Posts Tagged ‘sage’
Another Sage Partner Selects SugarCRM
This morning brings an announcement that Kentucky based Oasis Solutions have taken on the open sourced SugarCRM customer relationship management software.
According to Oasis:
SugarCRM eliminates some of the hurdles previously associated with implementing CRM software, says Annette Manias, President of Oasis Solutions Group. “Because it’s cloud-based, our customers will be up and running quickly — no new hardware, network configuration, or technology upgrades required. Not only does that eliminate the up-front capital costs of implementation, but the price point of SugarCRM itself is a perfect match for the customers we serve.”
Adoption of CRM software is all part of a growing trend, Manias observes. “The acceptance of and demand for CRM today is a lot like what we saw with ERP systems almost two decades ago. And like ERP, CRM software has become a more accessible and strategic tool for businesses that are proactive and looking to become more efficient and effective.”
The concern here is that Oasis Solutions is a prominent Sage partner (although they are not totally dedicated to Sage – also reselling Microsoft Dynamics and QuickBooks) following on with earlier defections to SugarCRM announced by other prominent Sage partners Faye Business Solutions and Blytheco.
Atlas Arrives 2/24/12 For Sage MME Partners
Sage’s new partner portal, code named “Atlas”, arrives for the remaining Sage North America partners this Friday February 24, 2012. For the weekend and until Monday February 27, 2012 certain portions of the current online partner site will be unavailable or in read only mode.
According to previous statements Sage have indicated that after upgrading to Atlas the older partner portal (known as BOSS or SageSoftwareOnline) may remain available but in read-only mode.
It’s not yet fully understood exactly what types of interruptions will occur though Sage seems to be warning that order processing will have some modified access during this time.
Here’s the alert they have been sending to the partner channel:
Due to the rollout of Atlas, the last day to place February orders is Thursday, February 23, 2012. Any orders placed after that date will count toward March revenue. Please note that no orders will be placed on February 24 th as we will have a “dark day” as we transition to Atlas. In addition, please be aware that there may be delays in order processing for the remainder of the month due to this new system rollout.
The new Atlas portal has received nearly universal scorn via public LinkedIn comments from Sage partners who’ve already adopted it. Frequent complaints are customer unlock codes disappearing or becoming difficult to find. The updated knowledgebases have also reported become much more difficult to search and nobody appears to know if online order processing will be allowed in the same way it used to be in the old portal.
Multi-office partners are also reportedly forced to consolidate all of their local office accounts into one master database. Nobody knows what the end result of this upgrade will be until it occurs – however early feedback from those who’ve already adopted Atlas have me expecting the worst and hoping for the best.
Our Customers
I just received this update that was sent to the reseller channel about a marketing survey.
Notice how they repeatedly refer to customers.
It’s not — as it has been in the past — ”our mutual customer”.
Instead it is “our customer”. Important distinction.
I wonder how many VARS are working extra hard to align a publisher’s direct sales force marketing department with their customer’s buying process.
Good luck on that one.
The Possible Sage Problem Behind SugarCRM (and other) Integrations
Bob Scott confirmed with Blytheco that they’ve picked up SugarCRM.
This is not really a story about Blytheco (several other VARS have also picked up SugarCRM).
Rather this is about the future of the Sage Connected Service revenues and how Sage may in their short term thinking about channel policies (drastically increasing costs for many partners) be creating long term revenue problems.
Think about this scenario.
5 Reasons MAS90 Quarterly Product Updates Were A Mistake
Sage 100 ERP (Formerly MAS 90 and 200) Product Updates issued quarterly have, in my opinion, been a failure.
Time to admit it. Bring back an annual upgrade and monthly service packs.
First some background.
Sage began issuing quarterly product updates with version 4.30 4.4 of Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200.
These updates contained feature enhancements (mostly folded in Extended Solutions which Sage used to sell but had since open sourced). Rather than increasing the version number the product update would add a corresponding Product Update version to the end of the customer’s version – for example Version 4.4 with Product Update 1 was 4.4.0.1.
