Client Advisory: Do not install any Extended Solutions without calling Sage and asking for the latest version

If you are upgrading you Sage MAS 90 or 200 accounting software and are using Extended Solutions from Sage Software we strongly advise you call Sage (or your Sage Business Partner) immediately prior to installing the upgrade and request a free update to  the latest version  of your Extended Solution (Sage tracks the different levels by program release date).

In many instances you may be told that you’re at the latest release. Don’t let that discourage you from calling each and every time prior to upgrading.

Update – 10-7-2008: Spoke with Paula Mikkelsen at Sage Software Extended Solutions and she provided me with the name, email and phone extension of the person who is in charge of generating the Extended Solutions for customers and resellers. I’m not going to post her info here because I don’t want a flood of spam to chase her inbox. Send me an email and I’ll be happy to forward you the contact information.

Why do you need to do this?

Sage Software does not have an automated way to provide the latest versions of their Extended Solutions to resellers. When solutions are initially available they are sent out in an email to the reseller which announces the availability of the upgrade.

This email is often weeks (if not months) ahead of when a company may actually install their Sage MAS 90 or 200 program upgrade. In the passing months there are increasingly more program fixes needed for Extended Solutions.

Unfortunately there is no central place to regularly view what the current release levels are for the Extended Solutions. All of this work must be done via phone call (or email) to Sage Software.

What We’ve Suggested To Sage

In the future we are hopeful that what can happen is that the intial link that is sent to a reseller points to the very latest copy of the enhancement (including any patches made since the update was released).

Another possible solution would be for the enhancement itself to contain a “self check” where it would query a database to make sure that the latest version is being installed.