The July edition of the Sage MAS 90 and 200 User Group will be our second online meeting. We will look at plans to replace FRx through BizInsight, a business intelligence and reporting tool from BizNet Software. Both FRx and Custom Financials users will learn about the additional flexibility and capabilities BizInsight provides. Following the presentation, we will following with a live Question and Answer session.
Join us for the 60-minute meeting on July 22 at 10:00 am. Space is limited so reserve your seat now.
Here is a short description of BizInsight directly from BizNet Software:
Looking for a suitable replacement for FRx? In addition to replacing FRx, are you also looking to enhance your financial reporting and analysis capabilities? BizNet Software has the answer. BizNet’s BizInsight™ is an Excel-based financial reporting and analytics solution that delivers simple, yet powerful, reporting and analysis capabilities to business users. Designed with the assistance of FRx professionals, BizInsight makes it easy to gain immediate control of the entire reporting and analysis process and allows users to produce reports accurately, efficiently and more easily than ever before.
According to Jacqueline Li, a Product Manager with Sage, in a discussion thread on LinkedIn, Sage MAS Intelligence will be released in August. Business partners are scheduled to receive the release in advance for an opportunity to train and become familiar with the features of the new reporting tool.
You can compare the features of Sage MAS Intelligence with other available reporting packages. After it become available, expect to find a full review of features or a presentation during an upcoming User Group meeting. We have a presentation of BizInsight, another FRx replacement, schedule for July 22 online User Group meeting. Invitations will be released closer to the date of the meeting.
The search began several months ago when Microsoft announced the retirement of FRx and in June 2010, Sage MAS Intelligence will be introduced by Sage as their recommended FRx replacement.
Sage MAS Intelligence is powered by Alchemex and is built on the framework of Sage Accpac Intelligence and Sage Simply Intelligence.
Sage MAS Intelligence allows users to build reports within the familiar Excel application with access to all available modules; FRx only allowed access to General Ledger data. While FRx allowed access to multiple company databases for consolidated reports, Sage MAS Intelligence will require an additional license in the form of a Connector. These details are not official until Sage publicly releases a statement but the plan is to supply all current, on-plan end-users with a license of Sage MAS Intelligence Report Manager allowing a user to:
- Author new reports (organizing, creating, editing), as well as filter and aggregate data based on existing data containers.
- Run, edit and clone the standard report templates for management (financial reports, dashboards, financial trend analysis), as well as general ledger, sales, purchases, and inventory transactional reports
- Set permissions/security on all reports.
- Connection to one ERP company database at a time (if running two or more companies, user can redirect to relevant company connection)
- Optional Import/Export functionality requires the purchase of an additional Report Manager License, the Designer Module, or Connector Module
- Optional Report Scheduling requires the purchase of an additional Report Manager Licence or, the Designer Module, or Connector Module
- Connections to other types of databases or more than one Sage MAS company database at a time requires the purchase of a Connector Module
Specifically the Connector Module allows access to information from multiple sources and consolidation of data from multiple companies. The Connector Module allows for consolidations and connectivity to unlimited ODBC data sources and includes a graphical join tool to simplify database queries.
Although it isn’t particularly clear how, the Report Designer extends the flexibility of the the Report Manager.
System requirements for Sage MAS Intelligence users Excel 2003 or Excel 2007 but to run the Report Designer, Excel 2007 is required.
Since Sage’s notice as a response to Microsoft’s decision to discontinue development of FRx, there has been a great deal of speculation as to what the ultimate outcome would be. During a recent discussion in the MAS 90 and MAS 200 Users and Consultants, Erik Kaas (Director, Product Management at Sage Software) confirmed that Sage has “established an OEM 
relationship with a business intelligence (BI) vendor (Alchemex) that offers advanced financial reporting, operational reporting, and advanced OLAP analysis capabilities.” He went on to explain Sage MAS customers (I assume only those with current software/maintenance plans) will be licensed for one free user of Alchemex with the option of purchasing additional licenses. He also made a point to note Sage will work on keeping future releases of MAS 90 backwards compatible with FRx.
Jacqueline Li (Product Manager at Sage) clarified that it is Alchemex’s Smart Reporting Stack (with a similar drill-down function to FRx) that will be available but the development plan includes bringing Analytics and Web Reporting along for MAS 90 users. are under construction. Erika Jelovsek (Senior Product Manager, Sage) further clarified that the free license will be released later in the calendar year as a product update after the initial release of version 4.4.
The long-assumed industry standard financial reporting tool, Microsoft’s FRx is nearing the end of it’s life cycle. As of December 31, 2010, no new licenses (this means viewers or designers too) will be issued. As of December 31, 2012, Microsoft will discontinue support.
While it is some time away, some businesses are already searching for an alternative, Others might be looking for an alternative to the Standard Financials from MAS 90. Others still may still be looking for an option that doesn’t require re-keying data into Excel for analysis. If you into any of these categories, I suggest you join us for a free webinar highlighting BizInsight.
BizInsightTM, from BizNet software addresses the typical pitfalls of Excel. 100% Excel-based, BizInsight comes pre-integrated with “drag and drop” live links to your MAS 90/200 data. It installs quickly, requires no any additional hardware, and is easy to learn. In addition, it comes with on-the-fly business intelligence out of the box. All from within Excel.
If you manually key spreadsheet reports month after month or are you afraid to touch certain Excel reports for fear of breaking them; if you are looking for an alternative to FRx or Standard Financials, reserve your seat next Thursday, September 24 at 10:00 am.
Click here to RSVP for the free webinar.