Starting 2012, a re-branding of products will be introduced to strengthen its position for the brand.

Sage 50 is Sage’s small business family of accounting, business intelligence, payroll, and human resources software and services that is designed to deliver dynamic guidance to help you realize your business ambition. Sage 50 is easy to set up and use and is backed by Sage Business Care and Sage Advisor Technology to ensure you get the most from your investment. Sage 50 grows as your business grows by providing editions with increasing levels of functionality to support your businesses’ growth. Available in a U.S. Edition and a Canadian Edition, Sage 50 offers a robust set of capabilities to make your business life easier and also comes in an Accountant Edition specifically for your accountant, bookkeeper, or business consultant. Sage 50 U.S.—Edition is also available for specific industries including manufacturing, distribution, construction, and nonprofit.

Sage 100 is Sage’s family of business management software and services for midsized businesses, organizations, and practices with a focus on North America. It supports configuration options to best match your needs and delivers a low total cost of ownership. Sage 100 includes ERP, Fixed Assets, HRMS, and specialty solutions for construction and nonprofit organizations, plus integration with Sage CRM solutions. Sage 100 solutions are sold and supported through local business partners, are backed by Sage Business Care, and will be implementing Sage Advisor technology to ensure you get the most from your investment. Sage 100 grows as your business grows by providing versions to support the business growth cycle.

Sage 300 is Sage’s family of business management software and services for midsized businesses and organizations and is available internationally. It supports configuration options to best match your needs and delivers a low total cost of ownership. Sage 300 includes ERP, Fixed Assets, HRMS, and specialty solutions for construction businesses, plus integration with Sage CRM solutions. Sage 300 solutions are sold and supported through local business partners, are backed by Sage Business Care, and will be implementing Sage Advisor technology to ensure you get the most from your investment. Sage 300 grows as your business grows by providing versions to support the business growth cycle.

Sage 500 ERP is Sage’s highly customizable ERP system for midsized businesses, organizations, and practices, typically larger companies with advanced requirements. Sage 500 ERP is designed for robust financial needs, often requiring customization or higher degrees of configuration and optimization. Sage 500 ERP is available with complementary CRM, Fixed Assets, and HRMS, plus specialty solutions for construction and real estate businesses and nonprofit organizations. Sage 500 products are sold and supported through local business partners, are backed by Sage Business Care, and will be implementing Sage Advisor Technology to ensure you get the most from your investment.

Sage HRMS is a comprehensive human resource management system for small and midsized businesses. Available alone or integrated with Sage 100, 300, and 500 families of business management solutions, Sage HRMS helps streamline day-to-day administrative tasks and provides insights that will help you manage, forecast, and implement effective strategies to make positive changes to your bottom line.

Sage construction and real estate solutions include Sage 50 Construction Accounting for smaller contractors who want an easy-to-install accounting solution with robust job costing, progress billing, and industry-specific reports; Sage 100 Contractor for construction-specific functionality that addresses all phases of the business profit cycle including accounting and operations management; and Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate and Sage 300 Trade Specialty for midsized businesses that have advanced needs for integrated accounting, job cost, project management, estimating, and service management processes. Sage Estimating provides the ability create more estimates in less time and to increase the bid-to-win ratio for any size company.

Sage nonprofit fundraising and fund accounting solutions include Sage 50 Nonprofit Accounting for smaller organizations that want an easy-to-install, standardized solution and Sage 100 Fund Accounting for organizations that need to track and report on multiple funds across multiple budget periods to meet their reporting requirements and demonstrate accountability.
 

Frequently Asked Questions About the Sage Brand Changes

Q: Why are you changing the Sage product names?

A: Sage has long been committed to providing small and midsized businesses with high-quality business software solutions. Over the past few years, we have made significant investments in creating common support services like Sage Business Care and Sage Advisor technology to help you get the most out of your software investments, making connected services like Sage Payment Solutions available to help you increase the effectiveness of your front and back office, and significantly improving the quality of web, phone, and community support resources to deliver a superior customer experience. In the year ahead, this trend will only continue as we build even greater strength and consistency in the Sage portfolio of solutions.

