Your Sage 500 or 1000 system has no doubt been delivering value to your business for many years. However, with the recent announcement from Sage on the phased withdrawal of support for Sage 1000, you may be considering upgrading to Sage X3 and starting a review of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) strategy for your business.

We reference ‘Sage 1000’ in the remainder of this blog but with both Sage 500 and 1000 effectively now ‘out of support’, this is all equally applicable to Sage 500.

So, what are the risks of staying on Sage 1000?

Below are some of the risks of staying on out-of-support software:

Security: When software is out-of-support, patches, bug fixes and security upgrades stop. Security is compromised because vendors no longer offer a security patch if a vulnerability is discovered, leaving you open to cyber-security hacks.

Incompatible software: New applications are released almost daily, and these are optimised for the most recent operating systems. That means when using out-of-support ERP, you cannot use the latest applications or upgrade to the latest versions. If you are holding on to legacy applications, you will not have access to the latest features and developments. This causes issues with your systems, as they are unable to communicate with each other.

‘Landlocked’ operating systems and ageing hardware platforms: The issue concerning operating systems and out-of-support software needs to be highlighted as a key risk to any business. Out-of-support software is not only not optimised for the most recent operating systems, but also often incompatible entirely, leaving the business ‘landlocked’ to legacy operating systems and therefore vulnerable to viruses, malware and cyber-attacks.

As hardware platforms need replacement, the operating system is almost always replaced/upgraded also. If the hardware cannot be replaced due to the out-of-support software being incompatible with the new operating system, that leaves the business even more exposed to potential hardware failure with little or no backup options.

Higher operational costs: Out-of-support software costs more; whether it’s through lost/stolen data, updating and maintaining with third parties, legal liabilities, or lost revenue from downtime or issues.  The cost of upgrading to a new ERP can sometimes seem large and prohibitive from a business point of view. But consider the consequences of a security breach, major bug or data loss. The peace of mind that comes with having a fully secure and supported system that won’t randomly go offline is worth the investment.

What are the benefits of upgrading to Sage X3?

Sage X3 is Sage’s flagship ERP system, offering you the functionality you may be familiar with from your current Sage system, but so much more. Sage X3 is highly configurable and offers industry-specific functionality – from finance and distribution to manufacturing and supply chain. It can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud.

Some of the key benefits of Sage X3 are:

  • Fully scalable – a flexible system that will grow with your company
  • An accurate view of business data – by using one solution for all your data you minimise the room for error and save time by eliminating duplication of workload
  • Real-time control – complete control, visibility and interaction across the whole business and its processes
  • Multi-everything – multi-currency, multi-company, multi-ledger, multi-site, multi-legislation, allowing you to easily manage everything
  • Highly configurable to your unique processes – a flexible solution unique and tailored to your organisation
  • Integration with other business-critical systems – Sage X3 can be integrated with other business-critical systems, extending the functionality and still giving you a single version of the truth
  • Access anywhere, anytime from any device – having access to real-time data wherever you are on any mobile device or tablet

Sage X3 is particularly suited to companies in the manufacturing, distribution and services sectors, helping organisations in these sectors to deliver value to their customers. Specific functionality in Sage X3 includes:

Financial management

Sage X3 has fully integrated financial functions; including financial and personnel cost and cost and budget accounting, commitments and fixed assets. As it’s multi-everything it easily handles transfers from one country to another, and between sites, subsidiaries and your headquarters.

The flexible accounting structure (multi-ledger and multi-chart of accounts) promotes a real-time global vision while accommodating local operational requirements.

Inventory management

Manage your entire inventory and supply chain process seamlessly in Sage X3. Keep up with demand and ensure optimal efficiency through real-time monitoring of inventory status. Inventory control is configurable by site with the application of the multi-site, multi-warehouse and multi-location management. Incorporate powerful quality control functions including total traceability of inventory quantities and lot and serial numbers in real-time.

Customer service

Deliver to customer expectations. Full integration with sales, inventory, purchasing, finance and manufacturing provides a 360-degree understanding of customer activity.

Manufacturing management

Sage X3 includes a full suite of manufacturing functionality allowing you to manage all your manufacturing processes from one single system. The system supports planning, scheduling and production control activities for both process and discrete manufacturing. It is also flexible enough to adapt to unique or mixed manufacturing modes.

Reporting and business analytics

Make faster strategic decisions by having real-time analysis at your disposal. Real-time analytics, alerts and notifications enable you to respond quickly to changing business conditions.

Upgrading from Sage 1000

Whilst Sage X3, like Sage 1000, has been part of the Sage portfolio for a long time there is no direct upgrade path. This means that you will have to treat the upgrade from Sage 1000 to Sage X3 as a new ERP selection process.

It is crucial to select a partner who can help you through the process. Inixion has a depth of experience across different industries, including manufacturing, distribution and services. As one of our customers; John Bradley, Group Financial Director at SIL Group put it:

“The key thing that Inixion does, is that before any implementation is started, they have a significant understanding of what every business unit did, what the key drivers were for that business and how things were done and how best they could be done on Sage X3.”

Partnership approach

We will work in partnership with you to ensure that we understand how your current Sage 1000 system supports your business processes. We then translate that into how Sage X3 can manage these processes. This might be an ideal opportunity to look for new productivity gains and efficiencies.

Download our guide which addresses the risks of running an out-of-support ERP, and how organisations benefit from upgrading Sage 500/1000 to a fully supported release, such as Sage X3.

Alternatively, get in touch with us today to discuss upgrading from Sage 500/1000 to Sage X3.