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"Sage provides business software, services and support to small and medium sized businesses. Whilst our heritage
is in the small business market we also have the experience and expertise to meet the needs of specific industries
and larger organisations."
Source : Sage
Extended Enterprise Vision
Extended Enterprise Vision is also known as :
extended enterprise,
sage extended,
company vision combining,
extended enterprise bridging business,
vision combining,
new extended enterprise vision,
lean extended enterprise,
strategic vision,
extended enterprise management,
Model for Extended Enterprise,
software extended enterprise vision,
software extended enterprise,
resources extended enterprise,
extended enterprise overview,
building lean extended enterprise,
extended enterprise suites,
provides extended enterprise,
strategic vision for extended enterprise,
extended enterprise network,
extended enterprise metrics,
governance extended enterprise,
bridging business vision,
extended enterprise engineering,
enterprise engineering vision,
innovation management extended enterprise,
Knowledge Model Extended Enterprise .
Business Management Division,
Sage Software
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Executive Summary
- Trends That are Shaping a Flexible New Workplace
- Easy Everything
- Going Mobile
- Business on Demand
- Globalization
- Connected Communities
- Restricted Enterprises vs. Extended Enterprises
- Enabling the Extended Enterprise
- Enabling Workflow
- Enabling Ecosystem Transactions
- Enabling Relationships
- Sage Extended Enterprise Solutions
- Summary
- Appendix A: Enabling Technologies
- Appendix B: Enabling Processes
Executive Summary
Today"s small and midsized enterprises"like their larger enterprise counterparts"are faced with new
challenges and opportunities that are reshaping the traditional ways of doing business. Technology has
brought the world closer together. Change happens more quickly. Business environments are more
dynamic. Individuals and teams are more collaborative.
The Sage marketplace includes start-ups, small enterprises, midsized enterprises, and divisions of large
enterprises. As an innovation leader in this space, we are uniquely prepared to help our customers
thrive amidst a changing environment. Our strategic vision is one of total-office integration. By linking
people, processes, and workflows from inside and outside an organization, we will help our customers
drive success. We call this strategy the Sage extended enterprise vision, and it began where many of
our ideas and innovations begin: with our customers.
Through our conversations with our 5.4 million customers worldwide, we know that businesses today
are facing tremendous global pressures, resulting in razor-thin margins and increased competition.
At the same time, the Internet has spawned new methodologies, business models, and approaches to
solving complex problems. Many bleeding-edge technologies of yesterday, which used to be prohibitive
to small and midsized businesses due to cost and complexity, are finally becoming more affordable,
mature, applied, and reliable. Considering these challenges and opportunities, we believe the small and
midsized enterprise (SME) market is on the threshold of a significant shift"and Sage Software is
prepared to lead the way..
Today, Sage Software is launching our first family of extended enterprise solutions for our mid-market
flagship products"Sage MAS 90 Extended Enterprise Suite and Sage Accpac Extended Enterprise
Suite. Both solutions support front-office processes such as sales, marketing, and support with
SageCRM. They additionally feature consistent experience areas such as license agreements;
maintenance plans; single user sign on; a uniform user experience based upon workflow, common
order entry, common view of order, and payment history; and a single customer support center.
What follows is an overview of our extended enterprise vision. In addition to providing the Sage
Software perspective on market trends, this white paper will define the extended enterprise approach
as well as key drivers of the Sage strategy going forward. Finally, the white paper will outline how Sage
will create a differentiated position by marrying concepts such as service-oriented architectures (SOA),
Web 2.0 capabilities, on-demand, analytics, open standards, and flexible mobility approaches with
existing ERP and CRM applications"already recognized for best-in-class features and usability.
Trends That are Shaping a Flexible New Workplace
Five key trends are influencing the Sage extended enterprise solutions roadmap. These serve as our
guide as we continue to refine our product portfolio, create end-to-end solutions, and help our
customers thrive amidst rapid change.
Easy Everything
When it comes to business solutions, simplicity and ease of use have universal appeal to all
Sage market segments (regardless of size). A younger generation of decision makers, reared on the
Internet and accustomed to information accessibility, is assuming leadership of the business world.
