Sage ERP aims for major SaaS growth

Sage, an ERP vendor, is aiming at tripling its software as a service subscribers in Australia within the next 12 months.

According to Keith Fenner, senior sales vice president for EMEA and Australia, the company currently has around ten percent of its localcustomers on a subs model for its flagship X3 ERP software.

“Overall we’re aiming at quadrupling our cloud sales globally over the next year, and Australia is part of that growth.”

Sage runs a completely channel-based sales model, lead by CitySoft and Enabling on the local market.

“You get to a certain size and beyond that the channel is the only way to go to market,” he said.

Unlike the perpetual sales model used in the past, where customers would pay a per-seat price, and then a maintenance charge on top of that, the subscription model is quite different.

Customers subscribing pay a monthly fee, but all updates and improvements are rolled into the subs fee.

Channel subs sales, however, have the channel partner being paid a one-off sales fee for the deal, and then ongoing percentages as part of the subscription program.

Fenner said Sage, which sits as the number three ERP vendor behind behemoths SAP and Oracle, is quite happy with its mid market position. According to Fenner, the mid-market is where the sweet spot is in terms of sales and growth. “There’s only so much room at the top of the market,” he said.