To help signify this new level of capability, Sage is evolving its brand strategy to build a strong master brand that exemplifies our commitment to a superior customer experience. This strategy will include renaming many of our core product offerings under the Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 300, and Sage 500 banners, which in turn will  help simplify finding additional Sage solutions that are the right fit for your business, when and if you need them, at any stage in your business growth cycle.

Q: What do the numbers stand for in the product names? Why a number and not a name?

A: Numbers are often used in naming architectures that seek to emphasize the master brand. Examples range from Seattle’s Best Coffee to luxury car brands to many technology hardware firms. In our case, this approach helps to emphasize the Sage brand and our goal held in common across all of our products to deliver a superior experience. At the same time, the numbers help to identify the increasing levels of functionality or sophistication of the product lines. They help to make clear which products are most suitable for a business at different stages of the business growth cycle.

Q: How will Sage numbered products be different from what Sage offers today?

A: Our products will still be the same software that you use and trust today, from the easy-to-use, easy-to-implement small business accounting systems to our most complex configurable offerings. For our customers, the efficiencies gained from uniting under the Sage name will result in future product innovations and streamlined delivery of support and services for your business.

Q:   Will my current version of Sage products still work?

A: Yes, your current products will continue to work as they always have. Keep in mind that our obsolescence policy will affect which product versions will be supported in the future. Existing support policies for your Sage product will remain in effect.

Q: Will my subscriptions such as Sage Business Care, Payroll, Credit Card Processing, or other connected services change?

A: You will experience no disruption to your current services or subscriptions.

Q: Will prices or subscriptions change when the names change?

A: Price and subscription service changes are not affected by the name change. We determine these based on current market conditions as well as the cost of maintaining our products and services to the highest standards possible.

Q: Will this change how I get my software from you in the future? Will my purchase experience be the same or different?

A: There are no expected changes to how you acquire your Sage software. Plus, we are always looking for ways to make your purchase experience better.

Q: Why aren’t the names of other Sage products I use, like Sage ACT! and Sage DacEasy, changing?

A: With some products, such as Sage DacEasy, our business strategy is to support our existing customer base rather than attracting new customers; in this case, it makes sense to retain the familiar product name.

In a few cases, such as Sage ACT! and Sage SalesLogix, the products are positioned differently internationally, and it is more challenging and more confusing for our customers to change the name in these diverse markets.

Q: Will it be easier to integrate with other Sage products?

A: In the short term, there will be no changes to product integrations. However, Sage is working on future improvements to product integrations and easier migration within each product line.

Q: Will there be additional benefits of using Sage products in the future?

A: Sage is constantly improving our products. This heritage of rich feature improvements will continue, along with the benefits of Sage-wide tools, such as Sage Advisor, Sage Business Care, and Sage Business Intelligence, which will help you work more efficiently, make more informed business decisions, and get the most out of your software investment.

Q: I want to make sure I choose the right product when the names change. Do you have a list of the new names for each of the current Sage products and services?

Q: How about the Sage websites and social media sites? Will they be renamed? How will I find them?

A: We will be changing the name of the affected product websites and of the various social media channels. In addition, we are developing a plan to help bridge the transition between old and new product names, especially for the various search engines. We’ll find various ways to communicate this to you so you can continue to engage with us through the Internet.

Q: Will SAN members or Solution Providers need to recertify under the new names?

A: Certifications will not be affected by the name change.

Q: Will older versions of the products change their names to the new numbered brand? If not, how will I search for service packs, Knowledgebase articles, and so on?

A: Older versions of the product will retain their original names. The Knowledgebase will be updated to include both old and new names for searches. For most products it will be as simple as adding both names to the pull-down menu.

Q: I understand that Sage Simply Accounting and Sage Peachtree will both be named Sage 50. What’s the difference? And how will I make sure I get the right product?

A: The two different products will retain all the individual features and functionality as they have today. Over time we hope to work more efficiently and share the best ideas from both products. However, they’ll continue to address the needs of customers in the two countries, Canada and the United States.

To avoid confusion and to help you choose the correct product for your business, look for the designations “U.S. Edition” and “Canadian Edition” attached to the product names and descriptions. There will continue to be distinct packaging and graphics for the two products, and we’ll limit the marketing of each to its specific geography. This will ensure we present the best solution to our customers based on their geography.

