Sage-500-versus-x3

9 Reasons Why You Should Move Now from Sage 500 to Sage X3

Have you given thought to migrating from Sage 500 to Sage X3? Some might question why you want to change your enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution as Sage 500 continues to deliver what you need. Or does it? 

The way we do business globally is transformed, and companies need to keep pace or fall behind their peers. Sage X3 is the next-generation ERP, as technology continues to rapidly change how businesses operate. Although Sage 500 is also an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and continues to deliver a steady user experience, the underlying technology has aged. Sage X3 offers greater flexibility, efficiency, and insight. 

Let’s discuss the top 9 reasons for migrating from Sage 500 to Sage X3 and how to prepare your data for the move.

9 Reasons to Migrate From Sage 500 to Sage X3

Sage 500 and Sage X3 are different ERP platforms, and migration has its challenges, even within the same product family, but improved efficiency and insight equal increased profits. What should motivate your company to migrate?   

1. Future Operating System Incompatibility

The foundation of Sage 500 was Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 (VB6), released in 1998, and after twenty-four years, Microsoft’s support for this version is becoming limited. Sage released Sage ERP 2023, but Microsoft indicated in 2021 that the core Visual Basic 6.0 runtime would receive five years of mainstream support followed by five years of extended support, limited to serious regressions and critical security issues for existing applications. Visual Basic 16.9 is the current version globally used for new applications. If your company does not migrate to a new system, Sage 500 will experience incompatibility issues with SQL Databases and Microsoft Operating Systems. 

2. Data Migration Might Not Be as Complicated as You Fear

Is your company using Sage Enterprise Intelligence (SEI) for reporting with Sage 500? Migration can be a challenging task, but SEI works with Sage X3 as well, and there is no need to be concerned about migrating substantial amounts of data between the systems. Business intelligence (BI) tools such as Sage Data & Analytics (SD&A) and SEI facilitate reporting across multiple databases and are essentially preconfigured to work with Sage 500 and Sage X3 (however, a connector may be required). When your business migrates to Sage X3, you still have access to your old data.       

3. Sage X3 Is Where Your Company and People Are

Sage X3 is a modern, comprehensive ERP solution where a single database integrates all functionalities across multiple companies, countries, and legislations. With this platform, your financial, manufacturing, and distribution operations are linked in real-time across all areas of the business. This Sage ERP includes a financial management solution that allows the finance function to operate and report under several accounting standards at the same time. Sage X3 can be hosted on-premise, in a data center, or in the cloud, and if employees are working from home, they can access the platform on any device with an internet connection.   

4. Sage 500 Add-Ons Are a Standard Functionality in Sage X3

Have you invested in various Sage 500 add-ons and wondered if the same functionalities are available in Sage X3? Sage users are not inconvenienced when migrating, as many of the Sage 500 add-ons are standard functionalities in Sage X3, including Project Management, Quality Control, Change Control, and Product Costing. Add-ons such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Electronic Document Management (EDM), Fixed Assets, and Reporting using Sage Enterprise Intelligence (SEI) can easily be integrated.    

5. Purchase Only the Licensing You Need

Business needs change, and Sage X3 is designed to grow and adapt with your business. With Sage X3, you only buy what you need, as it offers licensing options defined by functional requirements and roles. For example, a user-defined as an operational expert will only get access to distribution or manufacturing capabilities, saving costs. Is your business growing, and you are unsure what your future needs will be? Purchase only the necessary licenses and add the new functionalities as required. 

6. Sage X3 Automates Your Business Processes

Manual data entry can be a business risk, as human error is possible during manual processes. Sage X3 automates business processes, thereby increasing efficiency, as turnaround times are significantly reduced, errors eliminated, and the system updated at any time. By automating accounting systems, Sage X3 allows key finance and accounting tasks such as order processing and invoicing to occur faster and with greater accuracy. The Sage X3 enterprise resource planning (ERP) automation functionality gives employees more time to be innovative or nurture client relationships. Do you have distribution operations? Sage X3 offers deeper inventory management capabilities, including costing scenarios, pricing, lot, and serialization. It can even track containers and vessels for improved product visibility.  

