SageConnections is over for another year and I’m knackered. Trying to save money for trips organisers by finding what I thought was the most economical route to the UK came at a personal price I don’t plan to pay again anytime soon. It took me as much time to get there (and back) as it would if I’d flown from London to San Francisco (and back.) Two visits to Paris CDG airport in one week is more than any person should have to bear. Note: if you’re planning on passing through CDG, take a flask of coffee. At €4.20 a cup, they’re ripping you off.
Travel woes aside, Sage did a great job in locating me within 2 minutes walk of the conference in the brand spanking new Manchester Deansgate Hilton. I appreciate that because I know I’ll spend most of my time schlepping from one meeting to another. At my age, that’s tiring.
Hats off to Sage’s PR attitude of ‘access all areas.’ Ralph Charlton who heads Sage’s UK PR, more than ably assisted by Lisa Graveling made sure everything I needed was in place. They were brave enough to host me for a dinner on the first evening. We discussed or touched upon communications, hate mail, doing an MBA in New Zealand, the joys of farm living in Northumbria, Lakeland tourism, Argentinian wine and Lancastrian black pudding. They were both genuinely gracious and tolerant of my sometimes strident views. Most important, they didn’t act like the usual PR thought police. Thanks folks. Much appreciated.
Paul Stobart, Klaus-Michael Vogelberg and Greg Ford were all ‘straight’ in their answers in a way you don’t find in the US, where comments are usually prefaced by: ‘I’d probably say that…’ as though there is some alter ego in the room. However, on the product roadmap, they were less than vague. More fog-like woolly. I want rough time estimates. They weren’t forthcoming. It is understandable in the context of the technical challenges and difficulty in assessing priorities. The best we got to was: Sage = hybrid 2008. My one disappointment was not being able to find IBM folk who could add insight into the new relationship. That’s probably down to me but the fact is IBM only had a retail solutions stand and Sage didn’t field any IBM reps.
As always, the conversations away from the halls are the most illuminating. Which kind of validates my nicotine addiction issues 
You can readily argue that opinions from my self selecting addicts sample are biased by virtue of having to withstand a wet and windy exterior in order to indulge the addiction I balanced that with exhibition time. Tip: coffee and lunch breaks are great times to get opinion.
Whether I’m a crap magnet or not I don’t know. I think no because whenever I meet delegates at these conferences, I always ask the same question: ‘What do you think of the show?’ as a conversation opener. It elicits a variety of responses. Here’s my generalised take:
- Practitioners were almost unanimously angry about the integration message. They feel Sage is re-treading ground it should have resolved a long time ago. A variety of seemingly minor gotcha’s are becoming the kind of tiny issue that ultimately leads to divorce. One delegate for instance said the conference had confirmed his need to find a new solution. i’ve never heard that said at any of the many conferences I’ve attended in the last 15 years. Another was exasperated at effectively being on development hold. Another talked about clunky linking mechanisms. And yet another bemoaned unpredictable control account balancing errors. And one talked about payroll stationery issues. Contrary to belief, I didn’t set out to find these people or prompt them in any way. Maybe ‘the glass half empty’ view of the world is in the British DNA? I dunno. Sage really needs to get much closer to this influencer group than it is right now. Relations will never be perfect but if they stop thinking of them as another channel but as key influencers that need nurturing then progress will be swift. If you apply a very rough equation: 650K Sage users. They claim to reach 16K practitioners. Equates to 40 clients each on average. One pissed off practitioner equates to 41 potential customers. That’s worth £16-24K pa minimum per practice per annum to Sage = £385-575 million. Even if I’m 50% off, that’s still a huge number. No-one talked about practice management. Ominous.
- Partners were broadly relieved to hear Sage is going mySQL and that integration is firmly on the agenda. I was surprised they didn’t make more noise about the recent Line 50 2007 debacle. Concerns were expressed about event organisation and at least one person said they should look to the US model as that works well.
- Customers were looking for solutions and broadly seemed to find what they were looking for. A charming lady explained how Sage had allayed her fears around tax penalties as they upgrade from Instant to Line 50. You don’t expect to hear that at a tech conference! However, the technical support for customisations remains a weakness. One IT guy in a small business (yes – they do exist) talked about issues around barcode support. Customers with issues seemed remarkably patient and willing to give Sage the benefit of time to get it right. But they won’t have forever.
Like all businesses with many customers, Sage has its problems. But some issues are starting to look like running sores. I welcome the additional R&D funding but as I came away I concluded it isn’t enough. I suspect Sage needs to reallocate by effectively freezing functional enhancements. There was a hint of that from things Paul and Klaus-Michael said about functional bloat. Something that was echoed among customers. I also believe Sage needs to engage directly with developers to discover how the community can help Sage. I know for instance that a few VARs donate utility code for important fixes. Where’s the recognition for that?
I sense there is a whiff of Sage being at a tipping point. Top management seems well aligned to the need for solving its technical problems. That’s a first. They’re putting (some of) their money where their mouth is. That’s good. Now they need to execute while listening and responding to customer need.
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