Sage Abra HRMS Upcoming February Webinars

CMS would like to invite you to attend a webinar on Wednesday, February 14th, or Wednesday, February 28th at 10:30 am entitled "Sage Abra HRMS Technology Discover the leading HRMS Solution on the market today, designed to help you manage your most expensive resource: People and Benefits."

If your goal is to streamline your business and administrative process, then Sage Abra HRMS is the tool to provide your organization with strategic decision-making information needed by top-level management, in today's highly charged business environment.

With SAGE ABRA HRMS, your company will gain the following:

• Your company can streamline their complete Recruiting and HR process, with a single database for Recruiting, HR, Benefit Administration, Attendance and Payroll for a reduction errors and time-savings with SAGE ABRA HRMS.
• Automate the administration of Benefits, 401-K and Pension calculations.
• Be proactive with your workforce with Abra HR®, perform timely Performance and Salary reviews. Then track ongoing results in Abra HR history.
• Keep track of a skills inventory of your employment base and use as a tool for succession planning, and filling positions internally.
• Stay in compliance with Federal and State guidelines on Cobra, EEO, FMLA, HIPAA, and the new OSHA 300 reporting with Abra HR.
• Track Vacation, Personal and Sick detail with ABRA HR and Attendance®.
• Web-Based iRecruit to streamline your complete workforce management process.
  

To register for this webcast, please click here:
http://www.cmshris.com/abrawebcast.html

Sage Software Reports Record Year Exceeding $652 Million in 2006 North America Revenue

Sage Group plc Exceeds $1.69 Billion Worldwide

IRVINE, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- November 29, 2006 -- Sage Software, the North American business of the Sage Group plc (LSE: SGE), announced today that total revenue for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2006 was $652.2 million, and EBITA (earnings before interest, tax and amortization, which includes the effects of amortization of acquired intangible assets and the net amortization or capitalization of software development expenditure) was $160.4 million, increases of 16%* and 21%*, respectively, over the same prior year period. UK-based The Sage Group plc reported global revenues of $1.69 billion for the year ended September 30, 2006, an increase of 22%* over the same prior year period (at constant exchange rates*). EBITA for the year was $449.8 million, an increase of 23%* over the prior year, and the company added 553,000 customers during the year, bringing its total to 5.2 million businesses worldwide, excluding CRM customers.

"We continue to expand our business with our customers' needs in mind, extending our software and services portfolio through acquisition and internal development, and integrating products to provide complete suites of business applications," said Sage Software CEO Ron Verni. "This enables us to provide our customers with the power of choice in their software selection, and gives them the confidence of knowing that Sage Software can support them for the life of their business."

During 2006, North American revenues represented 39% of the Sage Group's global revenues. Overall North American EBITA margins increased to 25% from 24% in the prior year.

In 2006, Sage Software continued its strategy of offering small and mid-sized businesses the broadest range of business management applications, releasing dozens of new or upgraded products for general business and the specialized needs of the construction, distribution, healthcare, manufacturing, nonprofit and real estate industries.

Sage Software expanded its product portfolio during the year with several acquisitions, including:

• Verus Financial Management, a merchant services provider;
• The Master Builder product line from Intuit Inc., and Contractor Anywhere, products that serve the construction industry;
• The Practice Services Division of Emdeon Corporation which serves the needs of physician practices and which is now the Sage Software Healthcare Division;
• The Mobile Division of Corum Corporation that provides software to enable mobile access to business applications.
  

The company delivered major upgrades of its small business software products, including ACT! by Sage 2007, which continues to lead the worldwide market for contact and customer management with more than 2.7 million users; Peachtree by Sage 2007 and the new Peachtree by Sage - Quantum 2007; Timeslips by Sage 2007, and Simply Accounting by Sage 2007, which is Canada's number one selling small business accounting software.