Q: I recently purchased the Sage Simply Accounting Spanish/Bilingual edition in the U.S. Can I still get upgrades, and what is that product going to be called?

A: The current Sage Simply Accounting product that is available in the U.S. is primarily for our Spanish-speaking customers. We will continue to support this product, and its new name will be Sage 50 Accounting—Spanish/English Edition.

Q: There’s a Sage 50 U.K. version. Will Sage 50 incorporate some of that functionality?

A: The Sage 50 product in the U.K. is a distinct and separate product that is designed for small businesses in the U.K., just as Sage 50—U.S. Edition and Sage 50—Canadian Edition are designed for businesses in the U.S. and Canada respectively. Each will maintain its distinct features and functionality.
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Easily find and locate inventory tasks by accessing your inventory items and reports all in one place with QuickBooks Inventory Center. Now add a notes field or image to each item for quick identification.

Serial Number or Lot Tracking

Conveniently track serial numbers and lot numbers right inside QuickBooks. Enter serial numbers and lots at the time of purchase, transfer, or sale – this means no extra data entry is required for reliable tracking. You can track defective lots through assemblies and subassemblies, in stock on shelves, and customer purchases with new reports.

FIFO Costing

Now you have the flexibility to work in FIFO costing in addition to average costing for tracking inventory. Switch between costing methods at any time.

Excel Integration Refresh

Save formatting and save time. Now when you export your QuickBooks reports to Excel, simply refresh your previously saved worksheet and your formats will be applied to the new report. QuickBooks remembers your Excel formats so you can work seamlessly.

Calendar View

See invoices, billing, past transactions and other important tasks coming due or past due in the Calendar view. The improved “to do” list captures more relevant information to help prioritize your tasks.

Document Center

Get organized by scanning and attaching receipts, estimates and other important business documents to your QuickBooks records with drag and drop ease. The new QuickBooks Document Center lets you store files locally on your hard drive. A major advantage at tax time.

Let QuickBooks do your most frequent and time-consuming tasks for you. In addition to automatically executing recurring transactions like weekly and monthly bills and invoices, you can now easily select which transactions to run and which to postpone. Includes new bi-monthly option.

Lead Center

Track and follow up on sales leads in the new QuickBooks Lead Center. Easily import existing leads. When your lead becomes a customer, move the lead’s contact information into the Customer Center with one click.

Enhanced Inventory Receiving

Keep item receipts and bills separate. Maintain reliable inventory counts even when a single order is delivered in multiple shipments, or bills and items are received separately. Maintain reliable inventory counts even when a single order is delivered in multiple shipments. Apply item receipts or bills for each partial shipment received against the original purchase order.

Automatic Price Adjustments

Set a default percentage or dollar amount markup for your items. When costs change, choose to increase sales prices by your markup amount, or have QuickBooks automatically make the changes for you.

Faster Form Completion

Find items in your sales order based on item detail, including custom fields, directly from your sales order, invoice, or sales receipt. With the click of a button, populate the selected items into the form you’re working on.

More Multi-User Activities

Now complete more activities in multi-user mode:

Define custom fields

Set a closing date

Make deposits

Change any list sort order

More Price Levels

Now you can add up to 750 different prices in the price level list.

Batched Invoicing for Time and Expenses

Invoice multiple customers for time and expenses in one batch. Create a full set of invoices for customers with the same time and expenses. Just create the invoice and select the customer you want to send it to.

Batched Time Sheets

Create time sheets for multiple employees or vendors in one batch. Create the time sheet and select the employees or vendors who worked the same hours.

Industry Report Templates

Access industry specific report templates created by other QuickBooks users. Quickly find the report you need, with results displayed by your industry, user rating and report popularity. Click to populate the report with your business data.

