Through reading information on various news groups that I belong to, it seems that 2014 is the date for end of support for Sage PFW. This is not confirmed and I watch out for the final word when it is available from Sage to update this post. The good news is that it sounds like business owners have a little time to make the move before support ends on Sage PFW.
Custom Information Services or CIS started as Platinum reseller around 1990 in the old DOS days. The software was perfect for complex accounting and then with the addition of BatchMaster (not to be confused with the current eWorkplace BatchMaster product) it became PFW and great for process manufacturers. We sold and supported our customers on this product line for about 12 years. We still support a few PFW customers.
We saw that the PFW product now named Sage PFW was not adding new features like other software packages. Sage was not investing enough in this product for CIS to continue to sell it to our new customers. We searched for a new product line that met a list of criteria and decided upon These two products are integrated to give you the best of both worlds: a great Financial and Distribution solution with Process Manufacturing with Vicinity Manufacturing software. If you are a Sage PFW customer, I urge you to look around prior to investing any time and costs with the same software vendor.
If you are a Sage PFW customer I would advise you to reach out to your partner or value added reseller and discuss your options. They should understand that you need another process manufacturing package and not steer you to a discrete solution. It is extremely important to keep the differences in mind when evaluating new software for your company.
I would not wait long to start looking for a replacement product. You do not want to be forced to make a decision based on someone's timeline...like your software vendor.
To learn more about the software evaluation process here are a couple of tools:
You can always give me a call at 817-640-0016 to find out more about the solutions we recommend. CIS is a Dynamics GP Value Added Reseller located in North Texas.
by Nancy Phillippi, Custom Information Services, Microsoft Dynamics Partner in North Texas
