He invoked the fact that Epicor 9 was doing well selling to new accounts – frequently.

I’m not entirely sure why – but the press didn’t follow up on this theme  - instead mostly asking currency conversion and sales commission type questions.

Epicor didn’t  have much to say about their retail software which apparently has undergone some management changes. At one point in the call they quickly mentioned a reorganization around retail.

They mostly mumbled through any discussion of the retail portions of the call. I had the impression that retail is definitely lagging. They also seem to sell hardware as there was discussion of ($8 million I think) or hardware sales. If I remember correctly the margin was fairly tiny.

They did talk quite a bit about on a 94% maintenance renewal rate — which somewhat puzzled me because the quarterly comparative maintenance revenue seemed pretty flat. One analyst asked about this (about the only good question asked) to which there was a very long Epicor pause. No real answer from Klaus or the panel on this (which I believe included CFO Michael Pietrini) .

They claim well over 100 Epicor 9 are out “on evaluation” but Klaus quips – “don’t quote” him (funny thing to say at an analyst press conference)….

Earnings report said over 140 Epicor 9 are ready to go live this year (as opposed to about 200 already installed).

Early on Epicor hit on three things that they thought were driving sales:

1. More prospects (I took this to mean people looking for niche software)
2. More industries served with Epicor 9
3. More localization – they apparently are able to utilize Epicor 9 in another 20 languages/locales (unsure on this number exactly as I was connecting via cell to the call and not near a computer)

The company made a clear point that sales to existing customers — upgrades, new modules — were relatively flat or down. This is another area they spent little time on –  when questioned by an analyst of course the company expects to convert many of their install base to Epicor 9.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to ask any questions as it seemed to be softball analyst day.

Here’s The Relevant Epicor Questions None Of The Analysts Thought To Ask

A. What percent of sales are channel versus direct (I hear it’s 85% direct with a goal of 60% – which sounds like being a little pregnant. Epicor has a mixed track record here so caveat emptor)

In the past several years Epicor has toyed with a channel, then not using a channel, then going back to using a channel.

My .02 is that companies start going through a channel when they feel they’ve pulled all the low hanging fruit. Channels are expensive because you not only have to cut them in on compensation but you need to manage them, create rules and ultimately deal with infighting that occurs when your market matures.

Epicor touted about 1,000 channel partners on the call. How many of these are castoffs onboarded in the last year?  The ramp up for new partners is slow and tedious. Especially in niche markets with more complex products.

B. Who are your three biggest competitors (because I believe Epicor is probably benefiting from a market shift to niche software)

C. What effect will the new emphasis by Microsoft and Oracle on specialization for their channel have on Epicor’s sales into market niches. (My guess is not a lot immediately but probably in 2 years quite a bit).

That’s all I remember — I was connected by cell while out of the office so some of the specific numbers I’m stating from memory could be a little off but in general this was the tone of the call.

Marketwatch

The major new items were relatively minor. The Q4 product update for 2010 will now be a payroll only update. The MAS 200 SQL product is announced as being on track for end of year release and has just started a beta in early July.

What’s perhaps the most interesting about this version of the roadmap is the detail that Sage includes on their FRX replacement plans.

Of course Sage has announced previously that Alchemex – rebranded Sage ERP MAS Intelligence – is their Microsoft Excel based business reporting tool that’s slated to replace FRX.

There’s more information in the MAS 90 Roadmap which you can view in full here.

All users on the system were receiving a message:

“The directory in P/L Journal and Register Maintenance is invalid”

The solution?

Usually this is simply an indication that a user does not have sufficient rights to a folder. In this case it was a little more complex. Users could clearly see and write to the paperless storage folder. What they could not do is write to it through MAS 200.

It turns out the cause was the service account that MAS 200 (a new setup on a new server) had been configured to use.

As Alnoor wisely explains:

Try running MAS in MAS90 style then use SERVER1 for the path in PL Jrnl and Reg Maint. If it works, it may be MAS 200 is executing the path to SERVER1 from the server’s perspective. IOW, the Windows account running the MAS Application Server cannot see SERVER1 for whatever reason such as:

* Service is running using LocalSystem account which doesn’t work with UNCs and mapped drives
* A domain acct isn’t being used for the App Server.

Problem solved. Posted in case anyone else is running into the same issue.

via Alnoor Cassim

Sage’s new Business Intelligence product, MAS Intelligence, will begin shipping to partners later this month (July) and to end users next month.  “Shipping” actually consists of a download.

The product is made up of several modules, including the Report Manager, Report Designer, Security Manager, Report Viewer, and Connector modules.  Each end user will receive the Report Manager free of charge.

The Report Manager allows users to run the standard reports that ship with it, copy these reports and modify the copies, and create new reports, as long as these reports use the “Containers” that are already setup.  Containers are similar to the Views that come with Business Insights Reports – pre-defined links to certain MAS90/MAS200 files.  Shipping with the standard version are containers for financial statements, multi-company financial statements, GL transactions,  sales history, PO information, and inventory information.  To access any container but the multi-company consolidation container, you login to the ODBC connection, much like logging into FRx or Crystal Reports (if run outside of MAS90/MAS200) and the company you have logged into will be the company used for any reporting during that session.