Sage Software also delivered key new releases and upgrades in its mid-market business management products and services portfolio, including Sage Online Payroll Services integrated with Sage MAS 90 ERP, Sage MAS 200 ERP, Sage Accpac ERP, and Sage Abra HRMS, enabling companies to outsource their payroll while maintaining integration with their in-house accounting and human resource management system; and major upgrades to its Sage Accpac, Sage Pro, and Sage MAS ERP suites as well as its Sage CRM SalesLogix and Sage Abra HRMS lines. New versions of the market leading Sage Timberline Office and Sage Nonprofit Solutions were also launched.

Sage Software continued its focus on quality customer service in 2006, gaining industry standard certifications for its award-winning technical support teams, launching Business Minds, a new customer magazine, and serving more than 2,700 attendees at the company's annual user conference, Sage Summit.

* Results are in USD. Results for the year ended September 30, 2005 have been retranslated based on the average exchange rates for the year ended September 30, 2006 to facilitate comparison of results: 1.8041 USD per GBP. Results for 2005 have been restated according to IFRS guidelines to facilitate comparison of results.

About Sage Software

Sage Software supports the needs, challenges and dreams of more than 2.7 million small and mid-sized business customers in North America through easy-to-use, scalable and customizable software and services. Our products support accounting, operations, customer relationship management, human resources, time tracking, merchant services and the specialized needs of the construction, distribution, healthcare, manufacturing, nonprofit and real estate industries. Sage Software is a subsidiary of The Sage Group plc, a leading international supplier of accounting and business management software solutions and related products and services for small and mid-sized businesses. Formed in 1981, Sage was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and the Group now has 5.2 million customers and employs over 13,000 people worldwide. For more information, please visit the Web site at www.sagesoftware.com/moreinfo or call (800) 517-9099.

Sage Software's Sage MIP Fund Accounting

Sage Software's Sage MIP Fund Accounting Helps Hundreds of Healthcare Nonprofits Strengthen Organizational Transparency, Governance, and Accountability

Sage Software announced last month that healthcare and health-related organizations across North America are continuing to choose its award-winning Sage MIP Fund Accounting software for nonprofit financial management. To date, more than 850 healthcare and health-related organizations count on Sage MIP Fund Accounting to track and report on multiple funds, across multiple budget periods, to help them meet reporting requirements and demonstrate accountability to their constituents.

"Based on our needs surrounding cost and system flexibility and functionality, Sage MIP Fund Accounting was the best financial management system choice for us," said Beth Smith, director of finance at Crider Center for Mental Health, a community mental health center serving the needs of the Missouri Counties of Lincoln, Warren, St. Charles, and Franklin, and a Sage Software customer since 2001. "We previously used a system designed specifically for community mental health centers, and while it was sufficient for the demographic and billing pieces of our business, it lacked much-needed reporting capabilities, the ability to distribute across various cost centers, and an industry-standard database."

Shawnee Health Service, a nonprofit organization fostering the development of health and social services in southern Illinois and southern Indiana, has used Sage MIP Fund Accounting's General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Encumbrance, and Bank Reconciliation modules since 2003. The organization also uses Sage Software's Abra Payroll product, which links to Sage MIP Accounting.

"We switched from another nonprofit software vendor to Sage Software, because their software required everything to work under one fiscal year, although our grants are under three different fiscal years," said Jeff Cooper, Shawnee's deputy finance director. "With the old system, we entered data into the accounting software, printed out the information, and then re-entered everything into Excel spreadsheets -- all so we could run reports on grants crossing fiscal years. Sage MIP Fund Accounting solved all that for us, plus it is the most cost-effective product we considered."

Sage MIP Fund Accounting continues to be an easy-to-use solution helping healthcare and health-related organizations with complex financial management needs demonstrate transparency and accountability with powerful reporting tools, table-driven charts of accounts, a dynamic Drill-down Analyzer, and more. Sage MIP Fund Accounting makes it easy for auditors to verify financial statement accuracy and organization to maintain a clear audit trail.

"Sage MIP Fund Accounting is so user-friendly, and Sage Software really works to make annual improvements and add quality features," said Eloise Sites, staff accountant for Tallahassee, Fla.-based North Florida Medical Centers, Inc., a private not-for-profit health care corporation providing primary medical services, and a Sage MIP fund Accounting user since its DOS version. "It is beneficial being able to view the current and previous year's financial statements, plus applicable budgets, on one sheet. Sage MIP Fund Accounting also makes the year-end process much smoother, because I can quickly and easily export working trial balances to a spreadsheet and then e-mail the trial balance to my auditor in preparation for the audit."