These Generation X and Y managers, workers, and entrepreneurs will demand business applications
and solutions that are as easy to use, collaborative, and flexible as the consumer applications they"re
accustomed to using for e-mail, media management, and online banking. As a result, Sage Software
makes simplicity the core principle in our delivery of extended enterprise solutions, which require
extremely short learning curves and reduce the need for formal training.
Going Mobile
Advancements in mobile technology have been rapid and widespread. As business adoption grows,
features advance, prices drop, wireless networks become more pervasive, and connectivity becomes
ubiquitous, mobility has transitioned from an optional capability to a critical business enabler.
Business will increasingly be conducted from smart phones, handheld devices, and notebook
computers. Professionals will demand the ability to work on their own terms"where they want, and
when they want.
Business on Demand
Many small and midsized enterprises (SMEs) do not have the luxury of having established IT
departments or budgets. Thus, SME technology decision makers will continue to favor applications they
can rapidly implement, manage, and use"and fit with what they already own. Although this trend
alone may not fuel complete adoption of on-demand solutions across the SME market, over time SMEs
will be more inclined to consider the benefits of an on-demand delivery model on a case-by-case
basis. Adoption of on-demand models will range from fully-hosted software as a service (SaaS)
applications to specialized on-demand services that complement existing in-house desktop solutions.
As a result, Sage Software will expand and refine our on-demand offerings to provide customers
flexible choice.
Globalization
Now more than ever, SMEs are rapidly expanding their global reach. Widespread and diverse markets
of goods, services, and labor allow even the smallest companies to leverage opportunities for selling
and outsourcing as a means to cut costs, improve service levels, and increase revenue. As a result,
customers, partners, and suppliers are frequently located not just down the street or even in the next
state; they may be on a different continent and dealing in a different currency. SMEs need technology
that facilitates secure, real-time interaction and information sharing that manages these complexities.
Connected Communities
The emergence of Web 2.0 and online social networks has revolutionized personal networking for
individuals. As SMEs expand with remote offices, suppliers, and customers all over the world,
businesses will increasingly leverage enterprise social networking, knowledge management, and
resource identification in order to collaborate more effectively. Consequently, a growing function of
information technology will be to facilitate intelligent self-service applications that drive marketing
campaigns, focus on persistent customer engagement, and drive unstructured interactions among
internal workers, as well as with external partners and suppliers. SMEs will increasingly demand that
their business solutions readily identify and enable community participation and collaboration.
Restricted Enterprises vs. Extended Enterprises
In addition to their own internal functions, employees, and processes, SMEs typically interact with
scores of suppliers, partners, distributors, outsourcers, contractors, and consultants on a daily basis.
Together these internal and external constituents make up the business value chain. All parties have
their own roles, priorities, circumstances, and self-interests, but they collaborate in various formal and
informal ways in the planning, design, development, production, testing, and delivery of a product or
service to the end customer or end user.
Internally, these value chains can be fragmented as departments operate within functional "silos" with
each having their own data sources, formats, business goals, and processes. A common example is the
relationship between front-office teams (sales, marketing, customer service/support) and back-office
teams (accounting, receivables/payables, manufacturing). A sales team might be working with
outdated product pricing or a manufacturing team may lack a view into recent quotes and updated
forecasts. Both scenarios can set the stage for embarrassing (and potentially deal-breaking)
interactions with customers.
Communication breakdowns not only occur within a business at the functional levels, but also beyond
the walls (both real walls and firewalls) of the business with suppliers, business partners, and
customers. Outside the business, information exchange is even more informal, inefficient, sporadic,
and unstructured. This causes slow reactions to market demands and opportunities, lengthy delivery
cycles, and poor customer service.
In order to level the playing field with larger enterprises that are exploiting economies of scale and a
faster velocity of business, SMEs must improve agility in all areas of the value chain (including
planning, sourcing, design, development, costing, etc.). They must transform from restricted enterprises
to extended enterprises. Sage extended enterprise solutions help businesses solve this mission-critical
challenge by integrating data and processes, and providing the means to bridge the gap between
internal business functions and external constituents.
