Sage also announces a non-profit version for its Sage Live solution built on the Salesforce platform.
Libby Koehn, Sage’s VP product management for X3
SAN FRANCISCO – At the Salesforce Dreamforce event, Sage, a key Salesforce partner, has announced that its Sage X3 offering has been connected directly to the Salesforce Cloud with the Sage X3 CRM connector. Sage also announced the launch of the Sage Live Not-for-Profit solution, a variant of its Salesforce cloud-based small business solution designed for non-profit groups.
Sage makes ERP products focused primarily at SMBs – although this year they publicly repudiated the use of the ERP term. At their annual customer event this summer, their CEO denounced the term as standing for Expense, Regret and Pain, and which had been a “big padded meal ticket for the Big Five.” Within the Sage family, X3 – ERP X3 before a rebranding stemming from Sage’s disowning of the ERP term – is the top of the line solution. It covers a rather diffuse market that ranges from the top part of the SMB space, through the mid-market, and into the enterprise. Until this summer, it was purely a software product. A cloud version, sold as a service, was made available, hosted on the AWS cloud.
“X3 lives within AWS, but X3 CRM Connector allows customers to connect our back end with the Salesforce CRM front end, and allows customers to have a seamless experience, connecting the business processes in real time,” said Libby Koehn, Sage’s VP product management for X3. Sage X3 customers who use Salesforce will be able to access their customer data in the Salesforce Sales Cloud.
Koehn said where this tying the front office and back office together really comes in handy is improving visibility of funnel management, particularly since the recent launch of the Sage X3 E-Commerce platform.
“As a prospect is converting into to an actual customer, X3 acts as a back end and starts populating from the back end to E-Commerce,” Koehn said. “Once the customer is converted, this can immediately handle the manufacturing side, and can figure out how to handle distribution and supply chain management and synchronize it right back into Salesforce CRM.” This increase in visibility across the entire sales process saves the user time and boosts their productivity.
While Sage has a hybrid go-to-market model, a significant part of the X3 business is channel.
“We think it is an interesting channel opportunity which can help create a customer for life by better targeting and remarketing funnel management,” Koehn said.
Sage is a Platinum sponsor at Dreamforce with a prominent booth, and Koehn said that the X3 Connector had attracted a lot of attention from Canadians at the show.
“We’ve had quite a few stop by the booth showing interest – both customers and partners – including ones from Vancouver, Toronto, and Quebec City,” Koehn said.
The other new solution, the Sage Live Not-for-Profit solution, is likely to be of less immediate interest to Canadians because Sage Live is still not available in Canada. Sage Live, introduced last year, is a born-in-the-cloud product aimed at small businesses, which was built on the Salesforce cloud. It was thus critical in deepening the partnership between the two companies.
The new solution is the first industry specific packaging for Sage Live. It provides non-profits with financial reporting and fund management features specific to the sector. As part of Sage Foundation, a high proportion of NPOs will be eligible for discounted licenses. Once live, the Sage Live NPO’s solution can integrate as standard with the Salesforce.org Nonprofit Success Pack, to bring together financials and donor relationships.
