It’s hard to believe we’ve been back from Sage Summit 2013 for over a month already. I think I just finally got through the last of the emails that piled up while I was gone … and I know I haven’t been able to get back to all the contacts I owe something to from that week. Where does the time go?
In any case, I was reflecting back on the event this week and thinking about the experience. It was good to be back at the Gaylord National again in Washington, D.C. We had a little bit of a scare there for a day or so when the water main broke and we thought they might have to close the entire city of National Harbor … but we dodged that crisis and the event proceeded as planned.
One of the highlights for me was the trip to the American History Museum at the Smithsonian Institute. I was greeted at the door by Lucille Ball and Teddy Roosevelt. Lucy looked pretty good for a gal her age … I should be so well preserved … and Teddy looked younger and thinner than I expected. I strolled through years of history … some from before my time, but much to my chagrin, more and more that I had experienced first-hand. Did you have a chance to attend? What was your favorite part of the evening?
Another high point was the Sage City event on Tuesday with the follow-up Idea Xchange sessions on Thursday. What a great opportunity to speak with customers from across the Sage family about their successes and challenges with Sage products and to hear from your peers about how they had addressed those same topics. The shared learnings were invaluable for the participants and the topics discussed are definitely a good starting place for ongoing discussions and future plans. If you haven’t already, be sure to sign up for our new on-line forum “Sage City” to continue the conversation. And stay tuned as we share throughout the coming year the actions we are planning in response to some of those topics.
Of course, there is always a sense of “homecoming” when I meet up with old friends from the Sage family and as I meet new friends who may be attending the conference for the first time. This year I was able to spend time with many, many customers and partners and renew those ties. How about you? Did you meet some peers you want to keep in contact with? We hope so. We also hope you took the time to stop by the “Sage Listens” RV in the Expo center. Sage executives have spent the summer traveling across country meeting customers like you, spending time with them, and finding out first-hand about how businesses are run every day out there in the “real world”.
The themes this year seemed to center around one core message – our Sage Vision – “To be recognized as the most valuable supporter of small and medium sized companies by creating greater freedom for them to succeed.” And how are we doing that? We are delivering on what we’ve promised in real-time as evidenced by the reality of the Sage Data Cloud and the availability of applications that leverage that cloud. Applications like Sage Mobile Sales and Sage Mobile Service are available today, and what they accomplish is taking the ERP out of the back office and putting the power into the hands of people out in the field where it’s needed! The Sage 500 ERP team is already making plans to make those applications available to you.
I look forward to seeing how our execution against our vision plays out over the coming year. As Pascal Houllion conveyed in his keynote, with a clear direction and the determination to deliver on our promises we are confident in our ability to achieve our vision – and that can only mean more good things for all of our customers across the entire Sage family! We plan to continue to deliver valuable, relevant tools and improvements as well as re-engaging with you through a number of means to continue to build the relationship and the confidence in your Sage solutions in order to free you up to succeed.
I’m excited about the coming year and the opportunities that await us all! I hope you are too. Start planning now for Las Vegas in 2014! I’ll see you there if not before!
Linda