Many people I am sure are confused as to why their existing enhancements are taking so long to ugprade. Essentially, Sage went to what is called “object oriented programming” with level 4.X. This is as large a change as when DOS went to Windows. Senior Programmers have instantly become Junior Programmers. Each and every enhancement has to be rewritten in a language that most programmers have to learn from scratch. The programs have to be rewritten as the module gets adapted to OOP. For example, when Sales Order changed to 4.10, then all enhancements that affect Sales Order have to be rewritten at that time.

Have you upgraded to 4.20 yet? There are some wonderful new features, especially BIE. It allows the user to slice and dice data without having to hire consultants. This closes the gap a little between MAS 90/200 and MAS 500. Attached is the 4.20 PDF.

At the recent Sage Business Partner Trade Show in Orlando, Florida, MAS 90 4.30 was reviewed for the first time. It is sceduled for release in the summer of 2008. Inventory and Purchase order will be moved to the new business framework. In addition, MAS 90 will come out with another credit card processing module, which interfaces with Sage’s new merchant processing division. What this means is that PC Charge will no longer be needed, although they will sell both versions for a while.

From the Sage Master Developer’s forum today, I learned that there are potential problems when installing MAS 90 4.20 to a server or a workstation with other installations of MAS 90. Sage is actively researching the problem, and I will keep you informed as more information becomes available.