Sage s Stodgy Johnny-come-lately Cloud Challenge Rafi Khan, CIO, Consultant, Riverside Community Care
Rafi Khan, CIO, Consultant, Riverside Community Care
IBM introduced the first desktop PC in 1981 the same year as Sage’s inception in Newcastle, UK, developing an estimating and accounting software for small businesses. Sage has since grown to almost a 2 billion USD worldwide organization. Sage’s group CEO, Stephen Kelly took the helm in November 2014 and the company’s technology strategy is finally in the right trajectory. Until Kelly, Sage is one of the last accounting software firms to offer cloud-centric solutions. This strategic delay by its previous leadership has had consequences market-share loss to competitors such as Microsoft Dynamics GP, Intuit, Saasu, Xero, Netsuite, and other AAMEA (Australia, Asia, Middle East and Africa) and European players all of whom offered faster implementation via online accounting cloud alternatives early in the game.