Copy Transactions

You can easily create a new transaction by copying an existing one. Simply, open the transaction you want to copy and click the Copy button. The following transaction types can be copied:

Quotes

Sales Orders

Proposals

Sales Invoices

Purchase Orders

Purchases

General Journal Entries

Peachtree Business Intelligence

Peachtree Business Intelligence is an enhanced reporting tool that helps you get the information you need to make decisions about your business. It allows you to view pre-formatted reports in Microsoft Excel and to create your own reports. Note: You must have Microsoft Excel 2003 or later to use Peachtree Business Intelligence. You can use Peachtree Business Intelligence free for 60 days. After that, if you want to  continue using Peachtree Business Intelligence, you’ll have to purchase the full version. You must have Peachtree Complete Accounting or higher to purchase the full version.

Peachtree has provided you with some standard Business Intelligence reports. You can use these reports just as they are. You can also modify these reports to create new reports using the Report Manager.

To use Peachtree Business Intelligence:

Go to Reports & Forms>Business Intelligence.

Select the report you want to view.

To activate the full version Peachtree Business Intelligence, go to Reports & Forms>Business Intelligence Setup>Activation Manager.

Improved Sage Advisor

The Sage Advisor has been improved to offer you advice you need when you need it.

Now, you’ll get tips based on the areas of Peachtree you use and how you are using them. The Improved Sage Advisor will help you become more efficient and get the most out of Peachtree.

If you don’t have time to examine a message at the time it appears, you can save it to review at your convenience.

New System Navigation Center

The new System Navigation Center is a useful tool for maintaining your company data and keeping your system up to date and functioning properly.

This is a customizable dashboard where you can add and remove sections to get the information you need to protect your company data and make sure your system is running properly.

Note for upgraders: This replaces the Company Navigation Center that appeared in releases prior to Peachtree 2012.

New to Peachtree Pro, Peachtree Complete, Peachtree Premium Accounting, and Peachtree Quantum

Expanded Payroll Fields

Starting in Peachtree 2012, you can record more payroll information in the employee fields and company fields. Having more fields allows you to fully record and report on your payroll deductions, liabilities, and benefits.  You now have 40 employee fields and 40 company fields available. These payroll fields are set up in Employee Defaults.

Important Note for Upgraders: If you have any custom payroll reports or custom Import/Export templates based on the Employee List, you should double-check these to make sure they still have the correct fields selected. If you have any custom reports that contain employee fields or company fields, you will need to re-select these fields on those reports.

If you have any Import/Export templates based on the Employee List that contain employee fields or company fields, you will need to re-select these fields on those templates.

Improved Security for External Data Access

Security has been improved for accessing your Peachtree company data from outside of Peachtree. You’ll now have a specific user ID and password for accessing your Peachtree company data from outside of Peachtree. This includes access using OLEDB, ODBC, and Crystal Reports.

New to Peachtree Complete, Peachtree Premium Accounting, and Peachtree Quantum

Vendors & Purchases

The Peachtree Vendors & Purchases Navigation Center displays information and access points related to your company’s vendors.

The Vendors & Purchases tab includes a summary of vendor information, access to recently used vendor reports, and an overview of your company’s aged payables. In addition, the Navigation Center shows the flow of vendor-related tasks and takes you where you need to go to perform those tasks.

On the Vendor Management tab (not available in Peachtree Pro Accounting), you can see lists of information regarding transactions and history for a particular vendor, including purchase order, purchases, and payments. This is where you want to go to see information about a particular vendor.

Dashboard and Management Center Improvements

Customize the Size of the Sections

You can change the number of rows that display in the sections on the Management Centers. This allows you to customize the size of the sections on these dashboards.

Click the Customize link in the top right corner of a section of the dashboard to choose how many rows you want to display in that section.

Note: If you have more data than the specified number of rows, the section will have a scroll bar so you can see all of the information.

New Totals Row on the Sections

You can now see column totals on the last row of each section on the Management Centers.

Other Improvements

The date range drop-down menu always starts at the top of the date list making it easy to locate common date ranges such as Today and All.  You can use the scroll wheel on your mouse to control each Management Center’s scroll bar.  Various buttons, links, and labels have been changed to make the available functions easier to find and use.

Total Debt-to-Assets (Today) is a measure of financial leverage. It indicates the proportion of assets that have been financed with debt. It also roughly indicates the degree of risk held by creditors. The target value depends on the variability and certainty of cash flows. The

less variable and the more certain the cash flows are, the higher the Total Debt-to-Asset ratio can be. Typical values range from .35  to .75.

