From the Sage MAS Team

[#1]

So you just installed your new MAS 200 version 4.40 ERP system.  Now what?  You may have heard that you should avoid customizing your system, and rather you should change your internal processes to more closely mirror the workflow and procedures that are inherent in the software.  This is sound advice for a company that is moving from a manual system or an entry level product that lacks proper audit trails and controls.   However there are a number of valid business reasons why it is important, if not necessary to customize your system.  These include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Productivity improvements
• Reduction of data entry errors
• Unique business requirements
• Eliminate manual workarounds
• Security concerns

There are a number of very good ERP systems on the market, and they all handle the basics of General Ledger, processing payables and receivables, etc.  Chances are though, that your company has some unique needs that aren’t readily met by the “off-the-shelf” product.  So what are your options?  What should you do?  You could just live with it and create an internal, manual workaround to handle these processes, maybe using spreadsheets (or worse yet yellow sticky notes).  A good option for MAS 90 customers has been engaging our vibrant Master Developer community to develop a custom solution to fully meet your needs.

Now there is another option.

The release of version 4.40 for Sage MAS 90 and 200 marks the completion of the core financial and distribution modules (Inventory Management, Purchase Order and Bill of Materials Processing) to the Business Framework.  There were many architectural goals we had when designing and implementing modules in the new framework, such as the ability to support a better SQL Server implementation (but that’s a topic for another blog), enhanced reporting and retrieval of data, better UI with resizable forms, dual grid entry and cancel capability in data entry programs; and making it easier for Master Developer modifications to survive upgrades.  But certainly a major initiative was to provide deeper and richer native customization capabilities.  Beginning in version 4.0, all modules brought up to the framework allow for User-Defined Fields (UDFs) in nearly every table; the ability to map and flow information throughout the system, User-Defined Tables (UDTs) to validate UDFs, and Advanced Fields Settings to customize default values and validations of standard MAS 90 fields.

New to 4.40 Customizer is the ability to write User-Defined Scripts that run without user interaction (i.e. No Buttons!!).  What this effectively does is open up a new level of customization capability to ALL of our talented business partners, and even some customers (providing they have the internal staff with the necessary expertise), but no longer just the Master Developers (MDs).  This capability uses industry standard Visual Basic (VBScript) and does not require knowledge of Providex.  Also important to note is this capability was designed so that it sits outside of the base product, meaning no source code changes, which in turn means they have the ability to survive future upgrades.  In fact while in the middle of writing this blog, I installed Product Update 1 on top of my installation that has all of the demos in the link below, and they all continued to run without a hitch.

Now for some truth in advertising: 

• Can you do everything using the new capabilities in the 4.40 Customizer that a Master Developer can?  The answer is no.  There are times that a modification will best be served by a custom modification by one of our many qualified MDs.  For example a Multi-Bin capability in Inventory would not be possible using Customizer.

• Is it possible to create a modification that will not survive an upgrade?  I’m sure it is, but likely it is because a new feature was added to the base product which makes the modification you have done obsolete.  Good news is you have the ability to change it to fit in with the new capability or to just turn it off.

If you want to learn more about these capabilities and what is possible, please view the video in this link (if you haven’t already).  This is a series of demonstrations showing the possibilities that were created using Customizer.  For the more technical among you, feel free to continue on with this link which goes into detail on how to build one of the customizations shown in the video.

This link contains some documentation (as an attachment) on the variables passed into scripts as well as some objects and useful properties and methods.

If you need some help with the VBScript language, I recommend this link, which is Microsoft’s VBScript Language Reference on-line.

Finally if you are brand new to the Customizer and its capabilities you may want to start with this link to get a better understanding of how to modify screens, add UDFs that validate against UDTs and flow information through the system.  I will warn you the audio quality on this link is not great.

Once you view the videos in the first link above you may wonder why we don’t just put some of those features right into the product.  The not so short answer is that as a publisher we need to be all things to all people, meaning any one of those enhancements would require setup options and several iterations of User Centered Design to make sure we get the enhancement right which will satisfy the needs of the largest amount of customers.  What this translates to is a longer development cycle and quite frankly may mean that it would not get in to a release because of competing priorities.  That being said what we have done now is put the power in the hands of the partners and customers to meet their needs.  We realize one size does not fit all, so you need a product that can easily adapt to your changing business needs.

For partners, all of the examples and sample scripts for both the 4.40 Customizer as well as the 4.30 Customizer demos in the links above are available out on the Partner File Center.  Just login and get to the MAS 90 and 200 page and search for Customizer.  For customers, the reason we do not make these available directly to you is that our partners are best able to determine if the examples are applicable for your business and/or if you have the internal staff with the necessary expertise to take these examples and tailor them for your individual needs.

Thanks for reading and watch this space for future entries.  Please feel free to provide some feedback on topics you would like me to cover in the future. 

Steve Malmgren

Chief Architect MAS 90 and 200

[#2]

Good solid info - Thank you Steve.

We're a Sage SalesLogix BP who is developing a replacement for DynaLink and this is certainly a great help to us.

[#3]

I need to know about data import manager module for MAS500