Sage Makes Commitments to Customers and Partners

The keynote of Sage Software's Insights 2006 convention, held this year in Nashville, Tenn., was all about the numbers. More than 4,000 people were in attendance; the company announced it had just reached 5 million worldwide customers; 20 products were announced; and president and CEO Ron Verni spoke at length of the seven commitments Sage was continuing to keep with its partner resellers and customers. "Nashville is a fitting place to have this conference," Verni said to lead off the introductory session. "It's a city of ambition, with musicians coming here to try and build their careers; you [the attendees] are likewise trying to grow your business." Verni likened the seven commitments--to SMBs, to the speed of the customer, to services (software as a service as well as installed code), complete solutions, presenting one face to customers, being customer connected, and to the partners--to the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, the bestselling book written by fellow speaker Dr. Stephen R. Covey. Among the announcements accompanying the keynote speech was the Sage Migrator, a program to enable ACT! by Sage data migration to Sage CRM, SageCRM.com and Sage CRM SalesLogix. According to the company, Sage Migrator also will help users of competing CRM systems transition to a Sage CRM solution. Migration from Goldmine to all Sage CRM Solutions was introduced as the first in a series of competitive migration paths. "The Sage CRM Solutions portfolio covers the broadest addressable market of all CRM vendors, and the new Sage Migrator helps our customers expand the value of their CRM investments. As our customers' businesses evolve, they can expect simple and flexible migration to the appropriate CRM product in the Sage portfolio," explained Dave Batt, general manager of Global CRM for Sage Software, in a statement accompanying the announcement. "And since change is inevitable in today's business climate, the Sage Migrator also allows customers of competitive CRM products to migrate to the most appropriate Sage CRM Solutions product." Those migration services will likely prove useful in light of the other main announcement of the day--20 new products covering the entire range of Sage's offerings, including a new version of Sage CRM SalesLogix, due for release this summer and sporting enhanced dashboards, marketing and customer service support, full mobility, and enhanced back-office integration. "Small and mid-sized businesses have different needs throughout their growth cycles, so they rely on their business solutions partners to provide software and services that map to their growth requirements," Verni said. "Our focus on the needs of small and mid-sized businesses for the past 30 years has helped us to provide the end-to-end solutions they require to manage effectively for today and throughout their growth." Related articles: Sage's New Global Strategy Best Software Yields Sage Insights