Sage is taking steps to support the hundreds of customers left in the lurch by the sudden shutdown of MIS Group, Sage's largest reseller.

Sage also said it's working to assign those customers to other solution providers, but that effort will take time given the breadth of Sage's product line and the broad geographical range of MIS Group's customers.

Dallas-based MIS Group, formally Management Information Services Inc., suddenly ceased all business operations Monday, leaving a message on its Web site blaming the poor economy, tight credit and other "market circumstances" for its demise.

"We were not aware that they were going to be ceasing their operations on July 6," said Dennis Frahmann, Sage vice president of marketing, when asked in an interview whether the vendor had any warning MIS Group would be closing its doors. He acknowledged Sage had "some insight" into the state of MIS Group's finances, but declined to say more.

"Obviously, everyone knows it's a difficult environment out there," he said, when asked about the reasons for MIS Group's failure. He declined to speculate further.

MIS Group was named Sage's top business partner in North America in both 2007 and 2008 for achieving the highest total sales of Sage products those years. The company sold Sage products throughout the central and western U.S., as well as in Canada and Mexico.

Frahmann said Sage has taken steps to help MIS Group's customers continue to "get full value out of their Sage software." Monday night Sage sent an e-mail to all MIS Group customers the vendor knows of, informing them of the solution provider's shutdown.

Sage is offering 30 days of free telephone support for customers that were not under any kind of Sage support plan and is providing phone numbers for support for specific Sage products.

Sage is also telling MIS Group customers that it will help them identify a new solution provider they can work with, but that process will take time, Frahmann said. The vendor uses different sales coverage models for different products: Resellers of the company's Timberline applications, for example, are generally granted authorized sales territories while resellers of other products, such as Sage MAS 90 ERP applications, are not.

So that means Sage will have to work with each customer individually, based on the Sage products they own, to find a new service provider. Frahmann said.