Enabling the Extended Enterprise
What follows are overviews of the three key tenets of the Sage extended enterprise integration and
technology vision. These focus areas will help SMEs (and divisions of larger enterprises that
ascribe to run our software in a de-centralized manner) realize the full potential of managing their
extended enterprise. Each describes where Sage Software is today and what is being worked on for
delivery in the near future.
ENABLING WORKFLOW
There are literally thousands of processes and tasks that fuel the productivity, profitability, and
sustainability of every SME. From the accounting clerk to the sales person to the CEO, each employee
adds value independently and in unison. But when employees are fully empowered to interact
seamlessly with internal and external stakeholders, they drive even further value for the company.
Today
By breaking down traditional barriers between internal functional silos and delivering solutions that span
end-to-end processes in the enterprise, Sage Software is helping SMEs achieve tremendous efficiency
and effectiveness gains.
Sage Software currently delivers is a suite of ERP and CRM solutions that provides seamless and
differentiated front- and back-office integration. With ease-of-use as a fixture throughout, these
extended enterprise solutions empower functionally-diverse employees from across the business with
a complete view of the customer. This enables them to work together to build profitable customer
relationships and provide a single consistent experience.
Sage Software solutions aggregate and combine customer data from the front- and back-office areas
and translate it into meaningful intelligence, which can then be leveraged to strengthen decision
making, understand a complete customer history, speed up sales processing and order fulfillment, and
improve customer service. Integrated applications from Sage Software also enable improved partner
relationships and supply chain management by providing real-time access to information that used to
languish behind the firewall.
Innovations in Web and mobile platforms, particularly in the CRM segment, are key ingredients to
delivering the promise of extended enterprise capabilities. Sage CRM Solutions provide total-office data
access anywhere, anytime, and across a variety of devices, which enables SMEs to be more agile,
responsive, and competitive.
Through the use of digital dashboards, business performance management solutions, and business
intelligence tools, Sage Software is helping SMEs better forecast, analyze, manage, and control their
business performance. By providing instant access to real-time information across the enterprise,
Sage Software solutions help professionals make rapid and confident decisions at all levels of
their organizations.
Tomorrow
SMEs are actively preparing for the next phase of integrating their business processes, information,
and workflows. To achieve this, it is essential that businesses fully integrate their disparate internal
applications. This includes real-time transactional linkages with external suppliers, resellers, partners,
and customers. Information sharing across these critical relationships is critical in order to realize
competitive and operational advantages.
Sage Software believes the market will value end-to-end solutions that provide complete transparency
and control of the entire operation. In the future, the Sage extended enterprise solutions of today will
evolve into role-based applications powered by portal technology and Web 2.0 capabilities. These suites
will provide unfettered transaction, process, and data access anywhere, anytime, on any device, and
across diverse organizational boundaries. This real-time or near real-time data connectivity will power a
"total-office" solution that dramatically enhances collaboration both internally as well as with external
trading constituents.
Extended enterprise suites will support the increasing fluidity of roles that employees must fill within an
SME organization over time. Flexible application mashups"solutions that quickly and easily merge
data residing in multiple sources"will deliver role-relevant insight in the appropriate context and at
the correct interval, giving workers the knowledge, capabilities, and control needed to be productive.
Integrated business intelligence will uncover highly-qualified opportunities by identifying subtle trends
and buying behaviors within the customer base. Predictive analytics will enable customer behavior to
be modeled and compared for several "what-if" scenarios. Embedding the power of analytics within the
extended enterprise will yield extreme productivity as users transparently leverage accumulated
knowledge in real time.
In order to accommodate target markets and existing customers, Sage Software will create these
extended enterprise suites using three approaches. First, we will enhance and build new applications
by leveraging the current flagship ERP and CRM solutions including Sage MAS ERP, Sage Accpac ERP,
Peachtree by Sage, and Simply Accounting by Sage, as well as Sage SalesLogix, SageCRM, and ACT!
by Sage. Secondly, our partners will develop new components to augment Sage solutions to ensure
that they fit into specific markets. Finally, existing development partner solutions will be utilized where
they deliver specialized capabilities.