7. Faster and More Effective Process Manufacturing

Sage X3 enhances the ability of a business to achieve greater product and process consistency while satisfying increased customer demand. Do you want focused insights into quality and costs to fill customer orders efficiently, and optimize production planning while maintaining high quality? Sage X3 ERP uses real-time and historical information to shorten product development cycles by tracking costs and inventory levels, optimizing the product mix, and reducing waste. It also allows you to automate your workflow for increased productivity. With Sage X3, you can simplify compliance across regulations, currencies, and regions with consistent access to global restrictions and laws. 

8. Improve Efficiency With the Sage X3 Industry-Specific Functionality

Sage X3 understands that every industry has its unique challenges and requirements for business management software. That is why it offers an industry-specific functionality on the Sage X3 enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform. Operations in the manufacturing, distribution, food and beverage, services, and chemical industries can be managed through the software. A partner solution is also available for the construction industry, where you can protect project profitability by using up-to-date WIP data. If you are in the cannabis industry and need an ERP platform, Panni has the expertise you want.       

Are you often at distribution centers or reviewing operational matters on the factory floor but need to review sales and other data? Sage X3 offers intuitive mobile applications allowing you to view key performance indicators and approve purchases away from the office.

9. Management Access to Real-Time Business Intelligence Analytics

Have you been using Sage 500 for years, but need more immediate business data? When migrating from Sage 500 to Sage X3, you get real-time business analytics and user-defined dashboards. With this information, you can make faster decisions, respond to market trends more quickly, immediately address operational issues, and improve customer service. Do you have a data strategy and clarified the roles of everyone using data, to get optimum value from your company information? Sage X3 is at the core of this endeavor’s future success. 

How to Prepare Your Data Migration to Sage X3

Yes, we did say data migration might not be as complicated as you fear, but the reality is there are going to be challenges when you undertake a new implementation and move vast amounts of data. It is also relevant when migrating from Sage 500 to Sage X3, but successful migration is possible with the right mindset, pro-active project management, and hard work. With Sage X3, you gain faster business insight, access industry-specific processes, and stay competitive.       

Sage X3 is not a Sage 500 upgrade but a totally different product, even though it includes many Sage 500 functionalities and can integrate certain add-ons. It has a different architecture, file structure, and individual field lengths. Sage X3 does have a migration tool, but it only establishes the data migration starting point. What steps must be taken to prepare data for migration and ensure minimum disruptions?

Collect the Data – Decide which data you want to migrate, whether master data, open Accounts Payable (AP) and Accounts Receivable (AR) transactions and more. 

Clean the Data – Here lies the time-consuming and potentially frustrating but critical work for businesses. Remove the data you don’t use anymore, and combine accidentally duplicated data to bring the company data down to singular, active records.   

Understand which data cannot be migrated – There might be data that is complex and costly to move. For purposes of risk management, you can keep a copy of the existing accounting solution on some workstations for historical inquiry purposes.   

Populate Sage X3 – Panni, a Sage X3 partner, can through technical consultations, advise on the best practices to follow when migrating. It includes clearly defining your Chart of Accounts (COA) and paying attention to key IDs and field length sizes.

Panni is focused on simplifying your ERP requirements by first understanding your business needs, then offering the appropriate technical solution. Are you a mid-size company in the distribution, manufacturing, chemicals, food and beverage, or cannabis industry? We have the innovative solutions you need. Interested in migrating from Sage 500 to Sage X3? Contact Panni today.   

Transforming businesses since 2009

For over a decade, Panni has helped companies transform their businesses to lead, innovate and be profitable. With the right combination of technology and experienced developers and consultants, we help companies with Change Management to achieve the organizational objectives. We believe in long-term relationships with our clients and provide top-notch support with fast turnaround times.

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