90p Admin

BPAC Current BPAC members will be ending their terms as of Summit, when a new group will be taking over. Kayley Bell, Bob Kohlmeyer and myself are active 90 Minds members who have been on the BPAC for the past year and a half. It would be ideal if we could continue to be well represented. The nominations are due by Friday, April 21st, and the new group will have a Welcome meeting on May 10th at Summit. Kayley and Bob may be planning to re-nominate themselves, but I would rather work on growing our practice, especially with what I understand the hurdles will be with the new partner program. Before we open this up as a discussion to the general 90 Minds population, can we as a group identify some members who would be especially appropriate for the Council? The following are the factors considered during the Selection Process: - Geography - Organization Size - Partner Tier Level - Authorized Products - Business Focus - Market Segments Served

Thanks for this @JohnHoyt what were the statistics for those factors for HB? That may help us with recommending another 90 Minds firm.

As of 2015 when nominated: Geography - Regional CPA firm covering all of California, plus national PKF affiliations in the US and internationally Organization Size - Major regional CPA firm with 130 partners and staff and 4 offices, Consulting Group of 15 partners and staff Partner Tier Level - Platinum; Customers: 150 Authorized Products (8) - 100, 300, X3, PFW, BW, CRM, FAS, HRMS + JobOps Solution Provider Business Focus - Business and technology consulting services through enterprise software solutions, network integration and support, and IT audit. Market Segments Served - Manufacturing and distribution, including specialties in customer manufacturing and food production and distribution

Explains why you were on BPAC - wish you'd continue especially since you've eluded to new partner program challenges. Seems like the ideal candidate would have a broad product range and customer base. Do you think being with a CPA firm was a deciding factor or not?

Suggest - Shawn Slavin or Wayne Schulz

OK, Sage is behind posting the nomination form. I surprised them asking for it so soon. I agree with your suggestions. I also agree that I have a lot to offer. They didn't say I could not serve again, but I really am trying to take this group to a new level and there are only 60-80 hours in the week ;-).

Clarification - when I mentioned this group, I meant my Consulting Group. I also want to do what we need to do for 90 Minds.

So @JohnHoyt did you feel BPAC actually contributes any positives or is Sage using you as justification for their actions? What was the focus of the group last year? Major initiatives? Progress made on ANYTHING? I know you have non disclosure to craft your response. Is BPAC focused on Sage 100 or all products? Obviously, Sage is looking for ideas for selling the products, but are small business owners considered? Market segments? I can think of several folks that could provide insight, but if Sage's radar is set to ignore these folks, why bother?

I believe there have been some positive results, such as the amounts being charged for Payroll subscriptions for existing customers and the amounts for the C line products. The originally presented pricing was very unreasonable. Also the upgrade policy of ""no more than current maintenance"" was a result of our recommendations. The problem is that Sage never goes far enough, and why don't they internally think of the reasonableness before presenting it outside? Sage does not actually reveal to us who is really pulling the strings and what the criteria are for setting prices. By not doing that, all we can do is react to what they present without having all the facts. I also do not believe they truly consider any of us to be their ""partners"". If they had a way to sell and support internally, I think they would gladly jettison the channel. We know they have no way to do this, but I feel that is what is in their minds. The majority of what happens in the meetings consists of presentations by departments and by product/enhancement with little time remaining to have a heated discussion, because they really don't want that. I think the VP's believe they have more experience and are better at determining the best course of action than senior consultants and owners in the channel. They are fooling themselves, and not taking advantage of some very experienced and smart people. Most of the VP's have spent their entire career in the software industry, so that's all they know. They haven't been controllers, CFOs or CIOs, and have not worked in industry running manufacturing and distribution functions. Many of us have, plus we are consulting with all of those types of people and functions every day.

Have we come to conclusion on this topic? The nomination form was posted today and the window is only 7 days and I have no idea why this link shows an ISV recap, it does lead to the BPAC info: http://go.sage.com/NPS_17Q3_OT_NAM_DGNL_NPS_BPAC_nomination?s=1265708786&lid=-1

I have communicated with Wayne and with Shawn. No response from Shawn yet. Wayne does not want to do this, primarily due to the NDA requirement. I can see that. He and I discussed the ideal of having a similar 90 Minds based group, which we have discussed in the past, but we don't know if management at Sage would get behind that. So we probably still need to identify candidates who would like to do this.

I communicated with Kayley Bell, and she wants to continue with BPAC, so I nominated her.

I think anyone of the exec board (OK, not me) would be excellent contributors to this committee. Jerry, Robert, Therese, Moira, are you interested? All are business owners, all are long time Sage 100 supporters. All are passionate about what they do.

I'm going to have to say no, at least for now. I have a very jaded view of things and I don't want my blood pressure to get any higher. :slightly_frowning_face:

I was the only member that represented the small to medium resellers, which are #200 to #1,154 (total resellers currently). It is very important to have that viewpoint, because the top resellers don't have the same priorities or detailed knowledge of product and the customers. The channel needs at least 2 of those representing it.

Jaded views are honest views. Some one has to comment on what the king is wearing. I think you would be honest in your feedback. As far as the BP goes, they make very effective drugs for that! Please reconsider!

Why don't you want to serve on BPAC @JeffSchwenk ??

After discussing this with selected Sage management, I'm again considering re-nominating myself in order to provide the voice of the smaller resellers.

That's good news @JohnHoyt let us know and we can support you with nominations.

Wait a minute, I was going to go for the Atlanta gold......

Yes, if you agree that I would be a good representative of the group and the common people, I am ready to continue on the BPAC. @MoiraGoggin attached the nomination form above.

I've completed the form and nominated you @JohnHoyt - hoping for the best!

Thanks, @MoiraGoggin! I also did the self-nomination (seems like that would be illegal in some states), and the reason field is very small. Of course, I could write paragraphs, but perhaps Sage management can only handle the USA Today versions.