WHY UPGRADE SAGE ERP ACCPAC

WHY UPGRADE SAGE ERP ACCPAC Enabling NSW Suite 2 273 Alfred Street North Sydney NSW 2060 T +61 2 9925 0383 F+ 61 2 9925 3926 www.enabling.net WHY UPGRADE SAGE ERP ACCPAC 1 P A G E

PROPRIETARY INFORMATION AND CONFIDENTIALITY The Information contained in this document represents the current view of Enabling on the topics discussed as of the date of publication. This document is for information purposes only. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any other purpose, without the express written permission of Enabling Pty Ltd. Enabling may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this document. The example companies, organisations, products, people and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organisation, product, person or event is intended or should be inferred. Enabling. All rights reserved. All Sage products and brands referred to herein are acknowledged as the property of Sage. WHY UPGRADE SAGE ERP ACCPAC 2 P A G E

CONTENTS WHY UPGRADE SAGE ERP ACCPAC... 1 PROPRIETARY INFORMATION AND CONFIDENTIALITY... 2 INTRODUCTION... 4 WHY UPGRADES ARE IMPORTANT... 5 AT A GLANCE VERSION ENHANCEMENTS... 7 RISK OF TECHNICAL OBSOLESCENCE... 8 Version 5.6 Compatibility... 8 Version 5.5 Compatibility... 10 Version 5.4 Compatibility... 10 DATABASE PLATFORMS AND OPERATING SYSTEMS... 11 Server Operating Systems... 11 Application Server Operating Systems... 11 Workstation Operating Systems... 12 WHY UPGRADE SAGE ERP ACCPAC 3 P A G E

INTRODUCTION Earlier this year, Sage notified all Accpac users that after April 2011, Sage ERP Accpac Version 5.4 (including Version 5.3, Version 5.2 or earlier) will no longer be supported. This change is particularly important because it means no additional updates will be made available and the risk of technological obsolescence increases. It is important to be aware that Sage ERP Accpac Version 5.4, or earlier, will not be compatible to run on Windows 2008 R2. In the event of server changes, which would use this version of Windows, you would need to install the current version of Accpac to be able to continue operating. Maintaining your business management software is no longer a technical decision that can be made by the IT department, as your system is not just a key part of your IT strategy, but one of your most important and sensitive corporate assets. It is vital to develop a corporate wide strategy for how often the software and underlying technology will be updated so that the entire organisation can plan and budget for the inevitable costs and disruptions. Your systems should have at least a five- to ten-year useful life, but over that time they will need to be maintained and enhanced to protect their value and serve the changing needs of your business. The key to minimising the challenge of upgrades is to have both a long-term software lifecycle strategy and a comprehensive tactical plan for the actual upgrade project. Your business success depends on fully functioning solutions, and product upgrades are important enough that senior management needs to fully understand both the timing and project plan. You need to strike the right balance between regularly updating your software and minimising cost and disruption to your business. This document will cover why keeping up to date with upgrades is important, the enhancements these versions provide as well as technical and compatibility issues with the operating system and databases. Please discuss this with your Enabling consultant so we can map out the most suitable approach for you. It is in both our interests for your system to be working optimally with minimal risk of disruption and the potential difficulties to your operations that would ensue. WHY UPGRADE SAGE ERP ACCPAC 4 P A G E

WHY UPGRADES ARE IMPORTANT BOOST PROFITABILITY 1. Maximizing visibility into your business and improving processing efficiencies through centralized access to information. Your finance department will save hours resolving issues with the front office staff, automate time consuming processes, and effectively manage collections improving cash flow. 2. Consistently delivering exceptional and personalized service to take better care of your customers. 3. Increasing customer revenue share through highly focused business development programs. 4. Extending the reach and effectiveness of marketing campaigns. 5. Achieving significant cost savings and ongoing productivity improvements by enabling real time corporate performance management, improving collaboration and eliminating process bottlenecks. With improved visibility into real-time information comes the ability to manage exceptions better and adjust quickly to meeting changing customer needs. ENSURE OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE By staying current and installing all service packs, you re helping to ensure that your software is running at optimal performance, while reducing downtime, user questions, and workarounds. SAVE TIME AND MAXIMIZE PRODUCTIVITY You need to get more done with fewer people! Improved company performance comes from saving money and ensuring employees spend their time in more productive activities. BETTER MANAGE YOUR BUSINESS This functionality enables your employees and partners to adapt successfully to changes in today s markets and make better, faster business decisions. ENHANCE COLLABORATION This new technology is focused on getting the right information to the right people, when they need it LOWER TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP Upgrades are an excellent time for you to evaluate your IT portfolios and look for opportunities to eliminate custom software, unneeded modifications, and even third party or legacy systems in order to simplify your systems and lower costs of ownership. DIMINISH USER INTERRUPTION Provide this document to your staff along with key resources, such as an implementation strategy document, and access to additional training to ensure you are maximizing your investment. COMPLIANCE WITH GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS Your software can assist you with compliance and save you significant resources, ease your certification process, as well as save you from paying the heavy penalty fees. WHY UPGRADE SAGE ERP ACCPAC 5 P A G E

