I first learned about MAS90 in the early 90's when I went to work for a group of physicians. I think back then, the software was marketed to CPA firms, and the one we used had an MAS specialist that put their clients on it. We only used it for AP, BR and GL as the medical billing was managed with a specialized system. My predecessor never understood the full integration as the BR had never been cleared out in several years and reconciliation between billing and receivables, ap, and banking took two days! After understanding the system and sorting that out, and then implementing an integrated budgeting process, my family business called.
I arrived at my current company in '93. We are a wholesale distributor of industrial products. The family was fearful of computers because of a family friend who tried to run his business with an old Tandy TRS-80 and some home-grown software. It took him 2 days to write a check (so I'm told). When I arrived, customers were on index cards, inventory was tracked manually with inventory cards on everyone's desks, purchasing was done with tickler files, colored tabs, and post-its everywhere. I wrote the first iteration of our path to automation as a simple billing system in dBase II. This was to prove concept and move us from index cards and typewritten invoices. We ran this on one of my personally owned computers. After a full year having the secretary manually validating month end totals, we were ready for the next phase.
I didn't want to go through multiple conversions over the next few years, so I looked for software that would meet our immediate needs, but also be sufficiently robust so as to support our growth. I also didn't want to have a three year phase-in path. If we were going to do it, we were going to do it completely. I evaulated a few packages. Quickbooks and Microsoft didn't support inventory. A couple of systems for industrial supply required a "mainframe" - outside the budget. The intermediate packages at the time were Great Plains, MAS90, and another who's name escapes me. I had familiarization with MAS90 and knew of the integration of their modules so I found our local reseller and orders the system. We started with GL, AR & SO, AP & PO, BR, and Import Master. I began to load our data, trying to get data files from our vendors. Some wanted to charge for the information as their IT departments didn't know how to accomodate these requests! I installed our Novell network and had everything tested and ready to go.
The day we went "live", Father came into my office and said we would be out of business in 6 months. My brother fearer I would put the secretary out of work. I wrote the date in the corner of my white board. We would not be handwriting orders and packing slips, manually costing each line on the invoice, searching for inventory cards, or spending a day and a half build our key supply orders. Instead, the salespeople had more time to sell and build relationships, purchasing was nearly automatic, inventory became real-time and the computer information was more accurate than the manual back-up system. Six months later, sales were up 30% with the same staff, the secretary didn't have to work saturday's to get billing finished, and performance data was available on the 1st of the month.
In the beginning of our MAS days, we had our Master Developer do extensive modifications - adding extended descriptions, modifying screens to add account numbers and phone numbers, putting data on forms that weren't included and adjusting some processes. Without breaking the bank, we could have a solid system tailored to our needs. This kept us from upgrading as frequently as we might have liked, but eventually, the upgrades started to include features we needed or wanted. So, we went from 3.3 to 3.71 when Sage released 4.0. We went from 3.71 to 4.05 when Sage released 4.10. We are now on 4.3 and after adding VI, Custom Office, EBM, FRx and Business Alerts, we only need two mods which I'm told will be preserved with future upgrades. We can manage our screens, our forms, and perform customization to our heart's content. We can manage our data anomolies with BA so we don't have to have the inventory system modified. Our company had grown significantly and MAS has been able to handle the growth without any issues. We migrated to Windows, Microsoft networks, Small Business Servers, integrated the E-commerce module and never missed a beat. We took a lightening strike that blew the network, but remained operational on a laptop and our customers never knew. We were fully operational within two days with no lost data!
Would I change a few things if I were in charge of Sage? Sure. Would we be where we are without MAS90, maybe, but maybe not. Regrets? No.
P.S. Dad still uses inventory cards for his "corner" of the business, but whenever there is a discrepancy, the cards are wrong!
