Sage News and Discussion

Donna Armstrong She is out at Sage - confirmed with a Sage source, but don't know the reason.

Perhaps X3 sales have not been as rosy as we were led to believe.

What was her role?

Headed up the X3 team. I know a lot of partners had a problem with Donna. Personally, I liked her a lot and thought she was a sharp cookie. I wonder what this means for Dave Fogel who reported directly to Donna?

Round and round

Has anyone heard any hints about whether Sage is bringing all of the programmers to Atlanta or whether they are (FREAKING GOD FORBID) starting over? That scares me the most about the Atlanta move (except maybe losing Debbie, now that we have her ear).

Programming? Does Sage do that?

I've known Donna since she was the regional sales manager in LA (way back when we did GP and CRM). I've always liked her and we got along well. She's also a close friend of Tim Sullivan from MS days. She was opinionated and strong willed, but I think the level of sales in NA was not what UK expected, and that was the reason for her departure.

@BethBowers A lot of the Sage 100 programmers aren't in Irvine already.

@RobertWood - maybe that makes me feel better.

I know Elliott is in Canada...Toronto, I think.

@BethBowers I spoke to a Sage employee in NYC while at the Salesforce event. They did not seem to know details however spoke as if the move was mainly tax, recruiting and Sage Life related. I asked if executives would be working from there and the person didn't know (or didn't share). My WAG on this is: a. If you're deemed a long term exec with an ongoing part of the business - you'll be in Atlanta b. If you're working on legacy cash cow product but that product is not being sold a lot in new deals - you'll probably stay where you are so you don't break the ATM

Interesting to see how this plays out. I've heard the area they are moving to is NOT an inexpensive area and will be right in rush hour. Yay for them.

Why wouldn't they just flip roles between Atlanta and Irvine? Irvine was hq and ATL a programming/business center. Irvine would now become a programming/product mgt center for 100/500. Of course attrition would rise, but hey, those aren't ""strategic products"" anyway, so why worry?

Atlantic Station is a mixed use area just north of downtown. It is not cheap and if you do not live right there the commute will be significant, but it is very nice (and not too far from not very nice). It is just off the highway and surprisingly not on the MARTA (train) line from the airport. Very close to Georgia Tech which has the Atlanta Technology Development Center which is a magnet for startup tech companies (especially in bio and engineering related). AirWatch also started there.

So it is close to the Varsity Drive In??

I think Salesforce also has recently opened an East Coast office in Atlanta - @GaryFeldman - can you tell from the SFDC blog if the location they are writing about is the same as where Sage is moving HQ? https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2014/08/sneak-a-peek-at-salesforcecoms-new-atlanta-office.html

Atlanta Plaza is in Buckhead - even more expensive and about 6 miles from Atlantic Station

The organizational announcement today states that Donna left to pursue other opportunities. That could be due to anything as the past has shown.

That's the standard corporate bullshit speak.

With Donna out, it looks like four executives have left since January 2015 - wonder who is next: Joe Langner Pascal Houillon Donald Deshaies

No inside info - pure guess in order of perceived likelihood: Himanshu Palsule Conni Certusi Gabbrielle Boko

Can't speak to the others on your list but little birdies have indicated that Connie is actually getting more responsibilities.

She deserves it after her great job on Sage One

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSy5mEcmgwU