Introduction
The response to our article series where we solicited vendors' input on a number of market trends has received much attention and reaction from readers and vendors alike. Infor and IFS were the first two to respond (see Two Stalwart Vendors Discuss Market Trends), followed by Progress Software (see Open Platform Provider Answers Questions about the State of the Market).
Now another prominent market player has joined the discussion: Sage, a world leader in accounting and midmarket ERP. The Sage Group, PLC (www.sage.com) is a $2.55 billion (USD) organization and arguably the third largest business software vendor worldwide. It is the leading supplier of business management software and services with over 5.8 million customers worldwide. Globally, Sage has over 14,500 employees and a global network of over 25,000 reseller partners and 40,000 accountants that recommend its products. The vendor handles over 36,000 customer support service calls daily and over 1.7 million support service contracts. Sage also represents a strong cash generating business, which has consistently delivered strong operating margins earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 23 percent and organic growth of 6 percent (excluding Sage Healthcare Division) for the financial year ending September 30, 2008. For details go to http://www.investors.sage.com/reports_presentations/results_presentations/.
With North American operations located near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (US), Sage offers Sage ERP X3 (formerly Adonix X3, www.sageERPx3.us), an international enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for midsized companies. The product targets midsized, competitive, and progressive companies that face the same business challenges as (and similar complexities to) Fortune 1000 ones, but that need more flexible and cost-effective, modern solutions to support their operations and growth. To that end, the Sage ERP X3 software suite integrates manufacturing, distribution, warehousing, customer relationship management (CRM), and finance functionality, while remaining competitive in terms of cost-effectiveness, implementation speed, and ease of use.
Espousing an International Offering
Sage ERP X3 is sold and implemented both directly by Sage and through a network of 150 value-added resellers (VARs). The product is also distributed by Sage branches and its international network of resellers throughout Europe, China, South East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. With over 2,000 worldwide customers—ranging from 10 to more than 1,000 ERP users and representing over 5,000 sites—Sage ERP X3 has established itself as one of the fastest-growing enterprise systems for midsized companies.
The latest product's version was recently released by the Sage Group under the new brand name, Sage ERP X3, to better reflect its potentially unique position within the vast Sage portfolio of ERP products. Namely, while Sage has traditionally offered well-attuned local and regional products, Sage ERP X3 might be Sage's first notable foray in offering a globally available enterprise-level product. A multi-audit and regulatory compliant system, Sage ERP X3 meets multisite, multicompany, and multicountry business requirements. It is available in eight languages and legislations, including the United States (US), France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom (UK), and China.
In 2008, Sage issued a controlled-release Sage ERP X3, version, unveiling it in 35 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The system is represented in the US through Sage North America, a dedicated North American ERP mid-market player. Prior to version 5, Sage ERP X3 was distributed under different brand names depending on the country (Adonix X3 in the US, Canada, and Argentina; Diapason X in Italy; and Sage X3 Enterprise in other countries).
Sage has reportedly invested 20 percent of X3's product line annual revenues into research and development (R&D), ensuring customers benefit from an ongoing release schedule and assuring them a return on investment (ROI) over the life of their Sage ERP X3 implementations.
Zooming Into Sage ERP X3?
Sage ERP X3 is an extended-ERP software suite designed to meet mid-to-large companies' deep manufacturing and distribution functional requirements in a relatively simple and cost-effective manner. The system offers integrated functionality in the areas of finance, sales, CRM, inventory management, purchasing, and manufacturing. The typical customer for Sage ERP X3 is a company of 50 to 2,000 employees with $20 million to $500 million (USD) in revenue.
The versatile system comes in three configured offerings aimed at meeting the needs of 1) process manufacturers, 2) discrete manufacturers, and 3) wholesale distributors with a limited need for customization (due to a tight functional fit). In the US, Sage ERP X3's core industry targets include chemicals (see So What's the Big Deal with Chemicals?), food and beverage (see Food and Beverage "Delights"), life sciences, hard goods manufacturing, wholesale trade, and multichannel retail and direct marketing (see The Challenge of Fulfillment).
Sage ERP X3 complements the existing Sage ERP portfolio in North America by providing the upper mid-market with mid-range to high-end ERP software capable of meeting more elaborate business processes. Scaling up to more than 1,000 concurrent users, it also provides current Sage customers in the lower end of the market with a viable path for growth for the future, and provides an opening to global expansion. In other words, Sage is positioning Sage ERP X3 into the Sage ERP family, which excludes stand-alone CRM packages, such as SalesLogix (which is another globally available product by Sage).
