90 Minds Community

Here is -- in my opinion -- a great example of the collateral damage that Sage's poor management of their existing channel is creating. This type of cross-promotion is only going to expand and at a greater pace. Specifically I think the issue here is: a. You have Sage partners with sizable Sage 100 ERP customer bases b. With relationships that Sage doesn't have c. Holding webinars that explain how a competing product compares to Sage d. Presumably offering some type of promotion should a Sage customer wish to switch/upgrade to the compared product In this case the VAR is Brainsell but I think you will see these types of comparison webinars far more frequently in the future. Sage is holding their own for now but over time in my opinion this is going to erode their profitable installed customer base. http://www.virtual-strategy.com/2015/01/28/brainsell-hold-netsuite-vs-sage-erp-webinar-february-11th-comparing-leading-cloud-and-pre#axzz3Q7nHqHEj And here's an event more specific blog post which I'm sure is somehow promoted to the installed base: http://www.brainsell.net/blog/2015/01/netsuite-vs-sage-erp-2015/ This is a big issue for Sage imo.

I agree with your assessment. If this approach is taken for existing customers, the resellers need to be careful though as they recommended the Sage products to these same businesses in recent history. My guess is that this is a prospecting webinar - everyone loves a good comparison session.

The opportunity is that VARS ""own the last mile"" into the customer site. That's what Sage has not fully considered. All the VAR marketing and phone calls now have the possibility of introducing a competitor. Sage have spent years hunched over their spreadsheets figuring out how to make more money without putting any R&D into existing products. I do not see this ending well for Sage in the mid-market

I agree. I doubt it's going to get better as they get more and more desperate to hit these artificially set targets for the street.