General Consultant Discussion

Been getting alot of customer complains about renewal increases. Anybody else? Did something change?

Sage policy used to be that maintenance was only paid on the first five users. The policy changed. Those end users are having 20% added each year for five years until they are paying maintenance on all users. In addition to the 3% price increase this year some users will see maintenance bills 23% higher than last year.

A 23% maintenance increase always makes for a cheerful end user... Particularly when none or little of the maintenance get reinvested in the product.

Also, for customers who paid for multiple years in the past that come up for renewal the multiyear discount isn't as good and the increase is dramatic.

@DougHiggs Do you recall when the phase in started?

We get complaints every year, but the percentage is very small, and that's what Sage is counting on. If someone is on Silver, I've been known to recommend going to Gold, because it's not that much higher and you get much better benefits. That actually works. The other answer I have is go to monthly payments. One of our larger customers that licensed on the old 3-year payment plan (software and service) was faced with a $30K+ bill, complained, but accepted the monthly payments.

Our clients are claiming 20% increases

@MarkChinsky - The phase in that @DougHiggs mentioned happened about three years ago. One of our customer's renewals took a big jump in July which was caused by the dissolution of the grandfather clause. Originally, Sage didn't charge additional M&S for user licenses beyond the first five but that changed (about three years ago) and rather than increase renewal amounts for all of the additional users in one year, Sage capped the increase by 25% annually. Now they're grabbing the remaining amount immediately.

I've also had luck sitting with users and removing modules that they no longer use. I've seen that cut maintenance pretty drastically in some cases.

I guess this would be alot easier to swallow if there were getting something...anything for their maintenance other than the 'right' to buy more users... I'll say it again, there's a business for somebody offering an alternative to Sage maintenance for extended support and working around new OS issues (i.e. terminal services).

@MarkChinsky - the phase out of the grandfathered clause was ""announced"" in 2011. It was buried inside a channel announcement titled ""Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 Maintenance and Support Changes"", and it states, ""Starting with plans expiring on April 12, 2011, the practice of grandfathering will begin to be phased out. Customers who are still grandfathered will begin to be charged for additional users beyond the first five."" I have attached a pdf of the announcement for everyone. I also remember seeing something recently about the 3% increase becoming an annual norm, but I cannot find the announcement. It was within the last three months.

@MarkChinsky Sorry for the slow response.. I don't know exactly but I believe @BrianRice is correct... conformed by @BrianKelly and the pdf from Sage... three years ago seems right.. 20% a year for 5 years so about 2 more years of 20% jumps for some customers.

Pay more. Get less. Stop complaining. Welcome to The New Sage!!