History, Strengths, and Weaknesses of Sage ERP ACCPAC

Sage ERP ACCPAC has a long history, beginning as a DOS based product in the 1980s. At that time, the product contained a core of accounting and business management functionality that rivaled competitors.

History of Sage ERP ACCPAC

At the time ACCPAC was moved to a Windows platform in the mid-90s, the product was owned by Computer Associates (CA). CA purchased a number of development tools and combined them in an effort to quickly move the product to Windows. This created a hodge-podge of development tools. The product was solid, but by the end of the 1990s, it was substantially behind other competitive products in feature set. ACCPAC took until mid-2005 to shake off the effects of this conversion.

Current versions of the product are constructed with a combination of VB, C, and proprietary tools. As of version 6.0, ACCPAC is beginning a migration to a web toolset based on Google Web Toolkit (GWT) and Sdata (sdata.sage.com). Pundits promote this toolkit as ennabling quick modification while leveraging the current architecture.

Strengths of Sage ERP ACCPAC

ACCPAC has a good core collection of modules. It is particularly strong in distribution, inventory, and general accounting. The Job Cost (Project and Job Cost) has improved dramatically since it's first release and works well for what it does. Add ons are generally used for other functionality such as manufacturing, service, and warehousing. 

ACCPAC is very solid, and has good quality control on service packs. Data corruption is rare to non-existant in current versions. The number of databases supported is wide, and Sage is moving toward industry leading technologies with GWT and Sdata. This movement corrects the weaknesses in the former development environments. It will be several versions before these technologies are fully implemented.

Weaknesses of Sage ERP ACCPAC

Throughout its history, ACCPAC has relied on independant software developers to provide functionality that the core product lacked. In previous versions, this also included such core functionality as serial numbers, manufacturing, and warehousing. Recently, ACCPAC has acquired several of these products and integrated them into the core product, strengthening the offering. However, there are areas in which ACCPAC is still catching up from a features standpoint. Careful needs analysis will reveal whether needed functionality is needed.

Disclosure

Data Guidance Group, Inc. is a reseller partner for Sage ERP ACCPAC.