Students who are new to Sage SalesLogix Administration or Implementation courses may need extra time and practice to fully understand how security works—there are just so many options to make SalesLogix fit almost any business model. The trick is to discover not only which options apply to your company, but also which options apply to a LAN or web environment.

To help make this process easier, I created this Sage SalesLogix security comparison chart. SalesLogix experts and n00bs alike, tell me what you think. Did I miss anything?

…In this corner of the ring we have the newcomer: Web Admin. It’s light, it’s bright, and it’s quick on its feet. But is it a match for the ever-faithful, ever-powerful LAN Admin? Round 1: *DING!*

That concept is all wrong. The Web Administrator is not necessarily designed to replace the LAN Administrator; in fact, both toolsets are actually very complementary [and complimentary] to one another.

OH: “Web Admin, you look very nice today. LAN Admin, you are just too kind.”

But what if you have both a LAN and Web implementation of SalesLogix—when should you use either tool? Or what if you have a Web-only implementation—do you still need the LAN Administrator? Let’s explore.

Web Only Implementation

Even if your sales staff does not use the Network Client, you (as the administrator) still need to rely on the LAN Administrator for some tasks—like managing SpeedSearch indexes, cutting Remote databases for Offline Web Clients, or adding licenses, just to name a few. But the Web Administrator is still a great tool to rely on for light-weight tasks like adding a user or changing product pricing because you can use the Web Administrator from any computer (even from your mobile device), and it saves you from having to remote into your SalesLogix Administrative workstation or server. It is also great for delegating small, data-entry tasks—like managing pick list items or lead sources—to standard users so that they can complete them without any assistance from you.

LAN and Web Implementation

If your sales staff uses a mixture of LAN and Web Clients, the same scenario above applies. The difference is that in order to give LAN users administrative features, you can grant them access to the Tools > Manage and Tools > Maintenance menus through Function Security, whereas to give Web users administrative features, you can assign them to a role. Roles rely on secured actions and are specific to the Web Client only.

Here’s a short video to explore the toolset and compare it against the LAN counterparts so that you can identify how or when you might use each tool. (This video is best viewed in full screen, HD mode.)

For more information and other videos like these, visit the Sage SalesLogix Administrator’s Subscription page.

The Web Administration tool set is scheduled for v7.5.3 on-premise release this summer. Great! But…what exactly is it? When we refer to “administration tools” for Sage SalesLogix LAN, it usually means one of two things:

Features accessible from within the SalesLogix Client interface; a user must have appropriate permissions (function security) to see these features: (Click image to enlarge)
Features only accessible from within the LAN Administrator interface; a user must be logged on as “admin” to see these features: (Click image to enlarge)

Now, when we talk about “administration tools” for Sage SalesLogix Web, we actually combine both of these definitions! First, users with appropriate admin permissions can access the Web Administrator from the same point of entry that they use to access other end user features in the SalesLogix Web Client. Second, in addition to providing common list management functions (competitors, lead sources, products, pick lists, literature items, packages), the Web Administration tool set also includes functions that were previously only available to the designated admin user (users, departments, teams, roles*).

*New functions available only for Sage SalesLogix Web. Roles allow/restrict user access to certain Web Client or Web Administration features using secured actions—similar to “Function Security” for LAN Client users.

Everyone here is looking forward to this release making for very cool summer in Scottsdale!