Sage News and Discussion

Just got off the phone with my Sage Payment Solutions rep Scott Longacre. He said last Wednesday, 125 sales, marketing, and admin employees were fired. Apparently, that leaves Operations and Support. He said Sage said they were being paid too much. Anyone else aware of what's going on?

Do think that was just in SPS?

Heard the same thing last week. Also heard that if they talked about it, they lost their severance.

Had a feeling something was up with SPS. I guess they made a math error when calculating how much residual money the Reps would make off of each account. So how is it that the Partners aren't informed of this? Who are we to contact for setting up a new account/client? Typical Sage non-communication!

Good question @BrettZimmerman. Scott was working on a large client of ours who coincidentally just received a direct call from someone peddling merchant services who even did a short demo featuring integration. The client doesn't remember who called, but Scott said management had been pumping them for more lead info lately. After 10 years, he got 2 weeks severance. He refused to sign some sort of non-compete agreement with $$ attached.

I just heard this today as well.

Heard about this from @JohnHoyt last Thursday before MOTM. @JohnHoyt want to give some more details?

I have spoken twice with Dexter Cube who was our SPS rep and he was in that group. They had about two hours notice to be on a conference call where they then told them the news, but did not tell them what the call was about. Dexter was one of the top salespersons that attended Sage Inner Circle in Costa Rica recently. After the call his e-mail was disconnected and his Sage phone line was gone. They were treated like people that had done some bad thing. I e-mailed my RSM, Rob Larsh, who told me ""I am just as surprised."" He has no insight on what this was about. And no one seems to know who makes these inane decisions. Rob recommended contacting Joo Sohn or David Deshaies, which I will do. You'll notice we did not have any communication from Sage yet about this. Dexter has been given the opportunity to be an Independent Sales Rep, but it is unclear as to whether he can continue to work with our existing customers. He is being told to find new non-Sage customers. Meanwhile SPS sales will be handled internally by a call center. Also if a customer of ours calls in and they sell SPS to them, we get no commission. This made my attendance the last two days at the Acumatica Partner Summit even more enjoyable!

This is really sad. Our rep, Greg Axelrod, was consistently the most useful Sage rep we ever experienced! I'm sure he'll land on his feet, but probably not at a firm that pays commission on residuals. What really floors me about Sage execs these days is how completely '90's they are. What do they think they are gaining by forcing all this secrecy? In days of Twitter, et al, this stuff gets out sooner rather than later. But when it does, the company has absolutely no ability to write the story around it because it gets done for them, and nobody believes what story Sage might make up because of the way it got out. It ranks right up there with the way they announce which product lines they will sell off ... before they have a buyer in hand!

I heard this last week at the Meeting of the Minds from another partner who was also in attendance.

I heard from my former SPS rep yesterday. Apparently it as all about Sage not paying residuals anymore, which at least in this case were about 75% of his income. He also stated that the new telemarketers replacing the reps who were fired will be going around the channel partners, and that we should expect our residuals to go away soon. He spoke even more glowingly of Pascal than I do...

Sage in North America (and perhaps globally) has big problems with payments. It used to be Sage's shining star but the last few earnings reports it has really slumped and they've talked about it on earnings calls and how they will go about addressing it. Not sure if everyone knew but the President SPS - Greg Hammermaster departed in August 2014 which was just prior to Summit that year. Sage was pretty quiet over the entire situation. Everything that is occurring in North America is driven by corporate Sage overseas. While Pascal and Langner (et al) are convenient faces to place blame - they're only executing on orders. They probably have some leeway to present a plan/strategy but I do not think anyone in North America can green light a plan without UK blessing it. The best way to predict what might occur in NA is to listen to the earnings calls and read the reports. Since Sage is public a remarkable amount of their high level strategy is explained to the press and analysts. http://www.sage.com/investors/annual-report New Sage UK CEO equals the potential for a lot of change. There's a reason the old CEO left rather unexpectedly and I assure you it wasn't to spend more time hiking the Swiss Alps. It's time to think realistically and strategically about everything that is occurring within Sage. Some of the bigger partners who have only now begun to diversify are probably wishing they'd started two years earlier. As of the past few years there's no longer a Sage partnership - rather Sage should be but one tool in our bag of resources as we continue to develop into consultants and leave behind the old notion of being resellers for any one product.

