Sage News and Discussion

You don't usually see Bob Scott get into the politics of Sage much, but this don't sound pretty. Nothing we haven't already discussed here however: SAGE CHANNEL MOOD: UGLY Previous newsletter items have talked about Sage VARs having wandering eyes for other vendors. I don't think I'm beating a dead software package because what has become clear over the last two weeks is that the channel is distressed by what it sees the company doing, including competing with direct sales and according to some, denying that. There have always been those who griped about Sage. But this is the first time I have heard from resellers who believe that Sage has lied to them. I won't get into the opinions I've heard about the French leadership. But perhaps it is best stated by Mark Twain (as relayed by Hal Holbrook) that ""man is created a little lower than the angels and a little higher than the French."" I have not been able to find a reseller who has an overall good opinion of the company currently There is certainly a belief out there that the French management does not understand the American software distribution market and has no interest in listening. There is also a belief that Sage continues to put the emphasis on shareholders dividends, instead of investing in product development. And while the early view was the X3 would be a software savior, there is increasing discussion that the product has more than its share of problems. More than one top reseller has labeled the company's rebranding program as ""stupid. The keynote at August's Summit conference should get an interesting reception, depending on how many VARs decide to show up.

At Summit if Pascal's keynote isn't well received, is the audience going to throw stale croissants instead of tomotaes?

Nah! We'll stick with tomatoes.

Can you get tomatoes through TSA screening?

Since we'll be in Nashville, we should throw hot chicken.

The keynote should be interesting. My guess is if they sense discord they'll work partners up on stage into the presentation. Hard for the group to boo other partners. Or maybe not.

I think we should sneak in a guillotine........... I can bring a Les Miz sound track.

If not, I'm sure we can find some in Nashville...then again we might be able to find pig poo too.

I keep reading that piece and keep thinking if Bob Scott is publishing this, it's really bad.

I disagree about the keynote. Pascal doesn't understand the basics of human interaction. He will get up there and give some disconnected, dis-spiriting message to kick off the show. Just like last time. Contrast that with Salesforce.com where Mark Benioff literally works the crowd - walking through the crowd, shaking hands and having brief side conversations ""how you doing? Great to see you? These guys are one of our best customers."" Things like that. If you want to rouse a crowd, there is nothing wrong with talking about the past failures but you need to follow it with an uplifiting ""here's where we are going to be tomorrow! YEAH MOTHER FUCKERS!!!!"". He's incapable of doing it on multiple fronts. Sage's closest thing to someone that can connect emtionally is Tom Miller but Pascal has neutered him and his group. Shame. Shame. Shame on Pascal and Sage UK for putting him in this role.

Even Sage employees have low moral (at least ones I know anyway who are willing to talk about it).

I agree @DawnAnastasi. It's amazing how fast Pascal has created a culture of fear built on fascism and totalitarianism. He should be proud.

Peter, I didn't you were repping for Salesforce now??????? To paraphrase President Johnson, ""if we've lost Peter, we've lost the American people

It hasn't been pretty, has it @JeffSchwenk?

- Keynote. I expect Pascal to spend 20 minutes there. I think they will use Langner for any required showmanship. I have no idea how good he is at that, but he can't be worse the Pepe Lepue. I think they have plenty of execs who have dealt with winding up a sales force, just not a channel force; should be close enough. - keep in mind that Benioff is a salesman at heart. Some would say a BS Artist. I don't know that a Sage-branded Benioff would be much good. - I sat in on the Recognition webinar. > Summit reg's are 5% ahead of last yr, both customer and partner. > We see less of Blytheco in sales results. Same for Brainsell. I think the really big guys are moving more quickly than Sage planned. I expect to see Sage spend time working on grooming the mid-sized partners. Not a bad thing. They might have mixed feelings about channel, but they know they can't lose the whole thing.

Or maybe Sage will put Ed up on stage. He may be their last best shot at connecting. Wonder how many people sign up for Summit just to go see how Sage spins their behavior and partner attitude.

Awfully expensive week just to do that!!!!!

Especially if registration is really not up 5% - hard to believe that it is !

I go into EVERY Sage event thinking this will be the year that NOBODY shows up -- and I've never guessed right. For some reason Sage seems to draw a pretty standard attendance. It's difficult to get an accurate number on any event because Sage could count/not count employees, vendors, press, etc. The only number that counts really is the number who show up. My guess is that it will be about flat. The number that stay home will be offset by the curiosity seekers.

After spending many years going to various conferences and conventions, withdrawing from attending is difficult to do. No one wants to take a chance that they will miss something. We don't really know what the 5% measures - Total attendence (both halves), paid admissions, etc. I think Sage will do EVERYTHING (even tell little fibs) to keep a positive spin on the event! I think many of the resellers attend so that they can interact with other resellers or to shepard their clients through the process. Some even bet benefit from interacting with the Sage employees......

I for one have made a decision to not attend this year. I have also received several messages from someone at Sage checking on when I would be registering or reminding me to register for Summit. Personally, I have been very disenchanted with Sage and would prefer to stay home and do billable work than spend a chunk of change to hear something that will probably frustrate me even more.

Yeah, I keep getting those emails too. Then again, I've already registered.