On the back of strong international half-year results, Sage, the accounting, business management and CRM solutions provider, has reviewed its local strategy to focus on existing and new business development, the channel and vertical markets.
The company - not to be confused with Sage Life, the financial services group - develops and supplies accounting and business management software (BMS) to the small and medium-sized business community. It is the only technology company still ranked on the UK's FTSE 100 and one of the few technology companies on the entire exchange to be posting profit increases.
"We've seen impressive results for the first half of our trading year: turnover up 4% to lb282.1 million for the Sage Group (R3.24 billion), pre-tax profits up 14% to lb74.3 million (R854.5 million) and 115 000 new customers brought into the fold," says Gavin May, the UK-based managing director at Sage Enterprise Solutions, in the country recently for customer and channel partner meetings.
"Our African operation [headquartered in Johannesburg] made a significant contribution to Sage Enterprise Solutions' turnover - no mean feat when you consider we've seen no obvious improvement in market conditions so far this year."
A review of strategy in the face of Sage making great headway in a tough market may seem a little odd. However, according to local Sage executives, it's aimed not at fixing problems but about creating even more opportunities.
"We've spent much of the past year or so developing new business - almost 80% of our most recent revenues have come from new customers," explains Ashley Ellington, divisional director for Africa at Sage.
"We need to pay closer attention to our existing users, especially those that are showing significant growth. Our Line 500 BMS suite now consists of over 50 modules - this means greater depth and breadth of functionality and new levels of integration. There's great mutual business to be done.
"We'll be spending more time in front of our customers, gaining a greater understanding of their business issues and spreading the word about Sage. As we're a channel-focused organisation, this move will not cut out our accredited partners - on the contrary, it will show our direct support for their work.
"We'll also be changing the way we take Line 500 and our CRM software to market. The drive will be into the industry verticals that we've developed specialised solutions for - namely manufacturing, distribution, telcos, financial services and the public sector, among others."
The issue of market competition and customer choice is also something of a hot topic at moment. Large ERP vendors and other international software suppliers are making major efforts to get into the mid-market BMS space. May is pragmatic, though. He says Sage naturally takes any 'competitive' company seriously and he firmly believes that customer choice is important.
"We don't get side-tracked by the messages that other companies are putting out in the market," he says.
"Sage has a product portfolio that spans all the way from a single user to a multinational corporation, supplied around the world.
"Our BMS solutions are available on almost any operating platform, any database and in multiple languages. We have over 50 business process modules in the Line 500 software suite alone. This depth of functionality, combined with our channel's skills and our financial stability, offers a pretty compelling proposition to just about any customer out there."
More information on Sage can be found at www.sage.com/ses.
Share
Sage (UK) Ltd is a subsidiary of The Sage Group plc, a leading international supplier of business management solutions. Formed in 1981, the group was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and now employs over 5 500 people worldwide.