KEEP UP WITH TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENTS Upgrades are necessary to support the latest servers, operating systems, hardware, and database technologies, ensuring that your system is supported and running at peak performance. FURTHER STREAMLINE OPERATIONS Business management systems that are tailored to your unique business can help you be more efficient, productive, and profitable GET THE ANSWERS YOU NEED, WHEN YOU NEED THEM Access to services, experts, and latest software updates means your staff have the tools they need to get the job done! Support and services, such as maintenance plans, payroll updates, priority support plans, professional services, and online training are not available for legacy systems. Staying on current version means that you save time resolving issues, leaving more time to achieve your business objectives. Your maintenance and support subscriptions subscription helps you get the most out of your investment so you and your teams can do your best work, every day. WHY UPGRADE SAGE ERP ACCPAC 6 P A G E

WHY UPGRADE SAGE ERP ACCPAC 7 P A G E

RISK OF TECHNICAL OBSOLESCENCE VERSION 5.6 COMPATIBILITY ALL ENVIRONMENTS The following are points of note for all configurations with Version 5.6: Support for IBM DB2, Windows 2000, and SQL 2000 have been discontinued as of Sage Accpac 5.6 Support for Novell Netware was discontinued as of Sage Accpac 5.5 Windows 2003 and 2008 Small Business server are supported but remain untested. Due to the number of features included in Windows Small Business servers, it is recommended that for optimal performance, Sage Accpac be installed on a separate machine. There is a known compatibility issue with the Sage Accpac Intelligence Analysis Module running with Microsoft Excel 2003. To customize the Dashboard, a copy of the Customisation Kit for Sage Accpac 5.6 is required. Sage is committed to supporting future Microsoft and Linux operating systems as they are released to market for all Sage Accpac applications. However, this does not include release candidates, beta or pre-beta-level operating systems. As new operating systems are scheduled for final general release, Sage will evaluate their compatibility and this document will be updated based on the findings of those evaluations. If the Sage Accpac shared data is hosted on a Linux server, please refer to our knowledgebase for more details on configuration. Pervasive released Pervasive PSQL Summit v10 SP3 for Windows and Linux (Server, Workgroup and Client Editions) in November 2009. Sage Accpac Customer Support now supporting for this version. Please note that this product is available as a download only. Full installation files from can be downloaded from here. This version will address a number of product issues that are detailed in the SP3 Read me most notably compatibility with Windows 7. The download provides trial access that is set to expire after 30 days. You will be required to enter the key code that they received from Sage at time of purchase for P.SQL v10.2 to enable a permanent license for P.SQL v10.3. New customers will be issued key codes at time of purchase from Sage. VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS Sage Accpac is now supported in a VMWare ESX Environment as of Version 5.6. Performance issues in a VMWare environment will not be addressed by our support teams. Only application related issues which can be replicated in a physical environment will be addressed. (Please note that Sage CRM is not supported in any Virtual environment). Due to the complexity involved in implementing a virtual server environment, we recommend to always consult with a vendor certified virtual server agent. The key is to have them commit to matching or mirroring performance requirements detailed in our hardware requirements section. A certified virtual server agent should be able to provide you with a performance baseline report that would include expected maximum processing throughput per active instance, and expected performance trends as more and more virtual instances are allowed to come online. This document should also include the expected margin of errors during peak business operating hours. Sage Accpac is not supported in non-vmware environments including, but not limited to: Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer. When running in a VMWare environment, avoid over committing VM Application Pools. Allocating more resources than the hardware can support can cause performance problems. Each VMWare image should have sufficient resources based on the Operating System and installed applications. A virtual environment may be a single point of failure if not properly implemented. A single point of failure should be avoided at all costs; the virtual server community always recommends deploying at least two virtual servers along with a failover strategy. WHY UPGRADE SAGE ERP ACCPAC 8 P A G E