Using Sage MIP Fund Accounting, healthcare and health-related nonprofits can plan and manage budgets, maximize grants, and produce accurate customized reports in minutes. Adds Cooper, "Sage MIP Fund Accounting's report writer gives us anything we want. We appreciate that we can extract any data we put into the software. We can also create the Statement of Revenue and Expenditures in multiple formats that allow us to satisfy the reporting requirements of our various funding agencies, and create and customize reports, such as our Statement of Activities, for use in our annual audit. Now, the only time we have to export to Excel is to e-mail something."

Adds Smith, "The reports we can generate using Sage MIP Fund Accounting benefit our organization because we report to many different funders, across multiple fiscal years. Things can get pretty complicated if you do not have a system you can trust. That is why the reporting flexibility provided by Sage MIP Fund Accounting is huge."

The product earned a coveted 2005 Campbell Award from Campbell Rinker for its exceptional ratings in the Nonprofit Accounting Software Survey, a nationwide survey of accounting software users.

For more than 25 years, Sage Software has been helping nonprofit organizations further their missions and better serve constituents through the use of technology. Sage MIP Fund Accounting and the range of Sage Fundraising product choices enable nonprofit organizations, regardless of size and budget, to select a solution that best fits their needs.

For more information about Sage MIP Fund Accounting or other Sage Software Nonprofit Solutions, visit www.sagenonprofit.com or call 800-647-3863. For information about other Sage Software products for the healthcare industry, please visit www.sagehealth.com.

Sage Software Launches Sage Accpac HRMS

New Human Resource Management System, Based on Market-Leading Sage Abra HRMS, Replaces ACCPAC HR Series and Integrates With Sage Accpac ERP and Sage Pro ERP

Sage Software announced last month the availability of Sage Accpac HRMS, a new human resource management system (HRMS) for Sage Accpac ERP (enterprise resource planning) and Sage Pro ERP users that is based on the company's market-leading Sage Abra HRMS. Designed specifically for small and mid-sized U.S. and Canadian businesses, Sage Accpac HRMS offers HR, attendance and training modules to comprehensively meet the HR management, benefits administration, information tracking, reporting, and legislative compliance needs of North American organizations, with more flexibility, ease-of-use, and reporting options than other systems. Sage Accpac HRMS includes enhanced job description information, more flexibility in defining employee seniority for attendance purposes, additional options for tracking vacation time, and step rates for such organizations as municipalities, universities, and union-based industries. Sage Accpac HRMS also features tight integration with Sage Payroll Services for U.S. companies, and offers an optional link to ADP Canadian payroll services.

"Sage Accpac HRMS is a powerful, feature-rich HR solution that we believe will be a tremendous value-add for our Sage Accpac ERP clients," said Jim Campbell, vice president of ADSS Global, a leading Sage Software business partner with locations throughout the East Coast, Gulf Coast, and the Caribbean. "It's specifically designed for small and mid-sized businesses, with market-leading features and functionality, and our existing and new clients can be confident knowing they are deploying the top HR solution available."

Sage Accpac HRMS is based upon the market-leading Sage Abra HRMS solution, which was cited in September 2006 by Forrester Research as a "Strong Performer" in their overall U.S. mid-market evaluation.(1) According to the report, "Sage, with its [Sage] Abra product, offers the most cost-effective software solution among the products evaluated for companies with fewer than 1,000 employees."(1) Additionally, according to Forrester's Sage Software Vendor Summary, also published in September 2006, "[Sage Software's] Abra product clearly leads as the on-premise[s] HR solution of choice for the small and medium-size business (SMB) company segment (businesses with six to 999 employees)."(2)

Sage Abra HRMS has also been positioned in the Leaders quadrant in Gartner, Inc.'s 2006 Magic Quadrant for U.S. Midmarket Human Resource Management Systems. According to Gartner, U.S. Midmarket HRMS Leaders are "vendors whose performances excel in the U.S. for midmarket HRMS solutions. They are able to deliver breadth and depth of HRMS functionality, as well as demonstrate a strong vision to capitalize on emerging market trends. Leaders successfully articulate a business proposition that resonates with buyers, supported by the viability and operational capability to deliver."(3)

Integration with Sage Accpac ERP U.S. and Canadian Payroll is now available with Sage Accpac HRMS. Integration with Sage Pro ERP U.S. Payroll will be available at the beginning of 2007.

