Reseller Choice Awards 2009 Winners Announced

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Resellers make their voice heard
2009 has been a difficult year for many people and businesses. Amid all this turmoil, it is nice to be appreciated for your work, especially if it is coming from your peers. Now in its 4th year, the 2009 Canadian Reseller Choice Awards gives vendors a well-deserved “pat-on-the-back”. For vendors who missed the top spot, it is something to strive for in 2010 as it is truly a good compliment when the resellers who buy and sell your products, give you the thumbs-up.

Over the past 60 days, hundreds of Canadian resellers voted for the best in 91 categories. A total of 5,373 votes decided the winners of this year’s Reseller Choice Awards. A big thank-you to all the resellers who voted!

Here are the winners of 2009. Congratulations to all nominees and winners!

Best Accounting
1-Accpac (Sage)
2-Intuit
3-Sage

Sage Announces Launch of Sage ERP X3 v6 and New Approach to the Sage ERP X3 Business

admin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Sage (SGE.L), one of the world's leading suppliers of business management software and services, today unveiled its new global mid-market ERP solution, Sage ERP X3 v6. The innovative solution is built around the customer and places emphasis on ease of use, rapid deployment and cost effectiveness.

Recognizing that the needs of customers are changing, with an increasing demand for solutions to manage businesses on a global basis, Sage has created an international team to support the development of the Sage ERP X3 business. This team includes key people from Sage's worldwide businesses, bringing together Sage's local expertise and global resources to ensure Sage ERP X3 is highly relevant to today's customers. The team will work closely with Sage's local operations to ensure Sage ERP X3 is complementary to local mid-market product offerings and includes international pre-sales and professional services, training, global R&D and global marketing and communications.

Speaking at the launch, Sage Group plc Chief Executive Paul Walker said, "The creation of this global organization to support our Sage ERP X3 customers is another evolution in Sage's long history of delivering what our customers need. We pride ourselves on being a trusted partner, offering expertise and people who really understand their business. This is where our local knowledge sets us apart and combined with our global strength is a key differentiator."

"Many businesses either don't want or can't afford the complexity of traditional enterprise software. I believe there is a significant opportunity for Sage to fill this gap in the market and break the mould of the conventional approach to global ERP. Sage ERP X3 is a proven solution which addresses this need and the latest version and the new structure demonstrates our commitment to customers in this market."

With hundreds of enhancements and new features, Sage ERP X3 v6 has been specifically designed to address the key issues facing mid-sized and larger businesses: reducing costs, saving time, offering full interoperability among sites and dispersed teams across the globe and improving the overall customer experience. The solution also offers a greater choice of technology than ever and has been developed and can be deployed on a wide range of technology platforms and databases, providing crucial flexibility for customers.

General Manager Sage ERP X3 Worldwide Christopher Lettellier said, "Sage ERP X3 v6 represents an important evolution in terms of usability, agility and tailored provision for mid-market companies. The solution provides a complete view of a company's operations and total financial control throughout the entire organisation. It is a highly flexible solution, meaning it can be tailored to fit many business requirements, and is fully deployable either on premise or on the web."

"Its innovative, role-based web user interface allows customers to personalise the system to their requirements and enhances their overall experience. The solution makes manipulating complex and critical information easy and displays it exactly how the user wants thus improving interoperability across a business."

Sage ERP X3 is sold and supported both directly via Sage and via Sage's network of local business partners. Sage has expanded a partnership with Logica, a global systems integrator, to better support multi-country Sage ERP X3 projects. Sage also has worked with Microsoft, Oracle and Netvibes to develop and deliver a truly innovative and global ERP solution. For further information on these please visit www.sageerpx3.com.

About Sage ERP X3
Sage ERP X3 is a dedicated solution for mid-market companies with international demands. More than 2,700 customers representing 150,000 users worldwide already chose Sage ERP X3 because it is easy to use, fast to deploy and cost effective. For more than 10 years Sage ERP X3 has been a proven and comprehensive ERP solution addressing mid-market companies' specific requirements and challenges in various industries from manufacturing, services to distribution and many more. Sage ERP X3 is present in 50 countries and counts a network of 1,500 Sage professionals and 150 partners in its ecosystem.

Sage Launches New Midmarket Software Suite

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0000

In an effort to strengthen the company’s ability to meet the growing global needs of the midmarket, Sage also established new international management structures and expanded its partnership with global services company Logica.

