Why Do We Call It “Migration”?
“Migration” – more than an ‘upgrade’ – less than ‘starting all over again.’ That is the new lingo for Sage Pro ERP users. Since Microsoft announced its “end of life” strategy for Visual FoxPro TM, Sage Pro ERP (Accpac Pro/SBT) users have been asking us, their long time Sage Business Partner, “What’s the next step for accounting and operations software for our business?”
Sage Pro users view the notion of migration differently, depending on how effectively they have been deploying their systems up to this point, how tightly integrated it is into the operational fabric of the organization and how they view the importance of getting timely business intelligence.
- Migrating means: Preserving as much good data as you can reasonably afford to bring over.
- Migrating means: Keeping the complexity of business procedures at the same (or appropriate) level of complexity to use the system.
- Migrating means: Maintaining your current Business Partner as the “Trusted Advisor” through-out the process and not risk losing someone who knows your business requirements well.
- Migrating means: Leveraging your software publisher’s (Sage), software pricing to pick any product you want to move to at low cost.
- Migrating means: Picking a software product to grow your business with all the features and reporting tools that you need without re-creating all your expensive “have it your way,” modifications.
The first step in leveraging your migration options is recognizing the need for change. Our customers have provided us with a laundry list of reasons. See if you can find your company concerns in the list:
- “We needed to buy new hardware and it came with an operating system that doesn’t support our current accounting system.”
- “We have modified our Sage Pro system so much that it costs too much to upgrade it.”
- “Our Company down-sized the last few years. We don’t need such a big system.”
- “Our Company has grown significantly and we need a more robust and flexible system.”
- “Management requires new, timelier reporting. We’re sick of paying to develop custom reports every time we need to see something new…and we want to see a dashboard of key indicators and not waste paper printing a lot of reports.”
- “Our Accountant has told us to buy, XXX, instead of Sage Pro. What do you think?”
- “You tell us Visual FoxPro is going away. What is going to happen to our system?”
All these concerns and more, suggest that it is time for you to consider “migrating” your Sage Pro accounting system. Watch for my next post: What should I do with all my old accounting data?
