Bob Scott reporting in his weekly Insights column.
Sage has launched its Sage 100c and 300c lines that are designed to transition its customers to the cloud, although it appears more aimed at moving them to subscription pricing. “We know not everyone is ready to go to the cloud, but some are,” says Diane Haines, director of strategic marketing for Sage North America. While there has been some uproar over fees for converting from 100 and 300, Haines says that applies only to those who want to upgrade to the newer products, but has no impact on those who will stay on the 2016 versions of Sage 100 and 300 at the same support levels. Sage 300c is designed for mobile connection with the ability to access financial data via tablets currently and access to inventory coming. That capability is not available in Sage 100c, but the user interface has been completely designed. The other major change is both new products have subscription-based pricing with three levels starting with Essentials at $45 per user per month for 100c and $75 per user per month for 300c. Both are Silver level support packages.