Sage News and Discussion

This is odd that they did not announce Robert Deshaies departure as part of the re-org of his reports.

CRM units now report to the CFO?

CFO's are responsible for squeezing all the blood out of the turnip before turning out the lights. I would hazard a guess that these will be prettied up before being taken to the livestock auction center.

@JeffSchwenk Bingo!

@LouisAraiza - Saleslogix and Act! are now considered non-core assets (which is the basis for Jeff's comment).

I agree. SLX & ACT! (which do complement) are now officially on the auction block.

SalesLogix is a very good product. Surprised someone has not snatched it up.

First it has to be for sale. I think Sage has finally gotten off that pot.

It will be interesting to see who steps forward for them. The CRM market is dominated by salesforce and MS. A strategy for a stand alone CRM product of SalesLogix's (small) size isn't obvious to me. I don't think it could work unless part of a larger parent for the $$$ insurance. It has a really fine web client now. The CRM components of Netsuite and SAP suck; it would be a hoot if they bought SLX to fix that.

Based on the lack of care given to these products over the past several years, do they have the foundation to become profitable again. Or will they be sold for parts to fix someone else's product. And if that is the case, would Sage sell to a competitor who could turn arround and cause even more damage to Sage?

Jeff, I disagree with the ""lack of care"" assessment. Especially SLX has had significant technology advances. Feature for feature it is as good and often better than those 2 main competitors. It lacks in a large 3rd-party community - an App Store - and increasingly that is a problem. A larger, more progressive parent might be able to change that. Oddly, I'm pretty sure that SLX revenue in NA is substantially more than Sage CRM.

So if that is the case then, why was CRM tapped to be the king and not SLX? Because it wasn't ""English"" enough?

My guess? Like most Sage buys, SLX didn't get appropriate R&D spend and its tech has gotten a little old. Despite the enhancements that Jerry mentions, it's a little late and the architecture is considered a bit stale by many. Another angle is that Sage CRM was designed from the ground up as a web based system. Web = Cloud = sexy = sales. Just my 2 cents and wild guess.

What Peter said and that CRM has market share in Europe.

The delays to finish the web architecture were killer. Definite example of an investment that could paid off richly; but they played the pauper and stretched it out, missing opportunities. IMHO, when Sage decided that Sage CRM was the preferred product for integrations, it defined the ultimate path. Sage has decided in the past year that it is basically only interested in CRM strategically because it can enhance ERP sales. Neither salesforce nor MS look at CRM that way. Netsuite has its CRM as only a check-off. For a large chunk of businesses, CRM has become more important than that. I'm skeptical.

@RobertWood - I almost mentioned that Sage CRM has a global foot print but when I've made the comment in the past to SLX partners and Sage people, I have been told that SLX does have global sales too. Not sure what that foot print is though...

Jerry - the importance of CRM within Sage is driven by the need to: a) Fill a need for CRM within existing ERP clients. This is essential so they don't see massive pull-aways if people put in SFDC or MS CRM or other CRM packages. b) Increase revenue short and long-term. The real play here is recurring revenue with Sage CRM Cloud. The attach rate is next to nothing so there is a huge opportunity for short-term $$$ bump and long-term revenue stability via renters.

BTW - sorry I know you know this stuff. My point is that Sage isn't looking at CRM like most other CRM providers.

I frankly think this move is also an acknowledgement of what's been slowly doing in the partner channel. The larger SLX partners all have picked up either Sugar CRM or MS - or both. I'm not as active in this as I once was, but it sounds like the preferred product among them is Sugar -- which has annual rev or $1bn! So selling off SLX will probably kill what is left of that channel, unless a really interesting parent is found.

Peter, thanks. And my point is that I think the Sage view on it is a mistake strategically. It's been fascinating to see the movement that sfdc has made in integrating to ERP's.

What choice does Sage really have? The products are not architected for the web. In all likelihood they won't be architected. It's tread water until they can grab something that sells well via the cloud or they can bolster ERPX3. Read Howlett's ZDNET piece because I think he has hit the nail squarely on the head. Also nearly all the strategy is UK based now. North America is not doing any decision making that is material to company direction.

Wayne, you have a great knack for cutting to quick. I must admit that I'm not being completely unemotional right now. Howlett's piece is very good. I hadn't quite processed the full shift to UK. It is tough row for them; I can't think of any UK-based tech company to succeed in NA. Maybe they'll be the first.

It still seems like a 'rearrangement' to show the UK there is action, but I don't see how this affects anything

During my time on the Customer Advisory Board for SalesLogix I was struck by how many large companies such as NYSE used SLX as a stand alone product. Most had highly customized SLX and were pretty pleased with the product. Not that many integrated with accounting. In the meeting Sage seemed to have plans to do a lot with it. However when Travis Nesbitt left it seems that everything stopped. They did not even bother to notify the board that there was no more board. Too bad as SLX could be a real powerhouse in CRM. We used SLX on my previous job and what it could do was amazing. SageCRM pales in comparison. For example we were able to track daily maintenance work on buses and write monthly reports detailing the work done on each bus each day. And this was with stock SLX, no mods at all was needed.

You're right, Louis: SLX has some remarkable customization and flexibility. Significant customizations can generally be made with less development effort than MS Dynamics CRM. Unless a significant parent is found, no large company will touch it now. Too bad.

Sounds like @LouisAraiza is calling @PeterWolf out for a duel.

If you like it so much, why don't you marry it? ^_^