Return on Assets % (Past 30 Days)

Return on Assets % (Past 30 Days) is the percentage of net income to total assets over the past 30 days. It is a measure of profitablity and also a measure of the effectiveness in using assets to generate income. The target value for this measure will vary depending on the possible returns provided by other investments. A low ROA indicates a low net profit margin, or a low asset turnover, or a combination of both. The performance measurement data is only valid in the current fiscal year.

Return on Equity % (Past 30 Days)

Return on Equity % (Past 30 Days) is the percentage of net income to total equity over the past 30 days. It is a measure of profitablity and also a measure of the effectiveness in using owners’ investment to generate income. The target value for this measure will vary depending on the possible returns provided by other investments.The performance measurement data is only valid in the current fiscal year.

Sales (Past 14 Days)

Sales (Past 14 Days) is the sales revenue earned in the past 14 days. The sales revenue should be large enough to cover costs and an income to the owners. The performance measurement data is only valid in the current fiscal year.

Average Sales per Day (Past 14 Days)

Average Sales per Day (Past 14 Days) is the average sales revenue per day over the past 14 days. It is a measure of daily sales performance and is particularly useful when used with other measures for comparative or trend analysis. The performance measurement data is only valid in the current fiscal year.

Average Sales per Day (Past 7 Days) 

Average Sales per Day (Past 7 Days)  is the average sales revenue per day over the past 7 days.  It is a measure of daily sales performance and is particularly useful when used with other measures for comparative or trend analysis. The performance measurement data is only valid in the current fiscal year.

Days’ Sales in Inventory (Past 30 Days)

Days’ Sales in Inventory (Past 30 Days) is a measure of inventory based on the average daily sales over the past 30 days. It is also a measure of management performance in managing inventory, purchasing, and production. The target value will vary according to the need for inventory but a lower value is generally better. The performance measurement data is only valid in the current fiscal year.

Financial Position: How well has your company been performing?

On Friday 18 November 2011, 8:26 SGT

As far as emerging markets go, the Philippines is seldom the choice investment destination, but one analyst says the Southeast Asian nation could well become the “dark horse” of the region, thanks to its favorable demographics and sound economic fundamentals.

The Philippine’s “very robust and young population” presents a ready pool of talent, says Mark Matthews, Head of Research Asia at Bank Julius Baer. He expects the country’s population of 93 million, around half of whom are below 20 years old, to more than double to 190 million by 2040.

With fertility rates declining in the West and in Asian countries like Japan, Korea and China, the Philippines will increasingly become an important source of immigrant labor, he added.

“And the interesting thing is 80 percent of them speak English,” Matthews said. “Most people who speak English in third world countries, they don’t want to go overseas to work in sort of manual labor. But the Filipinos have no problem doing it…and they are making three times as much as they are making back at home, and they are sending it back home.”

The Philippines is already one of the world’s biggest recipients of remittances – the fourth biggest in 2010 according to the World Bank – which account for a tenth of the country’s gross national product. According to the country’s central bank, monthly remittances hit a record high of $1.7 billion in September with total remittances for the year expected at $20 billion.

The country remains in an enviable position fiscal-wise. Last year, for the first time in history, the Philippines’ gross international reserves eclipsed its external debt level, making it a “creditor” nation, according to a report by Bank Julius Baer. The country is expected to end the year with a record $76 billion in foreign reserves, which is part of the reason why ratings agency Fitch upgraded the country’s credit rating to BB+ from BB in June, just one notch below investment grade and on par with Indonesia.

And with a debt-to-GDP ratio among the lowest in Asia at under 50 percent, the Philippines is one of the most under-geared countries in the world, which makes it a less risky bet for investors. “That means it will no longer be ‘another domino’ in times of crisis,” the Bank Julius Baer noted.

Despite being one of the best performing stock markets in Asia this year, with gains of over 3 percent, compared to double-digit percentage losses in China, Japan and Singapore,” Bank Julius Baer says the market is still attractive on a valuation basis.