There is never enough memory to share amongst virtual devices running on a virtual server. It is recommend that server RAM be configured to the maximum of what the server hardware can support. Most server hardware that is certified by the virtual server vendor can support at least 32 GB of RAM. The virtual server vendor always support a list of compatible server hardware devices, make sure the virtual server your firm is considering is on the hardware compatibility list. Each virtual server vendor implements vastly differing memory allocation strategies, please be sure to be familiar with the specific strategy. For example, VMWare allocates memory to an active virtual image dynamically allowing the administrator to set a maximum memory limit but only allocate that maximum memory limit on a need to basis. Network bandwidth may become a bottleneck in virtual network environments, be prepared to add more than four network interface cards into virtual server. Ask your virtual server platform expert to investigate the ability of these network interface devices having the ability to team up. When network bandwidth becomes the bottleneck, network interface teaming may be the easiest way out without resorting to the more complicated strategy of breaking up your network into smaller segments. At the time of writing, both VMWare vsphere endorses running database servers as a virtual instance. Sage Accpac has not been benchmarked to run the database server on a virtual instance in VMware, despite the vendor allowing this configuration. CITRIX ENVIRONMENTS Citrix servers should be dedicated for applications and database engines should be separate from the Citrix server. You will need to optimise Citrix sessions for performance, performance will issues in a Citrix environment will not be addressed by our support teams. Only application related issues which can be replicated in a standard client/server environment will be addressed. You will need to ensure printers are Citrix Compatible. WHY UPGRADE SAGE ERP ACCPAC 9 P A G E

VERSION 5.5 COMPATIBILITY ALL ENVIRONMENTS The following are points of note for all configurations: Support for Novell Netware has been discontinued Windows 2000 and 2003 Small Business server are supported but remain untested. Due to the number of features included in Windows Small Business servers, it is recommended that for optimal performance, Sage Accpac ERP be installed on a separate machine. VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS Version 5.5 is not currently supported in a virtual environment. This includes but is not limited to the following environments: VMWare ESX Server, Microsoft Virtual PC and Citrix XenServer CITRIX ENVIRONMENTS Citrix servers should be dedicated for applications and database engines should be separate from the Citrix server. You will need to optimise Citrix sessions for performance, performance will issues in a Citrix environment will not be addressed by our support teams. Only application related issues which can be replicated in a standard client/server environment will be addressed. You will need to ensure printers are Citrix Compatible. VERSION 5.4 COMPATIBILITY ALL ENVIRONMENTS The following are points of note for all configurations: Support for Windows 95, 98 and 98 SE, Windows NT 3.51, Windows 3.x, and DOS platforms has been discontinued. Support for Windows NT 4.0 servers and workstations were discontinued on 12/31/03. Support for Novell Netware 5.x has been discontinued. Windows 2000 and 2003 Small Business server is supported but remains untested. Nitix for Sage Accpac ERP system comes preconfigured with compatible hardware. For more information, refer to http://www.nitix.com/accpac. Install the FTF fix pack for Pervasive 8.7 and 9.1 respectively as it s included on each version s installation CD. VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS Version 5.4 is not currently supported in a virtual environment. This includes but is not limited to the following environments: VMWare ESX Server, Microsoft Virtual PC and Citrix XenServer. CITRIX ENVIRONMENTS Citrix servers should be dedicated for applications and database engines should be separate from the Citrix server. You will need to optimise Citrix sessions for performance, performance will issues in a Citrix environment will not be addressed by our support teams. Only application related issues which can be replicated in a standard client/server environment will be addressed. You will need to ensure printers are Citrix Compatible. WHY UPGRADE SAGE ERP ACCPAC 10 P A G E

