extended solutions | Schulz Consulting

Sage MAS 90 Extended Solutions Incorporation Plan Updated

March 24, 2010 by Wayne Schulz

Sage Software today released an updated Business Partner FAQ to clarify how they’re dealing with the 56 solutions that are being incorporated into MAS 90 and MAS 200 4.4x – as well as to explain whether anyone can buy a solution at a level earlier than 4.3 (In a word – no).

What Are Sage Extended Solutions?

Sage MAS 90 and 200 Extended Solutions were originally developed by one of Sage’s leading development partners to meet the specialized needs of the Sage MAS 90 or 200 customer base. Sage acquired this library of over 1,000 titles in January 2004. Because they are so specialized, most of the individual Extended Solutions titles are currently owned by only one or two customers. The more popular titles with broader appeal, such as Paperless Office, contain features and functionality that have high market value. Those titles were evaluated and many of those features began to be incorporated into Sage MAS 90 and 200 4.3.

What is the go-forward plan for Extended Solutions?

Sage has made the decision to focus on continuing to build value into the base product, simplify our product portfolio, and begin phasing out Sage MAS 90 and 200 Extended Solutions. This phase-out process includes incorporating the main features and functionality of many of the top Extended Solution titles, adding market-driven features to the base product. All customers will receive the benefit of many new features with the new release and product updates as part of being on a current maintenance or support plan without the additional expense of each Extended Solution title. We’ll begin delivering that additional functionality over the next several releases and product updates. Those select titles will continue to be sold until the time they are included in the base product. Since the incorporation will be our focus, we will not be bringing Extended Solutions titles up to compatibility with the 4.4 release. The remaining titles will be provided to Source Code Development Partners so they can utilize their expertise to provide the specialized solutions for Sage MAS 90 and 200 customers. Combined, the above actions cover 96% of all titles and 75% of all customers. We hope you will support us by carrying through messaging that this is a great start to Sage’s goal of continuing to build value into the base product and simplifying our product portfolio

How do I know which of the Extended Solutions title(s)’ main features and functionality will be included in the core Sage MAS 90 and 200 products over the next few releases or product updates, and which will be available to customers only through me, working with Development Partners?

The main features and functionality of the titles that have broad market value, such as ACH Electronic Payment for Accounts Payable, will be incorporated into the core product over the next few releases and product updates. Please refer to the most current Extended Solutions information published on SageMAS.com to see the titles that have been selected for incorporation:
http://www.sagemas.com/products/sagemas90_mas200/extended_solutions

What about Extended Solutions titles that are no longer shown on the SageMAS.com Sage MAS 90 and 200 Extended Solutions Web page?

Extended Solutions titles that are no longer shown on the Extended Solutions page on SageMAS.com have been retired. You have several options that you’ll be able to use to meet specialized needs of Sage MAS 90 and 200 customers. You may determine that their needs can be met using the enhanced customization and scripting tools built into Sage MAS 90 and 200 4.4 Customizer. These tools can be used to provide customers with customizations that survive upgrades, so the customizations do not have to be reapplied to or recreated in a new release. In many cases, you’ll be able to create the modifications at your office, export them, and e-mail them to the customer to import. This will help streamline your deployment, reduce the time spent on this type of custom work, and allow you to do more with your development staff. If their needs surpass the abilities of those tools, you may decide that the best solution is to engage a Sage Development Partner, who can design product modifications outside of those parameters.

Customers not currently on version 4.3, but who have plans to upgrade, will be able to request their retired Extended Solutions 4.3 title updates through the Sage Sales Advisor team until 11/1/2010. Sage will no longer correct defects, or provide year end payroll changes for any retired Extended Solutions titles after 11/1/2010.

Listed below is the current schedule for when a solution is slated to be incorporated (at no cost) into a future release of MAS 90 or MAS 200.

Extended Solution titles are listed on the left, the part number is in the middle and on the right is the product update and estimated ship date when that solution should first appear.

If you are using a solution that isn’t slated for incorporation until 2012 — say for example SO-1530 Enhanced Sales Order Integration with Job Cost — you have the option of paying a developer to upgrade the solution earlier.

In the majority of situations customers using an Extended Solution slated for incorporation but not until 2011 or 2012 won’t have much of an option but to sit and wait for an upgrade to arrive.

Charts shown below are tentative and preliminary – as per Sage’s 3/24/2010 Extended Solution FAQ.

sage extended solutions incorporation 1.jpg

sage extended solutions incorporation 2.jpg

Sage Extended Solutions For MAS90 & MAS200 Sales Policy – Updated 2/23/10

February 23, 2010 by Wayne Schulz

I’ve just learned that Sage will now sell “kept” Extended Solutions for installation to MAS90/200 at level 4.3 AND EARLIER.

Update March 19, 2009:

Now you see it — now you don’t…

Sage initially told us that they would make their 56 kept solutions available on any supported version of MAS 90 or MAS 200 until the solution was incorporated to the next level of MAS 90/200.

Policy change by Sage.

Long story short — Sage won’t sell any of the 56 kept Extended Solutions at any version prior to 4.3.

They’re no longer making them available at earlier levels.

The information above supersedes the post that we wrote below based on lengthy conversations with multiple Sage personnel – who ultimately reversed policy on us while we were mid-stream proposing their solution (with information they provided) to a customer.

Update March 29. 2010: We continue to have issues both ordering and obtaining the most basic of pre-sales support on any Sage Extended Solution sales. We recommend that you not purchase any of the 56 kept solutions and instead wait for them to be incorporated into a future version of MAS 90 and MAS 200.

