Enterprise Software Certification ReportEnterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for Services

Sage ERP Accpac 6.0Gabriel Gheorghiu and Philippe Reney, TEC Research Analysts

October 2011

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Table of Contents

TEC Product Certification Report 3

Background and Analyst View 5

Product Highlights 6

Product Analysis 8

Analyst Summary 19

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TEC Product Certification ReportSage ERP Accpac certified by

Philippe Reney, Research Analyst, Technology Evaluation CentersGabriel Gheorghiu, Research Analyst, Technology Evaluation Centers

Demonstration conducted by Rob Lawson, Field Service Engineer, Sage

Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) is pleased to announce that Sage ERP Accpac is now TEC Certified for online evaluation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for services in the ERP Evaluation Center. The ERP Evaluation Center enables you to compare and evaluate functionality based on TEC’s comprehensive model of ERP for services software. Data used in the Evaluation Center are obtained from the vendor’s responses to TEC’s request for information (RFI). Certification ensures that Sage has demonstrated Sage ERP Accpac's support for specific real-world business processes chosen by TEC analysts; and that TEC analysts have analytically and comparatively reviewed Sage ERP Accpac RFI data against known benchmarks.

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Benefits of Evaluating a TEC Certified Product There are many benefits to evaluating a TEC Certified product. To potential clients of a software vendor, TEC certification provides the following:

Reassurance: You can be assured that the data TEC provides about its certified products conform to a well-defined standard of accuracy. When a vendor’s product is TEC Certified, it means that a trusted, independent third party has seen the product up close.

Better communication with vendors: TEC certification helps ensure that vendors understand and respond accurately to their clients’ RFIs. Certification with TEC analysts provides the opportunity to clarify any issues with the RFI criteria. This ensures that the vendor is speaking the same language as its potential clients—and gives the clients an unam-biguous specification of product functionality to inform their selections.

The certification seal is a valuable indicator for organizations that rely on the integrity of TEC’s research services for assistance with their software selection projects. Organizations looking for a solution can be confident that they’re comparing the product on an “apples to apples” basis with other, similar products.

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Background and Analyst ViewThe Basic Software Group (a company from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) launched Accpac in the late 1970s as an accounting package for small to medium businesses (SMBs). Accpac initially used the Control Program for Microcomputers (CPM) operating system, but was adapted for the MS-DOS and IBM operating systems in the 1980s, with the release of the Windows version in 1994 (now used by 275,000 people in 170 countries). Computer Associates acquired the Basic Software Group in 1985, and Accpac was sold to Sage in 2004, which rebranded the product to Sage ERP Accpac in 2011. Sage also released a Web-based version of the solution, called Sage ERP Accpac Online.

Sage offers an interesting option to all its customers, the Sage Partner Solution Source (http://www.sagepss.com), which lets users search for software products developed by its partners—by business need, industry, and even certification level (Sage- certified or -endorsed partners).

Sage ERP Accpac focuses on companies active in industries such as professional services, industrial equipment, building materials and food and beverage, with up to 500 employees. In other words, Sage ERP Accpac is for companies that need more functionality than that offered by QuickBooks or Peachtree, but not as complex as that offered by Sage ERP MAS 500. Sage ERP Accpac vertical solutions are offered for mining, service, media and hospitality, and transportation. Sage ERP Accpac is delivered in three editions: 100, 200, and 500, with the differences related to the number of companies allowed, the number of users, the number of years of history, and certain functionality that is not included in all editions (for more information, please consult the Sage ERP Accpac Edition Differences Overview sheet). Sage ERP Accpac integrates with Service Manager (provided by Technisoft, a Sage Endorsed Development partner) to provide service and maintenance solutions to its customers.

Version 6.0 of Sage ERP Accpac brings three types of enhancements: technological improvements (support for HTML5, ATOM, RSS, and XML); functional improvements (analytics and business intelligence, portals, workflows, financials, etc.); and a new user interface. Sage ERP Accpac also provides functionality for companies operating in multicurrency, multilanguage, and multisite environments. For more details on the functional enhancements and the level of support provided by Sage ERP Accpac for services companies see the Product Highlights and Product Analysis sections of this report.

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Product Highlights With version 6.0, Sage ERP Accpac provides not only a more user-friendly solution, but also a more flexible software that can be more easily customized, managed, as well as integrated with other Sage products or add-ons provided by Sage partners. The online version offers functionality for accounting, purchasing, sales, customer management, operations, and distribution; extra functionality is available at additional cost, such as: time and billing, service management, purchasing workflow, check and form printing, payroll, etc.

