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  • 1.  So Long Taylor???

    Posted 08-04-2021 16:25

    Sage North America update

    Important news about our Sage VAR channels

    Dear Partners,

     

    I hope this message finds you and your families safe and well and your businesses prospering.

     

    I wanted to let you know that after more than 30 successful years running his own firm as a partner and leading partner organizations, Taylor Macdonald has decided to retire at the end of this calendar year.

     

    For those of you who don't know, Taylor has had two strong tenures building Sage-related ecosystems: first with Sage from 1998 to 2007 and then with Sage Intacct from 2010 through this year. Taylor joined Sage Intacct and built the partner channel and associated program from the ground up. The Sage Intacct VAR channel is now 100+ partners strong, and we're proud that Taylor and the team have built one of the most successful programs in the industry.

     

    We deeply appreciate Taylor's many years of service and wish him all the best in his next chapter!

     

    In the meantime, Taylor will help us transition the organization to a new design, working with Nancy Teixeira who runs our Sage partner sales and programs organization. Taylor and Nancy and their teams will work closely together to bring our VAR teams into a single organization. Effective October 1, Nancy Teixeira will become interim VP of the combined organization reporting directly to me.

     

    This new design will simplify our relationship with you as you work with one unified organization-and as we work together to scale our businesses in FY22 and beyond.

     

    Please join me in wishing all the best to Taylor in his retirement and to Nancy as she steps into her new leadership role.

     

    Thank you all for your partnership and your dedication to our customers!


    Best regards,


    Nancy Harris
    EVP, Managing Director
    Sage


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    Jeff Schwenk
    FORMER 90M Board Member -140,000,000 is a TERRIBLE thing to waste!!!
    Bottomline Software, Inc.
    Waynesboro VA
    540-221-4444
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  • 2.  RE: So Long Taylor???

    Posted 08-04-2021 22:05
    Wait, what. So this is their unified organization?
    Didn't they have an all-hands in October or November and announce they had unified their channels? 

    As someone else remarked -- which I think is right on point -- someone retiring from Sage announces the retirement of another person from Sage.

    Executives gone from Intacct: 

    1. Rob Reid
    2. Marc Linden
    3. Kathleen Lord ( she briefly oversaw Sage People but I think she came in with Intacct )
    4. Taylor Macdonald


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    Wayne Schulz - Schulz Consulting - 860-516-8990
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  • 3.  RE: So Long Taylor???

    Posted 08-05-2021 00:28
    Others pointed out earlier that most of those Intacct people would leave shortly after their commitments from the sale expired. I was only surprised that Taylor stayed a bit longer.

    I'm gonna guess that Harris had those expiration dates somewhere on her planning sheet. I can't help but think this exit was part of her decision to leave. 

    IMO, the departures of Taylor and Harris mean that the nature of the channel and its operating rules is completely up for grabs over the coming 2 years. It will depend completely on who replaces Nancy and their attitude towards all this. Taylor's "permanent" (is that even a legit concept for Sage execs?) replacement will be after they settle on Harris's successor.

    Sage has made it very, very clear that Intacct and those related cloud-native apps are its future. The main criteria for Harris's replacement should be all about what is needed to grow those in the face of current competition (Acumatica, Netsuite, and maybe Dynamics). Along with that main focus is a consideration to do what is necessary to slow the bleed from "legacy apps" so that the maximum number can be brought into the Intacct-related products over time.

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

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: So Long Taylor???

    Posted 08-05-2021 06:37
    I had the impression after reading the press release that Nancy T. is Taylor’s permanent replacement. ( As permanent as anything can be with Sage ).

    ‘Please join me in wishing all the best to Taylor in his retirement and to Nancy as she steps into her new leadership role.’

    Remember that when Nancy T came into her current role they also announced her as interim.

    I think the bigger question now is who takes Nancy H’s spot ( recall that she announced her retirement earlier ).

    Sage has gone through a few key execs who noped the heck out - recall Rich ( “things seem to have returned to the way they used to be” ) Spring, Jodi Uecker, etc.

    Sage has a task to find an exec whose main goal is likely to be to stop the bleed of partners who have wound up on the platform as award winners at competing software company conferences. There is way more than a few - and these are all recurring sales Sage did not get, won’t get in the future and could completely have prevented if they plowed money into their channel and products.

    I’m calling this a rolling re-org. Sage seems out of ideas so as people leave they are going to recycle and re-off. I suspect Taylor’s crew of execs may start to disband as well.





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    Wayne Schulz - Schulz Consulting - 860-516-8990
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: So Long Taylor???

    Posted 08-05-2021 08:49
    I don't disagree with your comments, Wayne. And Nancy T seems to know how to survive here. 

    A new top dog usually ends up replacing nearly all the direct reports within 12-19 months. That was my one generalization about Nancy T's prospects. She might well survive with her new boss.

    There will be increased two-fold pressure on the channel (whether all indirect or mixed direct) to produce NCA for Intacct and keep long enough those current Sage 100 customers who will fit well into Intacct once it's tricked out with adequate distribution and mfg features. If anybody succeeds at doing that they'll have a very lucrative future post-Sage.

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

    Original Message


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