On the same day ERP vendor Sage unveiled the latest version of its midmarket solution suite, the company also debuted what it called a new “approach” to its midmarket business. In an effort to strengthen the company’s ability to meet the growing global needs of its midmarket customers, Sage established new international management structures and formalized an expanded partnership with global services company Logica.

According to Sage, its latest release is a response to the increasing need of midmarket companies to manage their businesses globally. To increase its efforts to capture the market and better meet customer needs, the company established an international, cross-organizational team focused on ensuring Sage ERP X3 meets global standards and effectively can be sold and implemented, regardless of location. The new team structure includes operations for international pre-sales, global services, training, global R&D and a global marketing organization.

To further expand its global midmarket reach and capabilities, Sage also announced an extended partnership with global services company Logica. The partnership now includes the opportunity for multi-country end-to-end ERP projects covering consulting, system integration and deployment. The partnership extends the agreement signed a year ago between Sage and Logica France around Sage ERP X3.

“By drawing closer to Sage we meet the needs of global businesses and the subsidiaries of major corporations, and also diversify our partnerships with ERP vendors by strengthening our approach to the midmarket with a ‘must have’ player,” said François Sancho, general manager of Logica France.

The new version, Sage ERP X3 v6, includes features and technologies designed to address midmarket-specific business issues and requirements. Sage cites usability, rapid deployment and cost effectiveness as top concerns for customers. In an effort to meet that demand, version 6 incorporates Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), cloud and service oriented architecture (SOA) components to try and facilitate rapid integration and deployment while creating a more collaborative business environment.

Among those components is the upcoming release later this year of Sage Enterprise Webtop, a planned personalized widget dashboard application, which can operate either in the cloud or behind the firewall, and was jointly developed with Web publishing vendor Netvibes.

The company also issued press releases with Microsoft and Oracle, touting support for Oracle and Microsoft technologies in version 6. New supported databases include Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and Oracle Database 11g R2. Also, Sage said version 6 supports Windows 7 and offers native Microsoft Office 2007 compatibility.

Sage ERP X3 version 6 will be available in most of Europe in Q1 and the US and Canada in Q2 of this year.

Sage Launches Major ERP Upgrade

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0000

The Sage Group plc today unveiled a major release of its Sage ERP X3 suite for mid-sized businesses that uses Web 2.0 and other new technology to give users real-time access to global data and collaborative tools in user-configurable dashboards.

At a press conference in Paris and in prepared statements, company executives and Sage business partners referred to the v6 release as "a new generation of integrated, user-centric business solutions, allowing all users in the extended enterprise to be active stakeholders in accelerated and collaborative business processes, either via the desktop or over the web."

The v6 release contains hundreds of enhancements and new features and is designed to address the mid-market's need for full interoperability among dispersed operations at an affordable price, the company said in a statement.

Paul Walker, chief executive of The Sage Group, said, "Many business either don't want or can't afford the complexity of traditional enterprise software."

Sage worked with a number of technology partners to design the X3 release. For example, the suite can be operated on Microsoft SQL Server 2008, and integrates with Microsoft Office to increase ease of use and accelerate user adoption. The system can also run on Oracle Database 11g R2. According to Sage, the X3 software can support several thousand concurrent users, process several hundred thousand transactions per hour, and synchronize data across customers' sites.

Sage focused heavily on improving the customer experience in this release. Among the enhancements is new, multi-language Sage VisualProcesses software, which provides templates so that users can create their own customized interfaces. Users also can link to external applications and the web to access information and create financial and other reports quickly.

Another innovation scheduled to be available in a point release in the second half of 2010 is Sage Enterprise Webtop, developed in partnership with Netvibes. The tool will enable companies to build web applications that monitor their products and reputations in the outside world. Netvibes' partnership with Sage serves to tie that information to "the inside world" of the enterprise, according to Netvibes CEO Freddy Mini.

The latest version of X3 maintains the product's core modules for finance, sales, CRM, purchasing, inventory, and manufacturing. Manufacturing-centered capabilities include parts-list management, work scheduling management, MRP functions, quality assurance, and capacity planning, among other capabilities.

In redesigning the product, the company recognized that ERP products already do a good job of automating processes, said Emmanuel Obadia, senior vice president, Sage ERP X3, at today's press conference. However, a more "user-centric ERP" offering was needed to "re-engage" the younger managers coming up the ranks. The company decided to "rethink the design from the user out," and to incorporate technologies that are becoming mainstream, such as SOA, SaaS, and Web 2.0 tools. The company built the latest iteration of X3 on the Sage Application Framework for the Enterprise, an SOA platform with a multitude of web-based capabilities, including features such as the forthcoming Enterprise Webtop offering.

