Sage have released an update regarding the Sage 50 Manufacturing suite of products. This includes:
- Sage 50 Manufacturing
- Sage 50 Batch Controller
- Sage 50 Job Costing
- Sage 50 Bills of Materials
- Sage Operation Times
Sage have thought carefully about how they continue to serve customers’ long-term changing needs and have decided from September 30, 2021, this product range will no longer be supported.
The software is ageing technology that requires significant investment to bring up to our standards and the needs of our customers in these changing times.
In order to support existing and new Sage 50 Manufacturing customers, Sage are pleased to announce a partnership with CIM Software to move forward with our next generation manufacturing solutions for Sage 50cloud.
CIM Software is the development arm of CIM Services, an established business with more than 25 years of experience. Their main focus is to help manufacturing customers fulfil their potential.
As part of this exciting transformation, Sage and Red Business Systems will resell the following Cim50 modules in the UK with immediate effect to support the Sage50 Manufacturing customer base:
- Bill of Materials
- Planning
- Quotations
- Stock Control
- Works Order Processing
- Shop Floor Data Capture (SFDC)
Further to the above announcement Sage wish to take this opportunity to make you aware of some pricing & support changes that will apply to UK and Ireland.
- Sage 50 Manufacturing moves into extended support effective 01 October 2020.
- All support and services from Sage will cease effective 30 September 2021.
- Sage will increase the price of the Sage 50 Manufacturing software and services by 40% effective 01 November 2020.
- 01 Dec 2020 – it will not be possible to purchase any more Sage 50 Manufacturing Modules.
What does “All support and services from Sage will cease effective 30 September 2021” mean?
- That Sage will no longer be providing first line support to direct Sage Manufacturing customers or 2nd line support to Sage Business Partners such as Red Business Systems.
- Sage will also not test Sage 50 Manufacturing with releases of Sage 50 Cloud past v27. I.e. v28 to be released in September 2021 will not be tested with Sage 50 Manufacturing. Customers that continue to use Sage 50 Manufacturing past this data will therefore be unable to upgrade to v28 of Sage 50 Cloud.
- Sage will also not test Sage 50 Manufacturing with later releases or updates of MS Office Software. It is currently supported on the following systems, but this is now unlikely to change to later Operating Systems.
- From September 2021 as Microsoft release updates to their Operating Systems and Office Software, certain features may become unusable as they have not been tested, for example Excel Integration.
So do I need to replace Sage 50 Manufacturing by the 30 September 2021?
The answer ideally yes but is not necessarily essential, please see the below list of available options.
What options are available to Sage 50 Manufacturing Software users?
1. Migrate to an alternative Sage Manufacturing application
The Sage guide of available options to new and existing Sage 50 Manufacturing customers is available here >
2. Migrate to Cim50 Manufacturing
For most existing Red Business Systems, Sage 50 Manufacturing customers the most cost effective option will be to migrate to Cim50 Manufacturing. Red Business Systems first implemented Cim50 in March 2018 upgrading an existing Sage 50 Manufacturing client. Since this date new customers have been added and additional existing Sage 50 Manufacturing Customers migrated.
Cim50 has been very well received and does provide many benefits over Sage 50 Manufacturing.
Information on Cim50 is available here >
3. Continue to use Sage 50 Manufacturing
Red Business Systems will continue to offer Sage 50 Manufacturing Support to new and existing customers. We have many years’ experience of implementing and supporting this application.
Red Business Systems expectation is that we could continue to offer support Sage 50 Manufacturing past the official Sage 30 Sept 2021 date until Sept 2022, may be Sept 2023, with the following caveat:
- As Sage 50 Manufacturing will be tested with Sage 50 Cloud v27, as long as customers remain on this version, Sage 50 Manufacturing should continue to work.
- Sage 50 Manufacturing will also continue to work on computer systems that meet the existing System Requirements for Sage 50 Manufacturing >
- Issues will potentially occur if it is necessary to upgrade Sage 50 Cloud to a later version where for example legislative changes are only included in versions later than v27.
- Furthermore Microsoft Operating System / Microsoft Office Updates or Service Packs released by Microsoft which need to be applied may also conflict with Sage 50 Manufacturing and make certain features such as Excel Integration or the software itself no longer work.
The Sage 50 Manufacturing / Cim50 Upgrade Methodology
Cim50 has been designed as a migration option for existing Sage 50 Manufacturing users. The developers have therefore ensured Cim50 has the look, feel and functionality of Sage 50 Manufacturing.
Cim50 Manufacturing utilises the Stock, Purchase Order, Sales Order and of course the Financial Modules included in Sage 50 Cloud in the same way as Sage 50 Manufacturing. Users of Sage 50 Manufacturing will also immediately recognise the extended Product Information, Bills of Material, Works Orders and Planning Modules available in Cim50.
Furthermore, existing Sage Manufacturing data can be easily migrated to Cim50.
Because of this the Professional Services and Training Requirement is very much reduced compared to migrating to other systems.
A standard migration will be as follows:
| Action | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meeting to discuss options available to end user and demonstration of Cim50 Manufacturing | We are keen to work with our clients to ensure the right option is chosen |
| 2 | Install Cim50 to server and client computer | Cim50 can run together with Sage 50 Manufacturing |
| 3 | Perform Test Migration of Sage 50 Manufacturing data to Cim50 | This will allow training to be performed using existing current data |
| 4 | Create any Bespoke reports | These can be created and tested before going live |
| 5 | Further training and testing. This can be done using current data to help ensure users are happy with Cim50 before proceeding to Go Live | Establish if any further modules available in Cim50 should be used. Examples include Serial Number Traceability, Works Order Operation Times or Quotations |
| 6 | Final training and prepare to Go Live | |
| 7 | Go Live | A Red Business System consultant will be onsite during the Go Live |
Down time and disruption will be kept to minimum as the installation, training, test migration, report creation, even the live migration can all be performed without causing down time during working hours.
The number of Professional Service and Training Days will be dependent on the customer site, modules used and the number of users.
Contact the team at Red Business Systems to discuss your IT support needs