Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

I am back in the office after a whirlwind trip to Denver for the annual Sage Insights conference. This 2010 edition was my first as a Sage alumnus and I came away with a feeling that not only is Sage, and its ecosystem of partners, world-class in business but also as people. I guess I knew this all along, but sometimes it takes time away to truly appreciate it.

Here are a few of my conference observations:

Cloud computing is moving to the forefront of the Sage product strategy. In his keynote presentation, Himanshu Palsule, EVP of product strategy and marketing, called cloud computing one of two major trends to capitalize upon and introduced Sage North America’s cloud-based “connected services” as a key product strategy pillar. Connected services take “the richness of on-premise applications and connect to the reach of cloud-based services.” The launches of Sage SalesLogix Cloud and Sage Fundraising Online are examples of Sage dipping a toe in the “cloud” water (does that make it “rain”?)

Visitors at Indicee's booth at Sage Insights keenly interested in Cloud BI....or maybe Craig was sharing another uproarious story from trade shows past.

Business intelligence continues to gain in prominence within the Sage community. This year’s conference featured an entire presentation track dedicated to business intelligence, analysis, and reporting. And if the buzz at the Indicee booth was any indication, the opportunities for cloud-based analysis and reporting solutions are immense. Business partners outlined the challenges that clients are facing when it comes to creating and updating reports especially when the data resides in multiple systems such as Sage ERP MAS or Sage ERP Accpac and SageCRM. Conversations also revealed that the complexity and costs of typical on-premise BI solutions are often barriers to adoption.

Sage ERP Accpac – still near and dear to me – continues to garner much attention as the ERP of the future (very near future with Version 6 beta just around the corner); the slick user interface and improved workflow continue to impress. Kudos to the product team under the leadership of Scott Zandbergen, Erik Kaas, Alok Tyagi, and others.

The Simply Accounting group under the stewardship of Jamie Sutherland continues to be one of the most innovative teams in the Sage family. They have followed up on the success of Billing Boss, the online invoicing tool, with a mobile payment processing solution called Payment Boss.

Sage continues to be the “partner’s choice” for top vendor–forthrightness, integrity, and accessibility are a few of the words that come to mind to describe Sage. Speaking with fellow attendees and trolling the online forums, common themes are the positive feeling about the Sage team and a real bullishness about the Sage strategy.

A big shout-out to the entire Sage team for pulling off another successful Insights conference. Can’t wait until Sage Summit 2011 in DC.

Keep dialed into this channel for more Indicee news including the upcoming launch of our iPhone & iPad mobile reporting application (incidentally, Himanshu indicated that mobility was the other key trend influencing Sage product direction).

Scott Pledger

What is it about life in a startup that is so compelling? Certainly not the coffee. We have amazing developers in our company, none of whom left a promising career as a barrista to join our team.

For me, it’s the opportunity to have impact. The ability to go out on a limb. The chance to come up with ridiculously creative ways to save a buck.

Attending Sage Insights 2010 conference in Denver this week. Hanging with old friends and making new ones in the Mile High City. For those of us that have done time as the “booth babe” or “demo dolly”, traipsing our laptops, banners, flags, t-shirts, business cards and promotional literature around the country, we recognize the high cost of shipping all of our wares from show to show. After 10 years and over 100 shows, someone suggested I try taking my booth on the airplane with me. Ok, it’s hardly carry-on luggage. The pilot never comes on to suggest that anyone wheeling aboard a trade show booth should please place it in the overhead bins wheels first. I took it anyway. It’s about $800 to ship one of these things, not to mention, for us Canadians, the pain and suffering of dealing with customs brokers while cross-border shipping.

So, away I went, booth in hand. If you’ve never shipped one, they’re not exactly teensy. About 65lbs and over 3 feet tall. Basically, it’s like shipping an 8 year old. A really wide 8 year old with wheels on the bottom. I expected it to take a while for everyone to figure out what to do with my over-sized package, so I made sure I arrived very early for my flight. Much to my surprise, they’ve handled this sort of thing before. No problem. 25 bucks and a baggage tag later, I was dropping the booth off at the oversize bag check-in.

