Posts Tagged ‘sage’
Sage Reports “Resilient” 6 Month March 2012 Results
Sage today is reporting 6 month unaudited earnings through March 31, 2012 (aka H1 2012) – adding 129,000 new paying customers H1 2012 vs 131,000 in H1 2011. Overall organic revenue growth is reported as 2% H1 2012 vs 5% in H1 2011.
Reuters is reporting that Sage’s earnings missed forecasts and that as a result share price is down.
Total revenue growth rates in North America appear to be flat with organic subscriptions growing 2% vs 4% in H1 2011. Notably Sage is ramping up for an North America imminent launch of SageOne, their pure SaaS entry level accounting offering.
Some interesting takeaways from the report (which you can download here). Where bolding is added that is my emphasis to what I consider the key takeaways as they relate to Sage performance in North America:
Sage’s Larry Ritter Joins Joe Bergera at Roper Industries
As we were the first to report on April 17, 2012 – Sage’s former VP and GM of Worldwide CRM Solutions has indeed left Sage and according to his LinkedIn page joins former Sage colleague Joe Bergera at Roper Industries where he will work as VP “ across software business segments and product lines to enhance and develop overall strategic direction. Create synergistic platforms, business transformation and collaboration across mulitple businesses. Actively lead expansion into adjacent and international markets”.
With the exception of Sage’s Dan Wilzoch, it would appear that most of the executive team within Sage’s CRM division has departed within the last year. In October 2011 Sage and four of their top CRM managers parted ways after Joe Bergera had left in March 2011.
Sage’s executive web site has not yet been updated and still is showing Larry Ritter as of early this morning.
Google Alerts Is Not Enough: Thinning of The Reactive Herd
There was a time back right after the invention of electricity but before the widespread use of motorized vehicles that vendors with crappy salespeople didn’t have to worry about customers talking to each other and sharing their poor service experiences.
Heads up – the world’s changed.
Sage’s Larry Ritter Joins “Pursuing Opportunity Outside Sage”
Sage’s Senior Vice President and General Manager Sage CRM Solutions Larry Ritter will depart effective Monday April 23, 2012.
Larry joined Sage in 2004 and most recently was senior vice president and general manager with responsibility for Sage’s Contact Management Solutions, most notably Sage ACT!. Previously he led product strategy, product management, product marketing and user experience for the Sage CRM Solutions product family comprised of Sage ACT!, SageCRM, and Sage SalesLogix.
New Sage Reseller Of Record Rule: Per Customer Transfer Fee Assessed To Partners Effective 4-1-2012
We’ve learned that Sage North America plans to implement new fees for partners who have customers change to another partner as well as drop their Reseller of Record (ROR) requirement that customers changing consultants provide a reason for the change.
Thankfully there will be a new certification which partners may enroll in to avoid Sage’s upcoming fees for ROR (Reseller of Record) management.
UPDATE: 4-2-2012 – this is an April Fool’s 2012 post.
This new ROR charge (effective 4-1-2012) is to reimburse Sage’s cost of entering ROR forms into the Atlas portal. The charge is the greater of a $500 administrative fee (Due when the ROR is filed) or 100% of first year commissions. The new cost is explained as covering only a very tiny portion of Sage’s internal expense for “figuring out how to enter a ROR form into the new Atlas partner portal”.
The only way a partner can avoid this fee is to enroll in Sage’s brand new Atlas Certified Partner Optimized Originator (aka POO certification).
POO certification is a 7 week off-site, $ 2,000, intensive education which includes one week at the new Sage POO Academy in Irvine, CA. After certifying participants will be able to log into Sage’s Atlas portal and manage their own ROR requests to avoid any Sage fees.
Sage notes they will allow partners to use Co-Op funds for up to the full amount of the certification fee. Partners should however expect a minimum six to twelve month reimbursement delay while “Sage searches for the Atlas option to authorize co-op reimbursement”.
Hightower Inc Winding Down?
Lots of speculation over what has happened — and is happening — at ERP VAR Hightower Inc of Skokie IL.
