BDE in administration, Sage support alternatives

Sage Business Partner BDE Group went into administration in late May, leaving many clients scrabbling around for alternative support arrangements.

Protronics offers Sage 50, Sage Line 100 and Sage 200 support, and will honour the balance of BDE support contracts free of charge.  Please just mention BDE when you contact us.

Apologies for the plug, blogs aren’t really the place for them.  BDE’s demise was unfortunate of course, but there are lessons to be learnt from it:

• Make sure you have access and rights to any software customisations that you’ve paid for, so that they can be maintained even if the supplier goes out of business
• Big isn’t always better.  In the Sage reseller world in particular some of the larger resellers have grown by acquisition.  Acquisitions have to be financed, and often that will in turn leave the acquirer vulnerable.
• Decide what’s important to you from your provider of support. The rational choices are: a small team which knows your business well and which you know and like; a larger team where you have certainty of rapid access, but at the expense of familiarity.
• If your supplier fails, don’t rely on Sage’s recommendation. You’re more likely to be offered a favoured Sage Business Partner than one that has been specifically selected for compatability with your organisation.