Sage Globalizes Development of ERP Software

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Sage unveiled the latest version of its midrange enterprise resource planning and accounting software, Sage ERP X3 v6, and said it was taking a new international approach to developing the software.

Sage has created an international team to support the development of the Sage ERP X3 business. They will work closely with Sage's local operations to ensure the software complements other local mid-market products. Sage will also provide international pre-sales and professional services, training, research and development, marketing and communications. Sage ERP X3 is sold and supported both directly via Sage and via the company's network of local business partners.

Speaking at the product launch in Paris, Sage Group plc chief executive Paul Walker said, "The creation of this global organization to support our Sage ERP X3 customers is another evolution in Sage's long history of delivering what our customers need. We pride ourselves on being a trusted partner, offering expertise and people who really understand their business. This is where our local knowledge sets us apart and combined with our global strength is a key differentiator."

Sage: Canadian SMBs need to be more financially literate

admin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Findings from a recent Angus Reid financial literacy survey, sponsored by Sage in Canada, suggest that as the size of a small business grows, so do concerns about accounting rules.

Jamie Sutherland, vice-president and general manager of Simply Accounting at Sage, said these findings show there's an opportunity for more education and understanding when it comes to financial literacy in the small business market space.

The Angus Reid survey was conduced last October and included responses from 503 randomly selected Canadian small business owners (0-100 employees), who are also Angus Reid Forum panelists.

Hamish Marshall, director of research at Angus Reid, said financial literacy was determined in the survey by the question, "Have you identified the most important cost that your business needs to get under control?" Marshall said if the respondents knew the answer to this, they were deemed to be "more financially literate."

"Seventy-eight per cent of Canadian small business owners are more financially literate," Marshall said. "Twenty-two per cent said they didn't know what their most important cost was that is needed to get the business under control."

Another key finding when it comes to what type of compliance small businesses are the most concerned about, 38 per cent of small businesses stated that income taxes are a concern for them, with 16 per cent of them citing sales taxes, followed by record keeping, at 13 per cent.

Sixteen per cent of survey respondents who represented a one-person small business, said retail sales taxes were a concern for them, compared with only nine per cent of small businesses of six or more employees.

"Small businesses that have six or more employees are more likely to have a full-time book keeper or accountant and they're less likely to worry than a one-person small business," Marshall said. "If you're self-employed, this is a bigger concern. These findings show there are differences in the types of concerns based on the employee size."

Hugo Croft-Levesque, senior manager of product management at Sage, said with the upcoming harmonized value-added sales tax (HST) taking effect on July 1, 2010 in Ontario and British Columbia, all small businesses in these provinces will be affected.

Sutherland said Sage's Simply Accounting software suite is designed to help keep customers compliant with the upcoming regulations.

"A lot of small businesses don't understand things like what the biggest cost for them in their business is and that's critical to understanding and running a business," Sutherland said. "It takes a bit more training and understanding to see where the business is trending and customers should be evaluating their reports on a weekly or monthly basis so it's a routine."

Marshall said customers who fail to include any tax changes into their financial plans for the coming year are subject to missing out on opportunities to minimize their tax bills, compared to customers who are determined to be more financially literate.

Sutherland said Sage partners can leverage customers who may not be as financially literate as some of the others by providing them with tools such as accounting software, which helps automate certain processes.

In addition to helping to raise awareness and helping customers become more financially literate, Sutherland will be travelling across Canada beginning Jan. 16, 2010 on a nine-city listening tour to hear form book keepers, accountants and end-users on what their business needs and feedback are.

"A key theme for us this year is around the customer experience and being customer-connected," Sutherland said. "We're making a stronger push to understand customer needs by listening to them and getting their feedback."

Sutherland will visit Saskatoon, Sask., Winnipeg, Man., Vancouver and Edmonton, Alta. this month and will be stopping in Calgary, Halifax, N.S., Ottawa, Toronto and finishing in Kelowna, B.C. by February 23.

More than half of Canadian small businesses cite income and sales taxes as key concerns in meeting compliance rules and regulations

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0000

More than half of Canada's small businesses point to taxes as their major concern when it comes to complying with government rules and regulations, according to the latest results to be released from a 'financial literacy' survey conducted by Angus Reid Public Opinion for Sage North America. A total of 54% of businesses surveyed cited either income taxes or sales taxes as their most crucial compliance concern, with more than a third (38%) pointing to income taxes and another 16% saying sales taxes.

