19 June Sage ERP X3

Chips Computing Services’ Sage Division on Tuesday (16 June) launched to the Zimbabwean market, a new product, Sage ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) X3, that is aimed at meeting the most elaborate business processes, while remaining cost-effective, quick to implement and simple to use.

Later in the day Chips also launched Sage Retail, a fast software system for retail shops that is particularly ideal for companies with several branches that may or may not have wide area network communications.

Speaking at the Sage ERP X3 launch at Meikles Hotel in Harare, which was attended by about 150 people from different local enterprises, the managing director of Sage Enterprise’s South African subsidiary, Softline Enterprise, Mr Jeremy Waterman, said business computing is moving from a desktop to a web environment.

He said that although broadband speeds had often been a problem, speeds had improved in South Africa and were set to improve further following the arrival of a cable that had been laid in preparation for the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament.

“Web working is a reality,” Mr Waterman, who is also managing director of Softline ACCPAC, said.

Sage ERP X3 is, he said, designed as a web-based system, although it operates well with or without the use of the worldwide web. It is a real time system and fully web-compatible. It increases business insight, optimises business processes, streamlines operations, controls financial risks, boosts sales, grows a business, enhances collaboration and reduces costs.

Chips Computing Services managing director Rob Watson explained that Sage ERP X3 was not intended to supplant the popular Sage Line 500 and 1000, which are being used by many companies in Zimbabwe, but was being launched because there was a need within the market for this type of high-powered and more sophisticated system.

Chips Sage Division managing director Charles Kuyayama said Sage X3 had overcome the difficulties that users found with many other software packages and was designed to grow with a customer’s business.

Sage ERP X3 provides a complete range of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer resource management (CRM) solutions, Softline’s Sage ERP X3 sales director Keith Fenner, who was part of the four-man Softline team that came to Harare for the launch, said.

It is a full-service enterprise management software system for medium sized to large businesses. Although designed for the mid-market internationally, it was intended for a company with a network of  up to 1 000 computers, which in southern Africa, Mr Fenner pointed out, would be a substantial enterprise.