DATABASE PLATFORMS AND OPERATING SYSTEMS Support for Sage ERP Accpac will not be provided on operating systems and database engines which are no longer supported by their respective vendors. SERVER OPERATING SYSTEMS Pervasive.SQL Microsoft SQL Oracle* Version 9.7 10.2 10.3 2005 (SP3) 2008 10g (R2) 11g OS Architecture 32 64 32 64 32 64 32 64 32 64 32 64 32 64 Microsoft Windows 2008 Server 2003 Server (SP2) o o o o o Linux RedHat Enterprise 4 or 5 * The compatibility requirements are for the full install of the database engine. o Supported and tested. Supported. Blank = unsupported configuration. ADDITIONAL NOTES Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise, Standard, Workgroup, and Express Editions are supported. Oracle Enterprise, Standard, and Standard Edition One are supported. Refer to the respective database vendor s websites for limitations of the various database editions. Only the WE8MSWIN1252 codeset is supported in an Oracle based environment. APPLICATION SERVER OPERATING SYSTEMS Pervasive.SQL Microsoft SQL Oracle* Version 9.7 10.2 10.3 2005 (SP3) 2008 10g (R2) 11g OS Architecture 32 64 32 64 32 64 32 64 32 64 32 64 32 64 Microsoft Windows 2008 Server (SP1)* o o o 2003 Server (SP2) o o 2008 Server (SP1), Terminal Services 2003 Server (SP2), Terminal Services XenApp Server 5.0 for Windows 2003 and 2008 o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o * The compatibility requirements are for the full install of the database engine. o Supported and tested. Supported. Blank = unsupported configuration. WHY UPGRADE SAGE ERP ACCPAC 11 P A G E

ADDITIONAL NOTES Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise, Standard, Workgroup, and Express Editions are supported. Oracle Enterprise, Standard, and Standard Edition One are supported. Refer to the respective database vendor s websites for limitations of the various database editions. Printing in web deployment requires Sage Accpac Web Reporting by Crystal. Previous versions of Crystal Enterprise are not compatible with System Manager 5.6. Sage Accpac Web Reporting by Crystal is not supported on Windows Server 2008. *Currently web deployment ships with Crystal RAS XI R1, while the regular deployment uses Crystal RAS XI R2. The Dashboard requires installation of IIS before System Manager is installed, and Macromedia Flash Player (available at www.macromedia.com). WORKSTATION OPERATING SYSTEMS Pervasive.SQL Microsoft SQL Oracle* Version 9.7 10.2 10.3 2005 (SP3) 2008 10g (R2) 11g OS Architecture 32 64 32 64 32 64 32 64 32 64 32 64 32 64 Microsoft Windows Windows 7** O O O O Windows Vista O O O Windows XP (SP3) O O O * The compatibility requirements are for the full install of the database engine. o Supported and tested. Supported. Blank = unsupported configuration. ADDITIONAL NOTES Windows 7 Enterprise, Ultimate, Professional, and Home Premium; Windows Vista Enterprise, Ultimate, Business, and Home Premium; Windows XP Professional and Media Center Edition are supported. Microsoft Excel 2003 or higher is required on each workstation running Financial Reporter. Microsoft Outlook 2003 or higher is required on each workstation to use the email function. Web deployed workstations require Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher. *Preliminary testing with the Windows 7 RTM has been done with the marked database engines. *As of October 2009, Crystal Reports 2008 with Service Pack 2 is the only version of Crystal Report Designer which is supported on Windows 7. You can get the latest updates from within the Crystal Reports 2008 Help Get Update menu item or check our support website for the Crystal Reports Service Packs that we have tested. *Printing with Windows 7 as the web deployment server is not currently supported. **Pervasive will release Pervasive SQL 10.3 to make this database engine compatible with Windows 7. It is expected to be released in January 2010. 10.3 is required for deployment of Sage Accpac ERP on Windows 7 with Pervasive. WHY UPGRADE SAGE ERP ACCPAC 12 P A G E

WHITE PAPER AUTHORS Alex Lamprecht Enabling Sydney With material kindly supplied by Sage Business Solutions For more information on how Enabling are able to assist you, please visit our website www.enabling.net Australia 1800 ENABLING (1800 36 22 54) New Zealand 0800 ENABLING (0800 36 22 54) WHY UPGRADE SAGE ERP ACCPAC 13 P A G E