Something interesting is happening at Sage, but it looks like the company isn’t ready to tell its whole story. That’s a challenge if you happen to be hosting a combined partner and user group meeting, which Sage did this week in Washington, D.C. The company’s annual get-together had its share of announcements and keynotes, and the new CEO, Pascal Houillon, did a good job of introducing himself to the assembled masses. He made several announcements too, but I think some of the importance of Sage Summit happened between the lines.
Houillon introduced important new directions for the company in line with its global parent. That last bit, about the global parent, is important. We think of North America as the center of the world, but there are other parts, and not all software companies hail from here. While Sage North America (to use its full name) might be the biggest part of that empire, the parent organization still calls the shots, and some of what was announced has already been rolled out elsewhere, specifically the rebranding, which I will get to.
Sage is embracing three important directions, and while some were discussed before, the global company’s momentum is now clearly behind them. They include cloud computing, Sage Connected Services and a rebranding effort. Then there’s what’s between the lines.
Many of these changes have been in the offing, and Sage’s commitment to them mirrors what much of the rest of the industry has been doing. Because Sage sells exclusively through a partner channel and primarily to the SMB market, change has been relatively slow in coming, though. Part of the tardiness may come from Sage’s channel resistance and some from reticence emanating from overseas; regardless, the message I got was that change has arrived in the form of cloud computing, connected services and rebranding.
Cloud Computing
Major CRM product announcements were relatively sparse at the conference, in part because at least one, the 2012 release of the iconic ACT! product, will happen in August, as is traditional. Last Friday the company announced SalesLogix Advanced Analytics, an analytics package that will enable SalesLogix users to crunch customer data and derive the benefits of better customer-centric information, and that counts as an announcement.
So does the company’s announced commitment to cloud computing. Sage already offers SageCRM.com and SalesLogix Cloud edition, so its credentials have already been established in cloud computing. But whereas the message to partners last year was more like you have a choice, this year — though choice is still a prominent idea — the clear direction of the future is cloud, and partners are being advised to adapt their business models. The unofficial talk I heard was that the company will introduce a cloud orientation that is more substantial in the next 12 months or so, and this is where reading tea leaves becomes important. More after we talk about rebranding.
Connected Services
Perhaps the most concrete and interesting part of Sage’s announcements is what it is doing in connected services. Here the company deserves kudos for inventing something that none of its competition does quite the same way. A company like Sage is the logical choice to create connected services, given its large partner channel in the SMB space.
Briefly, connected services was announced last year, and this year the company has delivered some solutions, including e-Marketing for Sage CRM, a solution for ACT!, SageCRM(.com) and SalesLogix. Sage also introduced Business Information Services in conjunction with Hoovers, as well as some others.
The idea behind connected services is that the customer uses specialized functionality when needed, such as when developing a marketing campaign. The approach has two benefits. First, it saves the customer from having to buy or subscribe to software that it may not use frequently enough to justify paying for full-time. Second, the service comes with that other kind of service — real people who are experts and who can add value to the effort.
Other cloud schemes may enable a user to access specialty software, but that happens in a more conventional setting, where the customer makes a purchase. This is progress. While other vendors continue to offer a plethora of software through online stores, the idea of connected services replete with professional services deserves consideration.
Sage says they intend to roll out a raft of connected services, many developed by partners, but CEO Houillon assures all that they won’t rush the process and that they’ll take the time to ensure reliability of the offerings. While I can empathize with the sentiment, I think the company needs to understand that speed to market and reliability assurance need not be polar opposites. In this market, it is essential for a vendor to have both, and Sage needs to put some giddyup on this idea while it is unique to their offerings.
Rebranding Effort
The Sage self-perception is that the corporate brand, Sage, is not strong enough. Customers of products like Timberline and SalesLogix think of themselves as customers of those brands rather than of products from the parent organization. This should not come as a surprise, given that the company has grown by acquisition. Many customers may remember buying their solutions from another vendor, so the brand association is understandable.
Trouble comes when a Timberline user decides it needs CRM and a Sage partner has to go through a lengthy justification of, say, SalesLogix as a reliable product from the same company. In other circumstances, an incumbent vendor might have the poll position for CRM, but Sage says that doesn’t happen enough, and the company’s answer is to deemphasize the brand names and attempt to build up Sage.
I am not sure of the wisdom of this approach, especially considering that the strategy is to replace the brand names with numbers. The naming scheme was not discussed, but the idea is that Timberline, for example, might become Sage Accounting 300, or whatever. Accountants might warm to the idea of numbers, but I am not sure about losing all the Timberline brand equity. I am told that this approach is being implemented in other parts of the Sage empire with great success, but you can put me down as a skeptic.
In my humble opinion, if Sage wants to build up its corporate brand, that’s what it should do. Messing with the other brand names seems like an attempt to solve the wrong problem, but I am just reporting here. The rebranding will take place over the course of the next 12 to 18 months, and we need to take a wait-and-see attitude. Some partners I’ve heard from like the idea and others don’t. Sardonic rumormongers have suggested ACT!’s name be changed to Sage CRM 101 (LOL!). We’ll see.
The Future
To help partners adjust their business models to cloud computing and selling more and different business services, Sage Partner VP Tom Miller told us about one of the many education courses that Sage is offering its partners. Called “The Firm of the Future,” the week-long course helps partners through a process that examines current and future business models and helps them build a plan to move forward.
Sage has always been education-heavy, offering partners lots of courses to help them succeed in business, and The Firm of the Future is another in that line. It’s a good thing in theory, and many partners will benefit from it.
My Analysis
Migrating to a cloud computing business model is complex and challenging for both Sage and its partner network. While cloud computing can be accomplished with little re-architecting simply by making applications available on cloud infrastructure, this is a great opportunity for Sage to go further. Most other vendors in the front and back office have developed products based on a single code set that can be deployed on-premise or as SaaS, and they offer a choice of single or multi-tenant models. I think this is where Sage is headed, or where it should be headed.
The company now has many separate products based on different platforms, which it must enhance and upgrade individually. While this is certainly possible, it has a cost that a company with similar numbers of products and a more consistent code set doesn’t have to deal with. As Sage contemplates its move to the cloud, and in light of the effort at rebranding, I think it makes sense to expect more news from the vendor about consolidating its technology. This is my analysis, and I can’t find a Sage executive to give credence to my idea, so don’t bet the mortgage money on this as a prediction.
Nonetheless, if Sage wants to be more competitive and improve its brand position, it has to do more than change names. Rebranding without some more fundamental effort to rationalize the product lines doesn’t make much sense, and perhaps that’s what simplified product names is suggesting. If Sage wants to present itself as a family of related products under one roof, they need to go for greater commonality among products. To me this position is very interesting. Partners may worry about their future, and that’s understandable. But no one should expect to hold everything constant forever.
Cloud computing has been around for a long time, and Sage and its partners have taken a conservative position regarding change. The surest way to survive and prosper will be for partners to embrace change. Even though all the pieces may not be in place yet, Sage has painted a reasonably complete picture of its future, and it’s time for the partners to step up.
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