ENABLING ECOSYSTEM TRANSACTIONS
The business management solutions of yesteryear were generally horizontal in nature and didn"t offer
much functionality to address challenges specific to unique markets. With rising competitive pressures
and the demand for shorter delivery cycles, that approach is no longer sufficient. Be it a durable goods
manufacturer, a retail boutique, or a property management firm, today"s SMEs require solutions that
automate transactions and service delivery throughout their value-chain every step of the way"
regardless of how unique they are.
Today
A vibrant network of 6,600 business partners, master developers, and independent software vendors is
a key competitive differentiator for Sage Software in the marketplace today. Our partner network is a
vital contributor in our extended enterprise model because they have an intimate understanding of the
key roles, workflow, and operating rhythm of our customers" businesses.
In close collaboration with this community, Sage Software offers SMEs a broad range of applications
and capabilities to facilitate transactions with customers and suppliers throughout their own
business value-chain. These solutions enhance the capabilities of Sage ERP Solutions and Sage CRM
solutions through integration that solves very specific business challenges, automates tasks, and
simplifies processes.
In addition to our network of developers and value added resellers, Sage Software also leverages
ecosystem partners"including accountants, financial institutions, third-party developers, and other
industry authorities. These partners serve as influencers and enablers to the markets Sage Software
serves. They provide substantial value and ancillary services to our customers in helping them to
choose the right solution, fit it to their business model, and continually improve it over time.
Sage Software business partners must pass a stringent review and certification process in order to be
part of this specialized development and distribution channel. They must also agree to support their
solutions in accordance with Sage Software best practices. These guidelines ensure our partners
understand Sage Software products and have a comprehensive knowledge of the markets in which our
SME customers compete.
Finally, Sage Software continues its leadership in making our solutions more customizable. Each new
release of our solutions provides more extensive customization capabilities that are designed to further
simplify our partners" abilities to fine tune applications to accommodate the needs and perspectives of
individual customers, their business models, their workers, and their constituents. Comprehensive
testing and certification capabilities will ensure that these offerings are worthy of deployment and an
endorsement by Sage Software.
Tomorrow
Sage Software recognizes the importance of its rich partner network. In order to further empower our
existing community and attract additional partners, we will emphasize a continued evolution of our
products to support open, standards-based technologies.
Upcoming releases of our extended enterprise solutions will also introduce Web 2.0 enabling
technologies, RESTful interfaces (representational state transfer) and RSS (really simple syndication)
capabilities. As these principles become a fixture in Sage extended enterprise solutions, they will enable
development partners and independent software vendors to streamline the creation of components that
make ecosystem transactions easier and more efficient"and better deliver against the extended
enterprise vision. SaaS delivery of both applications and complementary services will add further
deployment choice and flexibility. (For more information on these enabling technologies, see Appendix A.)
Partner-developed solutions will further automate and simplify an expanding range of market-specific
work tasks, transactions, circumstances, analytic tools, and processes"enabling our customers to
transact within their own business ecosystem more effectively. These add-on applications and
components will serve as building blocks for SMEs, enabling them, with minimal effort, to "snap-on"
additional solutions to their existing Sage Software applications as they are needed. This will
substantially enhance their business capabilities and efficiency at a nominal, incremental cost.
Because these solutions will be re-usable, standards-based and therefore easily interconnected,
Sage Software will offer a component marketplace in which customers and partners can readily view
and share components that they have developed. This method of constructing and sharing business
applications will reduce redundancy and facilitate greater collaboration and innovation among the
Sage Software partner and independent software vendor communities.
ENABLING RELATIONSHIPS
Business relationships in the SME marketplace have traditionally been highly structured and formal in
nature. The Internet and the advent of online social networks have enabled businesses to collaborate in
new ways. Online communities and networks enable SMEs to develop more meaningful and productive
relationships between employees, customers, and partners.
