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[dmrVA]

I received an invitation from my business partner, client seminars. One of the seminars is on Macola ES and this statement was within the literature: "As the next generation replacement product for Progression, virtually all new customers are now implementing Macola ES. "

We are still on Progression 7.6.200.5, using Pervasive SQL with no intention of upgrading. The cost is prohibitive for us. Have most of you already implemented or will implement Macola ES?

Just trying to figure out if we are going to be left in the cold!

Thanks

 

[randva]

The ES seminar is just a sales pitch. If the new features are useful to you, then go for it. (But remember, you will lose any customizations you already have.) The statement that "virtually all new customers are now implementing Macola ES" may just reflect the fact that Macola does not want to sell the old pervasive version anymore.

We are still on 7.5.102e, using Pervasive. It works for us, so why change? The only problem on the horizon is that we have a 20 user license from Macola. Macola will not sell additional users or modules for older versions.

Our philosophy has always been if it works, don't fix it. If we can run Macola for 7-10 years without paying maintainance, then we have saved enough to just buy a new (possibly different) software package.

You should consider carefully what your new needs are (if any). Go to the seminar and see if ES addresses those needs, but be sure to ask what you lose making the switch. Good luck!

 

[dgillz]

According to the Exact folks at the EPIC business partner conference, there are only about 400 installs nationwide versus 4-5k progression installs. Also, support AND development for Progression has been extended indefinately.

Having said that, the political reality is that Exact most likely wants to sell ES more than Progression.

Going to ES you will lose the following:

* Any Flexibility project for anything in the accounting Modules. For the most part, flexibility is not available at all in the accouting modules of ES.

* Any crystal report from any of the accounting files will have to be re-written from scratch.

* F9 - although F9 has a beta product for ES out there as of a couple of weeks ago, I would not hang my hat on this being ready yet.

In terms of cost to upgrade, what costs? If you are paying your annual maintenance, the upgrades from 7.6.200.5 to 7.6.300a are free. So is the upgrade to ES for that matter, although you will incur significant consulting costs on an ES upgrade.

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.gainfocus.biz

 

[crystalreporting]

I mentioned this in an earlier post, but it's worth restating;

Anyone who uses ES for any length of time is quickly going to realize that it is comprised of two different products (Globe and revamped Progression). Just some of the inconsistencies between the two are;

No Flexibility/Screen Designer in Financials.
No Notes functionality in Financials.
Weird table/database structure in Financials (who in their right mind designs a database where field values are centered in the field?).

Unless a prospect is looking at e-Synergy first, with an ERP requirement second, I'd lean towards selling and implementing Progression. They can always upgrade to ES later..

Peter.


Peter Shirley

http://www.linkcorp.com

 

[dmrVA]

Thanks for the input. It was what I was hoping to hear.
Donna

 

[kscheeler]

Though the upgrade from Progression to ES is "free", you DO need to be on Progression SQL. Since you're on Pervasive, you'll have to convert to Microsoft SQL and there's a fee involved there, plus the possible purchase of the Microsoft SQL licenses.

Though you may not have any intentions upgrading to Macola ES, I would hope you would consider converting to Progression SQL. The reporting speed, backup abilities and functions, stored procedures and triggers you can develop in Microsoft SQL make it worth the upgrade.

For crystalreporting, the field values in Macola ES are NOT centered in the field. What you are seeing is a varchar field (ie: cmp_type in cicmpy) where the value is left padded with spaces. This is similar to numeric customers and vendors in Progression that are padded with 0's. In this case it's spaces. In Query Analyzer, it shows as right justified. In Crystal however, it "looks" centered because of the default font that Crystal uses and Crystal defaults the field to left justified because it's a varchar field.




Kevin Scheeler

 

[crystalreporting]

Kevin - however you like to describe the field formatting (centered, padded with spaces) I still do not understand why anyone would design it that way. To push values into these fields through VB/SQL etc. you need to also pad the fields with the correct number of spaces based on the length of the value you're writing - I've yet to say another database designed this way. It makes data conversions and third-party applications that much more difficult to develop (than in Progression). Any way you cut it, the database is a LOT less user-friendly than the Progression database.

Peter Shirley

http://www.linkcorp.com

 

[canimp]

Please note also that if you are considering integrating a Progression installation with e-Synergy, Progression on MS SQL is a requirement.