Sage 100

Sage ACT reverts back to Retail Prior to last year, as a dealer, when we sold an ACT Pro project, it was more economical for me to purchase the software from Dell or some other online distributor rather than use my reseller pricing. As an example, List Price is $229. The best price the Dealer can buy for is $160. Dell was selling it for $79 last year - no maintenance. I don't have a clue why they took the product out of the distributors' hands or removed the product from the shelves of Staples, Office Max and the like for this past year. However, beginning June 1, they now are back selling through retail again. The strategic goals, they say, are: 1.Acquire net new customers 2.Achieve revenue target's in line with the business unit's expectations for H2FY12 & beyond 3.Re-establish then expand Sage ACT!'s footprint in the e-tail/retail marketplace while minimizing revenue cannibalization from existing channels 4.Continue to build Sage ACT! brand awareness The announcement goes on the say, ""Put simply, we are confident in attaining the revenue goals Sage's shareholders require of the business unit, maximizing new customer acquisition while greatly reducing cross channel cannibalization and conflict with our approach in returning to E-tail/Retail."" Most surprisingly, maybe in an effort to appease the channel, they are implementing a volume purchasing agreement for ACT Dealers requiring a significant (their word) quarterly volume/purchase commitment. The announcement finishes up with this encouragement. ""I don't anticipate many takers (of the volume purchasing agreement), however in the spirit of partnership/fairness/competitiveness, I wanted to extend this to you all in light of our return to E-Tail/Retail."" I haven't seen the fine print, but this would make sense if the retail sale required maintenance and/or they have people in place to hound the new purchasers for Maintenance and Swiftpage or are they just trying to get boxes out the door. My personal feeling is that since I saw the beta release of Sage ACT 2013, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, to compel someone to upgrade and they need to keep sales up.

If there was an announcement can you forward a copy - wayne@s-consult.com? Tx

The memo mentions Sage Act! Pro. I assume that Sage Act! Premium is the multi-user version? Do you know if they are going to treat Sage Act! Premium any differently. I have some interest in this topic because i was in a session at Summit 2011 when I heard a loud cheer down the hallway. I was later told it was Larry Ritter announcing that Sage would no longer sell Act! at retail. Now Larry's gone. So is the retail prohibition. I'm not entirely sure this is a bad thing. I think to the extent Sage increases distribution that everyone will benefit.

I wonder if this means they will fix (re-release )the act link to SAGE 100 FKA MAS 90?

This all feels like ""too little - too late