As you probably know, starting with the release of MAS 90/200 v4.4 Sage announced in 2009 that they’d be doing away with their Extended Solutions catalog of what appeared to be 500 or more custom enhancements while keeping 56 of the most popular Extended Solutions for incorporation to versions 4.4+ of Sage MAS90 and 200.

Sage Extended Solutions in many instances replaced the need for custom MAS90 and MAS 200 programming.

Starting with release 4.4 of Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 Sage will incorporate (add into the MAS product) 56 of their most popular enhancements on a two or three year rollout schedule.

Discontinued solutions are being provided under an open source license to Sage Preferred Development Partners (view the list here) who can upgrade them (possibly for a fee) and resell them.

In the interim there was considerable confusion about whether a licensed user of MAS 90 or MAS 200 could purchase any of those “kept” Extended Solutions at a level other than 4.3.

If you view the Sage Extended Solution web site you’ll see the issue is not entirely clear as the site states that the 56 kept Extended Solutions ” can be added to your Sage MAS 90 and 200 4.3 system“.

What about those customers on a version earlier than 4.3 who needed one of the 56 “kept” enhancements?

Until this policy shift they were being told by Sage that they must upgrade to version 4.3 before they could purchase any enhancements.

Before you suggest to me that I’m crazy – and that Sage was selling the 56 kept solutions for any version – read on.

The prior policy of the sales desk appeared to have been that kept Extended Solutions would only be sold at 4.3.

Sage Refused to Sell Extended Solutions at Versions Prior to 4.3

Here’s the email that I’d received as recently as last Thursday telling me that Extended Solutions that Sage was keeping for incorporation wouldn’t (then) be sold at any version other than 4.3.

From: xxxxx
Date: Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 6:02 PM
Subject: FW: Selling older Extended Solutions to existing customers
To: Wayne Schulz

Hi Wayne

Please see the email below.

xxxx

title

Sage Business Solutions Division
(800)-854-3415 xxx
www.sagenorthamerica.com
Sage. Your business in mind.

From: xxxx
Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 2:59 PM
To: yyyyy
Subject: FW: Selling older Extended Solutions to existing customers

We can sell this to them since it’s one of the 56 extended solutions that will be eventually embedded into the product but it has to be for MAS90/200 version 4.3 only!!

Thanks,

yyy

Sage Changes Policy – Will Sell Kept Extended Solutions At Older Version Until Incorporated

Late last night I was told there is a policy shift.

Sage will now sell any of the 56 Extended Solutions that they are keeping (does not appear to apply to the Extended Solutions that they’ve open sourced to developers) at levels earlier than 4.3 – up into when those solutions are actually incorporated to 4.4.

This means if you are on version 4.1 and need a “kept” solution such as AP-1095 Paperless Office AP Checks & Direct Deposit Stubs that you can continue to buy it up until the time it’s rolled into V4.4+.

This is extremely good news for those existing customers on maintenance with a supported version of Sage MAS 90 or MAS 200 prior to 4.3. It means that if their business conditions require them to adopt one of the 56 kept solutions that they can purchase that solution today rather than upgrade to 4.3 solely to qualify for the purchase of an Extended Solution.

There are a myriad of valid reasons that customers don’t upgrade immediately to the latest versions. Some customers have extensive enhancements to MAS90/200 that require testing and custom programming prior to any upgrade. Other customers may be subject to stricter compliance regulations (lending institutions, auditors, Sarbanes Oxley, governmental regulation) that don’t allow for a hasty upgrade.

Here is the link to the list of Extended Solutions to which the policy applies:

http://www.sagemas.com/products/sagemas90_mas200/extended_solutions/

Extended Solutions Preferred Development Partner List

December 23, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

Sage MAS 90 and 200 Development Partners are an important member of the Sage partner community, providing valued specialized solutions for Sage MAS 90 and 200 ERP customers.

The library of over 1000 Sage MAS 90 and 200 Extended Solutions titles have been made available to Sage Development Partners so that they can apply their expertise and provide Sage MAS 90 and 200 customers the specialized solutions that they need. The Sage MAS 90 and 200 Development Partners shown below have expressed interest in the Extended Solutions business, and have made a commitment to provide Extended Solutions customers with a high standard of service.

If you are not already working with a Sage Development Partner, please consider one of these Development Partners.

Sage MAS 90 and 200 Extended Solutions Preferred Development Partners

December 6, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

As you may already know Sage have announced the future of their Extended Solutions catalog will fall into one of two categories:

1. Extended Solutions incorporated to future releases

2. Extended Solutions with source code made available to Preferred Development Partners

Preferred Development Partners are those taught the secret handshake and certified by Sage and trusted with the source code for Extended Solutions.

The image below will display in full size when you click it.

sage preferred development partners extended solutions.jpg

The developers that are listed above can assist with upgrading your existing Extended Solutions (meaning those which were not chosen to be incorporated to version 4.4).

UPDATE: Sage has added more developer names to their list. We’ve posted the additional Preferred Development Partner names and web sites here.

Each individual developer will quote their own fee for this upgrade. In some instances the developers may have comparable enhancements to offer in lieu of upgrading the Extended Solutions that you’re using.

Extended Solution Upgrade Path Announced By DSD Business Systems of San Diego

November 24, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

Sage have recently announced that they’ll be incorporating some of their Extended Solutions catalog into release 4.4 (due first quarter 2010) and the remainder will be provided as open source programming code.

The open source nature of the code means that qualified Master Developers will have the ability to upgrade the Extended Solutions not included in version 4.4 of MAS 90 or MAS 200.

DSD Business Systems of San Diego (member of the Premier Partner program of which we are also a member) has just issued the following announcement about their upgrade plans:

DSD Business Systems – Extended Solutions for MAS 90 and 200 Page