“The market is not expensive on 14.5x 2011 and 12.5x 2012 P/E, versus an average over the past 15 years of 12.5x,” the bank noted.

The bank is not alone in its bullish view of the Philippines. A recent survey by Bank of America-Merrill Lynch showed fund managers increasing their overweight position in the country, making it the third most preferred market, trailing China and Indonesia.

Lifted from:

http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/Invest-in-Philippines-the-cnbc-1516318407.html

Expenses to Prior Year % (Fiscal MTD) is the percentage of current expenses incurred this month to expenses incurred this month last

year.  It is a measure of how expenses this month to date compare with expenses from the same period last year.

Revenues  to Prior Year % (Fiscal MTD)

Revenues to Prior Year % (Fiscal MTD) is the percentage of current revenues earned this month to revenues earned this month last year.  It is a measure of how revenues this month to date compare with revenues from the same period last year.

Accounts Payable Balance (Today)

Accounts Payable Balance (Today) is the value of the accounts payable account. It is a measure of the amounts owing to suppliers and is particularly useful when compared with cash and accounts receivable balances.

Accounts Receivable Balance (Today)

Accounts Receivable Balance (Today) is the value of the accounts receivable account. It is a measure of the amounts owing to the business and is particularly useful when compared with cash and accounts payable balances.

Days’ Sales in Receivables (Past 365 days)

Days’ Sales in Receivables (Past 365 days) is a measure of accounts receivable based on the average daily sales over the past 365 days. It is also a measure of management performance in handling accounts receivable. The target value should be close to the number of days given before invoices are due.

Debt-to-Equity (Today)

Debt-to-Equity (Today) is a measure of financial leverage. It indicates the degree to which the business is financed by creditors versus financed by owners. It also roughly indicates the degree of risk held by creditors. The target value depends on the variability and certainty of cash flows. The less variable and the more certain the cash flows are, the higher the debt-to-equity ratio can be. Typical values range from 1.2 to 2.8.

The Average Days Outstanding – Payable is the average number of days that vendors have been waiting for payment after invoicing. It is also a measure of performance in handling accounts payable. The target value will range between the number of days given before early

payment discounts are lost and the number of days that payment can be delayed without damaging vendor relationships. Too large a value indicates an inability to pay bills.

Average Day outstanding – Receivable (Today)

The Average Days Outstanding – Receivable is the average number of days that the business has been waiting for payment after invoicing customers. It is also a measure of performance in handling accounts receivable.  The target value should be close to the number of days given before invoices are due.

Cash Balance(Today)

The Cash Balance (Today) is the sum of all Cash and Bank Accounts. The cash balances must be sufficient to handle the payments expected in the short term. If the balances are too low, the business must take steps to improve its cash position.

Gross Operating Margin

The Gross Operating Margin (Yesterday) is the gross profit earned yesterday. (The gross profit is calculated by taking yesterday’s sales and then subtracting the cost of the goods sold.) The Gross Operating Margin should be large enough to cover costs and an income to the owner. The performance measurement data is only valid in the current fiscal year.

Current Today

The Current Ratio is the ratio of Current Assets divided by Current Liabilities. It is a measure of liquidity – the ability to pay current debts. The target value depends on the business’s requirements for inventory, and its ability to sell inventory. Typically, a value of 1.50 or larger indicates that the business can meet its current obligations. A value below 1.50 indicates that the business must carefully manage its current assets and current liabilities. Too large a value indicates that too much cash or inventory is being held.

Quick (Today)

The Quick Ratio is the ratio of (Current Assets minus Inventories) divided by Current Liabilities. It is a measure of liquidity – the ability to pay current debts. This is a measure of liquidity over a very short period. Typically, a value of more than 1.00 indicates that the business can meet its current obligations fairly easily. A value below 1.00 indicates that the company must carefully manage its cash resources to meet its current obligations. A value higher than 1.5 may indicate that too much cash is being held.

By Asset Size (Php)*

Alternatively, MSMEs may also be categorized based on the number of employees:

*As defined under Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Small and Medium Enterprise Development (SMED) Council Resolution No. 01 Series of 2003 dated 16 January 2003          

Youngevity and The Simple Stores among hundreds of firms upgrading to Acumatica to gain cloud ERP benefits while easily integrating with internal systems.