Today
Sage Software"s current direction in enabling relationships has been to manage customer and
supplier/vendor relationships completely within a single solution and via a single user experience"even
if the information is contained in disparate applications and databases. Achieving this complete view of
the customer requires meaningful dynamic integration between the disparate applications.
Sage CRM and ERP Solutions deliver this flexible integration today, which enables many Sage Software
customers to have a complete 360-degree view of their enterprise"from the specific vantage point of
every unique role represented within the company. Sage Software customers are experiencing
increased effectiveness and efficiency gained by empowering their employees with the structured
relationship data they need to act, at the time and within the context that it is needed.
Our current applications will evolve to further enhance customer value in areas of relationship
enablement in new and unique ways. Sage CRM Solutions provide the capability to store relevant notes,
activities, communications, and documents related to contacts, groups, or accounts. These solutions will
progress to identify relationships and patterns to provide a basis for networking and identifying
additional connections.
The key to unlocking further customer value in this area is to capture other tacit information that the
business may not know is valuable, and to facilitate the analysis of these customer profiles,
transactions, and workflows to determine important connections that exist. Refining these capabilities
utilizing the Sage customer-connected design approach will yield additional relationship enablement
abilities that can greatly enhance a customer"s reach, productivity, effectiveness, and success.
Tomorrow
One shortcoming of today"s business management applications is that they are generally utilitarian
and transactional in nature. They have little or no knowledge about the role or position of the user
in the organization and only know about relationships to the extent necessary for transaction
processing purposes.
Future Sage Software solutions will understand the organizational structure and intelligently assist the
business in work processes such as assigning work items, escalating tasks that require attention, and
meeting service level agreements. This future extended enterprise generation of applications and
services will be built around relationship enablement, context aware services, and embedded business
intelligence. It will also leverage enterprise social networking capabilities. In doing so, Sage Software
solutions will help businesses move away from a bureaucratic, transactional culture to a high service
level empowered culture.
A key distinction to our extended enterprise approach is that, while traditional enterprise applications
software would apply formal structure, linkages, and conventions prior to use, Sage Software solutions
and data models will leverage what is learned through actual use to create dynamic structure, linkages,
and conventions. This creates a model where individual users are able to control and adapt their own
experience with less (or no) reliance on IT, resulting in a workspace that they find personally intuitive
and more efficient. It also creates an environment in which virtual teams can utilize, enhance, and
retain consistent knowledge on an as-needed basis, unifying as necessary, delivering and then
disbanding as dictated by business conditions and opportunities.
Some applications Sage Software envisions in this area include: solutions that leverage persistent
customer interaction in order to maximize exposure, value, and reliance; solutions that provide
more effective ways of working with all of the various stakeholders in the extended enterprise"
customers, suppliers, partners, and employees"by managing emerging and evolving linkages and
connections based on the history and strength of transactions and workflow; and solutions that drive
marketing campaign effectiveness through use of click-thru and landing page analysis of prospect
purchasing behavior.
Sage Software is committed to helping our customers maximize their productivity, effectiveness, and
reach by enabling the growth of their business relationships.
Sage Extended Enterprise Solutions
The roadmap for the Sage extended enterprise vision calls for Sage Software solutions to transition
from applications-oriented products, which simply exchange and link data, to total-office solutions that
seamlessly collaborate. While separate front- and back-office applications will never go away, it is
imperative for them to become increasingly more interactive. This collaboration will require a roles-based
orientation, which drives workflow and user-defined views and provides quick insight leveraging
common business intelligence, analytics, and reporting tools. These applications will support concepts
such as Web 2.0, mobility, collaboration, analytics, and Web services. Further, they will serve
constituents both inside and outside the walls of the business.
Today
Sage Software has launched its first generation of Extended Enterprise solutions for our mid-market
flagship products"Sage MAS 90 and Sage Accpac. Sage MAS 90 and Sage Accpac Extended
Enterprise editions support front-office processes such as marketing, sales, and customer service"
powered by SageCRM. These new extended enterprise solutions bridge the traditional front- and backoffice
processes with consistent experience points such as license agreements, maintenance plans,
single-user sign on, a uniform user experience based upon workflow, common order entry, common
view of order and payment history, and a single customer support center.
