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Sue Swenson Leaving Sage in 2011

December 1, 2010 by Wayne Schulz

sage sue swenson.jpg

Sage have just announced that North American CEO Sue Swenson will leave the company (retire) in 2011 (exact date unspecified) to be replaced by Sage France’s Pascal Houillon.

If I were to bet I’d say that Sue’s last day will be on or about June 18, 2011. This just so happens to conveniently coincide with the day when Sue Swenson’s 260,815 stock options vest with Sage UK according to this company announcement of June 17, 2008.

Sue Swenson joined Sage in 2008 after a surprise 2007 management restructuring that saw a number of Sage executives ousted. In her almost three years at Sage she appeared to be largely batting cleanup and did not take a central visible role in communicating to Sage’s channel or in meeting with the VAR community. Other Sage VARS described Swenson as a slightly reclusive CEO who appeared focussed on the job at hand rather than mingling with the Sage channel.

As near as we could tell Swenson was brought in to create an organizational structure where the various business units could exist on their own if needed. Other than an annual appearance at the Sage Insights conference (now Summit) few consultants or VARS reported much interaction with Swenson. She was rarely spoken about by other Sage employees. Her lack of integration with Sage’s channel partners appeared unusual given that Sage repeatedly states their commitment to operating through the use of business partners.

During Sage events, most notably at 2009 Presidents Circle, Swenson did not play any role and was barely mentioned from the podium save for when employees were questioned about her absence.

Her departure announcement follows that of Jodi Uecker-Rust who left in October 2010 after spending about a year at Sage running their biggest North American division. Prior to Sage Jodi Uecker-Rust ran the Great Plains software company as a defacto #2 to company founder Doug Burgum and was also a key employee at Microsoft who architected much fo the Microsoft acquisition of Navision.  While a replacement has been named for Sue there’s not yet any indication of who will replace Jodi Uecker-Rust.

Update 12/3/2010: Seth Fineberg at WebCPA reports that Pascal Houillon will assume leadership of Sage Business Solutions in January 2011.

As for the rest of Sage’s earnings related news –  North America shrank 4% in total revenues (the most of any division) yet held the line at 15% EBITA. Nearly all of Sage hit the 15% mark.

I’m still reading the earnings release report now – you can review here:

http://www.investors.sage.com/news/press_releases/?id=79768

Relevant North America Narrative:

North America

Total revenues in North America contracted 4%* to £549.9m (2009: £575.8m*). Organic revenues contracted 3%* (2009: 8%* contraction) with an organic contraction of 2%* in the second half of the year. Organic subscription revenues declined 2%* (2009: 2%* contraction), while organic software and software-related services revenues fell 9%* (2009: 23%* contraction). In the second half of the year, organic software and software-related services revenues contracted by 4%*, against a contraction of 13%* for the first half of the year.

The business environment for SMEs in North America remains challenging, although we did see some improvement in confidence over the year. Within our North American business we have seen progress across a range of initiatives such as premium support and renewals, cross-sell of payments into our ERP base, the launch of several connected solutions, continued increase in our customer satisfaction and brand awareness scores, and the reinvigoration of our channel partners.

Sage Business Solutions, our largest US division, declined organically by 3%* in the year, and by 1%* in the second half of the year. However, we did see good growth in the second half of the year in certain key products such as Simply, ACCPAC and Sage ERP X3. Our mid-market ERP products are well positioned in the market, with a number of compelling releases planned for 2011. Whilst the US entry-level market remains cautious, we have had success in building our position in the Accountants channel, and Peachtree Business Care premium support contracts now account for almost 50% of Peachtree subscription revenue. Our CRM and construction vertical businesses continued to experience relatively weaker demand for new software, whilst our not for profit business grew strongly. We have launched a number of connected services targeting these markets, for example e-marketing (linked to our CRM solutions) and e-philanthropy for non-profit organisations, and these are showing early positive signs.

Sage Payment Solutions Division saw growth in the number of merchants and spend volumes, but a continued competitive pricing environment. Revenues were therefore flat* in the year. We have diversified our revenue mix by targeting mid-market businesses, which have a longer average customer life than small businesses. With a flexible platform for integration into other Sage products, cross-sell revenues into the Sage base increased by over 70%* to £7.8m, and this remains a substantial future opportunity.

Sage Healthcare Division has continued to see growth in the Intergy product, and a contraction of the Medical Manager product giving an overall contraction of 5%* on an organic basis. We have made significant progress on our customer service, and we continue to see good customer wins for Intergy, although the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“ARRA”) funding is not expected to have an effect until April 2011 onward. To benefit from ARRA, users have to demonstrate meaningful use of Healthcare IT, so we were pleased that in October 2010 Intergy was certified for meeting the requirements for meaningful use. We have launched a new version of Medical Manager in the year which has been very well received by our customers. Our focus remains on serving our Medical Manager customers better, building our brand in the market and positioning Intergy to benefit from ARRA. Sage Healthcare Division’s EBITA† margin showed continued improvement to 20% (2009: 17%*).

The EBITA† margin was 22% (2009: 18%*). The prior year margin excluding restructuring charges was 20%*.

Sue Swenson Out At Sage North America

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: jodi uecker-rust, pascal houillon, sage, sue swenson

Sage Summit Customer Virtual Event Registration Now Live

October 22, 2010 by Wayne Schulz

Sage Software North America has just opened registration for their online Sage Summit Virtual Event to be held on November 18, 2010 from 10am to 1pm ET. This three hour session features an update from Sue Swenson, CEO Sage North America. In addition those customers attending are being asked to review up to 40 different pitches for sessions that they’d like to see presented at the official Summit 2011 conference in Washington DC July 10-15, 2011.

