Sage Accpac ERP Technology Understanding the Benefits of the Sage Accpac Architecture www.SageNorthAmerica.
Table of Contents Sage Accpac ERP Technology Introduction....................................................................................................................... 3 What an Architecture Is...................................................................................................
Introduction Why is it important to understand the architecture of a business management software system? The answer is straightforward. When choosing a business management solution, you are making an investment. The immediate and ongoing costs include licensing the software, training staff, and adjusting business processes. Selecting a product with superior functionality will deliver a quick payback from more efficient operations.
What an Architecture Is A software architecture is a foundational design specification—not a product. It is not a product any more than a real-world architecture is a building. A superior software product is the embodiment of a superior architectural design, just like a beautiful building embodies a beautiful real-world architecture. The architecture itself is the way that the product or building is organized.
Embraces Industry-Standard Technology New software technologies that interconnect software applications are among the most important software technologies for a business application. The Microsoft® Component Object Model (COM) allows multiple desktop applications to work together. For communication over the Internet, Extensible Markup Language (XML) allows servers and Internet devices to exchange information. For wireless devices, there is a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP).
Allows Greater Independence No one wants to be locked in to a single vendor or a single way of doing things. A great architecture allows freedom of choice and independence from single vendor lock-in across the whole software stack. Once you have chosen a business application system with a great architecture, you should then be able to choose the best operating system to use such as Windows or Linux®, and the best database server to run such as Pervasive.SQL, Oracle®, or Microsoft SQL Server.
Claim: Using Microsoft SQL Server for a database means a product has an architecture. Sage Accpac ERP Technology Microsoft SQL Server is a database. A product that uses it may use it well or poorly. Using Microsoft SQL Server-specific features to tune the product means that the product probably runs well on SQL Server. A product that supports multiple databases and takes advantage of specific features of each demonstrates that there is a superior architecture in play.
The Sage Accpac ERP Architecture Sage Accpac has a superior architecture based on separation of core business logic from user interface and database services. The truth is that no other player in the midmarket has anything approaching the strength of this architecture. Sage Accpac ERP Technology Figure 1—The Sage Accpac ERP architecture separates user interface services, core business logic, and database services, and is implemented in a completely object-oriented fashion.
Sage Accpac ERP Technology Sage Accpac Business Intelligence Sage Accpac WMS/Manufacturing SageCRM Sage FAS Fixed Assets Sage Abra HMRS Endorsed Solutions Vertical Solutions Figure 2—Sage Accpac Accounting is at the core of a whole family of end-to-end enterprise applications. A well-implemented product often shows its virtuosity in ways beyond what you would ordinarily expect.
Sage Accpac ERP Technology Figure 4—A Sage Accpac Order Entry screen with a pop-up “detail” screen for faster data entry. Database Services. Sage Accpac currently supports three database choices: Pervasive.SQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle. Additional databases will be added in the future. When speaking of different databases, different versions of the same database deserve some notice.
Posted ICRECPD ICRECPH Receipts Day End costed quantities ICCOST archive ICHIST History History Sage Accpac business logic is implemented as a collection of more than 750 objects that communicate with one another in a common object repository. As an example, Figure 5 shows the objects that are involved in receiving inventory items and the messages that they pass to one another.
d1 c1 Core Object 1 a1 d Easy and Safe Customization. In an object-oriented design, objects inherit functionality from 3 1 one another by “sub-classing” functionality and modifying part of the behavior. This means that customization is easy, as a wide range of development and customization tools can be used to manipulate objects. Availability of third-party software products that modify the core behavior in Sage Customization Object 3 Accpac is an important form of customization.
Design Flexibility and the Hosting Paradigm The Sage Accpac ERP architecture is designed for flexible, scalable, and cost-effective deployment in a Hosted environment. A key cost factor in the hosting scenario is how many independent companies can be run on one server and managed easily from a central point.
Multiple Versions of a Product on a Single Machine. Multiple versions of Sage Accpac modules can be installed on the same machine. Installation on a machine does not activate the version for all companies at once. Users or consultants can activate a version one company at a time. Figure 8 illustrates the Sage Accpac System Information screen, which contains installation information showing multiple versions of Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable installed on the same machine.
Once users sign in, they each operate the product in a different language, as shown in Figures 10 and 11. Sage Accpac ERP Technology Figure 10—The Sage Accpac Invoice Entry screen in Simplified Chinese. Figure 11—The Sage Accpac Invoice Entry screen in English.
Browser-Based User Interfaces. It is impossible to talk about the promise of hosting without discussing whether an application can be “run from a browser.” It seems as though the entire software world wants to run its applications from a browser, without going through a terminal services interface: Everyone has announced an intention to do so. So why have so few delivered? The answer is that the task of rewriting hundreds of user interface screens with complex user interactions takes a lot of effort.
Sage Accpac ERP Technology Figure 13—Sage Accpac Bank Services screens running within an Internet browser. Linux. Sage Accpac allows you to run on a Linux database. In today’s competitive market, Linux has been steadily gaining market share due to its stability, performance, functionality, and total cost of ownership. Many companies are adopting a wide-scale deployment of both Linux servers and Linux workstations.
The information contained in this material represents the views of Sage on the issues discussed herein current as of the date of publication. As market conditions are always subject to change, the information contained herein shall not be interpreted as any commitment from Sage. This material is for informational purposes only and Sage makes no warranties, expressed or implied. Sage 13888 Wireless Way, Suite 120 Richmond, BC V6V 0A3 1-604-207-9480 www.SageAccpac.com ©2010 Sage Software, Inc.
