UK software giant Sage is reinvigorating its range with a new business intelligence (BI) program and an updated version of its lower mid-market product, MMS, at a time when its grip on small and mid-sized businesses is being challenged by Microsoft and hosted software companies.

Sage will release Intelligent Reporting, intended to bring reporting capabilities to a broader constituency of users. Built with expertise acquired through Sage's purchase of Intelligent Applications, the tool has a front-end that integrates with Sage's Line 50 program."We've tried to get the richness of reporting that an enterprise BI tool has without the complex setup and need to understand Olap cubes," said David Karlin, managing director for the mid-market division at Sage.

MMS version 3 differs from previous editions and its previous Line 100 incarnation by being based on Microsoft's SQL Server database and by being written as a full dot-Net application to encourage more bespoke development of add-in functionality.

The update will also share a common user interface with Sage 50 and ship with tools for converting today's MMS as well as Line 100 and Line 50 for users who need deeper functionality.

David Pinches, director of accounts and enterprise resource planning at Sage, commented, "We have made a break with the past and are no longer using the Line 100 database. It's a fully-transactional safe environment."