Sage News and Discussion

Sage Annual Report (PDF)

Interesting. NO breakouts for CRM at all. No discussion of CRM. Most mentions of CRM are ""integrated CRM"". UK's mindset toward CRM is bass ackwards from it needs to be in this area to succeed. The CRM market is still growing in double-digits!. As I've learned in the past few months, Sage was starving SLX of development and marketing $$, and that's part of the reason SLX had such a dismal past couple years. I'd love to know what sort of investment level they're making in Ireland.

Yeah ... the absence of CRM is a bit annoying.

Same with Sage 300 -- at one point that was in as a strategic global product. Now I'm fairly certain the strategic products are Sage One, Sage One Extra and ERP X3. These are the new license lead products. The existing products are there to capture the recurring revenue.

I thought CRM was a module and not a product.... from a Sage perspective that is. Products get sold stand alone.

I'm pretty sure Sage 300 was sidelined because they found a pretty-much insurmountable limitation deep inside the product that prevented it from being an effective cloud product. I think they'd wanted 300 to be a ww MAS 90-level replacement, with X3 only for the higher level. When they discovered that would not work, they started the positioning docs for X3 to stretch from companies of 100 employees up. It will be a while, if ever, before X3 can go that low. It's a major kink in their ww product strategy.

Gary, CRM-as-a-module is big part of CRM's problem, from at least 2 directions. 1. it is physically no more a module than HRMS is. So people completely underestimate what it takes to make it work technically and organizationally. 2. Unlike HRMS, CRM is bought by a completely different (and quite independent) part of the organization from ERP. Very few will choose to select ""a module in our ERP"" if it doesn't have a stand alone reputation. Between the two, I fear that UK has nearly sealed Sage CRM's fate as a waste of time. I hope not, as we moving toward keeping both SLX and CRM as offerings.

If CRM were a ""no brainer"" setup similar to Sage Payments (talking configuration and not usage) the adoption would be sky high. As it is you have to be separately certified and run another gauntlet of potential on-premises issues to debug (in addition to the separate ERP). Sage CRM hosted with a one button config to install the link to ERP would be popular. Unfortunately much like Sage 300 -- I think the technology required to do this has either been underestimated or not available.

@JerryNorman - I think @GaryFeldman was saying that tongue in cheek.

Who me? CRM as a module instead of a product is one of the main reasons why I have not pursued CRM as a product.

Regardless of where Gary's tongue is, I think UK sees CRM as an ""integrated module."" That is a big problem.

I agree Sage is not marketing CRM correctly, but for many customers that might use CRM as an integrated module to their ERP, this is the proper way to position it. These are the customers who do not see it as critical to their business, even though it may be and they would expand its use once it is installed as an integrated module. At that point it becomes more than an integrated module.

John, I understand. I haven't seen any data indicating how many companies are successful with that approach. For inside customer service this approach is OK. I'd love some data about how this approach is working.

Jerry, this approach is based solely on continuing the no charge user, which is really a sales tool. Sage is looking at the results and has probably concluded this in itself is not yielding that may sales. I contend this is due to what Wayne mentioned earlier - it is not a ""no brainer"" setup. There should also be detailed tutorials packaged, so there is a minimal investment for this initial single user startup.

CRM is not ""just a module"" and, in fact, is not just software. It's a cultural shift that requires attention. Creating an easy installer and simple configuration is not the golden ticket that will make it sell. Just my 2 cents. There is a lot changing around the Sage CRM marketing strategy both globally and in the US. I will have more to share at MotM and will be available to answer any questions. We can also hash out in the forums here or I can set up a webinar for interested parties and I can highlight some of the changes. Bottom line is that there is a lot of money and attention being thrown at Sage CRM now that Saleslogix and Act! are not in the Sage portfolio. Some really good things are coming - some are already here actually - and I'm pretty jazzed up about the future. They will be changing the whole ""foot in the door"", free single user approach. It never worked very well and the partners that have installed it get very little in the way of adoption because of the points listed above by many of you.

@PeterWolf I doubt that many resellers actually created a sales and consulting program to introduce Sage CRM to their clients using the free single user. We have not, because we are too busy selling and servicing the ERP modules. I agree that there is huge potential, but most resellers are small (less than 10) and only have so many resources.

I agree John. It's interesting though (to me anyway) that a lot of the Sage 300 resellers actually have put the one free user in with a ""cross our fingers"" approach. I know many of the bigger Sage 300 players that have gone down this route. The thought process is that it only takes an hour or so to install it so ""why not?"" (obvious answer is that it's a waste of time IMHO) On a related note, my company struggles to find Sage 300 partners that are willing to partner around Sage CRM. Many of the Sage 100 partners - large and small - are willing and open to partner around Sage CRM but I don't find the same with the Sage 300 community. It's strange that we all have similar business models and yet there can be a completely different culture around one product line vs another. It's most likely a hold over from the Accpac days when Accpac was a separate channel.

@PeterWolf I think you're really missing the boat to understate the importance of a simple installer that cleanly and with minimal effort can configure and integrate CRM. Take a look at the experience people have with app stores at Apple and Google. It's all point click and try. Yeah tons of that is abandonware. But a lot turns into serious use. If Sage Payments did not have such a slick interface I do not think their attach rate would be as high as it is.

We aren't talking about millions of possible users here of a 99 cent app. The software is only a small portion of successful CRM.

@PeterWolf Perhaps it's the Canadian attitude in the case of the 300 partners. http://youtu.be/bOR38552MJA

@PeterWolf I'm glad to hear your assessment. I was under that same impression until this Annual Report. You're in a much better position to know. So with that input, we could interpret the Annual Report silence on the fact that significant change is not yet happened for Sage CRM; the investment would have payoffs starting 2014. I'm relieved. I would like to hear more when appropriate.