When someone asks us “Can Sage 300 do this?” the answer we often give is “Yes, with the help of Extender.”
It hurts us to admit it, but there are exceptions!
Over the years we’ve developed a structured process to review requests, determine if an Extender-based solution is feasible, and work towards a solution. We’d like to share this process to help business partners when considering the use of Extender for their clients.
High Level Considerations
Extender builds upon the core Sage 300 business logic - it can’t bypass it.
- There will be some non-standard scenarios where a solution using Extender isn’t feasible, or where the complexity and risk might outweigh the benefits.
- There are usually multiple ways to solve a problem, and the obvious solution isn’t always the best. If we don't think Extender is the answer we'll try to suggest viable alternatives.
Preparing Specifications
Conduct a detailed walkthrough to clarify assumptions and reduce the risk of misunderstandings.
- Ensure that the process you want to automate, including any approval and acknowledgement steps, is clearly documented.
- Review Orchid’s library of Extender Sample Scripts. These can often be used as building blocks and tailored for specific requirements.
Qualifying Questions
There may well be other Orchid products that can contribute to the overall solution.
- What other Orchid modules do you use or intend to use? Extender can often work in unison with other Orchid products, e.g. Notes and Document Management Link.
- Do you require time-based alerts or exception notifications? If so, Process Scheduler may well form part of the solution.
- Does your documented process include approvals and acknowledgements? If so, we are likely to recommend Extender Workflow.
- If you intend to use Workflow:
- How many users will there be? (Each of these is likely to require a named Workflow User licence.)
- Is there a need for users to participate in the workflow without logging in to Sage 300? (If so, consider Orchid’s Remote Action service.)
Implementation Questions
Asking these questions early can help uncover issues that might have a significant impact on design and testing.
- Are there any other 3rd Party modules installed? (Extender works with 3rd party modules built in the Sage 300 SDK, but their interactions with Sage 300 need to be taken into account.)
- What about other customizations?
- How many Sage 300 companies will Extender need to activated in?
- Is a test server & test database available?
- How is Sage 300 installed? (Terminal Server / Citrix? Workstation setup? Local install?)
Is the customer running a supported version? (Some newer Extender features will only be available in supported versions.)