We certified the on-premise version of Sage ERP Accpac, and the highlights below as well as the functionality described in the Product Analysis section refer to this version.

Based on four main principles, here are the product highlights for Sage ERP Accpac:

Ease of Use• Layout: The new Web interface makes navigation easier and gives more flexibility to the user in creating shortcuts and

dashboards, customizing views, etc. The home page is made up of snapshots, which are tabs that contain either graphs, reports, or the most frequently accessed features. A toolbar with icons helps users easily navigate to the functionality they need. All these shortcuts can be customized by the user. An example of the home page of a typical user is shown below:

• Task performance: As mentioned above, navigation is made easier by the use of shortcuts, and expandable menus are available for all major functionality types. Most screens have several tabs, and navigation from one tab to another is easy, so that users do not need to use several screens. The new Sage ERP Accpac Portal also improves task performance by allowing users to connect to the system.

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• Integration capabilities: Sage ERP Accpac integrates with many other Sage products, such as Sage Abra and SageCRM, or their modules, depending on the needs of the customer. Service Manager from Technisoft is also fully integrated with Sage ERP Accpac.

Workflow Design• Information retrieval: Buttons to move to the next, previous, first, or last record are also available, and records can be

filtered and grouped by using various criteria. Search functionality is also available for many fields, which are marked with a magnifier icon so that users know they can use them for that purpose. Filters to retrieve the information needed can be created and saved for future use. The new Sage ERP Accpac Inquiry feature can be used to rapidly retrieve information from the system.

• Security: Role-based security rules can be defined and managed for access to screens and reports. Audit trail functionality is also present and can be used to keep track of who's doing what and when. For Sage ERP Accpac Online, Sage offers SAS 70 certified storage facilities and service level agreements for performance and availability.

• Reporting capabilities: Forms can be used to customize and print reports. Using Sage ERP Accpac Inquiry, the data retrieved can be exported into a file or printed as a report. Sage ERP Accpac Intelligence is another tool released in version 6.0, which enhances reporting and analytics functionality. Integrated with Excel, the new tool allows users to manipulate data in a spreadsheet and save the changes to a report or dashboard. The Security Manager can be used to schedule reports and limit access of users to the data. Sage ERP Accpac Insight is a business intelligence tool that can be used for advanced information management (some of its functionality requires a Data Warehouse module).

Ease of Implementation• Server and DBMS platforms: Sage ERP Accpac works with three database types: Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and

Pervasive SQL. From the server and client perspectives, only Microsoft operating systems are supported. Sage ERP Accpac Online is available on demand and only requires a Web browser.

• Flexibility: The new Web technology used to redesign the solution can be used by administrators to not only manage the system, but also build and deploy applications as well as manage integrations between Sage ERP Accpac and other solutions. To extend existing functionality, users can search for add-ons and partner solutions in the Sage Partner Solution Source.

Innovation • New features: The new Web interface is one of the major enhancements in version 6.0, and it improves the navigation

and flexibility of the system, and allows integration with more tools and add-ons. Reporting and analytics is enhanced by new tools: (Sage ERP Accpac Inquiry, Sage ERP Accpac Inquiry Insight, and Sage ERP Accpac Intelligence); Sage ERP Accpac Portal allows internal and external users to easily access the system remotely, and SageCRM Workflow enhancements improve the integration between front- and back-office modules.

• Pricing: As mentioned in the Background and Analyst View section, Sage ERP Accpac is delivered in three editions: 100, 200, and 500. Each edition offers different functionality, database options, deployment methods, and payment options. Sage ERP Accpac Online offers a pay-as-you-go model, with a commitment for minimum of one year and the option to move to on-premise if required.

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Product AnalysisThe following high-level graphs identify this product's functional focus and competitive strengths. All data may be reviewed in depth, using the TEC Advisor decision support system in TEC's public Evaluation Centers.

The TEC Focus IndicatorTM

This TEC Focus Indicator shows you which types of functionality are most likely to differentiate Sage ERP Accpac from other products in the ERP for services software space. It includes three zones indicating the product's functional focus: the Dominant Zone, Competitive Zone, and Minimal Support Zone. TEC's model of ERP for services systems is designed with a comprehensive breadth; generally vendors will deliver a common base of functionality. While it's necessary to know whether a product supports a base of common functionality, it's very helpful to understand how a product really differs from the crowd.

