Sage 100

I suspect that Sage's numbers for this fiscal year will be below last year's. If Sage drops an October Surprise on us this year like it did last...it's their own billing systems and payment processing.

Sadly, I have the same story... We'll have to chat...

While it's entirely possible Sage's revenues will be down - don't forget they are still reaping the benefit of boosting everyone's minimum support agreement fee. I suspect that carries them this quarter and another two before the results are comparable and they have to stand on either true growth or another price increase. The whole renewals and Atlas system issue are a continuing sad story.

And in the mean time, peoples credit card information is stored where until it's used?...

In my mind I think of Sage as having a team of people who do nothing but financial forecasts based on what-if analysis of increased fees. I'd be willing to bet that they can probably do ok with low or flow new customer acquisitions based on a spreadsheet model that takes into account maintenance level % increases.

I second that @JohnBroadfoot - it was a little alarming how quicly the service clerk I'd called with the original cc info was able to locate it second time, a week later.

Sorry @ThereseLogeais that you've had a similar experience - yes let's talk, but I think we'll need a bottle of wine to start... @WayneSchulz it's more than just boosting min. support fees that will drag down the number of customer renewals - don't forget with the (new) certification requirements for partners, the change in how certification is paid for (one flat fee all the classes you need) so lower revenue for SageU, then add to it the number of potential resellers that didn't get certified, so that's an added lose of reference/partner fees.

ONLY one bottle of wine?

Okay @MoiraGoggin maybe two...

Make sure they are magnum size!

@ThereseLogeais, two maybe three magnums as @JeffSchwenk suggested and btw Jeff, I did say to start... So Therese I'm buying.

I looked on Sage's shareholder site - looks as if December 5, 2012 is when they'll report their interim year results. http://www.investors.sage.com/news/financial_calendar/?year=2012

Interesting. So we may not have an October surprise but rather a holdiay gift?

Yes ... the holiday gift will be a slashing of tier margins. Ho Ho Ho mother f**kers.

I think the backlog of requests is BS. Yes I agree the last few days have probably been a little busier with more people taking advantage of promos and partners pushing orders through who trying to make tier. But I think the real backlog is because I hear SAP has been down several times and from i was told this afternoon they have been out of the system since Thursday morning. They could not even provide me a statement of my account or take a credit card payment. I bet there will be some sage employees working this weekend!!

Agreed, it is BS, @JohnnyPabian. The partner & client renewals used to be mailed, nearly two months in advance of their due date. I'm all for emailing them instead just email them at least - it's ridiculous that partners have to beg for billing then beg to process payments. So SAP's been down - oh, boo hoo. Every partner out their knows that we'd have lost a client by long before now if our solution and service caused as many pains and down time as this solution has for Sage. We'd probably be sued by now. Sage is looking like fools with this poor implementation. It begs the question, why hasn't Sage thrown SAP under the bus yet? I smell a rat.

I have wondered the same Moira. By simply accepting this horseshit situation, they raise a lot of questions. My guess: they bought the software and insisted on doing the implementation on their own. That's why there is no lawsuit or throwing SAP under the bus. My opinion only.

Sage doesn't want a public lawsuit to raise the question of why Sage 'uses a competitor and not their own software'. It's also possible and perhaps likely that the partner portal is a small part of the implementation. At Summit Sage talked about the strategic importance of their SAP system to hold and link together a lot of customer info and recurring billing.

Very interesting. Just received some Business Care renewal invoices for clients that renewed (expired) last week. The invoices were dated 10/1/12! Did Sage NA make their ""nut"" so they are able to roll these renewals into the new year or does it really matter since Sage UK is on a 3/31 year end?

I thought Sage UK was on an 09/31 year end same as Sage NA.

Peter, you've discovered Sage's real issue: their year-end is on ""9/31""!