It’s been almost a week since reports surfaced that employees were sent home with their belongings in a box and told to await further word. Everyone involved in the company – and what I presume are negotiations over what to do with customers and intellectual property – have been silent.
Unlike seasonal businesses such as landscapers and house painters – consulting is not usually one where you can lay off crews of employees for large gaps of time.
In the consulting world appearing to disband your business prior to having a deal for someone to take over servicing the customers doesn’t exactly put you in a power position for negotiating any potential sale or transfer.
I don’t expect the sounds of silence to continue much longer. Either Hightower is going to need to announce something or Sage likely will do it for them.
This report from Bob Scott last night indicates New York based Net@Work may have a deal for the customer base although nothing officially has been announced as of yet,
SWK handling HighTower client and reseller support effective today bit.ly/GPYOZi
— Brian W Dunn (@brianwdunn) March 23, 2012
UPDATE: March 23, 2012 9:00AM ET – Hightower’s Blog Site has been updated to indicate that “Effective today, Friday March 23, 2012, SWK will be handling all HighTower client support, as well as supporting resellers of HighTower enhancements“.
Are you a partner or consultant for Sage products? Join the private conversation on our partner Facebook group or LinkedIn Group.
The Most Shocking Thing I Learned At Today’s LinkedIn Session
Perhaps the most shocking revelation today at the LinkedIn group meeting was not the change happening at Sage but the answer to the question Sage’s Tom Miller asked about who had attended Firm of the Future.
Only a few hands went up. And this was in a room of about 50 of arguably Sage’s most active partners.
For those who’ve not been, Firm of the Future is two days of instruction with Ron Baker of VeraSage and Ed Kless of Sage. The course catalog describes the experience as:
This experience is dedicated to the possibility that a professional organization can be run more effectively when it becomes a knowledge firm rather than a service firm. Creating such an organization is hard work and not for everyone as it requires partners to think differently than they have in the past about what it is that they do.
The course is about shared knowledge you can use for building a business that bills for knowledge and results and not time. It’s about learning how to bill for value not hours. It’s about making more money. It works.
I attended the session back in May 2011. You can read my review.
Since the course I no longer bill hourly. The day I completed the course was the last time I have billed hourly.
If you are tired of the “race to the bottom line” that comes with billing hourly – you need this course. If you want to substantially increase your firm’s revenues – you need this course.
Sage Partners Gather To Discuss Change
A group of approximately 100 Sage partners (panelists pictured above left to right- Moira Goggin (Chismet Consulting – event co-organizer), Mary Abdian (Macabe Associates) , Doug Deane (DSD Business Systems) , John Hoyt (Hutchinson and Bloodgood), Bill Kizer (xKzero)) gathered today in Lake Forest California. The group was split about 50/50 with some consultants attending in person and others remotely (web ex) for an in-depth discussion of changes that have been rolled out to the Sage eco-system (margins, certifications, subscription pricing, partner compensation).
From Hide & Seek to LinkedIn Group Meeting
Kudos to Bill Kizer for arranging a LinkedIn group meeting for Sage Parters, Alumni and Employees which at last count showed 100 people RSVPing they would attend.
Bill persevered in creating this meeting despite the software publisher suggesting a game of channel hide and seek instead.
Don’t you love social media?
The event happens Thursday March 15, 2012 and features a panel discussion with some top VARs, prizes, sharing, vendor presentations, networking.
There’s still time to register -UPDATE: Event has occurred. Read our wrap up of this networking event – Sage Consultant LinkedIn Summit.
Sage’s Transformation – Or A Plea For Marital Advice?
A post on Summitdiary appears to directly describe the transformation journey underway at Sage North America in a way Sage partners will relate to.
Using the metaphor of a man and wife in a lengthy marriage, Peter Wolf argues that lack of communication rather than the bad marriage is what may be the ultimate downfall.
Sage North America have rolled out drastic changes over the last six months that materially affect their relationship with partners. Some partners have been shocked by the news and lack of advance communication.
It’s a timely story – which is likely to gather quite a few comments. Head over and add your 2 cents.
Have a read at the aptly titled - Til Death Do Us Part?