The rankings in this Focus Indicator represent neither the quality of the product nor an absolute quantity of supported functionality. Rather, the rankings show support relative to the quantity of functionality supported, on average, by software products in this market space. The functional focus axes indicate the modules of a typical ERP for services product. Red dots that are near the center of the functional focus axes reveal where Sage ERP Accpac is more likely to differentiate itself through breadth of functionality. If your needs tend toward the type of functionality for which the red dots are located closer to the center of the Focus Indicator, this product will be a strong competitor for what you need.

TEC Focus Indicator for Sage ERP Accpac

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Criteria Legend1 Portfolio and Project

Management2 Resource Planning and Scheduling3 Opportunity, Contact, and

Contract Management4 Time and Expense Management5 Financial Management,

Budgeting, Costing, and Billing6 Knowledge Management,

Collaboration, and Analysis7 Third-party Integration8 Back-office Functionality

Competitive ZoneSage ERP Accpac has seven modules located in the Competitive Zone: Portfolio and Project Management; Opportunity, Contact, and Contract Management; Time and Expense Management; Financial Management, Budgeting, Costing, and Billing; Knowledge Management, Collaboration, and Analysis; Third-party Integration; and Back-office Functionality. Sage ERP Accpac is competitive with most products in these core areas. Strong functionality for these modules is provided either out of the box or through integration with other Sage solutions (e.g., Sage Abra for Human Resources and SageCRM for Customer Relationship Management) or partners (Accellos for Warehouse Management System).

Minimal Support ZoneSage ERP Accpac has one module located in the Minimal Support Zone: Resource Planning and Scheduling.

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Understanding the TEC Focus Indicator ZonesTEC defines an average solution using data about real software products available on the market. We assess the capabilities of the software and assign numeric ratings representing various levels of support in our models of enterprise software. Depending on the model, we use anywhere from a thousand to several thousand criteria to determine average scores. These models and product scores may be accessed through our publicly available Evaluation Centers.

We calculate what an average solution would look like based on the features and functions about which software vendors have provided us with recent information. We then normalize the scores of this solution as the circle labeled "Industry Average" bisecting the TEC Focus Indicator graph. We also define boundaries on the high and low ends of the average, which are the demarcation points for passing into Dominant or Minimal Support zones. Next, we determine the quantity of functionality supported by the product for each module in our model. We assume that all criteria are equally important. In a real-world situation, of course, you would give a greater priority to criteria that are more important for your needs. However, for the sake of the TEC Focus Indicator analysis, we want to draw conclusions about the product's focus independently of any priorities.

The Industry Average forms the benchmark from which we calculate the difference in functionality offered by the product. The difference between the product score and the Industry Average is plotted as a positive or negative distance from the Industry Average line. For example, if the product offers a greater quantity of support than average for a particular module, the red dot will be located toward the inner focus of the graph. Note that a product is not “good” or “bad” just because it has more or less functionality than other products. To understand whether it will do what you need it to do, at a price within your budget, you must evaluate the product in depth.

The Zones

The area of functional focus within the green Dominant Zone indicates where a product has a much greater level of support for functionality than the average solution in this market space. Dominant modules are likely to be competitive differentiators.

The area of functional focus falling within the pale Competitive Zone indicates where the product has a level of support for functionality that is generally on par with what you can find from other solutions on the market. The functionality provided by the vendor likely remains a core part of the product's focus. In some cases such a module may be considered a commodity within the market: many vendors offer the majority of the functionality, which makes it difficult to differentiate a product based on breadth of that functionality alone.

In other cases, a vendor may intend its product to compete on a level that satisfies most customers' requirements, with a market focus requiring that it differentiate itself through other modules or through the qualitative manner in which it provides its functionality.

The Competitive Zone is bisected by the Industry Average circle, which shows the quantity of functionality supported, on average, by software products in this market space.

The red Minimal Support Zone indicates where the product supports fewer features and functions than the average solution in the market. Modules listed in this zone are unlikely to be as important to the vendor’s target clientele as the other modules. If a product has rankings in this zone, it generally offers the bare essentials and isn't focused on competing for clients that highly prioritize this functionality.

Even if a product has modules in the Minimal Support zone, it may still be entirely capable of satisfying your requirements, particularly if the average solution on the market offers more functionality than you require.

In all cases, it's likely that you will need to review the product in more depth to determine whether the functionality it provides in any zone is applicable or sufficient for your requirements.

