90 Minds Community

In 90 Minds we have a variety of partner organizations and individuals.  Many of us have been Sage partners and consultants for 30 or more years and have experience a huge change in the leadership and direction of Sage.  There are many approaches to be a Sage partner or consultant:

1. A sales oriented partner
2. A lifestyle partner
3. A services partner
4. A partner of another software

The Sales Oriented Partner
I remember the 80's when buy MAS90 Cheap got both President's Circle and scorn from Dave Butler and websites banned.  Some partners continued to find ways to sell and leave a trail of orphans for the services and lifestyle partners.  The mergers happened and the demise of other partner styles were grossly overstated.  However, I would venture a guess that a good percentage are have become lifestyle partners and/or joined forces with a sales oriented partner. Bottom line... Sage wants you to be sales oriented, so resistance is futile if you want Sage love.

The Lifestyle Partner
Coming out of the corporate world, big companies,  after working for a sales oriented partner, or coming out of the CPA frim, many of us decided that the work life balance needed a rebalancing towards life.   For years this lifestyle has supported our families and probably was the dominant category within 90 Minds.  The dominance of the CPA in the channel waned, Sage lost vision of what made MAS 90 great (feature rich, easy to use, easy to maintain and focused on a single technology platform) and being a lifestyle VAR became more difficult with certification requirements, technology complexity, and Sage focused on sales over service.  This has forced many lifestyle partners to join the unofficial or official master VARs.

The Services Partner
Sage created a role for individual consultants to hang out shingles and provide services directly or indirectly through partners and many of us migrated to this model.  No sales pressure and work life balance.

Other Software Partner
With the onset or onslaught of Cloud native software customers have moved to Intacct, Netsuite, Accumatica and others.  Is the software or technology better?  Is their marketing better?  Do they treat their partners better?  I have my opinions, but at the end of the day, Sage did not act fast enough or treat their partners in a way to keep Sage Select as a valued proposition from the partner community.  The grass may not be greener, or may not stay as green as it looks today, but we know the brown field we stand in.

The Right Answer
90 Minds started and has been led by a bunch of big brains who wanted to help each other more than Sage wanted to help us.  The correct answer is really whatever works for you in your lifestyle and retirement timeline. The good news and beauty of 90 Minds is that we can help each other with sales, services or cloud.

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Gary Feldman
Cloud Evangelist
I-Business Network, LLC
Marietta GA
6786270646 x224
http://www.summithosting.com
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Well said, Gary. I hope we can collect lots of members to help us improve 90 Minds to provide more helpful resources to the consultants wanting to make the most of their skills, assets, and connections.

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