How large does your ERP reseller need to be?

When we talk to prospects, they often ask “How many people work at Friendly Systems?” This appears to be a reasonable question. Many people think “bigger is safer”. Just look at cars on the road.

An article in New Yorker magazine, in January 2004, states “Are the best performers the biggest and heaviest vehicles on the road? Not at all.” It seems that S.U.V’s became big sellers because they are often purchased to provide the feeling of safety. Even though statistics show that smaller vehicles are safer than SUV’s, the illusion that “Bigger is Better” persists. (See the details).

Maybe its because we focus on sports like basketball and football, where size really does matter. Yet, in business software resellers, reliability and endurance are more important to the performance you receive from your business software reseller. Service and reliability is not a something that “bigness” automatically provides. Remember that the large resellers also have to support a larger number of companies and users.

The question I would ask is: “How many people will be working on MY ACCOUNT?
Whey you call them, will they be there for you? Who will be there? Will the person who spent two or three years still be working at the large company you chose because of their size? Or will they have gone on to greener pastures, along with the knowledge of your company and system - knowledge that you paid good money to pass on to the people you worked with.

Perhaps the questions need to focus on individual people. Whom will be assigned to my account? How long have they worked for you? What is their background and experience? What is your turnover rate at your (reseller) company? How long will they be here for me?

At Friendly Systems you will get the attention of people who are all owners of the company or people who want to become owners. That is one reason why we provide superior service. Being small makes your company more important to us, than you would be than if you worked with a large reseller. And we have some good-sized allies who understand and will tell you that Friendly was there when they needed us.

Sage Software has released the following statement about MAS 90 and MAS 200 compatibility with INternet Explorer version 7:

“After installing Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 on Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, the “How do I?” feature and help files may no longer work in Sage MAS 90 and Sage MAS 200. A javascript error may also appear on screen or as a warning icon on the bottom left corner of the Sage MAS 90 or 200 business desktop.

To resolve this issue with Help files, either install Service Update 6 as described below, or do not install Internet Explorer 7.0 on any Windows XP Workstation or Windows Server 2003 operating system. Note: Beta versions of Internet Explorer 7.0 are not supported with any version of Sage MAS 90 or 200. “

What the announcement did not say (and it took several emails/phone calls to find out), is that the compatibility issue also affects versions 4.0 and 4.05 help files, and there is as yet no patch released for those versions. Users of version 4.0 and 4.05 should NOT install IE7.

If you think your users may not remember to refuse the IE7 install when it comes in Windows Update there is a blocker toolkit available from Microsoft that will prevent the installation of IE7.

Users who are still on MAS 90 version 3.71 should not be affected, as the help files on that version are not the .chm files used in version 4.0 and higher.