90 Minds Community

Well this is interesting. Sage signs some type agreement with Salesforce. Looks like internal use ?

https://www.business-cloud.com/articles/news/sage-coming-salesforce-appexchange

Now that my eyes are open (most Sage press releases arrive in the early morning hours due to the UK time zone difference) -- this looks like bad news for Sage CRM, probably introduces another round of reorganization within 6-12 months. Who would have thought the Sage CRM love child would be the first to potentially be put up for adoption? Any way you slice it - not good news to issue a press release that as an ERP company you will be using someone else's product internally. On the flip side you could argue that other companies -- namely Microsoft - have been forced to save face (and their company) by making big integrations into competitors (think Android / iOS). I wonder if this is the last of the big news.

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This is just BS - what products is Sage actually using internally?? We know not X3 but SAP, Maybe Sage Intelligences not, HRMS for payroll - probably not - but they should would be a huge savings! This is just a real motivator for the staff.

I heard someone from Sage (can't recall who, Deborah?) say they outsource their payroll. No, I think it was Gina.

This is likely more a result of extreme frustration with SAP CRM, their current tool, than anything else. Sage as a company is outside the target market of Sage CRM. That said, I do think this is further confirmation that Sage the ERP company has no clue about the functionality, current and potential, of Sage CRM. It certainly did not understand Saleslogix, which has now replaced sfdc as the internal CRM at Infor.

I agree with Jerry. This is no more a condemnation of Sage CRM than their current usage of SAP CRM. It is funny that the North American crew has been begging to use something other than Sage CRM for years but were told no but Sage UK can do whatever the heck they want.

Underestimate and second guess Sage UK at your own peril.

The timing of my attendance at the Acumatica Partner Summit this week was perfect.

I know that it isn't as fun as a conspiracy theory but I have more news that indicates that this was not a well thought out or well discussed plan but rather a departmental initiative that was undertaken without larger consensus. Shit is hitting the fan within Sage right now over this.

Yes. I see little understanding at Sage about what it must do to make Sage CRM viable in the market so it can participate in that market's growth. The product is good, but the company must loudly promote it as a stand alone SMB solution. It is not really doing that, and I don't yet see signs that will. I hope I'm wrong, but I see no reason to update my Bayesian priors ...

@PeterWolf that is amazing to hear! I can't wait to see the fall out.

@PeterWolf wake up and smell the coffee -- this is on Sage's corporate investor page - this is not some rogue department within Sage who told SFDC ""Yeah ok go ahead and put out a SFDC press release and in return how about some free seats"". Facts and circumstances tell me this is a potentially major strategy shift starting at the top for Sage.

Why don't you explain exactly what you see is going to happen here, Wayne? What's the scenario that you see playing out?

a) milk (aka Sage 100), (b) VC it (aka MIP) or (c) Sell (aka Saleslogix/ACT) - no way no how this release accidentally wound up on the investor page of Sage corporate. Whoever is telling you that is blowing smoke.

You still haven't explained what the scenario is regarding Sage CRM?

Did anybody notice the Greytrix announcement using web services to connect sfdc to Sage 100? there are now a couple of these. Sage might have concluded that there as much appeal to current and prospective customers for Sage CRM integration as it thought, and is shifting to make it easier to connect common CRM to the ERP. I think Sage's real problem is understanding CRM needs for NEW customers. Certainly the X3 market already has some CRM standing in any new prospect's house. sfdc likely is the largest share of that market segment. So ... I still wonder whether UK thinks it needs to beef up the appeal of Sage 100 (and similar products ww) while X3 builds out. If so, what are the likely CRM needs of those new customers as they look at replacing the older/smaller ErP they already use? I think it *possible* that Sage is trying to finesse its way out of a significant CRM effort.

Near as I can tell based on a very public press release the Global CRM crown just got knocked off Sage CRM's head

I'm willing to take a bet that you are wrong.

Milk/VC/Sell = most likely scenarios

Where's this dude going to wind up? SFDC evangelist?

The people involved at the lower level (aka anyone in NA) don't have any idea. This is all managed from UK.

I must say that this announcement, the blowback that Peter hears echoes from I saw and heard when SLX was cut loose.

This would explain Sage's insistence that Sage CRM Cloud integrate with Sage 100 only through the Sage Data Cloud. That approach *greatly* simplifies the challenge of other CRM's to integrate to Sage ERPs.

I'm done. This is all speculation. Typical Sage - put some half-baked news out and let everyone waste time and energy in speculation. I have better things to do.

There are literally a bazillion CRM packages out there. Most are aimed at smaller companies, and most won't last a few years, but the number is shocking. (Sam Biardo had a LI thread collecting them. Basically there a lot of coders who think it is fun to create ""the best"" CRM package.) Sage might well have concluded that, contrary to received wisdom, an ERP package can sell just fine without its own CRM. I don't agree with the conclusion, but I can see how they might see it. Especially if Sage must continue to hit its financial targets which prevent significant, non-revenue-based investment in CRM.

In a similar but different case, Infor. Without going into details, This company seems to be doing a pretty good job of rewriting their legacy ERP packages for the cloud. It really doesn't seem to be just putting lipstick on a pig. Anyway, their ERP's aim at X3 targets and larger. They had a very cooperative relationship with sfdc, and also used it internally. Customer dissatisfaction with that arrangement is largely what put them in the market to find their own CRM a year ago. Infor is comparable in size to Sage, although it's non-NA footprint is smaller, and the median and average customer size is larger. They are going the opposite direction from what we speculate Sage is doing.

This just reminds me of the Sage Summit I think last year when one of the product managers were touting how they wake up every morning and look at their phone for ""Intelligence"" from Domo. Why would they not wake up and not be touting their Sage Intelligence? I guess now wake up and get on Salesforce to generate sales. It is just ashame they do not use their own products to learn and experience the frustrations like we have.

Ummm, they have a business to grow??

@JeffSchwenk Looks like they just grew Salesforce business and hurt their bottom line. The licensing costs will be huge for this type of rollout at Sage - I just got off the phone with a client on Salesforce - they want to come to SageCRM - the salesforce cost was over 20K a year for 20 people - I can only imagine the costs for Sage - for 200 to 500 people?

@JeffSchwenk You better start selling more Sage 100 so you can help pay for this!

The phrase ""Do as I say, not as I do"" comes to mind.

I think Sage should be trying to own certain segments of the market. I think they could own(on premise) accounting, dist, mfg, CRM, intelligence, and on premise payroll. They should be promoting how they have used Sage intelligence to solve this marketing persons challenge. Not go and get someone elses product. Are we going to see a Saleforce promo at the next Summit?

BTW, xTuple runs on xTuple - server name is ""dogfood"".. Just saying...