As a Dallas-Fort Worth Sage and reseller, I have been bombarded with emails and phone calls about the recent demise of the MIS Group here in Dallas. We have had internal meetings to discuss what we can do to help the staff and customers out and have made a few plans to that end. I really discovered that I am a customer service representative through and through when I heard the news because my first thought was for the customers that were left without their consultant to help them out. I am sure that not all of the MIS customers call daily, weekly or even once a month, but of course, I am sure there are those customers that need help very frequently. As a value added reseller, we also have some customers that do require a lot of assistance and some that don’t. Typically the customers that need a lot of help have a lot of turnovers and/or business changes. I do hope these customers are not left high and dry. I know our customers put a lot of trust in our company and consultants and the demise of MIS makes all of us look a bit less trustworthy.
I do want to take this time to let our customers and prospects know that is a debt free company in Arlington Texas. We have been in business since 1989. The core leadership team has been the same for the last twelve to thirteen years that includes me (12 years), Operations Manager (12 years), and our Executive VP (13 years). Our president started the business in his home and is an extremely astute businessman. Our company does not fail when times are bad, we are not concerned about losing our jobs or the company. As a matter of fact, we look at times like these as opportunities for expansion.
CIS has been a Sage/Best reseller since they purchased PFW back in 2003. Before that, we sold PFW, Platinum for Windows and BatchMaster too and even Epicor- long, long story. Software publishers bought and sold packages a lot in those days…Consolidation was the name of the game. The day Sage bought these PFW and the BatchMaster PFW products were one of the happiest days of my career. I remember it was Valentine’s day. I was happy because I was under the impression that Best would take the two products and make them one; with one system manager and as well make big improvements to the product. A product that has been the core of our business since 1989. We have numerous customers on the now named Sage PFW software. Sage has made some improvements to the software, but in my opinion, they are not keeping up with the Jones. I find this extremely regrettable since I have touted the strengths that this product line has had for years; good solid software for ; food, chemical, paint, cosmetics, and nutritional products.
I have seen numerous other VARs (Value Added Resellers) like CIS pick up other product lines to satisfy customer and prospect demand, including us. I don’t know what happened at MIS, but I think that it had something to do with the fact that they did not sell or support any other products other than Sage products. I prefer having a diverse set of products for our customers and prospects. Granted a firm of our size (staff of 20) cannot support a bunch of products and do it well, so we have opted to sell and support a couple of products; our existing Sage PFW customers and .
I do want all the Sage MAS customers to know that there are a lot of honest, dependable VARs out there like CIS. We look at our customers as a partner in our business relationship. Always check references, but keep in mind that no one is perfect. And make sure you have a known publisher like Microsoft behind your software. really has a great reseller program (keeps companies like CIS happy and healthy) and a great customer support plan.
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