Sage has teamed up with Analyst Financials, a developer who specialises in providing software which solves a businesses’ reporting and budgeting problems, to provide an enhanced management reporting and budgeting solution for its Sage Line 500 users.

Already used by more than 600 companies worldwide, Analyst Financials’ Excel-based Analyst Reporting is an ideal match for Sage Line 500 as it provides a proven, robust and reliable solution for the exacting demands of modern information hungry operations.

Sage’s Line 500 product seamlessly unifies information from a company’s finance, distribution, manufacturing and service operations. It creates a wide-ranging business management system that can cover every aspect of a business – from the initial customer order to after-sales service, in the front and back office, on the shop floor and in the warehouse. Analyst Financials gives the customer the capability of extracting data from Sage Line 500 on a realtime basis to populate Microsoft Excel spreadsheets making data easy to analyse.

Bill Hill, Sage vertical market development manager, said: “Companies of all sizes struggle with fractured, slow and unreliable management reporting, and finance professionals are increasingly pressured to provide a more efficient service to their internal customers.

“By integrating Analyst Reporting with Sage Line 500, we are able to provide a simple solution for businesses whilst at the same time enhancing the functionality of our own enterprise-level product.”

An accreditation programme, run by Analyst Financials, will be rolled out in March and April to equip Sage resellers with the software and accompanying documentation they need to sell and implement Analyst Reporting software, which will be known as Analyst for Sage and Budgeting for Sage.

Timeline Inc, the holding company of Analyst Financials, already has a long-established relationship with Sage. Timeline’s vice president of worldwide sales Michael Evans, said: “We are delighted that Sage has endorsed our reporting and budgeting software for the UK market. We believe Sage resellers can expect to realise immediate and incremental revenue opportunities from this partnership and we look forward to working with them.”

Peter Reynolds, managing director of the BDE Group, a Sage reseller who has had early exposure to Analyst Reporting, said: “We were working with Analyst Financials before their relationship with Sage was announced and found their product suite to be highly complementary to Sage Line 500. It also offers exactly the type of reporting and budgeting functionality that today’s community of super-Excel users are looking for. This product provides competitive edge in new business situations and a substantial opportunity for value added sales into the base.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

About Sage

Sage (UK) Ltd is a subsidiary of the Sage Group plc, a leading international supplier of business management solutions. Formed in 1981, the Group was floated on the stock exchange in 1989 and now employs over 5,000 people worldwide in its market leading companies throughout Europe and the USA.

For more information contact:

Suzy Goulding or Lindsey McKenna
Sage Press Office
Tel: 0191 255 3000
Email: suzy.goulding@sage.com or lindsey.mckenna@sage.com

Or alternatively, please go to the Sage website at www.sage.com

About Analyst Financials and Timeline:

Timeline develops, markets and supports proven, Microsoft Windows-based financial management reporting software suitable for complex applications such as those found in medium to large, multinational corporations. Analyst Reporting was developed for Windows, Office and Windows NT and takes full advantage of Microsoft's latest operating systems. Analyst Financials is the European subsidiary of Timeline Inc that serves all markets outside of the Americas.

Analyst Financials can be reached on 020 8956 2213 or on the web at www.analyst-financials.com.