Sage News and Discussion

February 16 is the webinar for unveiling the new payroll pricing. Nice of Sage to wait until just before MOTM. http://s216551651.t.en25.com/e/es.aspx?s=216551651&e=6361&elq=96666153c86d4ec28d2ee62208ccce69

Sage is proceeding carefully to make sure they have appropriate feedback before this unveiling to the channel. The new tiered pricing was reviewed with the BPAC the last week of January. Since then, Susan Galberaith, Principal Product Marketing Manager out of Atlanta, has been speaking individually with BPAC members and others for this feedback. Generally Sage has listened to concerns, specifically with regard to existing Payroll customer pricing. Sage is also assessing whether the value they believe they have built in is acceptable. I consider it to be as optimal as it can be for existing customers with the revised pricing, and I believe I can sell our customers on this. About 5%-10% of our customers use the Payroll module, and truthfully I wouldn't mind if they all converted to something else. Payroll has always been a support drain with too many emergency issues cropping up. As for new customers, they will need to do a proper cost comparison before making a decision. I predict there will be less new sales of the Payroll module for prospects than in the past due to this pricing. At President's Circle I had a couple conversations with Robert Digby, who was CEO of PayChoice and now that it is Sage Payroll Services is SVP, General Manager of that group. This system apparently integrates with the Sage 100 GL, but I told him it needs to also integrate with any costing systems that are used, specifically JobOps for me. It is also priced to compete with ADP and other similar services, and I understand there will be tier credit at some point. I asked him why Sage didn't just replace all existing payroll modules with this and be done with it - one common function across all products. He implied this may be a possibility in 3-5 years, but, of course, didn't want to commit.

3-5 Sage years is like 200 human years.

Sage, through inattention, poor planning, poor product management has arguably left the MFG and Job Cost market for dead. I would not sell the MFG or JC stack unless it was to a light usage case where there was little to no opportunity for the customer to want to expand their usage.

If Digby is at Sage in a year, I'll eat 4 cups of dirt from outside my office window. If Stephen Kelly is there in two I'll wash it all down with water from the drain pipe.

Just trying to be a messenger @WayneSchulz :-)

Every small job or manufacturing shop that we have on active maintenance, uses payroll. More than 60% of our clients are using payroll. I believe that rural businesses are more likely to process payroll in-house rather than use a service as compared to companies in large metro areas. If BPAC members like John think payroll is a pain, I get concerned that Sage isn't talking to the audience that uses or supports payroll. In the long run, no or limited payroll functionality in Sage 100 will contribute to its continue contraction in the marketplace. If Sage moves to a payroll solution that has GL integration (3rd party solution), there will be no integration for JobOps.

@WayneSchulz - I now have something to look forward to if it does happen!!!! The big question is whether I remember it. Unfortunately, it appears I will be missing the big show next Tuesday as I will be in route to the MOTM conference. Perhaps I will catch the audio..... I do think the timing is good in that three days later the big guns from Sage will be front and center in front of the group.

And I just saw the e-mail referring to this as the ""Payroll Tears Webinar"" - excellent!

It will be very difficult for Sage to disappoint at MOTM as my expectations aren't very high.

Payroll Tears - Freudian Slip, let's hope.

I don't think I'm alone in saying Payroll is a pain. Most customers have the same opinion, and many outsource it due to confidentiality concerns. Why do we think ADP is so huge ($10.9 billion)? Once full integration is available (not just import/export), we can look for the best, most economical supplier in the market.

I'm counting on Sage Data Cloud to kick some ass ..

I wish I could be at MOTM. I'm looking forward to hearing what you learn from Sage.

Still not sure what they are trying to accomplish by ""listening"" to the channel. Perhaps by listening, they will figure out ways to not embarrass themselves as much. IMHO, give the new features to the existing users at no charge for sticking with them for so long. Charge the new kids on the block what ever they can get out of them. Yes, PR is a PITA at times, but outsourcing is too and it really doesn't save dollars and sense, it just shifts the risk to someone else. You either like to do it in house or you like to outsource it. There is no middle ground on this one. The big question for Sage is how well can they really integrate the product. That has been their Achilles heal for ages. Maybe they finally got it right.

Get integration right? Years ago I really bought into the integration plan for MAS 90/200 and SalesLogix only become disillusioned. The past decade and a half is littered with attempts to integrate Sage 100 with ""Best of Breed"" applications. Attempts that suffered from halfhearted efforts and abandonment. I've even become skeptical of the future for integration with Sage CRM The best observation in this thread is that Sage 100 is what it is today and don't count on it changing.

Oh, please don't think for one moment I think they got it right. Sage is ""penny wise and pound foolish"" in practically all visions.