Phuong - Thank you for this offer. We all want to make the most of Sage and Sage 100.
Personally, I have these questions.
- What is the immediate and medium-term future for Production Management (fka Work Order) and Operations Management (fka JobOps)? Scanco can't seem to keep up with Sage 100 updates for either, and we've seen few if any, feature enhancements in OM during the past several years. Compared to new mfg options out there (start with Acumatica), OM is lagging -- how does Sage intend to keep current JobOps/OM customers in the fold?
- While we understand what SPC offers, most of us already use other cloud providers for our Sage customers who want that; we are very comfortable with them and understand their reliability. Will we be penalized for using these providers instead of SPC? What do Sage 100
customers realistically get from using SPC instead of, say, I-BN or gotomyerp? If that's not clear, why should we do that to our customers?
- All the messaging about moving current Sage 100 customers to cloud solutions (Intacct) leaves me convinced that Sage no longer thinks Sage 100 is viable for winning new customers. Is this true? If not, please show us the materials and success stories to prove otherwise. Oh, and please tell the World, as the industry apparently agrees with my assessment.
- Why didn't you make a presentation to clearly show the pros and cons of Sage 100 vs Intacct for customers in differing situations? We need this sort of thing if we are to recommend anything to our customers. Speaking of which, when will you guarantee that the Sage 100 Partner of Record will get compensation for EVERY migration to Intacct? The current "claiming" of customers engenders no faith in the process. We want clarification.
- We were confused by the two examples used for Sage 100-to-Intacct conversions. (Actually, since they were both v4.5, they were MAS 90-to-Intacct.) These seemed to be customers who had essentially decided that upgrading their Sage software was not a good investment for the past decade, so they had never experienced the myriad of new functionality they could have had with a current Sage 100 implementation. Surely these are not the only Intacct migrations you've had success with? How about some more realistic examples?
- There are certainly some current Sage 100 customers who are a good fit to seriously consider Intacct. However, MANY are not. Manufacturing customers are top of that list. Most Distribution customers are probably not, especially the complicated ones. These others might well be looking to shift from Sage because the public messaging clearly says to them, "Sage 100 is not our long-term future." (And if they don't read it that way themselves, believe me, the competition is translating it to them.) What programs do you have or plan to help us retain these customers? Yes, I know you have your ISV series, and those are helpful. BUT we already have problems managing upgrades when some third-parties are slow and unreliable at keeping up. Why increase the risk with these newbies? Or maybe Sage just expects these customers to wait on Sage Intacct to be reliably effective for their migration?
I think most of us 90 Minders had already received your message that "Sage 100 customers should migrate to Intacct." We understood the strategic reasons for this. (We don't like it, but we understand it.) We want you to help us make our current (non-GLAPR) Sage 100 customers MORE confident that they can stick with their current "anchor application" while gaining the added functionality that gleams as "shiny objects" from competing systems like Acumatica and Netsuite. Most companies change out their ERP systems with a change in either General Manager or CFO/Controller; we want you to help us buffer that drive.
Phuong, I hope this helps your thinking in how to "make it up to" us.
------------------------------
Jerry Norman
VP, 90 Minds
Smartbridge Partners
512.419.1444 x112
------------------------------