According to the Sage Summit Virtual Event registration page customers will view brief presentations made by product managers and then vote (How voting works) on whether they’d like to see those presentations made into full sessions to be delivered in July at the Summit Conference.

Sage Summit is the conference for the Sage community – bringing customers and partners together for the first time ever. The conference will take place July 10-15, 2011, in Washington, DC. This gives you an unprecedented opportunity to interact with customers more closely than ever before.

The agenda listed by Sage appears to be subject to change as at least one executive listed, Jodi Uecker-Rust, has departed Sage and is not likely to be making an appearance.

Gathering customers together to vote on sessions for an upcoming conference is a new idea for Sage. This is the first time we’ve seen it done and clearly this looks to be a way for Sage to continue to test the virtual conferencing waters.  Sage previously hosted a Connecting The Dots virtual exhibit on September 28 which seemed to use similar online conference technology.

If you’re a Sage customer who is on the fence about attending Sage Summit 2011 in Washington DC – this is a good way for you to get a feel for and vote on some of the topics that would be covered at the full conference in July 2011.

More From The Sage Site:

To provide a robust education experience, Sage customers are invited to attend a complimentary virtual event on Thursday, November 18, where they can preview a sampling of the sessions, vote on the topics, and share their thoughts on how we can make Summit 2011 really work for them. Registration is now open, so be sure to spread the word about this one of a kind opportunity your customers won’t want to miss!

Sage Summit Virtual Event Registration – November 18, 2010

Filed Under: mas200, Sage 100 ERP, Sage software Tagged With: betty otter-nickerson, doug meyer, online, sage, sue swenson, summit, tom miller, virtual

Sage Software Insights 2010 Keynote Videos – Now Online

June 26, 2010 by Wayne Schulz

Sage just posted links to all of their keynote videos from their recent Insights 2010 conference held in Denver Colorado May 17-20, 2010.

This is the first time that I’ve noted the videos being available online and think it’s a great idea for Sage to share these presentations for those who otherwise were unable to make the conference itself.

Most of the value of Sage Insights conferences are the networking with fellow consultants and comparing notes with what’s worked well in your business for the last year as well as asking your peers for advice on what new strategies they may be planning for the coming year.

Below are select keynotes that Sage executives delivered during Insights 2010:

Video of Sue Swenson Keynote – CEO of Sage North America

Sage Business Solution Keynote with Jodi Uecker-Rust, Himanshu Palsule & Tom Miller

Sage Channel Strategy – Tom Miller (Channel Chief)

Himanshu Palsule, Executive VP, Product Strategy/Marketing, Sage Business Solutions

Laurie Schultz – Senior VP and GM, Mid-Market ERP Solutions – Mid-Market ERP Keynote

Via: Sage LinkedIn Group

Filed Under: Sage 100 ERP Tagged With: himanshu palsule, insights2010, jodi uecker-rust, keynote, sage, sue swenson, tom miller

Sue Swenson Sage North America Keynote – Google Wave

May 18, 2010 by Wayne Schulz

Sue Swenson yesterday afternoon delivered her keynote to about 1,000 Sage partners in attendance at the Sage Insights 2010 conference being held May 17-20, 2010.

The main message of the keynote (and perhaps the conference) is that Sage has three goals:

Increase install base sales (now 71% of Sage NA revenue)
Connected services – such as Sage Payment Services for payment processing
Selective new investments in new products

The full Google Wave is below:


Filed Under: mas200, Sage software Tagged With: conference, Google Wave, insights 2010, insights10, robert wood, sage, sue swenson, Wayne Schulz

Sue Swenson CEO of Sage To Keynote UC Irvine Distinguished Speaker Series January 21, 2010

December 26, 2009 by Wayne Schulz

Sue Swenson, CEO of Sage North America, will keynote a session at The Paul Merage School of Business – University of California Irvine on January 21, 2010 at 6:30 pm.

Sue Swenson is President and CEO of Sage North America, part of the Sage Group plc.

She has over 20 years’ experience in both the fixed line and wireless telecommunications industry and almost 10 years in start-up companies where she managed periods of rapid growth and industry change. She spent part of her career with Pacific Telesis (Pacific Bell) where she held a number of senior management positions in all parts of the business and was the President and Chief Operating Officer of PacTel Cellular (which became AirTouch Communications). She subsequently became President & CEO of Cellular One, the mobile telephone joint venture with Vodafone AirTouch and AT&T Wireless, followed by positions as Chief Operating Officer with Leap Wireless International and T-Mobile (Deutsche Telecom). She was most recently Chief Operating Officer of New Motion, Inc. (now Atrinsic, Inc.), one of the largest digital media entertainment content providers.
Ms Swenson previously sat on the Board of T–Mobile International and currently serves on the Board of Wells Fargo. Ms Swenson is a member of Sage’s Executive Management Committee.

The Distinguished Speaker Series brings together executives from different industries to share leadership perspectives, ethical frameworks, decision making processes and insights.

The event draws approximately 350 corporate professionals, community leaders, MBA students, faculty members and campus staff.

Tickets are $50 per event. UCI Students and Employees are free (proper identification and secret University handshake knowledge required).

Business attire is required. For more information call Shaheen Husain at 949-824-7311.

UC Irvine Distinguished Speakers 2009 – 2010

Filed Under: Sage software Tagged With: Distinguished Business Leader, sage north america, sue swenson, UC Irvine

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