I also thought it was moderately helpful to have some visibility into the operation and what management thinks is important. I am more or less happy that Sage is at least doing well in the ### that the UK overlords think is important. And like Wayne, I also think org charts are helpful.
But I am really, really tired of experiencing these communication events where it's clear that Sage is not clear about the goal of the event or who they are aiming it at. (I also really, really wish that all presenters would learn to use mics that are NOT in their computers; the audio for many was inexcusably awful.)
These All Hands meetings clearly have at least 2 audiences: Intacct and BMS partners. Certainly, there is organizational overlap (eg, DSD is successful at both) but the people involved are 95% either one or the other. Because of their interests, each will come away with something different ... but it's not clear to me what Sage wants those to be! Presenting org charts is useful, and an event is the only place they can do this (published copies land with competitors and headhunters), but what else did we get besides rah! rah!, auto-backpats, and games better suited for teambuilding than quarterly updates?
They clearly think of this as a sales meeting; they want all to come away inspired to sell more in one way or another. But the "how" is completely missing. This is especially true for BMS. They tout the big Sage 100/300 deals, but with very little about why the customers chose them, or how they kept competitors at bay. No mention at all about what sort of BMS customers are moving to Intacct and why. Intacct is beating Netsuite, but how is that changing?
What is Sage doing actively for BMS customer retention? What is working and what isn't? (Did you know there is now a Director of Customer Retention? What does he do??)
An
effective customer presentation always includes a goal slide up front, and review slide at the end to remind the audience of what they were supposed to learn. Except Sage never manages to do this ...
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Jerry Norman
Smartbridge Partners
(512) 653-7498
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Original Message:
Sent: 12-02-2022 09:00
From: Wayne Schulz
Subject: FY 23 Partner Kickoff - Part 2
I found this helpful:
- Organization charts - even though some were more detailed than others ( I think Dianna Lane's left out a bunch of people)
- Hearing that Intacct had no actual inventory offering for Intacct as of last year
- Watching the award announcements, which seem as if they're now "lucky deal of the qtr/year" or designed to boost BPAC members into selling more Sage
- Observing who was on the call for Sage (always watch who/what products get the "podium time")
I found this puzzling:
- Spending the last 15 minutes watching Sage execs play Sage Jeopardy
- The recording ( live version may have been different ) offered no introductions, and the agenda slide only had names ( as if we should have instantly recognized the speakers and topics)
- Sage still doesn't seem to have a migration path/plan for the core Sage 100/300 customers who they worked hard to have purchase 3 to 6 add-on integrations, thus making it very difficult to migrate to Intacct and have feature parity. So far as I can tell, the only plan for the Sage 100/300 is to continue cranking up price increases until there's a day when "the golden goose (revenue) is gone" and we get the "sold to Vista Equity Partners" email.
- The ISV area is still, IMO, mostly a land grab for $$. Nothing is said about working with the ISV community to make upgrades easier or to have those upgrades quickly arrive after each major version release of Sage 100/300.
I didn't really come away motivated. However, I think in the future, Sage will be much more about working with a small number of reselling partners. At present, Sage wants two deals a quarter from their partners. In the future, if the partners decide to focus on another product and stop doing x deals, what happens to those commission credits? Relying on any publisher's commission payments as the majority of your revenue stream is, IMO, not a great idea.
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Wayne Schulz
wayne@s-consult.com
Schulz Consulting
(860) 516-8990
Moodus, CT
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Original Message:
Sent: 12-02-2022 08:27
From: Mark Chinsky
Subject: FY 23 Partner Kickoff - Part 2
I decided to watch this. As most of you know I mostly abandoned Sage in 2008 when I realized MAS90 was just a maintenance cash cow and would no longer be competitive in new deals. I stay in 90 minds because we support existing clients and I love you guys.
So watching this was one of the most painful and intellectually useless webinars I think I've ever seen.
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Original Message:
Sent: 12/1/2022 8:18:00 PM
From: Wayne Schulz
Subject: RE: FY 23 Partner Kickoff - Part 2
LOL - the last 10 to 15 minutes are Sage managers playing Sage Jeopardy. I'm not kidding.
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Wayne Schulz
wayne@s-consult.com
Schulz Consulting
(860) 516-8990
Moodus, CT