Schulz Consulting

Consulting and Upgrades

FRX Support Plans – FAQ

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frx report writer support plans.jpg

Microsoft have announced that on 12/31/2010 their FRX Financial Report Writer will no longer be sold to those requiring a new license.

As of 12/31/2012 all Microsoft official support will terminate.

These are the latest dates that we have regarding the future of FRX support and availability. Since we expect some vendors to “self support” the report writer (including possibly Sage) you should check with your financial software supplier to see what their plans are for the product.

FRX Support Options – Post 2012

The question that we’ve been asked more frequently by both Sage and non-Sage users of FRX is what will happen after 2012. Will the FRX software stop working or are there alternate means by which users who are happy with their financial reporting can obtain support?

We provide support for FRX via our unlimited phone agreement (copy here). Other consultants will likely offer the same thing. When we spoke with Sage they were leaning toward (but not committing to supporting the FRX program beyond the 2012 end of life date).

You should consider that FRX (at least on the Sage MAS 90 level) has not been significantly upgraded since the last MAS 90 level service pack for FRX was issued dated December 2008 (Service Pack 10 for FRX v6.7).

Your Options

A. Self Support
Using internal resources, maintain your own help desk to answer user questions. If you’re already at this level then you probably are already also self-supporting. Remember that no new FRX modules/licenses will be sold after 2010.

B. Vendor Support
We think (though we’re not 100% sure yet) that you’ll see vendors like Sage (and others) offering to carry on the support for FRX during the period of time that they announce a transition to an as-yet unnamed financial report writer.

C. Use Third Party Support
Given that FRX has not had the need for a program patch since December 2008, you’re reasonably safe to continue using the program for at least the immediate future. Your main risk factor will likely be an incompatibility between FRX and a future operating system. However you’d likely know of such incompatibility months or years ahead of the time that you decided to upgrade operating systems.

Conclusion
Most consultants (including the ones you use to maintain your current financial software should be able to support you for the next few years. It would be prudent to begin the process of migrating your financial reporting to a new program just a soon as your vendor announces one.

Prior to 2010 you should plan to acquire any essential programs that you may need from FRX. If you need to acquire more licenses or remote you’ll need to do that before 12/2010.

Sage North America Awards Schulz Consulting Customer Excellence 2008 Award

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sage-customer-excellence-2008Sage North America today awarded Schulz Consulting with a Customer Excellence Award for exceeding the measured Net Promoter average ratings of all Sage Business Partners.

This annual award is given to partners who receive exceptional net promoter scores from their customers.

A net promoter score is the result of Sage asking the question “would you recommend the services of Schulz Consulting to a friend or trusted business colleague”. In order to gather data for this survey, Sage North America sent an email inquiry to all of Schulz Consulting’s clients asking them to rate their satisfaction with Schulz.

We are happy to report that our net promoter score was not only good but it scored nearly four times the industry average and higher than the average of all other Sage Business Partners.

For more information you can read the press release issued today – Schulz Consulting Awared Customer Excellence 2008 By Sage North America.

MAS90 and MAS200 supported versions list

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Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 version 3.71 and higher are presently supported by Sage. This means that in most instances you can obtain the current release levels, service updates (if any) as well as tax table updates.

There are some restrictions on what older versions of MAS 90 and MAS 200 are entitled to.

For example, versions 4.20 and earlier no longer receive service updates. Instead if you find an error you’ll have to beg and plead ask for an individual program fix. Also, version 4.05 and lower no longer have the knowledgebase kept up to date – so if you’re looking for a problem report on a version 4.0 issue you’ll probably not have much luck.

Curious what the restrictions are on the supported levels of Sage MAS 90, MAS 200 (and MAS 500 is even thrown in for good luck)?

Here’s the PDF showing all versions starting with 4.30 and their appropriate level of support.

Supported Versions Policy MAS90 MAS200 MAS500 Supported Versions Policy MAS90 MAS200 MAS500 Wayne Schulz Chart showing the latest supported versions for Sage MAS90, MAS200 and MAS500. This shows the level of service that each version of MAS90 is entitled to including MAS 200 SQL.

Give Sage feedback on every support case

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Sage Support will automatically send out a survey form after every phone case. In some instances (such as if you’ve called within the last 30 days) you may not receive a survey to evaluate your satisfaction with the support you just received.

Don’t despair! Now there’s a way for you to provide feedback on any of the cases that you’ve opened at Sage. Best of all you only need the case # and a web browser to create feedback.

Simply visit the Sage Support Survey page where you’ll be prompted for your case number as well as some feedback on how the case was resolved.

Contact Us

Schulz Consulting
Connecticut Office
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Phone: 860-657-8544
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We are a local branch of DSD Business Systems Connecticut.
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