2022 Year In Review

A look back at the channel events from this past year.

January 2023 is here and so are some notable changes.

Not the least of which is the departure of the channel leader for Sage North America.

Sage sold their payment processor Paya in 2017 for about $260 million. Subsequently in 2020 Paya went public and just this week a $1.3 billion takeover was announced. I bet Sage wishes they could do that sale over.

I’ve got more news from the past week below. Please reach out with any updates you may wish to share.

-Wayne Schulz - wayne.schulz@schulzsays.com

Paya Acquired for $1.3 Billion

Someone is having a happy new year - and that someone likely isn’t Sage.

Sage made a retreat from payment processing in 2017 when they sold Paya for $260 million.

Paya was purchased Monday, 1/9/2023, for $1.3 billion ( subject to shareholder approval).

According to Paya, they serve over 100,000 customers through 2,000 software vendors and other distribution partners.

Sage To Partners: Get Customers On TLS 1.2 By September 11, 2023 and Earn Extra Tier

Effective October 2023, Sage will disable TLS 1.0 and 1.1 access to their license servers.

This means that Sage 100 subscription customers must be on version 2018.10, 2019.4, 2020.1+, 2021,x, or 2022.x, which all use TLS 1.2 to continue using Sage 100.

Failure to upgrade to a TLS 1.2 compatible Sage 100 version will result in Sage 100 going into read-only mode.

Partners who upgrade 95% or more of their installed Sage 100 subscription customers to a TLS 1.2 compatible version can earn additional tier incentives. Second place? A set of steak knives. Do you want to see third place?

Nancy Teixeira, SVP of Partner Strategy and Sales, Departs Sage After 8 Years

Sage’s North American head of partner channels, Nancy Teixeira, departed Sage on January 6, 2023. There’s no word where she’s headed, though she will likely remain somewhere in the ERP world.

Teixeira worked extensively with mid-market channel partners (excluding Intacct). Upon the 2021 retirement of Intacct’s Taylor Macdonald, who led partners for eleven years, she seemed poised to take on Intacct channel duties as well.

It’s likely that Sage will soon appoint an interim leader who then becomes

permanent ( but only if they successfully learn the secret handshake ) shortly.

From the channel announcement sent 12/28/2022:

In the spirit of full transparency, I want to share some personal news with you. After early a decade here at Sage, including four wonderful years as channel chief of Sage North America, I have decided to pursue a new opportunity externally. My last day at Sage will be January 6, 2023. Please stay tuned for news from Aziz Benmalek regarding the appointment of an interim leader coming soon.

CIMcloud State of the Company Webinar - January 19, 2022

Join CIMCloud CEO Brian Seidel, VP of Product Operations Matt Hooper, VP of Customer Operations Johnny Laurent, and Director of Professional Services Matt Gleason for this live webinar event where they will provide an update on the status of the CIMcloud business, recap the highlights of the CIMcloud 2022 major releases, provide a preview of what is coming in CIMcloud 2023 and review how existing customers can migrate to the most current version of the CIMcloud platform.

If you’re too busy walking your dog ( WFH! ) while this live webinar is happening never fear as you can sign-up and the company will send a recording once the event is over.

Spoiler: My dog starts bugging me to take him for a walk about 11:00 am so I hardly ever attend live webinars. I sign up and watch the recording which almost everyone sends the day after the event.

Scanco Operations Management Training

Scanco announces Sage Operations Management training. This class will be held in person at Scanco's Sarasota, Florida office from January 16-20, 2023. Lunch will be provided each day.

You can join virtually through GoToWebinar. A Training Manual is provided for use with the course. A Sage 100 package includes the software needed to complete the activities and interact with the software on your workstation.

The price is $1,495 on-site or $995 remote. More info at the link below

Enterprise Software Podcast Episode 160: Infor Partners and Channeling Collaboration

Episode 160 of the Enterprise Software Podcast is all about Infor.

I have a complete summary of the topics discussed, including the size of Infor’s global channel ( over 3,000 partners ), the three things making Infor’s partner program unique, and where the Infor partner channel is headed over the next 3 to 5 years.

You can also listen to the podcast at the link below or subscribe and automatically receive future episodes in the podcast player of your choice.