Our R&D director Tim Purcell offers insight into why businesses often feel reluctant to migrate from their Sage 1000 and Sage Line 500 systems, and gives clarity on how Datel can ease those concerns and allow customers to look for the opportunities available.
Over the past 15 to 20 years, our customers have shaped their Sage 1000 and Sage Line 500 systems around their unique business needs by adding modules, integrations, customisations, and workarounds to create a fully functioning ecosystem. My team has created many of the applications that sit around the Sage core. The challenge now is that these systems are built on legacy platforms either in or close to retirement.
The reality is that many, if not all, of these businesses no longer operate the way they did 15 to 20 years ago. What was once a well designed, future tech enabled solution, no longer delivers the same results today. At this stage, it’s easy to forget all of the work arounds and ‘sticky tape’ solutions that have been applied over the years to these systems and lose sight of where technology has moved on to. Replacing a system like Sage 1000 and Sage Line 500 actually offers the opportunity to build something that enhances your business in the way that it functions today, not how it operated decades ago.
I have worked closely with a lot of businesses taking the steps to migrate from Sage 1000 and Sage Line 500 in recent years, each coming to me with similar concerns before planning their migration journey.
Investment into their current system and the expense of moving, the network of capability they have built around their Sage solution, and stepping into the unknown when selecting a new solution are all common concerns that surface from the conversations.
If these concerns sound familiar to you, then don’t worry - many of our Sage 1000 and Sage Line 500 migration customers had the same apprehensions before making the move to their new solution. As your Sage business partner it’s our job to make sure those concerns are addressed.
Change, especially when it comes to something as fundamental as your finance system, can feel like a risk. But the reality is, clinging to a legacy platform that has reached retirement can end up costing you more in the long run: in time, resources, missed insights, risk, and lost opportunities.
The good news is that migration doesn’t mean starting from scratch. It means taking the best of what your current system offers, rethinking what elements no longer serve you, and building something that works for your business as it is today, and as it grows tomorrow.
We work with you to understand what good looks like, and build a migration strategy best suited to your business needs.
We’ll consider:
We’ve seen time and again how a well-managed migration opens up new ways of working - better visibility, smarter reporting, stronger integrations, and fewer manual processes.
If you need advice on how best to start your migration journey or have a question you just can’t find the answer to, reach out to me on LinkedIn or email.
Or, if you simply just want to read more on migrating from Sage 1000 click the link below to our Sage 1000 page, where you’ll find plenty of information on what to expect.