General Consultant Discussion

This is a most interesting story. Larger VARS, most recently Blytheco, taking on competing CRM. Is there something that Sage's 3 CRM packages can't do? Or is this just a big middle finger to Sage? Remember too that Blytheco just hired Jeff Gregorec as VP Sales in January 2012. Jeff ran the CRM area as a VP Sales until he left late in 2011. This is particularly noteworthy for a few reasons: A. Sage is going to give themselves a hernia if they push any harder to embed their own CRM into ERP systems. And for all that effort here is a group of top VARS who've gone around Sage and apparently marketed SugarCRM as an add-on (goodbye Sage connected service). B. If top partners are willing to go around Sage on CRM -- what else will they go around them for when connected services start to roll out? Remember Sage is talking about Connected Services as if that area might be a major growth engine for North America. What happens if Sage partners start to market connected services outside the Sage channel -- as some here appear to be doing with SageCRM? This is a potential battleground unless Sage thinks they can sell connected services without any VAR involvement. In my opinion this could get very interesting for many reasons - not the least of which it could test how much control Sage will exert over their channel should the channel try to market their own connected services outside Sage's reach (aka - where Sage doesn't earn any money on the connection).

For those of you reading thinking - meh, who cares. Two words --- connected services. Let me explain (and I could be all wrong in my analysis - so take this alongside your own decision making skills and form your own opinions/thoughts) Connected services have been hailed as the light at the end of the revenue growth tunnel for Sage NA revenue streams. Think about what's happening here. In essence SugarCRM is a connected service. You can make all sorts of technical arguments about what is and what isn't a connected service. For my purposes I will keep it simple and say a connected service is anything that generates revenue to someone that's not the core ERP product. It's a non-Sage product that connects by external link and generates recurring revenue. The difference? Sage presumably doesn't earn a penny when an ""official"" connected service is connected to their ERP. Hey BFD you're thinking... Ok - fast forward a year when more connected services start to roll out -- when Sage Exchange pushes out (which I presume is a giant money maker for Sage). What happens if more Sage VARS ""break rank"" and sell third party connected services where Sage doesn't get a cut? This is potentially a huge issue.

I agree the 4.5 prerelease guide seemed to have 10 pages of connected services. The road map to say the same thing. I think they are lost. I am surprised payroll has not been a bigger push. Every customer has to deal with that in some fashion. Sales tax is pushed more and fewer need

Sage actually did try payroll services about 3 - 4 years back with an Abra offering a link with MAS. My client actually attempted it twice. The first was shortly after they announced the service. At that time, they were so disorganized that nothing developed. About a year later, we tried again. Client purchasd Abra HR, started ramping up to go live at the first of the year only to be told a week before cutover that the PR being offered was not robust enough to meet the need. Many of you might recall the FLAMING e-mails that I published to the Yahoo group. Client invested about $15K and was only able to get about $6K back from Sage. Yes, PR would make an attractive service. Unfortunately, Sage doesn't have the talent to manage it. And if you are a company like ADP or Paychex, you don't really need Sage to push your product for you nor are you willng to give Sage the cut that Sage would want.

And I thought there was talk about someone developing a link for an alternative CC processor when the PC Charge door is shut.

On the CC front, I think authorize.net has a setup similar to Sage Exchange where all the compliance issues are handled in their ""cloud"". For payroll, the ""link"" is one GL entry per pay period - not a big deal.

What kind of integration is availible for SugarCRM to MAS?

Actually, doesn't the GL exchange program have this import functionality?? That part isn't a big deal (well, maybe for Sage it is). But where the real money is for managed services is in the PR processing. And I don't think Sage will dare touch that again............. Unless of course, they bought ADP or Paychex or some other established processor. They aren't going to do it with Abra.

@PhilMcIntosh - ""What kind of integration is available for SugarCRM to MAS?"" That kind of talk, sir, is TREASON! TREASON I SAY! :)

@PeterWolf Do you know anything about sugarcrm? Could you see why blytheco would break their sage only streak with this?

@MarkChinsky (+ everyone else) - One of my favorite Peter Drucker ideas is that a business serves two purposes: marketing and innovation. SugarCRM is good at both. ""Open Source"" - hot buzzword and for a certain segment of buyers (mostly IT nerds), this is a huge selling point. Reality check: SugarCRM is not truly open source. Testimonials / Videos / Collateral - they keep pumping this stuff out and they have sizzle. Sage doesn't get this mentality and is run by bean-counters that want to cost-cut to greatness. Salesforce and SugarCRM are led by evangelists who run their conferences like a come to jesus gathering. It works to build excitement. Feature set - honestly the SugarCRM product is weak - thin and not very deep. Think: NetSuite but on the CRM side. The great news for consultants is that the product is open to customizations and those customizations are normally required just to get a business up and running with the product. Translation: Lots of consulting $$$$. Subscription pricing - If you don't keep paying, you are cut off. This leads to good recurring revenue for partners at decent (not great) margins. The number one thing I hear from the SLX partners that pick it up is that they make a killing in consulting revenue because they can customize the product for client needs. The reality is, like I said above, it's kind of deceptive because they almost HAVE to customize it because the core feature set isn't all there. I don't blame people for behavior that has been rewarded by the customers who don't do their homework and buy off on ""open source"" without any consideration of options. It's nearly as bad as customers that want ""cloud"" regardless of any other element because they read an article about how ""cloud"" is where you need to be.

@PeterWolf - actually I was looking for competitive info, but if the integration is good enough to have you worried, maybe I should investigate further. :)

Faye Business Systems has a SugarCRM to MAS link

@haroldwestover - do you have any experience with the link or just going from what's on their website?