General Consultant Discussion

Sage Partner Program - Update 2016 [New discussion on the numbers] I finally had an opportunity to put actual numbers in a spreadsheet for the Oct - Dec period and for January 2016 on. I know this is no surprise to anyone, but this was and will be much too complex. There are too many dollar and percentage hurdles and too many tiers. With Acumatica, if you have your required certifications and accomplish what I consider to be minimal objectives (if you are actively selling), your product margin is 50%. That's what I believe a partnership should be between partners and the publisher - split 50-50.

With Acumatica, collect badges (through free training) and maintain reasonable sales and you'll be in good shape.

After I posted this comment, I started thinking ""so why aren't you concentrating 100% on Acumatica?"" Good question!

Very good question @JohnHoyt , and it is one that all of us should be asking ourselves.

Like Taylor McDonald said about 7 years ago, ""We are too old to learn a new product"". Do we have too many clients on Sage 100. We know where the gotch ya's are. If we go 100% to Acumatic, we have to sell that, learn that, find all of the pitfalls, and still support old clients on Sage 100. Are we too tired for that? Do we have the energy?

That's a question we can only ask ourselves inside. But don't let any young pups take over your stuff. Remember Y2K!

@MichaelPruet - I think I am more tired of putting up with all of the Sage bs. And let's face it, Sage has been pushing resellers to look elsewhere for years now. This latest tier change continues that push. Time to move. Avengers, assemble!!!

Agree with all of the above with one comment. Whatever revenue stream you develop -- be sure that you keeping the bulk of it. Commission on sales and mainteannce is something we all remember with great fondness. Those fat commissions on renewals are going away. Companies that are doing well: - Sell into a niche industry which requires significant skills and ongoing support (this is a barrier to entry to casual users) - Sell higher $$ deals (there is too much project management, sales overhead to be chasing the small fry) - Require an ongoing support plan with your company (think of the insanity that publishers do this and the majority of consultants -- who provide the highest value -- do not). - Have some type of intellectual property - enhancements, integrations, add-ons.

SAP may not be perfect, but - Perpetual = 3 tiers 30,40 and 50%. A $ = $ (with one exception of HANA engines) and 2 volume discount levels which clients rarely know about. Maintenance cost = 10% to certified partners (charge what you want) - Subscription = recommended 30%, but you can bundle and charge what you want. - Certification cost = the testing fee at Pearson. How hard is this Sage? Perhaps the problem is having 20 products with way too much baggage compared to the competition? Subscription is renewal.