The Future (End) of Sage Business Vision
Short Term
The short term future of BusinessVision versions prior to 2017 is dire to be sure.
If you are running any version of BusinessVision 2017 or prior you will not be able to log in past December 31, 2020. We strongly advise companies using BusinessVision versions older than 2017 to act NOW to avoid hitting this roadblock in December 2020.
You have two choices:
1. Pay Sage for the upgrade at an inflated price as a penalty for not currently being on one of their maintenance plans, or
2. Look for alternatives and buy something else.
Long Term
The long term future of BusinessVision is uncertain due to the outdated technology “under the hood”. Sage BusinessVision was built using languages and tools that are now obsolete and/or unsupported for several years now. The reporting engine is Crystal Reports 10 and the database engine is Pervasive 10, neither of which are supported any longer by the respective companies that developed them. Users that have various versions of Microsoft Office often find that older versions of BusinessVision do not work well with Microsoft Office, this is especially true of 64-bit versions of Office and Outlook.
Sage has current no plans to upgrade the technology necessary to guarantee compatibility with future versions of Windows or Microsoft Office.
Ongoing support for Business Vision is also dwindling. There used to be over 300 Business Vision partners supporting the thousands of companies running Business Vision, now there are only a handful as most have switched to other products due to the lack of commitment shown by Sage towards its partners and software products in general.
Our Recommendation
Gemini Logic. strongly recommends that all companies currently running any version of Business Vision check out Spire Business Management Software. Check out more about Spire by clicking here.