In delivering these solutions to market, our objective is to provide complete awareness, automation, and
accuracy. This starts the journey of making Sage Software solutions aware of one another, delivering
workflow automation for key functional users, and driving 100% data accuracy by removing redundant
data entry and the need for synchronization. In doing so, we will enable our customers to provide a
higher level of service to their customers while increasing productivity and efficiency.
Benefits for front-office users include the abilities to:
- Create new customer accounts from prospects
- Confidently deliver quotes knowing they are based on current pricing and discount information
- Check customer receivable status, aging, and credit
- Convert a proposal into an order
- Know the current status of customer support/service contracts
- Render and deliver a customer invoice
- Validate inventory availability and track customer shipments
Benefits for back-office users include the abilities to:
- Forecast cash flow from pending orders in the sales pipeline
- React immediately to open new accounts or increase customer credit
- Receive customer record changes directly from the customer or front office users
- View and update customer contact history when resolving customer billing issues
- Create business plans and forecasts leveraging a total view of opportunity
- Create comprehensive budgets based on current marketing and sales activities
Tomorrow
Sage Software has embarked on an important journey"one that will define how we will deliver value
for years to come. Sage MAS 90 Extended Enterprise and Sage Accpac Extended Enterprise will
continue to grow their capabilities along three key value dimensions:
- Ease of use will be an ongoing value dimension that will continue to solve for improving the user
interface by making it more role and workflow based, more intuitive and consistent, and more
adaptable and customized.
- Product breadth as a value dimension will involve the continual refinement and addition of the
capabilities that a business needs in a total office solution, including operations management,
business intelligence, workforce management, and external portals supporting outside-in access.
- Product depth as a value dimension will involve creating and delivering industry and market specific
versions of the extended enterprise solutions"both created directly by Sage Software and through
the Sage ecosystem of business partners, independent software vendors, and value added resellers.
- Delivering on these value dimensions will yield a new class of enterprise solution that will
eclipse traditional application capabilities in supporting the enablement of workflow, transactions,
and relationships.
Sage CRM Solutions will continue to grow and differentiate themselves in the areas of interoperability
between ACT! and Sage SalesLogix / SageCRM, anywhere workforce experience, and connected frontand
back-office capabilities. Additionally, Sage Software products such as Peachtree, Simply
Accounting, and Sage MAS 500 will also benefit from this evolution to extended enterprise solutions.
The Sage extended enterprise approach will also continue to broaden across other business segments
such as human resource management, budgeting, asset management, etc. The extent and speed of
this evolution will be governed by the type of market and the type of customer that these products serve.
Summary
The modern small and midsized business is no longer a clearly defined self-reliant organization.
All kinds of constituents"partners, suppliers, employees, customers, and others"extend and expand
the boundaries of the enterprise. Transparency, simplicity, and relationship management are the rules
of the game"and increasingly the degree to which businesses play by these rules will determine
their success or failure. In order to succeed, businesses need integration-enabled applications that
collectively deliver end-to-end coverage to help them react to market demands, improve competitiveness,
and generate greater profitability.
Sage Software has already implemented, or begun implementing, many of the extended enterprise
technologies and approaches outlined in this white paper. By 2010, we aspire to apply them on a broad
scale throughout our product portfolio. Specifics are available by reviewing each of our individual
roadmaps for our Sage Software solutions. Customers who choose Sage Software can be confident that
they are working with a partner that understands their needs and is committed to delivering solutions
that will help them get the most value out of their extended enterprise. For SMEs, there will be
significant benefits to adopting the Sage Software technologies and solutions that result from the
extended enterprise model, including:
Improved Cash Flow
Sage extended enterprise solutions give sales representatives the rich information they need to quickly
and accurately configure and quote an order from a single, consistent source. Providing these sales
agents with contextual, relevant data such as prior financial transactions, credit verification, pricing,
discounts, shipping charges, and taxes, businesses can reduce the amount of time it takes to deliver
an order, thereby improving cash flow.
