Sage partners worry about falling into Line

Hey, what happened to the MMS?

By Kelly Fiveash • Get more from this author

Posted in Software & Security, 4th October 2007 13:01 GMT

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Sage has sought to assure its channel partners following concerns about the software accounting firm's decision to quietly give its MMS application for SMEs a makeover by dropping the name and integrating it into the Line 200 suite.

One system integrator told The Register that partners were worried the move from MMS to Line 200 would lead to a price hike in the product.

He wrote: "If it is true, then it affects a large number of SME businesses. Many Line 100 legacy users will be considering moving/upgrading and need to know the potential implications."

So we put a call into Sage, the only UK technology firm listed on the FTSE 100, to find out what was going on.

Sage UK's mid-market software head David Pinches told us that the firm was simply reacting to customer demands for better integration across its range of accounting packages.

He said in a statement: "The basis of the Sage 200 Suite is the Sage 200 Platform, which delivers two core modules, financials and CRM. MMS has been engineered into the financials part of Sage 200 so effectively our customers get a financial and CRM system to build on."

The firm, which has recently swallowed up a number of companies in Europe, also offered assurances to its existing users that prices will not be jacked up in the future.

A Sage spokeswoman told us that "the basic platform is comparable in price to MMS... Of course adding modules will increase that price. But in my opinion customers will get more for their money from the new suite".

She added that free upgrades are also being dished out to all existing MMS customers. ®

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