"Canada's small businesses view taxes as a critical concern when it comes to compliance. In 2010 we will see changes in Ontario and British Columbia, with Ontario's Retail Sales Tax (RST) and B.C.'s Provincial Sales Tax (PST) being replaced by a harmonized, value-added sales tax (HST)." said Jamie Sutherland, vice president and general manager, Simply Accounting. "These changes will affect a large number of small businesses and we want Canadian business owners to know that Simply Accounting is designed to help keep them compliant with new regulations."

The latest round of results are contained in a recent Sage North America survey that examines the financial state of small businesses by focusing on their 'financial literacy,' as defined by: how businesses manage compliance with government requirements; their comfort level with financial management; how finances are managed; and where financial information is obtained. Other concerns include cash flow, with more than half (51%) of small business owners identifying this as one of the two most important aspects of financial management that are crucial to businesses success.

Initial results from the 17-question survey of 503 small business owners, announced in October 2009 by Sage, revealed that nearly a quarter of small business owners in Canada could not identify the key costs that they need to manage for success. As well, two thirds of small businesses said they were negatively affected during 2009 by Canada's economic downturn.

"While the survey revealed a reasonable level of financial literacy among small businesses today, it's obvious that there is room for improvement both in the financial knowledge base that exists among small businesses today in Canada and how that knowledge is being implemented to help businesses succeed and grow," said Hamish Marshall, research director, public affairs, for Angus Reid Public Opinion.

Other highlights of the Angus Reid-Sage small business survey include:

Small business owners keep up with regulatory changes in various ways. The most popular sources of information on changes are: professional services such as an accountant or lawyer (59%); government web sites or phone line (38%); other people in the same profession (21%). Other information sources cited regarding regulatory changes include: industry association (18%), accounting software (17%), small business publications (16%), small business web sites (15%) and seminars (9%).
Larger companies are more likely to obtain information on regulatory changes from professional services (80%) and industry associations (31%).
More than two thirds (69%) of small business owners wait until they file their tax return to see what effect tax code changes had on their taxes, while only 31% promptly include announced tax code changes into their financial plans for the coming year. More financially literate people or those who have a high comfort level with financial management, are more likely (34%) to promptly include tax code changes in their plans, as are those with accounting software (40%).
Small business owners rely on diverse sources for advice on managing finances. The most common resource is an accountant or consultant, relied on by 65% of businesses, followed by the Internet (38%), contacts in the same industry (32%), government information (29%), friends and family (24%), books (21%), business or industry association (15%), mentors or former employers (14%), employees (4%) and business education services (4%).
The most commonly outsourced service today is accounting, as cited by 39% of businesses, while payroll is done in-house by 48% of business owners, and invoicing and billing are performed by 78% of businesses themselves.

The survey was conducted Oct. 2-7, 2009 and the majority of respondents (58%) were the sole employee of the business being surveyed. The survey results have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4%, 19 times out of 20.

Harmonized Sales Tax (HST)
For more information on the Harmonized sales tax, please visit http://www.simplyaccounting.com/tax or http://fr.simplyaccounting.com/tax.

Works in progress

admin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0000

If ever there was a class of software that could be expected not to change much, it would be accounting software for midsized companies. After all, the companies themselves have survived the worst of their growth pains. The accounting requirements, while slightly more demanding, are well-defined and easily within the range of the systems available on the market.

Yet, in the past two years, this category of software has shown remarkable evolution. This is due to three factors:

* The rise of cloud computing. As on-demand computing has arisen in the age of broadband, an increasing number of companies have emerged to offer accounting systems that can provide lower total cost of ownership, lower installation and set-up costs, more modern and robust user interfaces, and more advanced features. Leading the pack in this regard are two companies, NetSuite and Intacct.

* Increased competition. Sage now offers a bevy of mid-range accounting solutions, from Peachtree Quantum to Sage Accpac. So does Microsoft, which in its Dynamics family features at least four offerings of its own. QuickBooks is gaining strength and moving up into the enterprise, and there are at least half a dozen other programs that have firmly entrenched user bases and strong features.

* New features. As happened with both tax prep software and payroll software, features that used to be extra-cost add-ons are being incorporated into the main body of the core accounting systems, beefing up those programs and putting software companies toe to toe in the development cycle. It is not a coincidence that most of the packages we review are now in Version 11.0.

