7 replies to this topic

[sohoprom]

A few years ago, I left ASI for Sage to save money, plain and simple.

Here are our pros and cons, and concerns, issues and quetsions, and any input is appreciated.

First, I run Parralels on my Mac for SAGE and Quickbooks, and my assistant's PC is fine without Parralels of course. IN fact, I let my assistant go to reduce overhead recently, so I can also use the two computers side by side, but this isn't a major concern. Oh, I also use Parralels because of our ACT contact managment software which is another big of software that is probably not ideal for our industry...

Second, I have pondered whether our credit worthiness has been effected by going over to SAGE, since seems like every industry supplier hits us up for a down payment, whereas when we were with ASI seemed like we were more credit worthy. Of course there are a few variables, including the possibility that suppliers are being much more credit card up front demanding in general.

Third, I like the convenience of using SAGE's search engine whenever we need to fine that needle in a heystack.

Fourth, and the main reason for writing here, is that I dislike the limitations of SAGE's templated website. I would like to be able to have one that doesn't look like everyone else's bland boring common website. I'd like the opening page perhaps to have a quick video of me saying hello to our customers and prospects, if possible, but SAGE doesn't do that.

I know I could create my own, but I keep the website as is because I feel it is important that our website include the industry search engine, because without an industry search engine, my prospects would be unable to let their fingers do the walking...

The other nightmare of SAGE is that their tracking is terrible, so in other words, while I might get 10 hits a day or searches, there is no deeper analysis that other hosted websites can provide.

In other words, I'd like to know who searched us, where did they go, and as much detailed information as possible.

I have no idea whether our website is a plus or minus.

We do not have ecommerce on our site. Why? Because I am unclear as to how many customers and prospects would use that feature. I have always wondered how easy or difficult it is to buy product on line, especially when so often it seems like our clients' logos are incorrectly formatted. Yet, I stumbled upon discountmugs.com and see that maybe it's not so difficult, and that maybe I should rethink it.

So I'm asking a lot here, pondering a lot here, is SAGE the best solution? Is ecommerce now essential?

Thanks for any thoughts and guidance here.

J

[gfinelogo]

Sage for online searches, Creative Merchandise for your web page.
www.creativemerchandise.com

Note that you cannot get a great web site from either Sage or ASI. You can get a
standard run of the mill web site with search capabilities. To have a great web site you must be willing to spend some money........

[djoctagone]

sohoprom said:

Is e-commerce now essential?

Depends on what your goals are.

Are you trying to serve a large number of existing customers that are going to have a certain degree of loyalty to you?

Or, are you trying to capture the business from unknown prospects?

The former requires that they just know about your website, know the URL (or can readily find it by entering your name in a search engine), and that they like the interface on your site.

The latter requires that you attain search engine optimization (SEO), because they're not going to know about your website (or your name) to begin with . . . so the interface is a moot point if they never even get to the website in the first place.

[djoctagone]

sohoprom said:

Second, I have pondered whether our credit worthiness has been effected [sic] by going over to SAGE, since seems like every industry supplier hits us up for a down payment, whereas when we were with ASI seemed like we were more credit worthy. Of course there are a few variables, including the possibility that suppliers are being much more credit card up front demanding in general.

That could be an indication that many industry suppliers rely on ASI CreditConnect, and ASI CreditConnect only when assessing the risk of extending net terms to PPDs.

I know of one supplier on this forum that reports PPD payment history only to ASI.

[PROMOINC]

We have been subscribers of SAGE products for many years. Overall their products and services have been very helpful in giving us some technological advantages, however their tech service has been traditionally slow and often non-responsive.

The best product for the money is the SAGE on-line which we love. And the websites are okay but I agree with you on the customization. Last year in researching all of our options, I realized that our home page was not search engine optimizationable (if that's even a word), and we are going to be designing a new site for our blog home page that will be. That will then feed into the shopping cart feature.

Our issue now is that we have invested in a new operating system through Essent and after considerable investments are finding out it's going to cost a lot more to have everything integrate. There is a lot of misinformation and little cooperation between the entities offering these services (Essent & Sage for example) as to what requirements there are to have everything integrate.

I've contacte PPAI and am waiting to hear back from the PPB Magazine editor to find out if they have been following this trend.

