Sage 100

Can anyone more fully explain what’s happening with Sage Partner Cloud?

It sounds as if Sage is allowing Cloud@Work to be a type of endorsed hosting provider. Portrayed as sort of another SPC option.


What I’m confused about is the pricing for this seems to revert to “normal” Sage price list though I’m not entirely certain ( hence, “confused” ).

My first thought is that Sage may be readying an endorsed cloud program and this is a pilot test.

Has anyone seen or discussed more about this than what is in the partner hub?

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Wayne Schulz - Schulz Consulting - 860-516-8990
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Note that the attached is labeled internal only and do not share with customers

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Wayne Schulz - Schulz Consulting - 860-516-8990
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Original Message:
Sent: 6/30/2021 9:51:00 AM
From: Wayne Schulz
Subject: RE: Sage Partner Cloud

Note that the attached is labeled internal only and do not share with customers

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Wayne Schulz - Schulz Consulting - 860-516-8990
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It seems like the attached PDF is talking about using the “regular” Sage price list for the Cloud @ Work offering while the initial SPC offering has a different price list which removed benefits like support and ability to use SQL ( at least initially ) and hiked the subscription price.

I’m confused about how this program does anything substantial except provide additional NCA tier benefits to VARs.

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Wayne Schulz - Schulz Consulting - 860-516-8990
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-30-2021
From: Sue Bennett
Subject: RE: Sage Partner Cloud

Because we have been hosting Sage in a Data Center since 2012, I wanted to find out what our cost/requirements would be to have our facility "Sage Certified".  I received an email that said only Cloud@Work would be certified right now, and that indeed it was a pilot program.  (The note was also marked that this was "partner confidential".)  The note didn't say anything about Sage pricing though  – it was just stating that only Cloud@Work would be the only endorsed currently as a Sage endorsed hosting facility for quite awhile.

 

Sue Bennett | President

Bennett/Porter & Associates, Inc.

P. 503 620 3484 | F. 503 620 2765

12559 SW 69th Ave | Portland, OR  97223

Email address | www.benpor.com

Bennett/Porter Blog | facebook | twitter

 

The information in this email and any attachments is considered confidential. This information may be subject to legal, professional, or other privilege. It must not be disclosed to any person without our authority. If you are not the intended recipient you are not authorized to and must not disclose, copy, distribute, or retain this message or any part of it. Please return this message to the sender immediately and delete any and all copies from your system.

 

 

 

I can explain a few more points but the document is a good overview.

Along with a handful of providers, swizznet, gotomyerp, net@works, and other "of-quality" providers who had the majority of the hosted products were initially chosen to help sage construct the sage hosting affiliate program alongside the primary and direct sage cloud program.  Remember that survey sent out early last year?

Sage mandated a flip of all desktop licenses into SAAS licenses. 
Knowing that it will take them years to catch up on volume, they came to "us" in the hosting community that already hosts 1000s of desktop customers.

Voilà - instant SAAS or Annual Recurring Revenue to Sage corporate and the public money markets.  

This is what I expect to happen, again, my up close and studied opinion.

• gotomyerp, along with a few other early helpers of this program will be "certified/endorse" as soon as beta ends and we pay our fees.
• Sage is not endorsing, per se. 
  • This is really to sort out the workflow.  Swizznet just happens to have the most CRE customers, I am not certain if N@W has the most ERP customers, but they do have a healthy fleet. 
  • I think Summit is close to having a majority of sage customers in NA. 
  • BAASS in CA (sage 300) has an enormous share and I believe is the beta partner in CA.
• Few 3rd parties hosting providers will participate because it will be expensive to pay the entrance / annual fee to be "certified" with sage.
• I am nearly certain that some nominal per-user cost for each hosted user (not with sagecloud) will be levied and "providers" will be made to report usage monthly.  Kinda like the intuit hosting program < which is only pay-to-play scheme and has no formality, unlike the sage program. 
• Sage Licensing:
  • I cannot tell you for sure if it will be the same license yet or what the commission bump will be but my current understanding is, sage "may have to" issue a different license to qualify and reclassify desktop to saas licensing < don't hold me to this one.
  • Sage will make most of the features and commissions of the Sage-Cloud license available to resellers aligned with certified hosting providers only.
• Consultants/Resellers will no longer be able to obfuscate who they use as a hosting provider, they will have to disclose "hosted-by" in their agreements or Terms.
• I don't agree with some of the market-ie statements like "generous" margins, for example, gotomyerp offers 50% or more margin and helps resellers/consultants actually get into a recurring revenue model.

Does this help?  There's so much more.

Please give me a call or drop an email.
See you in the cloud, way sooner than you expected ;)

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Robert Eppele
GoToMyERP, LLC
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Sage seems to be saying that this is a hush-hush program -- yet it appears to be publicly press released - which IMO means it is public

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cloud-at-work-selected-by-aci-consulting-leading-sage-business-partner-as-exclusive-hosting-provider-for-its-sage-clients-301324612.html

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Wayne Schulz - Schulz Consulting - 860-516-8990
------------------------------

This is still not a general availability program based on my calls with Sage (10/1 is the formal date I think) but, as you can see, n@w is doing everything they can to capitalize on this in the short term because of their stature and attempting to entice resellers in advance of sage giving an official "certified designation".

Yes, sage has publically anointed them, somewhat, as swizznet has been informally for CRE for many years.  There is a huge difference.  swizznet is largely independent of and not a competitor to sage reseller/consultants, n@w is.  Sage has given n@w an 8-month leg up on all sage resellers to consolidate more rors. An amazing opportunity.

In about 8 months, all other "hosting providers" or resellers who are eligible to host (outside of the direct sage cloud program) will be able to offer the same. 
Regardless, you should get your ducks lined up to take advantage of the broader opportunity with your hosting partner of choice.  Just make sure they will be able to meet the qualifications sage has laid out, which I can tell you is a significant barrier to entry.