Within that family, Sage ERP X3 tops the product line by targeting a worldwide upper mid-market, as the "high-end" Sage ERP solution (accommodating up to 1,500 users). Other ERP products in North America are Sage MAS 500 ERP, Sage MAS 200 ERP, Sage MAS 90 ERP, Sage PFW ERP, and Sage Accpac ERP, covering companies of 1 to 1,000 employees. Select Sage products can be found within the TEC Vendor Showcase. The full Sage ERP family—including Sage ERP X3—is listed on the Sage North American Web Site; www.sagenorthamerica.com.
In North America, Sage MAS 500 and Sage ERP X3 may overlap in some cases, although Sage ERP X3 should be viewed as an upper-market product. Whether a business should evaluate one or the other product depends several organization-specific elements:
*
prospective growth (X3 has high scalability);
*
activity worldwide (only X3 includes multi-audit functionality and may fit global business needs);
*
industry (X3 focuses on distribution and manufacturing in chemicals, life sciences, food and beverage, and hard goods); and
*
level of complexity and the agility of its business processes (X3 may be more easily customizable).
There are also similar, potential overlaps with Accpac ERP, which has a good presence in several English-speaking markets (see Will Sage Group Cement Its SME Leadership with ACCPAC and Softline Acquisitions?) Organizations considering Accpac ERP should also perform a similar exercise to help pinpoint their needs.
Asserting Technology Prowess
To put the things into perspective, prior to being acquired by Sage in 2005, the privately held French vendor Adonix, had a number of its own acquisitions (see Adonix Expands X3 and Its "French Connection"). These products (e.g., Prodstar, CGI, etc.) were first integrated with the Adonix V3 product, the predecessor of Adonix X3, and have been rewritten in a Java-like and Unicode-compliant engine. As a result, a modern Adonix X3 product was first launched in France in 1999, and later in the US in 2000.
First introduced in 2000 as Adonix X3, and now in its fifth major incarnation as Sage ERP X3, Sage ERP X3 was built on the Sage Application Framework for the Enterprise X3 platform (SAFE X3), a framework shared by a full set of Sage applications for mid-to-large enterprises (human resources [HR] and payroll, warehouse management system [WMS], etc.). This service oriented architecture (SOA)/Web-native platform provides users with collaboration capabilities in either client/server or Web mode, as well as an integrated business intelligence (BI) engine by Business Objects (an SAP company). It also provides a flexible second-generation workflow engine.
Early in 2008 Adonix announced the availability of the latest version of its enterprise software suite Sage ERP X3. The latest Sage ERP X3, release, v5, focuses on
SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/a-traditional-local-touch-leader-espouses-a-more-global-vision-19523/
The response to our article series where we solicited vendors' input on a number of market trends has received much attention and reaction from readers and vendors alike. Infor and IFS were the first two to respond (see Two Stalwart Vendors Discuss Market Trends), followed by Progress Software (see Open Platform Provider Answers Questions about the State of the Market).
Now another prominent market player has joined the discussion: Sage, a world leader in accounting and midmarket ERP. The Sage Group, PLC (www.sage.com) is a $2.55 billion (USD) organization and arguably the third largest business software vendor worldwide. It is the leading supplier of business management software and services with over 5.8 million customers worldwide. Globally, Sage has over 14,500 employees and a global network of over 25,000 reseller partners and 40,000 accountants that recommend its products. The vendor handles over 36,000 customer support service calls daily and over 1.7 million support service contracts. Sage also represents a strong cash generating business, which has consistently delivered strong operating margins earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 23 percent and organic growth of 6 percent (excluding Sage Healthcare Division) for the financial year ending September 30, 2008. For details go to http://www.investors.sage.com/reports_presentations/results_presentations/.
With North American operations located near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (US), Sage offers Sage ERP X3 (formerly Adonix X3, www.sageERPx3.us), an international enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for midsized companies. The product targets midsized, competitive, and progressive companies that face the same business challenges as (and similar complexities to) Fortune 1000 ones, but that need more flexible and cost-effective, modern solutions to support their operations and growth. To that end, the Sage ERP X3 software suite integrates manufacturing, distribution, warehousing, customer relationship management (CRM), and finance functionality, while remaining competitive in terms of cost-effectiveness, implementation speed, and ease of use.
Espousing an International Offering
Sage ERP X3 is sold and implemented both directly by Sage and through a network of 150 value-added resellers (VARs). The product is also distributed by Sage branches and its international network of resellers throughout Europe, China, South East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. With over 2,000 worldwide customers—ranging from 10 to more than 1,000 ERP users and representing over 5,000 sites—Sage ERP X3 has established itself as one of the fastest-growing enterprise systems for midsized companies.
The latest product's version was recently released by the Sage Group under the new brand name, Sage ERP X3, to better reflect its potentially unique position within the vast Sage portfolio of ERP products. Namely, while Sage has traditionally offered well-attuned local and regional products, Sage ERP X3 might be Sage's first notable foray in offering a globally available enterprise-level product. A multi-audit and regulatory compliant system, Sage ERP X3 meets multisite, multicompany, and multicountry business requirements. It is available in eight languages and legislations, including the United States (US), France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom (UK), and China.
