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Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 13 seconds

Sage's Miller Sees Channel as "Big Tent"

Sage North America sees room in its channel for small resellers and CPAs and has no intention of actively pruning its reseller base, according to Tom Miller,  Sage's VP of channel management. That puts Sage's view of channel size in sharp contrast to Microsoft's effort to sharply cut back the number of VARs by driving out smaller resellers.

"Our view is a much broader view. It’s a big tent. If you have the skills and the competency and you are committed to customer service, we want you," Miller said today at the Sage Insights conference in Denver. Miller made his statement when questioned about whether Sage has a view similar to Microsoft's regarding channel size.

Microsoft's Jeff Edwards, director of partner strategy, said last month at Convergence, that company's user conference, that Microsoft has about 950 resellers in the United States and that it needs only 300 to 400. It will reduce the number of channel members through a new partner program which goes into effect in November that will mandate a VAR needs a minimum of three certified staffers.

Miller said Sage has so many disparate markets that it needs a variety of resellers of all sizes to serve them. For example, while most CPA firms have stopped selling mid-market accounting software, they are still an important part of the VAR base for selling nonprofit accounting software.

Actively involving CPAs, who once formed the nucleus of the MAS 90 reselling program, was also on Miller's mind. He says that CPAs are still the most important professional influencing buying decisions for accounting software

"It’s not a mass market. They still are the influencer in the vast majority of decisions on the purchase of accounting software, Miller said. "The other thing we want to do is make sure our partners are connected to CPAs."

 

 

The success of CPAs is built upon the relationship.

I think there are so many new opportunities for partners.

 

Bob Scott
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards.  Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He  has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that.  A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind
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