No matter the organization you align with, I strongly suggest that everyone consider helping customers who are appropriately suited to move in the direction of hosting do so. 

If planned well you will profit well and create longevity for your existing customer base.

See you in the clouds.





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Robert Eppele
GoToMyERP, LLC
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-02-2021 10:36
From: Wayne Schulz
Subject: Sage Partner Cloud

Sage seems to be saying that this is a hush-hush program -- yet it appears to be publicly press released - which IMO means it is public

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cloud-at-work-selected-by-aci-consulting-leading-sage-business-partner-as-exclusive-hosting-provider-for-its-sage-clients-301324612.html

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Wayne Schulz - Schulz Consulting - 860-516-8990
------------------------------

Although I may seem biased… but judge me by my actions. I truly do not believe small consultancies should be in the business of running a cloud in today’s security landscape. Until the government wins a war on the cyber terrorists, the level of sophistication and diligence required to be a cloud service provider is too costly.

In my 22 years running I-BN we never became the ROR for a customer who was brought to us by a partner. If Sage is pushing people to large partners who do not have that type of track record it may also become a short lived program and create even greater disloyalty to a once stellar brand.

---------------------------------
Gary Feldman
President
I-Business Network, LLC
Marietta GA
6786270646 x224
http://www.i-bn.com/
---------------------------------

I always learn from your input on this subject. I agree with your assessment about size; sad but true. 

I still don't understand how Sage is actually adding any value with SPC. A customer should be effectively oblivious to the details of their cloud instance. So, as long as this utility has
  a) near-100% reliability,
  b) connectivity with other apps (SAAS or on-prem) that is seamlessly invisible after setup,
  c) a UI that is as intuitive and seamless as possible for that app (only so much can be done for Sage 100,
then the utility can differentiate only on price: setup and recurring. 

It is a capital-intensive, low-margin, very high risk (ransomware) business. This is in the opposite "quadrant" from how an ERP consultancy should be. So we must rely on this hosting partner to provide. The temptation to a "cloud-at-work" type firm of such an "easy" enhancement as a new ERP consulting customer will grow, especially in a downturn. So, Sage's incentive on this doesn't really make a lot of sense to me. 

Looking at their recent rules, I suspect that Sage's REAL motivation on this is to get an easy report on how many customers are "in the cloud" so they can jack their claims of being a great SAAS company. That's not putting the customer first.

I hope I'm wrong. What am I missing?

------------------------------
Jerry Norman
At-Large BOD Member, 90 Minds
Smartbridge Partners
512.419.1444 x112
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 07-04-2021 11:38
From: Gary Feldman
Subject: Sage Partner Cloud

Although I may seem biased… but judge me by my actions. I truly do not believe small consultancies should be in the business of running a cloud in today's security landscape. Until the government wins a war on the cyber terrorists, the level of sophistication and diligence required to be a cloud service provider is too costly.

In my 22 years running I-BN we never became the ROR for a customer who was brought to us by a partner. If Sage is pushing people to large partners who do not have that type of track record it may also become a short lived program and create even greater disloyalty to a once stellar brand.

---------------------------------
Gary Feldman
President
I-Business Network, LLC
Marietta GA
6786270646 x224
http://www.i-bn.com/
---------------------------------

Another wad of paper thrown at the wall in hopes that it sticks.  Money drives their bottom line and cash flow makes the shareholders happy.  Too bad they don't invest in what got them into the game - innovative features (for ALL software packages) and great support for the channel.  Time to open another envelope.

------------------------------
Jeff Schwenk
FORMER 90M Board Member
Bottomline Software, Inc.
Waynesboro VA
540-221-4444
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 07-05-2021 01:05
From: Jerry Norman
Subject: Sage Partner Cloud

I always learn from your input on this subject. I agree with your assessment about size; sad but true.

I still don't understand how Sage is actually adding any value with SPC. A customer should be effectively oblivious to the details of their cloud instance. So, as long as this utility has
  a) near-100% reliability,
  b) connectivity with other apps (SAAS or on-prem) that is seamlessly invisible after setup,
  c) a UI that is as intuitive and seamless as possible for that app (only so much can be done for Sage 100,
then the utility can differentiate only on price: setup and recurring.

It is a capital-intensive, low-margin, very high risk (ransomware) business. This is in the opposite "quadrant" from how an ERP consultancy should be. So we must rely on this hosting partner to provide. The temptation to a "cloud-at-work" type firm of such an "easy" enhancement as a new ERP consulting customer will grow, especially in a downturn. So, Sage's incentive on this doesn't really make a lot of sense to me.

Looking at their recent rules, I suspect that Sage's REAL motivation on this is to get an easy report on how many customers are "in the cloud" so they can jack their claims of being a great SAAS company. That's not putting the customer first.

I hope I'm wrong. What am I missing?

------------------------------
Jerry Norman
At-Large BOD Member, 90 Minds
Smartbridge Partners
512.419.1444 x112
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 07-04-2021 11:38
From: Gary Feldman
Subject: Sage Partner Cloud

Although I may seem biased… but judge me by my actions. I truly do not believe small consultancies should be in the business of running a cloud in today's security landscape. Until the government wins a war on the cyber terrorists, the level of sophistication and diligence required to be a cloud service provider is too costly.

In my 22 years running I-BN we never became the ROR for a customer who was brought to us by a partner. If Sage is pushing people to large partners who do not have that type of track record it may also become a short lived program and create even greater disloyalty to a once stellar brand.

---------------------------------
Gary Feldman
President
I-Business Network, LLC
Marietta GA
6786270646 x224
http://www.i-bn.com/