BETHESDA, Md., November 1, 2011Acumatica, a provider of Cloud ERP software, today announced that QuickBooks customers are upgrading in droves to Acumatica to handle the complexities caused by success and expansion. Growing businesses like The Simple Stores and Youngevity moved to Acumatica to eliminate manual processes by accessing an integrated set of accounting, inventory, sales, ecommerce, and customer management applications.

Youngevity (www.youngevity.com) is a health products distributor that needed complex inventory management and an application programming interface to connect to their proprietary sales tracking system. Acumatica Cloud ERP delivered the ability to handle increasing capacity requirements while providing users with access to real-time data and reports from anywhere. Most importantly, by replacing QuickBooks, Youngevity was able to reassign personnel from routine manual processes to growth and investment opportunities.

“Acumatica saved us time and money processing over 4,500 orders per day,” said Chris Nelson, CFO at Youngevity. “Since Acumatica is cloud-based and can scale rapidly, the software can support our double and triple digit growth rates more cost effectively than traditional solutions such as SAP and Epicor.”

The Simple Stores (www.thesimplestores.com) is an online furnishings retailer that needed ecommerce integration, access to their business data from anywhere, and profitability analysis. By upgrading from QuickBooks, The Simple Stores was able to link purchase orders with sales orders to determine profitability on drop shipments and use sophisticated web services to integrate with their best in breed ecommerce system. Acumatica’s API allowed The Simple Stores to use common development tools and internal resources to develop integrations in a couple weeks instead of months quoted by other web-based vendors.

“We saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in customization and operational expenses using Acumatica’s development tools to support our unique supplier relationships,” said Brad Busino, President at The Simple Stores. “This allowed us to grow beyond QuickBooks and keep costs low so we can help more customers save on home furnishings.”

Acumatica is the only ERP vendor that allows businesses to upgrade from QuickBooks to a web-based solution that can be deployed on-premise, hosted, or purchased as an all-inclusive SaaS solution. QuickBooks customers who have upgraded to a SaaS solution become frustrated by vendor lock-in that leads to recurring price increases. QuickBooks customers who have upgraded to client-server solutions find that it’s expensive to manage the additional complexity of client software, VPNs, and terminal services required to gain access from anywhere. Acumatica deployment flexibility allows customers to overcome issues with both SaaS-only and client-server solutions.

For more information and detailed case studies,

Written by Dennis Frahmann, EVP, Marketing for Sage North America

In July at Sage Summit 2011, Sage announced a branding strategy that prompted a lot of feedback and interest. In simplest terms, the Sage strategy is to move from a house of product names cobranded with Sage to a strong branded house, emphasizing Sage. Sage is moving away from a model like Adobe Systems, where individual products such as Adobe Photoshop are emphasized for different markets and needs, toward a model like Cisco, where the focus is on how the Cisco portfolio can help meet its customers’ network needs.

Why a Master Brand?

While almost everyone agrees that a stronger Sage brand is desirable, many question why that strength needs to come at the expense of existing product brands. To answer that, consider what makes a brand strong. It is at least three things: 1. Do people know the brand? 2. Do they think positively about the brand? 3. Do they connect that brand to the available set of relevant solutions?

The Sage North American portfolio currently encompasses over 40 product brands. According to annual brand-tracking studies, only three of them—Sage Peachtree, Sage Simply Accounting, and Sage ACT!—have aided awareness higher than that of Sage in North America. Five years ago, before the name Sage was added to the product brands, Sage itself was virtually unknown. Cobranding over the past five years has paid off, but awareness levels remain significantly below competition. By focusing resources on one brand, not 40, Sage is far more likely to make significant inroads quickly. That is exactly what has been seen in other Sage regions where this approach has already been taken.

A strong brand needs to be more than just recognized. It also needs to be associated with positive attributes that are meaningful to potential customers. Sage has a number of strong characteristics coming into common play, from its work with Sage Advisor to the scope of Sage Business Care to the quality of the customer experience. All of its offerings will benefit if they get associated with this common story. Again, connecting these characteristics to each product is quite challenging. A focused effort on the master brand has much faster payoff—especially when the brand scores high on customer experience in its various forms, many of which are outside of the software itself.