New reports designed to meet the needs of U.S. and Canadian installations cover employee beneficiaries and dependents, benefits, skills, and education. In combination with other compliance practices, Sage Accpac HRMS can help U.S. and Canadian businesses to track certain information relating to Canadian organizations' EE (Employment Equity) and OHS (Occupational Health and Safety), and U.S. organizations' EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) and OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) requirements.

In addition to the HR, attendance and training modules, Sage Accpac HRMS also includes Accpac Workforce Connections, the workforce-facing self-service system for Sage Accpac HRMS. Consisting of Sage Accpac ESS (employee self-service) and Sage Accpac Benefits Enrollment modules, plus the new Sage Accpac eRecruiter module, Accpac Workforce Connections provides Sage Accpac HRMS customers with Web-based workflow automation capabilities.

Sage Accpac eRecruiter is a new online recruiting solution that integrates with Sage Accpac HRMS. The recruiting solution is easy-to-use and affordable, helping HR professionals in the U.S. and Canada to expand their Internet recruiting strategies, reduce hiring costs, and shorten the recruiting cycle by automating and simplifying the entire recruiting process. Using Accpac eRecruiter, a company can customize an online career center to match their corporate Web site's look and feel, allowing applicants to easily view open positions, submit resumes, and complete applications online. An employee-only view of the career center supports companies' employee referral programs. Managers and recruiters can search the applicant and employee database for a variety of requisition-specific criteria, including degree, major, referral source, position desired, and skills.

Pricing and Availability

Sage Accpac HRMS is now available from authorized Sage Accpac and Sage Pro business partners starting at an SRP of $650 (USD), $815 (CDN). To locate a Sage Accpac or Pro business partner, call 1-800-945-8007, or visit www.sageaccpac.com, or www.sageproerp.com.

(1)Forrester Research, "The Forrester Wave™: Human Resource Management Systems, Q3 2006," September 2006, Paul Hamerman with Sharyn Leaver and Elisse Gaynor.

(2)Forrester Research, "The Sage Group is a Leading HR Management Systems Choice for SMBs," The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q3 2006, September 2006, Paul Hamerman with Elisse Gaynor

(3)For its U.S. Midmarket HRMS Magic Quadrant, Gartner evaluates vendors across a range of criteria and positions them in the Leaders, Challengers, Visionaries, or Niche Players quadrant based on their Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision.

Sage Payroll Services

Sage Payroll Services, a fully-outsourced payroll service that integrates with your Sage Abra HR Module with a FREE interface. This new, low-cost, easy-to-use Web technology provides total payroll and tax compliance in a seamless interface with advanced "native" Internet architecture to save you time.

Full-Service, Online Payroll Outsourcing
Eliminate payroll hassles, maximize your convenience. Outsource with Sage Software, the trusted provider of payroll services and management tools for more than 25 years.

Compliance Solutions for Large Enterprises
Streamline payroll tax filing, paying, and reporting. Outsource your state and local tax processing as well as the printing and distribution of W2 and 1099 forms, and more.

Sage In-House Solutions
Sage Payroll Services also integrates with other Sage Software solutions including Sage Abra HRMS, Sage MAS 90 and Sage MAS 200 ERP, Sage Accpac ERP, and Peachtree by Sage.

