SOFTWARE COMPANY HERE TO STAY

MULTI-BILLION-DOLLAR management global business applications supplier Sage has reaffirmed its commitment to investing in Barbados and the wider Caribbean, calling this region a very lucrative market.

Speaking to members of the media during a break at a Sage Partners and Clients Barbados Conference 2013 at the Crane Resorts last week Tuesday morning, Vice President, Field Sales, Mike Wingrove, said that with over 25 years of work in the Caribbean already under the company’s belt, it was looking forward to making significant investments here and would continue liaising with its on the ground partners on a regular basis.

“We have a great set of customers, we support SMEs and that is traditionally what is typically found here in these markets. Sage recognises [this region] is a very lucrative market for us and we are committing to helping the economy and companies within grow and prosper,” Wingrove remarked.

Mike Wingrove, Vice President, Field Sales, Sage North America.

Around 200 persons, including Accountants and Human
Resource Managers from leading companies in the
Caribbean, were at the conference.

The purpose for the conference, he said, was to share with customers some of the latest best practices relating to data access, business intelligence and time management applications, thereby allowing businesses to improve productivity, decision making and the overall customer experience.

Over the years, Barbadian firms would have grown accustomed to several of the products on the SAGE line, perhaps being most familiar with the (Sage ERP) Accpac, a mid-market line of accounting applications. That line was renamed to Sage 300 ERP as part of an extensive re-branding campaign the company rolled out in 2012. There were some who suggested that the company would no longer be in a position to support the line within the region, while others have doubted its continued success, claiming it to be a product suited only to the “North American market”.

Both claims were refuted by Trenton Weekes, Director of Business Development from Orchid Systems, a Sage Partner. He later told reporters that the Sage ERP line continued to be developed and delivered the types of solutions that people in the region were demanded. “We have customers, not only in Barbados, but from [around the region] who are using the product effectively and are getting the results that they are looking for... Sage … will continue to be in the region,” Weekes asserted.

“That is very important, not only for the business partners, but for the customers as well, because they want to identify with a product that is going to be ... around and that will continue to be developed,” he further stated.

Both Weekes and consultant Brenda Pope of another Sage Partner, KMPG, said they were pleased with the fact that in Sage’s rebranding efforts, the company was also offering better pricing to regional customers and that it had taken on board many of the suggestions recommended by on-the-ground partners. They noted these gestures were all the more critical in the prevailing economic environment which dictated that companies paid greater attention to ensuring maximised their returns on investments.

Weekes further remarked that local partners were extremely happy to be identified as a region. “That was not the case many years ago, but now the Caribbean is a region within the Sage portfolio,” Weekes added. (RA)