Sage MAS Intelligence (SMI) is intended to replace Frx for Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 as Microsoft will no longer be supporting Frx as of 12/31/2012. It will also replace F9, which Sage will no longer sell as of October 2010. Sage will no longer support F9 when customer-support-plans are renewed after October 2010. New and current MAS 90 and MAS 200 customers will receive a free single-user license for 4.4 as a support-plan benefit.

SMI is built on an Excel platform and requires MicroSoft Excel 2007 or newer for the designer, 2003 or newer for the viewer. For people not already using Frx, Sage MAS Intelligence has “out the box” financial statements that are delivered with no user input required. SMI also includes sample reports from non-G/L data such as Customer Sales, Inventory Status and Vendor Purchases. That means that people analyzing data from non-G/L modules now have a new tool for creating sophisticated spreadsheets. Sage is also offering several free on-line learning courses on the product.

One FRx instructor said: most of the “functions” are actually Excel functions. The “drill down” capability does not go back to the MAS transactions, it brings up raw data. The trend analysis report looks like it bombed until you select a specific GL account. There is no reporting tree capability similar to Frx; you must “group” by chart segments unless you want to get it done in Excel. Many clients would not want to spend money to re-do most of their Frx reports in Excel. They can already send raw data to Excel and manipulate it much cheaper.

There is a learning curve involved in designing new reports and until there are some real improvements made to SMI, we wouldn’t encourage clients to “upgrade” from FRx to SMI. For people not using Frx or F9, Sage MAS Intelligence is a great new tool for generating spreadsheets from your MAS 90 and MAS 200 database, for both financial and non-financial reporting. For Sage’s details on Sage MAS Intelligence, see:

www.sagemas.com/lp/sagemas/SMI/solutions.html

Yet more time wasted talking to the wall: Got the assigned case mangler, Alexandra, on the phone, and she repeated the same corporate policy to not warranty the screens on the laptops, and while she admitted she had a boss readily enough, she also claimed she was not allowed to give out his name or phone number. She referred me to a “corporate” (ie not 800) number, where I was routed to the “executive customer service” department, where Danielle served up the same corporate double-speak (HP is redefining “warranty” like Clinton tried to redefine “sex”) and claimed that she could not override the decision of the “case managers”.

Oh, yeah, almost forgot – the person who answered the phone in the case manager department asked me what my “complaint number” was.

Don’t buy HP – they don’t stand behind their products.

Another lesson in How Not To Run a Business, this time courtesy of HP. Last November I purchase an HP laptop for my daughter’s birthday. A couple of days ago, she opened it up to a screen full of horizontal lines and what looked like a jagged marker scribble diagonally through the middle. We tried to call HP support, but after two hours on hold we gave up. The next morning I called Best Buy and asked if the Geek Squad handled HP warranty repairs. They said they did.

When we brought it in, they told us that HP classifies any screen problems as “accidental damage”, and will not warranty it. Back home, we called HP again, finally reaching a “customer service” rep who repeated the policy about not warrantying screens, admitted it was certainly possible for the screen to become damaged through no fault of the user, and pleading lack of authority passed the case on to a “case manager”, who would call back “within three business days”. This is after being told that my daughter is leaving for college in 14 (calendar) days. Oh, yeah, and the replacement of one part in a laptop that cost $460 (including tax) would be over $400!

Finally heard from the “case manager” at about 6 pm on the third business day, and all she offers is 25% off, which somehow still comes to over $400!

Obviously it does not make sense to do the repair. We continue to try to escalate the case and see if we can find someone at HP who actually comprehends what “warranty” means. If not, I guess I will be stuck with the bill for a replacement laptop, which will NOT be an HP!

Further update: I just called the “case manager” department and asked to speak to a supervisor. I was told by one person that their supervisor didn’t take phone calls. When pressed for a name to attach to said supervisor, I was hung up on. When I called back, a different person told me that they didn’t report to anyone, just some vague notion of “corporate”. Looks like Mark Hurd was the role model for integrity at HP.