Sage Strengthens Microsoft Partnership

 

September 12, 2024

ATLANTA – Sage, a provider of accounting, financial, HR, and payroll technology for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), has strengthened its partnership with Microsoft through advancements in Sage Instant Analysis, Sage Active, and Sage Network. These features enhance operational efficiency and innovation for SMBs through integrated solutions and cutting-edge technologies.

“Our partnership with Microsoft aims to give small and medium-sized businesses the tools they need for success in today’s digital age. These updates offer fresh ways to improve customers’ operations and increase productivity,” says Amaya Souarez, EVP, Cloud Services & Operations at Sage via press release. “This collaboration is about bringing our strengths together. It shows our united effort to spark innovation, support growth, and deliver the latest solutions for the ever-changing demands of the business world.”

As part of Sage Copilot’s reporting and analytics capabilities, Sage Instant Analysis integrates Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to empower SMBs by unlocking their data. Embedded within Sage Active, this tool can access financial data from various in-product forms, enabling customers to glean financial insights that might have otherwise been overlooked. With just a click, users receive actionable insights about their company’s financial health, including detailed assessments of strengths, weaknesses, and critical areas such as the balance sheet, cash flow, working capital, and gross profit. This integration makes it easier to manage business activities, boosting productivity and streamlining routine tasks.

Unlike simple automation that uses a template requiring new data input by the customer, Sage Instant Analysis can delve into the details of a company’s year-to-date financial performance by using accounting data already in the system. The service dives beneath the surface of financial reports, using advanced large language model (LLM) engineering through Azure OpenAI Service that not only reads numbers but truly understands them – calculating key ratios and providing rich context for decision-making.

Sage Instant Analysis uses sophisticated prompt engineering models and chaining techniques for easy data ingestion and processing through Azure OpenAI Service. Intelligent cache remembers past calculations, eliminating unnecessary LLM calls. Additionally, detailed logging and analytics provide visibility into how and when the service is being used.

Output from Instant Analysis can be set to a user’s native language – French, Spanish, German or English – based on preferences stored in the user profile.

Built on Microsoft Azure App Service, Cosmos DB and Blob Storage, Instant Analysis, a feature of Sage Active, is available in France, Spain and Germany and is tailored to the evolving needs of European small businesses, allowing them to automate accounting, manage sales and cash flow, and navigate the complexities of European legislation. Helping to create and manage products, optimize sales flows, and generate professional invoices and quotes efficiently, Sage Active streamlines processes so customers can drive growth and innovation across their businesses.

 

Sage Intacct Expands AI-Driven AP Automation

ATLANTA – Sage recently made new enhancements and updates for its Intacct customers globally, to streamline financial operations and enhance security worldwide.

As part of this expansion, Sage Intacct is rolling out Accounts Payable (AP) Automation globally. In the US, businesses are already processing more than 10,000 bills per month using this tool, which uses AI to halve the time taken for accounts payable processes while saving organizations more than $100,000 per year. AP Automation streamlines financial workflows by automatically creating draft bills from uploaded documents, promptly identifying issues such as duplicates, and reducing data entry efforts and costs.

“Supporting our customers to focus on growing their business is fundamental to the technologies we are building,” said Dan Miller, executive vice president, Financials and ERP Division at Sage via press release. “AP Automation is a prime example of this and makes us the first mid-market solution to offer this outside of the US. What’s more, our ongoing global expansion and the achievement of significant certifications, showcases our commitment to providing globally compliant, secure, and robust financial solutions that meet the diverse needs of businesses everywhere.”

Sage Intacct Product Release 3 2024 Enhancements Also Include:

  • Elevated Time Entry Experience:This new Sage Intelligent Time feature, with enhanced AI assistance, supports customers with the creation of more descriptive activity card titles and the option for automatic time entry descriptions, improving clarity for approvers and users alike. Availability: US, Canada, Australia, South Africa and the UK
  • Automated Employee Expense Submission—Early Adopter:Employees can email receipts directly from any device, while AI and machine learning enhance coding accuracy and adapt to user modifications for future submissions, significantly simplifying the expense reporting process. Availability: US
  • Enhanced Email delivery and insights:The latest update introduces an enhanced email delivery service that leverages DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) to ensure emails reach their intended recipients securely and efficiently. This service also provides detailed email delivery logs for better visibility and supports multiple domains and sub-domains, making it ideal for businesses managing communications across diverse operational areas. Availability: Globally