Sage Pro ERP software is an award-winning accounting and manufacturing system that can be fully tailored to work the way our customers do. For over 15 years, proactive, growth-oriented businesses have chosen Sage Pro for its advanced customization tools, easy access to critical, real-time business information, and integration with a suite of end-to-end business management solutions. Sage Pro is just one of many Sage products and is guided by the corporate purpose of making it easier for our customers to manage their business processes.
Development in Microsoft Visual FoxPro (VFP) has given Sage Pro a solid, well-established programming language upon which to build. Many of the customization tools in Sage Pro give it the ability to meet the unique and constantly changing needs of individual businesses. In addition, the richness of the VFP programming language offers a complete set of features that enable Sage Business Partners to program customizations far more efficiently than could be done in other languages. This unique combination has provided Sage Pro customers with a lower-cost solution than may be available in other programming languages.
While the VFP language has been a versatile tool for the business management software industry, Microsoft announced on March 13, 2007, it would no longer release new versions of this product. While there is no need to rush to change from Sage Pro to another ERP product, it is critical you are aware of this technology change and the following information:
- Microsoft has committed in its Message to the Community (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/ vfoxpro/bb308952.aspx) to extend support of the platform until 2015.
- Through extension development programs such as Sedna (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/ vfoxpro/bb264582.aspx), Visual FoxPro-based solutions will continue to integrate with other Microsoft products and technologies.
- The independent community of VFP developers, VFPX from CodePlex (www.codeplex.com/ VFPX), continues to create open-source add-on releases that improve and extend VFP in conjunction with the Sedna project from Microsoft.
- While Microsoft support for VFP is ending in 2015, functionality of applications developed in this language will still continue. The software industry has seen the longevity of products continue long after support for a programming language has ended. Examples of this include languages like Cobol and Microsoft’s discontinued version of C and Visual Basic.
Changing events within the technology industry may have raised a few questions for you as a customer. So we would like to address some of the questions that have come to our attention.
Q. How will these changes to VFP affect future versions of Sage Pro?
A. Sage Pro 2010 was released in December 2009. We are working on the next release, Sage Pro 2011, which is scheduled for release in April 2011.
Q. What is the path for Sage Pro after 2015, after extended support of VFP from Microsoft has been discontinued?
A. While Microsoft will be discontinuing its support of VFP, that does not mean that Sage Pro will stop working come 2015. This product code will indeed still continue to provide functionality. This issue was addressed in a statement by Alan Griver of Microsoft on April 3, 2007:
"It’s never an easy decision to announce that we’re not going to release another version of a product, and it’s one that we consider very carefully. We’re not announcing the end of FoxPro. Obviously, FoxPro applications will continue to work. By some of our internal estimates, there are more applications running in FoxPro 2.6 than there are in VFP, and FoxPro 2.6 hasn’t been supported in many years. Visual FoxPro 9 will be supported by Microsoft through 2015."
Q. What is the Sage policy for supporting older versions of Sage Pro?
A. Sage’s current support policy includes supporting the current version in production and one version back.
Q. Will Microsoft’s discontinuation of support for VFP mean that I will need to move off of Sage Pro to some other product?
A. By choosing a Sage product and working with your Sage Business Partner, you are choosing a team that will support you for the life of your business. If there comes a time when it makes sense for you to migrate to another Sage product, we will have migration tools available for you and your partner to make the transition an easy one. No matter which Sage product you are using, you can rest assured that we will continue to provide you with great business products, and your Sage Business Partners will continue to service your needs for the life of your business.
Q. What will happen between now and the time that VFP is no longer a supported development language?
A. Sage is committed to you as our customer for the life of your business. Our goal is to provide the products you need to make it easier to manage your business. With that commitment in mind, we will be building a bridge between our products today and our products in the future. If another solution is better suited for your business, your Business Partner can provide recommendations on the best product to migrate to, provide you with special discounted pricing for qualifying Sage products, and help ensure your migration experience is a smooth one.
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