Features

• Standard Payroll Available 24 x 7: Standard payroll reports, real-time customer notification and no penalties guarantee.
• Employee Payment: Printing paychecks from your desktop, check printing and delivery, check signature imaging and direct deposit service.
• Tax Filing: Federal/state and local tax table updates and calculations, federal/state and local tax filing, and year-end (W-2) processing service.
• Reporting: Standard payroll reports, real-time electronic payroll reports, payroll pre-register confirmation report, real-time "out of the box" General Ledger posting, benefit accrual tracking, report delivery option and state new hire reporting.

Click here to view an online tour of Sage Payroll Services:

For more information please call Brian at 860-678-4401, or visit our website for sample reports and brochures:
http://www.cmshris.com/sps.html

Delivering HR Integration at Every Point Along the Way

That's Sage 360°.

Organization: AAA Southern New England
Industry: Membership Organization
System: Sage Abra HRMS

CHALLENGE:
The Club quadrupled in size through an acquisition. The volume of paperwork in HR became staggering, requiring a total rethinking of how the department processed its work.

SOLUTION:
Sage Abra HRMS and Abra ESS to extend HR, recruiting, and payroll information access to managers and employees.

RESULTS:
A paperless application process, streamlining four points of data entry into just one, and providing an increased ability to support strategic HR initiatives.

AAA Southern New England (AAASNE) is the sixth largest AAA club in the United States, serving over 2 million members. The Club’s mission to “provide members with superior service, product, and value” leads them to deliver a wide variety of services.

Due to a rapid expansion in operations several years ago, HR found itself buried in paperwork.

Abra HRMS Streamlines Every Angle
The Club had used Sage Abra HRMS as its HR software for 10 years. However, payroll processing, time and attendance, and benefits administration were handled by outside vendors. AAASNE wanted everything integrated into one system.

“We needed to streamline our workflow processes through automation, beginning with the Club’s first contact with an applicant,” says Jackie Young, vice president of staffing and organizational development. “Our goal was a paperless office.”

Thanks to custom interfaces, the Club’s payroll, time and attendance, and benefits systems are now all managed by Sage Abra HRMS. Sage Abra provides a single point of data entry, rather than the four required before, and stores information in a centralized database.

Frank Cerilli, vice president of compensation and benefits, says, “This integration approach has helped our department in moving from a transaction-based approach to one that is much more involved in supporting the organization to achieve strategic objectives.

“We wanted to make certain Sage Abra could support our vision, so we turned to our reseller. He demonstrated how to create a seamless system based on Sage Abra HRMS, and introduced us to Abra ESS to reduce office traffic.”

Abra ESS Helps Employees See Clearly
Using Abra ESS, employees can now view and update personal information through the Club’s intranet. The Club controls access rights, so employees can only view their own information and change appropriate fields. Abra ESS has relieved the HR office of hundreds of telephone and in-person queries from employees each year.

“Employees go to Abra ESS to check on vacation time, benefits, and training,” says Young. “They like it because they get instant answers, even if they’re on a night shift when HR is closed.”

Supervisors are also able to access data on their direct reports, trimming requests for reports from HR. Entries like emergency contacts, which can easily become outdated, are now more accurate, since people are checking their records and making necessary updates on a regular basis.

“These programs and initiatives have been launched to drive business results, which has given us the opportunity to think more strategically as a department,” explains Cerilli.

A 360º View to a Paperless Office
Gone are the days when the Club accepted paper applications and resumes. Instead, AAASNE uses a completely electronic system, with entries completed by applicants through the Club’s Internet site, at kiosks in the Club’s lobby, or through major recruiting sites. Applications and resumes are stored in the Sage Abra database and accessed by staffing specialists using Sage Abra search and query tools. “We receive between 50 and 90 applications every day,” Young says. “Clearly, we’d be overwhelmed without Sage Abra’s automation.”

Jackie Young believes AAASNE is better positioned for the future because of its expanded use of Sage Abra HRMS. “Sage Abra HRMS provides us with more accurate information, and centralizes employee demographics, payroll, benefits, and training data into one solution. At the same time, the system has reduced our workload in the HR Department. Furthermore, we hold a strong value to help and serve as a way of life. Abra ESS assists HR in delivering a more personalized service experience, helping employees to achieve their individual goals, and meeting strategic commitments."