SAGE Pastel Evolution (ERP) in Mauritius


On Friday 4 May 2012, there was the launch of SAGE Pastel Evolution at Hennessy Park Hotel, Ebene. The event was marked by the presence of Hon. Jim Seetram, Minister of Business, Enterprise and Cooperatives, the President of the Mauritius IT Industry Association, the Product Manager and Technical Manager of SAGE Africa, a representative of Sage Alchemex  (i.e Business Intelligence module of Sage Products) and the Directors/ Accountants of different companies invited by the organiser: Software Concepts Ltd (SFT).

It was a fine Friday Morning though was feeling a bit cold. I was present at the launch together with a friend who is an Accountant who uses SAGE Pastel as Accounting Software. We were welcomed by the employees of SFT who were all dressed in blue shirt/blouse uniform. At the time of registration, all the participants were given a no. as there was a Lucky Draw at the end of the session and the Winner would win a Free Training on Sage Evolution worth Rs. 28k. Well, my Lucky number was 19 and I did won!! 🙂

Well, around 9.30 am the welcome speeches started and after that the Product Manager introduced the SAGE Group and the African Market for their business. In brief, Sage provides business software, services and support to small and medium sized businesses:

After the Corporate Presentation of SAGE Africa, then came the most awaited demo of the new Pastel Evolution and together with its Roadmap. This part of presentation was done was a Technical Guy (also another South African).

And the guy went on and on with his presentation slides demonstrating the new features of the Accounting software like Branch Accounting, new add-on modules etc. The information can be accessed on SAGE website: http://www.sagepastel.com/Sage-Pastel-Software-Products/Pastel-Evolution-ERP-Software-Solution.asp. What was of particular interest to me was the demo of the Point of Sale (POS) software, synchronizing data with the Accounting software such that the invoices are matching the accounting entries in the Pastel Evolution. Secondly, the demo of Pastel Evolution on Mobile devices like iPad was Super interesting!! Apart from Sage products being on Mobile Platforms, I hear that they are also targeting the cloud platform.

Then after a Tea Break, we resumed the event. This time, a presentation on the application of SAGE Software in Specific Industry like Construction, Tourism and Hospitality, Document import/export etc. by Mr. Roshan Betum, CEO of Software Concepts Ltd. His presentation was kinda cool and dynamic. Then, I was very eager for the demo of Business Intelligence Centre integrated in Sage Products and powered by Alchemex. It was very interesting to view how OLAP could be performed on the historical data stored in the SQL database used by Pastel Evolution. And also, how to slice and dice data in Excel 2010 Sheets which helps decision maketing in the business.

Moving forward, came the Testimonial of Mr. Daniel Ng, CEO of MACCS and Past President of Mauritius Gymkhana Club. Daniel related his experience on the implementation of SAGE Evolution ERP at the Mauritius Gymkhana Club, with the support of the employees of SFT. The audience was brought to the real-life experiences of implementing the product and the customer satisfaction of the business solution from SFT. What I liked the most in his slides were:

1. The mention of the Critical Success Factors of implementing an ERP (i.e People, Structure & Process and Technology)

2. Change Management (as users will need to use IT or will be affected by IT in their daily tasks)

3. Business Process Re-Engineering

4. The Need for Business Intelligence

5. His experience of working with SFT and critical comments (SFT need to manage Growth of the company and strengthen Support of SAGE products)

Personally, this was a very informative event as I learnt a lot about ERP for medium business in Mauritius. At Accenture IT, we had the SAP capability where such ERP were deployed for Large Organisations or countries, embedded with lots of complexity.

ERP Solution Providers in Mauritius

After a quick search I read that in Mauritius, there are few companies selling SAGE Products like: New Edge Solutions ltd., Acclivity Consulting, BIC Solutions Ltd, Harel Mallac Technologies Ltd. etc.

Other companies delivery solutions from Microsoft like MS Dynamics etc. Ex. FRCI (Insight), Enterprise Information Systems Ltd.

or from SAP Business One Ex. iO.sys, State Informatics Ltd., DCDM Consulting, Accenture IT (Mauritius)

or Oracle Ex. Spoon Consulting

Uniconsults delivers Sicorax products. During my University of Mauritius days, I had friends doing computer lab sessions on Sicorax HRM, as part of their e-Human Resources Module.

For now, let me focus on the Potential of Open Source in the field of Enterprise Software..

Till then,

Keep Connected!

Ashesh

Graduated from University of Mauritius, Young IT Specialist Award winner from BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, Part-Time Lecturer Open University of Mauritius. Loves to create websites and perform digital marketing. Blogging since 2007...

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