Sage News and Discussion

I'm on the Sage Live webinar. The presenter is one of the absolute worst I've heard in years. She can barely read her script.

The second one didn't get much better.

Not much seems to have changed since Summit. A lot of focus on general ledger.

Can somebody please explain the obcession with accounting data entry on mobile?

accounting solution only. What multinational company needs only that?

Amateur Hour.

I started on the call late, so perhaps I missed the bad presentation portion. From 10:20 seemed OK to me. Of course, I was doing two or three other things . . .

I am always impressed when an accounting system is multi-dimensional. What company doesn't need dimensions?

The demo was good, but as Wayne pointed out, no further fleshed out than 4 months ago. Right now it appears to be unsellable. Yes, dimensions are essential for today, where is the rest? They have yet to identify verticals in which this thing will appeal now, or in 6 months. they pitch the hype on a few features and hope a customer will bite -- very close to the hype around Sage Mobile Sales and Billing-Payment. I have yet to see a sale-invoice-payment cycle demonstrated. Nor did they answer my question about how the approval process on those expense items entered by salespeople would happen. This was NOT a presentation aimed at consultants who already look suspiciously at ANY new product claim from Sage. IMO *barely* Amateur Hour.

This reminded me of the rollout of the mobile stuff that is now going away , largely because they never added the features we all told them were needed when they first rolled it out, who would want to build a vertical on this?

Also reminds me a lot of the MAS 90 4.0 journey. I recall at first that the update was going to solve every issue ever known on MAS 90. What was delivered was a new file structure and essentially a port of MAS 90 3.x.

So far Sage Live is resonating with the current Sage US channel about as well as the original Sage Intelligence did - responding like a discommendation. https://youtu.be/nYJmFOxNew0

The frustrating thing for me is that it doesn't have to be that way. Sure, development can lag. But why can't they layout a decent road map of what they expect the next ~12 mos to be? I asked a question (2x now) about how it will handle approvals of things like expenses entered by salespeople; crickets. They have yet to explain what sort of verticals/subverticals they think it will appeal to first; surely they know that? Too bad - I really don't think anybody there understands product marketing. It ain't rocket science.

Sage touted how quickly they were able to complete the initial development of Sage Live, so I'm confused as to why they cannot continue that record development. I sense they want to see the market reception before they put any more resources on it. That's basically what happened with Mobile Sales - the lack of significant sales and the reality that the product required so much more work resulted in Sage pulling the plug because it made little financial sense to continue with enhancements.

If you're right, then Sage can't do decent product management either. What you describe is chicken and egg, and it cuts to the core of why technology products need $$ INVESTMENT -- there has to be enough product to be attractive to the initial target buyers. This is so fundamental, I'm having trouble believing this is the case.

From past observation: When products start floundering the publisher backtracks like crazy on initial development promises. Based on this last webinar it seems like Sage Live is (a) counting on Salesforce to drive sales and (b) pivoting product features to be more of a QuickBooks competitor. I see the logic because it's a whole lot easier to sell entry level low cost accounting than full blown ERP. Departure of LaBahn to what appears to be s competitor is potentially a huge foreshadowing of difficulties ahead. I'm very bearish on Sage Live prospects against well entrenched QuickBooks competitor and also the concept that material numbers of SalesForce subscribers are low end enough to only need a QuickBooks type offering. Sage is making big big big bets here so anything could happen including additional pivots in Sage Live product strategy. I do not think the Sage UK board is going to keep approving massive expenditures without seeing a return on that investment. My best prediction right now is Sage gets desperate for revenues and keeps dialing up prices for their installed base.

My son sells for FinancialForce. That product is pretty full featured for non-supply chain companies. Sales are good, but even that is not cash-neutral yet. The Sage board should book a private viewing of Forrest Gump, and apply ""stupid is as stupid does"" to its past 10 yrs of penny-wise decisionmaking.