Sage MAS 500 Differentiators

You will find that many systems cover the basics fairly well but there are differences between them that can be crucial. Our analysis was conducted a few years ago for a seminar presented at the Financial Technology Show. We will endavour to provide an update to our analysis in the near future.

Target Market

small and medium-size companies with $25 - $100 Million in revenues.

Sage

According to Sage, it is the #1 PC-based vendor of accounting and business solutions in the world with worldwide revenues of $815 Million US, profit of $12 Million US in 2002 and 3.1 million installations.

Microsoft-Centric Technology

MAS 500 was built from scratch in the last few years using Microsoft development tools and it has been optimized to run on the Microsoft SQL Server database.

Customization

MAS 500 has strong features not only in screen changes but in also adding custom applications. Customization is outside of source code so that there are not conflicts in upgrades.

Manufacturing

MAS 500 will appeal to discrete manufacturers and includes Shop Floor Control, MRP, Planning and Scheduling, Estimation, Product Configurator and Engineering Change Management. Create a work order from a sales order.

Replenishment

MAS 500 not only incorporates seasonal cycles, sales history and lead times, but will also recommend the supplier with the best performance.

Project Accounting

MAS 500 also includes project accounting, remote timesheet and expense reporting, and a 2-way link to Microsoft Project.

CRM

MAS 500 includes customer service and sales force automation.

SalesLogix

MAS 500 also provides good integration with SalesLogix (customer relationship management) which is also owned by Best. By using SalesLogix, users can access MAS 500 information without needing a MAS 500 license.

Advanced reporting and analysis

Includes tracking the Key Performance Indicators. With Business Insights Analyser any user can create presentation quality reports and mine information resident in the database.

Advanced Financials

MAS 500 includes consolidations and allocations.