Eventually, this will mean some level of consolidation, as companies move to the cloud, merge or otherwise move down the product life-cycle curve. For this year, however, this class of software remains robust and interesting. We look at nine software packages, all of which have features and benefits that put them at the top of the class.

ERP for Small Business: The Time is Ripe

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:04:57 +0000

Small and mid-size businesses often have unique requirements for enterprise resource planning software that demand full capabilities without complexity. They also want to see a quick return on investment. Vendors now are stepping up.

The time is ripe for small and mid-size businesses to adopt enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, according to leading industry analysts.

There are more options than ever among the crowded ERP-vendor field targeting the small and mid-size business sector. Those options are, in turn, growing more affordable. In addition, many small and mid-size businesses are in desperate need of an upgrade to sophisticated software that was once the purview of only larger corporations.

"Many small businesses have not upgraded their infrastructure since the Y2K cycle," says Albert Pang, research director of enterprise applications research for Framingham-Mass.-based IDC. "Many of their systems need to be replaced." Companies looking to update their financial, human resources, project management, and procurement applications will find that their needs will be met by ERP offerings, Pang says.

A field crowded with vendors

The good news is that there are many new choices among ERP programs available to small and mid-size businesses, Pang says, with over 30 vendors in the field. And those vendors are looking to small and mid-size businesses as their primary growth market. An August 2007 Forrester Research report forecast that the small business sector will be "the most dynamic and innovative growth area" for ERP sales over the next three to five years.

If comparison shopping a 30-plus market of vendors seems overwhelming, consider that many vendors offer specialty products to certain sectors or verticals. For example, Activant Solutions specializes in offerings to distributors, Constellation Software Inc. services club-membership-type businesses, and Deltek Inc.'s products target professional services providers.

But ERP's largest players — SAP, Sage Software, Oracle, and Microsoft — have more generic offerings that are increasingly tailored to smaller businesses. For example, Oracle is offering fixed-scope products, such as E-Business Suite and JDEdwards Enterprise One. These can be up and running in days to weeks, not months to years like previous, enterprise-focused ERP applications, says Pang. That timetable is crucial for small businesses, which want and need to see a quick return on their technology investments.

And while costs can vary widely according to a company's specific needs, the costs for more sophisticated software have really come down. "In the past, many of these products would cost seven figures, but now, they are available for under $100,000," says Pang. Stiff competition and the emergency of on-demand products available over the Web have contributed to this trend, he says.

Custom, on-demand solutions

Another option for smaller firms is to purchase generic solutions and customize them with help from a value-added reseller or consultant, explains Gary Chen, senior analyst and small and mid-size business specialist at Boston, Mass-based Yankee Group. A wide range of add-on modules is available to develop the perfect custom application for every company.

Still another option is ERP on-demand products for smaller businesses, such as those offered by NetSuite and SAP Business ByDesign. SAP's product features a unique flat price: $149 per user per month, according to its website.

With all these options, it's a good time for smaller firms to go ERP shopping, says Chen. "There is so much more available now," he says. "There's never been a better time."

Sage Co-Hosts Best and Brightest in Tax and Accounting Industry

admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Sage North America announced that together with Greg LaFollette, it is hosting the 5th Annual Accounting Thought Leader Appreciation Forum and Dinner today at the new Aria Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, in conjunction with CES, the international Consumer Electronics Show. This exclusive, invitation-only event annually brings together the 'best and brightest' of the US tax and accounting industry.

"In co-hosting this year's annual Thought Leader Forum and Dinner, we're bringing together the top minds of the accounting industry to share best practices, knowledge and innovation, and learn from that insight," said Jennifer Warawa, director, Sage Accountants Network for North America. "Regardless of the recent turbulent times that our industry has faced, Sage continues to strengthen our partnership with the accountant community through the Sage Accountants Network in 2010, working closely with leaders in the profession and providing accountants with more of what they need to be successful in their practices."

Attendees at the forum will hear from Sage executives and industry leaders such as Greg LaFollette, Rich Oppenheim and Randy Johnston on a variety of topics, such as extraordinary customer experience and technology trends in the marketplace.

The Sage Accountants' Network offers resources to increase technical competency and help grow an accountant's practice by providing informative communications and resources, product discounts and membership benefits related to the Sage portfolio of products. Through the Sage Accountants' Network, accounting professionals also have access to Sage products that include accounting and business management software, support services and automatically delivered upgrades and updates, including tax tables when applicable. In addition to software, members receive a complimentary listing in the Sage Accountants' Network member locator.