Sage announces launch of Sage ERP X3 Version 7

Strategic sales director for Sage ERP in South Africa Justin Robbins  has announced the pending launch of Sage ERP X3 Version 7, which is due for release in the  first quarter of 2014  in Zimbabwe by Chips Enterprise Solutions.

Version 7 is an upgrade from Sage ERP Version 6, which is currently in use on the market in Zimbabwe. The upgrade will be fairly seamless for clients who are on V6.

Speaking at a workshop in Harare on Friday (June 14) hosted by Chips  on the pending launch, Mr Robbins said Version 7 would come with a new dashboard with graphs that are cleaner and sharper than those of earlier versions for reporting functionality.

It will be fully customisable, which will make it possible for the user to change the colours to match, for example, a company's corporate colours.

This latest version of Sage ERP X3 will have Excel imbedded fully into the system. An Excel based reporting tool will make it possible to extract data from Excel onto Sage ERP X3 or from Sage ERP X3 onto Excel and work from there.

Sage ERP X3 Version 7 will give users the ability to operate in a mobile environment. It will be compatible with all mainstream platforms such as Apple IOS and Android. In addition the web client will also work natively on all the mainstream web browsers such as Explorer, Chrome, Apple Safari and others. This has been made possible by the client interface now being developed in HTML 5.

Mr Robbins explained that once it is launched it will be possible to do quotes, sales orders and customer support, among other things, while in the field via a mobile device such as a cellphone or tablet.

He said things like signatures could be obtained while one is in the field and be sent back to the head office instantly. A workflow of the authorisation process for, say, purchasing requisition may be defined and approvals may be carried out remotely using a mobile device.

"Mobility will make it customisable and will facilitate an increase in productivity," said Mr Robbins.

Version 7 will also make it possible to look at trends and make sense of the business as well as do forecasting.

A 'what if' analyser will allow one to change values in one field and see how they would affect those in another field.

"Version 7 was made to make life easier," said Mr Robbins. "Businesses want more functionality and simplicity and the system needs to anticipate where the business is going," he said.

He said yesterday's business programmes had limited function, were difficult to use, hard to change, easy to break and costly to maintain, while today's business software was comprehensive, instant, real time, intuitive, adaptive and easy to maintain, making it pointless to hire many people.

Sage ERP X3 version 7 will also have drill down functionality.

Speaking at the same occasion, Karen Mavunga, a Sage consultant for Sage ERP 1000 at Chips Computing Services, took those attending the workshop through the latest version of Sage ERP 1000, Version 4, that was launched in November last year.

She said Version 4 supported mass emailing, making it possible to email all the customers in one's database within a short space of time.

Sage ERP 1000 Version 4 also makes it possible to export documents to Excel as well as email confidential documents while they are password protected.

It also makes it possible to attach images to a product that is within the system which users will be able to view. Version 4 comes with integrated front and back office to enhance customer satisfaction.

"Sage ERP 1000 is simple, flexible and consistent," said Ms Mavunga. "It can also be easily integrated with Sage ERM and Sage CRM," she said.

Some of the features that come with Sage ERP 1000 Version 4 include Layout Manager and Sage Asset 1000, which makes it possible to better manage assets.

Speaking on Sage products in general, Mr Robbins said because things were always changing there was need to continue introducing new products to suit the change.

"Change is constant. Today's businesses demand a new breed of solutions," he said.

"Africa has a more agile environment and we can do a lot more in our business even though we do not have the automation that others do," he said.