The BAASS team has recently returned from Sage Summit after having a ball at the annual conference for Business Partners which for the first time, included the Sage Customer Community as well.

During the week long conference the 4000 attendees had an opportunity to learn from some fantastic speakers, of such caliber as Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy of 'The Blind Side' fame, as well as fantastic learning and growth sessions lead by Sage staff and other industry experts alike.  Aside from the knowledge gained, the highlight of the conference for BAASS was being nominated as a finalist for the Sage Spirit award, which represents all the qualities that Sage feels its resellers should possess.

Summit is a time for announcements to the Partner and Customer community, and this year was no exception. During his keynote address, the President and CEO of Sage North America, Pascal Houillon made a big announcement.  Sage will be making a bold move to rebrand their products over the next 18 months. 

The rebranding will move away from the product names Sage customers are familiar with i.e.: Sage 300 (formerly) Accpac, Simply Accounting and Peachtree, toward a model following the example set in Europe. Although the product names have not yet been announced Sage has confirmed that they intend to use a model similar to what is used by Sage operating companies in the United Kingdom and France.

In this approach, most products are grouped into families unified by a number, such as Sage 50 Accounting and Sage 50 Construction. Product names like Sage 300, Timberline, or Simply Accounting are dropped to facilitate customer identification with the larger Sage brand.

As a Sage partner, BAASS is glad to see a campaign focused on Brand awareness and is looking forward to the additional opportunities a strong brand will bring.

Sage has also announced that the location for Summit in 2012 will be Nashville. I am hoping that our customers will join us next year at the conference for a good old knees up down South!