Hare described the coming product as a "more functionally rich tier of this solution for professional user, those users that are more finance focused require additional capability and management tools.”

Sage will start the roll out of the new product in the United Kingdom during the current fiscal year. The application is expected both to appeal to new customers and also offer a migration path for Sage 50 customers who want a native cloud product.

The migration from Sage 50 is complicated by the wide variation in how much functionality customers use in the older product, Hare said, noting Sage will not force users to migrate.

“So if you're using all of the functionality of Sage 50, then this first version is not going to be quite as functionally rich,” he noted. Hare added. “We'll encourage them to migrate over time, but remember we've only just migrated most of them onto cloud connected, so there's probably a bedding-in period.”

Bob Scott

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Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards.  Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He  has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that.  A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind