Not that this is too shocking to anyone but I've come to the conclusion that Sage no longer needs the channel nor cares about the channel. There's a lot pointing to this but the number one thing is: most of Sage's revenue (70+% I believe) is from M&S and services.
New business is nothing to them. They are going to make their money up selling and cross selling - that's why connected services are so important. Their intention is to sell most of this direct and cut the channel out of the picture.
Yes, they will want us to service clients because they have no service group to speak of (yet) but we will get no margin.
So ... I'm suggesting we get a bit more aggressive on three fronts:
1) Expanding the group membership. A united we stand kind of thing. Maybe not a union per se but a dues paying membership that allows us to provide group services, conferences, marketing and other elements to members, customers and prospects.
2) Determining the post-Sage reseller world. Let's start to kick our own asses in to gear and make the transition from relying on Sage to relying on ourselves (or other vendors if we must). Some of us are already moving in that direction but I think, as a whole, we have a ways to go.
3) Introducing more marketing of services. I've beaten this drum for a long time but I think we could cut Sage off at the pass with a lot of things and build our own reputation and set of services with customers and prospects to increase our worth while they are trying to slowly erode it. I think this is a sheer suvival thing short-term but could be a long-term game changer for most firms that participate.