By the way, we took a moral stance with respect to ASI and have been able to succeed for 20 years without having an ASI number. Based on the number of distributors who go back and forth I would say one has to choose between the least worst, pay for the services and grin and bear it! :eek:

[gil levitch]

sohoprom said:

A few years ago, I left ASI for Sage to save money, plain and simple.

Here are our pros and cons, and concerns, issues and quetsions, and any input is appreciated.

First, I run Parralels on my Mac for SAGE and Quickbooks, and my assistant's PC is fine without Parralels of course. IN fact, I let my assistant go to reduce overhead recently, so I can also use the two computers side by side, but this isn't a major concern. Oh, I also use Parralels because of our ACT contact managment software which is another big of software that is probably not ideal for our industry...

Second, I have pondered whether our credit worthiness has been effected by going over to SAGE, since seems like every industry supplier hits us up for a down payment, whereas when we were with ASI seemed like we were more credit worthy. Of course there are a few variables, including the possibility that suppliers are being much more credit card up front demanding in general.

Third, I like the convenience of using SAGE's search engine whenever we need to fine that needle in a heystack.

Fourth, and the main reason for writing here, is that I dislike the limitations of SAGE's templated website. I would like to be able to have one that doesn't look like everyone else's bland boring common website. I'd like the opening page perhaps to have a quick video of me saying hello to our customers and prospects, if possible, but SAGE doesn't do that.

I know I could create my own, but I keep the website as is because I feel it is important that our website include the industry search engine, because without an industry search engine, my prospects would be unable to let their fingers do the walking...

The other nightmare of SAGE is that their tracking is terrible, so in other words, while I might get 10 hits a day or searches, there is no deeper analysis that other hosted websites can provide.

In other words, I'd like to know who searched us, where did they go, and as much detailed information as possible.

I have no idea whether our website is a plus or minus.

We do not have ecommerce on our site. Why? Because I am unclear as to how many customers and prospects would use that feature. I have always wondered how easy or difficult it is to buy product on line, especially when so often it seems like our clients' logos are incorrectly formatted. Yet, I stumbled upon discountmugs.com and see that maybe it's not so difficult, and that maybe I should rethink it.

So I'm asking a lot here, pondering a lot here, is SAGE the best solution? Is ecommerce now essential?

Thanks for any thoughts and guidance here.

J

I got rid of ESP a nd ASI years ago. Sage customed designed a home page for me (loudisplay.com). Ask them an they will do so for you.
I have never had a problem with credit with any supplier, new or old. Of course I have been around since the horse and buggy. I don't use the web for ecommorce and never will. I like o have customers use me for research and then contact me to fine turn their problems.
Last Oct I decided to close my company for sales purpuses, and I have gone to Kaeser & Blair. I still have SAGE and my webpage through them. I pay for this myself even though I could get it from Kaeser.
It seems to be working fine for me. My webpage is being used by my customers and others on a regular basis. I have had ovef 15,000 hits over the past several years. I get calls and inquiries from people wanting further information so I will keep the webpage and SAGE for research.
Speaking of K&B, I'm sorry I didn't do this years agao. I enjoy working without any stress.

Edited by gil levitch, 28 June 2010 - 11:29 AM.
spelling

[AdmanGR]

gil levitch said:

Speaking of K&B, I'm sorry I didn't do this years agao. I enjoy working without any stress.

Very reassuring hearing this from a veteran such as yourself Gil. I still "enjoy" some stress as a K&B dealer, but I suspect a lot less than if I was running things as an indie...

[3Koi Maui]

Someone else may have mentioned this already, and I wish a SAGE employee would answer in this thread too, but SAGE has a service where they can customize and update your website at your instruction. There was an email blast about this today.

$145/year, which seems very reasonable compared to paying hourly charges for a website developer. That means you could start with one of their templates, and then have this additional service to keep your website update. Price includes annual overhaul & tune up, along with the initial customization.

I love SAGE. Just added SAGE Mobile so that I don't to run Parallels when I want to do a quick lookup of supplier info, or a quickie search. The mobile version is fairly stripped down, so I'll run the full SAGE Online for a real research, but the mobile version is handy on a Mac. Plus then I can use it on the go.

I don't think your credit worthiness is affected by leaving ASI. As long as your credit is good with your existing suppliers, they can always be used as references for new suppliers.