The DeRosa Mangold Blog

Back from Sage Insights 2009!

We just arrived back from Nashville and Sage's Insights 2009 Conference for Sage Authorized Partners. We would have been back sooner but weather cancellations caused us to be delayed a day!!!!

While there were great new features (recently added or on the horizon) for all of the Sage products we represent, we did notice a unifying theme throughout all of the conference. All roads seem to be leading to:

1. More and Better Business Intelligence
2. Custom Workflow Building Capabilities
3. Better Technology

Presentation after presentation focused on improving the user's experience through use of Business Intelligence tools and interfaces and Customizing the Workflow of the Product either directly or through the use of another tool, such Sage KnowledgeSync, an event driven product that can monitor a database or multiple databases and execute a job stream based on an event.

To give you an idea, you can look at your Sage Product Dashboard every morning with your cup of coffee to see what is going on with your Past Due Customers or you can have Sage KnowledgeSync monitor your accounts receivable and, when it detects that a customer went past due today (based on your criteria of what past due is), Sage KnowledgeSync can execute a job you define that might do things like:

1. Place the customer on credit hold.
2. Email and/or fax the customer a letter or other notice with an attached statement and/or unpaid invoices.
3. Send notices to people in your organization notifying them of what is happening with this customer or a summary notice listing all customers who were placed on credit hold today.
4. Update your CRM package (SalesLogix, SageCRM, Act! or ANY other database) with a note or flag to let salespeople know what is happening.

All without you having to do a thing. Best of all, this tool can be used to monitor and perform custom job streams on any readable database (Sage MAS 500, Sage MAS 200, Sage MAS 90, Peachtree Quantum...even non-Sage products like Quickbooks Enterprise as well as custom in house databases in products like Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL).

The opportunities seem to be endless.

In summary, we also saw great product improvements such as:

Sage MAS 90 and Sage MAS 200

• Version 4.4
  • Completes Business Framework
  • New Expanded Inventory Item ID's and Customer ID's
  • Ability to Customize Sage MAS 90 and Sage MAS 200 Workflow with new Customizer capabilities
  • Web Services allowing forms from your website to write directly to MAS files
• New Microsoft SQL version to be rolled out shortly after release of 4.4. Customers can elect to stay on current ISAM database or go to Microsoft SQL.

Sage Peachtree Quantum

• New document management and routing capabilities

Additional Product Offerings

• Sage KnowledgeSync (described above)
• bMobile for Sage MAS 90 and Sage MAS 200 (allows you to access and work in your MAS installation using your web browser from anywhere in the world without Terminal Services)

So there is PLENTY to talk about in the coming months. As a result you should see an increase in or email newsletters, user group meetings and product demonstrations, both live and recorded, in person at user group meetings and webcasts. Hopefully, one way or another we will get the information to you. We highly recommend attending the upcoming user group meetings (the next will be in June) and as always, feel free to contact me anytime for a custom consultation.

More to come!

 

The Perfect Mother's Day Gift!

This is a wonderful little treasure I discovered last summer. I hope you enjoy!

-First...grab digital photos of mom's favorite kids. Be sure to include yourself!
-Second...Grab your favorite song from a CD or iTunes. (You can skip this step there is free, very cool music where you age going.)
-Third...go to www.animoto.com and follow the instructions!

At Animoto you can upload your pictures, select a tune and let Animoto do it's magic, creating a truly amazing video. You can add text and emphasize certain photos, use your own music or select from their library.

You can create a free short...about 15 seconds...or for a few dollars (like $3) you can purchase a full length video. The video can be downloaded, played on a PC, iPhone or iPod.

If the mom in question does not have any of these, for a few more bucks, Animoto will burn to a DVD and mail it to you. But for that you had better hurry. Mother's Day is Sunday!

I hope you enjoy this awesome tool as much as I have. Happy Mother's Day!

Mike DeRosa

Facing the Giants

A few months ago my son and I filled up our Netflix wish list. I didn't really pay attention too much to what he was selecting and as a result every week has been a surprise! Last week was a pleasant one.

He had selected Facing the Giants. An inspirational low budget film created by a church in Georgia. No one will win an Oscar for their acting but the movie was entertaining and had a strong message, one that fits for our current economic situation.

A scene that really hit home, and I have used in my business process decision making since, is a story told to the main character, the head football coach, by a local minister. Everything in the coach's world was falling apart and he was questioning himself. The minister said " There is a story about two farmers during a drought. They both prayed for rain. One farmer prepared his fields and planted his crops while he prayed. The other waited for a sign. The question is coach...what kind of farmer are you?"

Especially today with so much economic uncertainty it is hard to make business decisions without questioning ourselves severely. I have found this simple story to be of comfort to me as I now make these decisions. How do to I prepare my crops? Because we all know, sooner or later, it will rain.

Mike DeRosa