Sage North America Announces Customer Awards Program Winners

ATLANTA, GA--(Marketwire - November 9, 2009) - Sage North America, whose business management software and services are used by more than 2.9 million small and midsize businesses in the United States and Canada, announced today the winners of its second annual Customer Awards Program. Six companies were recognized at the Sage Summit conference in Atlanta, GA. The Sage Customer Awards Program recognizes the outstanding business achievements of customers using Sage products and services.

Best Use of Customization

The Best Use of Customization award recognizes a Sage customer who has customized their Sage solution to solve a specific business objective and achieve a sustained competitive advantage. The 2009 winner is Metropolitan Regional Information Systems (MRIS), Rockville, MD. In 2006, MRIS upgraded its legacy accounting systems to Sage MAS 500 ERP and worked with Blytheco LLC to develop and implement automated processes that simplified the entire customer invoicing and payment cycle. In 2009, MRIS launched an online payment service for its customers that integrated with Sage MAS 500 ERP. Since then, over 32,000 customers have used the system to pay their MRIS bills. As MRIS continues to automate its processes, they expect Sage will continue to provide the stability and scalability to make this possible.

Community Stewardship

The Community Stewardship Award recognizes a Sage customer for their outstanding commitment to better the lives of the people and the communities they serve. The 2009 winner is Teach For America, New York, NY. Prior to their Sage SalesLogix implementation, the organization did not have a centralized system to track prospective candidates in the field. They have now standardized their recruitment processes resulting in a stronger applicant pool through and more targeted and effective recruiting. Teach for America worked with Infinity Info Systems on their implementation.

Best End-to-End Deployment

The Best End-to-End Deployment Award recognizes a Sage customer who has achieved outstanding business results through the implementation of two or more Sage applications. The 2009 winner is Power Curbers, Inc., Salisbury, NC. Prior to their Sage implementation of MAS 500 ERP, Sage FAS Fixed Assets and Sage SalesLogix, the company was using a difficult ERP system and was spending more time managing the system than using the information. As a result of this end-to-end implementation, the company has transitioned to a pull inventory system using just-in-time manufacturing processes and doubled their inventory turns in just 12 months. Power Curbers, Inc. worked with Practical Software Solutions on their implementation.

Best Innovation Award

The Best Innovation Award recognizes a Sage customer who has developed a unique solution to a challenge within their industry and demonstrated significant business benefits as a result. The 2009 winner is Entertainment Lighting Services, Inc., Sun Valley, CA. Prior to their implementation of Sage MAS 500 ERP, the company was searching for a completely integrated system that could handle their unique industry requirements in accounting for rental and sales inventories as well as labor scheduling. They now have a comprehensive system that helped reduce their inventory shrinkage by 50% while the month-end close process was reduced from 4 weeks to 5 days. Entertainment Lighting Services, Inc. worked with Information Integration Group, Inc. on their implementation.

Rookie of the Year

The Rookie of the Year Award recognizes a new Sage customer who has demonstrated immediate business results and positive impact from their Sage implementation. The 2009 winner is Coilhose Pneumatics, East Brunswick, NJ. Prior to Sage, they were looking for a new ERP system that could unify their two separate companies and they found it with Sage MAS 500 ERP. Product costing is now automated and booking inter-company transactions is a snap. Coilhose Pneumatics worked with Net@Work on their implementation.

Lifetime Achievement Award

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes an exceptional customer who has used a Sage solution for over 10 years, and who has survived difficult economic environments, shifting technology trends and demonstrated continuous business improvements and results over this time period. The 2009 winner is Amix Salvage & Sales Ltd., Surrey, BC. The company has been using Sage solutions for over 17 years. Since their initial DOS implementation, they have now grown to use Sage Accpac ERP, which has helped automate or eliminate many of their old manual processes such as the manual time entry for payroll, which saved 15 hours each week. In addition, real time perpetual inventory has saved 10 hours per month by eliminating the need for retail store workers to research inventory levels. Amix Salvage & Sales Ltd. worked with Plus Computer Solutions on their implementation.

Sage congratulates all 6 winners of its Customer Awards Program, and wishes each of them continued success in the years to come.

For more information on the Sage Customer Awards Program please visit: http://www.sagenorthamerica.com/customer_resources/customer_awards_program. To learn more about Sage Summit please visit: http://www.sagesummit.com/

About Sage North America

Sage North America is part of The Sage Group plc, a leading global supplier of business management software and services. Sage North America employs more than 4,100 people and supports nearly 2.9 million small and medium-size business customers. The Sage Group plc, formed in 1981, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and now employs 14,500 people and supports 5.8 million customers worldwide. For more information, please visit the Web site at www.sagenorthamerica.com.

© 2009 Sage Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Sage, Sage Software, Sage logos and the Sage product and service names mentioned herein are registered trademarks or trademarks of Sage Software, Inc. or its affiliated entities. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Contact Information: Contact: Alex Kouznetsova (905) 814-0503 ext 55834 alex.kouznetsova@sage.com