Prior to version 4.30 4.4 Sage issued monthly bundles of program patches that they labeled as Service Updates. These were self-installable bundles of fixes which in turn had replaced the old method of requiring customers (or more likely their VARS) to install fixes individually.
The Service Updates rarely included additional features and instead focussed on stabilizing the existing code.
In theory these Product Updates would make customers happier as they introduced new features in each release and replaced the prior practice of annual upgrades and monthly service packs (primarily bug fixes).
Unfortunately from my vantage point quarterly Product Updates didn’t make most users’ live’s easier.
Is SugarCRM An Early Warning Sign of Sage Channel Challenge?
SugarCRM is an open sourced open-source, web-based CRM solution, which is advertised as being able to run in the Cloud or on-site.
Recently I’m noticing more top tier Sage VARS advertising SugarCRM – most recently Blytheco (Sage’s North America Partner Of The Year) , then Faye Business Solutions Group and Brainsell.
Faye and Brainsell are listed on SugarCRM’s partner site. Blytheco is not so it’s possible they’re just running a series of educational sessions though it’s difficult to believe they’re adverting a competitor for what’s supposed to be one of Sage’s bread and butter markets (CRM).
How Consultants Can Win With The New Sage Business Care Changes
Thought for the day.
As a Sage partner do you feel as if you’re taking a spanking with the new Business Care changes – which boost the lowest priced Sage ERP 100, 300, 500 maintenance plan by 3% and add 5 customer calls direct to Sage?
Are you thinking your days of selling support to customers are done and over – just because Sage is going to duplicate your offering and deliver a limited help desk experience?
One thing to remember. With these changes to the Sage 100, 300, 500 Business Care plans — customers will no longer have an pay-as-go support option with Sage.
Sage Reduces Subscription Plan Options For Sage 100, 300 and 500 Customers
In a move that might surprise some of their business partners who haven’t been paying attention and noticed that Sage’s compensation for maintenance plan subscriptions is amongst the highest of any competitor, Sage is expected to announce today that all Sage 100, 300 and 500 customers will have access to 5 support cases as their plans renew beginning with those expiring on or after March 1, 2012.
Several partners have contacted me to confirm they’ve been informed that Sage will announce elimination of the Bronze plan for Sage 100, 300, 500 ERP (Formerly Sage ERP MAS90, 200, Accpac and 500) which previously allowed for only maintenance upgrades and no calls to Sage support. Instead of calling Sage support most customers relied on their local Sage Business Partner for support..
Sage Master VARS?
While browsing the Internet I came across this PRO Partner Program from Illinois Sage VAR Hightower Inc.
According to the brochure the PRO stands not for professional but for:
Profit
Resource
Opportunity
What’s interesting about this program is the terms of their PRO Partner Program (Profit, Resource & Opportunity) appear to create an easy environment for Sage partners to dodge the new certification requirements while still retaining a variable level of commission on both new product and maintenance sales.
Other VARS have worked to consolidate smaller Sage partners though in most cases it appears that Sage have required the remote offices to toe the line with respect to continued certifications to ensure quality implementation and support.
In short my impression is that Sage have been discouraging the creation of buying pools or Master VARS which might be created for smaller VARS to combine their purchasing power and avoid any increasing tier or program requirements introduced by Sage.
Sage Mid-Market Partner group ask that Sage Inc. rescind tier calculation
A number of Sage partners have reported receiving an email asking that they sign a petition to ” ask that Sage Inc. reconsider the proposed Tier Level Calculation changes to be effective on April 1, 2012″.
The petition appears to have been created by Peter Ribeiro of Impac Solutions Toronto, Ontario – a Sage Accpac and Microsoft reseller.
The petition largely asks that Sage rescind their recent plans to measure the tier move-down calculation quarterly instead of bi-annually as was previously done. Some believe that this calculation may result in more VARS losing some tier commission.
Whether this approach will be successful remains to be seen. Increasingly Sage seems to be guided by the overseas corporate parent and is facing a huge branding project expected to take the better part of the next year.
The question of more tier is only one small part of what most VARS should be worrying about. The more pressing problem is fast movement of technology and the shifting tastes of the technical buyer.