In 2008, Sage issued a controlled-release Sage ERP X3, version, unveiling it in 35 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The system is represented in the US through Sage North America, a dedicated North American ERP mid-market player. Prior to version 5, Sage ERP X3 was distributed under different brand names depending on the country (Adonix X3 in the US, Canada, and Argentina; Diapason X in Italy; and Sage X3 Enterprise in other countries).
Sage has reportedly invested 20 percent of X3's product line annual revenues into research and development (R&D), ensuring customers benefit from an ongoing release schedule and assuring them a return on investment (ROI) over the life of their Sage ERP X3 implementations.
Zooming Into Sage ERP X3?
Sage ERP X3 is an extended-ERP software suite designed to meet mid-to-large companies' deep manufacturing and distribution functional requirements in a relatively simple and cost-effective manner. The system offers integrated functionality in the areas of finance, sales, CRM, inventory management, purchasing, and manufacturing. The typical customer for Sage ERP X3 is a company of 50 to 2,000 employees with $20 million to $500 million (USD) in revenue.
The versatile system comes in three configured offerings aimed at meeting the needs of 1) process manufacturers, 2) discrete manufacturers, and 3) wholesale distributors with a limited need for customization (due to a tight functional fit). In the US, Sage ERP X3's core industry targets include chemicals (see So What's the Big Deal with Chemicals?), food and beverage (see Food and Beverage "Delights"), life sciences, hard goods manufacturing, wholesale trade, and multichannel retail and direct marketing (see The Challenge of Fulfillment).
Sage ERP X3 complements the existing Sage ERP portfolio in North America by providing the upper mid-market with mid-range to high-end ERP software capable of meeting more elaborate business processes. Scaling up to more than 1,000 concurrent users, it also provides current Sage customers in the lower end of the market with a viable path for growth for the future, and provides an opening to global expansion. In other words, Sage is positioning Sage ERP X3 into the Sage ERP family, which excludes stand-alone CRM packages, such as SalesLogix (which is another globally available product by Sage).
Within that family, Sage ERP X3 tops the product line by targeting a worldwide upper mid-market, as the "high-end" Sage ERP solution (accommodating up to 1,500 users). Other ERP products in North America are Sage MAS 500 ERP, Sage MAS 200 ERP, Sage MAS 90 ERP, Sage PFW ERP, and Sage Accpac ERP, covering companies of 1 to 1,000 employees. Select Sage products can be found within the TEC Vendor Showcase. The full Sage ERP family—including Sage ERP X3—is listed on the Sage North American Web Site; www.sagenorthamerica.com.
In North America, Sage MAS 500 and Sage ERP X3 may overlap in some cases, although Sage ERP X3 should be viewed as an upper-market product. Whether a business should evaluate one or the other product depends several organization-specific elements:
*
prospective growth (X3 has high scalability);
*
activity worldwide (only X3 includes multi-audit functionality and may fit global business needs);
*
industry (X3 focuses on distribution and manufacturing in chemicals, life sciences, food and beverage, and hard goods); and
*
level of complexity and the agility of its business processes (X3 may be more easily customizable).
There are also similar, potential overlaps with Accpac ERP, which has a good presence in several English-speaking markets (see Will Sage Group Cement Its SME Leadership with ACCPAC and Softline Acquisitions?) Organizations considering Accpac ERP should also perform a similar exercise to help pinpoint their needs.
Asserting Technology Prowess
To put the things into perspective, prior to being acquired by Sage in 2005, the privately held French vendor Adonix, had a number of its own acquisitions (see Adonix Expands X3 and Its "French Connection"). These products (e.g., Prodstar, CGI, etc.) were first integrated with the Adonix V3 product, the predecessor of Adonix X3, and have been rewritten in a Java-like and Unicode-compliant engine. As a result, a modern Adonix X3 product was first launched in France in 1999, and later in the US in 2000.
First introduced in 2000 as Adonix X3, and now in its fifth major incarnation as Sage ERP X3, Sage ERP X3 was built on the Sage Application Framework for the Enterprise X3 platform (SAFE X3), a framework shared by a full set of Sage applications for mid-to-large enterprises (human resources [HR] and payroll, warehouse management system [WMS], etc.). This service oriented architecture (SOA)/Web-native platform provides users with collaboration capabilities in either client/server or Web mode, as well as an integrated business intelligence (BI) engine by Business Objects (an SAP company). It also provides a flexible second-generation workflow engine.
Early in 2008 Adonix announced the availability of the latest version of its enterprise software suite Sage ERP X3. The latest Sage ERP X3, release, v5, focuses on
SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/a-traditional-local-touch-leader-espouses-a-more-global-vision-19523/
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