Sage MAS 90 & MAS 200 ERP Software News & Tips
A Gaze into Sage’s Future Priorities

It may seem odd, but sometimes looking back can make the path forward seem even brighter. As we have just recently started another new year, I thought it appropriate to review where Sage has been with their MAS 90 and 200 ERP software products in the last year, and perhaps even more importantly, what are their priorities and where they are going in the next.

Industry Analysts Road Show
In reviewing 2010, there have been a number of changes in the executive management ranks, both abroad and here in the United States. In early February of this year, the Sage North America executive team, led by Sage Group Chief Executive Guy Berruyer and Sage North America CEO Sue Swenson, made presentations to various industry analysts. In an all day session comprising over 200 PowerPoint slides, you can imagine that a lot of ground was covered across multiple business units. The top four key priorities driving it all forward from here are shown below:

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Focusing on the results in North America specifically, the numbers currently are as indicated below. The 3.2 million customer number is quite staggering all by itself. Of course these numbers represent customers across all product segments, but these are still very significant accomplishments.

So how is Sage going to execute on their four priorities? For starters, they are committed to creating an extraordinary customer experience. One of their objectives is to get much closer to you, the end user of their products.

New Support Offerings

As depicted in the Sage Ecosystem illustration above, you can see that Sage views their future role as being much closer aligned with the customer and playing an integral and direct part in your daily experience with their products. Integrated Computer Systems is depicted as the “Business Partner” in this image. In markets where the customer’s ERP investment is in the neighborhood of $500,000 and up, customers frequently expect to have a strong and direct relationship with the publisher. And the size of the opportunity and customer relationship is large enough that it warrants the publisher’s investment in doing so. However, in the traditional SME market segment where the MAS 90 and 200 products are used, the typical alignment is much more of a direct relationship between the publisher and the business partner, and then between the business partner and the end user customer as shown below.

This model generally works very well for all concerned when the business partner is strong and committed. The business partner is familiar with the staff, the MAS system configuration, and the needs of the customer’s business. And there is always the added value of conducting business and getting the support you need in your local community as opposed to 1000’s of miles away.

Obviously if the business partner is weak for some reason, then their poor performance is felt by their end user customers as well. In those situations, the new Sage Ecosystem might be beneficial for addressing certain specific needs. However, I would suggest that finding an alternative strong local business partner would be a much more effective overall solution than relying on the new Sage Ecosystem model.

The reality is that as a publicly traded company, Sage needs to find ways to grow their top line revenue. Since revenues from license sales and subscriptions are essentially flat lined, they are looking for a boost from support services revenue, and they will be reaching out to you in hopes of gaining your support business. In doing so, the thought is that it will have a positive impact on their first two priorities mentioned at the beginning of the article.

You should know that Sage’s support personnel, or any ERP publisher's support staff, are for the most part only going to have expertise in how their product is designed to function from a textbook perspective. They are going to gain their experience from attending classes and reading manuals. They are generally not going to gain boots-on the-ground experience that is frequently necessary to know how the product should function in your environment with your business requirements.

Sage will no doubt devise various financial incentives and promotions to entice you into signing up for their support contracts, However, I would advise proceeding with great caution before taking that leap. If you are considering other support alternatives for your MAS 90 or MAS 200 system, please review our article in this newsletter announcing new alternative ICS Support Plan offerings.

Please contact Integrated Computer Systems Support at 425-820-6120 for questions or more information.

 

Sage’s support personnel are for the most part only going to have expertise in how their product is designed to function from a textbook perspective. They are generally not going to gain boots-on the-ground experience that is frequently necessary to know how the product should function in your environment with your business requirements.

I would advise proceeding with great caution before taking the leap to a direct support contract with Sage. If you are considering other support alternatives for your MAS 90 or MAS 200 system, please review our article in this newsletter announcing new alternative ICS Support Plan offerings.