“PROJECT PENGUIN”

Scientific & Chemical Supplies Ltd, the West Midlands based laboratory equipment, chemicals and science equipment company have been members of Sage User Network for several years now.

Philip Palser, Operations Manager writes:

“As members of Sage User Network we have direct access into Sage Enterprise Solutions thinking and the direction of their product development, which helps us with our own company IT strategy.

Having an end user “voice” gave us extra reassurance when we faced a major investment in our core systems late in 2002, which led us to be the first company to upgrade to the Linux version of Sage Line 500 software.”

Nicknamed “Project Penguin” internally, the company wanted to build on the success of their Unix C-ISAM based Sage software, without some of the reliability and stability problems of other operations systems.

When Sage plc announced a major partnership with IBM and launched the Linux version of their CS3/Sage Line 500 medium range enterprise software, it was the natural choice.

“Linux was a natural development on our experiences of Unix. We operate in a very competitive environment, and need reliable systems to sit in the corner and process high volumes of customer orders. As members of Sage User Network we can openly talk through any issues and problems we have with the product, with other end-users, and raise these directly with Sage themselves. We appreciate Sage wanting to listen to customers directly.

Collectively the end users represented by Sage User Network can share experiences, good and bad of working with the Sage product, and also the huge variety of bolt-on software now available, from CRM, reporting software, to specialised logistics planning software. When one company has a problem, there are often several others who already have a solution, having worked through the issue themselves. This knowledge pool and resource is invaluable when managing sophisticated software.”