Sage News and Discussion

Does anyone else think Sage U is a colossal, cluster ****? We have multiple consultants, so we were forced to set up a ""Consultant Manager"" role and watch a bunch of videos and take quizzes and yet the entire thing is a mess. And we are trying to renew consultants and the primary person is out of the office. Why would anyone send clients to this shit show?

I can't tell you how frustrating this is!

If you aren't a fan of SageU, consider that it is built on Cornerstone and, as a Sage HRMS partner, you have the opportunity to sell it to your customers (if you hate your customers).

Why so negative Peter. We are starting a new support plan option called ""No Sage"". For an extra $2,500 per year we will deal with all the Sage calls, go to all the inspirational meetings and give the customer a write up.

Yeah ... I don't get negative too often but when something is so mind-numbingly, tear-inducing frustrating, it's hard to keep a civil thought. ""Why aren't partners selling more?"" ""Sage U, Atlas, changing reps all the time?"" ""Nope. The partners just aren't doing their jobs. Lazy partners.

Thank you for making my Friday!

@WayneSchulz Could your plan include the customer routing their calls from Sage directly to you? The Sage Business Care Rep then reaches you to see when you are going to renew and if you need a new module or additional users.

Don't worry Peter, come Monday 11/25/2013 the following will happen: ""Sage will be moving to a new, easier-to-use Knowledgebase with integrated Technical Support and Service Chat functionality. We look forward to rolling out the new and improved pages for both partners and customers."" ""This upgrade has improved functionality that will make the Partner Portal easier to use. We've improved usability for better customer search capabilities with the option to save searches for future use. We've simplified list exports and created the ability to create and save personalized views"" So take the rest of Friday off, go have a drink, Monday everything will be all better.

@PeterWolf I'm a ""Consultant Manager"", and I was led to believe it was an honor . . . kind of like being in President's Circle.

Bwah-ha-ha-ha ...

. . . or becoming a certified X3 partner.

Dear Consultant Managers, Thank you for letting us outsource our training department to you. Sincerely, The Guys At The Top With the Stock Bonuses

I think is yet another way that they are ""encouraging"" partners to do the merge dance. I don't have time to deal with this crap, sell, install and consult.....

The first clue to this would be that there is no VP of Channels at Sage (or similar).

All the various ERP vendors think managing partners through portals and automated systems is better than human connections. Me thinks there is something wrong

I would actually welcome a working portal. How many of us wish we could place orders through an efficient portal? I don't need a human being on the phone to place an order. Amazon and Dell taught us that a decade ago.

I don't mean a portal to order, that's a shopping cart, i mean a portal to manage the relationship

I sell portals as part of Sage CRM. It's a growing part of my business so I'm thinking Sage isn't alone in that regard. The trick to a good portal strategy is to define what elements are portal and what elements are human interaction. When it comes to Sage U specifically (this is not the same as Sage as a whole), they seem to want everything to go through the portal. Considering there are hundreds of high quality, highly regarded self service training sites, I don't think this is an unusual or even unacceptable approach. Most people want to find their videos, pay for them, watch them, and move on. Not much human interaction required there. No, the problem is not with the concept. The problem is that the Sage U implementation is a steaming pile of crap.

This just in from Carrie Geib of Sage U. She was making a big deal about how easy the self serve aspect of getting an invoice generated for the Certified Consulting pound of flesh. so I told her - ""What is the status of making the web site more user friendly? I would visit it but is just WAY too frustrating to use"" To which she responded. I'm sorry that you find the website frustrating. We are constantly making improvements to the pages and the way that people can search for training. Feel free to contact us if there is something that you are looking for and we would be happy to help you navigate the site.

LOL. Typical robotic Sage reply.

Well, I logged into SAGE U and could not find my Certified Consultant renewal. I first sent an e-mail and then called --- expecting to be on hold for a long time. Cindy answered right away and was very pleasant and helpful. Turns out they had me listed under two e-mail addresses. After Cindy merged the two accounts together, my renewal was visible. Carrie Geib then sent an email with helpful instructions. This is better service than I have seen in a while from SAGE.

Maybe she could help code the web site now....

@MichaelMcDonald I have had glimpses of that type of service but sadly the next two or three Sage interactions have wiped clean any earlier goodwill. Congrats on winning the customer service lotter yesterday.