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Functionality BenchmarksThe following functionality benchmark graphs represent the quantity of support by Sage ERP Accpac for the functionality within each module identified in the TEC Focus Indicator, on a scale of 100 points. The closer the plotted value is to 100 (toward the outside in spider graphs; toward the top in bar charts), the more functionality Sage ERP Accpac supports. For the sake of comparison, you can see an average of what competitor solutions offer by referring to the dashed orange line (in spider charts) or orange bar (in bar charts).

Portfolio and Project Management

Project portfolio management organizes a series of projects into a single portfolio consisting of reports that capture project objectives, costs, timelines, accomplishments, resources, risks, and other critical factors. Executives can routinely review entire portfolios, allocate resources appropriately, and adjust projects to produce the highest departmental returns. As its name implies, project portfolio management groups projects so that they can be managed, the same way an investor would manage stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.

Sage ERP Accpac falls below the industry average for the Portfolio and Project Management module. The solution relies heavily on third-party support for most of its functionality, but calls for partner support in regard to business intelligence and workflow management. Additionally, customization is required for all aspects of project analytics.

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Criteria Legend No. of Criteria1 Portfolio Management 492 Project Management 2783 Demand Management 64 Process Management 275 Workflow Management 166 Risk Management 177 Earned Value Management 208 Idea Management 13

Resource Planning and Scheduling

Resource planning and scheduling is the efficient and effective deployment of an organization's resources when they are needed. Such resources may include financial resources, inventory, human skills, production resources, and information technology.

Resource Planning and Scheduling calls for third-party support for just about all criteria in this module, which explains the lower rating of Sage ERP Accpac compared with the industry's average solution. Most vendor solutions integrate with a partner solution to provide support in this regard.

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Criteria Legend No. of Criteria1 Resource Allocation 352 Multiple User Management 103 E-mail Notification 64 Message Board 65 Chat Room and Discussion

Forum5

6 Contacts 37 Users Preferences 12

Opportunity, Contact, and Contract Management

Opportunity management systems (OMS) store sales opportunities and related information. Each sales lead can be tracked with information such as source, type, worth, status, likelihood of closure, etc. An OMS can also perform other related tasks, such as prioritizing sales calls and generating analyses that assist the fine-tuning of marketing strategies. Contract management systems provide tools to create and edit contracts, as well as to monitor and manage the provision of service in line with the agreed-upon terms and conditions. Contact management systems enable organizations to easily store and find contact information, such as names, addresses, and telephone numbers. Sophisticated contact managers provide reporting functions and allow several people in a workgroup to access the same database of contacts. Some also provide calendar functions, which blurs the line between contact managers and personal information managers (PIM).

Sage ERP Accpac provides more support than its competition for the Customer Service and Support, and Marketing Automation submodules, where it attains a near maximal score. The Sage product exceeds the average ERP for services solution in Sales Management, and by a smaller margin in Account and Contact Management, where some third-party integration is needed, particularly for bid management, contract management, and partner management. For the Account and Contact Management submodule, Sage customers can expect full out-of-the-box support for customer management, but must rely on partner add-ons for managing a highly organized hierarchy of their contacts in order to leverage business structure and relationships.

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Criteria Legend No. of Criteria1 Customer Service and Support 572 Marketing Automation 303 Sales Management 1384 Contract Management and

Creation19

5 Partner Management 146 Account and Contact

Management45

Time and Expense Management

Time management refers to the development of processes and tools that increase efficiency and productivity. Time management tools include electronic timesheets, which capture both work and nonwork-related activities, and thus allow organizations to capture and track data for payroll and project-related activities. Expense management refers to tools that streamline and automate the submission and approval of multiple expenses and expense types, such as travel, lodging, car rentals, meals, etc. In accounting, an expense is a general term for an outgoing payment made by a business or individual.

Time and expense management puts to profit partner add-ons for supporting this set of functionality. Sage Timesheet is the solution often recommended for time management, while other partner solutions are available for expense management. Most vendor solutions tend to build-in a partner solution for their customers, which have probably diverged slightly from Sage in this module.

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Criteria Legend No. of Criteria1 Time Management 582 Expense Management 64

Financial Management, Budgeting, Costing, and Billing

Financial management systems in a professional services automation (PSA) solution automate the tracking and submission of project budgets, costs, and assets. In addition, they provide the capability to track multiple billable details and generate customized invoices.

This module is well supported by the industry, despite a stronger need for partner integration. While budgeting, project billing, and invoice generation are areas that require third-party support, Sage ERP Accpac offers more direct out-of-the-box support in project costing, resource sharing, and capital assets, where the solution obtains a maximal score, by managing construction in process (CIP).

