Sage holds Summit Tour in Johannesburg

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Sage X3 Version 11 The latest release of Sage X3 is an open and modular solution for companies who want to move away from maintaining their own data centres. There are no hidden costs as it is priced per user per month and includes upgrades and maintenance. It gives enterprises even more control over and visibility into their businesses with features such as ecommerce management, manufacturing project management, automated bank statements and a Salesforce CRM connector.

Sage X3 Version 11 also introduces a rapid implementation methodology called Sage X3 Fast Start. This enables growing enterprises to deploy a preconfigured Sage X3 solution with the financial and distribution modules in a matter of weeks rather than months.

The solution is ideal for businesses that have less complex processes and that are open to adopting best practices from a business management solution—for example, companies in the services sector. It delivers a solid, integrated enterprise backbone, which gives organisations the freedom to plug in modules for extra functionality as and when they need them.

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Sage One Invoicing The new online entry level offering of Sage One Accounting, Sage One Invoicing, will be launched in sub-Saharan Africa by the end of April. It gives start-ups the ability to produce professional quotes and invoices from a mobile device or PC, at any time or place they have access to the internet. It also provides reports and dashboards to monitor the outcome of quotes, and track due and overdue invoices. In addition, a Customer Zone provides customers with the ability to easily pay invoices by activating a secure Pay Now service through Sage Pay. Full reporting is available to monitor gross profits and identify popular and fast-selling items. Customers can upgrade to the full Sage One solution as their business needs change.

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Sage Live comes to South Africa Built on the Salesforce Lightning user interface, Sage Live is a powerful, customisable, and cost-effective cloud accounting solution for scale up businesses. Customers can manage multiple locations and currencies all in the palm of their hand, while taking advantage of the add-on solutions available on the Sage market place and the Salesforce App exchange. Sage Live will be available to business builders in South Africa later this year.

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Sage today announced new products and features that will take Africa and Middle East’s business builders and entrepreneurs closer to a world where admin is invisible. It made the announcements at Sage Summit Tour in Johannesburg South Africa. From industry-leading cloud and desktop accounting and payroll software for start-up companies to fully integrated business management solutions for large enterprises, the new product announcements from Sage enable organisations to streamline admin and make better business decisions. Key product launches and developments announced included Sage Live, Sage One Payroll in Kenya and Nigeria, Sage X3 with Cloud deployment and Fast Start configuration options. “Sage’s vision is to empower entrepreneurs and business owners to spend less time on admin and more time on what they love doing,” said Anton van Heerden, Managing Director and Executive Vice-President, Africa & Middle East at Sage. “We see our customers as the heroes that build the region’s economy and we are giving them the tools and technologies they need to be successful.”

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The Sage Summit Tour will also reflect on the results of its Payments Landscape Report for South Africa, which shows that consumers are increasingly demanding choice when they pay.

The majority (96%) of South African consumers surveyed claim it’s important for businesses to offer customers a diverse range of payment methods. South Africans feel strongly enough to act on it, with 90% claiming they would be more likely to shop somewhere that offered them multiple ways to pay.

Sage will update delegates about how the Sage Foundation is making a difference for communities and non-profit organisations across Africa and Middle East with its approach to social investment. The company unveiled its ,000,000 Challenge in partnership with parkrun.

This global fundraising challenge is going around the world with the Sage Summit Series, to make sure Sage transforms more communities. The three inspiring local based community partners are: SA Teen Entrepreneurs, SOS Children’s Villages and Dignity Dreams. Sage colleagues, customers and partners will be partnering with parkrun on 8 March 2017 at Woodmead Country Club to raise money for the three non-profit charities.

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Speakers at the Sage Summit Tour will focus on how digital native young professionals and exciting emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, mobility and automated data collection are reshaping the workplace. Ahead of the Sage Summit Tour, Sage has been discussing these ideas in a series of podcasts, Invisible Admin: Conversations about the future of work.

Invisible accounting will be built on the back of three powerful emerging technologies, as illustrated in Leading the Invisible Accounting Revolution, a new white paper from Sage and Ovum.

Artificial Intelligence will enable users to interact with accounting systems via conversational interfaces. It will also elevate back-office automation and the processing of massive amounts of data. Blockchain technology promises to transform how frictionless processes can take place, where money transfers, for example, can flow in an automated manner and be auditable and compliant. Finally, the Internet of Things will transform the supply chain and deliver superior efficiencies and lower costs.

Together, these technologies will enable an era of seamless business processes, continuous budgeting and agile accounting.

Sage, the market leader for integrated accounting, payroll & HR, and payment systems, will highlight technologies taking business builders to a future of invisible accounting at the Sage Summit Tour in Johannesburg.

Sage customers and business partners from around Africa and the Middle East will gather at the Sandton Convention Centre from 7-9 March 2017 to learn about new technologies, digital transformation and the future of work.

Sage CEO Stephen Kelly, will share insights about how Sage is levelling the playing field for customers – and it’s just the start of a technology revolution all enterprises of all sizes need to be a part of to compete and grow. Other speakers include Valter Adão, Head of Digital at Deloitte Africa, Justin Spratt, Head of Business, Sub-Saharan Africa at Uber and Gil Oved, co-founder and co-CEO of The Creative Counsel.

“Business builders and entrepreneurs don’t go into business because they want to wrestle with red-tape and manage admin. Our vision is to make those tasks invisible by 2020 by automating the back-office functions so we can free business builders up to follow their dreams,” said Sage CEO, Stephen Kelly. “At the Sage Summit Tour, they will get inspiration from other entrepreneurs, experts, and peers about how they can take their businesses into a future of invisible admin.”