Sage lures developers with Sage Labs

New portal is designed to increase collaboration and innovation among ISV community

Sage UK is launching an ISV charm offensive through its Sage Labs initiative.

Sage Labs is an online portal designed to help the developer community build add-ons and extensions to the vendor's mid-market software.

The initiative allows partners to download, modify and use source code under a permissive open-source licence.

The first project to be launched on Sage Labs is an extension to Sage 200, which allows Sage 200 data to be configured and integrated with map data on the web. It is available for Sage's developer partners as of this month.

Stuart Lynn, head of R&D for the Sage UK's mid-market division, said: "By feeding new and exciting solutions into our developer channel, Sage Labs encourages open standards and provides an outlet for inspiring our developer community to push the boundaries of innovation."

Aaron Blake, consultant at Eventura.com, claimed the initiative would provide a good source of information for both business partners and developers.

"It gives developers the building blocks to be able to construct Sage 200 Add-ons with the help of other Sage developers through the use of the forum," he said. "The new Bing Maps Workspace just proves how malleable the Sage 200 system can be with the right tools and communication platform between Sage and its developers."