At DWD, we love Sage BusinessWorks. After all, we’ve been implementing and supporting the best accounting software for over 25 years.

During that time, we’ve also worked with plenty of customers that started out on BusinessWorks, but eventually upgraded to a full-featured business ERP solution as the company grew and needed more advanced functionality in order to maintain efficiency.

With that in mind, here are the 5 reasons that some of our Sage BusinessWorks customers upgrade to Sage 100 ERP based on their need for better system integration capabilities.

1. UPS and FedEx Shipping Integration

Most BusinessWorks customers manage shipping transactions manually. They enter the order in the accounting system, and then someone in the warehouse prints the orders and manually re-enters data into their UPS and/or FedEx shipping software.

Sage 100 solves this problem by integrating directly with UPS and FedEx. Order and inventory data is automatically transferred into the UPS and/or FedEx applications with no manual intervention or duplicate data entry required. But that’s not all – actual freight costs and tracking numbers are then automatically pushed back into the Sage 100 invoice and customer record.

Not only does this reduce errors to almost zero, but it also saves a tremendous amount of time and labor because you no longer need someone dedicated to re-entering shipments all day.

2. System Integration with Industry-Specific Software

In addition to their core BusinessWorks accounting system, we have plenty of customers that also rely on industry-specific applications, like CAD or medical billing software, that’s equally important to running their business.

For customers that need it, seamless migration with these industry-specific applications saves a tremendous amount of time, cost, and potential errors.

For instance, with Sage 100, you can have designs in your CAD application automatically create purchase orders. Or have medical billing data automatically transferred over and create customer invoices in Sage 100. No duplicate data entry or manual intervention.

3. “Big Box” EDI Transaction Processing

Congratulations! You just landed a huge account with Walmart or Best Buy.

But wait – they also require you to process all their orders electronically via EDI and that’s not something BusinessWorks is designed to do.

With Sage 100 ERP, you have a wide variety of EDI integration options to suit your needs and budget. And the technology that Sage 100 is built on is designed to handle the increased volume of transactions without sacrificing system performance or bringing your database to its knees.

See Also: What Can EDI Technology Do for My Business?

4. E-commerce or Online Shopping Cart Integration

Are you starting to see a pattern here? Just like the discussion about shipping or industry-specific software integration, the ability for Sage 100 to integrate with your online store is a critical requirement for many BusinessWorks customers that decide to upgrade.

Those same Sage BusinessWorks customers that manually processed just a handful of orders coming in when the eCommerce website was first launched, are now overwhelmed by the number of online transactions as their website becomes more popular.

There are a number of plug-and-play eCommerce integration options for Sage 100 ERP that are designed to be up and running quickly so you can manage everything from customer accounts and inventory updates to shopping carts and automated order imports with the ease and accuracy of integrated automation.

5. Advanced Inventory and Warehouse Management

For companies in the wholesale distribution industry, managing inventory is one of the most important things you do. When your company is smaller, there isn’t a huge range of SKUs to manage and keeping track of it all using basic business accounting software like Sage BusinessWorks software is not an impossible task.

But when your company grows, you add warehouses, you add employees, and the list of inventory items expands significantly, it’s enough to force most companies onto a full-featured Enterprise Resource Planning and inventory management system like Sage 100 ERP.

In addition to more advanced inventory functionality that’s built right into Sage 100 software, there are also a variety of integrated add-on applications that allow you to easily take warehouse and inventory management to the next level with technology solutions like bar code scanning and radio frequency (RFID) tracking. If your operation grows to a certain point, this type of technology is almost a requirement for companies to maintain efficiency and keep labor costs from growing out of control.

Why Does Sage 100 ERP Make So Much Sense?

Why do so many Sage BusinessWorks customers upgrade to Sage 100? One important reason is that they’re “keeping it in the Sage family.”

By doing so, you get continuity in your relationship with both Sage and your Sage Authorized partner, like DWD Technology Group, who are familiar with your business. In addition, because both products are developed by Sage, much or your experience and familiarity with the screens, features, and workflow processes in BusinessWorks are transferable to Sage 100 ERP which minimizes the training and learning curve.

In short, you’re up and running on Sage 100 software with less downtime and a shorter transition than moving to an entirely new product from a new publisher with completely different features and workflow.

Another important reason is that Sage often offers financial incentives and discounts when you “keep it in the family” that is hard for most customers to pass up.

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Related Resources:

Sage BusinessWorks vs Sage 100 – Compare Key Differences

Migrating from Sage BusinessWorks to Sage 100

Sage BusinessWorks vs Sage Intacct:  Side-by-side Comparison

Have Questions About Upgrading to Sage 100 ERP?

Contact us for a quote, to schedule a demo, or to ask us your questions about integrating from BusinessWorks to Sage 100 ERP.