Sage News and Discussion

BusinessWorks Customer Communication The attached letter was sent out to all BusinessWorks customers, apparently to appease them so they will continue to pay maintenance. It really does not commit to much, since the enhancements are minimal. The rest is just words. The problem is that the letter also went out to Sage 100 users that upgraded from BusinessWorks in the last 2 years, when it was more than evident there may be no future for BusinessWorks. Now many of those customers are calling us and are angry. Thanks, Connie! The reality is that as soon as the number of BW customers on maintenance does not pay to keep it around, it will be jettisoned.

Just hate it when no one has the BALLS (figuratively) to do/say the right thing. They are certainly NOT the great communicators. My clients at Summit all report the same thing about 100/100c. What is truly going on???

When customers stop paying maintenance, any product will be discontinued. Sage's issue here was their strategy of using low end products as feeders to other products AND creating a perception in the channel and with customers that a particular low end product would be discontinued. Sage tried to have their cake and eat it too; upgrade sales and the continue maintenance revenue from legacy products. For such a strategy not to come back and bit you, first announce a product's end of life, offer the alternatives and follow through with killing of the product. I wouldn't lay this blame just on Connie. This was the strategy Sage followed for years under past management at Sage, N.A.. The issue here was a marketing activity poorly executed. A good approach prior to approving anything proposed by marketing, is to reread the Grimm Fairy Tail, The Emperor's new Clothes. The villains weren't con men. They were superb marketers.

We had the same problem with PFW and continue to have the same problem with Sage Abra. Sage says one thing to the channel, means another, and communicates a third message to existing users. The end result is confusion and conflict. At least with PFW and now Abra, Sage is not making any new sales though upgrades and add-on's are available for purchase.

@MyronStevenson I agree it is not Connie. She just had the letter put in front of her to sign.

@ShawnSlavin - Abra does not include Sage HRMS does it? Sage HRMS is still being sold right? Or did I miss something?

@JaneCavanaugh be at peace, Sage HRMS and Sage Abra Suite are two different products. HRMS is SQL based. Abra is FoxPro based. Since FoxPro was retired by Micorsoft years ago, it was time to retire the product written in it. However, since there is such a large user base still using Abra, Sage is not killing it, just keeping it on life support in hopes of converting as many as possible to Sage HRMS. Sage HRMS is Sage's flagship HCM product and is actively being developed, promoted, and sold throughout North America.

Thanks Shawn. I'm not sure of Sage's product strategy with HRMS because of their partnership with Fairsail and their lack of product enhancements. I thought you might have had insider information! And I still have issues with the name changes. Old dog...

...and as soon as many of the Sage 100 accounts transition to Sage 100c they'll probably get a similar letter about how Sage 100 is not being abandoned and there are new enhancements planned ....