Improved Customer Acquisition and Retention
By delivering role-relevant insight and analytics, Sage extended enterprise solutions help business
employees better understand the factors that motivate a customer to make a purchase, drive
satisfaction, and improve loyalty. With this knowledge and visibility, frontline sales and service teams
can deliver a more personalized, consistent experience"and define cross-sell and up-sell opportunities
more effectively. Marketing professionals can use business intelligence to improve promotion uptake
and make offers that have a higher likelihood of being accepted.
Greater Speed, Flexibility, and Visibility
Through the development of extended enterprise applications, Sage Software provides end-to-end
solutions that support both internal and external integration, while enabling 360-degree visibility and
control across the business value chain. As a result, SMEs will be able to identify and capitalize on
business and market opportunities faster than ever before.
Sustained Competitive Advantage
With a modern product architecture and flexible delivery process, Sage Software helps our customers
carve out an advantage by pushing the right information to the right people at the right time"both
inside and outside the organization. Sage is investing in new technologies, but ensuring that we are
vigilant to keep pace with our customers" desire and ability to consume these technologies. By enabling
key stakeholders to get information faster, businesses and their communities can work together to
respond more quickly to market conditions and opportunities.
Simplified Regulatory Compliance
Regulatory compliance is an increasingly visible and cost-intensive management function that requires
businesses to cull data from multiple sources. By uniting disparate systems, Sage extended enterprise
solutions make the compliance process easy, helping businesses demonstrate accountability and data
integrity across all business processes.
Appendix A
Enabling Technologies
The following technologies provide a solid foundation for delivering the three pillars supporting the
Sage extended enterprise concept, and will be prime areas of Sage Software focus and investment over
the next three to five years.
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
SMEs need a way to keep their business systems flexible and adaptable while at the same time reusing
their existing software resources. SOA is a business-driven architectural approach that supports the
interconnection of various disparate business software tasks to create a cohesive solution. By continuing
to adopt SOA principles in our strategic solutions portfolio, Sage Software will make supporting diverse
and changing business processes easier by providing the building blocks (services) necessary to
construct solutions to meet specific business needs. By leveraging open standards, these services can
easily be combined with other systems independent of the technologies used to create extended
enterprise solutions. SOA at Sage is not just about technology, but more about how technology and the
business link together to meet a common goal of success.
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 is a second generation of services available on the Web that aims to facilitate collaboration
and sharing between users. The list of technologies considered to be Web 2.0 is long and varied
including Weblogs (blogs), wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds, social software, and online Web services. As the
Web 2.0 world evolves, SMEs will benefit from the creation of relationships and the growth of online
social networking in business. As with SOA, Web 2.0 provides flexibility and reuse through the creation
of new business applications by combining existing services and processes. But while SOA is more
focused on providing the building blocks of flexibility, Web 2.0 provides users the ability to collaborate,
create, and share information in new ways. By supporting SOA and creating services, Sage will provide
tools for SMEs to create business mashups. These business mashups will enable SMEs to be able to
look at their businesses from new perspectives that were not easily created in the past. Because these
mashups can be created by anyone, businesses will have the ability to quickly adapt to the changing
needs of their markets.
Application Programming Interfaces (API)
Standard and well-constructed APIs will enable Sage Software to fully enable our developer community,
ISVs, and business partners to creatively build and integrate solutions designed to enhance the Sage
Software solutions value to the end customer. These APIs will support real-time data transfer and will
generate a consistent workflow experience to the user of the product, allowing adaptation without
breaking functionality and withstanding upgrades without severing linkages. Architectural enhancements
and flexible database initiatives in our strategic products will support these interfaces, and will facilitate
the expansion of the Sage ecosystem.
Mobility
Mobile technology is a critical component to enabling the extended enterprise. As the workforce
becomes increasingly less tied to their office, there is a growing need to be able to access key business
systems from anywhere. Two of the challenges SMEs face with a mobile workforce are reliability and
security. Sage Software is addressing the challenges of mobility though innovative solutions that will
provide data availability even when connecting to the back office is not possible, and will allow
provisioning of security permissions to individual mobile devices. Providing our customers with the
comfort of knowing their data is readily available yet protected will allow SMEs to work when they want
and where they want.
