:

1. Standard, which is LAN-based and runs on Sage’s proprietary ProvideX database
2. Advanced, which is client-server and also runs on the proprietary ProvideX database
3. Premium, which runs on Microsoft SQL Server database

Sage’s effort to provide enhancements to its mature ERP systems, as promised last year, is commendable.

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