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Criteria Legend No. of Criteria1 Budgeting and Transactions 162 Project Billing 223 Invoice Generation 54 Project Costing 275 Capital Assets 46 Resource Sharing 4

Knowledge Management, Collaboration, and Analysis

The major focus of knowledge management is to identify and gather content from documents, reports, and other sources and to be able to search that content for meaningful relationships. In project portfolio management (PPM), knowledge management also includes robust business intelligence capabilities from the extracted repository of information in the system.

Sage ERP Accpac requires integrated partner support when it comes to reporting, dashboards, and analytics. However, the solution comes with a report builder out of the box that allows for conducting basic reporting. The Sage product supports Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance, where it achieves maximal score, whereas the average solution relies on partner support and add-ons for compliance. Documents and records is an area that calls for third-party support for Sage ERP Accpac, with the exception of document workflow, where the solution integrates with a partner for support.

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Criteria Legend No. of Criteria1 Business Intelligence and

Reporting153

2 Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance 133 Document and Records

Management275

Third-party Integration

Numerous solutions of best-of-breed PSA and PPM vendors integrate with third-party project management systems, customer relationship management (CRM), and back-office systems to provide complete PSA functionality for organizations.

Sage ERP Accpac is a solution that draws significant support from third parties and taps into an extensive network of partners for a variety of functionality and therefore offers a strong level of support compared with the industry average. For project management, Sage ERP Accpac offers integration through partner add-ons. For ERP, accounting, and payroll solutions, out-of-the-box integration is offered with other Sage products (Sage Abra; Sage ERP MAS 90, 200, 500; Peachtree) and with ADP and Ceridian, while integration with Oracle, Microsoft, and SAP solutions is provided through third-party support.

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Criteria Legend No. of Criteria1 Project Management

Application12

2 ERP, Accounting, and Payroll 31

Back-office Functionality

Back-office software does not interact directly with the customer. It provides functionality for internal operations, such as financials, human resources (HR), and procurement.

Sage ERP Accpac offers strong support for core back-office operations. As the platform was designed to service a multiplicity of industries, this dictated a more extensive out-of-the-box level of support than that offered by most ERP for services solutions. The Sage product obtains a near maximal score for the Financials submodule, as it requires a fairly limited level of integration with partners, as opposed to its competitors, which rely more heavily on their network for support. For HR, the solution leverages Sage Abra, a fairly mature HR solution, to provide support on most aspects of HR, allowing it to compete with solutions that favor best-of-breed partners.

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Criteria Legend No. of Criteria1 Financials 9622 Human Resources 4473 Procurement Management 268

Analyst Summary With version 6.0, Sage ERP Accpac demonstrates that it's more than a financial package by providing not only good functionality for opportunity, contact, and contract management (compared with the average solution), but also a more flexible and user-friendly solution. Its core functionality can be extended through integration with either other Sage products or solutions provided by Sage partners. This is an important advantage for Sage ERP Accpac, as customers with up to 250 users nowadays require both strong and flexible systems.

The online version of the system can be used on demand with the option to migrate to on-premise, and portals can be used to allow telecommuting workers or partners to use the system. Also, functionality for reporting and analytics has been enhanced through the release of new tools, such as Sage ERP Accpac Intelligence, Sage ERP Accpac Insight, and Sage ERP Accpac Inquiry.

From a functional perspective, Sage ERP Accpac provides a very high level of support for financials and HR (mostly through integration with Sage Abra). When it comes to functionality specific to services companies, the general level of support is higher than that offered by the average solution for opportunity, contact, and contract management, but lower for portfolio and project management, and resource planning and scheduling. Sage's approach is to integrate Sage ERP Accpac with other Sage products, add-ons from partners, and third-party solutions that already provide strong functionality for services or back-office operations, instead of developing new functionality. For service companies, Sage ERP Accpac is fully integrated with Technisoft's Service Manager to provide service and maintenance functionality.

When evaluating Sage ERP Accpac, services companies should consider not only the core functionality for this industry, but also advanced features. The fact that Sage ERP Accpac provides advanced services functionality through different types of integration can be not only an advantage for companies already using Sage products and compatible operating systems and databases, but also a challenge for those that aren't. Finally, nonfunctional factors only briefly mentioned in this report, such as pricing, delivery model, professional services, etc., should be considered during an evaluation process.

Compare ERP for Services Solutions Now!

Use TEC Advisor to compare Sage ERP Accpac with other ERP solutions for services, according to your organization's needs and characteristics. It's free, fast, online, and easy—and you'll see the results immediately.

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