On-Demand
The on-demand marketplace has evolved into a vast array of applications and services. The choices
vary from software as a service to hardware as a service to communication as a service. While all of
these technologies have their place, SMEs frequently struggle with deciding which options best suit
their business models and processes. Sage Software works closely with its customers to understand
their needs to develop solutions that solve current and future business needs. Sage solutions range from
on-premise applications to pure SaaS delivery. These applications will be complemented by a range of
on-demand services that provide functions such as mobility synchronization, payment services,
marketing services, and more. Provisioning will be done as needed to enable Sage Software customers
flexible and time relevant choices that fit their business needs. Because of this focus on solving realworld
problems, Sage customers will benefit from our ability to apply modern technologies where they
best fit to increase the flexibility and adaptability of their businesses.
Appendix B
Enabling Processes
Several business processes that have been consistently adopted across Sage North America will assist
in the delivery of customer value and the extended enterprise concept.
Applied Innovation
Applied Innovation (AI) is a process approach for driving new customer value concepts to rapid
definition, prototyping, and validation within a reduced timeframe. The process sets specific process
gates for evaluating a concept, and seeks to learn and prove by going to market with actual customers,
as opposed to analyzing and modeling possibilities within Sage Software. Sage Software has created
AI teams within most of the product and R&D organizations within Sage North America. Deliverables
planned from these AI teams range from the initial extended enterprise solutions coupled with Sage
MAS 90 ERP, to entry level business management solutions designed to automate billing and
transaction management.
Customer Connected Design
Customer Connected Design (CCD) is a set of procedures and principles that define how new solutions
are conceived, designed, developed, and validated. This involves the structured and extensive
collaboration of customers and target prospects in all areas of the development process, from the time
a solution is first proposed and designed, to the time it is deployed in the marketplace. Each Sage
Software business has created a CCD team that is responsible for ensuring that all new enhancements
leverage this approach, and reap the benefits of this "decision insurance". In addition, Sage CCD teams
are provided with guidance by a central team supplying user interface design standards, guidelines,
and "interaction design patterns" to product development groups. This central CCD team also sets
direction for the visual design of Sage Software and Sage Web applications, and supports product
teams" adoption of CCD methods and processes with method and process training.
Product Development Life Cycle
Product Development Life Cycle (PDLC) is a standard process approach for how new Sage Software
products and enhancements are conceived, defined, architected, designed, coded, tested, and
launched in the marketplace. The process leverages a set of explicit roles that apply to each of eight
process steps, and supports complete visibility from internal and external stakeholders into a project so
new release opportunities can be exploited and issues addressed as they occur. The process supports
both agile and traditional waterfall approaches to product development.
About Sage Software
Sage Software is the North American business operation of The Sage Group plc (London SGE.L),
a leading global supplier of business management software and services. Formed in 1981, Sage
has more than 5.5 million customers worldwide, including more than 2.8 million in North America.
The company employs over 13,000 people in operations in the United States, Canada, the United
Kingdom, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, South Africa, Australia, and Southeast Asia.
Sage Software is comprised of four divisions in North America: Business Management Division, Industry
and Specialized Solutions Division, Healthcare Division, and Payment Solutions Division.
Our rich history of innovation and growth has enabled us to build a portfolio of products and services
widely recognized for ease of use and low total cost of ownership. Our solutions help empower every
aspect of an organization"s operations. Businesses of all sizes"including small businesses, midsized
businesses, and divisions of large enterprises"use Sage Software solutions to unlock potential,
reduce costs, and improve performance.
As Sage Software has grown, we"ve remained dedicated to providing enterprises with cost-effective,
flexible solutions that are supported by a single provider. Standing behind that commitment are our
principles for operating the business"with a focus on agility, innovation, trust, integrity, and
simplicity"all of which keep us closely connected with our customers.