Sage (The Sage Group, plc) is a publicly-held company currently traded on the FTSE 100 and has posted steady, predictable growth year-after-year since 1989. Sage is the 3^rd largest ERP software provider worldwide in terms of revenue ($2B) and #1 with a base of more than 6M customers worldwide.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is a publicly-traded company with a market cap of $400B. A multinational technology company, Microsoft’s portfolio includes operating systems, databases, software programming languages, hardware apparatus, gaming software, smartphones, and ERP. It is estimated that Microsoft’s ERP practice, made up of the Dynamics Suite solutions including Dynamics GP, is less than $2B (or 2%) of Microsoft’s total revenues.

Advantage = Sage. With more midmarket ERP customers than any other publisher in the world, Sage is singularly focused on expertly developing, enhancing and supporting its ERP portfolio practice and customers every day.

Core Product Strengths

Sage 100c delivers out-of-box functionality for Financials, Distribution and Manufacturing capabilities. The Manufacturing modules includes Bill of Materials (BOM), Work Order, MRP, and Job Cost for discrete manufacturing and light assembly operations. There are hundreds of Sage 100c add-ons supported by Sage partners including some of the most popular for Multicurrency, Warehouse Automation, Alerts & Notifications, and JobOps. Sage 100c is not a multinational solution, delivering only US GAAP to English-speaking users in North America.

Dynamics GP delivers a flexible solution for Financial Management, Inventory, Sales, Business Intelligence, Human Resources and Payroll. Dynamics GP is especially popular among professional services and public sector organizations while providing light manufacturing capabilities. Like Sage, there are literally hundreds of Independent Software Vendors with add-ons that extend the traditional Dynamics GP footprint. Dynamics GP is marketed outside North America and supports dozens of additional languages and country localizations.

Advantage = It depends. If you’re looking for a strong Inventory and Manufacturing solution limited to North American operating entities, Sage 100c is the best option. If you need a strong Financials and Human Resources solution or require support for operating companies outside of North America with different languages, then Dynamics GP is the best option.

Technology

Sage 100c supports an on-premises or private hosting deployment through its subscription price-model using a Microsoft SQL database. Private hosting options provide the customer freedom of choice to select its datacenter, configuration settings and service levels. There are Sage recommended hosting providers in addition to Amazon WebServices (AWS) for customers to choose from. A refreshed web-like user interface provides a platform for customers to launch and access Sage 100c from mobile devices.

Dynamics GP can be hosted online by a Microsoft Cloud Solutions Partner or installed on-premises in a client/server setting. Its user interface and usability has fallen behind technologically, using traditional windows-forms, tabs and folders instead of web-based forms throughout the product. Microsoft Azure cloud platform does offer competitive advantages for companies with corporate-sized investments in the Microsoft technology stack products and infrastructure.

Advantage = Neutral. While Microsoft touts its brand recognition and Microsoft technology stack as a differentiator, there is no inherent, native advantage that Microsoft Dynamics GP provides over Sage 100c for small and medium sized businesses. Both Sage 100c and Dynamics GP run on Windows platforms and leverage Microsoft Office interfaces with plug-and-play capabilities expected from modern ERP.

Pricing / Cost

Both Sage 100c and Dynamics GP have multiple price options… With either product, there are a range of variables to consider when calculating your final software license cost before implementation services.

Sage 100c pricing begins at $50/user per month before considering a la carte module options and add-ons. A one-time setup fee is additional and calculated per user. Cost is representative of an on-premises deployment and does include monthly private hosting which starts at $200 per month based on the datacenter of your choice.

Dynamics GP subscription pricing for its Starter Pack (including Financials, HR, Inventory, and Business Intelligence Reporting) starts at $190/user per month. An Extended Pack (including Advanced Inventory features, Manufacturing and CRM) is an additional $100/user per month. Pricing does not include private hosting or Microsoft Azure Cloud.

Advantage = Sage 100c. Only Sage 100c provides the flexibility of an on-premises or cloud deployment with an easy subscription-pricing model. The freedom to choose creates options for how to record the investment on a company’s books, the impact on its IT resources and the ongoing cost of ownership.

* Note: cost calculations performed based on information available as of June 2016. Please check with a Sage or Dynamics authorized partner for a quotation of current pricing and implementation.

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