Sage Pastel International introduces BI tool for SMEs

Sage Pastel International has announced availability of a Business Intelligence add-on module for Sage Line 50 customers. The Business Intelligence Centre (BIC) for Sage is an affordable and flexible tool that delivers critical business information in the familiar environment of Excel.

Together with Sage Pastel International, Alchemex developed the BIC for Sage solution now available which offers the Sage Line 50 installed user base quick implementation and easy integration of Business Intelligence functionality into their existing accounting environment. The solution addresses SME customers’ need for simplicity, functionality and affordability, offering a suite of pre-formatted as well as customisable reports that ensure access to relevant business information at the click of a button.

“Sophisticated BI reporting tools have traditionally been costly, requiring extensive in-house skills and lengthy turnaround times on third-party report customisations. The BIC for Sage closes the loop between applications that focus on transactions, such as your accounting system, and reporting on this information. With the BIC, SMEs can deliver formatted business information directly in Excel, while leveraging their existing Sage and Sage Pastel accounts database,” says Jeff Lewis, director of Sage Pastel International.

The application will allow organisations to produce reports beyond just their monthly management packs. While ensuring man hours are saved each month by automating these repetitive and time-consuming tasks, it will also allow dynamic analysis of sales or stock information, consolidate data from multiple companies and deliver true Business Intelligence to users’ desktops, graphing KPIs, for example, in a dashboard view.

“Software vendors are having to provide businesses of all sizes with flexible BI solutions that allow them to slice and dice their information in the way they choose. The Alchemex-powered solution goes one step further by taking advantage of the experience most SMEs already have working with Excel, and eliminates the cost and maintenance overhead of third party reporting tools,” says Charles Teversham, sales director of Alchemex.

“Companies can literally be up and running with the BIC in a matter of minutes. It’s a simple process of choosing your data source and selecting the reports you’d like to view,” Lewis adds.

Two modules are available for different user requirements. The BIC Standard Edition is aimed predominantly at business users who wish to view operational and financial information in a number of preformatted reports. More advanced users will be able to explore some of the added functionality in the BIC Advanced Edition to customise reports around more specialised reporting needs.

A trial version of the BIC for Sage will be made available with the Sage Line 50 product set.

Print this page | Back to Top

Find a Sage Pastel
Business Partner Find an Authorised
Training Centre Find a 3rd Party
Developer Become an Accountants Forum member Pastel Accounting
Website Pastel Payroll Website Newsroom

Yes, it’s year end time again and you’re panicking because there’s so much to do between now and February 28. So, let’s make it easier for you

By adding functionality to its My Business product without compromising its quintessential simplicity, Softline Pastel has rounded out its offering for very small and start-up companies – now enabling the production of a full set of formal accounts.

Ultimate Sports Nutrition (USN), South African developer of nutritional supplements designed to foster health and fitness among international athletes and corporate achievers, has implemented Evolution, the enterprise resource planning-based accounting solution from Softline Pastel, to facilitate its international expansion.

Glasfit, South Africa’s fastest growing motor and flat glass fitment franchise and joint venture network, uses a combination of Pastel Partner and Pastel Evolution to administer 77 fitment centres as well as a distribution centre. It uses the same technology to facilitate the addition of up to 15 new fitment centres per year.

The Imbalenhle Burial Society, named in May 2008 by the Stokvel Company as the best performing of South Africa’s more than 8 000 stokvels and burial societies, uses an integrated sms and accounting solution from Pastel to drive innovative and cost-saving member management and administrative activities.

At its annual channel partner award evening held at Summer Place, Sandton, on Thursday 26th November 2008, Softline Pastel indicated that it is refining its go to market strategy in order to help business partners remain profitable in spite of current global economic turmoil.

It’s remarkable how often, when two differently resourced organisations tackle the same problem, the one with fewer resources will deliver a product that is as effective as the other, but is easier to use and also less costly.

Dust-A-Side, a South African company providing dust control systems to all major mining groups in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, has used the Business Intelligence Centre (BIC) from Softline Pastel to improve the production of management reports at mine, regional, and holding company level.

Small and medium-sized businesses should not allow themselves to be intimidated by information technology (IT) vendors into thinking that if they don’t have what the vendors are offering they will be less productive or profitable.

Subscribe to Sage Pastel's
latest news with RSS