Sage BusinessVision has announced End of Life as of December 2026
Upgrading your company’s business software doesn’t have to be a stressful, last-minute scramble. By taking a few steps earlier in the year, you can make the process of upgrading your software as seamless and worry-free as possible.
The first step in planning your business software upgrade is to create an action plan. Most businesses lack a written action plan for the upgrade, which may seem obvious. They typically wait until the last minute and then frantically attempt an upgrade at the exact moment when both suppliers and vendors are on vacation and when support staff are already at maximum capacity, trying to answer customers’ technical questions about managing year-end processes.
The fact is that upgrading your business management software takes a lot of time in planning, research, training, and transferring data. That means you should be creating an action plan at least several months ahead of time. The plan should detail who will take part in the upgrade and the timeline for each person’s role. And please keep in mind—any software upgrade may also require a hardware upgrade as well as serious thinking about how to import and export data. However, if you’re currently using BusinessVision, switching to Spire is effortless, as their built-in import tool will allow you to convert all of your BV data.
The second step in planning your business software upgrade is to start researching vendors as soon as possible. There are several software vendors, so you have plenty of options when making a choice. Before committing your business to a specific vendor, it’s essential to conduct live demos of every system you’re considering, ensuring that both you and the vendor are aligned on functionality and capabilities. If possible, you should also make your finance team part of this process, since they will be responsible for making all the software and hardware work well together.
The third and final step is to make sure that you sign up employees for training. Hands-on training for employees is essential to ensure a seamless transition, regardless of a business software package’s claims of ease of use, especially after long-term use of an existing system. Getting good hands-on training before the transition really helps employees feel comfortable with the system and gives them the confidence they need to begin using it. You can also build momentum for the new software internally if everyone is on board at the start. Spire provides a free online training academy to complement the niche training that a certified Spire consultant will provide.
Don’t forget that the end of the year is also when other companies are considering upgrading their business software. Why not get a jump on the competition and make the process of upgrading your company’s business software as seamless and worry-free as possible? By following the simple three-step plan above, you can start the planning process early and make sure that your company’s embrace of a new business software upgrade goes as smoothly as possible.
