Circle The Wagons

Not Long ago Sage Software had a roundtable webinar with it's VAR base to broadcast what they feel is a successful launch of their MAS 90 and MAS 200 version 4.2 release . In the meeting, Sage Software management touted a "successful" launch of the version 4.20 release of MAS 90 and MAS 200.

As we walk through the decision of whether or not to jump ship on MAS 90 and MAS 200, we have to take a careful look at the propeganda vs. the reality and attempt to discern what the heck is really going on.

The version 4.20 release was delayed by several months due to a handful of factors, not the least of which was Sage had simply not completed the database transformation of all the modules they had intended to convert.

Then Microsoft released Windows Vista and Sage had a new challenge to suffer, making MAS compatible with the new Vista Operating System. Shortly after the Vista release, Sage published a "Vista Compatibility Statement" where they listed a myriad or reasons MAS 90 and MAS 200 were not going to be ready for Vista anytime soon.

The pre-release info on MAS 90 and MAS 200 version 4.2, let out last year announced that Sage would be converting Accounts Payable, Purchase Order and Inventory Management modules to the new database. However Sage was unable to find a relevant number of end using businesses to do beta conversion testing up to version 4.2 due to the debockle known as the 4.10 upgrade.

In addition, neither the PO or IM modules were truly ready for release.

So essentially Sage announced a grand and substanative release with 4.2, ended up being 6 months or more late, and released one-third (1/3) of what they originally intended, then had a party announcing the wonderful success of the release.

All things considered, the water is still merky and it is a gamble either way. In the coming days and weeks, continue to read this blog to learn more about whether or not we should stay commited to MAS 90.