Resellers will also receive the Report Designer and the Connector modules.  The Report Designer allows users to create financial reports using a “drag and drop” feature.  The Connector module allows users to create connections to new files in MAS90/MAS200, or to other software packages, such as Sage CRM, etc.

As a reseller, you may create a report using a new container and export it for a client, who can then import it.  HOWEVER, the client must either own the Connector module OR a second license of the Report Manager module.  You may also create reports using the standard containers and export those, as well, but again, the end user must own a second license of the Report Manager module.

The Security Manager allows for an extra level of security by report.  A more likely route for security, though, will be the use of ODBC Security in Role Maintenance (which the end user will not have to purchase additionally).

The Report Viewer is much like the FRx Viewer, allowing users to run reports but not modify them.

All reports in Sage MAS Intelligence are actually created in Excel (not EXPORTED to Excel, actually CREATED in Excel).  Several Add-Ins allow users to more easily make changes to reports, including a Quick Pivot Table option, etc.  Reports can be emailed and scheduled, as well.

Sage hopes to have training classes for Sage Certified Trainers available in September, with classes for end users starting after that.

via: Beth Bowers – Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 Consultant – Michigan

http://www.s-consult.com/2010/06/24/whats-new-in-mas-90-4-4-product-update-2/

Posted by Brett Zimmerman.

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end if

Breakfast and lunch was served while attendees learned about the following topics:

• What’s new in MAS90 and MAS200 4.4
• Product update 4.4.1
• Custom Office and Customizer Scripting
• Synergistic Software’s Purchase Agent add-on
• Valogix Inventory Replenishment Solution
• The Clients First hosted backup solution.

The entire user group was recorded and edited for brevity below. I have indicated the time markets so you can jump to the section of interest. Please keep in mind, the video will start playing immediately, but you can’t jump to a section that hasn’t downloaded yet. If you want to be able to scroll through the whole video, start playing it, hit the pause button and wait for the progress bar to fully download the video.

If it is downloading too slowly (this is a high-definition video) due to a slow internet connection, we have a lower resolution version available here: watch now

This direct mail from Greytrix arrived in my email inbox earlier this week. The company is promoting a free upgrade promotion where most of the data from Intuit’s QuickBooks solution will be migrated (including certain history) at not cost.
Quite frankly this offer seemed too qood to be true. There must be a catch.

So I asked 90Minds members if anyone had taken Greytrix and Sage up on this offer. Our member Ed Wlodarczyk just happened to be finishing up an implementation that included a conversion with Greytrix.

He was kind enough to allow us to present his un-edited email response regarding his experiences:

We used the QB conversion in November/December with a new client.

Our biggest obstacle was getting set up with Sage for the conversion; there was a lot of confusion on their end regarding exactly how to get started, but they finally came through and got me on the right track.

There wasn’t a lot of history, but what there was came over beautifully. AR invoice detail is present, with all QB information included in lines detail. AP looks pretty good as well. GL was complete – all transactions for the year and the prior year. You can pay extra to go back further, but it wasn’t necessary in our case. This company did not have inventory, so I don’t have any idea how that would have converted.

Ed Wlodarczyk
ewlodarczyk@jaxcpa.com
Ennis, Pellum & Associates, CPA’s
Find us on LinkedIn at http://tinyurl.com/epa-jaxcpa
Find me on LinkedIn at

Greytrix

It outlines via screenshots all of the new capabilities included in this service release of Sage MAS 90 and Sage MAS 200.  New features include, but not limited to:

• Enhanced searching in Cash Receipts entry.  You can even find invoices based on the serial number of an item sold on it.
• Record wire transfers in AP Check processing (doesn’t actually do the ACH file creation though)
• Setup Automatic Earnings Codes for employees in payroll
• Enhanced Purchase Controls in SO entry.  Can limit customers to only be able to buy certain items for example.
• Print Back Orders on Picking Sheets.
• Avoid Duplicate Picking Sheet Printing
• New Bin and Lot searching in the Inventory Module
• New Credit Card Encryption that is part of the new PCI-DSS regulations.
• New ability to search in Data File Display and Maintenance (Should only be used by consultants and support personnel)

This is the first drop in the plans for Sage to include normally extra charge Extended Solutions into the base product.  More should be coming over the next 2 years or so

Whats New in MAS90 + MAS200 Product Update 4.4.01

So far, here are some of the newsworthy items to arise from the demonstration last week:

• User licenses will be named – not concurrent.
• BII is Excel 2007 based (BII is compatible with all versions of Excel, but the new Financial wizard/designer requires Excel 2007)

• Each organization active on Basic Maintenance will receive one user license.
• There was no mention of utilities to convert FRX statements and our guess is that there won’t be one.
• Multi-company consolidations will require a separate purchase of a connector – pricing TBD.
• Data can be read from all modules and all fields – not just the GL as FRX was only able to do.
• BII will initially be available at MAS 90 level 4.4 only. Sage is looking at v4.3 support. We do not think the supported versions will go any earlier than 4.3.

For more information visit  Sage Alchemex Business Insights Intelligence Recorded Demo