The final concern with the current portfolio of product brands is that almost 100% of the current customer base knows that their product is part of Sage, and customers overall have a positive view of Sage. At the same time, customers almost never recognize that other products in Sage’s portfolio are in fact from Sage. This probably shouldn’t be a surprise. Record almost any meeting or conversation among employees, partners, and customers. The word “Sage” will seldom be mentioned. It will all be focused on the product brand name. Often, at Sage Summit, I encountered customers who were astounded to discover that their needs could have been solved by Sage, if only they had realized the reach of the Sage portfolio. Add to this a reverse challenge involving a prospective customer’s perspective of Sage. Again, at Sage Summit, I heard from a partner who recently lost a large CRM deal. Even though the Sage solution had been selected and a contract drawn, the deal was lost when a newly hired CIO came on board who didn’t know Sage. The competitor won, not because of its product’s merits, but because of its brand.

Put it all together: There’s a lot of work to do to create a strong brand. Spread that effort and investment across dozens of brands, and progress will be slow. Take a more aggressive master brand approach, and progress will be quicker.

Why Use Numbers?

Many agree that focusing on Sage and dropping product brand names is a sensible prioritization of resources. But some question why Sage plans to use a product numbering system to denote targeted customer segments.

Overall, the purpose of using numbers rather than simply generic technology categories is because Sage has multiple products in the financial space, and those solutions are targeted at different customer segments. Sage needs to acknowledge that and help potential customers understand that. Numbers are a way to do that.

People are concerned that the numbers will imply a sequence of increasing capability. Yes, they will. That’s intentional. Numbers will be used in a way that is totally aligned with how Sage has consistently positioned its product portfolio to analysts, press, partners, and customers these past few years.

Another concern is that the numbers raise customer experience expectations. Yes, they will. We recognize that. In fact, the master branding strategy is just one part of a strategy to make the Sage customer experience far more consistent. Our business partners are right to caution Sage on not overreaching and remind the company of past expectations not met. We realize that we must be careful in the expectations we set, but it is totally appropriate and necessary for our branding strategy to emphasize setting common expectations.

Admittedly, there are different approaches beyond numbers that could be used to achieve these same goals. However, numbers are often used in naming architectures that seek to emphasize the master brand. Examples range from Seattle’s Best Coffee to luxury car brands to many technology hardware firms. The number approach has been in use in most Sage European regions for many years. For Sage North America, it makes sense to build off a system that has worked for other parts of Sage and not to try to create something new.

What Are the Details?

Sage chose at Sage Summit to share with its channel community the broad strategic direction of our brand work, and several reporters also wrote about it. By providing an opportunity for reaction and feedback, Sage believed it would end up with a better overall plan.

As a result, we’ve received many good ideas and also seen much speculation. Some are concerned about details that may or may not enter the plan, or even that Sage isn’t considering the need for details. We are fully committed to providing our channel with full details later this fall and will follow that with clear communication to our existing customers. This will include the specific products that will be renamed, what their new names will be, the timetable for the change, and the steps we will be taking to support the transition. The general timeline is that initial products will be changed in early 2012, with the process completed by the end of 2012.

Speaking for Sage, we have already found valuable input and perspectives from the online conversations that have helped refine our plans. For example, we have been working for months already with our marketing agencies on specific search engine marketing plans, but some of the conversations have raised specific nuances we needed to add to the plan. We continue to meet individually with selected partners and advisory groups to get more formal input as well. On a personal level, I welcome input from any of our partners.

Please be aware I am unlikely to comment on your input publicly. Sage will provide a detailed plan as our next activity, but that plan will have been fully agreed to and vetted. Providing individual details out of context would be counterproductive.

By the end of 2012, as this rebranding effort nears it completion, both Sage and partners should begin to see positive results. When customers truly begin to understand how Sage and its partner community can help them achieve their business goals, all of us will in turn see how clearer and more focused brand communication helps our businesses succeed.

Lifted from:

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