Sage ERP MAS Intelligence

Sage MAS 500 Newsletter – Volume 9 – Issue 4

Sage MAS 500 August 2011

Much More Than An FRx Replacement, This Module Can Provide Powerful Decision Support

The Sage ERP MAS Intelligence module was released in 2010 to replace Microsoft FRx, which was retired by Microsoft. There are several components that are similar to the individual FRx components. Many customers have asked what is included with the Intelligence module. Here we review the powerful capabilities of the Intelligence module, and explain what the various components can do for you.

A Powerful, Easy-To-Use, Excel-Based Reporting Tool

More than simply a financial reporting replacement, this module empowers you to quickly and easily obtain the information your require for operational and strategic planning. Based on the familiar Microsoft® Excel® application, the Intelligence module allows you to easily create reports and analyze data, and improve your visibility into your organization.

Intelligence yields powerful results that can help you access strategically meaningful information. By pulling information already in your system, Sage ERP MAS Intelligence automatically knows your fiscal periods, chart of accounts, detail transactions, and various types of balances. A set of basic report templates are provided with your system, which you can personalize to work the way you do. You immediately begin interpreting information to make faster and more informed business decisions. You can create new reports easily by modifying the basic set of templates or design new reports using the Designer Tool. Customization and personalization of a template is a simple and straightforward process that can be handled by any user with the proper security access.

Increase Productivity To Save Time And Money

The Sage ERP MAS Intelligence module eliminates manual report preparation, repetitive data extracts, and complex back-end data joins, to provide you with up-to-date, accurate, and presentation-quality reports for informed decision-making. Now you can spend more time focusing on strategic analysis and interpretation and less time pulling the data together from static reports. You will be able to provide management at every level in your company with customized reports that they will want to use. It is a simple matter to create your layout, do multi-level grouping and consolidations, and add formulas as needed using intuitive selection tools. You can create reports from predefined lists in seconds to get rapid ROI results. What-if analysis tools let you instantly see the impact on an area of your business simply by changing a set of values on your reports.

Intelligence Components

Here we describe what each component of Sage MAS Intelligence does. Sage ERP MAS 500 customers have access to all these capabilities through the four included Report Manager Licenses.

Report Manager License
This component allows you to author new reports from existing data containers as well edit standard reports, including filtering data from a single workstation. It also includes the ability to automatically send reports by email and publish reports to HTML for display on your intranet.

Connector Module
This component provides you with access to multiple data sources and consolidation of data from multiple companies through an ODBC connection. A graphical join tool simplifies database queries, and also includes a Universal Query Engine. You can connect data from all of your business management tools for unified reporting, including Sage SalesLogix and Sage Abra HRMS.

Report Designer
This component helps you create more sophisticated reports with drag and drop capabilities and the ability to develop critical business analytics for decision support at every level.

Report Viewer License
A cost effective option for those who need to view reports, but not create them. This add-on allows you to change  filters and other parameters and drill-down into detail.

What Is Included?

As a support plan benefit, Sage ERP MAS 500 customers were sent four Report Manager licenses. These licenses allow you to author new reports, as well as copy the provided report templates and add your filters to them. The report templates that come with the software include financial reports, dashboards, and financial trend analysis. Also included are transactional reports for general ledger, sales, purchasing, and inventory data. Built-in security allows you to set permissions and security on all reports.

Top Three Benefits Of Sage ERP MAS Intelligence

The Sage ERP MAS Intelligence module can help you run your businesses more effectively. Here are three ways it can support your organization’s operations:

• Intelligence gives you in-depth business intelligence and a wide-angle view of your organization, so you can make smart, proactive strategic decisions. Give it any reporting process to automate and free up your resources for more analytical and strategic tasks. And it is based on the familiar Microsoft® Excel® application, making it easy to learn and use.
• A unified solution means a unified team. Intelligence goes beyond your General Ledger reporting needs and provides business intelligence across your entire ERP system — including Sage SalesLogix and Sage Abra HRMS — sothat up-to-date information is accessible throughout the organization. Teams can collaborate more effectively, people are more productive, and decision-makers are more proactive.
• You can build it to your specifications. The flexible architecture and licensing structure gives your organization the freedom to get the most out of the solution. Complex data joins, different user requirements, and ad hoc custom reports are all no problem for the Sage ERP MAS Intelligence module.

Coming Soon

Later this year, Sage will release enhancements to Intelligence that provide more flexibility in the financial reporting area. The new features will include reporting trees, new distribution options, and an FRx conversion utility to assist in the process of moving your financial reports over to Sage MAS Intelligence.
Are you taking advantage of this powerful tool that comes with Sage ERP MAS 500? Give us a call with your questions.

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