With the latest release of the modular Sovereign range, Sage hasstrengthened its portfolio for medium-sized companies looking forWindows-based systems. But users committed to MS-DOS need not despair.John Stokdyk reports.
At the formal introduction of the new Sovereign for Windows Version 2, Sagesoft managers emphasised that there was still life left in its MS-DOS sibling. The Newcastle-based developer of Sovereign will continue to build on the DOS version and has tailored the new Windows modules so they can work in tandem with Sovereign modules and other applications written to work under MS-DOS.
‘This market is quite conservative,’ said David Pinches, accounts general manager at Sagesoft. ‘It already has accounting systems, so we are in a replacement market. Potential Sovereign customers are not looking for a huge leap to Windows, but are considering how they can introduce small elements that will evolve towards Windows usage.’
David Parker, R&D product manager for the Sovereign range, added: ‘You don’t need a Pentium computer simply to enter purchase order invoices.
We’ve designed the software so that you can run DOS and Windows software to address the same databases. According to our resellers, companies with existing systems are reluctant to upgrade if it means replacing their entire systems.’
Sovereign is the top range in Sage’s software collection, sitting above the mid-market Sterling and the entry-level Instant Accounting packages.
With its multiple modules, Sovereign is designed to meet the needs of companies with 30-300 employees and costs from u2,000.
The upgrade strategy is modular, too. Single-user sales, purchase and nominal ledger modules are now available, along with cashbook, reporting and system management modules. Networkable versions of the software will be available in June and October will see a raft of commercial modules, covering sales order processing, purchase order processing, invoicing and stock control.
The software is built on top of a proprietary database that uses four digits to define the year, so Sovereign will be able to handle dates in the new millennium, although a small tweak will be required to display the four-figure dates on screen and in printed reports. And to reflect Sage’s growing ambitions in Europe and the USA, Sovereign for Windows Version 2 supports multiple currencies.
Most of the changes in Sovereign for Windows Version 2 are reflected in the user interface. ‘In terms of functionality, there’s little new compared to the DOS product,’ said Parker.
According to Parker, around 10% of Sovereign users have already used the Version 2 Windows package as part of Sage’s testing process. Significantly, most of the multi-user test sites used Sovereign for Windows running over Windows NT networks.
‘Our expectation is that around 40% of this software will be networked with Windows NT,’ said Parker.