By Andy Scott • Managing Director
Do you stick with what you are good at, or diversify?
A software industry observation…
The wise old Sage understands that the Sage 200 software has sadly reached ‘end-of-life’. A very ‘close-to-the-source’ new friend shared the Sage sauce as a simple nutty accompaniment to a bar side chat over a beer!
It may be true – I learned that some of the functionality was discontinued last year, and supporting old favourites can be an expensive pastime.
The awesome Geordie company has been a gem in our UK software industry for many years and continues to make some interesting enhancements and acquisitions.
With many years in the software industry, I have seen Sage dominate the small business quadrant, with excellent marketing through those trusted advisors in the local Accountancy Practice. And when you have a huge market share, what do you do?
Option One:
Stay the dominant force in the market you know well and raise the barriers to entry by giving great customer satisfaction.
Option Two:
“Hell no” – you’ve got the small business sector in the UK Market. You are the best friend to Accountants and Bookkeepers. Explore markets overseas – go for the bigger businesses – acquire. Do everything, don’t stop at what you’re good at.
Turn a few years……
Many Accountants and Bookkeepers are frustrated by increasing prices, and delays in delivering a quality cloud-based Sage.
The Aussies move in with their very pretty Xero product. The Bank moves in, offering free finance software to its customers with FreeAgent. QuickBooks arrives as another player for the small -business market once dominated by Sage.
Scale up with the acquisition of Sage 200 (then Sky – but not cloud-based!) and compete with the mid-range solutions – now dominated by the Americans with Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle NetSuite, and the Germans with SAP Business One, and many more...
Scale up to the next tier with Sage X-3 – and compete with the big SAP and Oracles, IFS, Infosys etc at the top end.
- Spectacular success at the bottom, where the volume was delivered beautifully, and the accountant’s channel worked brilliantly.
- Reasonable success in the middle with the allegedly retiring Sage 200.
- What appears like a struggle at the top end with Sage X-3.
Taking steps into unfamiliar zones does not generate the rewards reflected from your original gem.
However, strategic diversification or pivoting can unlock massive growth – Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Nintendo are rather impressive examples. Harley-Davidson with bottled water; General Electric with Financial Services; Coca-Cola with clothes are examples of spectacularly expensive crashes.
So, what is the secret? I wouldn’t be writing about it if I knew! But I think it may have something to do with brilliant business brains creating a very successful core offering at the right time; knowing your customers; growing a trusted brand; scaling from the core proposition to deliver the same success with an evolving product range.
We think we have found a single software package that suits the whole spectrum!
After many years with leading software products, we moved to Odoo, the Belgian software solution that is by far the fastest-growing solution of its type across the world. We have sole-traders; 300+ user high-tech engineering clients; and many in-between, in manufacturing, retail, service, and not-for-profit.
If you only need accounting or a website, the subscription can be free.
If you need more, you have access to over 80 integrated modules.
After carefully selecting established Odoo partners, we jumped onto our own wagon four years ago.
And perhaps, just perhaps, a few Sage 200 passengers might decide to join us on the journey.