Sage 100

Sage Renewal Boycott? At what point should a client not renew their Sage Business Care plan? Have we reached that point? Just confirmed that with the July renewals Sage has done away with ""purchased pre-April 2012"" pricing with all Module based accounts on the same pricing structure that is not based on a percentage increase. Our module based accounts are seeing a 20% increase. Sage 100c for these accounts with almost all of the modules would be a 54% increase if paid annually or 71% increase if paying monthly. (I know some Sage folks are ""promising"" lower renewals to get customers to sign on to the plan to not be able to use their software ever again if they ever balk at paying the renewal fee again - this is called the Customer for Life strategy). This 20% increase does not include the Payroll Subscription changes/increases. If the client does not renew and go to the Sage 100c subscription plan, they would be entitled to run the software for as long as they could. This could buy us 3 years to find something else or decide to repurchase down the road. Maybe if enough customers stop renewing (a boycott of sorts) Sage will take notice???

I am not sure a ""boycott"" would work, since there are so many customers and resellers involved. Generally, Sage is going to do exactly what they want and deal with exceptions one at a time, which they will do. What may work is for 90 Minds as a group to start documenting these situations as you listed above, and go to the powers and present these issues. I know people at Sage respect us as a group. The issue I see is those ""powers"" are not necessarily the ones who develop pricing and the other frustrations we are dealing with. I told my RSM that it seems they are like the accounting trolls in the basement on Dilbert that no one will challenge.

The real direction of Sage NA is being set by Sage UK. I believe the Sage NA executive team is simply following orders. They have some leeway to modify certain things but only to produce targeted revenues. I do not think Sage NA is in a position to make a course correction unless it's revenue neutral. Somehow there is a spreadsheet located somewhere in NA that has all this data. Sage enters in the presumed increases. Takes a guess at an attrition rate due to price and that's their game plan. At this point, I think we could have more influence on the 100c strategy since I believe they are floundering a bit in their adoption. Maintenance is Sage's bread and butter. I don't think they'll make any change.

I agree with @SteveEngmann that a smart company would get on a Windows 10 compatible version of Sage 100 and then stay there for 3-5 years (or more) and bank the maintenance money for a new system if/when that becomes necessary. The new stuff will only be available for subscription, and once that becomes a sizeable enough $$ for Sage development will stop entirely as they now have you seriously fucused if the software stops working if you stop paying.

I don't disagree that money can be saved by dropping maintenance however I'd be very careful that I wasn't the one suggesting it. I've had Sage call into customers and be told that I said they could drop maintenance. When in actuality the conversation was quite different. For that reason, I always start the discussion with ""I always recommend you renew Sage if it is strategic to your business. I will however support a customer not on plan.

@SteveEngmann - we have been outraged over the increases. My best customer had been paying $7-$8k M&S, but we got a renewal price this year of $14k for them. They've been on Sage 100 for 15 years. They decided that for the features they've been receiving every year, the increased price wasn't worth it, so for the first time in 15 years, they pushed back. We're helping them to evaluate other systems. The price increase for some of my customers will be enough to cause a conversation. Some will stop paying. Some will change software providers. Those who stop paying will eventually need to re-purchase when the time comes, or buy a different system. It's important to stay connected with our customers under any circumstance, because it's easier to maintain existing customers than to gain new customers.

Just quoted M&S for a customer..went up from $2,842.00 to $4,500.00 and increase of 58%....right that one in your suggested list...and as you can imagine...he said NO...

@LourdesSobrino our renewal rep said they would work to get increases over 20% capped at 20%, worth a shot to ask.

That is why I was confirming in another thread the cost of the perpetual renewal percentages. Will work on the numbers and do a counteroffer. This customer has over 200 employees so Payroll has a big chunk!!!