Schulz Consulting

Consulting and Upgrades

Hosted MAS90 and MAS 200

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hosted mas90.jpg

After spending the last 20 minutes searching for folks who Host MAS 90 or MAS 200 – and coming up empty on my search – I’ve decided to create a list of my own.

Please be sure to do your own checking of references. I’m not endorsing any particular company or vouching for their customer satisfaction levels. This is merely a “stepping off point” for you to begin investigating MAS90 hosting.

Tips for MAS 90 Hosting

In my experience these types of companies are great candidates for outsourced MAS 90 or MAS 200 servers:

– No IT Department
– Multiple offices
– Expecting to grow
– Would like to access MAS 90 or MAS 200 from different web connected desktops

And these are the least likely companies to use hosting services:

– Single office
– Under 10 users
– No expected immediate growth

Keep In Mind

– Hosting costs more than buying MAS 90 outright. You may finance it differently but in order to make the costs work you need to have some other factor (usually remote office or lack of IT staff)
– You will still have normal MAS 90 or MAS 200 setup issues — data must be imported or keypunches to setup the system, backups maintained, data upgraded when the versions change.

MAS90 Hosting Options

I-BN – http://www.i-bn.net/

Applianz – http://www.applianz.com/

Claris Networks- http://clarisnetworks.com

(via John Shaver – http://www.ariestech.com – Knoxville Tennessee MAS90, MAS200, MAS500 consulting)

Several of our customers are using Claris Networks (www.clarisnetworks.com) for hosting MAS 90 and MAS 200. They can also host MAS 500, SalesLogix, SageCRM, Abra and FAS (amongst many others). Their prices are reasonable and our customers have nothing but praise for their support and project management services.

The trend that I’m seeing is that as customers need to replace servers, they are comparing the ROI between maintaining an on-site server and moving to a hosted environment.

It makes perfect sense for companies who do not have an internal IT staff since it removes the burden of maintaining servers (service packs, upgrades, backups, hardware failures, etc.).

Software Link – http://www.myownasp.com – Stanley Kania – Phone: 770.569.5889

Secure cloud hosting for Sage 100
Call 1-888-244-6559 (toll-free)

Comments

  1. John Shaver – I fell into technology and business management software almost by accident. Back in the mid 1980s I was working for a CPA firm in Myrtle Beach, SC. During that time, the partners at the firm decided to move into the 20th century from a technology perspective. The question, however, was who in the firm would take on that task. So, being young and eager to prove myself, I raised my hand and volunteered for the job. In those days, there weren’t many options in the area of accounting software so a new company called State of the Art was selected. Little did I know that some 25 years later I would still be working with MAS 90 and that State of the Art would evolve into Sage North America. I guess there’s something to be said for consistency. After working for a few years in both the public and private sectors of accounting and finance (yes, I have been an end-user of MAS 90 so I look at software from a user’s perspective), I decided to jump into the entrepreneurial world. My father had owned his own businesses for many years and he gave me the inspiration to take the risk. We were quite content for a while from helping customers troubleshoot technical issues, write reports, installing upgrades and teaching customers how to get the most out of the software. The whole time we were filling out timesheets and billing based on our time because that was just the way it had always been done. Over the years, we began to notice quite a bit of negativity in the industry, both for our customers and for us. Our customers asked us questions that we couldn’t answer which frustrated us and made us wonder what was wrong. The questions were not technical; rather they were focused on who bears the responsibility for software and on why there are so many unknowns about the price of projects and support. Here are some examples: • Why should I get a bill every time my software breaks? I didn’t break it. Should I have to pay for something I didn’t break? • Why is it that every time we have you install an upgrade or write a report, we never know how much it will cost? I don’t care how long it takes you, just get it done. • I like you guys but I’ve told my employees not to call for support or anything software related unless it is a dire emergency. The problem is that I don’t know if I’ll get a bill for $100 or $10,000. How do I budget for that? My belief is these are the types of issues that have always driven a wedge between customer and software partner over the years. It creates unnecessary stress on both sides. Since our passion and mission is to help customers use their systems to the greatest effect, it bothered us that customers perceived the software and the software partner to be a necessary evils and as unknown costs to be avoided. We knew for an absolute fact that applying our knowledge and experience to our customers’ businesses provided great value. The question was: how do we price that knowledge so our customers can clearly see the value? Inspiration struck in the form of very forward thinking and encouragement from two people at Sage. Bill Hammer, who had been our partner manager at Sage for many years, understood that we were looking for ways to eliminate the negative aspects of the customer/software vendor relationship. He told me that I needed to meet Ed Kless, the partner development manager at Sage, and that I needed to attend one of Ed’s conferences. Ed’s message was incredibly simple and incredibly enlightening: Customers hate billable time, get rid of it! Give them guarantees on everything. So we did and it has been the most positive part of our business since we opened our doors in 1996. What a concept, a software and consulting company who actually talks with all of their customers about how the customer wants to do business with us. Everything we do for a customer is custom tailored for their business. On a personal note, growing up in the Carolinas (Charlotte, Gastonia and Myrtle Beach) should have led me to embrace NASCAR from a very early age. However, I came to racing via my true passion, hockey. While living in Greensboro, NC in the mid 1990s, my dream came true: an NHL hockey team was actually going to play in the city where I was living. The Hartford Whalers packed up shop, became the Carolina Hurricanes and moved to Greensboro to play for two years while their new arena was being constructed in Raleigh. During one of the Hurricanes’ open houses to introduce folks to the new team, there was a NASCAR show car on display. The idea was to draw in racing fans to give this hockey thing a try. What caught my attention was that there was a Hurricanes logo on the car. Well, here’s a race car driver who likes hockey. I’ll have to jump on the NASCAR band wagon. That driver was Jeff Burton, that car was his rookie car and I’ve been following Jeff ever since. In 2006, the ‘Canes won a Stanley Cup, now let’s see if Jeff can win a NASCAR championship.
    says

    Wayne,

    Several of our customers are using Claris Networks (www.clarisnetworks.com) for hosting MAS 90 and MAS 200. They can also host MAS 500, SalesLogix, SageCRM, Abra and FAS (amongst many others). Their prices are reasonable and our customers have nothing but praise for their support and project management services.

    The trend that I’m seeing is that as customers need to replace servers, they are comparing the ROI between maintaining an on-site server and moving to a hosted environment.

    It makes perfect sense for companies who do not have an internal IT staff since it removes the burden of maintaining servers (service packs, upgrades, backups, hardware failures, etc.).

    John

  2. Wayne Schulz – Glastonbury, CT – Consultant specializing in mid-market solutions for small businesses.
    says

    Agree with this – from a consulting standpoint I’ve always gotten “almost” to the point where a client buys off on it — but they (at least mine) always seem to do the math after I’ve invested 10 – 12 hours of unpaid time and ultimately decide to buy their own server.

    I find this to be an easier sell for someone with a remote access need (typically multiple offices).

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