Remember when we were kids and summer vacations used to stretch on FOREVER? By the time school came around in August (at least for me), I was ready to be back in the classroom again. But, as I’ve gotten older, it seems like the summer goes by in a blink of an eye, and it’s hard to believe it’s already July. And with July comes the end of Q2!
Here at SAGE, we always try our hardest to bring regular updates to our products and fun new things to you guys every quarter. Whether it’s little tweaks or cool new features – there’s always something happening here. So, without further ado, let’s recap what we’ve been up to this past quarter!
SAGE Online saw a few updates this quarter – including a HUGE one that I’ll cover a little bit later.
First up, SAGE Online users now have the ability to view multi-page PDF proofs and artwork files within their projects.
Another update you can look for is that the My Supplier Info tab is now shown for inactive suppliers, and the inventory status module has been redesigned with a new easy-to-read layout. Distributors can now easily see in-stock items from suppliers that are participating in inventory status integration through SAGE Connect.
Plus, order tracking status alerts now include the new status in the alert.
Also, in Q1, you may remember we added the ESG & Diversity filter to SAGE Total Access – we’re continuing to add even more options! This quarter we added Indigenous Owned.
SAGE Web also had several updates this past quarter! Upon login, SAGE Web users will now see timestamps added to the alerts section. They will also now see a fancy new refresh of the product search page, and the infinite scroll was added on search results (no more paging!).
Now let’s talk modules! Text messaging and text marketing opt-in checkboxes were added for client contacts in the CRM module.
The Presentations module now has a language selection option where you can select French or Spanish to accommodate your client’s preferences. There is also a checkbox in the share settings to enable Buy Now eCommerce capability so your clients can order their products directly from your presentation!
Plus, there is now the ability to set an expiration date for presentation links as well as set a CRM task for a specified number of days after the presentation is shared or if it was not opened after a certain number of days.
The Project Management module has also been updated. The Project ID column has been removed from the dashboard and replaced with PO #.
And finally, the Order Management module now allows users to filter the dashboard by PO/ref with partial matching, and multiple items in an order form can now be tagged to delete all at once.
Last quarter had a HUGE update to the SAGE Supplier Center! It got a huge web-based makeover, and it’s really pretty if I do say so myself! And new features continued to roll out this past quarter.
Total counts have been added for ALL the stats! Suppliers can now check out the grand total stats for products, advertising, global distributor views, and end buyer views. Plus, website and email click stats (located in the supplier profile and product detail pages in SAGE Total Access) have been added to the Performance and Stats area.
On the products page, you can also check out to see when a product was last verified by hovering over the verified icon, and if you’d like, you can even sort by catalog page and last updated date.
When it comes to advertising within the SAGE Supplier Center, advertising stats that are product-based now include item numbers. You can also export your advertisement stats to an Excel spreadsheet. When you’re looking at your advertising budgets on the home page, you’ll see the percentage of your budget left rather than the dollar amount.
And if you want to give certain permissions to certain users, you can do that now too! You can allow or restrict areas for users in your company such as permissions to advertisements, products, the performance and stats area, and the orders area. Just log into your sagemember.com admin account, go to Users, and you can edit each user’s access rights.
And now, on to the big one!
We added AI functionality to SAGE Online, SAGE Web, and SAGE Websites Professional Plus! This is so super cool; I honestly can’t even get over it. My brain? Exploded.
I want to first talk about Idea Wizard! The Idea Wizard lives in the product search area in SAGE Online and SAGE Web and will help you brainstorm ideas for your projects! For example, if you have an animal lovers expo coming up that you need products for and you’re stumped – you can plug in ‘animal lovers expo,’ and it’ll generate a list of promotional product ideas. One of my favorite features of the list is that you can click on each of the suggestions, and it’ll take you to the search page. But it’ll open it in a new tab so you can click on as many ideas as your heart desires, and you don’t have to worry about forgetting the list!
Another super cool thing was the fact that we brought AI-powered content to several areas within SAGE Online and SAGE Web. With just a click of a button, you can create intros for your presentation customized to your client and the products within the presentation. If you have SAGE Website Professional Plus, this feature can also be used for your blogs! Another cool feature is the Enhance option. All you have to do is click a button on some prewritten text, and it’ll enhance it! Meaning if you write something but you feel like you need to jazz it up a bit, just click on the little enhance button!
And last but certainly not least – if you’d like to translate your presentation text or website content, you can do that too! Translate to French or Spanish to further tailor to every client.
If you want to know more, check out our blog on the best practices and a deeper dive into all we’ve done with AI this quarter here!
And that’s a wrap – it’s been a busy one! What updates are you most excited about? Let me know in the comments below. You can also check out all of our past quarterly updates here.