Of course, arriving in Denver, I fully expected to deal with lost luggage, my booth bound for Spain. Nope. There it was, in all its glory, already unloaded from the belt when I arrived by the carousel, and as fast as I could wheel it over to the regular luggage offload area, there was my suitcase. Now, of course, I’m expecting the worst. Nothing goes this well for me when traveling. Must be a hassle waiting for me with the cab, the hotel, the delivery of the new shirts, something. Wheeling out the big black case, the suitcase and the laptop bag, I head for the taxi stand, fully expecting a negotiation with a mini-van driver on the oversize nature of my belongings. Instead, I’m greeted enthusiastically by a driver who insists he can fit everything into his car. And he does. Flat rate to city, just like everyone else. Tipped well.

Checking in? Everything is ready Mr. Todd (note, they actually used my real last name and got it right. Interchangeable first and last names are a curse, but that’s a whole other story.) Oh, and there’s a package waiting for you – must be those shirts you ordered. Wow. At this point, I’m waiting for the Apocalypse. Nothing goes this well on the road.

The point of the story? None really. The next step was to get ourselves to the store and buy some monitors to give away at the booth. Renting ANYTHING for a trade show is outrageously expensive. $1400 for internet service, $1000 for carpeting and vacuuming, $300 to rent a monitor, $3.50 for a bad cup of coffee – you get the idea. So, instead, I buy brand new monitors and give them away. Makes me happy – no waste. Instead of renting at inflated rates and wasting money, I get to make 2 people really happy as they wing home with their new monitors.

We head down to the local Office Depot store and find the monitors we want. “We’ll take two”, we say. “Sorry, I can only sell you one”, is the reply. Apparently, “one to show and one to go” is their stocking policy and they refuse to sell their display monitors. Fortunately, the store manager arranges for us to pick up a second one at the other store. We hop on Denver’s free tram service (really cool service that runs the length of the 16th Street mall) and a short 3 or 4 or 6 or 7 blocks away – depending on which story you believe – we pick up our second monitor and we’re away to the races. Oh ya, stopped by the Capitol Building for a photo opp with monitor – I think we’re making this a tradition.

Keynote session has just let out. People to meet, coffee to be had. 7 hours at the booth ahead. No sweat, I’m wearing comfortable shoes.

Last week, as I was attending the annual IDC Predictions Telebriefing for 2010, I think I finally realized the true difference between Accounting and Marketing.  The difference is that while Marketing is already thinking well into 2010, the Accounting Department is just gearing up for 2009 Year End activities.  IDC, as you may or may not know, is one of a handful of extortionist trusted prognosticators on all things technology related and indeed on most topics of interest related to business trends, market dynamics and analysis in general (others include Gartner, Aberdeen, Forrester).  These guys are to the Marketing Department what the Ratings Agencies are to the Finance Department.  There’s a certain obligation to include these guys… for good or ill.

“Buy the ticket, take the ride” – Hunter S. Thompson

Now, this isn’t a critique of the inevitable conflicts (real and perceived) inherent between these various groups.  Nor is it a post about the differences between Accounting and Marketing.  In order to do that, I am missing one critical piece.  My good friend Dan’s “Top Ten Differences between Accounting and Marketing List“.  Maybe with your help, readers, we can convince him to give it up.  Add your thoughts in the comments section!

NO.  This post is about posing a simple question:

How are your Year End spreadsheets doing?

Year End is upon us!  Everyone knows, thanks to these accounting blogs:

• Look at Last Year’s File
• Accounting Nation
• Accounting WEB
• CPA Trendlines
• re: The Auditors
• Junior Deputy Accountant (warning: Language)
• and Going Concern

Everyone knows that Audit Professionals have been raked over the coals of more stringent regulation and oversight the past few years (for all the good it’s done!).  And, if my experience is at all representative of our collective experience on the industry side, the auditors have been passing all of that regulation onto you!

Preferred method of passing = The Paddle

The paddle will be heading your way again soon enough.  Time to rollover all those Year End files and clean up for prepping 2009′s close.  The rigors of financial reporting compliance are staring us right in the face once again.  Oh, and Merry Christmas by the way.

Of course, I think that if the past 2 year’s have taught us anything, it’s that regulation is ineffective in preventing fraud.  I would like to know where Frank Abagnale jr. stands on this issue.  Abagnale is the character upon which the movie Catch Me If You Can is based and for the past 35 years he’s been helping the FBI, businesses, and government cope with matters of fraudulent activity.  I highly recommend his book, Art of The Steal, for anyone interested in learning more about specific industry-related fraud risk.

Until next time…