I got the call yesterday from our guy. Said Sage was bringing this 'in house' 64 filed sales people were let go according to him

There are a lot of ways to screw a salesperson. I just realized that the promise of perpetual commission from subscription sales is a new one. Even if it's an ethical company (which Sage NA used to be), the underlying dynamics of selling vs. almost any other function in company guarantees an unhealthy dynamic on this. ""You blew out the doors last quarter - Thanks! ... But what have you done for me lately?"" has to be part of tension between the company and the new-logo sales team. It is inevitable that eventually Management looks at that ongoing stream of commissions and forgets about the lean years that the salesperson endured, at company request, to get here. The partner agreements with SPS guarantee commission payments as long as the partner adds 1 or 2 new customers per year. If you miss that, the entire stream disappears. One way or the other all of us will hit that trigger in the next couple years because of the way Sage is using telemarketing and giving partners no credit in that sale. I don't know if Sage knows it yet, but this latest action guarantees that partners will not actively sell any subscription licensing unless ample commission is paid up front. Again, more brilliant strategic thinking from Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Yep I heard last week - i was told our credit card residual will be going away also after X years. They really have shot themselves in the foot. We are already being pursued by other processors who will save our customer money AND pay us more!! This just keeps making the idea of diversifying easier!

What options do we have for integrated credit card. I know there was another out there. Sage indicated they were going to yank their developer license but I do not think they followed up on it. Anybody know of any other options?

Maybe Brian Kelly can comment on the options...

http://s216551651.t.en25.com/e/es.aspx?s=216551651&e=1611&elq=489fca680a3d47f8ac38d7608f1b178d

Just received a call (7PM) from my new ""rep"" at SPS. He is a sales engineer now being given the opportunity to step up to the plate (my words, not his). I reminded him that it was very late and I welcomed the opportunity to discuss this new direction during east coast business hours. he sent me an e-mail with his contact information.

My ""new"" rep just emailed me - I responded - read the following I do want to chit chat but not tomorrow. The Sage 100 channel is very frustrated with Sage at many levels. 1)the firing of staff of people who have been consistently there at SPS meaning Greg has been my rep for many years and we had a fabulous working relationship except for. I hear nothing but the same from other partners with their respective reps that got booted to the curb last week. 2)Sage refusing to pay reasonable residual rates to its partners. 10% is a joke. When I have competitors knocking at our door offering cheaper rates to our customers and splitting the profit. How can they do that save my customers money and I make more? There is no loyalty from Sage to us why should we be loyal to Sage at this point. 3)Please confirm residual partner payment will continue for the life of the customer I bring to SPS as competitors do. I hear Sage is getting ready to put a limit on this- but would prefer to hear fact than rumor. 4)Back to firing on the sage 100 side I think I have gone through 3 or 4 reps in the last 36 months. Very frustrating. 5)The latest news I read today is just another what the hell is going on at Sage - http://www.sage.com/investors/press-releases/2015/02/26/the-sage-group-plc-announces-global-agreement-with-salesforce Sage owns Sage CRM why can't Sage not use their own products? If they stink so bad then fix them. But yet Sage wants us to sell Sage CRM and push SPS's high rates. Sage is already using SAP for Accounting why not X3 the almighty software Sage touts! Maybe I should ask who Sage uses for their processor not SPS? Ok being funny there but who knows there might be some truth to that! I promise the conversation will be more polite than this but these are real issues that need be answered.

@JohnnyPabian Why be polite? I wasn't when I talked to them.

If and when I hear from my new rep I am going to ask him/her why take a job that is only open because the company wanted to cut payroll...

Or you can tell them you won't need to be talking with them, because you are moving all of your customers to American Payment Solutions.

Update: Apparently my LinkedIn discussion has the SPS group scrambling or maybe it was my e-mail to Joo Sohn and Donald Deschaies. I got a call from Ray Merk, VP Business Development at SPS making sure that all was OK. I told him I had reconnected with Dexter Cube and he is on top of it with my customer.

FYI - my new rep - never reached back to me after I sent this email.

Except for the commissions each quarter, I'm not sure we get tier credit any more on adding the ""no charge"" credit card module. We used to get a flat $500. Does anyone know?

Answering my question of 3/6/2015, apparently we no longer get that $500 new business tier credit for SPS signups, but I was told by an SPS VP that they are working on an alternative. The alternative is probably based on how may business partners ask about it.